American Real

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Life stories with a legacy lens.

The gist

American Real pairs Roger Brooks with authors and personal-growth voices whose stories often begin in strain and move toward meaning. Episodes favor direct questions about legacy, discipline, healing, aging, spirituality, and the practical work of changing course.

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About American Real

American Real is a long-running interview show centered on personal stories that aim beyond biography. Roger Brooks speaks with authors, mentors, parents, and advocates about the experiences that shaped their work and the legacy they want to leave. The show’s recent run is especially book-driven, using releases as doorways into family, healing, fitness, faith, and social responsibility. It can be tender. It can also be direct. One conversation with Derek and Tia Hill looks at the structure, discipline, injuries, mindset, and parental alignment behind Justice and Dax Hill reaching the NFL. Another follows Stacey McCormick through disorienting life transitions, including a strange and memorable snake infestation that becomes a metaphor for unsettled inner work. Joe Guggia’s episode turns toward childhood abuse, silence, caregiving, memory, and the process of making fiction from painful family material. Timothy Ward brings a sharper longevity register, warning against processed food habits while arguing for muscle, heart strength, and metabolic health as aging strategies. Geoffrey Holland widens the lens to courage, compassion, redemption, fossil fuels, hydrogen, food systems, plant-based eating, and cooperation over tribal self-interest. David Johnson’s episode addresses trauma, homophobia, family dysfunction, domestic violence, reconciliation, and reclaiming a story told by someone else. Earlier conversations with Steven Williams and Keith Brewer add spiritual consciousness, counseling, success coaching, Qigong, martial arts, chronic issues, vitality, and aging with independence. Across these subjects, Brooks returns to the same core interests: mission, perseverance, accountability, and what personal growth looks like after real disruption. The show is sincere rather than ironic. It gives guests room to connect pain with purpose and practical action with larger meaning. Its strongest episodes work best for listeners who want human stories with a self-improvement spine, especially when those stories include family, faith, health, and hard-won perspective.

Made for: American Real suits listeners drawn to author interviews, personal transformation, faith-adjacent reflection, family healing, and practical self-improvement. It is especially aligned with audiences who prefer earnest conversations about adversity, purpose, health, and legacy.

What sets it apart: The show blends book-centered interviews with unusually broad life territory: NFL parenting, snake-infested reinvention, trauma memoir, longevity systems, spiritual consciousness, and planetary ethics can all sit under the same legacy question. Roger Brooks keeps the frame consistent, asking what each story teaches and what it leaves behind.

In their own words

American Real TV is a self improvement talk show with a mission to raise global consciousness in hopes to inspire, empower and enlighten our listeners through the stories of our guests. The show is hosted by Roger L. Brooks and broadcast through various online channels including YouTube, Facebook, iTunes and our website. A new episode is released each Sunday!

Why you'd press play

A house full of snakes becomes your cue to rethink how you parent grown kids.

Press play if you want

  • Roger Brooks to ask the parents of two NFL players how they handled childhood injuries
  • a reason to check the sugar in that supposedly virtuous snack bar
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
legacy and missionauthor journeysfamily resilienceparenting and disciplinetrauma and forgivenesslongevity and strengthfaith and spiritual consciousnessenvironmental stewardship

Talks about

Best episodes of American Real

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Episode #260 | Derrick and Tia Hill | Flash BrothersFeb 24, 2026

A family conversation about the discipline, faith, and setbacks behind two brothers reaching the NFL.

American Real frames the Hills' story as a family foundation behind an uncommon football outcome: Derek and Tia Hill raising Justice and Dax Hill, two brothers who both reached the NFL.

Episode #258 | Staci McCormack | Where Lost is FoundDec 1, 2025

A snake-filled story opens a reflective conversation about helicopter parenting, older children, and rediscovering purpose.

American Real frames Stacey McCormick's story as a conversation about the strange middle season that can arrive when children are older, family rhythms shift, and parents are still running the same old treadmill.

Episode #257 | Joe Guggia | Blind Eye LoveNov 30, 2025

A humane conversation about inherited harm, aging parents, resilience, and breaking a painful family cycle.

American Real turns to the family wounds that can sit beneath love, control, denial, and inherited trauma, giving Joe Gugia space to discuss Blind-Eyed Love, his multi-generational California saga based on true events.

Episode #256 | Timothy Ward | The GOAT WithinNov 10, 2025

A direct conversation about aging, processed food, and the discipline behind Timothy Ward's longevity system.

The episode treats aging less as a distant concern than as a set of daily choices, beginning with Roger Brooks's contrast between growth mode and decay mode before turning to Timothy Ward's longevity philosophy.

Episode #255 | Geoffrey Holland | VirtueOct 26, 2025

American Real connects virtue with hydrogen, food systems, and responsibility toward the planet.

American Real treats virtue as a practical question: how people use power when the stakes are climate stress, inequality, media incentives, courage, compassion, and redemption.

Podcasts like American Real

Episodes

  1. 1

    Episode #260 | Derrick and Tia Hill | Flash Brothers

    Hidden gem

    Roger Brooks opens with the math of NFL scarcity, citing roughly 1 million boys in high school football and about 3.8% of draft-eligible Division I players reaching the NFL.

    Feb 24, 2026·1h 3m·4 clips
  2. 2

    Episode #259 | Charles Castleberry | The Declaration's Forgotten Liberties

    Feb 7, 2026·2h 5m
  3. 3

    Episode #258 | Staci McCormack | Where Lost is Found

    Hidden gem

    Roger Brooks interviews Staci McCormack about her book Where Lost is Found, a bestseller built from the years she spent noticing her job, her marriage, and her parenting felt off.

    Dec 1, 2025·51m·3 clips
  4. 4

    Episode #257 | Joe Guggia | Blind Eye Love

    Hidden gem

    Joe Gugia describes Blind-Eyed Love as a multi-generational California story based on true events, centered on abuse, silence, and healing.

    Nov 30, 2025·43m·2 clips
  5. 5

    Episode #256 | Timothy Ward | The GOAT Within

    Hidden gem

    Timothy Ward, author of The Goat Within and founder of LifeStrong, argues that longevity comes down to measurable targets like muscle mass, heart strength, and metabolic health.

    Nov 10, 2025·1h 5m·4 clips
  6. 6

    Episode #255 | Geoffrey Holland | Virtue

    Hidden gem

    American Real episode #255 features Geoffrey Holland, an Emmy Award-winning writer and producer, discussing Virtue, Courage, Compassion, Redemption and his long focus on nature, people, and planet.

    Oct 26, 2025·35m·2 clips
  7. 7

    Episode #253 | Joseph Moore | Cultivating Ascension

    Aug 5, 2025·55m
  8. 8

    Episode #254 | David Johnson | When All Else Fails, Blame Your Mother

    David Johnson discusses his new book 'When All Else Fails, Blame Your Mother,' a response to his mother's one-sided account of his coming out as gay, exploring trauma, family dysfunction, and reclaiming one's story.

    Aug 5, 2025·51m
  9. 9

    Episode #252 | Cam Stewart | Live To Die

    Jul 18, 2025·49m
  10. 10

    Episode #251 | Derrick Chevalier | Evolve or Be Slaughtered

    May 28, 2025·44m
  11. 11

    Episode #250 | Jose Gonzalez | 90 Miles 2.0

    May 28, 2025·40m
  12. 12

    Episode #249 | Paul Gulbin | The AI Alchemist

    Mar 7, 2025·47m
  13. 13

    Episode #248 | Rick Applewhite | Blue Ringed Octopus

    Mar 6, 2025·42m
  14. 14

    Episode #247 | G. Russell Gaynor | The Forge: Shadow Guardians

    Jan 16, 2025·42m
  15. 15

    Episode #246 | Dennis J. Henson | Real Impact

    Jan 16, 2025·52m
  16. 16

    Episode #245 | Dr. Andrew Scarpati | Hypnotize Yourself

    Jan 16, 2025·51m
  17. 17

    Episode #244 | Azzie Robinson | A Soldier Wife Lives On

    Oct 25, 2024·28m
  18. 18

    Episode #243 | Dr. F. K. Taiwo | Making an Impact

    Oct 6, 2024·46m
  19. 19

    Episode #241 | Andrea Cruz | Prayer Is My Weapon, Strategy, and Victory

    Oct 5, 2024·42m
  20. 20

    Episode #242 | David Vass, Part 2 | Liar, Alleged

    Oct 5, 2024·37m
  21. 21

    Episode #240 | John Kinney | Closer Than Blood

    Sep 30, 2024·42m
  22. 22

    Episode #239 | Dr. Emilio Justo | The Power of Pause

    Jun 24, 2024·53m
  23. 23

    Episode #238 | Dr. George Ceremuga | My 50-Day Pentecost in the Holy Land

    Jun 24, 2024·39m
  24. 24

    Episode #236 | Bob Bradley | Beneath the Same Sky

    May 5, 2024·38m
  25. 25

    Episode #237 | David O'Neill | Forged in Hellfire

    May 5, 2024·46m
  26. 26

    Episode #235 | Michal Regunberg | Crossing the Line

    Mar 26, 2024·34m
  27. 27

    Episode #234 | Juan Diaz | Little Bits of Blue

    Mar 26, 2024·44m
  28. 28

    Episode #233 | Denis Beauséjour | The Biggest Idea Ever

    Mar 3, 2024·59m
  29. 29

    Episode #231 | Marcella Stepp Rodarte | The Hand of Fate

    Feb 29, 2024·38m
  30. 30

    Episode #232 | Steven Williams | How to Create Your Desires of the Heart

    Roger Brooks interviews Stephen Williams about his book 'How to Create Your Desires of the Heart in this Divine New Era of Divine Consciousness' and the writing process.

    Feb 29, 2024·1h 2m
  31. 31

    Episode #230 | Dan Diedriech | Meet Katy the Caterfly

    Feb 27, 2024·31m
  32. 32

    Episode #229 | MonaLisa Coburn | Connecting to The Source

    Nov 23, 2023·57m
  33. 33

    Episode #228 | Melody Dunn | The Christmas Tree

    Nov 19, 2023·32m
  34. 34

    Episode #227 | David Vass | Words and The Woke

    Nov 12, 2023·1h 15m
  35. 35

    Episode #226 | Joe Sweeney | Deepening Connections

    Nov 12, 2023·56m
  36. 36

    Episode #225 | Emma Yohros McDannold | Embracing Vulnerability

    Aug 12, 2023·40m
  37. 37

    Episode #224 | Dr. Amin Sanaia | Exploring Leadership

    Jul 4, 2023·55m
  38. 38

    Episode #219 | Marti Konstant | The Power to Transform

    Jun 21, 2023·50m
  39. 39

    Episode #222 | Steven Machat | Endlessly Curious

    Jun 21, 2023·56m
  40. 40

    Episode #221 | Mike Brouse | The Power of Reverse Mortgage

    Jun 21, 2023·56m
  41. 41

    Episode #220 | John Ramstead | Conquering The Gap

    Jun 21, 2023·56m
  42. 42

    Episode #223 | Alex Griffin | Making Magic

    Jun 21, 2023·48m
  43. 43

    Episode # 218 | Roger Brooks on London Real (2017)

    Nov 15, 2022·31m
  44. 44

    Episode #217 | A New Beginning

    Oct 30, 2022·33m
  45. 45

    Episode #216 | Keith Brewer | The Monk Without The Funk

    Keith Brewer shares his childhood story of being told he would be in a wheelchair by age 13 and how he defied that prognosis through Qigong and martial arts.

    Oct 30, 2022·48m
  46. 46

    Episode #215 | Valeria Inoscencio | Reaching Your Goals Faster

    Oct 29, 2022·42m
  47. 47

    Episode #214 | Dan Brue | Understanding Consciousness

    Oct 28, 2022·56m
  48. 48

    Episode #213 | Ebony Allard | Learning Resilience

    Ebony Allard discusses learning resilience and how to handle life's challenges without taking them personally.

    Oct 27, 2022·47m
  49. 49

    Episode #212 | Nader Mowalee | Self-Awareness and Self-Acceptance

    Nader Mowalee discusses the interplay between self-awareness and self-acceptance, emphasizing the ideal of having both.

    Oct 26, 2022·1h 17m
  50. 50

    Episode #211 | Christopher Hummel | Dreaming Big

    Oct 25, 2022·34m