Our episode this week involves interviewing a Christian pastor. Our guest is an Ally and Help NSFW is 100% supportive and celebrating of all genders, sexual orientations, and gender orientations. This episode is not intended to be a plug for church. If you need to skip this episode due to religious trauma or any complicated feelings about faith, we understand and support you. Take a look at The Trevor Project for great resources on healing https://www.thetrevorproject.org

Jonny and Kendall keep running into pastors at the brewery. One of them is Ryan Busby. He’s the head pastor of a Baptist church, as well as a member of Collidescope https://www.collidescopeva.org, Danville’s local LGBTQIA network. Tune in to hear an affirming perspective living your best life.

Call to Action: Be fully alive, which means be fully yourself. Inspired by a quote from the Christian saint Irenaeus, “The glory of God is a human fully alive,” Ryan wants you to be fully, authentically, passionately yourself.

Charity to Support: House of Hope in Danville, Virginia, or your local homeless shelter. Danville’s House of Hope is currently applying for grants to expand their facilities, as they are the only homeless shelter in Southern Virginia. You may not know this: grant-funders prefer to give money to organizations that have raised their own money. Funders look at how much an organization has raised but also how many different people make donations. So your donation of even a small amount will have double impact for HoH!

Tag us with your action steps! Use the hashtag #HelpNSFW and @JonnyFairplay on Twitter and Instagram and @kayratyl on Instagram.

Success Through Authenticity

Social worker, elementary school teacher, suicide hotline operator, podcaster and Survivor Brice Izyah brings his full self to everything. From his clients to reality tv casting, Brice is a force of justice. Tune in to hear how Brice uses radical empathy and self-care to get results.

Call to Action: Take care of yourself one time this week or month with an action that is intentional and for you. Brice is going to take a bath, Jonny is going to run before a show, and Kendall is still figuring it out.

Charity to Support: The Mahogany Project, which aims to reduce social isolation, stigma, and acts of injustice in TQLGB+ Communities of Color. https://themahoganyproject.org

Tag us with your action steps! Use the hashtag #HelpNSFW and @JonnyFairplay on Twitter and Instagram and @kayratyl on Instagram.

Connect with Brice on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube @BriceIzyah and his website linktr.ee/BriceIzyah and listen to the Purple Pants Podcast each Tuesday.

Reality Show Therapy

You will not see Sarah Rice back on The Challenge because she is kicking ass as a licensed marriage and family therapist. She absolutely loves helping people honor their pasts and learn to love themselves in the present. Tune in to hear her thoughts on reality tv aftercare and what she sees from the therapist seat. 

Call to Action: GROUNDING. Find a patch of grass outside, take off your shoes, and stand in the grass for 1 minute. Just sixty seconds! You can do it!

Charity to Support: Promoting Awareness | Victim Empowerment (PAVE), a movement creating a world free from sexual violence and building communities to support survivors. https://www.shatteringthesilence.org

Connect with Sarah on social media @ImSarahRice. 

Use the hashtag #HelpNSFW and tag Jonny on Twitter and Instagram @JonnyFairplay and Kendall on Instagram @kayratyl with your action steps.

Growing up, Kelly knew that she had kidney disease. She made a decision when she was young not to let her diagnosis make her pessimistic or bitter. She lives life boldly, doing things like competing in roller derby and opposing doctors from Standford when she knew in her soul that they had misdiagnosed her son. Listen to how Kelly operates with kindness, empathy, AND boundaries. 

Call to Action: Kelly’s call is to Be Kind, without expecting something back. Paint a rock, give a compliment, or choose your own kind action! Kendall’s call is to bring up organ donation with someone close to you, and see where the conversation leads you. 

Charity to Support: Your local SPCA (type in “SPCA near me” in Google) with money, a bag of dog food, or some kitty litter. 

Use the hashtag #HelpNSFW and tag Jonny on Twitter and Instagram @JonnyFairplay and Kendall on Instagram @kayratyl with your action steps

Hope is Medicine

Omar Elkalyoubie raises money for terminally ill children and their families to experience a week of wonder at Give Kids the World Village. He talks about what it’s like to work for an organization that says “yes” first and figures out the how later. Omar doesn’t fear making big asks of reality stars to join his fundraising. Hear our chat about ways to cope with fear (and the vastly different things that Omar, Kendall and Jonny are afraid of!). 

Call to Action: Say “yes” to something, even if you don’t know how it’s going to play out. Do something you’re afraid of; if you can push yourself past the first step, great things might be waiting for you on the other side. Omar, Kendall and Jonny are rooting for you!

Charity to Support: Give Kids the World Village https://www.gktw.org! This is a top-rated charity, where approximately $.90 per dollar goes directly to children and their families. Support Jonny’s Hearts of Reality campaign at https://give.gktw.org/fundraiser/3145563, so we can get him in the top 10 of GKTW reality fundraisers. 

Follow Give Kids the World on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @gktwvillage.

Use the hashtag #HelpNSFW and tag Jonny on Twitter and Instagram @JonnyFairplay and Kendall on Instagram @kayratyl with your action steps.  

Public F*ckups

Lex van den Berghe is more than Survivor: Africa and Survivor: All-Star. The only thing this punk-rock dad loves more than being a musician is his wife and two sons. Lex has some advice from his experience as a drummer in multiple indie bands and having a son on the Autism Spectrum. Find out why it’s ok to f*ck up during a performance, why being kind is good for your career, and how to talk to someone going through a hard time.

Call to Action: Listen to a new band every day for the next week. Use SoundCloud.com and bandcamp.com if you don’t have a music service. Higher challenge: Listen to 1-2 indie bands specifically. Lower challenge: Listen to 1 new band total this week. Start with Lex’s band The Maids of Honor https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor and his son River’s band Pardoner https://pardoner.bandcamp.com!

Charity: Your local SPCA or Humane Society. Give money and/or donate some food, towels, blankets, and crates to local animal shelter. Higher challenge: Adopt a rescue animal.

Connect with Lex on Instagram @WaitingForZombies, on Twitter @LexvandenBerghe, Lex van den Berghe on Facebook. Listen to The Maids on Honor on SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor. Listen to Pardoner on bandcamp https://pardoner.bandcamp.com.

Use the hashtag #HelpNSFW and tag Jonny on Twitter and Instagram @JonnyFairplay and Kendall on Instagram @kayratyl with your action steps.  

Mental Health Crisis with Sonja Wieck

18x Ironman and Amazon's World's Toughest Race Eco-Challenge Fiji competition Sonja Wieck always knew that her life purpose had something to do with adventure. Hear how her “empty bowl moment” made her reevaluate success and how a total emotional breakdown led her to become a mental health warrior. Sonja has learned how to listen to her body, set boundaries, and choose what criticism to disregard, and she wants that for you too!

Call to Action: Write down seven people you can call when you’re not feeling mentally or emotionally well. If you don’t have anyone on your list, reach out to Sonja on Instagram @GoSonja

Charity: The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) https://www.nami.org/. Support them and use them for support. 

Connect with Sonja on Instagram @GoSonja and on her website https://gosonja.com/. Subscribe to her podcast Tales of Toughness on Apple, Spotify, and Google or at https://gosonja.com/podcast

Use the hashtag #HelpNSFW and tag Jonny on Twitter and Instagram @JonnyFairplay and Kendall on Instagram @kayratyl with your action steps.

How can thinking ten seconds at a time help you achieve greatness? MUT (Mountain Ultra Trail) runner and Amazon's World's Toughest Race competitor Coree Woltering is an incredibly positive person who looks amazing in a speedo. Hear about how Coree competed with Team Onyx, the first ever all-Black team in the Eco Challenge, and why he wants to see more LGBTQ individuals and People Of Color involved in outdoor sports, and how he shaved five hours off of a trail run. 

Plus find out the origins of the infamous speedo. 

Call to Action: Exercise for 30 minutes, any way and any level

Charity to Support: Charity: The Trevor Project https://www.thetrevorproject.org. Make a $5 donation to support LGBTQ youth and look them up if you or someone in your life needs support. 

Follow Coree on Instagram @coreewoltery and follow his adventures with his husband #CornfieldCowboys

Use the hashtag #HelpNSFW and tag Jonny on Twitter and Instagram @JonnyFairplay and Kendall on Instagram @kayratyl with your action steps.