In this expansive and deeply human conversation, Kevin Hohe sits down with Becca Breen, a mental health professional, educator, and founder of the Wild and Well Together podcast, to explore what it really means to live well in a fractured, distracted world.

What begins as a light exchange about symbols, challenge coins, and elephants quickly opens into a wide ranging dialogue on curiosity, community, leadership, and the quiet longing most people carry to belong. Rebecca shares her journey through mental health work, education, faith, motherhood, and entrepreneurship, reflecting on how personal healing and communal wellbeing are inseparable.

Together, Kevin and Rebecca wrestle with some of the biggest questions of our time. How do we create community without turning it into another echo chamber. Can we build meaningful movements without becoming performative or salacious. What does leadership look like when it is rooted in humility rather than ego. And how do we stay curious when the world keeps rewarding certainty, outrage, and division.

The conversation also dives into gender, purpose, and modern identity. Rebecca offers a thoughtful perspective on masculinity, mental health, and the silent weight many men carry, while challenging both men and women to rethink protection, provision, and partnership in a changing world. Throughout, curiosity emerges as a central theme not as a personality trait, but as a practice that lowers fear, invites play, and opens the door to real connection.

This episode is not about answers wrapped in certainty. It is about asking better questions, sitting with complexity, and daring to imagine communities where people are seen, welcomed, and supported across differences. It is an invitation to slow down, break bread, unplug from noise, and remember how to human together.

In this episode

• What curiosity has to do with wellbeing, leadership, and freedom

• Why modern life is starving us of real community

• The tension between building impact and staying authentic

• How ego and echo chambers block meaningful connection

• Rethinking masculinity, mental health, and male friendship

• Why play, wonder, and shared activity matter more than we realise

• The idea of a quiet majority and a do gooder society

• What it means to live a full life without needing certainty

• How community can heal what institutions cannot

Stay connected:

• Kevin Hohe | LinkedIn

And let us know what you think with our feedback form.

Produced by Pineapple Audio Production.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this dense and uncompromising episode of XYZ Philosophies, Kevin Hohe is joined by Matthew Mescoli for a wide ranging examination of conspiracy thinking, free thought, and the modern information environment. What begins as a response to a previous conversation on conspiracies becomes a philosophical deep dive into psychology, history, power, and the human need for certainty in an uncertain world.

Matthew introduces key ideas from cognitive psychology, including priming, availability bias, and naive realism, to explain how people come to feel certain about beliefs that are shaped less by facts and more by environment. He argues that many who see themselves as independent thinkers are in fact deeply conditioned by media ecosystems that reward outrage, transgression, and belonging. The conversation explores how modern conspiratorial thinking often functions not as inquiry, but as a coping mechanism for confusion, powerlessness, and rapid cultural change.

From there, Kevin and Matthew step back into a much longer historical lens. Drawing on thinkers like Nietzsche and Oswald Spengler, they discuss civilizational decline, identity, nationalism, and what happens when people cling to dying ideas rather than developing the internal strength to face an evolving world. The episode challenges listeners to consider whether conspiracy theories offer truth, or simply relief from uncertainty.

Rather than offering easy answers, this conversation wrestles with harder questions. What does it mean to think well in an age of endless information. How should we relate to ideas that feel emotionally satisfying but intellectually hollow. And what does a meaningful human life look like when certainty is no longer available.

This is not an episode about debunking individual claims. It is an exploration of the conditions that make certain ways of thinking appealing, contagious, and difficult to escape. It invites listeners to slow down, tolerate uncertainty, build discipline, and take responsibility for how they engage with the world.

In this episode

• Why environment shapes belief more than most people realise

• How conspiracy thinking functions as a response to uncertainty and powerlessness

• The illusion of free thought in algorithm driven media ecosystems

• Why facts alone rarely change deeply held beliefs

• The psychological appeal of being told you possess hidden knowledge

• How history repeats itself through recycled fears and scapegoats

• Nietzsche and Spengler on decline, identity, and cultural decay

• The difference between knowledge, information, and wisdom

• Why reading, embodiment, and real world experience still matter

• What it means to live well without certainty

Stay connected:

• Kevin Hohe | LinkedIn

And let us know what you think with our feedback form.

Produced by Pineapple Audio Production.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this intense, sprawling, and deeply candid conversation, Kevin sits down with a close friend for a raw exploration of fatherhood, masculinity, family, and the world we are all trying to raise children in. What begins as a simple question about the importance of being present as a father expands into a sweeping examination of modern culture and the forces that have shaped how men and women show up in family life.

Our guest speaks openly about waiting until his mid thirties to have a child and how becoming a father transformed every priority he once held. His reflections on time, sacrifice, regret, and the irreplaceable years between zero and five challenge the busy, ambitious pace of modern entrepreneurs. He argues that presence matters more than productivity and that a distracted or absent parent spends the rest of their life trying to repair what they missed.

From there, the conversation moves into a wider and often uncomfortable discussion about the changing meaning of masculinity, the role of men in the home, the rise of boys growing up without fathers, and the growing confusion around what men are meant to be. He describes what he believes a capable man should know, from fixing what breaks to following through on promises, and questions a culture that measures worth by wealth rather than by responsibility and presence.

Together, Kevin and his guest wrestle with big questions. When did society drift away from strong families and self sufficient communities. How did the pursuit of money overpower the pursuit of meaning. What expectations should we place on men and women. And what version of masculinity actually helps families and children thrive.

The exchange is fiery, emotional, and unfiltered. It pushes into the tensions between tradition and modern life, between equality and identity, between independence and community. And beneath it all sits a shared desire to raise children who feel secure, grounded, and truly loved.

In this episode

• Why the first five years of a child’s life shape everything that follows

• Presence versus productivity and why many fathers feel torn between the two

• How modern culture influences the roles of men and women in the home

• The consequences of homes without present fathers and the boys who grow up without guidance

• The difference between providing financially and showing up emotionally

• The rise of identity confusion in young men and why capability still matters

• How the pursuit of wealth can fracture family connection

• Why rural life, nature, and quiet reflection shape our guest’s worldview

• What he believes it means to be a good man in today’s world

• Why strong families remain the foundation of a flourishing society

Stay connected:

• Kevin Hohe | LinkedIn

And let us know what you think with our feedback form.

Produced by Pineapple Audio Production.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.