Marriage Hot Takes
Marriage Hot Takes is a podcast where Aaron and Kim Degler have honest, practical conversations about what really makes marriage work — the good, the hard, and everything in between. With bold truth, real-life experience, and a foundation of faith, they challenge couples to grow, communicate better, and choose each other every day.
Episodes
18 episodes
Ep 17: Stop Waiting For Big Moments And Start Building Them
We stop chasing the next big moment and talk about how the strongest marriages are built in small, ordinary days. A story about John Wooden’s love letters challenges us to say what matters now and create everyday connection on purpose.
Ep 16: Wait are We Normal or Abnormal?
We share a small convenience store moment that turns into a big lesson about emotional safety and why we don’t need to copy anyone else’s relationship rules. We land on a simple hot take: the healthiest marriage habits are the ones that work fo...
Ep 15: Speaking Life Into Each Other
We challenge ourselves with one question: if someone heard the way we talk at home, what would they believe about our marriage. We share how our words shifted over 22 years from survival and sharp tones to intentional encouragement that builds ...
Ep 14: Lightning Bugs, Space Launches, And Big Dreams
We trade the “lightning bugs in a jar” story for a clear marriage gut check: are we helping each other shine, or quietly tightening a lid. We unpack what it looks like to be a launcher through our tone, our support, and our willingness to belie...
Ep 13: Marriage Legacy
We talk about the kind of legacy a marriage leaves behind and why it’s bigger than money or a last name. We share what we learned from our parents and how we try to model love, teamwork, and intention so our kids know what a steady marriage loo...
Ep 12: 10x Your Marriage With Words
We start with a hot take that puts real weight on everyday words: what we affirm grows, and what we criticize spreads. We share how small phrases, comparisons, and “jokes” can either build confidence or quietly create resentment, and we offer s...
Ep 11: Marriage Blind Spots
We connect a car’s blind spot warning to the blind spots we all carry in marriage, and we get honest about how feedback can feel annoying even when it is protecting us. We share real examples from our own relationship and break down how to sign...
Special Ep: Reconnecting When There is a Buffer
We record from a cabin in the Arkansas woods to celebrate 22 years of marriage and talk about what we do when life feels like it’s buffering. We use a glitchy Titanic stream as a metaphor for stress, short nerves, and the kind of reconnection t...
Ep 10: What We Got Wrong Early in Our Marriage
We get honest about the ways we’ve gotten marriage wrong, from comparison and selfishness to leaving expectations unspoken. We share what’s helped us grow, including setting a plan for our marriage and learning to fight fair so small conflicts ...
Ep 9: Shared Couple Habits
We talk about the couple habits that keep us connected after 22 years, especially the small, repeatable routines that make everyday life feel safe and close. Our biggest takeaway is simple: the strongest marriages are built on ordinary nights a...
Ep 8: The Last Day Married
We get honest about “till death do us part” by imagining the last day of our marriage and asking what would make us proud of the story we lived. Then we work backward from that final snapshot to the daily choices that protect love through busy ...
Ep7: When Mental Health Enters A Marriage
We get honest about what it looks like when anxiety and mental health struggles start shaping everyday life, from social plans to simple decisions at home. We also share the small, practical ways we support each other when one of us feels anxio...
Ep 6: Friendship in Marriage
We connect a simple idea to real marriage life: your spouse should feel like your best friend, not just your co-manager of the house. We talk about how friendship fades over time and what we do to build it back with small, intentional choices.&...
Ep 5: Love is a Choice, Not a Feeling
We wrestle with the myth that love is only a feeling and make the case that lasting marriage is a daily choice. Through stories, humor, and practical habits, we show how small acts, uneven days, and intentional service create safety and keep co...
Ep 4: How Social Media Quietly Erodes Marriage
We lay out how social media—especially algorithms, late-night scrolling, and holiday comparison—quietly erodes closeness, then share simple, realistic swaps that rebuild connection. The core takeaway is practical and direct: attention is intima...
Ep 3: We Are Still Married, But to Different People
We share why our marriage works today because we didn’t stay who we were 22 years ago. From survival mode and blended family tensions to faith habits, community, and better communication, we show how small choices helped us become new versions ...
Ep 2: How Opposite Love Languages Spark Fights And How To Fix Them
We share how opposite love languages fueled years of missed signals and how small, steady changes turned conflict into connection. Clear steps, honest stories, and a simple hot take: love languages are effort languages.• five love langu...
Ep 1: Starting Strong: Why We Launched Marriage Hot Takes
We share who we are, how our blended family began overnight, and the honest work it took to avoid becoming a statistic. The hot take lands simply: statistics don’t end marriages, disengagement does, and small daily choices can pull you back tog...