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Marriage Therapy Radio

Ep 381 Roadtrip Real Talk

Marriage Therapy Radio

MTR

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Therapy, Health & Fitness, Marriage, Relationships, Mental Health, Education

4.6 • 690 Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Zach connects with listeners Paul and Symone during a road trip break near Austin. Speaking candidly from the front seat of their car, they reflect on their blended family, the nuances of a 20-year age gap, and the emotional work of learning to love each other's children.

As Paul and Symone navigate the complexities of second marriages, they share how gardening becomes their safe zone, how compassion becomes their compass, and how front porch conversations turn into moments of healing. With honesty and warmth, they unpack what it means to stay connected—even when it’s hard—and how legacy, curiosity, and forgiveness shape their evolving partnership.

Key Takeaways

  • Gardening is their neutral ground
    Paul and Symone use time in the yard to reconnect, calm conflict, and remind each other they’re on the same team.
  • Blended families are complex and require grace
    Symone opens up about the challenges of bonding with a stepchild, while Paul reflects on the tension of balancing empathy between partners and exes.
  • Compassion builds connection
    They describe compassion as an effort to understand without assigning blame—a shared value that anchors their relationship.
  • The front porch is for growth
    One-on-one talks with Jacob, Paul’s son, often happen on the porch, where Symone finds space to show up as a gentle counselor.
  • Curiosity over certainty
    They agree that leading with curiosity—about each other, their triggers, and their kids—invites growth more than judgment ever could.

Guest Info

  • Paul
    A behavior specialist and elementary school teacher, Paul brings his social-emotional learning work into his family life.
  • Symone
    Symone is a school administrator, teacher, and mom navigating the second chapter of marriage with curiosity and intensity.


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, everybody. Welcome. And thank you for listening to this episode of Marriage Therapy Radio. My name is Zach Brittle. And I am so excited to show this episode with you today. It is our first official episode featuring listeners from Marriage Therapy Radio who wrote in and said, hey, we want to talk about our relationship. And so I'm so thankful to Simone and Paul from Texas who have a unique story. They have a

0:27.0

pretty significant age difference between the two of them. They are a blended family and I have

0:31.6

said a million times it is the hardest thing that I do, but they have a really cool perspective

0:36.7

on how they manage it. There's a

0:38.6

couple of aha moments even for me that I think you'll enjoy hearing about. Paul and Simone are in the

0:43.8

middle of the road trip. They pulled over on the side of the road, gave us the interview from their

0:47.8

car. I think you'll dig it. This is a very cool conversation. Stick around. What do you got going on in

0:53.1

the back seat there? Is that your decoys so that you can go into HIV late?

0:57.5

We're actually on a road trip headed to Louisiana.

1:02.4

Yeah.

1:02.8

So we're in around Austin right now.

1:06.2

Uh-huh.

1:06.6

Headed.

1:07.2

Well, what's in the back is my hat.

1:09.4

I put my hats on the on the headrest so that they don't get smushed. Yeah. Well, what's in the back is my hat. I put my hats on the on the headrest so that they

1:12.4

don't get smushed. Yeah. Well, this is a couple of, there's a couple of firsts for me today.

1:19.4

I've ever had a podcast from the car. So that's kind of exciting. And you live where?

1:26.5

We live in San Antonio. Okay. And you're headed to Louisiana. Yes.

1:31.2

And you pulled over near Austin to talk to me. Of course. Yep. At Summer Moon.

1:36.6

This was like a major production. Like we were in Best Buy for like two hours yesterday looking for headphones. And know she almost bought a whole podcast set right on so we could do this we're honored it's a pleasure to just for you to have us yeah it's foreign to us were like, we went into the best buy and we saw a young

2:02.0

guy and we were like, we need to do this thing where we need to put the two headphones together and we need to be able to talk at the same time and hear at the same time. And he's like, oh, you just need to, you know, you need to splitter. It's almost like second nature to all the podcasters, but not to us.

2:17.4

So what are you looking at?

...

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