SHOW NOTES

Honey-do lists, March Madness, and a 30-year argument that is still very much alive. EP 69 is one of those episodes where Melissa and David are basically holding court on a real marriage debate and the audience gets to weigh in.

Melissa gave David a three-item honey-do list on the first Saturday of March Madness. The shelf has been waiting nine months. The stove lights are out. The hat hooks are not up. David’s position is that March Madness is a protected holiday and the timing was foul. Melissa’s position is that she has 13 days a year to work with and she used one of them. Melissa’s mom called in live during the episode and described Melissa for the police as part of a TikTok trend — including a detailed note about lip filler that Melissa does not have. The episode closes with the Fair, Foul, or Technically Fair But Spiritually Wrong game: a marriage edition where every scenario hits a little too close to home.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“Out of 365 days a year, David is celebrating something that has to do with sports on 352 of them. That leaves me 13 days to work with and I used one of them.”

Melissa, presenting her case

“Technically fair but spiritually wrong. That is a real category and it applies to a lot of things in this marriage.”

Melissa, on the Fair or Foul game

LINKS MENTIONED

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

✨ Beautiful Yu Health Supplements: bit.ly/beautifulyu

📖 Melissa’s Book - Chicken-Fried Women: bit.ly/ChickenFriedWomen

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SHOW NOTES

Anxiety, stress, a hotel that sent one towel for two people, and Melissa’s mom telling her the cherry earrings look like her ears are bleeding right before they rolled her into surgery. EP 68 is an honest, unfiltered episode about a really hard week — and somehow also one of the funniest.

Melissa’s mom had serious spinal surgery at MD Anderson to cement fractures caused by cancer, and this episode doesn’t pretend everything is fine. David and Melissa talk openly about what it looks like when stress has nowhere left to go — the irrational fears, the locked-out hotel room, the single towel, and the moment Melissa’s dad threatened to destroy the hotel on social media despite having no idea how social media works. The second half gets into a real conversation about anxiety: how to tell the difference between a discerning spirit and a season of fear, why stress keeps building when we don’t deal with it, and where it eventually lands. The episode closes with a sketch segment where David reads phrases and Melissa has to label them helpful, mildly offensive, fight starting, or full-on attitude.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“My mom is about to go into major surgery and she goes, ‘those earrings always look like your ears are bleeding and nobody will tell you.’ That’s when I knew I needed to check myself.”

Melissa, on the moment she realized she was about to take it out on the sick lady in the hospital bed

“Stress is looking for somewhere to land. If we don’t deal with it, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and it starts making us weaker and weaker. And eventually it’s going to land on top of you.”

David, on what happens when you keep ignoring it

LINKS MENTIONED

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

✨ Beautiful Yu Health Supplements: bit.ly/beautifulyu

📖 Melissa’s Book - Chicken-Fried Women: bit.ly/ChickenFriedWomen

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🎧 Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowApple

🎧 Spotify: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowSpotify

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SHOW NOTES

Real friendship, tipping culture, germaphobes, and the TikTok lady who puts adhesive pads on her shoes before she walks through her own front door. EP 67 goes from funny to deep to funny again — which is exactly what the best episodes do.

Melissa and David are back from 30A, where a week with their closest friends turned into long beach conversations about the questions you never ask but should: what would you do with a month left, how would you actually live if money wasn’t the ceiling, and why do we keep the hard things in the dark when bringing them out is exactly what makes them lose their power. Melissa opens up about sending a long-scared text to her best friend before her mom’s surgery at MD Anderson — no call, no Edible Arrangement, just someone to receive it. The episode also gets into the tipping debate at drive-through coffee stands, the shoes-in-the-house lady who took it further than anyone thought possible, and the sketch segment where David answers three personal questions about Melissa — including what he would ban her from doing if he could.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“You tip because of who you are, not because of the service.”

A comment that came in during the tipping conversation, and Melissa loved it

“Candy Crush was able to get a racquetball court built in their offices because of me. And you are still driving that truck.”

David, closing out the sketch segment

LINKS MENTIONED

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

✨ Beautiful Yu Health Supplements: bit.ly/beautifulyu

📖 Melissa’s Book - Chicken-Fried Women: bit.ly/ChickenFriedWomen

Also Mentioned This Episode

🎙️ Live Free with Josh Howerton Podcast: bit.ly/JoshHowerton

🛏️ Helix Sleep - 20% off sitewide with code MARCH20: bit.ly/SleepHelix

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🎧 Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowApple

🎧 Spotify: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowSpotify

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ARE YOU READY TO BECOME AN INSIDER?

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SHOW NOTES

Disney recap, a Costco churro controversy, plantar fasciitis that almost required an ax, and ten official reasons Melissa Radke cannot go to war. EP 66 is the post-vacation episode where everything that happened on the road finally gets its day in court.

David’s Magic Kingdom GPS was flawless. Not one backtrack. Not one spontaneous funnel cake. David ate a churro in Rocco’s honor, Melissa got a corn dog, and her feet hurt so bad she told her mother she would cut them off and mail them home. Then Costco had the nerve to replace their churro with churro-flavored ice cream, and Melissa has a direct message for corporate. The episode closes with a TikTok-inspired segment: ten very specific, very personal reasons why Melissa cannot and will not be going to war. Wide ankles, time zones, travel constipation, lost AirPods, menopause, and a hangnail that used to tell her which way was right. It is a complete list.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“I said, if I had an ax, I would cut my feet off and mail them back to you. I think walking around on my stumps would be more heavenly than how they feel right now.”

Melissa, to her mother, on plantar fasciitis at Disney

“Dear Costco. If you have Bonita in the back slicing churros to put on top of ice cream, why are you not just giving us the dadgum churro? I am likely to buy so much more from you when I am walking around with that tasty, salty, sweet snack in my hand.”

Melissa, addressing Costco corporate directly

“Instead of putting the lives of our honorable service men and women on the line, if you sent 3,000 menopausal women, they would tear that place up in urban door-to-door warfare.”

David, and he is not entirely wrong

LINKS MENTIONED

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

✨ Beautiful Yu Health Supplements: bit.ly/beautifulyu

📖 Melissa’s Book - Chicken-Fried Women: bit.ly/ChickenFriedWomen

Also Mentioned This Episode

🛏️ Helix Sleep - 20% off sitewide with code MARCH20: bit.ly/SleepHelix

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📺 YouTube: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowYouTube

🎧 Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowApple

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SHOW NOTES

Skin flooding, the Huberman Lab, Brendon Burchard’s Growth Day app, and a Disney itinerary so detailed it made Melissa want to make out with David on camera. EP 65 is all about things Melissa and David have recently discovered and cannot stop talking about.

Melissa came to the episode with zero makeup on purpose, because skin flooding has changed her skin in two weeks and she needed everyone to see it. She walks through the full routine, including seven layers of hydration, tretinoin, toner, and why your hands are always going to give away your age.

David shares the Huberman Lab science behind doing the things you hate first to build discipline, and Brendon Burchard’s Growth Day app that has him showing up every morning. Then Melissa found one of her oldest mentors, Dr. Kate, on TikTok. Turns out Dr. Kate had been trying to reach her for years.

The episode closes with David walking through his Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom itinerary minute by minute, including a 6:15 a.m. wake-up call, a rope drop route, and a plan so tight that Melissa guarantees nobody in that park will ride more rides with fewer steps.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“I came to you today with absolutely no makeup on. All I have done is flood my skin. And I can see an automatic change in my skin in the last two weeks.”

Melissa, putting her skin flooding results on full display

“I will guarantee you no one in that park on the day we are there will ride more things, wait less time, and walk fewer steps. And if you don’t understand why I make out with him the minute the cameras are off, this is why.”

Melissa, on David’s Disney itinerary

LINKS MENTIONED

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

✨ Beautiful Yu Health Supplements: bit.ly/beautifulyu

📖 Melissa’s Book - Chicken-Fried Women: bit.ly/ChickenFriedWomen

Also Mentioned This Episode

📱 Brendon Burchard’s Growth Day App: bit.ly/BBGrowthDay

🎙️ Huberman Lab Podcast - Motivation & Discipline Episode: youtube.com/watch?v=84dYijIpWjQ

📲 Dr. Kate on TikTok: tiktok.com/@drkate67

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Shoes in the house, worst burgers in America, things you refuse to pay for after COVID, and a condiment flight that has Melissa ready to throw her wallet at the screen. EP 64 is one of those episodes where Melissa and David just get into it on everything, and the audience gets to pick a side.

David has been wearing Arkansas Razorbacks gear non-stop since Remi went to college there, and Melissa has opinions about that. Tasting Table ranked the best and worst burger chains in America and Jack in the Box came in dead last. There is now apparently a secret egg roll at Jack in the Box that the internet swears by and Melissa does not believe it for a second. The long-held debate over shoes in the house finally gets its day in court. And the newest food trend is a condiment flight, which is exactly what it sounds like and Melissa is completely on board.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“He finds some women’s sweatshirts and one of them says nothing but Hogs on it. That’s gonna be a cold day in East Texas before I wear a sweatshirt around town that says Hogs.”

Melissa, on David’s Arkansas gear obsession

“I want my room to look like a crime scene and I want to head out. That’s the arrangement we have with movie theaters and it should be the arrangement with Airbnb.”

Melissa, on why Airbnb’s cleaning fees make no sense

LINKS MENTIONED

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

✨ Beautiful Yu Health Supplements: bit.ly/beautifulyu

📖 Melissa’s Book - Chicken-Fried Women: bit.ly/ChickenFriedWomen

WATCH OR LISTEN EVERYWHERE

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🎧 Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowApple

🎧 Spotify: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowSpotify

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ARE YOU READY TO BECOME AN INSIDER?

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Subscribe for $9/month or $90/year: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

SHOW NOTES

Prom season is here and Melissa is already confused. A text came in from another prom mom about a photographer charging $150 for eight photos or two spots for sixteen, and neither Melissa nor David could agree on what two spots actually means. Rocco and his girlfriend Tyler are going. It is happening.

This episode also gets into podcasts as the new daytime talk show, why Netflix exclusivity deals scare Melissa, and the moment at the BAFTA awards where a filmmaker with Tourette’s syndrome blurted the N-word in front of presenters Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo. Melissa has thoughts on that and on a TikTok creator with Tourette’s whose content got increasingly crude as her following grew. Then Melissa hit David’s truck with Meredith’s trash can, checked the wrong side, and decided everything was fine. It was not fine. The episode closes with David and Melissa attempting a counting game they saw on TikTok. They are, by their own admission, too old for it.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“My hair is cattywampus. Cattywampus: a Southern U.S. colloquialism meaning askew, awry, crooked, or misaligned. That is my hair.”

Melissa, opening the episode with a vocabulary lesson

“I hit Meredith’s trash can and it went flying. I got out and looked on the driver’s side, thought, well my lord, I cleared that thing. But I didn’t. I hit it on the other side.”

Melissa, explaining the truck scratch situation with full menopause-brain transparency

LINKS MENTIONED

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

✨ Beautiful Yu Health Supplements: bit.ly/beautifulyu

📖 Melissa’s Book - Chicken-Fried Women: bit.ly/ChickenFriedWomen

WATCH OR LISTEN EVERYWHERE

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowYouTube

🎧 Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowApple

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ARE YOU READY TO BECOME AN INSIDER?

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Melissa and David are fresh off a Sunday where they served all three church services, split a Whopper for lunch to save money, and then got a call from Remi who had just eaten $40 worth of crawfish and accidentally ordered market price on top of it. The sweet part: David had secretly hidden $40 in her car glove box for exactly this kind of moment.

This episode goes a lot of places. Melissa shares her lifelong habit of mentally captioning cows in pastures for an imaginary calendar she has called the Cowlander. A real news story about a woman who walked away from her family at a Virginia Christmas market in 2001 and was found living under a new name 24 years later sends Melissa and David into a full conversation about escapism, intrusive thoughts, and whether every woman has at least once thought about just getting out. The sketch segment ends with David and Melissa acting out how each of them orders at a Mexican restaurant, and it is extremely accurate.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“Every time we drive by a pasture that has cows, I take a snapshot for a calendar. In my head. It’s called the Cowlander. I thought of that in the fifth grade.”

Melissa, revealing a lifelong habit David apparently did not know about

“She left. She never returned. Her car was never found. And I’m just sweating in my pits about this.”

Melissa, on the woman who walked away from her family at a Christmas market in 2001

LINKS MENTIONED

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

✨ Beautiful Yu Health Supplements: bit.ly/beautifulyu

📖 Melissa’s Book - Chicken-Fried Women: bit.ly/ChickenFriedWomen

WATCH OR LISTEN EVERYWHERE

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowYouTube

🎧 Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowApple

🎧 Spotify: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowSpotify

FOLLOW & SUBSCRIBE

📱 Instagram - @TheRadkeShow: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowInstagram

📘 Facebook - The Radkes: bit.ly/TheRadkesFacebook

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

ARE YOU READY TO BECOME AN INSIDER?

Become a paid subscriber to Stretch Marks and get:

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• Twice-monthly We’re Here for You Wednesday advice podcasts

• Monthly paid-only posts

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Subscribe for $9/month or $90/year: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack