The Shift: A Podcast With Ben Brown

In this episode, I sit down with Dane to talk about what it actually looks like to change your life.Not just saying you want to be different… but doing the work to become different.Dane shares his journey through sobriety and what he’s learned about replacing old patterns with something better. We talk about the idea that you can’t just remove the things that aren’t serving you, you have to give yourself something new to step into. Something that challenges you. Something that excites you. Something that pulls you forward.We get into the tools that helped him along the way. Meditation. Journaling. Therapy. Faith. And the role that community and honest conversations play in real transformation.There’s no perfect formula here. Just a real conversation about what it means to take responsibility for your life and choose something better, one day at a time.If you’ve ever felt stuck, or there’s a part of you that keeps pulling you back into old habits, this one will hit.

Do you have a difficult relationship with a parent? In this deeply personal episode of The Shift, I share my journey with my father—how his struggles with mental health and multiple suicide attempts shaped my life. I realized that a lot of my acting out through sex, substances, and risk was a way to cope with a pain I couldn’t fully name at the time.But this episode isn’t just about me; it’s about you, too. I invite you to reflect on whether you’re holding on to resentment toward a parent and how that weight might be affecting your career, relationships, and sense of freedom. I share what I’ve learned: recovery is not about recovering a father or a mother, but about recovering yourself. Join me as we take small steps toward letting go, forgiving, and choosing a freer life on your own terms.I want to be clear: this episode is not about blaming my father. He was, and still is, dealing with his own pain, his own struggles, and I believe he’s always been doing his best. This episode is about acknowledging what was hard and working my way through it. It’s about choosing, one day at a time, to let go of resentment, so I can be free. 

In this deeply moving episode, I sit down with my dear friend Hal Strickland, a grateful 67-year-old from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, whose gratitude and spiritual wisdom have helped shaped my life. Hal, a profoundly optimistic man, shares his insights on forgiveness, faith, and the transformative power of letting go of resentment. There’s no single topic here—just a heartfelt conversation that will leave you reflecting on your own life and what it means to forgive, love, and be truly present.

In this episode, I talk about a time when I used to watch porn regularly as a way to check out. Then something changed. Right after finishing, I had to turn it off right away.Then I saw a guy on Instagram who had meditated for 83 days straight, and something about that inspired me. I never thought about meditation before, but suddenly I was doing it. As I practiced, I noticed how often I got physically itchy and wanted to scratch. That made me realize that watching porn was simply a desire to “scratch an itch” (avoid discomfort).Meditation began teaching me how to sit with the discomfort, that it wouldn’t kill me. Then a wave of change started. I wanted to hike, do yoga, even listen to classical music! I needed new outer experiences to match the inner calm I was cultivating. Each small step led me to another shift and a whole new way of living.Face it. Shift. Grow. Repeat. 

What are you really thirsty for? In this episode, I sat down with Alex Qin, writer and director of “Thirsty Girl”, a film about a female sex addict. Alex was haunted by her own childhood. She was scared of her mom and yearned for her dad. So, as a child, she dreamed about other men coming to save her. But once she started drinking, she got the courage to start turning these fantasies into reality. Man after man, sexual encounter after sexual encounter, she searched for love but never got what she was really looking for. She kept searching - more men, more sex, she spiraled deeper into addiction… until she hit her bottom. It was at that point that she decided to enter recovery and face it all head-on. In this vulnerable conversation, Alex takes us from the brink of self-destruction through her journey of getting sober - her slips along the way, and what it took to find lasting sobriety. As she brings her film, ‘Thirsty Girl,’ to life, we witness a woman who dared to face the hole she was trying to fill and came out WAY stronger. 

In this episode, I ask you a vital question: whose limits are you living by? I share a moment in a spin class when I pushed past what I thought was my max—and it made me question every limit I’d ever set. I reflect on growing up with ADHD, feeling othered, and molding a persona for external validation. Now, seven years sober, I’m unlearning those patterns—and I invite you to do the same. It’s not just about breaking old habits; it’s about surrounding yourself with safe, supportive people who are a part of the fertile soil you need to grow into the truest version of yourself.

In this first episode of The Shift, we confront the brutal truth: our addiction isn’t the real problem—it’s the fear we refuse to face. You’re not simply battling a habit; you’re running from your fears. And when that escape turns painful, you have a choice: keep running or face it all head-on.You can stop the cycle by entering into a relationship with yourself in a whole new way—and finally become the person you were always meant to be.Together we…Face it. Shift. Grow. Repeat.