Two dads, a cocktail made of nothing but green Chartreuse, and the question underneath a week of grocery bills: who is my neighbor?

Pete pours The Silent Order — 110 proof Chartreuse standing alone, named for the Carthusians who have been making it in silence since long before any of this. Then Luke 10, the Good Samaritan, and the part people skip: a lawyer asked Jesus who counts as a neighbor, and the answer was a story. Ryan's version is a broken mailbox post, a neighbor in a Facebook group who asked the same question he'd just answered for himself, a friend's flooded yard and a borrowed tamper, and eighty people with chainsaws the morning the trees came down. The world globalized; the place you can actually show your kids how to care for someone is still the street you live on.

Then the grocery store. The checkout aisle and the fast no. The thing Ryan's family does instead — grab it, hold it, take a picture, it goes on the birthday list — and Pete admitting it would not survive first contact in his house. Why the milk is at the back. What a life-size Kerplunk is doing in a basement. Tariffs, and two dads who don't care where you land politically saying the quiet part: the end customer pays, and prices that go up do not come back down.

It lands on a children's book. Maddie's Fridge, by Lois Brandt — two best friends, and one of them has an empty refrigerator. Sometimes the guy on the side of the road isn't beaten half to death. Sometimes it's an empty fridge, and you don't know what anyone else is going through.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open — sometimes it is that empty fridge

00:12 DadTails — EP 7

00:20 Welcome in — back from Pittsburgh

03:15 Fact check — the teacher-salaries thing

04:45 The pour — The Silent Order

11:16 Faith — who is my neighbor? (Luke 10)

19:02 Neighbors who show up

22:40 Family — not no, not right now

23:13 The Costco Kerplunk

26:48 Grab it, take a picture

30:32 Business — tariffs are taxes

39:40 Pay the bills — RYZE mushroom coffee

40:58 What a good living costs now

42:51 Maddie's Fridge — hidden hunger

45:22 Next week on DadTails

THE POUR — The Silent Order. Two ounces of green Chartreuse, half an ounce of lime, half an ounce of water, seven sweet basil leaves. Shaken, never muddled — muddle the basil and it turns bitter — then double-strained into a coupe. Green Chartreuse is made by Carthusian monks from around 130 plants, and it is the only liqueur that gives its colour its name. Their motto translates as: the cross is steady as the world turns. The full kit and every tool: https://dadtails.com/gear

CORRECTION — the steel and aluminium tariffs mentioned around 38:58 were enacted in 2018 under Section 232, not 2016, and they applied broadly rather than to China alone; the China-specific action that year was Section 301.

MENTIONED — Luke 10:25-37, the Good Samaritan · Maddie's Fridge by Lois Brandt · Cocktail Codex and Meehan's Bartender Manual · RYZE mushroom coffee · the Carthusians and Stat crux dum volvitur orbis

THE FIELD NOTES — one email a week: the episode before it's public, plus the cocktail and the kit. https://dadtails.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Roast us: [email protected]. We read every email, and we'll read it live.

Music from #Uppbeat — "Groove Sauce" by Stan Town.

As an Amazon Associate, DadTails earns from qualifying purchases.

DadTails is a personal project — views are our own, not our employers'. Entertainment, not professional advice.

Two dads, a Hemingway Daiquiri, and back-to-school week. Pete got both kids dropped off, nobody cried, and it stung anyway.

Ryan brings Matthew 6 — the lilies of the field, the birds that get fed — in a week where his two-year-old was supposed to start preschool and instead threw up every night, no fever, no answers. Pete's oldest got swimmer's ear before she'd been in the pool once. None of that goes on Instagram, which is the point. The weeks that don't make the feed are the ones where your kids watch what "I love you" looks like: waking up at 2:00 AM, getting puked on, changing the sheets, being there.

Then the money. 45.7% of US households have no retirement account. The median balance for the ones that do is $87,000. 37% of US adults couldn't cover something over $400 in cash. 65% of non-retirees say they're not on track. Ryan says he'll retire at 60 and hopes to see 80; Pete asks whether $87,000 covers twenty years. And the wild card neither of them can size: if AI changes what work is, what does retirement even mean? Pete, speaking broadly: if you think future you doesn't need money, you're an idiot.

But then a Great Wolf Lodge day pass, a $6.50 churro at Disneyland, and where they land. Save for tomorrow. Spend on the things your kids are still talking about ten days later. And be right there where your feet are, because presence beats the money either way.

THE POUR — The Hemingway Daiquiri, also called the Papa Doble. White or silver rum, maraschino liqueur, grapefruit and lime, no simple syrup. Shaken, because shaking is what wakes the citrus up. The story goes Hemingway wanted his daiquiri with less sugar and more rum so he could put a few more away. The classic and the Hemingway are both in Meehan's Bartender Manual. The full kit and every tool: https://dadtails.com/gear

MENTIONED — Matthew 6, the lilies of the field · Mr. Sloth, the book Pete reads to his kids · Cocktail Codex and Meehan's Bartender Manual · Great Wolf Lodge, Kansas City · Disneyland churros · The Bench, a new format launching soon

THE FIELD NOTES — one email a week: the episode before it's public, plus the cocktail and the kit. https://dadtails.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Roast us: [email protected]. We read every email, and we'll read it live.

Music from #Uppbeat — "Groove Sauce" by Stan Town.

As an Amazon Associate, DadTails earns from qualifying purchases.

DadTails is a personal project — views are our own, not our employers'. Entertainment, not professional advice.

Two dads, The Last of the Oaxacans, and a stat Ryan drops before anyone says hello: the median first-time home buyer is now 40 years old, and first-time buyers are a record-low 21% of the market. $110,000 of income to afford a typical US home. $71,000 for a starter home, on one earner, at 6.7%.

The numbers turn out to be the smaller half. Pete walks through the prodigal son — the son who wasted all of it and still believed he could go home — and Ryan lands on what's underneath it: home has to be the place where the porch light stays on. From there it's a daughter asking her dad to help with her swim strokes for the first time ever, Toy Story and "When Somebody Loved Me," and the line neither of them lets go of — you never stop needing your parents. You just need them differently.

Then back to the houses, and an answer they arrive at from two directions at once. Stop caring about the stuff. Start caring about the people. Be the Joneses.

Recorded on a Monday, because Thursday's take wasn't good enough.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open — someday they're not gonna ask you

00:18 DadTails — EP 5

00:26 Welcome in

01:25 The pour — The Last of the Oaxacans

05:06 Faith — the prodigal son

16:47 Family — they need you differently

20:00 The Royals detour

23:17 Pay the bills — Yoto and Big Bible Stories

25:32 Toy Story — when somebody loved me

30:09 You never stop needing your parents

32:57 Business — the starter home is gone

41:48 Be the Joneses

45:33 Next week on DadTails

THE POUR — The Last of the Oaxacans. Equal parts mezcal, maraschino liqueur, green Chartreuse and fresh lime; shaken, double strained, served up. A riff on The Last Word (Detroit, 1910) with the gin swapped for mezcal — about 85–90% of mezcal comes from Oaxaca, which is where the name comes from. Green Chartreuse is still made by monks; only three know the whole recipe. The full kit and every tool: https://dadtails.com/gear

MENTIONED — Yoto, the screen-free audio player · Big Bible Stories for Little Hearts · City Brim Co. and the Ball Boy tee (not sponsored, Pete just wears it) · Toy Story and "When Somebody Loved Me"

THE FIELD NOTES — one email a week: the episode before it's public, plus the cocktail. https://dadtails.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Say hello: [email protected]

Music from #Uppbeat — "Groove Sauce" by Stan Town.

As an Amazon Associate, DadTails earns from qualifying purchases.

DadTails is a personal project — views are our own, not our employers'. Entertainment, not professional advice.

Two dads, one Boulevardier, and a disagreement they never actually settle.

Ryan brings back something a coworker in Germany told him — Sunday noise laws, no mowing, no vacuuming with the windows open. Out here, everyone and their mother is cutting grass on a Sunday. That opens Mark 2:27: the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Then they split. Pete says sitting still feels like squandering a gift, and that getting the house in order and the kids settled is rest. Ryan answers with St. Augustine — our hearts are restless until they rest in you — and argues there's a spiritual rest underneath the physical one. Neither lands it cleanly, and Pete tells Ryan to his face that he just restated Pete's position in different words so he wouldn't have to be wrong.

On faith at home: it isn't a program you teach, it's ambient. Your kids are copying what you do, not what you say — which is why performing it in front of them does the most damage. And Pete on what being a godparent actually means: tethering your soul to another, and standing at the gates to make sure she gets in.

Then, where work ends. 87% of new professional job postings are fully on-site. 36% of US employers added required on-site days this year. The debate stopped being about butts in seats and became about boundaries — and the wall that used to separate work from home is gone and isn't coming back. So who draws the line, your employer or you? Pete tells the handshake story from a $6M deal in the thick of the pandemic.

Nobody has it figured out. That's the show.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open — Sunday noise laws

00:20 DadTails — EP 4

00:25 Welcome in

01:33 The pour — The Boulevardier

04:45 Faith — rest vs. sloth (Mark 2:27)

16:51 Family — faith in the home

28:14 Pay the bills — Grüns

29:31 Business — where work ends

50:59 Next week on DadTails

THE POUR
The Boulevardier — bourbon, Campari, sweet vermouth. Named for the "man about town," credited to American expat Erskine Gwynne in 1920s Paris. The original is equal parts; we build it whiskey-forward at an ounce and a half. The bar kit we actually use: https://dadtails.com/gear

MENTIONED
Mark 2:27 · St. Augustine, Confessions · Grüns · Scott O'Neil, "Be Where Your Feet Are" — Ryan doesn't name the book on the show, but that's it, and the title is the phrase we keep coming back to.

THE FIELD NOTES
One email a week — the new episode before it's public, and the cocktail from the show: https://dadtails.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Got a cocktail you want us to pour, or something you want us to argue about? [email protected]

Music from #Uppbeat — "Groove Sauce" by Stan Town
As an Amazon Associate, DadTails earns from qualifying purchases.
DadTails is a personal project — views are our own, not our employers'. Entertainment, not professional advice.

Daycare costs more than the mortgage. Two dads run the math, and it doesn't work.

Pete and Ryan pour a Paper Plane and get into the squeeze every provider feels: the worry that shows up at 2am, the Mary & Martha trap, and the quiet drive to school that changed how Pete thinks about mornings. Plus: why you will never be as important as you are inside the four walls of your own home.

Nobody has it figured out. That's the show.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open — Be where your feet are

00:35 DadTails — EP 3

00:43 Welcome in

01:30 The pour — The Paper Plane

04:14 Faith — worry vs. providence

13:35 Family — the four walls

24:32 Pay the bills — Rise Mushroom Coffee

26:58 Business — daycare math

44:30 Next week — Where Work Ends

THE POUR
The Paper Plane. Equal parts bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, fresh lemon. Shake it cold. The bar kit we actually use: https://dadtails.com/gear

THE FIELD NOTES
One email a week — the new episode before it's public, and the cocktail from the show: https://dadtails.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Music from #Uppbeat — "Groove Sauce" by Stan Town
As an Amazon Associate, DadTails earns from qualifying purchases.
DadTails is a personal project — views are our own, not our employers'. Entertainment, not professional advice.

"Little by little, the bird builds its nest." Two dads on the year 2.9 million people bet on themselves — and what patience actually costs. Recorded over a mint julep in the garage. The stat: 2.9 million new business applications, Jan–May 2026 — the strongest five-month start in history (U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics: census.gov/econ/bfs). Where we land: the businesses that fail are the ones that outsource the idea. AI compresses the grunt work between conviction and first draft — it doesn't hand out conviction. Plus: the five-year rule for big decisions, why your spouse co-signs every bet whether you ask or not, and seeds from a 50-year-old catalpa. This week's pour: the mint julep — kit at dadtails.com/gear. As an Amazon Associate, DadTails earns from qualifying purchases; we only link what we actually use. Join the porch: new episodes every Thursday by email at dadtails.com. Help us find our sign-off — we're letting the audience write it; comment on any clip this week. Next Thursday: daycare math. DadTails is a personal project — views are our own, not our employers'. Entertainment, not professional advice.

Two dads, one Old Fashioned, and an honest hour.

Pete and Ryan open with the cocktail that started it all, then get into the thing every father recognizes and nobody names: the fast no. The reflex answer you give your kid — not because the answer is no, but because your head is already five steps ahead, and the quickest way to quiet it is to say no.

From there: the Parable of the Talents and what it costs to sit on a gift. What our own dads modeled, the good and the bad. And a real disagreement about AI — whether it takes the entry-level jobs our kids are walking toward, and what you'd actually tell them if they graduated tomorrow.

Nobody has it figured out. That's the show.

CHAPTERS

00:00 The fast no

00:21 Pull up a chair — the Old Fashioned

03:37 Faith: the Parable of the Talents

07:00 Why we restarted DadTails

09:20 Our own dads

12:45 The fast no, in full

16:28 Our kids don't need us to be perfect

20:28 AI — and not the fun kind

32:57 What would you tell your kids?

37:18 No job is too small

43:16 Pull up a chair with us

THE POUR

The Old Fashioned. Bourbon or rye, a sugar cube, Angostura, a splash of water. That's all you need. The bar kit we actually use: https://dadtails.com/gear

THE FIELD NOTES

One email a week — the new episode before it's public, and the cocktail from the show: https://dadtails.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Music from #Uppbeat — "Groove Sauce" by Stan Town

DadTails is a personal project — views are our own, not our employers'. Entertainment, not professional advice.

Two dads — five years of friendship deep — talking fatherhood, business, and faith, one cocktail at a time. The weekly show starts Thursday, August 13. New episodes every Thursday. Get episodes by email at dadtails.com. The gear we actually use: dadtails.com/gear. DadTails is a personal project — views are our own, not our employers'. Entertainment, not professional advice. As an Amazon Associate, DadTails earns from qualifying purchases.