The Zac Clark Show - Three Things On My Mind: The Bachelorette, Pete Davidson, and My Hairline

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

What If Guys Just Said It Out Loud?Zac Clark goes solo this week and gets honest – uncomfortably, refreshingly honest. It starts with something small: he's losing his hair, and he's embarrassed about it. But that admission opens the door to something much bigger.If a guy in recovery, with years of hard-won self-awareness, can barely say that out loud – what hope is there for the man who hasn't yet found words for his anxiety, his depression, or his darkest thoughts? Zac connects the dots between the small silences men keep and the devastating ones, and makes the case that permission to be vulnerable starts earlier than we think.He also reflects on the wave of DMs he received after speaking out about The Bachelorette, the surprising power of Theo Von and Pete Davidson modeling sobriety to millions of young men who don't even realize they're being influenced, and why saying something out loud – even on a microphone, even to strangers – is sometimes the fastest way to take its power away.Raw, real, and a little bit of a therapy session. The best kind of episode.Connect with Zac:https://www.instagram.com/zwclark/https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-c-746b96254/https://www.tiktok.com/@zacwclarkhttps://www.strava.com/athletes/55697553https://twitter.com/zacwclarkIf you or anyone you know is struggling, please do not hesitate to contact Release Recovery:[phone]releaserecovery.com @releaserecovery

I'm losing my hair. I'm losing my hair. I think it means I'm getting old. I think it means I am not going to be as good looking. I think it means that I am evolving through time and that shit's scary. So I am in the chair solo today. I obviously don't have a guest. We're in a little bit of transitional period, which we'll share more about here in the near future.

obviously feeling very grateful for the support to this point all the likes the shares the comments they mean a lot they help us break down stigma that's always been the goal of this show is to produce something that makes people feel less alone and uh i think today it's just going to be some of the random thoughts i've been having which i hope are are helpful and the first thing off the beat Off the jump here is I had an experience last week where I turned my phone around and I commented on Taylor Frankie Paul, who was supposed to be, who filmed an entire season of The Bachelorette, the show I was on at one point, and made some comments. I do not think my comments were the norm. that's okay

my comments were focused on my experience which was behavioral health care substance abuse mental health domestic violence all the things that came up for me watching some of the clips that are out there

I don't know her I don't know many people that are still involved with the show and as I've said many times I'm very grateful for my experience and so my full comments on that situation are on my Instagram page

and it activated a group of people on my social media who probably haven't seen my face in a very long time the way that the algorithm works. I think that a lot of my followers were probably lying dormant, which is cool, which is fine. We're just happier with us and there in some way, shape, or form. It's better than an unfollow, right? but it activated this group of people and there's two things I had with that experience particularly specifically as it relates to my work at 40 years old.

Someone who's been sober a long time. Someone who has seen a lot in this world. One, the comments, I would say, were overwhelmingly positive and supportive on my take. My take, I believe, was empathetic and my take I believe was the right take which is that the only thing we should really care about are the human beings involved in that situation and that they end up healthy. I've seen a lot of miracles in my life and I believe that everyone is worthy of being a miracle.

So it was cool. It was cool to see all the positivity kind of coming back my way. I love that. I live off of that. It feeds me, positivity, keep going. You know me. You know my saying. And then the second piece was the people that it activated who are in the darkness. And the many, many, many DMs that I received coming out of that from people who saw that message, saw my face, saw something that gave them a second or a sliver of willing. this to DM me and ask for help.

I'm so damn proud of those people, man. I'm so damn proud of those people. And it's because I know how hard that is. You know, I know how hard that is. And I spent quite a bit of time responding to a lot of them and encouraging them. And some of them even connected with some of us here at release. And so if you do listen to the show and you've been hesitant about reaching out, please do but we want to hear from you.

We really do. We know there are people listening. We know there are people engaging with us. And the whole purpose of this whole thing, release recovery, the Zach Clark Show, everything we do here drives towards one common goal, which is to help as many people as possible.

The thing that drives that goal is the idea that I shouldn't be here, right? I fundamentally believe that I should not be here. and I was given the gift of recovery. So that was swirling for me a lot, and I wanted to share those thoughts. And for the most part, I think they're pretty beautiful. They're pretty beautiful. And I'm proud of that.

And I'm proud of social media. You know, I'm proud of the beauty and the genius that social media can be. It can be a super positive platform. There's a lot of people that have found community there. And so while we spend a lot of time, knocking down and dragging out social media. And I'm right there with most of the critics talking about technology addiction.

There is another side of this thing that is really positive. And I am today grateful for that and proud of those people who did reach out, you know, who did reach out. The second thing that is kind of swirling for me today that I have thoughts on, is, you know, what it means to really, what it is like to be a man, you know, and I, I use that term man loosely because I think the definition of what a man is has changed many, many times. And for me, the thing that I keep coming back to, boys, men are just terrified. Just terrified to tell people what's actually going on because of the stigma associated with being a man. I'll give you an example.

I'm losing my hair. I'm losing my hair. You can see here if you're watching on video, the hair line is quickly crawling back. I'm embarrassed by the fact that I'm losing my hair. I have not been able to really say that out loud to many people because I'm scared. I'm scared of what that means. I'm scared of how other people see me. And quite frankly, I just wish I wasn't losing my hair.

I think it means I'm getting old. I think it means I am not going to be as good looking. I think it means that I am evolving through time and that shit's scary. And I also think it means just like, you know, you're dealt the hand by God. This is the hand I was dealt. In my 40s, I'm going to start to lose my hair. My beard's going to start to speckle with some gray. There are some modern options.

Like I might consider getting the surgery if it really is important to me. And I don't think that's really anyone's choice besides mine. people can have their opinions on that shit, but if there's something that I can do to relieve some of the fear, I might consider it. And that's okay. Like all this stuff is okay. It's okay to be losing my hair.

It's okay to be honest about the fear of losing my hair. But for men, it's just so hard to communicate something as simple as that. Because we grow up, right? At a young age, I remember I was one of the last one of my friends to get hair under my arms. And I thought

that meant I was less than. I was jealous of all the other guys that I was hanging out with that started to get underarm hair and then started to get facial hair. And it was really, really confusing. No one ever sat me down and said, hey, like dude,

puberty, you know, happens for different people at different times. And so, you know, you might not grow hair under your arm for a couple more years. And even something as simple as that. And then you walk into a locker room in high school or in college and naturally you start looking around

and comparing yourself, you know, to the other men that you are around. And there's a real kind of energy in those rooms about like who's the top dog, you know? I heard a hilarious story. So I am a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan And I heard the story of the origin of the nickname Big Dick Nick So John Dornboss was speaking at a business event

And the opportunity for John to tell the story of Big Dick Nick was interesting So essentially Nick Foles and Zach Earth were known in the Philadelphia locker room. So Zach Ertz, I think, showed up or Nick's. They showed up at the same time. And they were known in the Philadelphia locker room as the two guys who had the largest penises. And it was a known thing to the point where, like, there was like this ranking,

and they always knew like Nick was number one and Ertz was number two. And then Nick kind of has his first go around in Philly and gets traded in the off season and now Zach has the belt, right? Like Zacherts, now is the man in the Philadelphia Eagles locker room with the largest penis. And apparently he was very proud of that, as I think most men would be based on the way that society treats that topic. And then Nick comes back to Philly, you know, and there's a, there's an interview or a bit where someone on the team is asked about like Nick returning to Philadelphia and he says,

I'm good with it, but like you got to go ask Ertz. I heard Ertz is really upset that Fozzi is coming back to Philadelphia. And the media actually kind of picked it up. It wasn't a real thing. And so then when Nick walked back into the locker room, one of the guys in the corner kind of shouted like, Big Dick, Nick is back. You know, and that's kind of where the nickname came from.

Or at least that's my understanding of the story. But just to say, like, it is, it is, these are things that men deal with all the time and have real insecurity about, you know, your hairline. I have an underbite. You know, I have these things that I can't change. I fundamentally cannot change them. And even on a broader scale, like, you know, I think human beings, we look in the mirror and we learn or we're taught to kind of pick ourselves apart. And that's so sad to me.

You know, that's so sad to me. We're seeing a little bit of a movement now in social media where we're celebrating people from all walks of life and we're celebrating people that look a bunch of different ways. And to me, that's one of the really cool evolutions that we've seen in our world. And so just like, you know, being a guy having to protect that image is real. And I will say I also don't want to get too twisted up on the other side of this thing because there are parts of like that man culture, that masculinity that I've benefited from. Like sometimes I need to be told to put my mouthpiece in and shut up and get to work or do the pushups or do the hard work or work the 80 hour week and that's okay like that shit made me tougher that built resilience

for me um but there's also another side um that i've been proud to to kind of lean into and own um all parts of kind of this manhood quest that you know 42 years into it i feel like i'm doing a decent job with and so if you're listening like you know i know a lot of my listeners are actually women, but permission to the men out there to just be a man, however you define it, is a thought that I've kind of been racking my brain around. You know, I just think about like if I sit here and I'm, like, I have a pretty good life, you know, I have a lot to be proud of. And I'm sitting here in fear about my hairline.

And I can barely say that out loud. then how is a man supposed to go and say, I need a therapist, where I'm anxious, where I'm depressed. That's what really scares me. You know, that's what really scares me for my brothers,

um, who are in this, uh, journey, you know, with, with me and then, you know,

like at what point do we start just making shit up? you know at what point do we just start covering it all up yeah i'm good i'm good i'm fine how you doing you know that's the thing that really rocks me when i when i think about it and i am someone who has gotten the phone call for the person that has died by suicide that you never thought would be that person. And in some weird way, I feel like that starts with at a very early age, not being given permission to be honest about the way that they feel. And as they work into, you know, adolescence and young adult and becoming a man, they are taught to just shove shit down and never get to a point where they can actually say what's going on with them.

If I tie this back to my first thought from today's episode around social media, it's pretty ironic, right? Because here I am sharing my thoughts on a situation where I'm being sensitive and I'm being empathetic and I'm being applauded for it, right? That should not be shocking coming from a guy sharing this opinion. And it's almost like it was a wild take to be talking about this situation, the way that I was talking about it. And that there's a level-headedness. Like the response to that just kind of intertwines itself with this whole thing that I'm talking about in regards to being a man. And what I can say is that every time that I kind of cross that. line and I do dig a little deeper into my more emotional side or thoughtful side.

It seems as though I do get some positive reinforcement. So that's how I've learned to kind of share about the things that even I'm talking about today. Because at the end of the day, like saying it, right, even if this solo episode is a little bit of a therapy session for me, like saying it out loud gets that energy out of my body and I'm giving the thing less weight. I'm giving the thing less power, which in this case is my hair line. I might not think about it when I go to sleep tonight.

I might not look at it when I'm brushing my teeth this evening. I might not play with my hair and try to push little pieces of hair into place to cover up the spot that I think is super bald. Right? And so it's wild. And then, you know, just to go to like a third thought here, and I'm going to keep today quick and easy is, you know, part of this journey on this microphone for me has been really starting to pay attention to the other people that are hosting podcasts, that are talking about certain topics that interest me and the way that they're talking

about those things. And so for me, I've made a pretty big pivot in the last month to six weeks, whereas when I'm running, I will throw on a podcast rather than just listen to the same playlist over and over again. And I've heard some awesome conversations. I've heard some awesome, awesome, awesome conversations. And there's two things that have come up for me. Like one, listening to a guy like Rich Roll, listening to a guy like Theo Bonn, listening to a guy like Pete Davidson, who,

was interviewed by Theo Vaughan or Matthew McConaughey. These are individuals who have had tremendous life experiences. And Rich and Theo as the hosts, Rich's show is the Rich Roll podcast and Theo's is this past weekend. They are so different and both so good. And it motivates me to want to be better, right? it motivates me to really work at my craft, to ask better questions and connect with my guests and do things that are a little bit different.

And the reason it's really struck a chord with me is because, you know, I heard, so I wasn't really familiar with Ethan Supley's story. He was the young guy on, I think I'd remember the Titans, and he struggled with weight and addiction. And him and Rich had a two-and-a-half-hour conversation, that was just unbelievable. Yes, he's in recovery and that like amps me up,

but just the life experience that this guy shares having been a childhood actor at seven or eight years old and having come up through the ranks and his childhood and his parents, you look at these people online and you just assume that they've had a cakewalk and it's far from the truth. You know, and that's why I think this vehicle podcast is so interesting because you really get to know people you know and then I listen to Theo von it's funny because you listen to Theo Vaughn interview Shane Gillis and it's like the guys basically put the microphone

down and they know people are going to listen and they know they're really funny and they're just like what are we going to talk about and it's hilarious in its own way and I appreciate that because I've been told I need to learn to laugh a little bit more so Theo is helping me with that and then so that episode was you know how me had me die and laughing and there's a couple of those interviews but then i listened to him interview matthew mccanahe which is completely different um energy i mean if you've heard mccanahey talk he's a real deep thinker he's got that southern draw and they went to some deep places together man they went to and i heard theo in this interview with maccacan he said so theo is sober and mccanay is not and theo is basically like

reciting the third set he's like yeah i heard about this prayer the one time And, like, he's reciting the third prayer. And McConaughey is a little bit confused. But if you're sober and you're listening, you kind of know what's going on. The third step prayer is a prayer that we say in Alcoholics Anonymous. And I just had to tip my cap to Theo because, like, he doesn't give a fuck. He doesn't care. Like, he's going to talk about sobriety.

He's going to talk about recovery because it's such a big part of his life. And it doesn't matter if it's McConaughey or someone else sitting across him. He wears that shit proudly. And that, like, really fired, you know, fired me up. And then just recently I went back and I listened to him interview Davidson, Pete Davidson, who's also sober now. And I think at the time of the interview, he had about a year and a half. And he was getting ready to have his first kid, which I think has happened.

I'm not totally up to speed on pop culture. Forgive me. And the thing that struck me about these two guys is, one, the brotherhood and the sisterhood that the Greek life almost feeling of these comedians, like they really. really look out for each other, which is cool. And I think they all have this shared common bond of like coming from nothing. And it's like whether you grew up with something or not, to become a famous comedian, you got to like eat shit for a little bit, right?

Like you got to do the show that no one goes to. You got to be boot off stage. And then both of them talk about like the first time they got a break. And then the first time they sold tickets. And it was just so cool to hear that story. and then get to kind of the precipice of the whole episode, which is where it's just one sober dude talking to another sober dude. And I don't think that those guys understand it.

Like, I don't think Theo and Pete understand it. But the impact that they're having in that conversation on this world is greater than anything I could imagine. Because the people that Theo has, like his, fans, those 20-something-year-old men who just feel so safe to go listen to him, being subtly banged over the head with like, yeah, I'm Theo Vaughn, I'm sober, and I'm sitting here interviewing Pete Davidson, who's also sober, is like the greatest, I don't know, like psychological warfare, right?

Because they're hearing it. And whether they're going to walk out of that episode and take that away from it, I don't know. But for me, as someone who's a bit further along in this journey and has been sober a long time, the impact that they're having by being so open about their journeys is unbelievable. And, you know, Pete Davidson said something really interesting. He talked about when he came to fame and this whole idea of when you get super

famous, you have this moment, right? this moment where everyone loves you, everyone wants to go to your show, and it's like this six month wild ride. And then people get sick of you, right? People get sick of you, and they start trying to find cracks, you know, in who you are, in your being and how you grew up. And he talked about how that really riddled him for many, many years, you know, many, many years.

He talked about being in rehab and having his phone and reading the headlines about him. and just being so sad. One, because they weren't true, and two, because people were just being so mean. And then he said, someone in his life said, hey, Pete, like, remove your name from it and change it out with someone else's name. Zach, Joe, Jeff,

and then read the headline and see if you really give a shit. He's like, it changed my life forever. He's like half of these articles, all these things. If I was to read them about someone else, I literally would not give a shit. It's irrelevant. But because it's about me, right? It's so sensitive and it's so heavy.

And that's the human condition, right? Like that's the human condition that we talk about a lot here on this podcast, which is like, by nature, I am selfish. I am self-seeking. I think everyone's talking about me. And if I don't work my ass off on a daily basis to try to be of service, to try to give, to try to think of other people, I am going to be in a fear spiral. And my non-alcoholic friends, my alcoholic friends, like we all share the same shit. Everybody goes to bed with themselves. Everyone thinks about themselves.

And so, you know, hearing kind of Pete put that spin on it was really helpful for me. And I just, you know, like the gossip, the drama, the shit talking. It's just old for me. So hearing those two guys who I'm sure have been the subject of many headlines and many controversies. over their, you know, careers was really invigorating and really encouraging and really inspiring. And so, you know, I'm grateful for them. I'm grateful of the impact that they're having on the world. And I'm grateful for this platform to kind of be able to sit down here and riff a little bit

and talk about some things that are on my mind and get a little honest and maybe use it as a little therapy session and talk about my receding hairline and whatever else is. going on in the world. So I am grateful. I am excited. We're going to be hitting you with some cool stuff here. And, you know, the more that you like, the more that you comment, the more that you subscribe, the more that you fly our flag, you know, the more lives that we're going to help. And I, without a shadow, I believe that. And so if I have to shamelessly ask for that shit, then I will, because that's going to help us improve. That's going to help us grow.

That's going to help more people know that there's an easier, softer way to live. And going back to my North Star and my goal, like, that is the mission to help as many people as possible. So until next time, I appreciate you. Keep going. Love you all. And, yeah, peace.