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.