Ep. 97 – Voice by Matt – Teddy Roosevelt: How Pain Becomes Power
In this gripping second installment of the Voices of Freedom series, Matt Berthot brings to life one of the most defining and devastating days in presidential history—Valentine’s Day, 1884—when Theodore Roosevelt lost both his wife and his mother, hours apart, in the same house.
He didn’t spiral.
He didn’t numb out.
Instead, he packed up and rode west—into the Badlands of North Dakota.
There, in the rawness of the frontier, Roosevelt nearly froze to death, got into bar fights with outlaws, became a rancher, and most importantly, rebuilt himself. His grief didn’t disappear—it was transformed into resilience. It became the foundation for the leader who would later walk into the White House with steel in his chest and purpose in his breath.
Matt draws a raw parallel between Roosevelt’s rebirth and his own:
the early morning runs, the lonely seasons of grief, the decisions to keep showing up when everything seemed uncertain.
“My Badlands,” he says, “weren’t on horseback. They were routine, heartbreak, and rising again.”
Core Lessons:


Pain is not a detour—it’s a forge.


Freedom doesn’t come from comfort. It comes from resistance.


Leadership is born in the places no one sees.


The most powerful people didn’t escape the fire—they rode through it.



“True freedom is not avoiding pain. It’s becoming someone because of it.”
“The credit belongs to the man in the arena.”
“We are here not because we’re lucky—but because we didn’t give up.”

Your Challenge Today:
Do something gritty. Something that puts you back in the arena.
Let your body remind your spirit: I’m still here.
This episode is for the ones who have lost—and still choose to rise.
The ones who didn’t run from the storm, but stayed in it until they found the shore.
Share this with someone who needs to hear it.
Because thank God Teddy Roosevelt didn’t give up.
And neither will we.

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