The Higher Valleys Podcast
Welcome to the Higher Valleys Podcast, where former NFL teammates Spencer Paysinger and Jelani Jenkins trade real conversations about fatherhood, sports, ambition, identity, and life after the game.
Each week, we unpack the tension ambitious fathers face: chasing success, strengthening marriages, and raising emotionally secure kids… without losing ourselves along the way.
Episodes
42 episodes
PAC: Alexys Feaster
Episode SummaryJelani and Spencer open up about Mother’s Day, fatherhood, and what it really means to build legacy as a dad—beyond one holiday or one “perfect” gesture. They swap stories about kids’ performances, community events,...
PAC: SOUL Cole
Episode SummaryJelani and Spencer sit down for a live Higher Valleys conversation with mindfulness leader and former NFL player Soul Cole, recorded at the Pro Athlete Community Accelerate conference in Phoenix. They open with ...
Thriller
Episode SummaryJelani and Spencer unpack what it looks like to parent with both strength and softness—especially inside youth sports, where pride, pressure, and old wounds can show up fast. From spring-break chaos to sideline coac...
Guilty Pleasure
Episode SummarySpencer and Jelani wrestle with the tension of loving art created by complicated people—using Kanye as the mirror. They move through mental health, accountability, and the weight of cultural influence, while groundi...
Heaven Sent
Jelani and Spencer unpack what “authentic” really means in today’s music—how hip hop carries cultural memory, why the internet demands perfection, and how social media can turn every moment into a verdict on the artist. From Jack ...
Adult Puberty
Episode SummaryMidlife can feel like a second puberty—same awkward growth, higher stakes, and a clearer view of what actually matters. Jelani and Spencer unpack the 30–42 mental shift: mortality showing up in quiet moments, gratit...
Losing the Plot
Episode SummaryJelani Jenkins and Spencer Paysinger move through the real terrain of fatherhood: the tension between urgency and presence, the weight of legacy, and the responsibility of modeling humanity in real time. They talk d...
Reality Check
Episode SummaryIn Episode 35 of Higher Valleys, Jelani and Spencer move through the messy real of life and performance: stress showing up as sickness, weather changes, and the raw vulnerability the NFL Combine can pull out of you ...
Be Present
Episode SummaryEP 34 moves like the timeline itself: love and friction at home, pride and tension in public life, and the nonstop chaos of a world that can flip from comedy to tragedy in one scroll. Spencer and Jelani unpack how w...
Soul Searchers
Episode SummaryEpisode 33 starts with a viral laugh—“non‑practicing whites”—and quickly turns into what Higher Valleys does best: use humor as the doorway, then walk straight into the room where the truth lives. Spencer and Jelani...
Shut up and Listen
Spencer and Jelani unpack Super Bowl LX, Bad Bunny's historic halftime show, and the predictable white fragility backlash amid rising nationalism and ICE raids. They celebrate J. Cole's The Fall Off—a project that demands stillness in ...
Head to the Sky
Spencer and Jelani kick off with Grammys talk: Olivia Dean's divine feminine energy ("a hug that lasts 2-3 seconds too long"), Bad Bunny winning Album of the Year and headlining the Super Bowl, and Kendrick's performance. They debate the Pro Bo...
Smell the Flowers, Blow the Candle
Jelani's breaking ice in his Maryland driveway while Spencer's complaining about 72 degrees in LA—but the real temperature check is on resilience. From teaching Cairo that a waffle to the toe isn't a crisis to Jelani's 93-point Bop It dominatio...
Not Another Cinderella Story
Spencer returns from Cabo recharged and ready—this is the real start of 2026. He and Jelani unpack Indiana's historic national championship run as proof that the NIL/transfer portal era is leveling college football in ways we've never seen. The...
Front Snap Kick
Spencer and Jelani are back after the holiday break, and they're not buying into the "new year, new you" pressure. This episode digs into stamina over motivation, building systems that prevent creative burnout, and the intentional work of makin...
Jingle Jangle
This episode is about letting go and starting fresh. Spencer reflects on cutting his hair as a ritual of renewal, while Jelani shares the emotions of watching his kids and classmates performing for the holidays. They explore how trust is built ...
Losing Recipes
Jelani and Spencer close out Thanksgiving with a sprawling conversation that moves from farting on airplanes to reimagining the holiday feast, from losing family recipes to a five-year-old navigating questions about his hair. They...
Troubleshooting
Jelani and Spencer navigate the delicate balance between coaching and nurturing as fathers—from Spencer stepping into flag football coach mode to Jelani's lesson on troubleshooting with his kids. They celebrate wins like Madden do...
Belt to A$$
This episode takes an unexpected turn—what starts as a lighthearted gripe about overly cheerful school drop-off teachers spirals into a raw conversation about discipline, memory, and the invisible marks our parents left on us. Jelani and Spence...
Breathin’ Season
In this episode, Jelani and Spencer move from Mercury retrograde and astrology to aliens and the Atlas Comet, from Lego obsessions to their kids' endless art projects, and from millennial parenting to the weight of vulnerability. ...
Los Doyers!!!!
Spencer skips a championship parade to sit in the pocket with Jelani—and what unfolds is a masterclass on legacy, presence, and the long game. Baseball becomes metaphor: the quiet between pitches, the pressure in the ninth, the heads-up play no...
No Limit
In this episode, Jelani and Spencer move from the Cash Money vs No Limit verzuz battle to the future of student athletes in the super school era. What starts as nostalgia for Southern hip-hop becomes a sprawling conversation about...