Pulling Threads

Alex spent an entire week off work trying to build a deck. What he found underground nearly sent him over the edge. Buried rocks the size of a coffin, mystery pipes, failed inspections, and a $1,200 hole-digging bill with almost nothing to show for it. This is the most honest renovation meltdown you'll ever hear. In this episode: - The full deck disaster saga, from Kanga loaders to jackhammers...

Alex and Troy take an online toxic masculinity test live and compare their results. It goes exactly how you'd expect. One brother scores more toxic than average, the other less, and Troy's wife somehow outscores them both on deceitful arrogance. Before that, the boys rip through their signs of getting old, from war history podcasts to Crocs and socks to refusing to flush the toilet. Plus a...

Troy just ran his first ever 50K ultra and beat Alex by 20 minutes. This episode is the full debrief. The emotions at the finish line, the fuelling disasters, the moments where it nearly fell apart, and a pair of spray-painted gold boots that might become a family heirloom. In this episode: - Troy's complete race day breakdown from start line nerves to finish line tears - The golden Cleary boo...

Tim Kacprzak is back and he's still our most listened episode by a long shot. This time he walks us through 83 days of consecutive running, coaching Troy to his first 50K, and why backyard ultra might be the most exciting sport that nobody's figured out how to pay athletes for yet. In this episode: - Tim's 83 day running streak and the moment his body just stopped hurting - Why the men...

Three tradies sit down and talk about the stuff blokes never talk about. Fatherhood, home births, obstetric violence, and why most men show up to the biggest moment of their partner's life completely unprepared. Then it gets loose with bush mechanic stories, mine site fuck ups, apprentice disasters, and the fertility crisis nobody seems to know how to fix. In this episode: - Building the ulti...

Alex got strong-armed by an online PT course for eight months after trying to cancel. Debt collector threats, credit score scare tactics, fake final warnings. He used AI to fight back and won without paying a cent. This one's a masterclass in not rolling over when a company tries to bully you. In this episode: - The full breakdown of how an online fitness course tried to squeeze Alex for $4,000 he...

Blaine Burke dropped a carousel that put the entire backyard ultra world on notice. Women make up 5% of the field, the female world record holder gets recorded as a DNF, and the guy who invented the sport thinks splitting categories would ruin the whole point. Alex and Troy break down why that argument doesn't hold up anymore and what King of the Hill is doing differently. In this episode: - Blain...

A bloke runs the first ever sub two hour sanctioned marathon and the guy who came second also breaks the world record. Nobody will remember his name. That kicks off a conversation about loneliness stats, making mates as an adult, the dumbest things operators have ever done on site, and whether wearing undies under your jammies makes you a psychopath. In this episode: - Sebastian Saur's sub two hou...

Alex ran 38 hours at the Melbourne Front Yard Ultra and still walked away feeling like he never got to race. This is the raw, honest debrief of what went right, what went wrong, and why world-class preparation doesn't guarantee the result you wanted. In this episode: - The full breakdown of Alex's 38-yard backyard ultra debut and the knee injury that ended it - Why boring is beautiful in a backyar...

Troy reverse-engineers a household scam that's been ripping off every Australian kitchen for decades, and the fix costs 17 cents and a hot glue gun. Alex breaks down the only cold weather running gear you actually need (hint: it's less than you think), and we get deep into the unwritten lore of mine sites, from the Jesus Box to the Whack Pit. In this episode: - Troy's 17-cent hack that beats the $...

Alex ran 100km solo through the night and started falling asleep on his feet six hours in. Troy discovered his smoko noodles are 800 calories. And there's a hair loss drug blokes are popping like vitamins that might shut down the one thing they actually need working. In this episode: - Alex's backyard ultra sim and the moment sleep deprivation hit like a truck - Troy's calorie track...

A 104kg bloke got punched in the back of the head, couldn't sleep for months, nearly lost his mind in London, and somehow turned it all into a career helping men sleep and a movement called the Heavyweight Running Division. Jordan Stanton is one of the most honest, high-energy guests we've had on the pod. In this episode: - How a Muay Thai sparring session gave Jordan a traumatic brain i...

Hannah finally cracked the sourdough code, Coles got caught running one of the most genius scams in Australian retail history, and we found three small things that gave us outsized returns in life. Plus we get into whether your wife not taking your last name should be a deal breaker. Spoiler: we don't agree on everything. In this episode: - Hannah's cheese and jalapeno sourdough and the...

A bloke lost $98,000 on a house deposit because he was two days late and then decided to take it to court instead of taking the money back. That story alone tells you everything you need to know about this episode. Alex and Troy get into the dumbest financial decisions blokes make, why you need to move out of home before life moves on without you, and the quiet art of winding up your partner just...

After watching the Manosphere documentary, Alex went straight to a Gordon Ramsay doco and couldn't stop thinking about the contrast. One side is a bunch of blokes getting rich telling young men women are objects. The other is a bloke with six kids, 70 restaurants, and the same wife for 20 years. This episode is a genuine conversation about what a good man actually looks like in 2025. In this e...

Alex nearly got cooked alive on a recycling plant floor when an operator reached over his shoulder and switched a live circuit back on mid-job. Troy got pinned against a locomotive by a runaway bobcat. And that was before they got to the shaft inspection where a concrete door exploded at exactly the spot they were supposed to be standing. This episode is Crib Time Stories at its most unhinged — re...

Mining perks are a different animal entirely. Free tools, supplier kickbacks, box seats at State of Origin, Lady Gaga tickets, and flying anywhere in the world on the company's dime — Alex and Troy break down the wildest job perks they've ever had, and some of them are genuinely unbelievable. Plus Troy's coworkers found the podcast, someone shit themselves on a run, and David Gatt just did 168 kil...

Tim Kacprzak grew up with a rough family environment, was 25 kilos overweight at 29, and couldn't button his shirt at a mate's suit fitting. Now he's one of Australia's most decorated ultra endurance athletes with a 37% career podium rate. This one goes deep on fatherhood, breaking generational patterns, and what it actually costs to build a life worth admiring. In this episode: -...

AI agents just did in 10 minutes what used to take days of research, and it scared the shit out of both of us. This week we also break down a 12,345 pull-up world record, a family who scammed a $600 steak dinner with an armpit hair, and a Norwegian Olympic medalist who confessed to cheating on live TV. If you reckon AI won't touch your life, this is the episode that'll change your mind. Check out...

If you’re in a relationship, where’s the line between “we’re mates” and “this is getting a bit too close”? We get stuck into the best-friend boundary, the situations that look innocent on paper, and why the door being “slightly open” is still a problem. From there it turns into the usual Pulling Threads chaos: anonymous accounts talking big without putting their name to it, why that’s a bitch move...

Someone out there is deadset calling themselves a “public figure” on Facebook, in their actual name. Not the bio, not the grey little tag, the name. We saw it, nearly threw up, and had to unpack what kind of person does that, and why it feels so criminal. Before we get there though, we kick off with the post-challenge slump, Strava tax drama, and Troy getting absolutely rinsed for butchering the S...

There was a moment mid-event where the ticket sales just kept popping off, and the fear flipped into this one thought: holy shit, it actually worked . Not just “the race went well”… but the whole idea of what we’re building. We talk about how the livestream turned king of the hill into proper background test cricket . Something you chuck on in the workshop, get distracted, come back, talk shit, th...

Merlin didn’t just “go for a run”. He dragged a little trailer from the top of Australia all the way to Tassie, slept in a hammock on the side of the road, and woke up every day to do it again. We talk the real logistics and the real shit parts: 126 days, about 5,700km, what he ate, how he found water, what happens when the trailer breaks, and what it’s like camping in croc country with mozzies ch...

Most blokes reckon they’re “capable”… until something actually goes wrong and they’re standing there like a stunned mullet. In this episode we rip into what makes you a “bitch” when shit hits the fan and what the bare minimum should be if you want to be a dependable man, not just a loud one. We build out the “swiss army knife” list, the skills every bloke should have in his back pocket for work, h...

What started as a brutal endurance race turned into something way bigger than we expected. This episode pulls back the curtain on King of the Hill — the chaos, the 12-hour days, the mistakes, the wins, and that quiet moment after pack-down where you realise it actually worked. We talk livestreams, sacrifice, building something from nothing, and why the race was never really the point.