A Sub-5 Mile and a 500-Pound Squat in One Day: The Dad of Four With a Day Job

The most impressive thing about Ben isn’t the 500-pound squat; it’s that he does it with four kids, a full-time job, and a business on the side.

Ben Barker helps dads build their lives on faith, fitness and fatherhood, and he’s honest that he’s still working on all three. In this conversation he and Matt trade the practical: one-on-one “dates” with each kid, bringing your children into the things you already have to do, giving them a real role in the family, and getting good at apologizing when you lose your temper. For any dad starting from out of shape and overwhelmed, his advice is simple: make one small change. Start walking. Discipline begets discipline.

They also talk about why men need something hard to pursue, why performance goals beat the scale, writing your family’s core values together, and letting your kids watch you fail and try again. Then the conversation turns personal, as Matt shares what facing a second cancer has meant for him as a father, and the two talk about how to build a legacy that stays with your kids long after you’re gone.

Don’t tell your kids to have a good day; teach them to make it one.

Connect with Ben: Instagram @benbarkerfitness

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One Week Before Cancer Surgery: The Story I'm Choosing to Tell Myself


At 18, he was wheeled down a cold, too-bright hallway to have his leg amputated. Thirteen years later, he's walking that same hallway again.

Matt recorded this in the week before surgery for a second cancer: not a return of the Ewing sarcoma he survived in 2013, but a new, stage one kidney cancer, caught early after a GI bleed in June and most likely caused by the chemotherapy that saved his life the first time. In his own words, he walks through how different this diagnosis feels. Last time the question was whether he would survive. This time the questions are about his family: can he still be the husband and father he wants to be, with his wife Lauren six months pregnant with their first son?

Plenty of people have called it the worst possible timing. Matt and Lauren chose a different story: how fortunate they are that a new life is coming, and what a gift waits on the other side. That choice is the heart of this episode. Every hardship can be told two ways, and the story you choose shapes who you become inside it. He's honest that the fear is still there; he feels it rise as he speaks. But he goes into surgery trusting the man who will wake up from it.

The key to life isn't happiness; it's peace, and peace can be built in the presence of any emotion.

Shared in Matt's own words; his diagnosis, prognosis and treatment are his personal account, not medical advice.

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Two Veterans Are Opening a 24-Hour Gym for Anyone Stuck in a Dark Place

Some come home from war and find the fight was never the hardest part.

Terry Miller returns to the show, this time with Dave Hall, an Army veteran with two tours in Iraq, and together they're opening Iron Valor Barbell in Reynoldsburg, Ohio: a 24-hour strength gym built around serving veterans and open to anyone who needs a place to train hard with no drama. They talk honestly about what coming home felt like without a mission; nights spent drinking just to sleep; 2020 isolation forcing a decision; and what pulled them out: goals, training, community, and finally the right counselor. Matt shares his own version: surviving cancer when he wasn't expected to, and feeling nothing when it was over.

The conversation turns to the friends they've lost to suicide, and what they tell everyone now. Get out of your head. Set a goal. Do something hard. Sleep on it. Make tomorrow count; and if you're carrying the ones you lost, live the best life you can for them.

The pain doesn't go away; it gets passed on. Pass it on into something that builds you.

Terry and Dave share their experiences in their own words, including suicide, addiction, and medication; this is their personal account, not medical advice. If you're struggling, you're not alone: call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, US) any time. Veterans: dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line.

Iron Valor Barbell: Reynoldsburg, Ohio (Columbus area)

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