Voices for Voices®

Somebody’s lying, and a whole community is paying for it. We turn the floor over to our guest, David Solomon, who comes to Voices for Voices with a direct challenge to Lore Haven Episode 365 and a plea for what he says has been missing from the public conversation: receipts, context, and a fair hearing without threats.

We walk through David’s timeline and the claims he says are being repeated about him, including a disputed origin story from 2015, references to email exchanges, and what he describes as years of reputational damage inside the Christian writing community and...

Nearly one billion dollars in penalties. Court ordered teen protections. And one blunt question that every parent, coach, and guardian has to face: why are social platforms still making it so easy for adults to reach children directly? We dig into reporting on a New Mexico court ruling targeting Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, and we treat it like what it is to us: a public safety announcement about online child safety and youth mental health.

We walk through the key claims and the specific changes described, including deleting unverified under 13 accounts, blocking overnight and...

Your clothes don’t just reflect your body. They can shape your mood, your confidence, and the story you tell yourself when you look in the mirror. We get real about what happens when you return to the gym after years of being inactive and, only a few weeks in, shorts and shirts suddenly stop fitting. Is it muscle gain, leftover weight, or a mix of both? We walk through the uncertainty, the frustration, and the surprisingly heavy mental health impact of standing in front of a closet that no longer matches your life.

We also dig in...

Your plans are set, your mind is ready, and then you get the message: canceled. Power outage. No appointment today. We start from that exact frustration and talk honestly about the mental whiplash that comes with last-minute changes, especially when you were counting on that meeting to help you move forward.

We walk through what “adaptability” really looks like when it’s not optional: separating what you can control from what you can’t, catching the self-blame loop, and using simple coping skills to get grounded again. That includes the real emotional toll of having to reschedule for a da...

Consistency doesn’t start with a huge burst of motivation. It starts with a simple promise to yourself: get there, then do something. We share what it looks like to rebuild a gym routine after time off, why exercise can be “some of the best medicine,” and how staying in motion supports your health, mindset, and the people who count on you. If you’ve ever worried you’ll “fall off the horse” once the newness fades, you’ll relate to this one.

Then the conversation turns to choices, especially the kind kids and teens face as school activitie...

The camera makes it look simple, but the real work happens before the record button. I’m talking about the unglamorous, human side of podcasting and filming: picking a topic that matters, writing down ideas before they disappear, and finding the energy to execute when stress and anxiety are loud. If you’ve ever assumed creators “just talk,” this is a transparent look at everything you don’t see.

I also share how my background teaching at a university and speaking to groups helped me get more comfortable on camera, while still not “mastering” anxiety. Practice helps, therapy and co...

“Come as you are” is more than a lyric. It’s a blueprint for building a life and a community that doesn’t require you to clean yourself up before you’re allowed to belong. I’m Justin Alan Hayes, and I use this solo conversation to lay out what Voices for Voices stands for: real people, real struggles, and a place where you can show up in whatever season you’re in, including the messy one.

We talk about why we keep judgment low and humanity high, from the way people look at the gym to the way we tre...

Parenthood doesn’t politely fit into your old life. It takes over your calendar, rewrites your priorities, and asks you to become more patient than you thought possible. We share a real, close-to-home reflection on fatherhood, what it means to watch your child find joy, and why being present is often the most powerful kind of support, even when you are tired, imperfect, and still learning.

We also get practical about the day-to-day: kids’ activities, shifting schedules, and the constant decisions around what to try next. From sports to ballet to gymnastics and camps, we talk about choo...

The easiest way to cut through a loud rumor is to look at the record that doesn’t care who’s trending. We talk about the lawsuit tied to Voices for Voices and why a public court docket matters when people claim “we’re the ones being sued” or try to flip the roles. If you’ve ever watched an online controversy turn into certainty without proof, you’ll recognize the pattern we’re pushing back on here: repetition becomes “fact,” and reputations take the hit.

From there, we get specific about what we say is being misrepresented insid...

A single comment can travel the world in seconds, and when that comment hints at swatting or bodily harm, it stops being “internet drama” and becomes a public safety problem. We talk candidly about the line between free speech and threats, why we refuse to normalize violent talk, and what it means to act in good faith when people’s lives are being discussed like targets.

We also dig into the difference between being a bystander and being an upstander. For us, “if you see something, say something” isn’t a slogan, it’s a practical response to digital har...

A buzz cut is easy. Growing your hair out takes patience, awkward phases, and the willingness to sit with discomfort. I use that simple choice to talk about something bigger: how mental health, trauma recovery, and resilience often start with small experiments that challenge the habits we’ve built to feel safe. If you’re new to Voices for Voices, welcome. If you’ve been here a while, you’ll recognize the theme we keep coming back to: coping skills are practical, and progress is rarely perfect.

We also get real about perspective. A lost TV remote turns in...

A Christian writing community is supposed to feel like family, until it doesn’t. We sit down with author and creator David Solomon as he delivers a raw, personal statement about an ongoing dispute connected to Realm Makers and the wider Christian fantasy world. He describes public posts, harassment, and the pain of seeing his wife and kids pulled into the blast radius, while he believes other potential victims stay quiet out of fear.

We talk about what accountability should look like inside faith-based publishing, writers conferences, and online creator spaces. David challenges leaders and well-known names to...

One little checkbox can decide whether your content stays yours or becomes someone else’s raw material. We get real about creator settings like “allow embedding” and “shorts remixing,” and why those options can quietly increase the risk of content manipulation, misleading edits, and AI-driven deepfake misuse. If you publish podcasts, YouTube videos, or any digital media, this conversation is a practical guide to protecting your message without losing sight of the mission.

We walk through what these platform tools actually do, how they affect where your content can travel, and why chasing analytics can pressure us to click “...

Time can feel like it’s crawling… until you look up and the day is gone. We sit down and talk about that strange pressure we all live with, the way fast days and slow days can mess with your head, and the one constant we can’t negotiate: time doesn’t stand still. So what do we do with that reality? We choose what matters and we keep moving, even if it’s one small step at a time.

We also get personal about mental health and the tools that help us stay here: having a support te...

A 12-month contract. A promise that sounded easy. Twelve thousand dollars spent and the trademark still not filed. That’s where Justin Alan Hayes goes when he talks about how fast good intentions can turn into a painful lesson, especially when you’re building a nonprofit or mission-driven brand without a big team behind you.

We start with something almost everyone knows: Mondays can feel heavy. Justin shares the real-life push and pull of sleep, routines, errands, and the mental math of priorities when the week starts. From there, the conversation widens into the heart of Voices for...

A power outage can kill a recording. A grounded flight can wreck an interview. A quick nap can turn into the perfect excuse to skip the gym. So what do you do when life interrupts your plans and you cannot fix it? We talk through the real answer: you adapt, you stay steady, and you keep moving without pretending it feels easy.

We share a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to keep a long-running podcast consistent, from editing and writing titles to publishing across platforms, and why “simple” rarely means “effortless.” We also dig into mindset, purpose...

I didn’t expect a peanut butter scented dog toy to become a life lesson, but one wrong step left me with a bleeding toe and a bruise that made leg day feel questionable. That small moment kicked off a bigger reflection on consistency, setbacks, and the kind of resilience that doesn’t look heroic from the outside. If you’ve ever had your routine derailed by something dumb and random, you’ll feel this one.

At the gym, a stranger told me I’m the first person he’s ever seen use the arm bike. It sounds like...

A packed convention center, sold-out hotels, nonstop foot traffic, and a city buzzing with fans can also create the perfect cover for exploitation. We sit down with San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan to talk about how human traffickers use major events like Comic-Con to increase profit, move victims across city lines, and hide in plain sight. Her message is blunt and urgent: human beings are not for sale, and big crowds do not mean predators get a free pass.

We get into the real mechanics of prevention and prosecution, including why Stephan chose to communicate...

Failure doesn’t usually arrive as a clean lesson. Sometimes it shows up as a pile of broken pieces, a stalled plan, a project that didn’t land, or a goal that suddenly feels out of reach. Justin Alan Hayes gets real about that moment and asks the question most people avoid: when it falls apart, do we keep going or do we quit because quitting feels easier?

We dig into a story Justin shares about Elon Musk and early SpaceX setbacks, not to debate personality or politics, but to spotlight the principle behind the photo: perseverance plus...

A billion people can watch the same performance and still walk away with completely different feelings. That’s why the FIFA World Cup final halftime show fascinated me, especially the moment Justin Bieber stepped into a stadium-sized event and chose the opposite of “bigger.” No army of dancers. No wall of sound. Just a headset mic, an acoustic guitar, and a song title that instantly raises the stakes: “Everything Hallelujah.”

We talk through what that choice signals on a global broadcast where most artists lean on spectacle. I break down why “hallelujah” carries weight beyond pop branding, using a plain...

“Get help” is easy advice to give and painfully hard advice to take. We get real about what help can mean in a mental health crisis, from repeated ER visits to the moment you’re offered a choice: walk out the door or step into inpatient psychiatric care and let professionals guide the next moves.

We break down the difference between voluntary admission and being “pink slipped” (involuntary admission), and why that distinction changes everything from your rights to your mindset. We also talk honestly about medication in the hospital setting, including the harsh scenario that makes recovery t...

One good workout can lift your mood, but what happens when life gets loud again? We get real about what it’s like to rebuild consistency at 44, finding motivation without a lifting partner, and using positive voices to stay focused when you’d rather skip the gym. We also start with the world around us: wildfire smoke, heat, and air quality, because wellness is never just mental, it’s physical and environmental too.

From there, we unpack a core mental health recovery truth: exercise can help, but it can’t be the only thing holding you up. We talk...

Smoke from Canadian wildfires drifts into the United States, the air turns hazy, and suddenly even a quick walk with the dog feels like a risk. We start there because it’s real life, and real life has a way of piling on. From safety and air quality to the way stress lands in the body, we talk about protecting yourself, protecting your pets, and taking the day seriously when the environment is telling you to slow down.

Then the conversation turns personal, and heavy. We share what it’s like to lose a family friend and show...

Fog outside the window can be unsettling, but the heavier haze is the kind you can’t always see: the mental load we carry when we’re tired, overwhelmed, or trying to rebuild after a hard season. I start by sharing a quick safety note about wildfire smoke in the air, then move into something surprisingly hopeful a simple conversation at the gym that reminded me how much a little kindness and practical help can change your whole day.

We talk about getting back into a workout routine without turning it into a scoreboard. I share how card...

A normal day can flip in an instant when something familiar drags you back into a past you thought was finished. We open with the power of small wins and early momentum, then move into the harder truth: trauma does not always stay filed away. When a new situation resembles an old one, your mind and body can react like it is happening all over again, and that can feel lonely, confusing, and overwhelming.

We get honest about mental health stigma and why “just get over it” is one of the most damaging things people say. Physical brui...

“How are you feeling?” sounds like a throwaway question until you answer it without hiding. We get real about the habit of saying “I’m doing great” while our stress, anxiety, and exhaustion tell a different story, and we talk through what changed for us once we started bringing honesty into therapy and everyday conversations. When we tell the truth early, we stop wasting time performing and start getting the help we actually need.

We also dig into boundaries and energy management, from taking a day off the way you’d plan recovery after the gym to noticing how...

A $20,000 inpatient stay should never be the reason someone delays mental health care, but for a lot of people it is. We get personal about what those price tags really do to decision-making in a crisis, and why the fear, stigma, and uncertainty around treatment can feel just as heavy as the symptoms themselves.

We also zoom out to the bigger mission behind Voices for Voices: doing work that feels like your calling and staying persistent when the goals are huge. I share what purpose feels like for me, why even small acts of service can steady...

Motivation is unreliable, but your next action is still yours to choose. We sit down for a candid solo conversation about discipline, work ethic, and the unglamorous reps that quietly build the life you say you want. Along the way, we keep it human: anxiety, stress, self-talk, and even the funny reality of changing something as simple as your hair and realizing people notice more than you expected.

From there, we zoom out to the real theme: nothing worth it is easy, and most wins happen before the moment that gets applause. We unpack why practice beats...

Advice is cheap until you are the one inside the storm. I get real about the gap between what we tell others to do and what it actually feels like to live through anxiety, stress, and hard decisions when you cannot simply “step away” from your own life.

We talk openly about how stress can show up in the body, how quickly people judge what they do not understand, and why mental health stigma still keeps so many of us from getting evaluated or taking prescribed medication without shame. I share what it is like to be on b...

You walk out of a therapy session and realize the one thing you wanted to say is still sitting in your chest. That moment can hit like a wave: frustration, regret, even the urge to tell yourself you “messed it up.” We get real about that feeling and why it happens, especially when therapy appointments, psychiatry visits, and mental health check-ins all come with one unchangeable limit: time.

We talk through the idea of “finishing” and why it is so hard to complete every thought when your mind is carrying dozens of experiences at once. We share how a si...

You can hear it in Lawrence C. Harris’s voice: this isn’t motivation by slogan, it’s motivation by survival. Lawrence is a 20-year-old mental health speaker and creator who got to his lowest point through a brutal mix of severe bullying, childhood abuse, and living with autism. He talks candidly about what that season looked like in real life: isolating, pushing people away, endless screen time, not sleeping, barely eating, and feeling stuck in a messy room and a louder mind. Then he walks us through what changed, starting with the smallest wins that most people never celebr...

A baseball field can feel safe right up until it doesn’t. One pitch gets away, a kid goes down, and suddenly you’re watching an ambulance, a neck brace, and a crowd trying to process what just happened. We share a real youth tournament moment that raises an uncomfortable question: how can a massive sports complex run game after game without medical staff ready to respond?

We talk through the immediate aftermath and the part people often dismiss, youth sports mental health. The injured player isn’t the only one affected. The pitcher who never meant to hur...

Watching a loved one struggle is hard enough. Watching it happen while they refuse support can feel crushing, confusing, and isolating. We talk candidly about that kind of family stress, the anxiety it creates, and the mental turbulence that can hit even when you are doing “all the right things.” Along the way, you’ll hear why simple presence matters more than perfect words, and why support is not the same thing as money or fixing someone’s life overnight.

We also get practical about mental health care: what it means to have a psychiatrist, a therapist, medicati...

You know that annoying moment when you get home and realize you forgot something simple and your brain refuses to drop it? We start with a tiny gym mistake, skipping two quick exercises, and use it to talk about a much bigger issue: how forgetfulness, decision fatigue, and self-judgment pile up in everyday life.

We walk through a grounded way to decide what to do next without overthinking it. We look at the variables that actually matter: proximity, time, cost, and whether you have the energy to make a second trip. We also talk about when it...

The hardest part of doing meaningful work isn’t starting. It’s waking up on a random day, hearing that voice in your head say “pack it in,” and choosing to keep going anyway. We’re coming off a massive heat wave, celebrating the United States’ 250th birthday, and using that milestone as a reminder that anything worth building takes time, patience, and a lot of imperfect progress.

We also zoom out beyond the US and talk about something we’ve learned through travel: pride exists everywhere, and it’s powerful to witness. Loving your home doesn’t have to shrink y...

Someone asks, “What keeps you going?” and my answer is simple: you. Your attention, your shares, and your decision to care are what turn Voices for Voices from a podcast into a living mental health and community advocacy movement. I start with a straightforward request to like, follow, subscribe, and share because the mission only works if the message travels, and we want it to reach people who need support, guidance, and clean help.

From there, I get real about discipline and momentum, starting with a hard gym session and the familiar temptation to skip it. That smal...

When Speaking Truth Becomes Illegal: A Survivor's Fight for Justice | Episode 305

When a human trafficking survivor tries to speak his truth, should a defamation lawsuit silence him? This episode pulls back the curtain on a troubling legal battle that cuts to the heart of free speech, survivor advocacy, and alleged abuse within a religious publishing network.

Justin Alan Hayes delivers a meticulous reading of the legal response filed by Voices for VoicesⓇ and trafficking survivor David Solomon against Faith and Fantasy Alliance LLC (Realm Makers). The court documents reveal shocking allegations: Solomon claims he...

Burnout rarely shows up all at once, it builds quietly when you keep “powering through” and ignore what your mind and body are asking for. We get real about the difference between true consistency and nonstop grind, and why rest days, sleep, and even a short nap can be the move that keeps you strong instead of stuck. If you’ve been pushing hard in the gym, at work, or just trying to hold life together, this one is a reminder that recovery is part of the plan.

We also dig into the heart of Voices for Voices...

One quote stopped me in my tracks: “You can’t be inconsistent with the grind. You miss one day and your competition overtakes you.” I sit with what that really means, not in a hype way, but in the lived reality of trying to build habits when you feel tired, distracted, or like nothing is working yet. If you’ve been chasing consistency in your goals, your health, or your creative work, this conversation is a reset that brings you back to the basics.

I talk through the difference between the glamorous part of success and the quiet, r...

Stress does not wait for your schedule to clear. It shows up on busy mornings, on off days, and even right after you do something good for yourself. We sit with that reality and ask a sharper question: if anxiety and stress are always going to be there, where are we choosing to spend them?

We start with the small, practical stuff that actually changes your day, like building a gym routine that fits real life. I talk about how I’m training now, why I lean toward higher reps instead of chasing max weight, and how ad...