Choosing your next fitness challenge starts with knowing what you want from it: a better result, a shared experience, or confidence in what you can do.

Greg Hammond of Concept2 joins me to explore why we test ourselves, what different fitness events offer, and how to balance performance with staying active for the long run. CrossFit, HYROX, and the Tactical Games give us the setting, but the questions apply whether you compete or simply enjoy training.

In this conversation

• How CrossFit made fitness measurable across different movements and durations
• Why everyday athletes seek out fitness competitions
• What HYROX and the Tactical Games offer participants
• Community, shared challenges, and discovering what you can do
• The difference between training for health and elite performance
• Balancing strength, endurance, and changing goals as you get older

Links

• Greg Hammond / Concept2: https://www.instagram.com/concept2greg/
• Deepish Conversations on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz35DCAJXu0CKvb08y2uvcNKSahc5A3eJ
• Brian - Substack: https://brianpierce.substack.com/
• Brian - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woodybepierced

In this episode of Deepish Conversations, Brian Pierce sits down with Kelsey Martins to talk about growing up on antidepressants, navigating withdrawal, and finding yourself beyond the labels that have become part of your identity.

Kelsey started Zoloft at 12 and now shares her experience through Unmedicating Me, where she offers coaching and peer support. She describes both the help she experienced on medication and the difficulties she encountered when she wanted to come off.

Our conversation centers on a question that reaches beyond medication: when something has explained how you feel for years, how do you make room for a different understanding of yourself?

In this conversation:

• Growing up with anxiety and starting medication
• Kelsey’s difficult first discontinuation experience
• Separating what you feel from who you are
• Acceptance, rest, and the pressure to fix everything
• Getting to know yourself before the process is finished

Both of us share from experiences that are still unfolding. This is not a tapering guide or a claim that coming off medication is the right choice for everyone.

Links

Kelsey / Unmedicating Me: https://www.instagram.com/unmedicating_me/
Deepish Conversations on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz35DCAJXu0CKvb08y2uvcNKSahc5A3eJ
Brian on Substack: https://brianpierce.substack.com/
Brian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woodybepierced

This is a personal conversation, not medical advice. Discuss medication changes with a qualified prescribing clinician.

Thanks for listening to Deepish Conversations, a podcast for people who enjoy good stories, a little humor, and learning something along the way.

The conversation surrounding the Cornell Seven case made me think about myself as a young college man, the guidance I wish I’d had, and what I need to keep discussing with my teenage son.

For episode #005 of Deepish Conversations, Pat Barber from The Fathers Guild joins me again to talk about responsibility, relationships, sex, and respecting women. We’re not here to decide what happened in the case or speculate about the legal outcome. We’re asking what we can do as fathers.

I share how pornography shaped some of my expectations and why these conversations have felt uncomfortable. Pat brings it back to understanding power, using it to lift people up rather than hold them down, and living the values we want our sons to learn.

We also discuss peer pressure, speaking up, getting help, and keeping communication open. My hope is that fathers leave with something they can take into conversations with their own sons, even when it feels awkward.

If this could help a father or friend in your life, please share it with them.

Links & Resources

Learn more about Pat
Deepish Conversations on YouTube
Brian on Substack
Brian on Instagram

Thanks for listening to Deepish Conversations, a podcast for people who enjoy good stories, a little humor, and learning something along the way.