Shut Up & Love Your Neighbor is a podcast about choosing connection in a noisy world. We talk about real life, laugh more than we planned, sip a little brown water, and try to love our neighbors by listening first.
Anatomy of a Neighbor — Daniel Zajic (Anatomy of a Drink)
Daniel Zajic lives two lives: by day he’s a college anatomy professor, and the rest of the time he’s “Anatomy of a Drink” — one of our favorite cocktail creators, posting a gorgeous drink nearly every day for five years. In both, he says, he’s doing the same thing: making something intimidating feel accessible. We flew to Portland, sat down in his home, and he handed us a Night Nurse (his riff on a Negroni) before telling us the unglamorous truth behind those polished videos — the race up the...
14 Oct 2026
Intentionality and a Table — Abimbola Oshodi (Something Light Supper Club)
Abimbola Oshodi came to the U.S. from Nigeria on what was supposed to be a two-and-a-half-week vacation. Twelve years later, she runs Something Light Supper Club — where 30 strangers sit down family-style and leave as people who found their people. In this episode, Abimbola breaks down exactly how she does it: the Nigerian hospitality she grew up with, the conversation cards, the compliments, the family-style serving, and the small, intentional details most people never notice. We get into wh...
7 Oct 2026
Belonging Is Not Fitting In with Brooke Ackerman
Brené Brown says belonging is being accepted for who you are, and fitting in is changing yourself to be accepted. Brooke Ackerman coaches people through the gap between the two. Brooke is a mental and emotional health coach, founder of Blueprint Heart and Mind, and a former English teacher of fourteen years. She and Dave talk about why we start performing to be liked, the self-protection cycle that keeps real connection at arm's length, and why the chaos of fitting in can feel safer than bei...
23 Sept 2026
The Dolly Chat — Remembering Dolly Parton (with Kathy Bales)
The week the world lost Dolly Parton, our feeds did something unusual — they filled up with joy. Dave sits down with his buddy Kathy Bales, lifelong Dolly fan and high school teacher, to talk about the woman who united everybody: the childhood records and the patched pants, the Dolly-isms, the generosity nobody was supposed to find out about, the faith she lived louder than she preached, and a top-three song countdown that gets emotional fast. From the Imagination Library and the Buddy Progra...
16 Sept 2026
Get Proximate: What Changes When You Notice People (with Nicole Detweiler)
Nicole Detweiler returns to the show — Season 1 favorite, co-teacher of the neighboring class she and her husband built alongside Dave and Producer Candy, and someone who literally bought her house based on who she could neighbor. This one is about a single word: proximity. Nicole and Dave dig into why physical closeness changes everything (you run out of small talk and have to go deeper), why "let me know if you need anything" isn't actually helping, and what it looks like to step in without...
9 Sept 2026
Who Is Your Neighbor? — with Brian Bales
The Surgeon General declared loneliness an epidemic — and most conversations stop at the diagnosis. Season Two opens a step earlier, with the question that got us here: Who is your neighbor? Dave sits down with Brian Bales — pastor of nearly thirty years, former law-school-bound attorney negotiator, and a leader in One Heart DC, a network of hundreds of churches across DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Also: they showed up in the same shirt. Neither planned it. In this episode: Why the loneliness e...
2 Sept 2026
Muddy Fields — Shannon Kirkpatrick
Season two opens with the friend who has been around the longest. Shannon Kirkpatrick flew in from Denver, and Dave opened a bottle of George T. Stagg he'd been guarding for seven years. They killed it. Twenty years of friendship earns you the last pour. The two of them met in 2006 over a mission trip to the West Bank — a trip Dave had privately sworn he'd never take, after an experience in the Middle East during his active duty years. He went home from the interview, opened his Bible for a...
9 Jun 2026
Shut Up Is Something You Say to Yourself
The anchor episode. Dave's friend, Shannon, came in from Denver and did the thing nobody had done on the show yet — sat Dave down and defined the whole phrase, one word at a time. Shut up isn't aimed at anyone else. It's an internal pause — quieting the filters and preconceptions before you decide whether someone's worth your time. The and makes it a "so-that." Love is a verb, not a feeling. And your neighbor is simply whoever's in your path: the coworker, the person across the street, the st...
26 May 2026
It Feels So Good to Say Yes | Jason's Story
Some friendships start with a big moment. Most of them don't. Jason and Dave met in a local Facebook group, kept a loose digital eye on each other for a while, and then Jason did something most people don't do — he offered to help. He's been behind the camera and the edits on the podcast ever since. On this episode, Dave finally turns the lens around on Jason — the guy who designs command centers for a living, travels to places most of us couldn't find on a map, and quietly lives this whole m...
12 May 2026
It Wasn't About the Breakfast | Nicole's Story
Some people throw open their door because someone is at it. Nicole has been throwing hers open for 19 years — whether anyone is at it or not. On this episode of Shut Up & Love Your Neighbor, Dave sits down with our friend Nicole — an OG of this lifestyle long before there was a name on a t-shirt. They get into hospitality, proximity, and the unglamorous work of being available to people. She also tells the story of a breakfast in a small-town Louisiana hotel that wasn't really about break...
28 Apr 2026
In a land far far away...
Pastor Ashley's road to ministry didn't run in a straight line. It ran through a music conservatory, a vocal performance program, a switch to musical theater, two-plus years auditioning in New York City, and a season of getting genuinely lost — before the call she had been hearing since childhood finally caught up with her. In Episode 6, Dave and Pastor Ashley sit down for one of the most layered conversations the show has had. They cover what it was like to grow up as the child of divorce i...
24 Mar 2026
The Power of Showing Up: Megan’s Story
Some people impact your life in big, obvious ways. Others do it quietly, consistently, and without ever asking for recognition. Megan is one of those people. In this episode, we sit down with someone we don’t know all that well—but who has already made a meaningful impact on our lives. What unfolds is a powerful conversation about family, loss, resilience, and what it really means to show up for others. Megan shares the story of her family’s journey through unimaginable challenges: losing her...
10 Mar 2026
Wedding Dance Moves and Why Adults Can’t Make Friends
What do questionable wedding dance moves have to do with the loneliness epidemic? More than you might think. In this episode of Shut Up & Love Your Neighbor, Dave sits down with longtime friend Bruce to talk about how their friendship started on a dance floor years ago in Austin, Texas… and why building real friendships as adults has somehow become so difficult. What starts as stories about magic shows, whiskey, and wedding dance floor antics slowly turns into a deeper conversation about ...
10 Mar 2026
Paris, Broken Cars, and Loving Your Neighbor
What do a broken Volkswagen in Paris, a delayed flight, and learning someone’s name have in common? More than you might think. In this episode of Shut Up & Love Your Neighbor, Dave sits down with his friend Jon Ackerman to talk about the small moments that help people feel seen in a world that often moves too fast. What starts with travel chaos and a story about push-starting a 1971 Volkswagen Beetle in Paris eventually turns into a deeper conversation about intentional kindness, authenti...
24 Feb 2026
Fat Fish & Driverless Cars
A rogue driverless Uber, a driveway chalk message, a fat goldfish, and a conversation about what it really means to love your neighbor. In this first episode of Shut Up & Love Your Neighbor, Dave reflects on everyday moments that reveal how listening and presence shape real connection. Shut Up & Love Your Neighbor is a weekly conversation about listening better, slowing down, and loving the people right in front of us. In a world that rewards volume and certainty, this podcast explore...
16 Feb 2026
Welcome to Shut Up & Love Your Neighbor (Trailer)
Welcome to Shut Up & Love Your Neighbor. This podcast started by accident — a Friday night, some time, some thoughts, and apparently some opinions. But while it began unintentionally, it’s very much on purpose now. For the last 14 years, my wife and I have been working on something simple but not easy: listening better and loving the people right in front of us. Not perfectly. Just intentionally. This show is an extension of that practice. If you’ve seen the fun cocktail videos, they’re n...
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
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