Under The Influencer

This week: A special episode looking back at 2025 and catching up as we gear up for season 2. Inconvenient white elephant gifts. Sam’s big year of change. Exploring New Orleans in 3-hour wake windows. Fake man cry acting. Max’s trivia nights. The end of Stranger Things. Getting the girls and gays to watch the Super Bowl. Living in the time of Labubu. Selling rocks. Being fooled by AI videos. Becom...

This week: We decide to wrap up a season of recording on the eve of Sam’s move to New Orleans. Being spoiled as the out of town kid. The 4th street urgent care boom. Car wash me-time. Instagram giveaways. The Rayban scam. Friends with no social media. 90's chain mail. Wake windows. The many homes of Sam’s cat Willy. Dog flights. The moving company racket. Moving our CD collections. Max’s turke...

This week: Catching up after a few weeks away. St. Pete Sam on leaving St. Pete. The future of the podcast. Sleep positions. Rebranding cribs. Rubber baby buggy bumpers. Baby corporate lingo. When did baby become a proper noun. Sleep sacks. The left turn lane. How to use ChatGPT. Back when Geeves had all the answers. The Plains. How to hide an Instagram handle. Learning about New Orleans via TikTo...

This week: Recapping this year’s first quarter. Going through Max’s bathroom garbage. Naturdays. Late night pump wine. The White Lotus tourism effect. Water cooler television. Girl group drama. Selling wares at the community yard sale. What does one do with 3,000 cds? Crafting the perfect mix CD. The Spotify algorithm. The wasteland of Facebook marketplace. Online correspondence with strangers. Th...

This week: It’s spring break in Florida. Sam brings the baby to studio. Max’s arch-nemesis returns to town. St. Patrick’s Day festivities. The difference between “lactose-free”” and “dairy-free.” Sponge cutting. Dishwasher mysteries. Ladies who lunch. Dogs in restaurants. The rays in limbo. Pickle ball attitude. Pants with snaps. Making broth.

This week: Catching up with new mom Sam from her newly renovated kitchen island. Boba wraps. Choosing kitchen cabinet handles. Max’s tennis-girlie era. Tasting French Oreos. Breakfast at Skyway Jacks. A community yard sale. The lasting millenial trauma of Final Destination 2. Emilia Perez drama. The Substance in real life. The future of the Bond franchise.

This week: We welcome Sam’s baby Beau to the world! When you realize today is the day. The hospital waiting game. Barf in your hair. The drama of the name reveal. Learning to swaddle. Finessing the hospital room service menu. Facebook mommy groups. Nipple shields. Doechii giving Tampa its flowers. Recession pop is BACK. Taylor getting booed. Kendrick’s hlaftime show. Circling back on the fair food...

This week: It's fair season in Florida. Max plays smash-or-pass with the 2025 Florida State Fair lineup of foods. Pageant chickens. Sam's rabbit problem. The Oscar nominations. The meat on meat trend. We need a new eggroll. Making a scene when your water breaks. Blind tasting bizarre soda flavors. Butter soda. Gasparilla corsets.

This week: The forecast of possible snow in Florida has us reminiscing on winter fun times past. The tiktok ban. The dawn of Red Note. Profiling tiktok food influencers. When the cats get cold. Sam’s mom-cozy-pregnancy-pillow. Becoming a skiing family. Pizza vs. French fries. Sam’s grand mountain descent. The carpet conveyor belt at Bill Jacksons. Snowboard lessons after dark. Disney Channel’s ant...

This week: A list of things we want to leave behind this year. 2025 brought the Watergate of the font community. Approaching the year with Calibri energy. Avocado packaging. An issue with Publix bogo wines. Firehouse subs needs an employee training refresher course. A plea for all future bathroom construction. When you have to read during a movie. The jumpscare inducing Netflix sound. Changing how...

This week: We take a listen to predictions made and recorded one year ago by shoppers at St. Pete’s Indie Flea for what 2024 had in store for them as we build a bingo card for the year. How many came true? The Election. The Economy. Aliens. Bill Murray.

This week: It’s a wrap on 2024 as we take a look back on pop culture moments from the past year. Tasting Taco Bell’s viral chicken nuggies. The time when Kate Middleton went missing. JLo’s bodega order. Katy Perry's flop era. Brat Summer. The rise of Chappell Roan. Turning down a 12 million dollar NDA. The Katt Williams prophecies. Watching a 50-part tiktok. Rap battles. A tough summer for Tampa B...

This week: It's our second annual Christmas special! The stalker tendencies of the TikTok shop. Beware the metal cat litter box trend. A sampling of holiday sweet treats. ASMR sound triggers. Infuriating grocery store layouts. Did grandma really get runover by a reindeer? Who was mommy kissing underneath the mistletoe? Grinch trauma. The most unhinged Christmas song. Mannheim Steamroller's cinnamo...

This week: A look back at some favorite holiday moments from the past year. Corn Pudding: revisited. Holding space for Defying Gravity in 2004. Christmas morning in St. Pete circa 1898. Going out on the town with grandma. Witnessing a Christmas miracle on US-19. The great stuffing vs. dressing debate. A rum ball incident. Grammy’s never-walk-again egg nog. Mom’s egg muck.

This week: How to act at a holiday party. Max's Christmas balls. The yoohoo house. Secrets of the Publix wine bag. Sam's poodle drama continues. Teresa Giudice comes to town. Building a party guest list. Being a "show-up" person. What and what not to bring as a host gift. The lore of Max's red salad bowl. A call to bring back birds as gifts. Getting trapped in a conversation. Finding a mutual brea...

This week: A look at Thanksgiving traditions. Max's homemade ravioli experiment. Riffing on classics. Stop putting turkey in pillowcases. The politics of carving. The late night mystique of Emeril Live. Revisiting the refrigerator handle debate. Sam's vacuum trauma. A poll listener poll of favorite dishes. Stuffing is turkey's PR firm. We will not accept any Velveeta slander. Mac and cheese as a c...

This week: We take a look at Tampa Bay Times food critic Helen Freund's list of top 30 restaurants in the area. Our after school snack routines. Home Depot glizzys. Max's grievance with refrigerators and bottled liquids. How do build a top 30 list? Beach Drive’s Renaissance. Max's latest feud with a font. Chili's triple dipper. Fish places known for things other than fish. Josh wine. Is there Port...

This week: Sam is serving MOTHER as we catch up on her pregnancy. Max takes a turn asking the stupid questions. Measuring age in months. What fruit is it? An update the dark entity. Round ligament pain. Weird cravings. Unhinged advice from a dental hygienist. Max's tepid relationship with dairy. Things not to say to a pregnant person. The spectacle of gender reveal parties. Going back to work afte...

This week: We're back after two century storms and the horrors stay persisting. Reclaiming our spooky season time. Return of the 12-foot skeleton. Helene's horrors. Flesh-eating bacteria. The chilling sounds of Milton. Opening a restaurant after a disaster. Unincorporated Pinellas Park. The Oreo spooky castle cookie kit. The dark entity that has been haunting Max all summer.

This week: We're joined by Rob Castellon, managing partner of Hi Hospitality, the group behind St. Pete's upcoming food hall Central Park. The logistical stress of opening a restaurant. The resurgence of members-only experiences. Checklists! Max's past restaurant traumas. Florida basements. Tampa Bay's close-knit bartending community. Being a B-list wedding guest. "Skunks&quot...

This week: Whether you like it or not, it's pumpkin spice season. We taste a variety of seasonal treats. The Trader Joes pumpkin drop. Why does every Trader Joes employee want to know our plans? A Boar's Head omen. The wine and cheese karen. Shopping with an ice cream cone in hand. That one black and white photo of a buffalo. A dark Target conspiracy. The barren wasteland of CVS self check...

This week: Cinematic psych groove band Soft Cuff is in the house. Starting a band after riffing in the studio. The T-shirt shops of Clearwater. Band name R&D. The curse of Rod Stewart. Band interview etiquette. Profoundness in silence. Spotify daylist themes. The specificity of genres. Doof Doof music. Sam's never-ending fear of the dance circle. Roller rink politics. Fomo marketing. Mildr...

This week: It’s snack time. Max does a blind sweet tea tasting. specific ice dilution. Mukbanging in the car. The mystique of drinking root beer out of a glass bottle. Sam's villain era. The laws surrounding boneless wings. When coke had coke in it. Chicken in a biscuit. Self-checkout etiquette. A journey around the world with the new Lay's chips flavors. The best imitation krab. Chinese f...

This week: Finding fame dancing on TikTok. Gen alpha language. Falling for the Barbizon scam. When being plus-size comes in and out of fashion. A call with Meta. Accidentally inviting all your contacts to Threads. Turning Tiktok dances into a career. When brand deals flop. Targeted ads. Clapping back at the haters. Recreational outrage. Thriving through a lipedema diagnosis. Max explains BRAT summ...

This week: Taking 12 trips in 12 months with travel writer Jen Ruiz. Writing the book people want to buy. The typical south Florida birthday party. Hiker math. Digestible stories. Going on your first book tour. Airport reading. TedX talks. Finding legitimacy in being a “travel blogger.” The money dam. Finding the big cheese. Overcoming the fear of solo travel. Cruise lines as a retirement plan. St...