Knives and lives: Winchester knife maker and life coach Kevin Parido

In this episode of the Voices of Winchester Podcast, host Pete Koutoulas sits down with Winchester native Kevin Parido—neighbor, for­mer pas­tor, knife mak­er, and life coach—for a wide-rang­ing con­ver­sa­tion about crafts­man­ship, call­ing, and what it means to live with inten­tion. Kevin shares how grow­ing up sur­round­ed by fam­i­ly in Winchester shaped him, how years in min­istry in Chicago and back home influ­enced the way he works with peo­ple today, and why he even­tu­al­ly stepped into new work that blends hands-on cre­ation with deep, prac­ti­cal reflection.

Kevin takes lis­ten­ers inside Shepherd’s Forge—how a mean­ing­ful fam­i­ly tra­di­tion and a COVID-era leap of faith turned into a thriv­ing craft busi­ness where peo­ple can spend a full day forg­ing their own knife (no expe­ri­ence required) and walk away with some­thing built to last. He also explains what life coach­ing is (and isn’t), who it helps, and why the best coach­ing cre­ates space instead of giv­ing prescriptions. 

The con­ver­sa­tion then turns can­did and com­pelling as Pete and Kevin explore faith, fear, pow­er, and the mod­ern rela­tion­ship between church and state—plus Kevin’s per­spec­tive on grace, truth, and why trans­for­ma­tion can’t be forced. If you’re curi­ous about mak­ing some­thing with your hands, get­ting unstuck in life, or hear­ing a thought­ful local voice tack­le big ques­tions, this is one you’ll want to hear.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wher­ev­er you get your pod­casts. Or use the embed­ded play­er below to lis­ten right here.