The Cold Oatmeal Podcast

If it’s cold, cloudy and a weird mix of icy and muddy, then it must be award show season! 

And so it is, time for the 3rd Annual Reschies, our team’s look back at the highs, lows and inane of 2025.

This year, with a special surprise. We have a guest host! No, not Conan, or Billy, Nikki, or Nate.  It’s Michelle Lange, Director Emeritus of the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget!

We’ve got awards for the most annoying thing of 2025, worst NFL officiating, WAGS (that’s ok, I didn’t know either) and Lansing’s best coffee cocktails. And of course, the always anticipated naming of the Lunch of the Year!

Dust off the wingtips. It’s time for the Reschies, and it’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!

We’ve found him! The guy in charge of finding and putting up in front of the State Capitol the State of Michigan Christmas tree. Or, more officially, The State Christmas Tree Guy.

Heath Miller is our guest. Heath works for the State of Michigan, and, among other things, he is responsible for arguably Michigan’s largest and most prominent holiday decoration.

It’s our holiday episode, and it’s a good one.

Ho, ho, ho. You’re listening to the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.

Buckle up! We break all the rules on today’s episode.

Joe Ford of Netvantage SEO is our guest, and he is an expert in how we search the internet and the ads we all see as a result. He’s a CEO of SEO!

Plus, we are all officially in Buell/Becsey wedding crunch time. Will Joe get his vows done in time?

You’re listening to the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.

You think your lawn is nice? Bet it’s not as nice as the Grassman’s.

Trey Rogers is a professor and researcher in Michigan State University’s internationally renowned Turfgrass Management Program, and just like he did in 1994, he’s helping grow, move and place the playing fields for the World Cup happening across North America next summer.

How do you grow beautiful, healthy grass soccer fields and put them in football stadiums with cement floors, some of them indoors? How do you make sure the fields will hold up for the biggest sporting event in the world? What’s his own lawn look like? And how often should you mow? Trey shares it all, and it’s fascinating.

Plus, we time travel with the saints and introduce our Cold Oatmeal spinoff pods.

You’re listening to the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.

I love me an amazing intro to a Cold Oatmeal episode. Especially an amazing intro in support of a terrific guest.

Today, Samantha Harkins, new CEO of Lansing 5:01, is in the CO chair.

Lansing 5:01’s mission is to retain and attract young professionals in the Lansing region. There’s no small task, but if you know Samantha, and we know that a lot of you do, you know there is no one better for the job.  

And the intro? Well, you’ll just need to listen, but it should be noted that no one was injured – that badly – in its recording.

You’re listening to the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.

Despite internet and Lansing lunch spot conspiracy theories that Sean Fitzgerald was recruited to Resch Strategies in order to end the Cold Oatmeal Podcast once and for all, we are back!

The Alec Baldwin of Cold Oatmeal, Zach Gorchow, is our guest - again. Zach is President of Michigan Operations for Gongwer News Service. He is an expert reporter of and pundit on all things Lansing politics, and he is with us to share his insights on Lansing’s Summer of Stalemate. Also, his process in writing his Reschie-winning weekly column, The Weekender.

You’re listening to the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.

We’re back! Well kinda.

Our technical difficulties have been addressed, and we are back in the Cold Oatmeal studios to welcome our new colleague, Sean Fitzgerald.

Some might say his hiring was part of a grand and complicated conspiracy involving Avril Lavigne, Jose Uribe, traffic lights and a bay leaf.

We explore, you win. You’re listening to the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.

Whether nursing your Lame Duck hangover or fighting the traffic of last minute holiday shopping or ducking away from annoying relatives, we’ve got just what the internet-certified doctor ordered up… the 2nd Annual Reschies!

That’s right. Do something once, and it’s a mistake. Do the same thing again a year later, and it’s annual. And so it is with the Reschies, our team’s look back at 2024 with awards in hand to recognize the moments both good and bad that left a mark.

Steph’s conspiracy theories, Nick’s Twitter mea culpa, Laura’s condiment consumption and so much more.

Roll out the red carpet. It’s time for the Reschies, and it’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!

We are one week out. Who’s gonna win this thing?

We know it won’t be the American people, but respected pollster Richard Czuba joins us to share who’s trending to at least get the most votes.

Richard owns the Glengariff Group and has been doing non-partisan opinion research and polling for more than 30 years. He’s the pollster for the Detroit News and WDIV TV 4 in Detroit, and today he’s our election-preview guest on the Cold Oatmeal Podcast! 

 Yay, more politics!!

Residents and regular visitors to East Lansing – Heck! Even college football or basketball TV viewers across the country – know there are only a few iconic “college bars” in town. Mike Krueger owns them both.

For decades now, Crunchy’s and the Peanut Barrel have been “the places to go” for MSU students and local residents alike, serving good beer, amazing burgers and great – although maybe slightly hazy – memories. Mike didn’t start either place, but he’s leading them now. And today, he’s with us on the podcast.

What’s the secret? How’d he come to own them both? Which burger does he like best? It’s Mike Krueger, and it’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!