The Speakeasy
Merry (belated) Christmas and welcome to “dead week”—that weird, quiet stretch between Christmas and New Year when nobody knows what day it is… and honestly, it’s kind of wonderful. This is the final Friday of the year, which means we’re wrapping up the Ending Well series—seven weeks of looking back at 2025, redeeming the hard parts, and hunting down the goodness God planted along the way. Today’s episode is where everything comes together. Not as separate lessons—hearing God, going a different way, pruning, embracing the ordinary, releasing usefulness, becoming the wife and...
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Every year of my life, my dad Earl has read the classic book the Cajun Night Before Christmas. I'm thrilled this year to bring it to the podcast so that it can not only live forever for myself and my family, but so that the culture we love can live on as well. Gather up your kids for a quick reading of my favorite Christmas book! Sponsor: PreBorn A free ultrasound can double a woman’s chance of choosing life. PreBorn provides ultrasounds and ongoing support for moms in crisis. 💛 $28 sponsors one ultrasound. Give at preborn.com/speakeasy and help save a life.
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As the year comes to a close and Christmas draws near, this episode is an invitation to slow down and rethink what actually makes a year meaningful. If you’re ending the year feeling like you didn’t do enough, didn’t accomplish enough, or didn’t have any big, flashy “banner moments,” this conversation is for you. What if the ordinary years—the quiet, unseen, seemingly mundane ones—are actually where God does His deepest and most transformative work? In this episode, Blake reflects on a lifetime of big dreams, ambition, and achievement, and how this year gently (and...
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As we hit the halfway point of December, this episode is a deep breath and a reset. In a season that pushes hustle, consumption, and constant motion, this conversation invites us to slow down and reclaim awe, wonder, and expectancy—especially as we approach Christmas. Hannah Brencher joins the Speak Easy Podcast to talk about Advent, rhythms, mental health, and what it looks like to resist hurry in a world that rewards burnout. Together, we explore why slowing down can feel so uncomfortable, how noise steals our awareness of God’s presence, and how intentional practices—stillness,...
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Ending Well: A Pruning Deep Dive This is week six of the Ending Well series, and we’re talking about something a lot of us are living through in real time: pruning—the cutting away, the stripping back, and the strange mercy of God doing holy surgery on our lives at the end of a hard year. “Every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” – John 15:2 ⏱ Episode Timestamps 00:00 – Intro + Why open enrollment and health insurance feel like a bad rite of passage 03:00 – CrowdHealth: what it is, how it works, and why it’s different from insurance...
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In this episode we look back at how it started (a guest room closet + $20 mic + TV tray) and how God has grown us, our marriage, and this show over seven years—from fear and hustle to rest and trust. We talk about money, messy action, viral moments, criticism, love languages, parenting, and what “success” actually looks like for our family now. “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” – 2 Timothy 1:7 ⏱ Episode Timestamps (Approximate – for your listening convenience) 00:00 – Welcome + 7 years of podcasting & 37th birthday 03:10 –...
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Welcome back to the Ending Well series. This is week five of looking back over the year, letting God redeem the hard parts, and choosing who we want to become as we step into a new season. Today’s episode is all about marriage — but even more specifically, the kind of wife you want to be. Not the Instagram version. Not the performance version. The real, healed, whole version. This year, God radically reshaped how I see myself as a wife. I didn’t set out to “become a better wife,” but as He broke my addiction to productivity and constant performance, it transformed our marriage into...
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December is here, Advent is upon us, and while the world is speeding up, this conversation is an invitation to slow down, breathe deep, and remember that anxiety does not magically clock out for the holidays. In this episode, we talk with Ruth about what it looks like to set the tone for the month of Advent with intention, slowness, and a heart that is more focused on Jesus than on performance, expectations, or a perfectly curated Christmas. Episode Overview So often, December becomes a pressure cooker: Packed calendars Parties and performances Family expectations Untended...
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Week four of the Ending Well series lands right at the halfway mark. This episode is a look back over a three-year road (starting in 2022) of how God helped me fight inflammation, feel like myself again, and regain my “glow.” This is not a weight-loss talk, not a quick-fix list, and not medical advice. It’s a redemption story about healing from the inside out — spiritually, emotionally, and physically. “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” — 3 John 1:2 Key Themes Redemption doesn’t just cover salvation; it keeps...
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The day before Thanksgiving, we hit pause together for a short “FaceTime-style” heart-to-heart. Whether you’re bracing for tricky family dynamics or you’re the holiday superfan, this mini-episode gives you a simple, grace-filled plan to enter the day grounded, intentional, and at peace—without pretending or performing. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” — Proverbs 3:5–6 What We Talk About Two honest camps we tend to fall into for Thanksgiving (dreaded...
info_outlineIn this episode we look back at how it started (a guest room closet + $20 mic + TV tray) and how God has grown us, our marriage, and this show over seven years—from fear and hustle to rest and trust. We talk about money, messy action, viral moments, criticism, love languages, parenting, and what “success” actually looks like for our family now.
“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” – 2 Timothy 1:7
⏱ Episode Timestamps
(Approximate – for your listening convenience)
00:00 – Welcome + 7 years of podcasting & 37th birthday
03:10 – Starting in a tiny closet with a $20 mic + messy action over perfect action
08:45 – “Can we afford this?” Money fears, stewardship, and still saying yes
14:30 – Social media spouse vs. no-social-media spouse (and Facebook Marketplace 😅)
20:20 – When episodes go viral, national media, and how the internet has changed since 2018
27:40 – The evolution of the show: politics seasons, homeschool seasons, and letting God set the themes
35:15 – Rest, surrender, and learning not to control everything
43:30 – How fear drove our hustle, and how God shifted our hearts and rhythms
50:45 – Love languages, marriage work, and realizing “I was serving my language, not yours”
1:00:10 – Parenting together: discipline, respect, and presenting a united front
1:08:30 – Work, motherhood, and the pull to find worth in what gives you a “report card”
1:17:00 – Redefining success for our family (time, presence, and faith over just numbers)
1:24:00 – Hopes, prayers, and open-handed trust for the next season of the podcast
💡 What We Talk About in This Episode
How a tiny closet and a $20 mic turned into a 7-year podcast
Why “messy action beats perfect action” (and why you really don’t need a fancy setup)
Starting a creative ministry when you’re not being great stewards with money yet
Being married to someone who isn’t on social media (and why that’s actually a gift)
Viral episodes, national media features, and why going viral isn’t always fun
How the internet has gotten harsher since 2018—and what that does to your heart
Letting God quietly shape “seasons” of the show without over-planning content
The connection between control and fear—and how that showed up in work, marriage, and motherhood
Moving from hustle fueled by fear to work fueled by trust and rest
Love languages: why ours clashed, how we humbled ourselves, and what changed
Parenting as a team: not correcting each other in front of the kids, and choosing your “hills to die on”
The tension between mission, work, and home… and how God re-ordered priorities
Redefining success: not just financial, but spiritual, relational, and emotional health
Living with open hands: having no big “launch” on the horizon and trusting God with the next step
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11:28
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📖 A Thread Through the Episode
So much of this conversation comes back to:
Moving from fear → trust
From control → surrender
From hustle → rest
From self-worth in performance → identity in Christ
We’ve watched God gently re-order our priorities:
Our marriage
Our parenting
Our work
This podcast
And honestly? We wouldn’t have believed this is where He’d take us when we were just two exhausted parents in a tiny closet with a TV tray and a cheap mic.
💬 Let’s Chat
As you listen, consider:
Where are you operating out of fear instead of trust?
Where might control actually be the “polished face” of fear in your life?
What would it look like for you to work from rest rather than striving?
How would you define “success” if you let Jesus hold the pen?
Drop a comment: What’s one area where you want to invite God to re-write the story this year?