Frankie and Jess

(Disclaimer: Strong language and adult content)

What if failure isn’t something to avoid, but something to welcome?

We kick off our first episode of the week talking about rejection, persistence and why sometimes one yes can change your entire life. Frankie shares the rejection letters he collected trying to break into radio, the interview that eventually brought him to Utah, and a milestone that’s hard to believe: October 6 marks 29 years since his first day on the air in Salt Lake City.

The conversation gets deeper as Frankie talks about visiting his mom in rehab and what he’s witnessing there — aging, isolation, the residents whose faces have become familiar, and the special people who care for them every day. There’s also that complicated push and pull of sometimes wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible, while knowing someday you might wish you’d stayed another ten minutes.

We also hear from “Miss X,” a listener starting over after unexpectedly losing the career she gave ten years to, and longtime listener Julie Smith, who says hearing our own story of losing the radio show and rebuilding helped give her the courage to bet on herself and launch her own business.

Plus, Hollywood Sleaze is back! We explain why management once made us change its name to Hollywood Headlines — and, of course, get into some of the sleaze making news.

COMING UP THIS SUNDAY: Julie Janke from Millcreek City Lifestyle invites you to Sip & Savor Millcreek — Utah’s Premier Dine-Around Finale Festival, Sunday, October 11 from noon–4 PM at Log Haven in Millcreek Canyon. The 21+ event features 35+ participating establishments, curated bites, seasonal drinks and live music, while supporting WasteLess Solutions and a $20,000 food-rescue refrigeration fundraiser. Parking is at Skyline High School with shuttle service to Log Haven.

Failure, reinvention, aging, community and figuring out how to keep moving when life doesn’t go according to plan. Sometimes the no isn’t the end of the story. You just haven’t reached your yes yet.

Frankie & Jess Podcast — Real talk. Real laughs. Every week.

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(Disclaimer: Strong language and adult content)

Frankie and Jess end this week with a question that stopped both of them for a minute: What do you miss about the person you were 20 years ago?

Jess misses some of the innocence—the rose-colored glasses and not knowing what was coming. Frankie misses the lightness of life before losing his dad, watching his mom get older, and carrying some of the things that simply come with another 20 years of living.

But before they get there, there’s a LOT to unpack.

They talk about healing even when it doesn’t feel like healing, teaching your kids the difference between attention and love, recognizing patterns in people, learning to tolerate disappointment, and why loyalty shouldn’t require sacrificing yourself. Sometimes choosing yourself isn’t selfish. Sometimes it’s overdue.

Jess also opens up about missing Coop since he left for college and realizing why people sometimes reach for something to numb themselves instead of sitting with what hurts. That leads to a conversation about walking, nature, getting quiet—and the idea of a weekly “three-hour disappear”: no phone, no Wi-Fi, no people. Just enough silence to hear yourself again.

Plus, a frightening Airbnb break-in story leads to a bigger conversation about travel safety, they talk about reports of drink spiking and the importance of looking out for yourself and each other, Jess nearly ripped Frankie’s pants off on a roller coaster, chickens apparently aren’t chickening, and somehow airplane masturbation makes the show.

Growing older may take away a little of the lightness. Maybe the challenge is figuring out how to find some of it again.

Frankie & Jess Podcast — Real talk. Real laughs. Every week.

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(Disclaimer: Strong language and adult content)

Caleb Chapman is back in the music room, and this time he brought some pretty incredible news.

Caleb is the founder of Caleb Chapman’s Soundhouse, where young musicians get the opportunity to learn, perform and share stages with some of the biggest names in music. He’s also the co-founder, along with Adam Reader — the Professor of Rock — of Utah’s People’s Music Hall of Fame.

After honoring Huey Lewis in 2025 and Kenny Loggins in 2026, the next inductees are legendary: Earth, Wind & Fire.

Caleb tells us how a friendship with Earth, Wind & Fire musical director Myron McKinley helped open the door, why he initially thought there was no way it would actually happen, and what happened when he sent the band his dream list of everything he hoped they’d agree to.

They said yes to all of it.

On January 23, 2027, Philip Bailey, Verdine White and Ralph Johnson will be at the Eccles Theater in downtown Salt Lake City for the People’s Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony, sharing stories from their career and ultimately taking the stage with Caleb’s young Soundhouse artists.

We also get into the music that shaped Caleb — from getting Journey’s Frontiers for his 10th birthday to eventually becoming close friends with Journey drummer Steve Smith — plus Huey Lewis, Kenny Loggins, Sting, The Police, backstage stories, crazy concert riders and why sitting with an album and reading every liner note was such a big part of falling in love with music.

And there’s another Utah connection. Caleb will be performing with David Osmond and the Osmond Chapman Orchestra at The Christmas Box International’s 30th Anniversary Black & White Pearl Gala.

Oh, and apparently when you perform at an aquarium, the sharks have a rider too. 😂

🎶 People’s Music Hall of Fame: Earth, Wind & Fire January 23, 2027 • Eccles Theater • Salt Lake City Caleb says tickets are expected to go on sale at the end of October.

People’s Music Hall of Fame / ticket information: https://www.ccsoundhouse.com/events/scholarship-concert-y39ft-hw3fx

🎵 Caleb Chapman’s Soundhouse: https://www.ccsoundhouse.com

🖤 The Christmas Box International — 30th Anniversary Black & White Pearl Gala: https://secure.qgiv.com/event/2026blackwhitepealgala/

Frankie & Jess Podcast — Real talk. Real laughs. Every week.

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(Disclaimer: Strong language and adult content)

Sometimes life hands you a whole pile of emotions and says, Here. Hold all of these.

This week, Frankie and Jess talk about the childhood stuff we carry into adulthood—and the responsibility we eventually have to heal it so the people around us don’t become collateral damage.

Frankie opens up about getting closer to bringing his ma home, navigating Medicaid and New Choices, and realizing there are some parts of caregiving you simply can’t prepare for until you’re living them.

And then there’s Mike.

After five years in Utah, Frankie’s brother is leaving for New Jersey to start a new career and be closer to his sons. Frankie is genuinely excited for him…and genuinely sad to see him go. Those five years gave two brothers who had spent most of their adult lives apart a chance to become friends. They gave Axel an uncle nearby, his ma more time with her son, and Mike a chance to get back on his feet.

Both can exist at the same time.

Plus, Jess checks in on Coop’s first weeks of college, a weekend of weddings and celebrations, Frankie and Tammy play tourist in their own city, a listener discovers the podcast at Costco, and a message from one of Frankie’s longtime radio mentors brings things full circle.

Life is messy. Good things can hurt. Hard things can hold silver linings. And sometimes all you can do is take the next thing as it comes.

Frankie & Jess Podcast — Real talk. Real laughs. Every week.

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(Disclaimer: Strong language and adult content)

At this point in life, Frankie and Jess are getting a lot more intentional about who gets their time, their energy, and their peace.

It starts with a quote that opens up a much bigger conversation:

“You owe no one forgiveness who refuses to acknowledge how they hurt you.”

A listener question takes Frankie and Jess back to some difficult chapters from their radio years—and former coworkers they rarely talk about. They open up about forgiveness, accountability, being made the villain in somebody else’s story, and what it was really like showing up every morning and putting on a show while some pretty painful things were happening behind the scenes.

Looking back, they also realize something else: through all of it, the listeners were their constant. The relationship went both ways. Frankie and Jess may have been helping people through divorces, births, deaths and hard seasons—but that community was helping carry them, too.

Then comes a heartbreaking Southern Utah story about a family whose dog was mistakenly euthanized during what was supposed to be a routine allergy-shot appointment—and a conversation about how something so devastating could happen.

From there, things get personal again.

Jess talks about protecting her energy, stepping back from one-sided relationships and discovering JOMO—the joy of missing out. Frankie, ironically, is going the other direction. After decades of saying no because “it’s a school night” and morning radio controlled so much of his life, he’s trying to say yes more often.

Maybe protecting your peace doesn’t always mean staying home. Sometimes it means making sure you don’t miss your life.

Plus: Were you named after a celebrity, song or TV character? The surprisingly perfect reason Axel got his name, Tammy’s connection to Debbie Reynolds, the child Jess never had named Canton or Cohen, a possible Italian mob connection 😂, and why Frankie says one of the biggest differences between their old career and life now is simple:

“Time is part of our paycheck now.”

And Jess tries to create a family meal while Coop is home from college… only to have the grocery delivery arrive with one steak and a whole lot of creamer.

Real talk, old wounds, getting older, protecting your energy—and figuring out when to say no and when to say yes.

Frankie & Jess Podcast — Real talk. Real laughs. Every week.

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(Disclaimer: Strong language and adult content)

Monica Garcia: “I Lost Everything and Gained Everything”

Monica Garcia walked into Season 4 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and became one of the most talked-about Housewives in the franchise. But what happened when the cameras stopped rolling?

Monica joins Frankie and Jess for a raw, funny and surprisingly emotional conversation about what RHOSLC gave her, what it cost her, and what she wishes viewers had seen.

Nothing is really off limits.

Monica opens up about her complicated relationship with her mother and what it was like watching that dynamic play out on television. She explains why seeing it from the outside ultimately gave her the strength to say “no more,” set boundaries and stop patterns she didn’t want passed down to her own daughters.

Then we get into Housewives.

Monica takes us behind the scenes of the Season 4 reunion, what she says viewers didn’t see surrounding Reality Von Tease, where she stands with Mary Cosby, Meredith Marks, Whitney Rose, Lisa Barlow and Heather Gay today, and whether she would actually return to RHOSLC.

Her answer might surprise you.

She also talks about the side of reality television viewers rarely see: what happens when your life suddenly becomes public property. The DMs. The judgment. The online hate. The impact on your children and relationships. And why telling someone, “You knew what you signed up for,” doesn’t begin to capture what it actually feels like.

When Jess asks Monica what she lost from the experience and what she gained, her answer says everything:

“Everything and everything.”

Monica also talks about therapy, chosen family, breaking generational cycles, the people who showed up during her darkest moments, whether she’d ever do The Traitors, and why she believes reality TV can burn your old life to the ground while simultaneously giving you the chance to build a new one.

And there’s a full-circle moment at the end that caught Frankie and Jess completely off guard when Monica reveals what listening to them on the radio meant to her years before any of them knew one another.

KEEP UP WITH MONICA

Instagram & Threads: @monicanikigarcia

Monica also appears with Carlos King on Reality with the King, where she’s currently recapping The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. 

She previously returned to reality TV as the voice of EVA 2.0 on Season 2 of House of Villains. 

And listen for Monica on Celebrity Weakest Link, which she told us about during our conversation.

Frankie & Jess Podcast — Real talk. Real laughs. Every week.

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(Disclaimer: Strong language and adult content)

And then… life starts lifeing.

Jess shares a weekend that didn’t go remotely as planned, including Kevin’s back going out, having to cancel a wedding trip at the last minute, heartbreaking news about someone deeply connected to their family, and another big change in Coop’s life.

Frankie is meanwhile learning firsthand just how complicated it can be to navigate Medicaid, New Choices and the maze of caring for an aging parent. Then comes the late-night phone call nobody wants to get: his mom has fallen at the care center and is headed to the ER.

And somehow, that’s only Tuesday.

By the end of the week, Frankie and Axel are trying to make it to a wedding in Southern Utah through torrential rain, a closed interstate and more than a few moments when turning around seemed like the obvious choice.

They kept going.

And on the other side was a beautiful wedding, an hour in a slot canyon with Axel, time with Tammy and a reminder that sometimes the moments you almost miss are exactly the ones you needed.

It all leads to a bigger conversation about being present for the messy parts of life, allowing yourself to actually feel what you’re going through, and why Frankie and Jess are more grateful than ever to be where they are today.

Life is lifeing. Choose your words wisely. Feel the feels. And sometimes… just keep going.

Frankie & Jess Podcast — Real talk. Real laughs. Every week.

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Frankie and Jess start with a line that hit hard: “The final stage of healing is sitting in the quiet calm of your home, feeling gratitude instead of rushing to make plans.” That opens up a conversation about getting off the hamster wheel, the strange way your body can remember a stressful chapter of your life even when your mind knows you’re past it, and why getting fired might have actually been one of the greatest gifts they were ever given.

From there… things go places. 😂

Jess has to lock down her Instagram after an invasion of creepy accounts, somehow gets one of Koko’s dog hairs embedded in her foot, and shares the emotional roller coaster of finally finding something that’s helping Koko after years of health problems.

Then there’s life with two dogs who used to be best friends and now essentially live like a divorced couple under the same roof. That leads to a much deeper conversation about what happens when someone you love becomes a danger to someone else you love—and the impossible decisions families sometimes have to make.

Also in this episode: empty-nest sex, whether kids actually know what their parents are doing, a $5 TikTok Shop fail, whether you’d buy your 21-year-old a Ferrari if money were no object, and Frankie discovering an old Betamax tape that may prove something he’s believed about his parents for decades… completely wrong.

Plus, coming off the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Frankie and Jess reflect on the unity that followed that day and a simple idea worth remembering: What if we tried being the people we were on September 12th?

It’s funny, uncomfortable, reflective, ridiculous and occasionally way deeper than expected.

Basically, a Frankie & Jess episode.

Frankie & Jess Podcast — Real talk. Real laughs. Every week.

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(Disclaimer: Strong language and adult content)

Odyssey Dance Theatre founder and artistic director Derryl Yeager is back with Frankie and Jess as Thriller kicks off its 29th year.

Derryl takes us all the way back to the beginning, when he was told just days before the show that ticket sales were so low he might want to cancel. He knew they had something special and decided if he was going down, he was going down in flames. Word of mouth took over, audiences grew, and within a couple of years they were selling out. Nearly three decades later, Thriller has become a Utah Halloween tradition.

We go behind the curtain to find out just how much work goes into making it happen—from weeks of rehearsals and a company of professional dancers to the secrets behind the blacklight skeletons, costume changes you never see, dancers battling claustrophobia inside their costumes, and a 12-foot Jack Skellington that takes five people to bring to life.

Derryl also shares some of the numbers that worked, some that definitely didn’t, and how Thriller has evolved as the world around it has changed. That includes retiring fan-favorite material, removing guns from the production and constantly figuring out where the line is—without losing the dark, irreverent sense of humor that makes Thriller what it is.

Plus, Bubbles the disgruntled clown, Jason and his chainsaws, the Lorena Bobbitt number, Giggle Girl singing “I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus,” skeleton mishaps, what happens when something goes wrong onstage, and why Derryl still wonders every year whether the magic will happen again.

Odyssey Dance Theatre’s THRILLER 2026:

• Logan — Ellen Eccles Theatre: September 18–19• Layton — Kenley Amphitheater: September 21–22• Ogden — September 25–26• Park City — Egyptian Theatre: September 30–October 7• Salt Lake City — The Grand Theatre: October 9–24, no Sunday performances• Tuacahn — October 28–31

It’s a funny, fascinating look behind one of Utah’s longest-running Halloween traditions—and at the creativity, risk and sheer amount of work it takes to keep the magic alive 29 years later.

Frankie & Jess Podcast — Real talk. Real laughs. Every week.

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Thanks to Salt Lake's own Super Bubble for the music on The Frankie and Jess Podcast! SuperBubbleBand.com

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(Disclaimer: Strong language and adult content)

It’s a Frankie and Jess catch-up, and life is changing on both sides of the studio.

Jess shares how Coop is settling into college and what she’s learning about parenting an adult kid—staying connected, giving him space and realizing that sometimes quality time really does beat quantity. Meanwhile, Frankie gives an update on his 88-year-old mom, some recent changes he’s noticed with her cognition, and the new reality that she’ll eventually be moving in with Frankie and his family.

They also catch up on a very busy couple of weeks, old friends, community, unexpected connections, Frankie’s latest speeding ticket situation and why maybe we all need to remember one simple idea: trust the detour.

Plus, plenty of the random tangents that somehow always find their way into a Frankie and Jess catch-up.

Frankie and Jess Podcast — Real talk. Real laughs. Every week.

@listentofrankieandjess on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@listentofrankieandjess?_t=ZT-8xrjEduwb6r&_r=1

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@jessfergie14 on TikTok

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Thanks to Salt Lake's own Super Bubble for the music on The Frankie and Jess Podcast! SuperBubbleBand.com

Please Support Our Sponsors: Tell them, Frankie and Jess sent you!

rigbydental.com

kengarffvwsouthtowne.com

softminkyblankets.com (FrankieandJess50 for 50 percent off regular priced items)

utahfacialplastics.com

lifetime.com

cottonwoodgarage.net

redriverhealthandwellness.com

gohebervalley.com

fearfactoryslc.com

mintmadeskincare.com

mintsushiut.com

justingredients.com FrankieandJess10 code to save 10%

modernandchicboutique.com use our code frankieandjess (all lower case)

odysseydance.com/thriller

https://linktr.ee/snappopparty?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=20cc5532-145f-4781-997b-f40dfc75d353

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices