It has been 5 years since our first episode. On this episode we take a look back at the history and some of our favorite episodes.

(upbeat music)

- Hey everybody, I'm Joel.

- And I'm Andy.

- And you're listening to the Dudes and Dads Podcast.

Hey everybody, we wanna welcome you

to the Dudes and Dads Podcast.

We'll invite you to subscribe, to join, to listen

to be part of our growing community of people.

We're just into the Dudes and Dads,

talking about Dudes and Dads stuff,

which is, well it's highly descriptive, right?

It's highly descriptive.

- So what are we gonna be, I mean, what does it show up?

- So it's all about us interviewing people,

talking to other dudes and dads about being dudes and dads,

sharing their life stories, us sharing our stories.

A lot of funny stuff happens along the way

and doing our lives.

And some of it not so funny, but still we feel

worth sharing.

So we wanna share those things with you guys,

who have been encouraged to do it.

But here's the deal, you can be a dude and dad and listen,

or you can be a non-dude or non-dad.

- And listen. - And also listen.

So we just wanna invite you guys to tune in

to the Dudes and Dads Podcast.

We'll be dropping every other Tuesday.

And it's gonna be worth your time, we promise.

All the fun you can slam into under an hour

of just pure audio magic.

- Happy birthday!

(cheering)

- Happy birthday Joel.

- Andy, happy birthday to the dudes and dads podcast.

- It has been five years since we launched this show.

We're in the sixth season, but we started seasons weird

in the middle of a show, middle of a year.

So five years as of, I think Tuesday.

- Yeah.

So the month of March.

- Yes. - We call it the month of March

is our fifth year anniversary.

Five years already.

Andy, our little itty bitty podcast

is ready to head off to kindergarten.

- It grew up really fast.

- Really fast.

- I mean, where the time gone?

- Where? - As it gone.

And yeah, here we are.

And I will say this whole experience,

as we look back, it's got me nostalgic.

- Me too, me too.

So we, if you've not seen,

we've just switched to a new logo.

This would actually be the third logo that we've had

since the podcast has started.

So we move on to logos faster than I change underwear,

I think, but we're just gross.

- That's, wow.

- That is just kidding.

I change underwear more than every one and a half years.

Yeah, but no, we started out with,

so we got a new logo.

Thanks to our wonderful friend, Brian, Chris.

- Brian, you're the-

- You're the bomb. - You're the bomb.

You're the bomb.com.

If they don't say that anymore, but I will.

- But you will.

So we got a new logo.

So we thought, it's time to look back at the show.

It's been five years, we got a new logo.

Let's take a look back for those of you who've not been

with us since the beginning.

And even if you have, it's kind of a nostalgia look back.

So we started out.

- Yeah, what was that that you played?

Good grief.

- That was our trailer that we came up with originally.

It did not even have the music to it.

It just was the us talking about doing dudes and dads,

doing dudes and dads things.

- Doing dudes and dads things.

- As I look back on that, it sounded really weird.

- But it has a special place in my heart.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, five years.

This is just another reminder, Andy,

that time does indeed march on.

It marches on quickly.

As I was looking through episodes,

I know you felt the same way over the last five years,

just kind of going through the catalog.

Some of these are, some of our guests that we've had on,

I'm like, has it been that long since they've been on?

- Right.

- Because it feels like only yesterday.

- Right.

But so you actually came to me with the idea

of the dudes and dads podcast.

Cause you knew what I've done a podcast before.

You were well versed in all things.

- In podcast.

- Podcast-y.

- And you told me, Andy, I have this idea for a podcast

called dudes and dads podcast.

And I said, absolutely not.

- Yep.

You shot me down like my first sixth grade girlfriend.

And uh.

- Ooh.

That sounds like it hurt.

- Well, I'm not only to project any sort of pain

or grief onto you, but I did bring up some traumatic memories.

No, you, for all the right reasons at the time,

it was a full season.

I'm not sure if our season of life has gotten any less full

since those days.

- All right.

- More manageable, I don't know.

- Right.

So we have, I want you to remind you guys to,

if you are watching live with us,

you can comment right here and we can put it right on.

In fact, this one here, Dan Roth says,

- Dan.

- First time viewer, but big Andy fan.

- Yeah.

Way to get on, way to get on board.

- Thanks, Dan.

- Way to get on board, Dan.

- I appreciate it.

I'll pay you later.

- Big Andy fan.

That's going to be actually our next March t-shirt.

- Big Andy fan.

- Big Andy fan.

- I like it.

Thanks, Dan, for the,

- It's going to be a picture of just a big you.

Like big Andy fan.

- I like it.

I like it.

Thanks, Dan.

- Love it, Dan.

- And so you came to me and you said,

let's do this podcast.

I said no, because I was in the middle of college.

- You were in school?

- Full time.

Yeah.

And I said, I'm not going to,

- Raising the family, doing all the things,

work in the full time job in school.

It makes me a little stressed out,

just talking about it actually.

- It does.

Yeah.

It was, it was a lot of work for me.

It was a lot of,

- Sacrifice for the family.

- Yes.

- A lot of logistics things to work through.

- And, and so I said, no, we're not going to do this.

- That's right.

- And, and we didn't, we didn't until I was done with college.

And then I said, Joel,

do you still have that birth,

that dream of birthing a podcast?

And you said yes.

And so we birthed the podcast.

- I did not let go of the dream.

Yeah.

And I will say, you know, Andy,

when I think of five years ago,

when I think of the many people

that came on board with us

and in various ways to help us do this,

we were,

we were loaning equipment from various places.

- We were loaning equipment from places.

We didn't have a sound board.

We didn't have anything to start with really.

You bought two microphones and,

and we started.

And then we had a friend who said,

hey, you can come view my, or not view,

you can come be in our studio.

- Yeah.

- Or not studio, it was a conference room.

- You could make your studio

in our conference room.

- So a vodka, a practice that you could come,

we're not using this in the middle of the evenings.

You can come and use this space.

So we did.

And that was a challenge

because that room Joel previously was used for an MRI,

an MRI machine.

And so literally there was copper,

copper plating throughout the whole thing.

So I could not get an electronic signal in there

if I wanted to get.

- We were in a what, if you can,

- A fair day cage.

- Fair day cage.

You can look that one up, but it was,

yeah, yeah, there was an interesting.

- We were in a copper room.

It was interesting.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

And, but, but how fortunate were we?

We had like someone get, you know,

Dr. Clark, the man over at a,

just helping us offering that space up.

And then we were there for,

we were there for a little while.

I don't remember how long we were there for.

- We were there for a little while.

Also, we have a comment from on Instagram

that I don't think that I've ever seen someone

use a stoplight for decoration, but we did.

- Have they never been in an evangelical church youth room?

- Come on.

- Apparently not.

So yes, this is our, that's a part of our decoration.

- Yeah.

- And it works too.

I wired it up to work.

Yes, it works.

I'm really distracted tonight on our,

- You got all the, all the comments.

- I do.

So then we moved out and, but actually first, Joel,

that's where we first came up with the idea of the pop quiz

on the very, very, very first episode

of the dudes and dads podcast.

And so I want to take a little listen back

to a couple, a couple of things.

- Did I ask you any good questions?

- You asked me some good questions.

I don't know what I did for you,

but I grabbed like one question for you.

So here, let's listen.

- All right, Andy.

It's now that time of the evening

where we do the dudes and dads pop quiz.

Are you ready?

- I am.

- Okay. Well, I'm going to just introduce

what we're going to do here.

In front of me, I have 15 questions.

- What?

- That's crazy.

- That we randomly just came up with.

- Randomly just came up with.

You don't know my questions.

I don't know your questions.

So I'm going to ask you and then we'll do the reverse.

- It's kind of like when Jimmy Fallon does

the lip sync challenge.

They don't know the other side.

- They don't know.

They don't know.

It's going to be, oh, although if they didn't, well.

- I don't know.

- I feel like they rehearsed it

and then try to act like they don't rehearse it.

This we did zero rehearsing for.

I literally sprung this on you and walked in.

- You have no idea what my 15 questions

in front of me are.

And I'm terrified and yet excited all the same time.

- So because of the fact that you sprung it on me,

I'm going to ask you the questions first.

- That's right.

- Are you prepared?

- Absolutely not, but I'm excited.

- All right.

- Are you ready?

- Wait, hold on.

And afterwards you have to let me know

if I thought of stuff that even Jackie doesn't know.

- Oh gosh.

Man, if we uncover some things here tonight.

- Oh man.

- Wow.

We are really pioneering in the new areas here.

- We are letting you into our life like no other.

- Wow.

Okay.

- All right, let's do this.

- All right.

- All right, so number one,

I mean, if we, I don't have a drum roll sound,

but if I did, number one is favorite color.

- Blue.

- Band, favorite band.

- Wilco.

- Favorite kid.

Just kidding.

- Oh.

- Just kidding.

- All right, so who is your favorite kid?

I'm going to ask you that now since,

I tried to trick you on that one

and get you to reveal your deep dark secrets.

- I love them all equally.

And they are all my favorites for different reasons.

So kids, I know you're listening.

Tuck that one away.

- Yes.

- All right.

- I mean, all about to say though the competition still

is on if you want to emerge as the favorite,

you've got some work to do.

- So I asked Joel 15 questions.

That was ridiculous.

We don't do that anymore.

- Holy smoke.

- The questions are not 15 minutes long or 15 minutes.

It probably took that long to get through.

- It probably did.

- But Joel asked me some questions

and this is where it gets even better.

So guys, let's listen.

What do you have for me?

- Okay, Andy.

- I'm ready Joel.

- I am ready.

- Andy, Andy, Andrew.

What is your middle name?

Do you not know your middle name?

- He just didn't want to tell us.

- I do.

- You do, sir, you do have a middle name.

- I do have a middle name.

Just call me Andrew.

- Andrew.

- That is true, Joel.

I didn't want to tell you my middle name.

I didn't want to say my full name.

- Yeah, you were trying to devolve your full name.

- All right, let's continue.

- Okay, Andrew.

- We're gonna go with that.

- I was gonna say like Andrew T. Layman.

I'm just gonna throw in.

- Not.

- I frequently throw in a T

for no reason other than it sounds right to me.

- Hey, well, you can call me Andrew T.

That's fine.

- Andrew A.T. Layman.

All right, here we go.

So 15 questions.

Favorite winter sport?

- Ice wall climbing.

- Nice.

Wow, that is a thing.

- Yeah.

- Favorite flavor of milk?

- Milk, like the plain, milk.

- Or chocolate coming in second.

Like I'm okay with the chocolate.

Yeah, but like milk, like white milk.

Like that's totally, like from the cow.

I mean, not directly.

- True, I believe from the cow.

You raised cows, so I got,

I was like, maybe they're doing stuff.

I don't know.

- We raise male cows, so no.

- Gosh, that's, well, that took a turn.

Favorite love song?

- Pour some sugar on me.

- Oh, oh.

- I don't know, that's a good one.

- Why not?

- But right, I mean, let's, yeah,

we'll go with that.

- If you could change your first name,

if you had to change your first name to something else,

like you're going to witness protection,

let's just say that.

- All right, cool.

- If you had to change your first name,

what would it be?

- Okay, so I witnessed something

and I needed to change my name.

I would change it probably to,

oh man, that's a good question.

- Blake?

(laughing)

Brock?

I know Blake, Blake, if you're listening,

by the way, it's not an insult to you.

- No, I would probably go with,

oh man, that's a good one.

I'm not really sure, probably,

something just wild and crazy,

Chester maybe.

- Wild and crazy, yeah.

- Wild and crazy.

- Chester Layman?

(laughing)

It really rolls off the tongue.

(laughing)

- Okay, you're getting--

- I'd like to introduce to you my friend, Chester Layman.

- You're getting all these questions.

- I love it, I love it.

This is everything I dreamed it would be.

Chester T Layman.

(laughing)

- All right, just call me Chester T from now on.

- Chester, Chester Layman.

- Oh, that's, oh man, wrong shell.

- This show won't work, man.

- That, wow.

- All right, we can--

- We promise it won't be like this anymore.

- Absolutely, we promise it won't be like this anymore.

- I got a good sound clip from that though.

- Chester, Chester, Chester, Chester, Chester.

- All right, we're keeping that one.

(laughing)

So that was our first, that was our first prop.

- I love it so much, I forgot about it.

- Chester, Chester.

- Love it.

- So there we go.

I am Chester T Layman, if you want to call me that.

But so that was our first episode

and then we kicked it off pretty hard and heavy Joel

with that first season.

We had, we started out with your friend,

I should say our friend, 'cause he's our friend now.

- He's definitely our friend.

- Clarence Hogan, talking about growing up without a father

and how he let out of that deficit.

- And I would just say, like that,

that the way we started our podcast on that topic,

I really think is that the core,

there's something at the core of that.

Like if you want to talk about like the philosophy

of this show or the kind of the groundwork of this show

and where it came from, that story right there would be,

yeah, that would be one of them for sure.

So we, you're right, we started, it was kind of,

it was hot and heavy, but it was like all the right things.

- Yes.

And I mean, we're picking out just a few of the episodes.

Obviously, I think all of my,

all of the episodes we've done here are my favorite,

but so we are just picking up just a few of the episodes

tonight 'cause we can't talk about everything.

So Joel, did you have any more from that first season

that you wanted to particularly talk about?

- So I think, gosh, I was just throwing through.

One that stands out to me because we ended up having

this guest on a few, three times maybe?

- I think three, yeah.

- Three times because the story kept,

their story kept unfolding.

- Yes.

- And that was the exciting part

and it's some of the most listened to episodes

that we've ever had.

- And we got to be a part of experiencing that story,

but also helping tell that story and documenting it

for those coming back to listen later.

- That's exactly right.

So we, all in all, just to say,

it was one of the, it has been one of the great honors

of this show to have the conversation with Ted Love.

That first, back in July of 2019,

we did a show with him,

a journey to finding his father

and it was just the beginning of him on the search.

And then he and his dad connected

and then there were other family members

that he came to know about, including a brother.

And so I just love, I love everything about it.

And I, like you said, we were able to kind of document this.

He was able to share the show with his family members.

So like it was like a thing, he was able to give them

and say like, here's the story, here's where I've been.

You can listen to this and then we can kind of like follow up

afterwards and just a really, really great honor.

So I think back to, it's yes, Clarence

and talking about the absence of the father.

Ted's story was a little bit of an absence,

an absence, then a finding of his father.

- Right, later in life.

- Much later in life, no offense, Ted, but we're not calling,

we're not calling you old.

But much later, after years of searching and just, man,

yeah, processing all of those things,

but that one sticks out to me just because of the way

it kind of unfolded and we were able to walk along

on the journey.

I think that's meant a lot to me personally.

- Yeah, and then, so we, you had mentioned

that we had started out in the Avad Chiropractic Clinic.

It's fair day cage, if you will.

- The conference fair day cage.

- The fair day cage.

But then we quickly, actually before the first season was up,

we actually moved over to, I was helping out kind of

run in the evenings, a church a little bit

that was kind of starting up and trying some things.

And they had an older church building

that they were a part of.

And we were able to, thanks to John and Sheila Troyer,

we were able to take a room in there.

We didn't make a Vad Chiropractic mat or anything.

We just, that space wasn't gonna fit us anymore

because we had to set up and tear down every night

that we were gonna do it.

And so it was a lot of work for me

to get everything set up right.

And so I had, we had, we moved over to this room

in the basement of the church, Second Acts.

And we were there for just a short amount of time,

but we did, we do wanna thank John and Sheila

for letting us use that space.

- Yeah, that was, again, I just, I love,

it was a very punk rock approach to the podcast.

Yeah.

If you guys could have seen,

because we were starting to,

Andy was doing some video, you were doing some video.

- Yeah, we started doing video, I think in that room.

- And the lighting, we had to figure out a lighting situation

because the lighting wasn't great.

And so we had, we had these photography light boxes

that we put up in there that were barely able

to fit in the room if I remember correctly.

- Right, the room was small to begin with.

- Yeah, so it was just, it was fun.

- Yes, fun.

So moving on to season two,

this is where we met more new people.

We talked with, one of the first things that we did

is we came to know that there was a group, a group,

two people, Mark, Hyde and Chris Fuller

from the Real Talk Christian podcast

that they liked our work and we liked their work.

And so we invited, we basically did an episode swap.

Like we came on their show and they came on our show

and we talked a bunch of different things,

father related and just Christian related.

And that was fun.

We also talked with my cousin Corey,

who was dealing, had recently dealt with the death

of his dad.

And so we were talking about death, grief and mental health.

And so that was one of my favorite ones too,

'cause it was another one of those episodes

that was raw and real.

- And we got like, gosh, that's one of the,

again, another reason why I love this show is that we've,

I mean, I just remember that conversation.

I remember everything leading up to it.

And there have been times, Andy,

where we have thought like,

we have someone's close to us that has gone through a loss

or gone through something pretty traumatic or whatever.

And there's always this fine line,

I feel like we're walking of,

I would love them to be on the show when they're ready

or when they've processed to a point

where I can talk about something like that.

And yet, I think just some of the courage

that we've seen from our guests saying,

in my season of loss and the sudden,

Corey just lost his dad.

So, I mean, so, no warning so quickly.

And being able to, after some time had passed,

being able to come on and talk.

So I think just so beautifully about that.

That's one of the reasons I love this show

is that we get to have a place for that.

- Well, and I think it's been really cool too.

We've heard numerous times

and I'm not gonna specifically name the episodes

'cause it's really literally has been,

I mean, we've done, I don't know,

maybe a hundred or so episodes total.

So I can't say every one of them.

But we've heard so many times

that our listeners have really connected

with a specific episode, whether it be whatever it is,

like they've really connected with it

and really been able to process some things

that's going on on their own,

as well as just resonating with the stories

of the guests that we told.

And I think that's really our goal.

That was our goal to begin with,

is just to build community.

And I mean, the tagline is building community

through meaningful conversations and storytelling.

And that's really what we've done.

We've been able to bring the people that we've known,

that we know that have good stories

and allow them to be able to tell those stories

and just connect.

And every time I hear somebody tell me your episode

or this episode has really specifically connected with me,

it touches me.

- Oh yeah. - It gets me every time.

- 100%.

I was thinking that second season,

Andy our interview with a friend of mine, Joe Rudy,

who, you know, he, again,

these stories where he's a youth pastor for a kid

who's involved in the school shooting.

And a reminder that when we're talking about dudes

and dad stuff, it's also, you know, building this community.

It's a community of people also who see their responsibility

outside their immediate family, right?

This community impact that they have,

that they have gifts and talents to bring to their community

and that they're thinking very strategically about that.

I think Joe is just an amazing, amazing example,

even really we should have him back on

'cause he's done some pretty cool things even since then.

I just think that's just another example

of kind of what our community is about.

'Cause we hope that you hear people that, like,

inspire you to engage in a new way, to think,

man, what gifts and abilities do I have

that I'm just kind of sitting on

and that I could be doing something else?

So that's one for me on season two

that just kind of like, I think, checked a few boxes.

- Right, I think for me, one more, I think probably,

at least from this season was the Gilmachel one.

We were talking about racial reconciliation in our country

and that really opened my eyes up to hear Gil talk about

stories of just how he was pulled over and interrogated

when just really for being black.

- Yeah.

- And like, as a white guy,

that really opened my eyes up to things

that are still going on in our country.

So that was a good episode for me on season two.

- Yep, and yeah, I'm into another advantage of this show.

Like, we get to engage with people

that are in different life circumstances

than us that come from different backgrounds.

And really, yeah, I think it just brings a lot of clarity.

And then, well, gosh, I'm just,

I'm right now, I'm just,

I'm scrolling through all these episodes.

It's like, oh my gosh.

- Another one that we talked about

is pregnancy and infant loss.

And that was me telling my story of our daughter

and our loss of our daughter.

And that, yeah, I'm gonna cry here.

But that was a really good episode.

And it was good therapeutic for me

to be able to get that out and talk about that.

Yeah.

- And to sort of set a cadence, I think,

for something of the show,

kind of one of our causes,

one of the things that we care about.

Just the grief and loss community that's out there.

Like being able to take a really,

yeah, I mean, take a real but positive approach

to engaging that with that community.

And I don't know how you've thought about it.

Sometimes, Andy, I go like, gosh,

we talk about a lot of things that are hard, right?

And there can be some negative connotation to them

or whatever.

And I don't think we've,

I really don't think that we've kind of just wallowed

and pity and sorrow in the show.

But we have called hard things, hard things.

And hopefully, it's given hope.

The thing that we've said again and again on the show

is like, Andy and I were not interested in doing

a Christian podcast.

Like that was not our game plan at the set.

And for those that do, God bless you.

That nothing against that.

It was for us, I had this conviction.

And I know that Andy shares where it was like,

what would it be like if two Jesus followers

just did a podcast and then like,

whatever flowed out of that, flowed out of that.

And so that is the show.

That is the show.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it's like, yeah, that is part of the conversation.

That's always, it's our operating system in the background.

And then, you know, but when we talk about loss

and we talk about why we have the hope that we have,

you know, we make no mistake about it.

We'd firmly, firmly rooted in Jesus.

Like that is 110% the case.

But, you know, we didn't come with some,

yeah, religious billboard that we're flying all around here.

It's just, this is our lives.

And, you know, a lot of the people that we talk to

share some similar background to that, others,

but not all of them do.

And that's also been an interesting, I think, dynamic.

It's a dynamic that I think you and I, Andy,

both are trying to live more and more to,

in terms of who we're interacting in our daily lives

and the fact that it's not just people of faith

that need community or fathers or dads,

dudes and dads that need to know there's a group

of other guys out there going through the same thing.

So I just, that's kind of another, you know,

another dynamic that's been kind of playing out

since the early days.

And I think we've stayed pretty, pretty true to it.

So, yeah.

So do you have any other episodes from season two?

If not, we're moving to season three.

Season three, here we go.

So season three was the first time that we had a sponsor

for the show.

We had it.

We got it.

Concrete Barber.

Oh, yes.

We thank you, DJ, for those.

Thanks for believing on us early on.

We appreciate that.

DJ reached out to us.

It was a match made in heaven.

I'll just say that right when we get go.

Cause Andy and I, excuse me, Andy and I were both very into,

we needed a barber.

We both needed a barber.

So that was, that was a good connection.

Keeps our beards looking sharp.

That's right.

Cause we, we, we were struggling in that department.

You know, every once in a while it got so out of control.

We thought we only had one of two options.

It was shave the whole thing off and start over again,

or just completely neglect our, our facial hair wellbeing.

And a new world was, we were entered into a new world.

And so we're, we're grateful for that.

Yeah. Yeah. We are.

Number one, but number two, just the fact that there was somebody

who was willing to put resources behind us and say,

I believe in what you're doing.

Well, and we've, we've had from the beginning,

Patreon supporters and we, we appreciate that.

Cause obviously like corporate sponsorship doesn't,

doesn't cover all of our costs.

And so we, we, we also appreciate all of the people who have joined us

along the years who have come along and said,

Hey, we believe in you.

We're just, you know, a regular old Joe,

but we want to support you with, you know,

$5 a month or whatever. Right.

And, and they've done that and been able to do that for,

for a long time.

And so we, we think, we thank you guys for that.

And if you want to join us, you can dudes and dads,

dudesanddads.com/patreon.

Andy, did you just say dudesanddads.com?

I did. So,

tell me more, Andy.

We had been dudesanddadspodcast.com,

but I acquired dudesanddads.com this last week.

Okay. Can I just ask you,

cause I didn't ask you about this earlier.

So have you just been checking in on the URL periodically

to see when it goes open?

As an IT guy, I'm always looking for different URLs.

Keeps the radar up. Beautiful.

Season three though, brought a theme.

It seemed like a theme to the show.

Oh, because we had at least two,

but I think maybe even three different topics about adoption.

Whether it be adoptive parents with their in shocks episode,

or or Travis Miller's episode.

Yes.

And they were talking about a different,

you know, adoption.

And then I think we even might have had one other thing about adoption

on, on during that time too.

Oh yeah, Derek, our friend Derek.

Oh, yes.

Who was, who is an adult now, but was,

yeah, well, his family was kind of built around adoption.

So yeah, that was season,

it was episode 18 back in season three.

So yeah, you're, you know what?

That's right.

I remember you and I having the conversation of like,

are we going all in on this adoption thing?

Because we just had a number of people that had really great stories to tell,

but that was a common, that was a common theme.

And I really, really love that.

It's funny.

I, Darren and I just sat down next to each other at a band comp,

band competition this week.

And yeah, he and I are going to,

he and I are going to reconnect.

So I'm very excited about that.

But Darren is always and Travis and Derek,

appreciate you guys being dudes and dads alumni

and contributing to that excellent series of conversations.

So good.

Before we move on to our, our more of our favorite episodes,

if you are listening live with us and you have a favorite episode,

make sure you comment.

Oh, yeah.

We would love to hear what your favorite episode of the do's and dads podcast has been.

So definitely go ahead and, and put in the comments.

And if you're not fortunate enough to join us live,

you can always call us at 574-213-8702.

That's our phone number or voicemail number 574-213-8702.

And we would love to hear what your,

what you think your favorite dudes and dads podcast episode is.

Josh, so good.

You know what I'm noticing about?

Well, it's going to season four, I say, because I've,

all right, I'm just saying about season four, season four.

This was the theme.

We had three, three episodes, like relatively early in the season,

three episodes with, with couples on, on now, now in all fairness.

So first we had, let me see here.

This has been back in April of 2022.

We had April and John Heflick on talking about self-care for families.

Then, and technically, technically speaking, the second one was,

I'm remembering this now, the couple was in the recording studio together,

though one of, one of the, the couple remain, remain the silent partner mostly in the,

during the time.

But was there a vermal support had had the headphones on was there.

It was great.

Yeah.

But we talked with our friend, Megan, about the book on this Enneagram handbook that she,

that she wrote as her senior project.

That was super great.

Before we move on, I believe that your son, Aaron, actually has your phone because you

commented his favorite episode is Aaron's episode.

So I'm assuming that that's actually Aaron with your phone,

not actually you commenting on that.

Bold move.

Yeah.

I love, I love my, I realize on the way to studio night, I'll have my phone at the house and

clearly someone else has it.

So, but yeah, there was, I'm just, yeah, it was Megan and then,

let's see here.

And there was another, there was another one and I,

well, we, we had also Nate and Brittany Steiner on,

that's right.

The diners were after that parenting when you travel and that was a really interesting one

for me.

I really liked that one because it, I always wondered Nate, Nate is a pilot and he's gone

for big chunks of the time.

Yeah.

And so I always wondered how that is, how do, how they do parenting

because that's got to look different.

You know, for me, I like being home every night and when I travel for work,

that's hard on me.

It's hard on my wife.

It's hard on my family.

And so I was really interested to hear what Nate had to say about,

about how they pair, Nate and Brittany together, how they, how they parent

when he's gone for a couple of weeks at a time.

I just respected, I just respected the heck.

Out of, out of them, because it was a lesson in intentionality, right, Andy?

I mean, that's what, that's what was, and we talk a lot about that here.

And I just feel like I really suck at it a lot, a lot of the time.

And just to know that, yeah, there are people out there doing it,

just being very intentional about their relationship, recognizing that

when there are calendar constraints that they, that they have to take specific action to,

to pour into their relationship.

And so, Nate and Brittany, if either of you are listening,

we love you.

We're grateful for you.

Thanks for a great episode.

Yes.

Season four also brought our Everince sponsorship.

So let's not forget Everince Financial.

So with that, they actually are supporting this episode.

So support for this episode comes from Everince,

dedicated to helping making Medicare an easy step through free educational seminars

and individual consultations.

Learn more at everince.com/mischiana or sorry, slash Medicare-mischiana.

Securities offered through Concourse Financial Group.

Securities Incorporated.

Member, FINRA, SIPC.

Nicely done.

Yes.

There we go.

They've got new, they got a little new ad for us.

So nice.

Thank you, Everince.

But we do appreciate Everince and all of the people because it,

one of the things that it helped do is they not only, they not only

helped sponsor us financially, but we've also,

we're able to bring on lots of people, lots of Everince employees,

and talk about things like teaching your kids money,

and savings, and things like that.

So that's been another good, another good thing that I've really enjoyed from them

because we've been able to talk about topics related to finances and things.

So yes.

Yeah.

Also, also good things.

Gosh.

And then I'm going through, I'm also just remembering the midst of this, Andy,

like we did, like these episodes even early on through the COVID years.

And oh, yes.

Period of time when we were doing these remotely apart from each other too.

And that was a,

That was an interesting, an interesting time.

Probably not our greatest quality of recordings.

I'm willing to bet.

But nevertheless, we made it, we made it work.

We, we did make it, make it work.

Season, let's see here.

Season, I'm looking back now.

Season four, a lot of good, a lot of good stuff.

Yeah.

I think, I mean, a couple, oh yes.

Season four also brought Colin Yoder.

Yeah.

Talking about funeral home directing.

And, and that was an interesting one for me, just because we were,

A look behind the curtain, if you will.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was interesting.

Yeah.

And then moving right along as we got into the season five,

we kicked season five off.

Gosh, only, only a little over a year ago.

I was just saying to you before the show, Andy, Justin and Trisha Davis,

the beginning of that, the story of a marriage separated and reunited.

We've, we've talked a lot about on the show about all kinds of dad related things.

But inevitably can't talk about a lot of dad stuff without talking about

relationships and the marriages that make, which is that thing happen.

Which is interesting because I mean, we are called dudes and dads,

but we do have a lot of non dudes and non dads.

We've had both of our wives on a couple times.

Yeah.

A couple of different episodes.

And, but yeah, that was the one with Justin and Trisha was really good because it was

interesting to hear her, hear how that worked for them and the reconciliation and just like

what God has done in their lives to, to bring them to the point where

they were reconciled from, from what had happened, from the choices that were made.

I was listening back through the episode and the thing that also stuck out to me

was identifying the red flags and relationships that are the frequent, like what kind of proceed.

Something really drastic happening in a relationship and, you know,

those are some, those are the things in this whole show that we are looking to give like

practical like, Hey, be on the lookout for these things in your relationships.

Be, be intentional about not putting yourself in these, in these positions.

Because sometimes the best wisdom that can be offered is wisdom that comes from real life,

like obviously real life experience, but simple, just simple things to be aware of and routine

things to be asking yourself questions about. I really think that we got that from Justin and

Trisha. So Justin and Trisha, it's been, it's been a spell, but we hope you're well and thanks for

Thanks for joining us. Yeah, kicking off the, that season.

Now, I do want to say if we don't mention an episode that you were on, it does not mean that we,

we didn't enjoy your episode. We were just, there's so many, we couldn't talk about all of our

episodes that we did. We, you know, we do 19-ish episodes per season and so there is a lot to go.

So these are really just top level things that have, have, have meant a lot to us,

but that doesn't mean that if you were on, we didn't mention you that we,

that we didn't enjoy you being on.

Because to be clear, what we, the web said we didn't mention from July of last year,

Mayo Chup is life changing. I mean,

It was a life changing, but we didn't mention it.

It wouldn't catch up. What kind of,

One of the other ones from season five that I really liked was, well, actually I should

take this back. One of the things that kind of surprised me about doing the shows,

this show in general, is the amount of people that we've had pitch things to us.

Oh yeah.

Like say things like, Hey, we've got this guest and this guest and this guest and some of them,

I'm looking at them like there was one today that was really interesting.

The guy basically pitched me and everything that he topics had nothing to do with anything

we've ever talked about.

Got it.

But and not really pertaining to dudes or dads.

And so you did the polite Andy Laman dudes and dads.

I didn't ignore him.

And I was going to say, you did the polite reply.

Thanks, but no thanks.

No, no, but one of the things that I have really enjoyed it, see the different things that have

been pitched to us, the topics that I wouldn't have even thought about that are different things.

And so one of those that were pitched to us is the documentary into the light about freedom

from bondage to pornography to freedom in Christ.

Yeah.

And with Jacob and Jacob came on.

Jacob was the producer, the videographer.

Like he was in charge of this video.

He made this video, this documentary.

And and so graciously, you know, we were able to see the show and then we brought him on

and we're able to talk to him about about why he made it and what, you know, and all of that

and his heart behind and making that.

And that was that that was that one stood out for me.

Yeah, that was a great one.

I think, again, anytime we're able to partner with another great cause and bring awareness

and promote things that matter to us and to our families.

That's another win of this of this show.

So we're always we're always glad to have people on there like, hey, I'd like to talk

about this thing so that more people can know about it.

And if we're like, yes, we're we're pro that thing, whatever it might be.

It's a great opportunity.

Yes.

So Pat, you had commented and Pat says that we were just talking with about you guys last

Sunday with Martin Thomas and he commented about the good job that you did with his interview.

So that was another good interview that we had to that's where we talked to Martin and Martin

was I don't remember what season that was in, but Martin had been incarcerated and and was able to

to out of that create a ministry for for men coming out of incarceration and kind of becoming

helping them to be able to to fit back into society after they've been incarcerated.

And so that was a really good episode also season three episode 15 actually, Andy and

talking about the Nazareth manhouse, one amazing ministry down there in Indianapolis

and then also up here in northern Indiana as well.

Again, the people we get to talk to the stories, the life transformations

guys, I hope I hope you know, like this stuff is for real.

This these things happen and just to be able to be along for the ride is super great.

So thanks for that comment, Pat.

That's super encouraging.

We're grateful for that.

So Andy, here we are now.

Michael Lehmann overcoming his heart defect.

That was a good one to oh solid way to go.

My son, we had my son on talking about his heart defect just recently.

Yeah.

And yeah, but but like also like one of the early episodes, Andy,

was us talking about Micah's heart issues before like just before he went in for surgery.

Yes.

Yes.

And like that was and actually that's where I came up with one of our logos at is dirt.

Like I was staying up late because he was in the hospital with him and was creating a logo.

So oh my gosh, I mean the like we.

Yeah, I guess I'm going to cry too.

The the thing that this thing is that I think that brings, you know, when we talk about that

episode is that and I've heard I've heard this.

I actually just heard this, our friend, actually Jordan just mentioned this to me.

We're at an event, you know, people say they appreciate Andy like the relationship that

you and I have and how we just are, you know, real with each other.

We're friends.

We have like a normal, it feels like you're kind of just sitting in the living room having

conversation with us and that's always been the goal.

That's what we always strive for.

But a big part of it is like people that are listening to the show what you what I hope you hear

is that, you know, my life and Andy's life and the life of our families

are are deeply connected with each other.

And, you know, we talk about that episode with Micah, you know, I will in an instant I will go.

I will go to sitting with you guys in the in the pre-op room, you know, praying over him together

before he went in for heart surgery.

And, you know, so each of these episodes, like so many of them are connected to these other big

life events, things that we we got to do, we got to do together, even when it was scary or there was

some level of uncertainty about it.

I mean, yet we knew that he was in great care.

He was in the best place to be for all of that down at Riley.

But yeah, I think that's everything I love.

I love that these episodes are just little, they're little time capsules for us that really

take us back to some, I don't know, just some really like some big milestones in our in our

relationship together and our journey together to be to be better dudes, to be better dads.

So yes, that's a that's a great reminder.

Thank you.

Thanks, Micah.

So this is way back at the beginning, but but on Instagram, Zach has said that Batman,

Superman and Indiana Jones so far is his favorite.

Nice.

So that was an old one.

That's an old that's an oldie talked about.

We were talking about just like rugged the rugged individualist versus.

Yeah, versus the fact that we actually do need community.

We need people.

I think that episode that was a precovid.

I appreciate it was a precovid discussion.

Yeah.

And so it was probably more true than we even realized it realized it was like that we do need

people and got reminded of that in that season for sure.

So yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

So here we are, Andy.

In this season, season six.

Probably only season six.

Holy moly.

Chester.

So silly.

Yeah, I think every year we kind of in somewhere shape or fashion we.

Take a second.

We we slow down for a minute.

We think about the show.

We think about.

We think about all of again, to me, it's the life that we've we've been able to be

involved in and in touch with and being able to foster and and and share these stories help

help get story the stories out that matter the life changing stories.

Those to me have been the biggest thing I want to I mean, I feel like I'm at like the

Grammys now, but like really, I want to thank all of you guys who are listeners.

I you know, you guys have stuck with us, some of us and I love hearing how you guys

came in to hear about our show and and yeah, I just I just want to thank all of you guys

for listening because we really couldn't do it without you guys.

We couldn't do without the support of of our patrons and our sponsors and yeah, just really

honestly, guys, like the lives that we've had the ability to be

a part of and the stories that we've heard really are what get me the stories that we hear coming

back saying you guys have helped me in this way or or just like this really touched me like that

to me is worth like it.

It's why why I do this podcast 100% 100%

Yeah, I yeah, I'm just glad to do I'm glad to do it and

you know, we will continue on I I will say Andy that

at the very end here I've got actually we have we have an upcoming event this is like

our we have an event that we're going to be at.

Well, and that that is the other thing too, Joel, we've been able to do some things like

MC like we got the honor that one time to MC a fundraising event for an organization that

raises money for for funerals for infants and stillborns and those families and then we got

the honor to to MC that the one time and that was that was amazing too.

Yeah, yeah, we were also well, you know what we should put this up, Andy, on our on the social

media side but Tuesday, March 26th, we're going to be at the fathers matter forum at the Northern

Indian event center. This is it's going to be an amazing event and there's lots going to be lots

of organizations there and keys keynote speaker, which I'm really excited to hear about William

Courtney, gentlemen out of Memphis, Tennessee, long turn, long time coaching career, some really

amazing, amazing life experiences he has things to share with a group every two years, though they

do, they put DJ construction puts this great event on so just want to let all of you know about that.

Again, the fathers matter forum, 6pm, Tuesday, March 22nd.

But Andy, not going to be tabling there and and this is going to be we're going to be doing our best

to simply get people to join our community just to have an awareness about the show.

And as always, we're trying to recruit future guests. So that'll be another great place to do it,

to reach out and to yeah, just hopefully connect with other people. But before we go, we go and

now it's time for the dudes and dads pop quiz. Oh yeah. Oh, you know, before the pop quiz though,

Joel, something we forgot and haven't done for a while.

So that was my daughter, had he way back when we first started this show.

And we did a segment, we haven't done it for a while and we're not going to do it tonight,

but we might bring it back soon to it. But essentially what's brewing was we talked about

coffee that we were drinking that night, but we also talked about like really what's brewing on in

our lives. And we've sort of given up late night coffee because we're getting old getting old,

can't handle it, can't hack anymore. See, that just tells you how many years have passed on.

Like we used to be able to do the coffee thing and now Andy's drinking water. I had a lovely water

now, although I should say you are drinking in monster. I do have a caffeinated beverage here

right here because yeah, I don't know. I don't know how to drink anything else these days. It's

zero sugar though. So we'll, we'll, I'll get a slight pass. All right. All right. So Joel,

I'm going to ask you first and we won't do 15 questions because that's incredibly too long

because we know better, we know better now. What was your first screen name?

Oh, let's see. It was AOL messenger. That's not a screen name.

It was, well, no, like it was on AOL. That was like the hand, my handle.

I got you. It was redeemed 321. I don't remember my first like screen name was,

but my first email address was like, it was eternal life, but it had like some of the

vowels missing and things. Oh, nice. So Christian, oh, you know what though,

I'm saying that now, that sounds, no, I'm wrong about that. That was, that was post conversion

when I got my life back on track. Before that, it was Mr. Magic 54 and yep, uh-huh. Yeah,

if you could all see Andy's face, it's completely appropriate. What you need to know is that that

was a Mr. I just so embarrassed to say this. That was a, that was a wrapper that I was,

that I was into. Wow. From gosh, what again, guys, junior high years. What was, oh, gosh,

I'm going to forget. It was a, yeah, it was a wrap. It was a wrap label that was putting out

wrap albums like every other week and was very, very popular at the time and I was caught up

all into that. So then it went to the redeemed 321. After you were redeemed. After, after I,

all right, what's your question for me? Andy, my question to you is if you were

to be able to relive any experience that you had within this last week,

what are you going to do? What's going to be the do over?

I would probably honestly, this is going to sound really, really bad, but

so Eli had his championship basketball game. So it was like semi-finals Friday and then championship

Sunday, Saturday. Okay. They played a team. I was not happy with the way that I reacted to the

parents and fans of the other team. You got, you get, okay. I was, I was convicted later

that I, that I probably should have, and I probably should have just kept my mouth shut.

Gotcha. And so I would read, I would read, let's be honest. I'm going to be honest.

We've all, we've all been there and hopefully I think you're fortunate enough as I am that

nobody was recording, nobody was recording us because those are the worst videos ever.

Parents getting into it at a youth sporting event. Right. Right. Yeah. Okay. Gotcha.

What's the favorite thing you bought this year? I know this year is not very far into it,

but what's the very, your very favorite thing that you bought?

I don't know. I just got the, I got the new iPhone and I'm feeling okay about that.

We'll say that. I don't, there's nothing. Nothing. Oh, actually no, I'm going to take that back.

I'm going to take that back. Andy, I, I procured for myself a nice, bright green

sports coat. Oh, I'm very excited about the reason is the organization I work for,

it matches exactly like their corporate, it's green and black is like their like

organization corporate color. So I'm going to be able to wear that to our end of year event,

but also the national conference we're going to. And it, it's just, I've never been so excited about

a green coat and all my life. Yep. I know. I'm just saying, I was just like, you're searching for,

you're like, when you're searching for like, there's a million greens out there, right? And

you're like, or something, you know, you found the right one, you found the right one, you're like,

huh, I totally lucked out on this. So yeah, I'm going to say, I'm going to go with that.

Cool. All right. One for me and I got one more for you. Okay.

My next question for you is, what is, we'll say this year so far, we'll just give you a few months.

What has been your favorite dish that you have eaten as a family this year?

Favorite dish that I've eaten as a family this year, green bean casserole.

Oh, just green bean casserole. That's an old joke. Yeah. Green bean casserole makes it drowns.

You know, I, there was some, I don't know if it was my favorite, but one of the,

one of the things that stick out to my mind and that actually happened recently is

the lasagna soup. Oh, it was like, yeah, noodles in it. But then you like put the mozzarella cheese

on top and you're like trying to eat it, but there's more mozzarella cheese that just like

stick to your, it's as delicious as it sounds. If you were into lasagna, I suppose, I, because

I've had lasagna soup before and you're remembering this now and it not good. No, it was fantastic.

I deeply enjoyed it. So I'm glad. All right. I'm so glad for you. Last question. And only,

like, I wouldn't ask this, but we've asked this before to other people

and it gets me every time. So Joel, if there's a sandwich named after you, what would be on it?

Okay. So here's, here's how we're going to do this. This is going to be,

I think it's going to be a pastrami sandwich. But we're going to do a sweet and sour mustard on

this bad boy. Oh, yeah. I know. I know. Because I think you're sweet and sour. I think I'm sweet

and sour. I think I've got a little of a lot of, a lot of things going on. Pastrami sandwich,

little sweet and sour. And we're going to throw in, we're going to throw in probably some, I don't

know, some onions onto that. We're going to throw, we want to make it savory. I want to make you

savor the experience. Because hopefully that's how you feel about your experience with me.

Now it's time for Dudes and Dads Pop Quiz. Wrong button. I meant to do this.

Amateur, amateur hour here at the podcast. Hey guys. Wow. Thank you so much. Thanks for walking

down memory Lehman with us five years in here at the Dudes and Dads Pop quiz. Now, Dudes Dads

podcast. We're super excited to announce that you can head over to dudesanddads.com. And if you

want to head and get some of our sweet merch, merch at our CH dot dudesanddads.com logo up there,

a new logo is up there. We'll be getting more, more merchandise soon. Nice. I'm looking forward to it.

Guys, as always, we're super grateful for you. Send us like us, follow us, do all that thing,

and let us know what you think of the show. Until next time, we wish you grace and peace.

Happy Birthday.