Questions people ask
Is there a podcast for a man who is functioning but hollowed out?
Yes. Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas is a faith-framed interview podcast for men who keep functioning while something inside went quiet. Host Shawn Zajas sits with one man at a time and stays long enough to see him. No advice, no diagnosis. The episode with Pastor Peter Nye, “Where Was God,” runs about 2 hours and 50 minutes. Listen at shawnzajas.com/wholehearted.
What is Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas about?
Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas is a long-form interview podcast about brokenness, restoration, and the heart of the Father. Shawn Zajas hosts it from Chandler, Arizona. One man sits across from him and tells the truth out loud, often for the first time.
The show does not run a curriculum. There are no five steps and no takeaway worksheet. Shawn states the posture directly: “I am not here to fix you. I have no advice for you. I am not a counselor and I do not want to be. What I do is sit across from a man and stay long enough to see him. Honor instead of diagnosis. Presence instead of steps.”
The working thesis of the show is two sentences long. Shame loses its grip in the open. Men come back to life in front of witnesses.
The show carries a 90+ episode published archive, though the largest part of it predates the July 20, 2026 rename and was recorded under the previous title. Across all of his shows, including The Authentic Dentist, Shawn has published 200+ episodes.
Who is this podcast for?
Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas is for the man who looks fine and knows he is not. The show names the audience without hedging:
You built something and it did not fill you. You failed in a way you have never said out loud. You sit in church performing a wholeness you do not have. You are respected by people who do not know you. You have a wife who stopped trusting you and you understand why. You are tired of being impressive and starving to be known.
You know if this is you. If a sentence in there landed, keep listening.
The show is not aimed at men in crisis looking for an emergency intervention, and it is not aimed at men looking for a productivity system. It is aimed at the functioning man with a silent heart.
Will this podcast preach at me?
No. Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas is faith-framed, and Shawn is open about why he makes it. Speaking publicly in July 2026 he said, “It’s not about the Shawn Show. That used to be the name of my podcast. I finally rebranded it because I was like, that’s not me. I wanna make the Father known.”
But the format is confession-first, not instruction-first. Shawn goes first with his own worst chapter rather than positioning himself above the guest. In the Pastor Pete episode he put it this way: “As a husband, if I’m at the center of my story... I wrote a chapter that was, like, terrible. Like, I would love to just erase it... But when I realized God being on the throne, he’s over my story... it’s easy for me to own the worst chapter of my life and be like, ‘Oh, but God can restore and redeem.’”
Shawn also does not present himself as finished. In the same season he said, “I’m kind of just starting my journey of showing up in the marketplace with this message.” Nobody on this show arrives healed.
Where do I start? What are the ways in?
There are three ways into Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas, and the first one is free and immediate.
The conversations. The podcast itself. No polish, no performance, no one arrives healed. Start with the two episodes the show puts forward as its own proof: Pastor Pete, “Where Was God,” and the Adrian episode about God.
The retreat. A small gathering of men getting their hearts back in the presence of other men.
The room. A free online community for the messy middle, running today as the Authentic Influence Collective with 102 members. The house rule is already written: Lead With Wholeness, Not Wounds. It stays free for now.
Video lives on YouTube at youtube.com/@wholeheartedwithShawnZajas.
Why is the show called Wholehearted?
Wholehearted is the first layer of a three-part progression Shawn Zajas teaches: Wholehearted, then Authentic Brilliance, then Create Remarkable. He explained the order out loud in July 2026: “But before you can create remarkable, you have to own your authentic brilliance... in order to own your authentic brilliance, if we back up, you have to come to this place of being wholehearted.”
The show sits at the bottom layer on purpose. Wholeness and restoration first, not the business-results layer on top. Wholehearted LLC is the entity, Wholehearted is the methodology root, and Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas is the show. One name across all three.
His name is in the title for a practical reason. Bare “Wholehearted” was blocked and saturated on YouTube and the podcast platforms, so his name went on the front for usability while the brand equity stayed intact. If you are trying to work out which Wholehearted you found, see what Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas is and how it differs from other shows named Wholehearted.
Is this therapy, church, or something else?
Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas is none of the three. It is a witnessed conversation.
Shawn draws the line himself: “I am not a counselor and I do not want to be.” No diagnosis is offered, no treatment plan is given, and no clinical credential is claimed. The show is not a substitute for therapy.
It is also not a service or a sermon. Nobody teaches from the front. Shawn’s framing of shame is the closest the show comes to a definition of the problem: “The definition of shame literally is wrongness of being... it shuts down your heart, because it’s very hard to have an alive heart when you fundamentally feel like there’s something flawed about you.”
The claim underneath the whole show is a single line. Nothing in you is beyond restoration. Not the thing you did. Not the thing done to you. Not the years you think you wasted.
What happens in an episode? Is it produced or raw?
Episodes of Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas run long and stay raw. The Pastor Pete episode runs about 2 hours and 50 minutes, and it was Pete’s first podcast appearance of his life.
Pete is Pastor Peter Nye of Hand of Mercy in Mesa, Arizona, and he has been Shawn’s pastor for 20 years, half of Shawn’s 40 years. The center of the episode is a stretch called The Empty Church, where Pete describes obeying God into an empty room and hitting the floor with the question, “If I couldn’t do one freaking thing right for you, why did I even live?”
That beat is the reason the episode is on the page. It is the sound of a man who did everything right and felt hollow anyway, told by the man it happened to, in his own voice, without a fix at the end.
Who is Shawn Zajas, and why trust him with this?
Shawn Zajas — host of Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas. 200+ published episodes across four shows, 300+ recorded interviews, 7 years hosting The Authentic Dentist. Chandler, Arizona.
He is not a counselor, not a therapist, and not a pastor. What he has is reps. Hundreds of long-form conversations with people telling him the truth on camera.
Most of the industry knows him for the other half of his life. His own framing: “A lot of people that know me from the dental industry know me for being a business guy... But only my closest friends know, like, oh, at the heart of Shawn, like he loves Jesus.” Wholehearted is the second half stepping forward.
He also holds a line about his own story. Speaking publicly in July 2026: “If you have the courage to write your story, you have to have the courage to own it. And there’s gonna be a day when I share some of the chapters in my story that I’m not allowed to share yet... because I haven’t fully shared that with my kids. They’re not old enough.”
More background: who Shawn Zajas is and what he does.
How is this different from a men’s retreat or men’s ministry I already tried?
Wholehearted with Shawn Zajas offers no program, no cohort curriculum, and no arrival point. If what wore you out before was performing wholeness inside a room built for men who already have it, the difference here is the entry requirement. There is none.
The community rule is the whole posture in five words: Lead With Wholeness, Not Wounds. It is written as a safe space for the messy middle, meaning the season before the testimony is clean.
The show also refuses the guru seat. Shawn puts himself in the same condition as the audience, still in process, still holding chapters he has not told. And when he invites men to record, he says it plainly: “I am looking for people, not guests.”
If you have a story to tell, the show takes them on camera. If you want to be in the room when the retreat forms, the retreat is forming now.
Does it cost anything to start?
No. The podcast is free to listen to on YouTube and podcast apps. The community, running today as the Authentic Influence Collective with 102 members, stays free for now.
The first paid offer will be the retreat, not a subscription.
