Human School

How do you help an anxious child build real confidence instead of just managing their fear?
What if the very thing keeping your kid unsafe is how hard you're working to protect them?
 
Sissy Goff and David Thomas are two of the most trusted voices in child and adolescent mental health today, counselors at Daystar Counseling Ministries and hosts of the popular Raising Boys and Girls podcast. With more than three decades combined sitting across from kids and their families, they've become go-to resources for parents navigating anxiety, emotional development, and resilience in childhood. Their new New York Times Bestselling book, Capable, just carried them through a national press tour, including a stop on the Today Show, and for good reason: it takes on one of the most urgent questions facing parents right now.
 
In this conversation, Sissy, David, and Miles unpack why so many kids today aren't just anxious; they're increasingly unwilling to try, and what parents can actually do to build resilience instead of just managing symptoms. They talk through the difference between attunement and over-protection, why "trust your gut" might be the most important piece of parenting advice out there, and how to set healthy boundaries around technology and social media without shutting your kids out of the world they're growing up in. It's a grounded, hopeful conversation about childhood anxiety, parenting under pressure, and what it actually takes to raise capable, confident kids in an overwhelmed world.
 
Your kids are watching you more closely than they're listening to you. Onsite's Living Centered Program is a place for parents ready to do their own work, so the patterns they pass down are worth passing on. Learn more at experienceonsite.com.
 
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For more resources and tools from Sissy Goff & David Thomas, visit raisingboysandgirls.com or follow along on Instagram @raisingboysandgirls.
 
In this conversation, you'll learn:
How to Tell Attunement From Rescuing Your Kid
How to Read the Emergency Behind Their Anxiety
How to Stop Outsourcing Instincts to Strangers Online
How to Decide When They Get a Phone or Social Account
How to Turn a Hard No Into a Creative Yes
How to Use "Trust the Process" in Their Hardest Stretch
How to Spot a Problem They Should Solve Themselves
How to Rebuild Your Resilience Before Teaching It
How to Hold Grief and Purpose at the Same Time
How to Give Your Kids a Front-Row Seat to Your Growth
How to Raise a Capable Kid Without Raising an Anxious One
How to Pick Two Parenting Voices You Actually Trust
 
What We Discuss:
00:00:00 – Meet Sissy Goff and David Thomas
00:04:21 – Over-Correction: the Field's New Blind Spot
00:05:35 – Catching Up & Life After the Capable Press Tour
00:08:31 – The Soap Opera Character & Camp Job that Shaped Careers
00:14:02 – A Working 32-Year Partnership
00:17:09 – Sissy’s Dog Who Came to Work & Comforted Teen's Tears
00:20:20 – Sammy, Onsite’s Beagle Who Escorted Every New Guest
00:30:15 – Backstage at the Today Show
00:36:58 – What This Work Taught Them About Being Human
00:41:55 – A National State of Emergency Hiding in Plain Sight
00:49:32 – Escape and Avoidance Feel Like Good Parenting
00:53:29 – What Attunement Actually Looks Like
00:59:25 – “Go in the Strength You Already Have”
01:03:22 – What's Really Underneath a Lack of Confidence
01:10:56 – Trust the Process, Even in Their Hardest Stretch
01:18:25 – Is my child ready for technology?
01:26:18 – Doing Your Own Work Is the Greatest Gift to Your Kids
01:27:16 – A Look Inside Daystar Counseling Ministries

What's the real difference between showing up for someone and rescuing them?
Can a single pair of socks undo years of not letting yourself feel anything?

Bobby Bones went from a campus radio station in Arkansas to the National Radio Hall of Fame, two #1 New York Times bestsellers, and a syndicated morning show heard by millions, turning his own story into a reason other people feel less alone in theirs. He sits down with Miles Adcox eight weeks into fatherhood, in a season that's forced him to slow down after two decades of never having to.

Bobby opens up about being raised by a 16-year-old motherwho struggled with addiction his whole childhood, the trailer he bought her the first time he made real money, and the hard lesson in what enabling actually looks like when you love someone who's sick. He reveals the moment a stranger's kindness at a therapy intensive at Onsite finally broke him open, and shares the four-letter word his mother never said but it’s the one his grandmother said so consistently it became the only safety he knew. Miles and Bobby go deep into being triggered by both praise and criticism, why Bobby only checks hiscomments on Tuesdays, and the grief of having a daughter who'll never meet the grandmother who shaped him most.
 
In this conversation, you'll learn:
How to Turn Your Own Insecurities Into a Bridge for Someone Else's
How to Tell the Difference Between Supporting Someone in Addiction and Enabling Them
How to Stay Consistent With Someone Even When It Feels Like Nothing Is Changing
How to Recognize When Both Praise and Criticism Are Actuallya Threat
How to Build Boundaries So Social Media Doesn't Run YourNervous System
How to Respond Instead of React When You Feel Challenged
How to Find Safety in a Relationship After a ChildhoodWithout It
How to Let a Stranger's Small Act of Kindness Actually Land
How to Talk to Your Kids About the Parts of Your Story ThatStill Hurt
How to Know You Were Consistent Enough, Even When Nothing Else Felt Certain
 
Feeling stuck in patterns you can't quite name? Onsite'sLiving Centered Program is built for people ready to slow down and do the deeper work that creates real change. Learn more at experienceonsite.com.

Follow Human School:
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Instagram - @humanschoolofficial
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What We Discuss:
00:00:00 – Meet Bobby Bones
00:03:47 – Why every performer is secretly insecure
00:05:09 – The secret to connecting with people in interviews
00:15:47 – Finding the line between public and private life
00:17:56 – Getting rejected to 2 Bestsellers
00:22:32 – Bobby’s Mom: 16 years old, no support, and anaddiction that never let go
00:31:57 – What to say to someone who is supporting an addict
00:38:06 – "I wish our baby could meet my mom"
00:39:33 – The four-letter word his grandma never stoppedsaying
00:47:11 – Why compliments feel like threats to him
00:50:29 – The boundaries that keep him from spiraling online
00:53:35 – Property and therapy: the two best investments he'smade
00:58:27 – His Onsite story he's never told quite like this
01:07:03 – The TEDx talk that flopped & the one that gothim back on stage
01:11:06 – What watching his wife become a mom taught himabout love
01:13:43 – His message to his daughter, twenty years from now

Have you ever lived a dream so fully that you felt the quiettug to walk away?  Not because it failed you, but because something new was calling.
What does it look like to anchor your identity in somethingthat can never be taken from you, even when everything you've built your life around closes a chapter?
 
Reece Weaver spent her entire third season as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader (DCC) carrying a decision nobody outside her closest circle knew about yet. The preacher's granddaughter from Jacksonville, Florida who started dancing at three, earned a scholarship to the University of Alabama —where she also met her husband Will — and felt something shift in her chest the moment she walked into AT&T Stadium as a sophomore. In the years to follow she has become the most-followed DCC in the franchise's history, a breakout presence on Netflix's America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,and then spent a year in therapy, prayer, and conversation with people she trusts, processing a feeling of “what’s next?” she couldn't explain and couldn't ignore.
In this conversation, Miles Adcox and Reece gets to the story underneath her retirement announcement. Reece opens up about the mental and emotional toll that the spotlight created long before the headlines caught up. She talks about the comparison trap that quietly became perfectionism, not being able to ignore people’s opinions and critiques on social media, her mom's reminder that "if that crown ever gets too tight, we can easily take it off," and why the word "retirement" still doesn't sit right with her. Miles and Reece also get to explore the joy of this next season and what is to come: a book, new hometown, being a cheerleader to her friends, and open hands for more opportunities.
 
In this conversation, you'll learn:
How to Know When a Dream Is Finished vs. When You Are
How to Separate Your Identity from the Thing You're Best At
How to Let "Two Things Can Be True" Change YourNext Decision
How to Carry Perfectionism Without Being Carried By It
How to Survive Being Watched Without Being Defined By It
How to Hear the Tug Before It Becomes a Roar
How to Find Community That Tells You the Truth
How to Serve Something Bigger Than Your Own Highlight Reel
How to Take a Leap of Faith Into a Blank Canvas
How to Turn a Page Without Calling It Quitting
 
The conversations we have on Human School are shaped by thework happening every day at Onsite. Stuck in the same emotional patterns? Onsite's Living Centered Program helps you slow down, go deeper, and do the inner work that changes things. Learn more at experienceonsite.com.
 
Follow Human School:
YouTube - Human School Podcast
Instagram - @humanschoolofficial
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TikTok - @humanschoolofficial
 
What We Discuss:
00:00:00 – Meet Reece Weaver
00:04:10 – Jacksonville, Florida & the Preacher's Granddaughter
00:09:39 – "I Was a Sponge" — How It All Started at Three
00:22:33 – Dance as an Expressive Therapy
00:24:34 – When Dance Becomes Your Whole Identity
00:27:44 – Who defines your identity?
00:32:42 – What Belonging Really Means
00:33:46 – One Song, Two Auditions, & Dreams She Didn't Know Yet
00:37:22 – Running Out on Bryant-Denny for the First Time
00:39:32 – Learning to Fail Well
00:42:21 – Where Perfectionism Really Comes From
00:50:18 – How Cutthroat Is It Inside the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders?
00:55:37 – Reminder from Mom: "If That Crown Ever Gets Too Tight"
00:59:17 – What to Tell a Young Girl in the Comparison Trap
01:02:18 – America’s Team: The Dallas Cowboys
01:06:52 – The Cotton Bowl Moment That Changed Everything
01:09:47 – The Mental Weight Nobody Talks About
01:17:05 – What’s next for Reece?
01:19:59 – Moving Onto the Next Phase of Life – Goodbye DCC
01:23:17 – Why She Refuses the Word "Retirement"
01:26:47 – What the Tears are Saying

Have you ever fought the hardest battle of your life and then not known what to do once it was over?
What if the story you thought defined you was actually the prologue to something even bigger?
 
Clea Shearer is co-founder of The Home Edit — the brand, the Netflix show, the New York Times bestselling books. But the Clea in this conversation has spent four years navigating a cancer journey her own doctors call a medical anomaly. From her diagnosis to a double mastectomy, followed by many emergency surgeries, she has faced complications most people never encounter. And she's done it all publicly, because she made a promise in Paris the day after her diagnosis: she was going to make her cancer purposeful.
 
Miles and Clea go into all sides of facing a cancer treatment, especially the ones no one mentions. She opens up about the depression that hit after ringing the bell, being medically induced into menopause, losing her breast for the third time, and the first real fight she and her husband, John, had in 21 years. But she also shares how making her suffering public became the thing that saved her, why she considers cancer one of the great honors of her life, and what she's learned about building community and finding purpose on the other side.
 
In this conversation, you'll learn:
How to find purpose in the middle of the worst thing that's ever happened to you
How the “ring the bell” moment can become its own kind of rock bottom
How illness fatigue affects even the most loving support systems
How to receive help without guilt or resistance
How sharing your story publicly can become the thing that heals you
How to tell the difference between relief and healing and why you need both
How to rebuild meaning when you don't know what you were fighting for anymore
How the community becomes your greatest medicine when nothing else works
How to find the honor inside the hardest thing you've never asked for
How to keep going when you don't know if there's another side
 
Whether you're navigating grief, burnout, or a quiet sensethat something feels off, Onsite’s Living Centered experience gives you the tools, the community, and the space to change. Learn more at experienceonsite.com.
 
Follow Human School:
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Instagram - @humanschoolofficial
Threads - @humanschoolofficial
TikTok - @humanschoolofficial
 
What We Discuss:
00:00:00 – Meet Clea Shearer
00:03:31 – Hot Flashes & Getting Drop-Kicked Into Menopause
00:06:23 – Diagnosis Day: March 8, 2022
00:07:45 – What Happens After Active Treatment Ends
00:13:35 – The Medical Anomaly Nobody Wants to Be
00:17:52 – The Dark Month No One Saw Coming
00:21:05 – Eight Surgeries and a Year of Reconstruction
00:26:47 – Losing Her Breast for the Third Time
00:29:28 – The Undertow Nobody Else Could See
00:34:25 – The First Real Fight in 21 Years of Marriage
00:38:28 – 2026: The Year of the Fire Horse
00:42:48 – Presence Over Words: Horse Therapy
00:49:30 – The Two Things the Human Brain Fears Most
00:50:06 – Champagne, a Kindle, and Unconventional Coping
00:52:02 – Why She's Never Really Done Therapy
00:54:02 – Inner-Circle Friendship: Sitting Like a Chicken on an Egg
00:56:14 – Community Is the Most Powerful Antidote
01:00:30 – The Moment in Paris That Changed Everything
01:04:46 – Why Cancer Became the Honor of Her Lifetime
01:06:04 – A taste of what they didn’t get to

What does it actually look like to rebuild from the insideout — before the world even knows you needed to?
What happens to a person when tragedy arrives not as a slowunraveling, but all at once — and the only thing left standing is who you actually are?
What does it look like to grieve something you can't talkabout, for a family you can't reach, while the world keeps watching?
 
Country singer-songwriter Conner Smith landed his firstpublishing deal on Music Row at 16 years old. By 21, he was opening for his heroes. By 24, he'd gone independent, walked away from a label, and released a raw 10-song acoustic record, not because anyone told him to, but because it wasthe first music he ever actually believed in.
In this conversation, Conner opens up to Miles about themoment he stopped writing songs for approval and started writing them for himself, why going independent felt less like a career risk and more like self-respect, and the story of June 8th — the night he was involved in a fatal accident. He shares how grief, silence, and the community that showed up becamethe foundation for the most important growth of his life, what it was like to sit with the family of the woman who died, and why honoring her legacy is now woven into who he's becoming.
 
The conversations we have on Human School are shaped by the work happening every day at Onsite. For more than 45 years, Onsite has helped people slow down, get honest about their stories, and experience meaningful change through world-class therapeutic experiences. Learn more at ⁠experienceonsite.com.
 
In this conversation, you'll learn:
How to know when you're writing someone else's song with your own life
How early success can quietly steal your sense of self
How to rebuild your artistic identity from the inside out
How to tell the difference between stewardship and striving
How community carries you when you can't carry yourself
How to redefine success before the milestone redefines you
How forgiveness can be the most unexpected turning point in a tragedy
How to let suffering shape you without letting it define you
How your greatest weakness becomes your greatest strength
How to let people carry what you've spent your whole lifecarrying alone
 
Follow Human School:
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Instagram - @humanschoolofficial
Threads - @humanschoolofficial
TikTok - @humanschoolofficial
 
What We Discuss:
00:00:00 – Meet Conner Smith
00:04:49 – Growing Up Inside the Dream Before You're Ready
00:08:20 – What Thomas Rhett Taught Him About Priorities
00:10:23 – The Story behind Milestones
00:13:50 – When He Stopped Writing for Himself
00:16:06 – Songwriting & Why He Put the Record Out Anyway
00:21:41 – The First Time He Believed the Compliments
00:28:17 – Redefining Success Without Losing the Dream
00:31:34 – Stewardship vs. Striving
00:34:16 – "Industry Plant": The Song That Got Him in Trouble
00:39:22 – What Happens Before You Find Who You Are
00:41:26 – What He Told a 14-Year-Old About to Sign a Deal
00:47:20 – June 8th: The Night Everything Stopped
00:50:33 – The Weight No One Could Prepare Him For
00:54:46 – Getting Help Early Helped
01:01:48 – Forgiveness Around a Table with Miss Dot's Family
01:03:03 – Miss Dot & Why Her Legacy Matters
01:05:34 – How Tragedy Changed Him
01:14:00 – The 18-Year-Old Who Shared His Story
01:15:32 – Friends Who Showed Up Without Asking
01:18:09 – Transactional vs. Transformational Relationships
01:27:11 – Closing Blessing for Listeners