Live Interview: Courage and Friendship

My first interview examining my popular series on friendship, courage, and masculinity

Over the past two weeks, I’m humbled that a considerable number of people contacted me about my friendship and courage series. I’m deeply moved and thankful I can be a part of your life. My series started as a passion project as an outlet for my internal dialogue, and it’s amazing to see so many individuals thrive and transform their lives for the better after reading my words. This has grown beyond a therapeutic exercise to a movement that has touched thousands of lives. The Holy Spirit is at work in ways I cannot understand, but I am grateful for this adventure. I’m thankful to the person who pushed me to start this Substack. He knows who he is. 🙏

This week, I went on my buddy Sevan’s podcast with Andrew Hiller to discuss my recent series. Our extended conversation covered numerous subjects, from culture, faith, politics, and family (we actually didn’t get to AI).

As Sevan calls me in this interview, “Pastor Ginn” outlines the importance of friends, self-respect, courage, masculinity, Christianity, marriage, and love. Our dialog connected the power of social connections and self-respect as the means to heal our society, create human flourishing, and eternalize a culture that values freedom and community. At the end of my interview, we examined my journey through life and my walk to become a faithful follower of Christ, which gave me the resiliency to learn these hard lessons and challenge myself. I tell stories of victory over pain and reconciliation over heartache that would shock the secular world (Selah). I share lessons from history that you can utilize today to inspire you that hope and courage is always available to the right heart and mind who wants to grab it.

Enjoy!

Below is an outline that links directly to different discussion segments.

1. Catchup and introductions (0:00)

2. Renaissance man and overview of my courage and “nice guy” series (5:24)

3. Overview of the friendship series (14:39)

4. The difference between friend love, family love, and romantic love (19:17)

5. Friendships that changed history (22:10)

6. Raising good kids (28:32)

7. Sevan’s great friendship stories (29:17)

8. What is a soul and a spirit? (32:32)

9. Saving a friend after a divorce (35:43)

10. FDR’s best friend (37:59)

11. Be intentional with who you have in your life (41:36)

12. Confident men versus weak men (44:56)

13. Last time I said sorry (48:05)

14. Microwave relationships to protect yourself (50:32)

15. Boundaries (56:41)

16. Don’t judge people by their private conversations (1:03:43)

17. Sevan’s stories of invading someone else’s boundaries (1:06:10)

18. Sexual identity and our culture (1:11:08)

19. How we got cultural absurdism (1:14:38)

20. Don’t fool yourself; everyone needs a god (1:18:21)

21. Why our culture dehumanizes and hunts for sins (1:20:18)

22. John Adams, his wife, and atheism (1:25:42)

23. You are ChatGPT with a soul (1:29:19)

24. Christianity and diversity (1:29:48)

25. America needs to win for the world (1:39:16)

26. Thoughts on Trump (1:42:22)

27. Forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration (1:51:30)

28. Have I been in a fight (1:56:01)

29. My romantic life and why I live this way (1:57:58)

30. Book recommendations (1:59:35)

31. Why do I write (2:03:59)

32. What do I want to do with my life (2:06:29)

33. My discipleship and restoration stories (2:08:04)

34. My ultimate goal is love, truth, and community (2:11:08)

35. Pastor Ginn and goodbyes (2:13:16)

"Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them."
— Elisabeth Elliot

Side Note

I refreshed “Courage is a New Birth” (Published on May 30th). There was a versioning error in the scheduled email. You can read the updated version below: