In this Penny University episode of The Highest Form, Turner and Kevin sit down with Sam: an IT support guy, self-proclaimed nerd, and someone who's spent way too much time figuring out how to load retro games on a Steam Deck just for the fun of it. What starts as a conversation about tinkering with technology quickly becomes something much deeper. It's a raw exploration of faith, failure, and the terrifying vulnerability of actually letting people know who you are.

Sam's got a hell of a story. At 20 years old, with $600 to his name and a brand new wife, he convinced his landlord to let him out of his lease, moved into his in-laws' RV, and started an IT business because he was convinced he could serve customers better than his employer was. Thirteen years later, he's still going, trusted by business owners with their passwords, their banking info, and their entire digital lives. We talk about why people trust him, what it's like to lie awake at night wondering "why the hell do these people trust me?", and the $2,000 mistakes that became the best training investments he ever made.

But here's where it gets good: we go deep on the big questions. Can we ever really know objective truth, or are we all just stumbling around with our own perspectives? Sam makes a passionate case for God as the source of all truth, while Turner pushes back from an agnostic standpoint. We wrestle with faith versus evidence, why "my truth" is one of the most dangerous phrases in modern culture, and whether atheism actually requires more faith than Christianity. It's the kind of conversation that could've gone sideways fast, but instead it's honest, respectful, and genuinely thought-provoking.

We also get into the weeds on mental health and self-awareness. Sam opens up about spending years not knowing what he was thinking or feeling, just reacting to everything around him. He talks about the turning point when he realized he was people-pleasing to the point of pretending to care about sports for three hours just to make someone like him. It's vulnerable as hell, and it's the kind of honesty that makes this conversation worth listening to.

Oh, and we definitely geek out about Dungeons & Dragons, building ugly Christmas sweaters with programmable LED lights, the philosophy of LARPing (yes, really), and why shooting guns in the mountains is basically just live-action role-playing with extra steps. Sam's the kind of guy who gets more joy from figuring out how to make something work than actually using it, and honestly, that's the best kind of person.

We cover the ethics of debt (spoiler: financing a DoorDash order is insane), why 50-year mortgages are a dystopian nightmare, the difference between how men and women think (noodle brain vs. box brain), and why every man is called to be a mentor whether he has kids or not. From foster care to failure to the weight of responsibility, this episode goes everywhere.

Join us for two hours of unfiltered conversation about risk, responsibility, truth, and what it actually takes to know yourself.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - Introduction and Penny University Concept

1:34 - The Project of Being You: Who is Sam?

2:56 - Tech Tinkering: Steam Decks, D&D, and Making Things Work

6:58 - Dungeons and Dragons Deep Dive

9:28 - Life as LARPing: Everything is Pretend

10:55 - Balancing Priorities: Where Does Your Attention Go?

13:39 - Growing Up Christian: Hell Insurance to Real Faith

19:09 - Taking Risks: $600, an RV, and Starting a Business

27:26 - Risk in Relationships: Opening Your Heart

29:45 - High School Sweethearts and Getting Married at 20

34:07 - The Evolution of Smartphones

34:46 - The Changing Relationship with Money

35:52 - Financing a DoorDash Order (The Most Ridiculous Thing)

38:18 - The 50-Year Mortgage Debate

40:30 - The Ethics of Debt and Financial Responsibility

45:02 - Balancing Earning and Saving: Would You Rather Make More or Save More?

47:41 - Making Money to Give It Away

51:29 - Good and Evil: Does Everyone Have Capacity for Both?

56:39 - Objective Truth vs. "My Truth"

58:06 - Faith vs. Knowing: Can You Prove God Exists?

1:02:57 - Moving to North Idaho: When God Opens Doors

1:07:40 - The Agnostic Perspective: Believing in Possibility

1:15:07 - The Value of Failure as Life's Greatest Teacher

1:19:06 - Gender Differences: Noodle Brain vs. Box Brain

1:24:17 - Product of Your Environment vs. Product of Your Values

1:38:20 - Responsibility: God, Family, and Business

1:41:47 - Every Man is Called to Be a Mentor

1:45:51 - The $2,000 Mistake: Training Through Failure

1:47:28 - Mental Health: The Most Important Conversation We're Not Having

1:54:41 - Closing Thoughts and Next Episode Preview

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