Voices of OKC

Some students are carrying pain they do not yet have words for.

They may not know if they are angry, sad, scared, overwhelmed, or simply tired. They just know something feels off. And too often, the adults around them rush to correct behavior before they understand what is underneath it.

In this episode of Voices of OKC, Jed Chappell sits down with Jordan Miller and Stuart Bennett from Generation Why, a mental health advocacy team serving students through school assemblies, creative arts, mentorship, media, internships, and purpose-driven programming.

Generation Why speaks in schools about mental health, anti-bullying, and suicide prevention. But what makes their work powerful is not only the message. It is the way they deliver it.

They use rap, spoken word, dance, live painting, DJing, photography, videography, and storytelling to create an environment where heavy conversations can become a little easier to enter.

Jordan shares why vulnerability is central to the work. Stuart talks about the importance of asking better questions and giving students time to answer. Together, they describe what it means to meet young people where they are, help them name what they are feeling, and show them that there are more options than the obstacles in front of them.

This conversation is about mental health.
It is about purpose.
It is about mentorship.
And it is about the kind of adults young people need in the room.

Not perfect adults.
Present adults.

In This Episode

Jed, Jordan, and Stuart talk about:

• Generation Why’s mission and school-based work
• Mental Health Awareness Month
• Anti-bullying and suicide prevention
• Why creative arts help open up hard conversations
• The power of asking students “why” and waiting for the answer
• Healthy vulnerability in mentorship
• The WHY Lead program at John Marshall
• How people can volunteer, sponsor schools, pray, give, and share the work
• Why students need mentors who help them see more options for their future

Links Mentioned

Generation Why:
https://www.pursueyourwhy.org/

Donate to Generation Why:
https://www.pursueyourwhy.org/

Generation Why Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/gnwy.co/

Generation Why Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/gnwy.co/

Generation Why YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@GNWYCO

Generation Why Podcast / Mental Health Breakthroughs for Young Adults & Families:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mental-health-breakthroughs-for-young-adults-families/id1653016005

Urban Bridge:
https://www.urbanbridge.org/

Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County:
https://www.bgcokc.org/

John Marshall High School / OKCPS:
https://www.okcps.org/

Chicken N Pickle OKC:
https://chickennpickle.com/oklahoma-city/

City Center:
https://okcitycenter.org

About Voices of OKC

Voices of OKC is a podcast from City Center featuring thoughtful conversations with people helping shape Oklahoma City through leadership, service, creativity, restoration, and hope.

Learn more about City Center:
https://okcitycenter.org

Some people feel behind before they have even had a fair chance to begin.

Behind in their career. Behind financially. Behind relationally. Behind the version of life they thought they were supposed to have by now.

Carey Conley hears that often from young adults. And in this episode of VOICES of OKC, she talks with Jed Chappell about why vision matters so deeply in that season of life.

Carey is an author, speaker, and vision leader who helps people create a clear written vision for their lives. Her story also carries deep grief. After losing both her husband and son to suicide, Carey chose to build her life around purpose, hope, and helping others find direction through pain.

This conversation moves through grief, mentorship, mental health, young adults, negative self-talk, and the courage it takes to start. Carey shares how a mentor helped her realize she could create a life with intention, and why she now wants young adults to understand that their life can carry purpose even when the path is unclear.

For City Center, this conversation matters because so much of our work with students is about helping young people see beyond the pressure of the moment. They need more than instruction. They need vision. They need mentors. They need safe places where someone can help them see what is already inside them.

Key themes in this episode:

• Why many young adults feel like they are already behind
• The role of written vision in grief, purpose, and healing
• How negative self-talk can shape a person’s future
• Why mentorship matters at every age
• How to take the first step before everything feels clear
• Why every person’s life deserves vision
• What gives Carey hope right now

Guest: Carey Conley
Website: https://www.careyconley.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carey.conley/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/careyconleyinc/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carey.conley.3
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2QiVK5LIIA0CeneDEeAcsw
Carey’s Podcast: https://www.careyconley.com/podcast

Free eBook mentioned in this episode:
Vision is Victory
https://bit.ly/VisionisVictory

Additional resource from Carey Conley:
Keep Looking Up: Transforming Grief into Hope After Tragedy
https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Looking-Up-Transforming-Tragedy/dp/0996699929/

Watch and follow VOICES of OKC:
Podcast Website: https://www.voicesofokc.com
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@voicesofokc
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voices-of-okc/id1847725322
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3nUpFLOsHGVtrN8tZz6nlM
Podbean: https://voicesofokc.podbean.com

Learn more about City Center:
https://okcitycenter.org

Content note: This episode includes discussion of suicide, grief, and mental health. If you or someone you love is in crisis in the U.S., call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

What does peace look like before it becomes a headline?

Sometimes it looks like a phone call before a fight turns into a shooting.
Sometimes it looks like a trusted person sitting down with two families.
Sometimes it looks like fixing an air conditioner because the heat in a house is adding fuel to somebody’s grief.

In this episode of Voices of OKC, Jed Chappell sits down with Jabee Williams — artist, Emmy Award winner, entrepreneur, and community advocate — for a conversation about Oklahoma City, violence, art, proximity, and hope.

Jabee shares about growing up on Oklahoma City’s Eastside, losing people he loved to violence, and the responsibility he feels to show young people that their world can be bigger than the block, the neighborhood, or the cycle they inherited.

He also talks about two major pieces of his work:

Live Free Oklahoma, a community violence intervention effort working to reduce gun violence and build safer communities across Oklahoma.

With Love OKC, an art initiative helping young people tell their stories through murals, creative expression, and public art.

This conversation is about more than programs.
It is about presence.

It is about why the people closest to the pain often carry the clearest wisdom.
It is about what Oklahoma City can become when social development matters as much as economic development.
And it is about why hope is not a soft idea. Sometimes hope is the very thing that keeps someone from giving up on their city.

In This Episode

Jed and Jabee talk about:

• Growing up on Oklahoma City’s Eastside
• The reality of violence and incarceration in families and neighborhoods
• Why credible messengers matter
• What community violence intervention actually looks like
• The role of art, murals, and storytelling in healing
• Why development must include the people most affected by it
• The future Jabee still hopes to see in Oklahoma City

Links Mentioned

Jabee Williams:
https://www.mynameisjabee.com/

Jabee on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/mynameisjabee/

Live Free Oklahoma:
https://livefreeoklahoma.com/

Live Free Oklahoma on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/livefreeoklahoma/

With Love OKC:
https://www.withloveokc.org/

With Love OKC on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/withloveokc/

Juneteenth on the East:
https://www.withloveokc.org/juneteenth

STAAR Foundation:
https://www.staarfoundation.org/

Urban Bridge:
https://www.urbanbridge.org/

Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County:
https://www.bgcokc.org/

Millwood Public Schools:
https://www.millwoodps.org/

Oklahoma City Public Schools — Emerson South:
https://emersonsouth.okcps.org/

City Center:
https://okcitycenter.org

About Voices of OKC

Voices of OKC is a podcast from City Center featuring thoughtful conversations with people helping shape Oklahoma City through leadership, service, creativity, restoration, and hope.

Learn more about City Center:
https://okcitycenter.org

Some conversations are really about more than the topic on the surface. This is one of them.

In this episode of Voices of OKC, Adam Coury joins the conversation to talk about AI, but what emerges is really a deeper reflection on discernment, responsibility, and leadership. As technology moves faster into daily life, work, and education, the question is no longer whether it matters. The question is whether people are willing to understand it before it begins shaping them.

Adam speaks honestly about the danger of avoidance. He argues that AI should be treated as a tool, not a voice to follow, and that the people who refuse to engage with it may leave the next generation to carry consequences they did not choose. This conversation matters because it pushes past fear and novelty and asks something more grounded: how do we remain fully human while learning to live wisely in a changing world?

Bryan Fetzer has spent years around elite performance, but this conversation is not really about sports. It is about people. About what pressure reveals, what success can conceal, and how leadership often fails when it becomes too focused on outcomes and not enough on transformation.

In this episode, Bryan reflects on his own evolution as a coach and leader. He talks honestly about the tendency to become transactional, the importance of filtering out noise, and the responsibility leaders carry when the people around them are struggling in ways they cannot always see. The conversation moves from athletics into business, schools, churches, and everyday life, with a simple but weighty reminder: no one becomes their best self alone.

For Oklahoma City, that kind of conversation matters. Because strong communities are not built by talent alone. They are built by leaders with perspective, humility, and the courage to care about what is happening beneath the surface.

There are careers, and then there are callings.

For over five decades, Dr. David Kallenberger lived a life defined by both. As an OB-GYN and fertility specialist, he helped deliver more than 22,000 babies, walking alongside families in their most hopeful and most fragile moments.

But what stands out most is not the number.
It’s the posture.

A quiet humility.
A deep belief that no life is more important than another.
And a conviction that medicine is not just science — it is deeply human work.

In this conversation, we reflect on the evolution of fertility care, the emotional reality of helping families who thought hope was gone, and the growing tension between technology and personal connection in modern healthcare.

We also hear one of the most unexpected stories ever shared on this podcast — a moment that captures both the risk and the resolve of a doctor willing to do whatever it takes to care well.

This episode is a reminder:
The people who shape a city are often the ones you never see.

And sometimes, their work lives on for generations.

🔗 https://voicesofokc.org

There is a certain kind of exhaustion that runs deeper than being tired. It is the frustration of knowing something feels off in your body while also feeling like no one is slowing down long enough to help you figure out why.

In this episode of Voices of OKC, Jed Chappell sits down with Tiffany Richey, founder of Richey Wellness, for a thoughtful conversation about functional medicine and the deeper work of helping people move toward health. Tiffany shares her story from growing up in Edmond, to working as an ICU nurse, to eventually launching her own practice in Oklahoma City.

Together, they explore what it means to look beyond the quick fix. The conversation touches on blood pressure, gut health, hormones, thyroid issues, inflammation, sexual health, discipline, mindset, and the emotional relief that comes when a patient finally feels seen and understood. Tiffany makes the case that healing is often not about chasing symptoms, but about learning how the body works and making changes that actually address the source.

More than anything, this episode is about empowerment. It is about helping people reclaim a sense of agency over their health and realize that better habits can ripple into every part of life, from confidence to relationships to leadership. In a city that needs strong, healthy, grounded people, this conversation feels both practical and deeply human.

What happens when a state begins to rethink justice, not just as punishment, but as restoration, accountability, and public safety working together?

In this episode of Voices of OKC, Jed Chappell sits down with Tricia Everest, Oklahoma's Secretary of Public Safety, for a deeply human conversation about leadership, reform, trauma, forgiveness, and the future of Oklahoma.

Tricia shares how personal loss shaped the urgency with which she now lives and leads. She reflects on the systems Oklahoma inherited, the changes now underway, and why real reform requires more than bureaucracy. It requires people with vision, courage, and a deep belief that lives can change.

Together, Jed and Tricia explore the tension and connection between justice and redemption. They talk candidly about incarceration, rehabilitation, victim impact, officer wellness, intergenerational harm, and the need to build systems that do more than warehouse pain.

The conversation also highlights something often missed in public dialogue: healing is needed not only for those who offend or those directly harmed, but also for the many people who stand in the middle of tragedy every day, including law enforcement, judges, first responders, and even camera operators documenting a crisis.

This episode is ultimately about Oklahoma. About what kind of state it can become. And about the leaders, neighborhoods, and organizations quietly helping shape that future right now.

Learn more at voicesofokc.org