The NJ DAD Podcast

One unforgettable East Side bar. Enough characters to fill a thousand stories.

Twenty years later, I’m still talking about the Midtown Manhattan cantina where I spent one of the craziest years of my life behind the bar.

Two Richies. Adult films for sale in the bathroom. A security team hooked on the nonalcoholic strawberry shakes I made for them. And a cast of regulars and coworkers you couldn’t make up.

On this episode of The NJ Dad Podcast, I’m revisiting the people, the chaos, and the stories that made this place so interesting and wild that it deserved its own episode two decades later.

Pour yourself something and join me for a 24-minute trip back to one bar with 1000 characters.

Subscribe to The NJ Dad Podcast with Andrew Parise for new episodes every Thursday.

What does it take to make a difference where you live? Often, a little time and a willingness to show up.

 Mayor Amy Wiczynski joins Andrew for a funny, thoughtful conversation about volunteerism, coaching first-grade girls’ soccer, and finding your place in a community—whether that’s a small town or a big city.

They get into New Jersey’s changing landscape and overdevelopment, the joys of the local Facebook comment section, and accepting that you can’t please everybody. Amy brings the perspective of someone with service in her blood. Andrew brings the perspective of the guy making jokes in the back of the group project.

It’s a conversation about getting involved in everyday ways, making a small but meaningful contribution, and showing our kids what it looks like to care about the place we call home.

The NJ Dad Podcast with Andrew Parise. New episodes every Thursday.

Every leaf still on the tree is future work. Every “quick fix” comes with three more jobs. And every Friday, you convince yourself this is the weekend you’ll finally catch up.

Andrew takes on the endless cycle of home upkeep: clogged drains, repeat repairs, rotating pests, the unfinished basement, and a to-do list that assumes he has a staff. Add Sisyphus with a leaf blower and a few suburban plagues, and you’ve got a familiar kind of domestic futility.

If nothing ever stays finished, when do we give ourselves permission to sit down?

The NJ Dad Podcast: navigating suburban fatherhood with a wink and a whiskey.

A simple outing with your kids comes with negotiations, bathroom stops, and requests to see someone who may not even live in the state.

Andrew talks through five places we bring our kids: schools and activities, restaurants, grocery stores, general errands, and car rides and road trips. There’s the challenge of getting out the door, figuring out restaurant behavior, fielding backseat requests, and occasionally running an errand just to run out the clock.

Then comes the top five list of kid requests: a bathroom, something to buy, an immediate return visit, complete control of the ambiance, and a reunion with someone entirely unrelated to the outing.

Follow the New Jersey Dad Podcast with Andrew Parise and share this episode with a parent who knows “one quick stop” is a bold promise.

At 25, stretching was optional. At 45, stretching is the sport.

Andrew explores the world of middle-aged dad sports: his disastrous experience in a men’s pickup basketball league, his much more successful return to softball, and the increasingly serious competition surrounding bowling, golf, cornhole, bocce and every other activity dads refuse to play casually.

It’s about dead legs, adult-league characters, postgame beers and the reason grown men still need somewhere to compete. Maybe we aren’t trying to become young again. Maybe we just miss playing.

Andrew sits down with Ryan Lamon, founder of Smiley Impact, for a conversation about creating content, building a brand, connecting with people, and using media to make a positive impact.

Ryan shares the thinking behind Smiley Impact and his mission to help businesses and personal brands grow through authentic storytelling, video, photography, social media, and creative marketing.

ABOUT RYAN LAMON
Ryan Lamon is the founder of Smiley Impact, a New Jersey-based creative marketing company focused on helping businesses build visibility, trust, and meaningful connections through high-quality content.

Learn more about Smiley Impact:
https://www.smileyimpact.com/

Follow Smiley Impact on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/smiley_impact/

Follow Ryan:
https://www.instagram.com/ryanlamon_/

The NJ Dad Podcast with Andrew Parise
Episode 52

As Andrew prepares to turn 45, he looks back at three very different jobs that shaped him: bartending, teaching baseball, and working in show business.

From making people feel welcome and dealing with irrational sports parents to surviving rejection and having the nerve to put your work into the world, each job offered lessons that followed him into fatherhood, relationships, and the New Jersey Dad Podcast.

Three jobs. Nine lessons. And one common thread: the small things are often the whole job.

Episode 51 of The New Jersey Dad Podcast with Andrew Parise. New episodes every Thursday.

Back to school isn’t just for the kids. When a new school year begins, the entire family has to change gears.

In the 50th episode of the NJ Dad Podcast, Andrew talks about back-to-school jitters, waiting to find out who your teacher will be, the annual school-supply run and the ever-growing collection of apps parents are suddenly expected to understand. He also looks back at his own teachers and school experiences and compares what back-to-school felt like as a kid with what it looks like now as a dad.

Episode 50 is a milestone, too—an opportunity to appreciate how far the show has come without dwelling on it for too long. There are more stories to tell, more fun to have and plenty of road ahead.

Another school year begins, the whole family gets involved, and the NJ Dad Podcast keeps moving forward.

I genuinely thought I’d go through life with the energy of a golden retriever—always moving, always looking for the next thing and never really calming down.

Then, slowly, I became a guy who wears the same dad shirt multiple nights in a row, worries deeply about the state of other people’s driving and somehow learned how to handle paperwork, bills and the daily machinery of running a household.

In Episode 49, I’m talking about the things I never thought I’d become—and how growing older, becoming a husband and raising kids quietly turns you into someone your younger self probably wouldn’t recognize.

Not necessarily cooler. But surprisingly competent.

Andrew is breaking out four Top 5 lists covering sports, fatherhood, middle age and the things every dad believes he has mastered.

In Episode 48 of The NJ Dad Podcast:

• The five greatest sports movies
• Things dads claim they know—fixing things, knowing celebrities and somehow coaching future professional athletes
• Andrew’s essential dad items, including his chair, whiskey, Spotify, slip-on Skechers and cordless drill
• Things nobody warned him about in his 40s—from hangover and workout recovery to how quickly time passes with your kids

Four lists. Twenty selections. Plenty of questionable expertise.

The New Jersey Dad Podcast with Andrew Parise is an honest and funny look at fatherhood, marriage, suburban life and getting older without completely growing up.