How did a twenty-two-year-old from Spanish Fork, Utah, with no experience in Buddhism or meditation, end up walking across the country with Buddhist monks?

And what was happening inside him while millions of people watched from a distance?

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In Part One of this special interview on the Greater Peace Podcast, Amy and Ryan sit down with Jesse—the young man many people came to recognize walking behind the monks during the historic Walk for Peace from Texas to Washington, D.C.

For the first time, Jesse shares the deeply personal story behind his unexpected journey. After years of struggling with what he describes as darkness, he sold nearly everything he owned, left Utah, and set out alone in search of answers. When changing his surroundings failed to change what was happening within him, his search for inner peace led him to the Hương Đạo Temple in Fort Worth—and to an invitation that would alter the course of his life.

Together, they explore:

• Why Jesse left his home, possessions, family, and familiar life behind
• His attempt to replace internal suffering with physical challenges and uncertainty
• What happened when leaving Utah failed to quiet the darkness in his mind
• Why a Buddhist nun warned him against meditating alone in the desert
• How a fifteen-minute conversation led to an invitation to join the Walk for Peace
• The culture shock and loneliness he experienced after arriving at the temple
• What it was like to begin walking without understanding Buddhism or knowing how to meditate
• The intense physical pain and mental struggle of his first days on the road
• The moment he finally found his breath—and briefly found himself beneath the noise
• How suffering alongside the monks created a powerful bond that did not require words

Jesse speaks honestly about the difference between how the experience appeared online and what he was privately enduring. While others saw a young man participating in an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime adventure, Jesse was searching for hope, struggling to understand his own mind, and discovering that meditation would not remove his pain—but could make it bearable.

If you have ever believed that changing your circumstances would finally make you feel whole, struggled to be alone with your thoughts, or wondered whether peace is possible while darkness remains, Jesse’s story offers an honest reminder that transformation does not always arrive as a sudden cure.

Sometimes it begins with one breath, one step, and the willingness to keep going.

Listen now to Part One of Jesse’s story, then return next Wednesday as the conversation continues with the accident that changed the course of his journey.

*Subscribe to the Greater Peace Podcast for new episodes every Monday and Wednesday.*

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