Yet the messages slowly trickled in from those who love someone fighting what feels like an isolated and impossible battle. This week’s conversation with my incredible wife is for you. In it, we discuss what has changed over the last three years in recovery. We talk about the difficulties of the descent, the fear, frustration, and agony of living in a chaotic and insane cycle week in and week out for years on end.

But we also talk about hope and perseverance. Not everyone’s story will follow our own trajectory, but just as there is power in one addict speaking with another, there is power in loved ones of addicts coming together to share their trials, struggles, and revelations.

Subscribe now

Alyssa’s bravery, loyalty, and perseverance cannot be overstated. We hope this helps you in your journey.

Reference: Chapter 8: To Wives

Share

Follow the podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, or YouTube. While you’re there, please leave a rating or a comment. These small actions have major impacts on a podcast such as More Than Capable.

Keep showing up.

Kyle Layne

Jacob shares the story of his son Levi’s birth, including the silence that came over the delivery room and the unforgettable moment his wife held their newborn son and declared, “You’re perfect.” From there, we talk about the fears many parents face after a Down syndrome diagnosis: fear of the unknown, fear of whether their child will be accepted, fear of how to lead a family through a new vision for their future.

But this conversation is not only about diagnosis.

It is about what happens after.

Jacob eventually founded Dads of Down Syndrome, a growing community created to give fathers a place to be honest, encouraged, and connected. What started with a small group of dads sitting together has grown into something much larger: a movement built around presence, compassion, and the belief that these men are among “the luckiest men in the world.”

This episode is about special needs parenting, marriage, community, honest conversation among men, and the quiet power of simply showing up.

Share

Jacob is an incredible man, and I’m grateful he was willing to share his story here.

Keep showing up,

Kyle Layne Zibrowski

Follow the podcast on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube. While you’re there, please leave a rating or a comment. These small actions have major impacts on a podcast such as More Than Capable.

Subscribe now

This one felt worth breaking that rhythm.

Chris Burns was winning Emmys, working on 77 episodes of Duck Dynasty and built relationships with the likes of Robert Downey Jr.—he had built a career at the highest level of television.

And at the same time, Chris was losing control of his own life.

We sat down to talk through what it actually looked like to live in that tension:

• Success on the outside, collapse underneath

• Addiction as a solution—and what it was solving

• The moment his body gave out

• Facing death and waiting for a transplant

• What it takes to rebuild after surviving a brush with death

There are conversations that are informative. And then there are conversations that are honest.

This is the latter.

If you’re interested in following the podcast, you can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Keep showing up,

Kyle Layne

In this conversation, I take time with Luke Thorkildsen of Weatherby to talk through the long, often uncomfortable process of building a life rooted in faith, family, and responsibility.

Subscribe now

We get into the reality of marriage—not the version people like to present, but the one that requires ownership, humility, and a willingness to work when things get difficult. Luke shares what it looked like to move from trying to fix others to taking responsibility for himself, and how that shift changed everything.

We also talk about rejection, career uncertainty, and what it means to build something meaningful without a clear path forward.

This conversation isn’t about quick answers. It’s about the slow, daily work of becoming someone who can actually carry the life they say they want.

If you’re trying to build something that lasts, this one is worth your time.

Share

There are moments in life that split everything into a before and after.

For Kenny White, that moment came in an instant. A fall. A broken neck. A life that, by all accounts, should have ended the way it had been going.

But it didn’t.

Instead, it forced a level of clarity most people spend a lifetime avoiding.

What followed wasn’t just physical recovery — it was a complete reconstruction of identity. From addiction and chaos… to faith, family, and purpose.

This conversation explores:

• The slow drift into alcoholism (and why it never feels sudden)

• The psychological toll of trauma and recovery

• A moment of clarity that changed everything

• What it actually means to take radical ownership of your life

• And how rebuilding begins when there’s nothing left to hide behind

This isn’t a story about motivation.

It’s about what happens when you’re forced to face the truth — and choose something different.

Keep showing up,

Kyle

He was 25 years old. Healthy. Three months away from his wedding day.

The memory of what happened next never came back.

What followed instead were fragments — stories told by others, moments pieced together by family, doctors, and strangers who stepped forward when it mattered most. CPR in the middle of a race. An AED. A medically induced coma. A long and uncertain path back.

But survival was only the beginning of the story.

In this conversation, Tyler reflects on what it means to wake up after a moment that nearly took your life. We talk about identity, marriage under pressure, faith in moments of uncertainty, and how experiences like this reshape the way we understand purpose.

Tyler now leads Living Proof Leadership and recently released his book More Than a Conqueror, where he reflects more deeply on the lessons that emerged from that day.

This conversation is about survival, but more than that, it’s about the question many people face after adversity:

What do you do with the life you’ve been given?

In this conversation, I sit down with Morgan Hampel — former Navy Nuclear Surface Warfare Officer and real estate operator — to talk about the pivots that shape a life.

We cover military leadership, risk, missed signals, and the responsibility we carry for the people around us.

Morgan shares:

• What it was like growing up as the grandson of a Holocaust survivor

• The military leader who forced him to raise his standard

• The conversation he wishes he handled differently

• Why saying “sorry” isn’t always enough

• Raising $1M in 90 days on his first deal

• The discipline required to build momentum

• The upward spiral: sleep, health, testosterone, ownership

This conversation is about responsibility.

Responsibility to your legacy.
Responsibility to your friends.
Responsibility to your own potential.

The cost of inaction isn’t abstract. It’s personal.

They accept their upbringing.
They accept their environment.
They accept the quiet belief that this is just how it is.

In this conversation, Grant Hankins and I talk about what it looks like to challenge that belief — not through motivation or slogans, but through discipline, identity, and daily choices.

Grant’s story isn’t about escaping hardship.
It’s about refusing to let hardship make decisions for him.

We talk about:

• How environment shapes us — and how it doesn’t have to define us

• Discipline as a way to build confidence, not punishment

• The cost of people-pleasing and peacekeeping

• Identity after sports, career shifts, and major life changes

• Why comparison quietly sabotages growth

• Choosing the harder path when the easier one feels inevitable

If you’ve felt stuck — not dramatically, but subtly — this conversation is an invitation to examine where you may have stopped challenging the story you’re living inside.

Subscribe to More Than Capable for weekly conversations and essays on discipline, identity, and growth.

Subscribe now

👉 morethancapable.life

We talk about grief, addiction recovery, emotional suppression, and why “trauma” is often misunderstood—not as an identity, but as a set of adaptations we learned to survive.

Midway through the conversation, Julian guides me through a somatic exercise after he notices I’m still holding emotion while speaking about my daughter. What unfolds is a moment of presence, connection, and relief that I didn’t expect.

This isn’t a conversation about fixing yourself.
It’s about recovering what’s already inside you.