Laughing Toward Hope: Brad Bonar & The Mission of 1 Degree of Separation

I'm very excited about today's guest, and he is the founder of One Degree of Separation.

One Degree of Separation is a comedy-based suicide program that uses laughter to lower defenses, to open doors for honest conversations about depression, mental health, suicide, and so much more.

It's a form of mental health first aid.

It really, really is teaching people how to have a supportive conversation with someone who perhaps is going through some very difficult chapters in their lives and different seasons in their lives.

Today's conversation, one that matters deeply, we're talking about something that impacts families, friends communities veterans and sadly too often not spoken much except you know behind closed doors when we were very vulnerable my guest brad bonner jr has found a powerful and compassionate way to bring hope and honesty and healthy healing into a topic that's people have a hard time dealing with and talking with.

His ministry is about sharing lives, sharing stories.

My goal in today's interview and almost every episode is to encourage somebody.

So if this conversation encourages you That, to me, is all that matters.

My goal today is to approach this topic with care, to learn from Brad's journey, to offer encouragement to anyone out there listening.

If you battled or are going through anxiety, depression, loss, as well as many mental health possibilities, I pray this conversation can help you and encourage you and inspire you.

Maybe someone you know and gain the assistance that they need.

One Degree of Separation has trained audiences from middle school to the FBI.

I kid you not.

And now partnering with the DOD, the Department of Defense, with the Navy and Marines have done over 300 shows across the globe, even on aircraft carriers.

And the way I got connected with them was back in January, I actually attended a conference, a training for work.

And I'm like, had the concept of comedians and suicide training.

What? I'm so confused.

And when I went in with a negative mentality and I walked out with my eyes watering because the powerful stories these comedians tell when they get up on stage on a one-on-one basis, they're all four up there on stage sharing their testimony.

It was so, so powerful.

I reached out as I'm walking out to my car to get them on the show to hear more about their amazing ministry.