What if the reason so many men feel stuck, isolated, or emotionally shut down isn’t because they don’t care, but because they were never taught how to talk?

In the 10th and final episode of the first season of The Full Dad Bodcast, Pete and Bryan sit down with Dr. Matt Englar-Carlson, professor, clinician, and Director of the Center for Boys and Men at California State University, Fullerton, for a real conversation about men’s mental health, modern masculinity, and the pressure dads carry in silence.

They dig into why so many men default to “I’m fine,” how shame shows up in everyday life, and what it looks like to raise boys with emotional strength instead of emotional suppression. The episode also gets practical: how to build connection with your kids, how to create space for hard conversations, and how to give boys a foundation strong enough to handle the noise coming at them from culture and the internet.

If you’re a dad trying to break cycles, a man trying to be more honest, or someone who knows you’re carrying too much alone, this one will hit home.

Follow Dr. Matt Englar-Carson here:

📸 Instagram

💼 LinkedIn

🌐Center for Boys and Men, Cal State Fullerton

🌐CSUF Faculty Experts page

*We apologize to our guest and listeners for the audio quality of this episode. We ran into unforeseen technical issues that we didn’t catch until after the recording. We considered not releasing it, but Dr. Englar-Carlson’s message and work felt too important not to share.

In this special “hosts interview each other” episode, Pete and Bryan drop the guest format and get real with each other. Pete opens up about how the podcast started as a resource for other dads, but quickly became a personal lifeline, a safe place to learn, process, and finally say the things he was holding in. Together they talk about isolation, the pressure to keep the “representative” version of yourself on display, and how fast life can spiral when you feel unseen, unheard, and alone.

They unpack emotional regulation, people pleasing, and the way many men were taught that anger is acceptable but sadness is weakness. They also explore what it looks like to raise sons who can feel, cry, and still grow into resilient men. From the power of a single phone call to the importance of community, coaches, and father figures, this episode is a reminder that taking care of yourself is part of taking care of your family.

On this episode of The Full Dad Bodcast, Pete and Bryan sit down with their friend Eugene Tawiah to talk about a kind of pressure a lot of dads quietly carry: caring for aging parents while raising kids of their own.

Eugene shares what it has really been like to walk through dementia with his mom. Middle of the night messes, hard conversations about nursing homes, power of attorney, Medicaid rules, and the feeling that the system is stacked against regular families who are just trying to do right by their parents. He also talks about the guilt, the second guessing, and how it feels when your kids see you taking care of your own mom.

From there, the conversation opens up into the world our kids are growing up in. Algorithms, social media bubbles, emotional spending, tech that makes life easier while quietly rewiring how we think. The guys wrestle with how much to protect their kids and how much to prepare them, how to stop from overcompensating for their own childhoods, and how to raise grounded humans in a culture that pushes them toward entitlement and distraction.

If you have ever felt buried under the mental load of being the man of the house, if you are caught between diapers for your kids and diapers for your parents, or if you just need to hear another father say out loud what you have been feeling in silence, this conversation is for you.

You can follow Eugene at:

Follow him on:

Instagram: @p_mant1s

TikTok: @portableadventures

Website: eugenetawiah.com