What happens to a man sentenced to 80 years in prison for a single, irreversible mistake?

In this powerful episode of The Jake Giffin Podcast, Reginald Hicks shares his raw and unfiltered story—from a first-time offender receiving an 80-year sentence to serving 30 years inside one of the most violent prison systems in America.

At 19 years old, Reginald made a decision that changed everything. What followed were decades inside Texas prisons during the height of gang violence, racial segregation, and brutality. He describes living in a 6x9 cell for 23 hours a day, hearing screams through the night, watching men lose their identity—and nearly losing his own.

For 18 years, he lived without hope.

Then everything changed.

This conversation explores:

• What 30 years in prison does to a man • The psychological impact of hopelessness • The reality of Texas prisons in the 1990s • Why 70% of inmates return within 3 years • The shocking truth about reentry (including the $100 release reality) • How faith rewired identity and behavior • The difference between being disciplined and being delivered • Why prison ministry is directly connected to public safety • The 2% prison marriage survival rate—and how his survived • His vision to build transitional housing for men reentering society

Reginald now leads Brothers Keeper Prison Ministry, mentoring incarcerated men, strengthening families impacted by incarceration, and building a long-term solution for reintegration that goes beyond survival and focuses on transformation.

This episode is not about sentiment. It is about responsibility, identity, hope, and the hard truth about redemption.

If you care about criminal justice reform, prison ministry, second chances, faith-based rehabilitation, or the psychology of transformation, this conversation will challenge your assumptions.

About Reginald Hicks

Reginald Hicks is the founder of Brothers Keeper Prison Ministry. After serving 30 years of an 80-year sentence in Texas, he now works directly with incarcerated men and women, facilitates marriage retreats, supports families impacted by incarceration, and is building a vision for transitional housing focused on long-term restoration.

Connect with Reginald Hicks:

Website: https://www.brotherskeeperprisonministry.com Email: [email protected] Facebook: Brothers Keeper Prison Ministry

About The Jake Giffin Podcast

The Jake Giffin Podcast explores faith, psychology, leadership, identity, and transformation through direct, unfiltered conversations. Each episode is structured to test ideas, challenge assumptions, and transfer real value.

Host: Jake Giffin Website: https://www.jakegiffin.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejakegiffin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakegiffin YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thejakegiffin

Follow @thejakegiffin on all platforms.

Why are millions of Christians in Africa starving while the global Church sits on unprecedented wealth?

In this episode of The Jake Giffin Podcast, Jake sits down with Roger Wheeler, co-founder of Shoulder to Shoulder, a Christian organization working directly with churches in Zambia to combat extreme hunger, malnutrition, and water scarcity. This isn't a conversation about abstract compassion or inspirational mission stories. It's about calories, protein, clean water, and the uncomfortable biblical reality of surplus and responsibility.

Zambia is one of the most food-insecure nations in the world, yet it is overwhelmingly Christian. Roger explains why hunger there isn't just an economic problem, but a theological one—and why the early Church's model of Christians feeding Christians may be the most faithful and effective response today. From corn distribution and well drilling to community farms and protein access, this episode exposes what actually works and why much of modern charity quietly fails.

The conversation goes deeper than Africa. It challenges American Christians to examine how wealth, comfort, and delayed obedience distort faith. Drawing from Scripture, Church history, and firsthand experience, Jake and Roger explore repentance, generosity, and the biblical standard of "works worthy of repentance."

If you've ever wondered:

• Why Christian hunger exists in Africa

• What the Bible actually says about wealth and the poor

• Whether free food helps or hurts communities

• How the early Church handled famine and poverty

• Why generosity feels harder the wealthier we get

This episode will not let you stay neutral.

Guest Information

Roger Wheeler Co-Founder, Shoulder to Shoulder Website: https://www.shoulder2shoulder.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@shoulder2shoulder Email: [email protected]

Shoulder to Shoulder partners directly with local churches in Zambia to provide food, clean water, and long-term sustainability through farming and community-led solutions.

Host Information

Jake Giffin Website: https://www.jakegiffin.com Instagram | X | YouTube | LinkedIn: @thejakegiffin

This episode is for Christians who want clarity, not comfort—and for anyone willing to ask whether the global Church is obeying Jesus or quietly avoiding Him.

In Your Thoughts Eat First, Dr. Len Lopez joins Jake Giffin for a grounded, no-nonsense conversation about why most health, discipline, and spiritual failures don't start in the body. They start in the mind. Drawing from decades in chiropractic care, nutrition, and habit formation, Dr. Lopez explains his Five Steps system, a simple but confronting framework that tracks what you consistently feed your sleep, thoughts, body, movement, and spirit. This episode cuts through diet culture, shallow positivity, and outsourced responsibility, exposing how daily mental inputs quietly determine physical health, emotional stability, and long-term outcomes. If you've ever tried to "fix" your life without examining what you're rehearsing in your head every day, this conversation will feel uncomfortably clarifying.

Guest: Dr. Len Lopez Website: https://drlenlopez.com Five Steps App: https://fivestepsaday.com

Host: Jake Giffin Website: https://www.jakegiffin.com Social Media (all platforms): @thejakegiffin

This episode is part of The Jake Giffin Podcast, where ideas are tested, not celebrated, and clarity matters more than comfort.

Idols in Church Clothes exposes a problem most Christians assume ended with golden calves and stone statues. Idolatry didn't disappear. It evolved. In this episode of The Jake Giffin Podcast, Jake Giffin sits down with Jake Debernz to examine how modern Christianity often blends Jesus with cultural gods like nationalism, success, comfort, security, and moral superiority. These idols don't replace Christ outright. They stand beside Him, dressed in religious language, baptized with good intentions, and defended as "biblical."

This conversation challenges the idea that idolatry is only about secret sin or ancient rituals. Instead, it reveals how good things quietly become ultimate things and how fear, control, achievement, and certainty replace trust in God. Drawing from Scripture, church history, psychology, and lived experience, the episode addresses prosperity theology, performative holiness, social media-driven identity, and why the human heart continually manufactures substitutes for God.

If faith feels crowded, clarity feels distant, or Christianity starts resembling self-worship with Bible verses attached, this episode offers a hard but necessary diagnosis. Idols in Church Clothes isn't about outrage or deconstruction for its own sake. It's about honesty. And it forces one unavoidable question: when Jesus shares the room with our idols, who is actually being worshiped?

Host: Jake Giffin Website: https://www.jakegiffin.com Social Media: @thejakegiffin on all platforms

Guest: Jake Debernz Podcast and writing focused on Christian theology, idolatry, and spiritual formation Social Media and links available in show notes

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In this episode of The Jake Giffin Podcast, Jake sits down with Jai Roza, creator of Eden's Conflict, to confront a question many Christians avoid and many spiritual seekers misunderstand: Can being "spiritual" actually pull you further away from truth?

Jai shares his unfiltered journey from New Age spirituality, Eastern meditation practices, and occult experimentation into a grounded, Scripture-anchored Christian faith. This conversation dismantles the assumption that all spiritual experiences are from God and exposes how modern spirituality often prioritizes feelings, visions, and inner voices over discernment, repentance, and obedience.

Together, Jake and Jai explore spiritual warfare not as horror-movie possession, but as something far more common and dangerous: distorted thinking, misplaced authority, surrendering agency, and confusing peace with truth. They examine contemplative prayer, meditation, visualization, and altered states through both biblical theology and psychological insight, asking where Christians unknowingly cross lines they were never meant to cross.

This episode is essential listening for Christians wrestling with spiritual practices, former New Age seekers trying to recalibrate their faith, and anyone who senses that "feeling spiritual" isn't the same as being spiritually aligned. No hype. No mysticism for sale. Just clarity, caution, and conviction.

Guest: Jai Roza Website: https://edensconflict.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edensconflict

Host: Jake Giffin Website: https://www.jakegiffin.com Instagram / X / YouTube: https://www.instagram.com/thejakegiffin

If you're tired of vague spirituality and want to understand what Scripture actually protects us from, this conversation will press on nerves you didn't know were exposed.

What happens when justice depends on who you are, not what you did? In this episode of The Jake Giffin Podcast, Jake sits down with Evan Turk, founder of the American Rights Alliance, to examine how the legal system is being weaponized through selective enforcement, narrative control, and political pressure. This conversation cuts through the slogans and asks an uncomfortable question: if the law is applied unevenly, is it still law or just leverage?

They discuss political prisoners, the erosion of free speech, media complicity, whistleblowers being punished instead of protected, and why questioning official narratives now carries real consequences. This isn't a left vs. right debate. It's a sober look at how power operates when accountability disappears and how silence becomes safer than truth. Whether you agree or not, the implications affect everyone living under the same system.

Guest: Evan Turk is the founder of the American Rights Alliance, a First Amendment–focused 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to defending civil liberties, supporting whistleblowers, advocating for criminal justice reform, and fighting selective prosecution. The organization works on clemency cases, wrongful imprisonment, free speech defense, and restoring constitutional protections.

Website: https://www.americanrightsalliance.org

Host: Jake Giffin is an entrepreneur, podcast host, and coach focused on leadership, truth, and responsibility in an age of confusion. He hosts long-form conversations that challenge cultural assumptions and pressure-test ideas without selling ideology.

Website: https://www.jakegiffin.com

Social: @thejakegiffin (all platforms)

If the law only applies when it's convenient, the real question isn't who's guilty. It's who's next.

In this episode of The Jake Giffin Podcast, Jake Giffin sits down with Ahmard Vital for a direct, wide-ranging conversation on discipline, leadership, masculinity, faith, and the cost of becoming competent in a world that rewards comfort and excuses. This is not a motivational hype session. It's a grounded, intellectually honest discussion about how men are actually formed, where modern culture breaks them, and what builds strength when fear, emotion, and failure are unavoidable.

Ahmard Vital is a motivational consultant, international speaker, author, and performance coach known for helping athletes, young men, and leaders develop mental discipline and personal responsibility. With a background as a collegiate football recruiting analyst and years spent studying elite performers, Amard blends athletic mindset training, personal development, and faith-based leadership into practical frameworks that translate beyond sports. He is the author of Awaken the Baller Within, I Am More Than Enough, and Now What: 5 Steps to Get Up and Create the Most of Life, works that have been used in athletic programs, schools, and leadership settings across the country.

Throughout the episode, Jake and Amard explore why competition matters, why accountability outperforms affirmation, and why leadership is not optional for men. They unpack sports as a metaphor for life, the difference between emotional awareness and emotional slavery, and how discipline must exist before motivation shows up. The conversation also addresses cultural confusion around masculinity, responsibility, and authority, arguing that strength, boundaries, and sacrifice are not toxic traits but necessary ones when properly ordered and aimed.

Faith is not treated as a compartmentalized idea but as something that must integrate with real-world responsibility. Ahmard shares how Scripture, spiritual formation, and personal discipline converge in leadership, parenting, coaching, and community building, while Jake connects these insights to modern psychology, neuroscience, and his own coaching frameworks. The result is a conversation that respects intelligence, challenges assumptions, and replaces vague self-help language with clarity and structure.

This episode is for listeners who are tired of emotional fog, hollow motivation, and surface-level advice, and who want frameworks they can actually apply in work, family, and leadership. Expect candor, conviction, and ideas that demand responsibility rather than applause.

Guest: Ahmard Vital. Website: https://ahmardvital.com. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahmardvital/. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmard-vital-6959464/. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ahmardvital/.

Host: Jake Giffin. Website: https://jakegiffin.com. Podcast: https://jakegiffin.com/podcast. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakegiffin/. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JakeGiffin. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakegiffin/

How Software Is Built in the Age of AI

Most businesses still believe software has to be slow, expensive, and painful to build. That belief is outdated, and it's costing founders millions.

In this episode of The Jake Giffin Podcast, Jake sits down with Dan Hafner, founder of Dapper No-Code, to break down how software is actually being built in the age of AI. They unpack why traditional development models are collapsing, what no-code and "vibe coding" get right (and dangerously wrong), and why speed of execution has become the only real competitive advantage left.

This conversation goes beyond surface-level AI hype. You'll hear:

• Why most software projects burn cash before they ever reach market

• The truth about no-code tools and where they break under real complexity

• How AI is changing planning, design, and execution, not just coding

• Why ideas are cheap, execution is scarce, and perfection is a trap

• What the next generation of one-person, AI-powered companies will look like

If you're a founder, operator, or builder trying to understand where software, AI, and business are actually headed, this episode will recalibrate how you think about building anything in 2026 and beyond.

Guest Information

Dan Hafner Founder – Dapper No-Code Website: https://dappernocode.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=Dan%20Hafner%20Dapper%20No-Code

Host Information

Jake Giffin Host – The Jake Giffin Podcast Website: https://jakegiffin.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejakegiffin YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theJakeGiffin

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In a world of constant noise, speed, and distraction, many Christians read the Bible faithfully yet still feel disconnected from God. Why does Scripture feel informative but not transformative? Why do so many believers say, "I pray, but I don't hear God"?

In this episode of The Jake Giffin Podcast, Jake sits down with Chaz Becker, co-founder of Storied, to explore the ancient Christian practice of Lectio Divina and its relevance for modern discipleship. Together, they examine the tension between biblical meditation and mysticism, doctrine and experience, neuroscience and spiritual formation.

This conversation tackles hard questions Christians are already asking:

• Is Christian meditation biblical or dangerous?

• How do we discern God's voice without drifting into self-made revelation?

• Why speed, anxiety, and burnout are sabotaging spiritual depth

• How Scripture was meant to be encountered, not consumed

This is not a rejection of theology or Bible study. It's a challenge to recover stillness, attentiveness, and intimacy with God without compromising truth.

If you've ever felt spiritually dry, overwhelmed, or unsure whether you're actually hearing God, this episode is for you.

Guest Contact & Links

Chaz Becker Co-Founder, Storied Website: https://storied.community Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storied.community Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chazbecker

Host Contact & Links

Jake Giffin Host, The Jake Giffin Podcast

Website: https://jakegiffin.com Podcast: https://thejakegiffinpodcast.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thejakegiffin Instagram / X / LinkedIn: @thejakegiffin

Most people think the U.S. healthcare system is broken. It isn't.

It's operating exactly as designed.

In this episode of The Jake Giffin Podcast, Jake sits down with Donovan Pyle, a former insurance insider turned whistleblower, to expose how employers, employees, and patients are quietly turned into inventory inside a massive sales funnel.

Donovan breaks down how hospitals built insurance companies, how brokers are incentivized to sell against your interests, why doctors only see a fraction of every healthcare dollar, and how "coverage" became an unlimited spending machine with no accountability. They unpack the medical loss ratio, vertical integration, pharmacy benefit managers, and why confusion is the most profitable feature in healthcare.

This is not a rant. It's a map.

If you're an employer, executive, or business owner paying for health benefits, this conversation explains why costs rise every year while care gets worse and what can actually be done about it without waiting on Washington.

Guest

Donovan Pyle Healthcare Fiduciary Consultant & Author Website: https://www.fixinghealthcarebook.com Book: Fixing Healthcare (Available November 12) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donovanpyle

Host

Jake Giffin Instagram / X / LinkedIn / YouTube: @thejakegiffin Podcast: The Jake Giffin Podcast