Raising Kids In A Loud World: Screens, Spiritual Warfare & Holy Ground At Home | Stevie & Sazan Hendrix

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I've known Stevie and Sazan for years and this is the conversation I always wanted to have with them — just sitting in their home in Nashville, talking about how their life actually happened.

The origin story is genuinely one of the best I've heard. Sazan is Kurdish. Her family was clear from the beginning: you marry within the culture. She was the first of five kids to fall in love with someone outside of that, and she and Stevie dated in secret for three years through college and into their move to LA before she finally told her parents. They didn't come to the wedding. It took the birth of their daughter Valentina — and the very human comedy of the baby getting carsick in the driveway on the day the families finally met — for God to break the ice. Almost eleven years later, Sazan's family loves Stevie more than they love her. Which, she says, tracks.

What I love about this conversation is how naturally it moves between the big spiritual questions and the extremely specific ones, like whether Stevie, a reformed coffee snob, can be brought around to Dunkin'. (He cannot.) Sazan's faith origin story is one I think a lot of people will connect with — she was 21, at the end of herself, and she just prayed: God, if you're out there, show yourself to me. That night she had a dream she was in a church, hands raised, worshiping Jesus. She had no framework for what that was. She just knew it was the beginning of something. And it was.

We also spent time on the things they're working through right now: screens and kids, the role of the family dinner table, why Sazan calls herself a stay-at-home mom and then quietly says that's actually holy ground. She talks about praying over the laundry. Declaring over the next four generations. And a moment on a massage table where she started having an imaginary therapy session in her head, started crying, and realized it was the Holy Spirit meeting her exactly where she was. It's a very human conversation about what it means to show up with intention in the ordinary moments — and the Kurdish beef patties with pureed onion and parsley that somehow tie all of it together.

A few of my favorite things we cover in this episode: 

• Dating in secret for three years in college because Sazan's Kurdish family made clear: marry within the culture — and she was the first of five kids to fall in love outside of it
• Her parents didn't come to the wedding; the reconciliation came when their daughter Valentina got carsick in the driveway on the day they finally met Stevie — and God broke the ice with timing and humor
• Sazan's faith origin: at 21, at the end of herself, she prayed a simple prayer: "God, if you're out there, show yourself to me." That night she dreamed she was in a church, hands raised, worshiping Jesus
• Why young people and Gen Z are flooding back to the church: junk food for the soul, overstimulation, the flick of a thumb replaces everything — and church is one of the only places left that offers something unshakably real
• Spiritual warfare as the thread running through the last few years — and Charlie Kirk as the moment that made it undeniable
• Lisa Bevere as Sazan's spiritual mentor in Nashville — and the dreams and visions about warfare that brought them together
• "Stay-at-home mom" as holy ground: praying over laundry, declaring over the next four generations, the matriarch's role in the family tree
• Sazan's experience: crying on the massage table while having a half-asleep imaginary therapy session, then tears of joy rolling down her face — the Holy Spirit as surprise therapist
• "Spot the lie": pausing family movie night when something contradicts their values and talking about it — now their 8-year-old points it out herself
• Kurdish food as family medicine: dolma at the potluck that made Stevie gag, now his most requested meal; his mother-in-law's meat and shifta (grass-fed beef with parsley, herbs, pureed onion, avocado oil); kids eating it without knowing the nutrition hiding inside
• The family tree of food: Sazan's mission to learn her mother's and grandmother's recipes before they're lost, bring the girls into the kitchen, and carry on what started long before them
• Screens: one hour on weekends on Amazon Fire tablets, phones go down when kids enter the room, dinner together, outdoor play, and the 1,000 Hours Outside community
• Stevie's stem cell procedure: bone marrow drilled from his tailbone while awake, with 9-months-pregnant Sazan in the room, feeling like power leaving his body
• Nashville/Franklin must-visits: Hank's Coffee Shop, Cork & Cow steakhouse, The Factory, Aba, Pastis, Herban Market in Franklin

Products Mentioned:  

• 1,000 Hours Outside by Ginny Yurich 
• The Brick — phone lock box for screen-free family time
• Force of Nature ancestral blend (organ meat/grass-fed beef blend)
• I'm Fun Now — Sazan's podcast (Apple Podcasts link; also available on Spotify)
• @sazan on Instagram
• @stevie_hendrix on Instagram

Nashville/Franklin Recommendations:

• Hank's Coffee Shop — Franklin, TN
• Cork & Cow — Nashville, TN
• The Factory at Franklin — Franklin, TN
• Aba — Nashville (Westville)
• Pastis — Nashville, TN
• Herban Market — Franklin, TN 

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Happy listening, and we hope you learned a little bit more on the art of being well!

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In Health,

Dr. Will Cole