Dad 2.0 Podcast

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 we've taken, the mere act of conversation that sustained us while the world wobbled toward normalcy. And if we hadn't recorded before the Oscars, we probably would have spent a good bit of time telling Will Smith to sit on his hands in timeout and think about what he did. 

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 its editor-in-chief in 2017. We talk about the content and strategies that built a platform of two million Instagram followers, integrating with its new step-brother Fatherly, and how dad jokes can be deployed as "the neutron bomb of conversation."

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 generates global goodwill, in funds and in deeds, by gamifying the generosity of its players.   We also talk about how to regenerate and focus your philanthropic energy, helping your kids interpret the current news, and why he'd rather be publicly naked than turn 40.

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 good. We also talk about how running helps him manage his addictive tendencies, adopting his child's nonbinary pronouns, and his new career as a preschool teacher and writer of children's books.  

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 based on some widely shared viral moments. We talk about their origin story, outline their publication strategies, and explain the discipline needed to make content around their lives as stay-at-home dads with young children. Comedy and fatherhood, it turns out, have a lot in common if you're not afraid to fall on your face. 

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 conversations all over the world, and inspired a forthcoming book. We talk about the state of modern journalism, growing up Muslim in the shadow of the World Trade Center, the tyranny of too much information, and how his marriage and fatherhood have regained their footing.

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 sense, and lessons learned to help brands convert content to commerce. We talk about content marketing's humble beginnings at Collective Bias, the myth of large followings, and how influencers of any size can find their place at the table.

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 Jeff Zooms in from the way-too-balmy Antarctic Circle) about catering to an enormous online platform, how to unwittingly name all three kids after parts of the brain, and why his third kid arrived by soaring majestically across his back yard.

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 back into high gear between smarter brands and rejuvenated creatives. If you've spent some time on the sidelines, it's time to reconnect with agencies, editors, and other professionals who are still offering good work to platforms of all sizes. And Julie has some great insights into what they all want and how to keep them knocking on your door.

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 brands recognize more value in independent content creators than ever. He shares more tips for showing your value to your potential brand partners, getting the compensation you want, securing more business in the future. grieving his late father, and wrangling his five-year-old at Disney World.

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 genetically narrow arteries, Doug talks about reading his post about his gambling arrest at Dad 2.018, the long road toward restoring his parents' trust, the vast spectrum of gender and sexuality within his blended family, and staying connected through Brothers In Booze.

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, animation, NFTs, a partnership with TinyView, and whatever else will keep the lights on. We talk about being "Airbnb parented" (trademark pending), the pressures of an enormous platform, how his cartoons function as a graphic dad blog, and why his goal is always laughs, not claps.

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 his opinions on politics and race as Villain McBeardface. We talk about his rocky teenage years, the benefits of a bifurcated marriage, raising curious kids, and how tech can save our society only if the people learn to use it right.

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, podcasts, calendars, his own branded lines of Post-It Notes from 3M, and a huge Instagram following. We talk about subtle ways to motivate your kids, the underappreciated beauty of a good pen, and his formative years hanging out in his father's bar.

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 relationships with their own fathers, and the unexpected joy Kurt felt showing his kids what his life was like before they came along. Importantly, you can enjoy American Underdog without knowing a thing about football. There are enough messages of love, perseverance, and family to rename it “American Dad Blog.” American Underdog opens Christmas Day.

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 his empathy and silliness, and he wanted to have kids because "I thought I could make two good ones." We talk about cultivating creativity, analyzing his divorce and staying friends with his ex, and why his first instinct when the Presidents hit it big was to blow the whole thing up.

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 about teens and social media, making goals reachable by setting up pragmatic steps, and why it's important to teach kids that anti-Semitism is still a thing. And every so often, his philosophy degree helps him convince kids that existential crises are mostly normal. This episode is supported by GSK's Ask2BSure.com.

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 defend paid paternity leave and says American dads can be as involved with our kids as we want to be if we follow the Canadian template. We also talk about his upcoming book, progressivism among Mormons, and his optimism that his students will save us all.

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 storylines of our 67 guests, some important themes emerge: the incentive to take risks, the power of a supportive partner, the appreciation of someone else's very different life experience, and how conversations help us learn more and do better. We're also supported by Horizon Therapeutics, who has sponsored an important conversation about Thyroid Eye Disease Awareness Week.

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 still make the time to leverage your talent and make the world laugh. We talk about how he discovered humor early, how he ignores the pressure to create, and why managing your emotions and fixing your toilet aren't mutually exclusive skills.