The Social Code

Brett Knight has seen the justice system from nearly every seat in the courtroom. He’s served as a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, municipal court judge, and practicing attorney. But his story reaches far beyond the courtroom. Brett is also an ordained pastor and the author of From the Gavel to Grace: Setting People Free From Addiction and Into Healing.

In this episode, we sit down with Brett for a conversation about justice, addiction, faith, accountability, and what actually helps people change. After years of prosecuting people, defending them, judging them, and praying with them, Brett has developed a perspective that doesn’t fit neatly into one box.

We talk about the tension between punishment and grace, why consequences matter but don’t always address the pain underneath addiction, and what the public often misunderstands about the people who end up inside the criminal justice system.

Brett also shares pieces of his own unlikely journey, from growing up with very little and working his way through college, to building a career in IT, going to law school later in life, entering the courtroom, becoming a pastor, and eventually putting what he had learned into a book.

This isn’t just a conversation about law or addiction. It’s about people, second chances, personal responsibility, faith, and what can happen when accountability and grace meet in the same room.

Join The Social Code for an honest conversation about why we hide, what our secrets cost us, and why the things we keep buried often end up shaping our lives the most.

Why do we work so hard to protect an image? Why is it easier to wear a mask than risk being truly known? And what happens when the stories we’ve been telling ourselves no longer match reality?

Together, we explore the psychology of shame, the weight of unspoken truths, the difference between privacy and secrecy, and why saying something out loud can change it in ways that simply thinking about it never will.

This episode isn’t about public confession or exposing your past. It’s about becoming the same person in every room, replacing performance with authenticity, and discovering that freedom isn’t found in having a perfect story. It’s found in finally living an honest one.

If you’ve ever felt trapped by your past, exhausted from managing different versions of yourself, or wondered what it would feel like to stop hiding, this conversation is for you.

You can repaint a house a hundred times, but if the foundation is cracked, the cracks always come back.

The same is true of us.

In this episode of The Social Code, we explore why smart people keep repeating the same patterns, even when they genuinely want to change. Most of us spend our lives trying to fix behaviors while never looking beneath them. But every habit, reaction, and trigger leaves a trail to something deeper.

Together, we unpack how the hidden rules we learned growing up continue shaping our lives, why emotional triggers are often messengers instead of enemies, and how lasting change begins when you stop asking, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What built this?”

This isn’t about blame or reliving the past. It’s about uncovering the blueprint beneath your behavior so you can finally stop managing symptoms and start changing at the root.

Eli Hostetler grew up in a world most of us have only seen from a car window…no electricity, no automobiles, a one-room schoolhouse, and a community governed by rules written long before he was born. In this episode, Eli takes Johnny, Pete, and Stan inside that world: the daily rhythm of farm chores, the real story behind Rumspringa and the loopholes and debates that shaped Amish life from bishop to bishop.

But this isn’t just a look at a fascinating culture. Somewhere along the way, cracks formed…and Eli encountered something that tradition alone couldn’t explain. He shares, unhurried and in his own words, the moment the Holy Spirit broke through, what it felt like to meet Jesus outside the only faith framework he’d ever known, and what it actually cost him to leave: family, community, and everything familiar.

Funny, honest, and at times heartbreaking, this conversation honors where Eli came from while telling the truth about why he couldn’t stay. If you’ve ever quietly questioned what you were raised with, this one’s for you.

What if some of the world’s biggest conspiracy theories aren’t connected by coincidence, but by a pattern?

In this episode of The Social Code, we separate documented history from speculation as we explore government secrecy, Deep Underground Military Bases (DUMBs), Yellowstone, Denver International Airport, black budgets, billionaire bunkers, Project MKUltra, Operation Paperclip, Area 51, Antarctica, CERN, and the growing conversation surrounding UAPs.

Some of these stories are established historical fact. Others remain unproven theories. Our goal isn’t to convince you what to believe. It’s to ask better questions, examine the evidence, and follow the trail wherever it leads.

Whether you’re a skeptic, a believer, or somewhere in between, this conversation will challenge the way you think about secrecy, power, and what might exist beneath the surface.

What happens when the thing that once defined your life becomes just another chapter? Rex Buckner has experienced success on the baseball field, answered God’s call to help build Mustard Seed Ranch, and navigated the difficult seasons that followed. In this conversation, we explore what it means to trust God beyond titles, accomplishments, and ministries. Rex shares how faith has shaped every season of his life and why some of God’s greatest work happens after the chapter you thought would define you forever.

In this episode of The Social Code, we sit down with Mason Jackson for an honest conversation about loss, faith, identity, and calling. Mason shares what it was like growing up after losing his mother to addiction, caring for his great grandmother through dementia, and discovering that achievement alone could never provide lasting fulfillment.

We also explore mentorship, leadership, college ministry, and why investing in people may be one of the greatest callings a person can pursue. This is a conversation about finding hope in suffering, choosing purpose over comfort, and allowing life’s hardest seasons to shape who you become.

Whether you’ve experienced loss, questioned your purpose, or are simply trying to figure out your next step, this episode will challenge and encourage you.

Jill Stalnaker wears a lot of hats, and every one of them has a story. As the founder of The Woman Initiative, a nonprofit, and host of The WOMAN Podcast, she shares how she’s helped women find their voice, discovered musical talent for Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, and created spaces where women can share their stories. We also explore her work at Cumberland Heights and her experiences serving in jail ministry, including spending time with men on death row. Along the way, we dive into motherhood, marriage, divorce, the surprising impact of 12 Step meetings, AI and art, homeschooling, and even a few unexpected rabbit trails. It’s an honest, thought provoking conversation that reminds us life is rarely as simple as it seems.

Most of us spend our lives trying to manage outcomes, control people, avoid uncertainty, and force things to go according to our plans. The strange part is that the harder we grip, the more exhausted we become.

In this conversation, we explore why the need for control can quietly become one of the greatest sources of stress, anxiety, frustration, and disappointment in our lives. We talk about trust, surrender, faith, relationships, and what happens when we finally admit that some things were never ours to carry in the first place.

This isn’t about giving up. It’s about discovering the difference between responsibility and control. Between action and obsession. Between leading your life and trying to run the entire universe.

Sometimes the breakthrough comes when we stop fighting battles we were never meant to win.

In this episode of The Social Code, we sit down with Jack Forness, whose life has taken him through some remarkable seasons. From serving as a Navy officer during the Vietnam era, including operations connected to the recovery of Apollo 15, to building a successful real estate business, to eventually leaving it all behind to pursue ministry, Jack’s story is anything but ordinary.

We talk about leadership, purpose, faith, reinvention, and what happens when life takes a direction you never planned for. Along the way, Jack shares lessons learned from decades of serving others, navigating change, and discovering what matters most.

It’s a conversation about more than careers or accomplishments. It’s about the journey of becoming who you’re meant to be.