From the Middle

#233. Chris Massie is a positive, loving, kind soul with a passion for encouraging others. He has recently seen this passion flow into a book, “The Clarity Question: What does this season require of you?” He also has a lifelong experience of seeing his gifts make positive impacts on those around him. We take a ride into is childhood as he points out some events which molded him into what he is tod...

#232. We hope everyone is kicking off their holiday season in style and wonderful food. We are spending some time trying some important food from across the pond and the suppleness of the cookies is top notch. Also, is Tim Horton’s importing their cream cheese? It’s probably the most expensive smear one can order in a drive-thru. Time with your boy on a cold hunting trip as the weather slowly gets...

#231. Rip your hearts out of your chests and give ‘em a good hug, cause it’s time for the most caring podcast from the midwest! We are a simple people who like our water the way we like our milkshakes and appreciate a little smile with our customer service. We like calm, quiet streets where one can mosey about in a golf cart to see the neighbors. And according to this here article, we love…butters...

#230. Brent Gargasz is a regular guy from Pennsylvania who made his way to central Ohio and filled a gap because he missed something he loved. The best part is the cost of doing so was leaving something he hated. He is a grinder, an outdoorsman, and a Pizza Nerd. Listeners and folks from Newark know what we’re talking about. Pizza Nerds is a nostalgic project that combines the pizza of Brents yout...

#229. The Queen City hosted Dillon and his wife and provided them with some amazing music and regional pizza. Two of the three things were stellar experiences. At least the hotel was weird. While we’re on food and drink, have you sampled the new Starbucks seasonal line-up? We’d love to hear your feedback. Hit up the LinkTree below to tell us how you like your coffee. After managing to hit only two...

#228. We hope your Halloween week has been nice and spooky like someone is watching you from the other side of the field in a coaching costume. Also it’s a transitional time of year. A nice cold sparkling water goes down as easy as that first warm mug of hot chocolate and Halloween gives way to the holiday season, for some even simultaneously with Christmas decorating! That’s the first half of thi...

#227. We’re back with a fresh slate of socially relevent topics to poke at! We just don’t know what all of the topics are supposed to be. But we do know that Dillon likes lots of meat in his burrito a la “you had me at meat tornado.” We ponder an article which accuses Columbus of being one of the worst pizza cities in the country. Where do we stand? We also talk Halloween costumes and learn what s...

#226. Comic, magician, and smart@ss Michael Kent is the real deal. Performing for the troops overseas, appearing on Penn and Teller’s Fool Us, and playing conferences and college campuses all over the globe, he’s a full time trickster with a lot of hard work and passion up his sleeve. From behind the scenes takes on the industry and his thoughts on people blabbing the secrets of magic to playing t...

#225. Maybe we’re not so middle as much as we’re old. We enjoy old dude phrases which make little sense, we pine for the commercials and jingles of the good ol’ days, and we still can’t figure out what the kids are doing with all the new-fangled sports drinks on social media. A new experience more our speed is finding a quaint place to sit outside a small town convenient store with a bag of corn n...

#224. A missing patch has been located, U2 is trapped in a giant bubble, and the NFL has been playing out on a young boy’s bedroom rug. The twists and turns of the first half of this one will have your head as blown as a kid’s mind in a card shop! Yes, those still exist. In the second half, Dillon shares his first experience at the new home of the local Major League Soccer team followed by a thril...

#223. Like John Dutton wrangling up the prairie beasts on the ranch, Dillon spent some family time with close encounters of dangerous animals at The Wilds in Ohio. Did he make it out alive? Tune in to find out. Kendall and Kory have been spending some more time among youth sports noticing the antics and copy-cat on-field celebrations. Did they make it out alive? You’ll just have to listen. A man d...

#222. There’s rarely a special edition soda that sneaks by us, and Coke’s Y3000 and Mountain Dew Voodew are no exceptions. We recommend one and spit out the other. We then rush right into some light college football and NFL fantasy talk before hearing the epic of Kendall’s Saturday including life-threatening danger and saving the children. Then it’s the attack of the robots with spinning blades th...

#221. For a whiny trio of dads, we sure do have some nice things too say about two of our favorite companies’ customer service skills. Good job Branded Bills and Tecovas! Back to the whining; why in the name of hot sharts are these kids highlighting their acne problem with stickers? Even bad complexion deserves a gold star now? Dillon admits to toeing the line of froo-froo coffee and liking it (Ke...

#220. You think you know how to operate a fridge, then you end up in a hotel with a foreign appliance which is not labeled intuitively and now you have to ponder the possibilities of hot pop. What do you do? You know what would be even worse? Having to preserve the block of cheese you just spent a year’s salary on in that device. Speaking of cooling things off, Oliver Anthony, the singer/songwrite...

#219. Did you know that if you stretch out end to end each individual trip an average family with three children takes per day it equals the distance from central Ohio to Germany? You learn something new everyday, even it’s from an unreliable source. Today, I learned how to type the ö in Kölsch! That’s a free-flowing libation that you could try in Germany someday instead of taking your kids to sch...

#218. Join us we wipe sweat off our brows for another hour of regular talk. Dillon and Kendall are coming in hot and ready like a cheap pizza to hold things over while Kory is on the other side of the world. As the middle class guys we claim to be, we talk lawn maintenance and our new experiences in the oasis of the midwest where the water flows like McDonald’s real estate profits. Like they say,...

#217. It’s Kory’s birthday week! If you ask Dillon, it’s more like Kory’s birthday century but it’s fine. Seriously, one of the world’s newest 39 year-olds is a wonderful guy and worth celebrating. Why not do so with a “donut cake” and potentially getting together with everyone you went to high school with? A class reunion is due, may or may not happen, and we ponder the question of in the social...

#216. We start with realizing we are being lied to all the time. Airline employees, friends with too impressive stories, aliens not existing; as if we don’t know the truth is out there. This ties into a traveling story which transitions into a discussion about airport etiquette. Our opinions are so strong on these things that they take us all the way to the break, after which we dive into some off...

#215. We’re getting older and we don’t care! Other than the regret, everything’s fine. While Kory was on an airplane, Dillon and Kendall sat down to try to figure the odd communication quirk of a server Dillon had. Was it actually attentiveness and service at its finest or just weird? And then he encounters a joke(?) from another food service professional. He’s not sure if it was a joke, a jab, or...

#214. Wipe the grime from your mouth, hop in the Gladiator, and get ready for some comedian snuggles. We’ve got a special one for you! In the top half we do some brief catch-up with comparing Indiana Jones films as Kendall is walking through the franchise. Dillon raises an interesting article about foods that people claim are sus but are actually bussin. Then on the back half we hear a Comedy Stor...

#213. This episode is SICK! Not like yeeting out your lunch into a toilet sick. The good kind. In studio, Kory tells the tale of trying to escape the storms to make it home to his family. No plane, local car rental, or even a travel agency could help. But one heroic woman stepped in to save the day! In an equally action packed and epic event Kendall bought a few peaches. Then just as we weren’t ga...

#212. “I’ve had my nighty-night Gatorade and string cheese so let’s go!” The trio that is From the Middle has reunited after a couple weeks of working around travel and we are ready to share stories! First, we dream up a midwest approach to an ad campaign with the purpose of quenching the thirst to see reality in the market-use of Gatorade. Then Kendall shares the sweaty yet fun experience of Nort...

#211. Hello friends! Kory and Dillon are off spending time with family while Kendall records an episode with his wife, Amy! After years of trying to figure it out, Kendall may have just sorted out what it is she does at work. Also, the two trade questions about Gen-Z’s office jargon while otherwise complaining about America’s youth. Come check out the fireworks, just stay off our lawn. And let us...

“We might be idiots, but we have ideas.” Apparently, Dillon and Kory have always felt that they belong in the brainstorming and conceptual conversations that take place in the brainstorming/storyboarding rooms of big and small screen studios and video game companies, and innovation and R&D labs of game and toy manufacturers. Like, why isn’t there a Battlefront-esque video game “reskinned” with...

#209. We hope all the dads listening and the dads in your life had a great Father’s Day! We all did, and we share our gifts of swag: A Wrexham FC hat, Blue Jordans, and an Arm Cannon. We do some gaming talk, specifically about young children and games which may be too difficult or possibly too violent, but they like, “Really really want it.” Kory went on a motorcycle ride with a bunch of leathery,...