What are your kids learning from what you do, not just what you tell them?

Chris Avery believes becoming a dad shouldn’t mean shelving your dreams. It should mean learning how to pursue meaningful things alongside your family and letting your kids see the struggle, failure, repair, and growth that come with it.

👨‍👧 Why kids need to see their dads fail, apologize, and try again
🗣️ Helping your kids develop a voice without pretending Dad is always right
🤝 Reframing conflict from you vs. me to us vs. the problem
🧠 Practicing difficult conversations before the next one happens
🎯 Why fewer priorities can actually produce more progress
💪 Building trust with yourself by doing what you said you’d do
🏃 How one mile a day eventually became a plan to run 50K every day for a year
📈 Why progress often comes from doing something ordinary just a little longer
❤️ Making room for one-on-one time with your kids
🔥 Why doing hard things can change how you see yourself

Chris’s approach is refreshingly unglamorous: start small enough that you actually believe you can do it, extend the timeline, and keep showing up.

Chris is a husband, father, coach, and endurance athlete. Beginning January 1, 2027, he plans to run 31.1 miles per day for 365 consecutive days, tracing the perimeter of the United States while traveling with his family.

• Chris Runs America: chrisrunsamerica.com
• Instagram, Chris Runs America: @chrisrunsamerica
• Instagram, Coaching: @chrisaverycoaching

Twenty years after high school, Paul and Andrew finally went back.

What they expected to be a fun reunion became something deeper: a reminder of how powerful old friendships can be, how shared experiences can bond people for decades, and how important it is to actively build community instead of waiting for it to magically appear.

Because apparently adult male friendship does not maintain itself through telepathy.

In this episode:
🤝 Reconnecting after 20 years
🔥 Fireside conversations that went beyond surface-level catching up
🏕️ Golf, hiking, camping, road trips, and questionable sleeping-bag wildlife
👨‍👩‍👧 Why the reunion felt more like an immediate-family gathering
💪 Finding men who challenge you to become better
🌱 Why meaningful community has to be intentionally built
🎙️ What’s next for Why, Dad? and why we’re taking a short break

The biggest takeaway: if you want deeper relationships and stronger community, you probably have to participate in building them.

And stick around to the end for an update on the future of the podcast. Why, Dad? isn’t going anywhere, but when it returns, the format, cadence, and depth are going to look a little different.

Paul and Andrew are heading back to New Hampshire for their 20-year high school reunion, which means it’s time to crack open a fairly unusual chapter of their past.

In this duosode, they talk about growing up together at an intensely structured all-boys Catholic boarding school, the brotherhood that developed there, and why many of those relationships still hold up two decades later.

They discuss:

🏕️ Going back for their 20-year reunion
🤝 Why shared experiences can create lifelong friendships
🧠 The strange fear of reverting to your teenage self around old friends
⏰ Life inside an extremely structured boarding school
😂 Some truly dumb teenage-boy stories
🏠 Finding belonging after growing up homeschooled
💪 The good and bad lessons they carried into adulthood
👨‍👧‍👦 How your past influences you without having to define you

Ultimately, it’s a conversation about community, friendship, growth, and being grateful for the people who helped shape you along the way.

Editor’s note: This episode was recorded before our 20-year reunion, which has since taken place.