Navigating a Broken Vessel

Dave Harris opens up about his personal journey of faith, mental health, and the defining moments that shaped his testimony. From childhood encounters with tragedy to navigating scrupulosity and returning home early from his LDS mission, Dave shares an honest reflection on why he continues to believe, even when life is far from a fairytale.

Key Topics in This Episode:

• Life-Shaping Experiences: Reflections on witnessing tragedy as...

What do a kindergarten Mother’s Day craft and a 300-pound studio riser have in common? Both taught host Dave Harris a hard-hitting lesson about overconfidence.In this candid episode of Navigating a Broken Vessel, Dave reflects on a recent, painful biceps tendon rupture, and the security footage that captured it, to unpack why we so easily overestimate our own abilities. From DIY disasters to creator culture on YouTube, Dave e...

In this powerful episode of Navigating a Broken Vessel, we sit down with Jourdyn Pitcher to share her extraordinary journey of faith, resilience, and survival.

Diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at just 14 years old, Jourdyn faced cancer not once, not twice, but three separate times throughout her teenage and young adult years. Through 64 weeks of chemotherapy, radiation, a bone marrow transplant, 100 days in hospital isola...

Are you carrying the weight of having to be perfect? In Episode 26 of Navigating a Broken Vessel, Dave Harris dives into scrupulosity, religious OCD, and the distinction between LDS culture and doctrine. Learn why we aren't expected to be flawless in this life, how grace actually works, and why pre-sin guilt only fuels anxiety.

Disclaimer: I am not a mental health professional, and this should not be taken as any kind of medical adv...

Host Dave Harris sits down with guest Kimberly Villalta to broach a topic as vital as it is heavy: surviving severe marital trauma, navigating systemic abuse, and finding the ultimate path back to light.

Kimberly opens up with incredible vulnerability about her 15-year marriage, mapping out the slow, subtle shift from emotional manipulation to severe domestic and sexual abuse. She shares the harrowing reality of recognizing the dang...

Dave Harris takes us on a nostalgic trip down tech memory lane—from the era of pagers and "dumb phones" to the dawn of the smartphone. While the iPhone felt like absolute heaven when it first arrived, Dave poses a heavy question we all secretly ponder: Has the smartphone secretly destroyed our lives?

Frustrated with the constant pull of the digital world, Dave decided to fight back using the very weapon that trapped him. He lo...

Dave Harris sits down with a very special guest—his daughter, Jaycee.

Jaycee opens up completely about her raw, emotional, and grueling five-year journey with infertility. Diagnosed with both endometriosis and PCOS as a teenager, she candidly shares the physical pain, mental exhaustion, and unique heartache of trying to grow a family when your own body feels like a "broken vessel."

In this episode, Dave and Jaycee discuss:

 ...

Dave Harris dives deep into the complex paradox of possessing a lifelong, iron-clad work ethic while simultaneously battling the frustrating grip of procrastination and executive dysfunction.

How can someone with three Master’s degrees, a PhD, and a successful career training global teams on high-level AI and Big Data still struggle with the motivation to start new projects? Dave gets candid about his own experiences with neur...

Host Dave Harris sits down with his cousin-in-law, Kim Delis, for an intimate and vulnerable conversation about navigating profound grief, unexpected tragedy, and the evolution of faith.

In December 2002, just days before Christmas, Kim’s world was completely upended when a sudden car accident during a Utah snowstorm claimed the lives of four of her immediate family members—her mother, her father, and her two younger bro...

In this episode of Navigating a Broken Vessel, host Dave Harris steps away from childhood reflections to give an honest, "here and now" look into his current daily life, personal struggles, and the unique frameworks he uses to manage them.

Dave opens up about his busy dual callings within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—serving as a Stake Technology Specialist and as a Service Missionary alongside his wife at t...

In this episode of Navigating a Broken Vessel, host Dave Harris sits down with Eric Dyches to discuss a topic that is too often shrouded in silence: postpartum depression, anxiety, and maternal mental health.

Eric opens up about his late wife, Emily, who developed severe postpartum anxiety and depression following the traumatic birth of their fifth child. He candidly shares the confusion of navigating her diagnosis, the heartbreakin...

Dave sits down with his lifelong friend of 35 years, Rowdy Reeve, a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CMHC). Rowdy shares his fascinating career pivot from law enforcement and owning an indoor shooting range to dedicating his life to community mental health and suicide prevention.

Together, they dive into the complex realities of mental health, unpacking what it really means to find a way out when life feels entirely overwh...

In this highly requested episode of Navigating a Broken Vessel, host Dave Harris is joined by his absolute favorite guest—his wife, co-adventurer, and the show's producer, Shelly Harris!

Instead of our usual deep-dive interviews, Dave and Shelly are pulling back the curtain to answer listener-submitted questions. Together, they open up about the raw, day-to-day realities of managing mental health, neurodivergence, and relation...

Dave welcomes back Kody, a nurse practitioner with over six years of experience, to dive deep into the world of ketamine infusions and their role in modern mental health.

This conversation explores ketamine’s transformative shift into the mental health space over the last ten years. Kody breaks down the science behind sub-anesthetic dosing, explaining how it targets NMDA receptors and glutamate to help the brain form new neura...

Dave Harris sits down with Lennon Jones, a licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in OCD and anxiety, to tackle one of the most confusing intersections of mental health and religion: Scrupulosity.

Have you ever found yourself paralyzed, wondering if a thought was a prompting from the Spirit or just an intrusive, obsessive doubt? This conversation dives deep into how Religious OCD manifests as an extreme intolerance of u...

Host Dave Harris shares a major personal breakthrough that has been a week in the making. What started as a return to therapy to tackle a food addiction turned into a life-altering revelation about how his brain actually works.

Dave leans into his expertise in Artificial Intelligence to navigate this new territory, using AI to bridge the gap between a professional observation and a deeply personal understanding of neurodivergence.

In...

What happens to a marriage when the foundational beliefs of one spouse begin to shift?

Following our conversation with Tifani Holt, we sit down with her husband, Kody Holt, to hear the other side of the story. In this episode of Navigating a Broken Vessel, host Dave Harris explores the emotional and spiritual journey of a husband navigating his wife’s faith crisis within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Kody op...

Dave Harris sits down with Tifani Holt for an intimate look at her deeply personal journey through a faith crisis.

Growing up in a strict religious household in Southern Utah, Tifani eventually found herself at a crossroads, questioning the very foundations of her beliefs. She shares the raw reality of going down the rabbit hole, the social isolation that followed, and the strain it placed on her marriage and family life.

Tifani&rsqu...

Dave Harris takes us back to 1995 to explore a peculiar personal challenge: the "wall" between public confidence and private connection.

Dave recounts a trip from Logan, Utah, to an extended family reunion—the "Butt Reunion"—in Idaho. Despite driving two hours to get there and seeing his parents' car in the driveway, Dave found himself unable to walk into the backyard. Confronted by the prospect of one-on-one interaction...