In Episode 4 of ReActivated, Michael sits down with Tempe City Councilmember Burdetta Hodge for a candid conversation about public service, personal resilience, housing, homelessness, local politics, race, gender, and the emotional cost of leadership.

From growing up through struggle to becoming the first Black woman elected to the Tempe City Council, Hodge reflects on what it means to serve a city during a time of division, scrutiny, and difficult decisions.

Michael sits down with Jewel for an honest conversation about caregiving, anticipatory grief, motherhood, and the complicated reality of moving forward after loss. As she reflects on her husband’s long health decline, the emotional toll it took on their home, and the weight of becoming a mother in the middle of it all, this episode makes space for a kind of grief people do not always understand. It is a conversation about pain, resilience, and learning how to keep living when life no longer looks the way you planned.

In Episode 2 of ReActivated, Michael gets more honest than he probably should. In “The Things I Couldn’t Outrun,” he opens up about childhood instability, identity, mental health struggles, addiction, politics, marriage, divorce, and fatherhood—and the hard truth that the parts of ourselves we refuse to face never stay contained. This is a deeply personal episode about pain, pride, accountability, and the long road toward becoming a better man. Because before we can answer the question who do we want to be? we have to be honest about who we are.