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Nathan Marr came on as family. He's dating James Gass' daughter Madison — and James was there for the first date, watching her come home with a smile he says told him everything.

It starts easy. Nathan's a bar back in Santa Clarita at a place whose old fashioned has won best cocktail two years running. He works out every single day, does jiu-jitsu two or three times a week, and has never played a sport in his life — unless you count a freshman golf tryout where he didn't know the lingo, hit a window, and got the "we have too many players this year" talk. He'll argue Charles Oliveira is the best fighter on the planet and tell you it's not an opinion, it's fact.

Then the darkest moment...the room changes.

Last year, four months into a Border Patrol hiring process that was moving fast, Nathan's mom was diagnosed with a glioblastoma. He went to the academy anyway, because she would have wanted him to. A month and a half in, the call came: you need to come home. He quit — no leave, no timeline, nothing to come back to. On October 4th, she passed away.

What he says next is the part most people never say out loud. The months after, he drank more than he ever had. He started arguments. He and Madison fought more in that stretch than in their five years together, and he'll tell you most of them — no, all of them — were on him. The turn came in a parking lot after a dinner where he was the only one drinking and felt entirely out of place: she would be disappointed right now.

He's applying to LAX PD now. And his advice to anyone carrying the same weight isn't "be strong." It's this: mourn, take the time, but stop asking what you want and start asking what they would have wanted for you.

In this episode:

• How dating the co-host's daughter turned into a podcast appearance
• Why he never regrets going to the gym, only not going
• Disneyland, fake snow, and a memory he was almost too young to keep
• A mother who was endlessly kind and still nobody to walk over
• Hiding behind good news from a doctor
• The parking lot moment that stopped the spiral

"Thank you guys for listening. If this touches one person, then this is a success." — Nathan Marr

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The roles flip. This time Brian Penn holds the mic, and co-founder James Gass tells the story behind the easy laugh.

It starts light: a nervous softball guy getting talked into a wood-bat baseball tournament by their mutual friend Chuck, climbing out of the passenger seat, taking one look at Brian and thinking, "I can't win these guys over with my playing — I'll win them over with my kindness."  Forty years of guitar.  "Prince over everybody" . Dave Winfield, the Blue Jays, and coaching both his daughters from the bottom of the lineup to leading off in center field.

Then Brian asks about the darkest moment, and James goes to a place he says he rarely talks about. The grandfather who practically raised him, gone. His parents divorced. Siblings out of the house. A two-story home traded for a drug-infested apartment complex, a three-to-four-mile walk to school because a bike wasn't in the budget, an eviction, an extension cord run from a neighbor's apartment for power, and stretches with no food. A father with a good job and a phone he didn't pick up. And, at 13, a night in a bathroom that could have ended the story — and the moment right after, when something snapped, and he walked out, picked up his guitar, and started playing like nothing had happened.

"To say music saved my life is no doubt."

What he built from there — work at 13, a sister and two cousins who took him in, a father who's now more friend than parent, brothers he talks to across an ocean — is the reason this podcast exists. His advice for the world isn't complicated: acceptance. We have far more in common than the 20% we blow up into a mountain.

In this episode:

• How Chuck's four-year recruiting campaign accidentally started a podcast
• Guitar vs. baseball, 40 years later, still undecided
• Coaching his daughters Madison and Ava — his favorite sports memory, period
• The lowest of the low, told plainly
• Why forgiveness is a gift you hand yourself
• Vulnerability isn't weakness

Everybody has a dark cloud. There's a solution to everything, and there are people out there who will pick you up.

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A cocktail waitress told a 21-year-old Brian Penn he had "a voice for radio." Decades later, that offhand comment became a podcast — but the story that gets told in Episode 1 is a much harder one.

Co-founders Brian Penn and James Gass kick off Unite the Bullpen with the origin of the name, the friendship that started with a Houston men's-league baseball team, and a whole lot of love for Ken Griffey Jr. and Rickey Henderson. Then Brian goes somewhere most men never go on a microphone:  the first eight years of his son's life, when he was a traveling consultant who was, in his own words, "stupid, immature, and selfish" — and whose own family didn't even know his son existed.

It took a therapist's ultimatum — acknowledge your son today or don't come back — to turn Brian the selfish dude into Brian the father. What followed was a 3 p.m. Friday drive from Houston to San Antonio, a confession to his parents, years of rebuilding trust with his son and his son's mother, and a sermon that stopped him cold:  press too hard on what you're holding and it will never blossom.

Eleven years later, they're as close to “father & son” as one can get. This is the episode about what it costs to come back — and why it's worth it.

In this episode:

• How a suggested tryout to become a DJ and two failed audiobooks led to a podcast
• Where the name "Unite the Bullpen" actually came from
• Brian’s journey in baseball
• The therapy session that changed everything
• Why Brian says only you get to define your greatness — and why he didn't start chasing his until three years ago

Be bold. Be courageous. Go after your greatness.

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This episode is the first of the "Unite the Bullpen" podcast.  The Founder formally introduces the podcast, describes the inspiration behind the "birth" of the podcast, and what the audience can expect.  Enjoy and provide your honest opinion/feedback.