Simple Joe

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. In today’s Simple Joe, I’m talking about one of those stories that makes you wonder how something could possibly find its way home after nearly three decades. Two metal-detecting enthusiasts at Great Sacandaga Lake in New York discovered a high school class ring that had been lost for 28 years, then went out of their way to track down the owner and retu...

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. I’m sharing the results of the Simple Joe listener survey and talking about what you told me you enjoy most about the show, what surprised me, and what I learned from your feedback. Friday’s Top 10 remains a clear favorite, but I was genuinely surprised by how much you enjoy the Interesting Fact cold opening, along with Random Questions, Today in Histor...

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. In this Tuesday episode of Simple Joe, I start with a Cincinnati surprise: Penn Station East Coast Subs may sound like it belongs in Philadelphia, but the first location actually opened in downtown Cincinnati in 1985. From there, I check in with listeners in Clark, Central Luzon, Philippines, celebrate birthdays including Tommy Lee Jones, Oliver Stone,...

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. In this Monday episode of Simple Joe, I kick things off with the strange story behind the word “maverick,” check in on some beautiful September weather, and celebrate birthdays including Clayton Moore, Walter Koenig, Sam Neill, Nas, and Amy Winehouse. I also look back at Francis Scott Key and the origins of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” celebrate the anni...

In this Sunday episode of Simple Joe, I’m talking about one of those faith questions that keeps coming back to me: Does God care about the little things? We know we can take the big stuff to God, like illness, family problems, major decisions, and difficult seasons, but what about the ordinary things that fill most of our lives? The drive to work, a deadline, chores around the house, spending time...

In this episode of Simple Joe, I’m talking about a simple idea that really stuck with me after I saw a short video from Jason K. Pargin: you can just become somebody else if you want. We spend a lot of time describing ourselves as if our identity is fixed. I’m not athletic. I’m not a reader. I’m not creative. I’m shy. I’m not entrepreneurial. That’s just who I am. But what if it doesn’t have to st...

On this Friday episode of Simple Joe, I’m having some fun with one of my favorite subjects: food, specifically my personal Top 10 Foods That Are Better as Leftovers. I talk about the strange joy of discovering forgotten food in the refrigerator, the gamble of wondering exactly how long it’s been in there, family dishes that have become traditions, childhood food memories, and why Thanksgiving left...

In this episode of Simple Joe, I’m heading to Saskatoon, Canada, for the weather before celebrating birthdays including Arnold Palmer, Roger Maris, Don Muraco, Joe Perry, Randy Johnson, and more. I also look back at the first recorded drunk-driving arrest, the television premiere of Gunsmoke, and the release of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” plus National TV Dinner Day, International Makeup...

On today’s Wildcard Wednesday episode of Simple Joe, I’m talking about what happens when even a veteran podcaster forgets to hit record, runs out of space on the recorder, and has to trust that the third time really is the charm. We check in on the weather in Canton, Michigan and Cincinnati, celebrate birthdays including Colonel Harland Sanders, Otis Redding, Joe Theismann, Tom Wopat, Hugh Grant,...

In this Tuesday episode of Simple Joe, I’m checking in with Paris, France, celebrating birthdays including Peter Sellers, Patsy Cline, Pink, Martin Freeman, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Wiz Khalifa, and Gaten Matarazzo, and looking back at moments in history including the founding of St. Augustine, the national launch of The Oprah Winfrey Show, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II. I also mark Star Trek...

In this Labor Day episode of Simple Joe, I’m talking about slowing down, getting a few things accomplished over a long weekend, and why something as simple as detailing a car can sometimes feel surprisingly therapeutic. We check the weather in Las Vegas and Cincinnati, celebrate birthdays including Grandma Moses, Paul Brown, Buddy Holly, Gloria Gaynor, Julie Kavner, Chrissie Hynde, Corbin Bernsen,...

In this Sunday episode of Simple Joe, I start with the incredible complexity of human vision and the idea that each of us may experience the world a little differently, before checking in with Torrington, Connecticut, celebrating birthdays including Jane Curtin, Jeff Foxworthy, Macy Gray, Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, and John Wall, looking back at moments in history like the opening of Piggly Wiggly...

In this episode of Simple Joe, I’m talking about a personal development question that has been on my mind since returning to the podcast after a seven-month break: Why do we stop doing the things we love? I love podcasting, creating, working with audio, and putting something into the world that did not exist before, yet when the process became frustrating and time-consuming, something I loved quie...

In this episode of Simple Joe, I kick things off by thinking about how something as ordinary as the refrigerator completely changed the way we live, shop, and organize everyday life, before checking in with Reading, Pennsylvania, and Cincinnati, Ohio, celebrating birthdays including Paul Harvey, Tom Watson, Damon Wayans, Mike Piazza, and Beyoncé, and looking back at moments involving Kodak, the fi...

In this episode of Simple Joe, I’m starting with a look back at the rough-and-tumble early days of passenger air travel before checking the weather in Falkenstein, Germany, and Cincinnati, Ohio. We celebrate birthdays including cartoonist Mort Walker, actress Eileen Brennan, Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine, Charlie Sheen, and Olympic snowboarder Shaun White, then look back at Richard the Lionhear...

In this Wildcard Wednesday episode of Simple Joe, I’m talking about artificial intelligence and why I believe AI is ultimately just a tool, a very powerful one, but still a tool that we should learn to use instead of simply being afraid of. I share some of the ways I’m already using AI for research, organizing ideas, planning trips, solving problems around the house, developing business ideas, dra...

In this episode of Simple Joe, I’m celebrating Tuesday, September 1, 2026, with weather from Ashburn, Virginia, birthdays, history, celebrations, and another round of Tuesday’s Random Questions. We celebrate birthdays for Rocky Marciano, Conway Twitty, Lily Tomlin, Barry Gibb, Dr. Phil McGraw, Gloria Estefan, Nathan MacKinnon, and Zendaya, then look back at the first female telephone operator, the...

I’m back! After about seven months away from Simple Joe, it feels great to be behind the microphone again and even better knowing you’re here with me. In this episode, I explain a little about the long break and save the full story of what happened with my workflow for another day. We start with elephants apparently having long-distance conversations that humans cannot even hear, then visit Sayvil...

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. Today I wanted to share a quick but important update with you. I’m taking a short break from the show so I can fix some structural and process issues behind the scenes and make sure Simple Joe is smoother, more focused, and more valuable for you going forward. This isn’t about stepping away from what I love. Spending this time with you every day truly i...

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. Email me at joe@thesimplejoe.com or send me a text at 513.399.6468. Just say hi, I would love to hear from you. Show Notes In today’s episode of Simple Joe for Tuesday, January 6th, 2026, I kick things off with a mind-bending fact about chess and just how unimaginably large the number of possible games really is. We check in on the weather for Charlotte...

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. On today’s episode of Simple Joe for Monday, January 5, 2026, I kick things off with a truly unsettling but fascinating look at Victorian-era post-mortem photography and how long exposure times made the stillness of the dead appear sharper than the living, which leads to a broader reflection on memory, time, and how differently we capture moments today....

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. In today’s episode of Simple Joe for Friday, January 2, 2026, I start with one of those facts that makes you stop and think, trees in the Pacific Northwest are actually connected underground through fungal networks, sharing nutrients and even warning each other about pests and disease, which turns into a fun, slightly philosophical conversation about wh...

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. Today, on the very first day of 2026, I start with a quirky fact about a town in Norway where it’s illegal to die, which turns into a reminder that the world is full of strange, practical problems we never think about until we have to. I talk a little about ringing in the new year with friends, coming into the day slower than usual, and why I actually e...

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. On this New Year’s Eve episode of Simple Joe, I share a surprising detail about the iconic Times Square ball and how much larger it is than many of us imagined, then spend Wildcard Wednesday reflecting with you on what it means to intentionally de-digitize our lives. I talk about an eight-hour flight where I chose boredom over screens, what happened whe...

Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. On today’s episode of Simple Joe , I share a fun and quirky Guinness World Records fact about the world’s largest rubber duck collection, owned by Charlotte Lee, and somehow connect it to Cincinnati’s own rubber duck regatta. We check the weather for Rabat, Morocco and Cincinnati, Ohio as the year winds down under cloudy skies, celebrate notable birthda...