Podcast Hosts:

Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.

Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter

Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter

Join the Slack and Use code OKAY:

⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠

Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠

BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠

Grant's wife is in labor, the due date is TODAY, and we recorded anyway — because the slide deck was full and the trash must be secured. Episode 0125 opens with a full Trash Battalion staff meeting (awards board voting, BLUF violations, 0530 trash bag training, and a surprisingly moving word from Chaps) before the guys get into the real intel: where's the line on American flag apparel? Crocs? Socks? Underwear? Tres draws his line and it involves not trusting his own farts.

Then Grant reports from Newport, Rhode Island on the greatest chow value in New England — the Two Bug Lunch — two whole lobsters, corn, and coleslaw for $40. Jeff finally stops gatekeeping Patagonia's tinned fish (a canned fish company that makes clothes), and Grant explains whether genetics actually matter for getting strong.

Plus: Week Zero college football (USC's crowd of dozens), Week 1 speed picks, the guys make their official picks on the baby's arrival date, time, and weight, and the episode closes with the definitive air power vs. sea power doctrine book-off. It's only a lot of reading if you do it.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

04:38 - Staff Brief

23:41 - Chaps Calls In

28:46 - Tres' Lifting Update

28:53 - Wearing The Flag Debate

34:34 - America 250th Plate Update

36:32 - Two Bug Lunch

41:00 - Tinned Fish

47:02 - Role of Genetics In Lifting

01:07:03 - Week Zero Recap

01:13:50 - Due Date Predictions

01:17:47 - Week One Picks

01:23:07 - NIL Chaos

01:25:45 - Hung Ordinance

Podcast Hosts:

Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.

Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter

Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter

Join the Slack and Use code OKAY:

⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠

Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠

BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠

The boys open episode 0124 in mourning: Dolly Parton, American legend and obvious Strength Co person, has passed at 80 — and Grant is devastated to learn he doesn't own a single Dolly record. The staff brief goes fully analog when Jeff declares a cyber-denied environment, forcing the trash battalion to determine the status of the Strait of Hormuz using a $2 bill, flat earth theory, and Mahan. The Cajun Sergeant Major checks in from the boil.

Grant breaks down his Navy War College basement home gym — what to buy nice, what to buy on Amazon, and why you never skimp on the bar and plates. Then Donnie Bowers (Naval Academy grad, Navy football alum, former Marine, two-time caller) joins to update his family life, pick Navy's schedule game-by-game, explain what NAPS actually is, and deliver an unforgettable off-the-cuff BW Tax ad read. Plus: college football playoff picks, NIL as the future of warfare, the Wiggles live in Boston, and the hardest part of being a dad.

Join the college pick'em: DM @theokaypodcast on Instagram. Labor Day weekend: $100 off Hundos at The Strength Co.

Timestamps:

00:00 - RIP Dolly Parton

11:11 - Staff Brief

24:04 - Outlying Stations

29:04 - Home Gym Build

39:46 - Big Donnie Joins The Show!

40:39 - Baby Update

45:44 - College Football Pick'em

01:14:47 - Predict The Record

01:24:48 - The Wiggles Concert

01:33:49 - Dad Life

01:38:52 - War College Update

01:43:03 - Donnie's BW Tax Ad Read

01:46:50 - Saved Rounds

Podcast Hosts:Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and LifterTres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and LifterJoin the Slack and Use code OKAY:⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠Episode 0123 — the number configuration you've been waiting 123 episodes for. The Trash Battalion staff brief convenes with the Strait of Hormuz still closed (per the official website), the dumpster tracker going purple and gold, and a hand-jammed Marine Corps Ball ticket tracker in case China knocks out our Excel spreadsheets. Then Grant makes the case for the home gym as he hunts Facebook Marketplace for vintage York squat stands to fit his Newport basement — because when you have kids, the return on training at home is 100x. It's Bitcoin. It's to the moon. With football season days away, the guys react to the AP Preseason Top 25, break down Texas A&M lanyard culture at the War College, and run their full game-by-game season picks for South Carolina, Auburn, and Texas A&M — including Grant's upset of the year: The Citadel over the Aggies. Finally, Grant reveals the Broggi Ice Cream Method: packed ice cream in a tall cup, milk poured to maximum surface tension, constant hydration, milkshake finish. Tres claims lactose intolerance. Grant counters with the science. Powered by The Strength Co. — America 250 plate coming soon, and the Turkey Pull hits Southern California in November.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

05:29 - Staff Brief

32:21 - Why You Need A Home Gym

50:28 - Sports Talk

59:51 - Season Picks

01:17:22 - Broggi Ice Cream Method

01:21:00 - Hung Ordinance

Trash Five delivers an executive level staff brief (12 dumpsters, 3 available), Grant spots a grandpa doing one-legged bosu ball holds and preaches the barbell gospel, and the Big 12 sells its name to Monster for $20M a year. Plus: Florida's Spurrier throwbacks, South Carolina's crimson crisis, roundabouts vs. rotaries, Rhode Island's secret clam chowder, and a War College Clausewitz update. Powered by The Strength Co.

Podcast Hosts:

Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.

Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter

Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter

Join the Slack and Use code OKAY:

⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠

Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠

BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

03:03 - Staff Brief

10:45 - Squat Tee

15:08 - Rotary Rage

18:14 - Clam Chowder

26:44 - Florida Uniforms

31:22 - Monster Sponsorship

37:41 - Bosu Balls vs Barbell Gospel

46:46 - Online vs In-person Coaching

53:00 - War College Update

01:06:42 - Saved Rounds

Episode 121. Grant reports from Newport, Rhode Island with a truck full of family heirlooms and a snapped serpentine belt. Jeff checks in from Air University, where the library fire alarm interrupted his midterm and his grandfather Emmett Gatewood may be hiding in the archives. Tres holds down Frisco, Texas and reviews Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

The staff brief features an unpaid battalion, a lobster bake from the new S1, a space domain tasking, the Wednesday pizza buffet, and a chaplain check-in you have to hear to believe. Plus: the Good Idea Cutoff Line (GICOL), broken stair steppers and gym radar at the Naval War College, Clausewitz applied to lifting and fatherhood, the oldest ballpark in America, a Red Sox baserunning debate, and a full coaching segment on bench press pain management.

America 250 plate is at the machine shop — pre-buyers ship early. The .75 lb plates are back in stock. The Strength app enters beta next week.

Podcast Hosts:

Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.

Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter

Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter

Join the Slack and Use code OKAY:

⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠

Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠

BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

07:31 - Staff Brief

28:09 - GICL

31:32 - Family Heirlooms

41:06 - Chevy Snaps A Belt

52:05 - Stairstepper Story

56:02 - Fire Alarm Madness

01:09:45 - The Odyssey Review

01:15:39 - Pain During The Bench Press

01:29:21 - Gulls Outing

01:36:16 - Sliding Into Bases Rule

01:39:57 - Big Announcements

01:46:15 - MRS. BROGGI PLEASE MAKE TRES A POUND CAKE

Podcast Hosts:

Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.

Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter

Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter

Join the Slack and Use code OKAY:

⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠

Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠

BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠

Episode 120 of The Okay Podcast, powered by The Strength Co. Grant checks in live from Newport, Rhode Island, Jeff reports from the greater Montgomery, Alabama area, and Tres joins by phone from the road.

The boys open with the most unhinged Trash Battalion staff brief yet — eagles vs. beagles leadership wisdom, a brand-new Boston adjutant pitching a lobster bake to the Cajun Sergeant Major, a Strait of Hormuz update delivered from the road, and a Marine who fell into a dumpster (he's okay, he's accounted for).

Then it's into the topics: Grant breaks down why so many people in commercial gyms are running the "Lost Boys workout" — wandering machine to machine with no plan — and why you need a purpose every time you walk in. Grant and Jeff compare base gym setups (including actual "no deadlifting" signs), swap war stories from their first weeks back at military school, and debate whether AI reading your homework to you counts as studying.

Plus: dad talk on bubble machine economics, movies edited by Grant's mom, taking a 23-month-old to Fenway on $10 military tickets, and a Chow Radar review of the most disappointing famous lobster roll in Newport.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

05:25 - Staff Brief

30:21 - Having A Purpose In The Gym

37:02 - Air Force Gym

43:43 - O5 Workout Culture

46:53 - National Guard Marines?

52:14 - War Homework & AI

01:01:50 - Dad Talk & Bubbles

01:06:05 - Sox Game

01:14:52 - Lobster Rolls & Chow Radar

Podcast Hosts:

Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.

Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter

Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter

Join the Slack and Use code OKAY:

⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠

Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠

BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠

Today on the show, the staff brief runs long: S1 explains the pay problem (the internet's been down, mostly), the Strait of Hormuz is functionally closed, the S3 wants you to be the trash, and all record jackets are now purple and yellow by order of the Cajun Sergeant Major. Dwight from Housing has a card for your wife.

Then: Jeff hands over November Battery after two years of command, Grant drives a '97 Chevy from Raleigh to Rhode Island (via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, unintentionally), the charcoal-vs-gas debate is settled forever, SEC Media Days kicks off, and Grant explains why 12 months of building your base of strength is the best investment you'll ever make.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

08:33 - Staff Brief

34:24 - New Jack White Album

37:18 - Moving Into A Furnished Place

42:26 - Gas Grill Debate

47:13 - SEC Media Day

55:00 - Congrats Jeff! Handing The Stick Off

01:04:40 - The Importance of Building A Base of Strength

01:12:15 - New Mexico

01:14:28 - Cajun Appreciation

01:16:28 - Sox Game

01:18:37 - Surviving The Chesapeake Bay Bridge

01:20:10 - Truck Talk

01:30:16 - Shoutout Massenomics For LHLE!

01:33:09 - Slides vs Charts

01:35:10 - Landing The Plane

Podcast Hosts:

Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.

Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter

Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter

Join the Slack and Use code OKAY:

⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠

Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠

BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠

The whole crew is back after last week's chaos. Grant is broadcasting live from a new location — Newport, Rhode Island — after moving cross-country with a pregnant wife, a two-year-old, and two cats. Somehow they all made it (barely — ask him about the sprint through O'Hare).

This week: the Trash Battalion staff brief returns in full PCS-season glory, the guys break down the surprisingly baffling experience of checking into military schools, Grant gives his first impressions of Newport (good food, expensive food), and there's a 4th of July recap on how the America 250 plates performed — half are already gone before Veterans Day.

Plus a World Cup wrap-up (Spain over France), the eternal debate over whether soccer counts when it's not about America, and a new battalion member joins the ranks: Major Delay, your local traffic guy.

Powered by The Strength Co.

Timestamps: 

00:00 - Intro

04:45 - Staff Brief

24:37 - Outlying Stations

27:40 - Talkin’ Trash With Mom

29:56 - War College

36:03 - Moving Across The Country

49:37 - World Cup Recap

56:05 - Saved Rounds

With Grant flying across the country mid-move, Tres and Jeff run their first-ever combo episode solo (with Jordy dropping in). What follows: a runaway bit about consolidating every sponsor into one all-in-one taxes/helmets/lifting shop, a genuinely useful garage gym conversation about the Echo Bike and shoulder-saving specialty bars, the ongoing evolution of "Chow Radar" into a Michelin-killing five-star institution, a sharp World Cup post-mortem after the US got bounced, and a wild real-life story about the actual broken washing machine from Breaking Bad.

Podcast Hosts:

Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.

Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter

Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter

Join the Slack and Use code OKAY:

⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠

Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠

BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠

Timestamps: 

00:00 - Intro

05:55 - Staff Brief

20:09 - Lifting Update & Echo Bikes

25:55 - Benching Rehab & Specialty Bars

31:32 - July 4th

35:46 - Traveling With Kids

39:07 - War College

49:08 - Actors That Never Miss

59:57 - Chow Radar

01:10:45 - World Cup Hot Takes

01:28:29 - Targeting Rule

01:34:54 - Best Pillows

01:39:17 - New Mexico

01:43:35 - Sign Off

Grant's back from fly fishing in the desert wilderness, bruised up from circus dumbbells at the Strength Co. crew meet-up, and fresh off a sweaty PFT.

Tres is closing in on an echo bike deal (Facebook Marketplace, obviously). Jeff is back from leave and energized (according to his wife, who finally started listening). We do the fastest staff brief in show history — nine minutes flat — and nobody got hurt.

Also: Tres goes solo dad for 48 hours, takes three girls to Cracker Barrel, changes a diaper on the bathroom floor, and comes out the other side with a new appreciation for stay-at-home moms.

Plus Alan Jackson's final concert, Waylon Jennings on vinyl, the America 250 plate drops July 4th, and Tres is buying a helmet for the Gamecocks. College football season is coming.

Podcast Hosts:

Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.

Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter

Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter

Join the Slack and Use code OKAY:

⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠

Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠

BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:45 - Staff Brief

12:50 - Tres Lifting Update

18:59 - PFT Anxiety

27:10 - Massenomics Cru Circus Dumbbell Lifting

36:12 - Moving Across Country

39:34 - 15lb Plate

44:31 - Fly Fishing Trip

01:03:32 - Solo Dadding

01:11:24 - Alan Jackson

01:15:14 - Saved Rounds