Felice Primavera! As we celebrate the first week of Spring 2022 and bring Season 4 of the podcast to a close, we look back at the many high points, of both this season and the four-season cycle as a whole. The stories we've learned, the advice

Episode 117: Joel Willis Leans Into the Ironic Bigness

Mar 21st, 2022 1h

Born on April 1st and raised in a town that gambled on cow poop, Joel Willis began his editorial career with a dad blog called the Glad Stork. From there, after years as a contributing writer at Scary Mommy, he was tapped to pilot The Dad as it

Episode 116: Charlie Capen and the Sympathy Viral Load

Mar 15th, 2022 1h 3m

On the fifth anniversary of the day he joined GISH, Charlie Capen returns to talk about what it's like when your job is finding where help is needed and marshaling big-hearted weirdos to fill that need. Each year, Misha Collins's brainchild gen

Episode 115: The Night Dave Lesser Chose His Children

Mar 8th, 2022 1h 1m

Dave Lesser started his dad blog, "Amateur Idiot, Professional Dad" soon after he left his legal career to stay at home with his two kids. And after two years of sobriety, he remembers the night that scared his family and got him off booze for

Episode 114: The Dumb Dads Never Found Their Keys

Mar 1st, 2022 1h 5m

After auditioning for a few too many "dumb dad" roles, actors Kevin Laferriere and Evan Kyle Berger found the perfect name for their Dumb Dad podcast and TikTok channel. And in their short, comedic history, they've built some huge platforms bas

Episode 113: When Aymann Ismail Lost His S—t

Feb 22nd, 2022 1h 4m

Slate staff writer Aymann Ismail nearly pulled his first-person piece about postpartum depression and anxiety because it seemingly paled in comparison to pregnancy's physical toll on women. Just two months later, it has gone viral, generated co

Episode 112: John & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Feb 15th, 2022 1h 7m

In 2008, before the influencing Earth cooled, John Andrews and Ted Rubin came together over a radical new idea to involve bloggers in marketing campaigns. Their new book, Retail Relevancy, offers strategies based on 14 years of research, common

Episode 111: Taylor Calmus: Builder Eye for the Dad Guy

Feb 8th, 2022 1h 1m

Since his first appearance, Dude Dad's Taylor Calmus has had a third child, written a second book, and launched his first foray into basic cable, as Super Dad debuts on the Magnolia Network this weekend. Join us for a historic discussion (as Je

Episode 110: Julie Nowell Loves Slow, Wiggly Growth

Feb 1st, 2022 59m 54s

Frequent Dad 2.0 contributor Julie Nowell started 3C Consulting in order to inspire a slow, boring, disciplined business ethic among the influencers she hires for brand partnerships. She sees an industry that was primed for a reset cruising bac

Episode 109: Patrick Quinn Glams Up Your Lock Screen

Jan 25th, 2022 1h 3m

When Patrick Quinn last appeared on the podcast (pre Dad 2.020 and pre-COVID), he was ebullient about the bright future of influencer marketing. And now, two or 10 or 3,000 years later, he's back to assure us that business is still booming, and

Episode 108: The Doug Zeigler Telehealth Call

Jan 18th, 2022 1h 2m

Just like Doug Zeigler's life, this episode has everything: A dystopian lottery! Redemptive agony! Prophylactic cosplay! Plus a cameo from the Beetlejuice of toxicity! As he recovers from a heart attack that required five stents in his genetica

Episode 107: Brian Gordon Is Half Stubborn, Half Stupid

Jan 11th, 2022 1h

If Brian Gordon hadn't lost his marriage, his job, and his dog over several dark months in 2015, he may never have created the wildly popular cartoon Fowl Language. And now, he's looking to support his blended family by expanding into merch, an

Episode 106: Tshaka Armstrong Works Googobs of Hours

Jan 4th, 2022 1h 6m

There's nothing niche about Tshaka Armstrong, who admits he emerged from the womb blessed with big-time Neil DeGrasse Nerdery and loves to explain all he's learned. He works as a TV producer and tech reviewer, but he's not afraid to let loose h

Episode 105: Chris Illuminati Has Very Dirty Thumbs

Dec 28th, 2021 1h 2m

Ever since he started Message With A Bottle, Chris Illuminati's primary plan has been to mimic his fitness regime and persevere as incrementally as possible. Eight hundred notes later, he has built a multi-vertical platform comprising books, po

Episode 104: Zachary Levi Learns How To Be Kurt Warner

Dec 13th, 2021 37m 46s

When Kurt Warner and Zachary Levi get together to promote their upcoming movie American Underdog, the first thing that comes across is how well they get along. We had a great chat about the movie's many fatherhood themes, the complicated relati

Episode 103: Chris Ballew Doles Out the Applesauce

Dec 7th, 2021 1h 8m

Chris Ballew fronted the Presidents half his life ago and just wrapped 19 albums and 1,247 live shows as Caspar Babypants, and at 56 he's publishing under his own name and feeling more creative than ever. He credits his parents for encouraging

Episode 102: Aaron Yavelberg Will See You Now

Nov 30th, 2021 1h 9m

As a writer, social worker, and Hebrew school instructor, Aaron Yavelberg has a wealth of experience as a father and father figure to children, adolescents, and young adults all over New York City. On this second night of Hanukkah, we talk abou

Episode 101: Kevin Shafer 101: Intro to Dad Sociology

Nov 23rd, 2021 1h

The product of a blended family and blended citizenship, Kevin Shafer is an associate professor at BYU who specifically chose fatherhood as his primary research concentration. He uses his PhD, his Twitter platform, and his copious research to d

Episode 100: You Say Dubai, and I Say Hello

Nov 16th, 2021 1h 7m

For our 100th episode, Jeff reports in from the farthest point to which he had ever flung himself — Dubai, en route to the Maldives — to (mostly) remember the conversations we've had during the podcast's first two years. Amid the myriad storyli

Episode 99: Simon Holland, the Stealth Bomber

Nov 9th, 2021 58m 21s

Our last double-digited guest is Simon Holland, the work-at-home father of two whose brilliant humor writing has built two colossal platforms on Twitter and Instagram. He's an inspiration to anyone with a desk job and a family that you can stil

Episode 98: Jon Finkel and the Educated Meatheads

Nov 1st, 2021 1h 3m

Watching his dad build an executive career from scratch taught prolific author Jon Finkel the value of daily discipline and chasing opportunity. His peripatetic childhood also helped him develop a versatile skill set that took him from The Man

Episode 97: Jared Bilski Found Wisdom in the Wudder

Oct 26th, 2021 1h 1m

In early September, the "remnants" of Hurricane Ida flooded metropolitan Philadelphia -- and took out the entire first floor of Jared Bilski's house. And like all good writers, he turned the resulting flood of neighborly goodwill into a front-p

Episode 96: The Human Experience of Emme Reynolds

Oct 19th, 2021 1h 3m

After years online, counseling parents how to raise children without gender stereotypes, the writer f/k/a Mike Reynolds has adopted Emme as their new name and begun experimenting with their appearance as a way of declaring their ongoing nonbina

Episode 95: Lasso-palooza! with Whit Honea

Oct 12th, 2021 1h 7m

Now that Season 2 of Ted Lasso has concluded, Doug and guest host Whit Honea discuss (with many, many spoilers) all the brilliant and baffling narrative choices the writers made in their sophomore season. We also break down the inspiration and

Episode 94: Tales From the Boom-Boom Zoom Room

Oct 5th, 2021 1h 8m

We're back! And Season 4 begins with Jeff and Doug catching up on all the new things that happened over the summer. Travel is back, schools are in-person, and Dad 2.0 has a new partnership with American Underdog, the story of how Hall of Fame q