This week on Dudes Without Dads, Joshua sits down with Carl Thomas — founder and executive director of Live Free Ministries and CEO of XXXchurch.com — for a straight-talking conversation about the one topic most men will never bring up in the lobby: pornography.

Joshua brings the top 5 questions men are actually asking themselves — the ones typed into search bars at 2 a.m. — and Carl answers them with the compassion of a brother who's been there and the clarity of an expert who's spent 20+ years in this fight. Carl opens up about his own recovery, the moment his hidden father wounds surfaced as full-blown panic disorder years into ministry, and why the answer isn't "just love Jesus more."

Joshua and Carl unpack the neuroscience of compulsive behavior (why "just stop it" doesn't work), why pornography is a "cure" for something deeper, the difference between white-knuckling and true agency, why shame is the fuel of addiction (not the solution), and the practical first step every man listening can take today.

In this episode:

• Why an estimated 50% of men — and 30-40% of pastors — are struggling with pornography
• The real question isn't "what is porn?" — it's "what is porn for me?"
• Dysregulation: why porn is almost never actually about sex or lust
• Attachment wounds, father wounds, and how the brain learns to "regulate" through compulsion
• The window of tolerance and why rational thinking goes offline in a craving moment
• Why "just pray harder" from the pulpit hurts more than it helps
• The Body Keeps the Score principle: remove the cure without healing the cause, and something worse takes its place
• How 60–90 days of sobriety actually rewires the brain — and what it doesn't fix
• The goal isn't the absence of temptation — it's the agency to choose
• Carl's #1 next step for any man ready to break free: get connected

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Learn more about Carl & the Rewired course:
🔗 rewired.x3pure.com
🔗 xxxchurch.com

"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." — Proverbs 27:17

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