Under The Influencer

This Valentine's Day, we share our love for the history of St. Pete with local historian and I Love The Burg tour guide, Monica Kile. The murky history of house ages pre-1925. The first population boom 100 years ago. The troubled history of displaced minority neighborhoods. Setting the record straight on the founding of the city. Little Detroit? Following the train tracks. The laundry district...

This week: Casey Phillips, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers reporter, on telling the team’s story. Growing up against the Eagles. The higher standards of being a woman in sports broadcasting. The Kelsey brothers. Learning everything about hockey in 5 days. Talking with a voice in your earpiece. The Champa Bay Era. Pouring candles with Will Gholston. Playing in the Super Bowl on home turf during the pandem...

This week: In honor of our late grandmother, we’re revisiting the theme of etiquette, taking a light-hearted look at how to act in modern life after suffering a loss. The etiquette of grieving in 1922. Growing up with the influence of nine grandparents. Going to the gay bar after a funeral. Cousin brunch. Getting the giggles at a fashion show. Finding the hilarity amidst the darkness. Sam’s bee at...

This week: Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni of the Frugal Friends Podcast join us with insight and tips on paying off debt by making frugal choices. No spend challenges. The secrets of the library. SEO writing. The Bill of the week. Bill’s Tipsy Travels. Sam’s food delivery service addiction. The blurry lines of influencer marketing. Instagram knows when to hit you. Making room for the things you reall...

This week: We catch up with Trish Keating, local stand-up comedian who also happens to be our former theater teacher. Stage ghosts. The historically uncomfortable seats at St. Pete High. Waiting for the casting notice. Training with Second City. The Reddit Lamp Guy. Past lives. Max playing Jesus in the easter show. Writing sketch comedy. Teaching classic improv skills to the TikTok generation. The...

This week: Looking back and wishing a not-so-fond farewell to 2023 and sharing thoughts of what 2024 may hold. Braving Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Sam’s stingray encounter. Trashing Aunt Sherry’s house. Max’s fear of pressurized air. Beyonce’s Dubai vocals. The Eras Tour. Barbenheimer. The strange rebrand of musicals. Are we drinking too much water? Skincare routines. A call for Britney to app...

While we finish up our little winter vacation, we wanted to share another podcast with you from our friends over at The Zest Podcast from WUSF Public Media. As you know, we love a good cocktail and we also love a good deep dive into Tampa Bay history, So we thought it'd be fun to share a recent episode of The Zest where host, Dalia Colon looks back in time at the speakeasies, smugglers and &qu...

This week: Our Christmas holiday spectacular. Grammy’s never-walk-again eggnog. Going too hard at the Christmas Eve party. A family dice game. Paying off siblings for extra sleep. The magic of egg muck. Taking turns opening gifts one at a time. Sam’s bratty limited too era. Going to the mall in the holiday season. Ensuring we got on the winter village nice list. Learning Hanukkah. Max’s ornament h...

This week: How to act in modern society. The legacy of Emily Post. The Gilded Age. Lady Astor’s 400. The smoking section. What to wear if you meet the pope. Tips for becoming a homemaker in 1977. How not to eat corn on the cob. Splitting checks. Guide- lines for tipping in all scenarios. A math equation for pizza. Assigning the middle seat.

This Week: Achieving fame on YouTube. Being the girl they love to hate. The allure of watching the monotony of other people's lives. Life on the tour bus. Driving an RV Trailer across the country. Sam's attempt to scare her co-worker. Long last names that don't fit on documents. When We Were Young Fest. Max's "over it" face. High school pottery class. The French teacher t...

This week: Jacob Rosado, Entertainment director for Ruth Eckerd Hall, and the brand new outdoor venue in Clearwater, The Sound. A homecoming for Next Big Thing. Having a personal stake in booking artists. Routing tours through Florida. Changing Max's mind on Ed Sheeran. Lana Del Rey surprising Tampa. The hellscape of 3rd party ticket sales. Buy the merch. Sam’s very first live radio hosting gi...

This week: It’s giving thanks. Winter Wassail cocktails. Stuffing vs. Dressing. The mid- century fantasy of jellied cranberry sauce. The family history and tradition behind corn pudding and Sam's lasting trauma from it. Max's top secret recipe book. The deep-fried turkey. The rum ball incident. Some tips from Max for hosting a proper Friendsgiving. Mom’s second day classics. Grammy’s never...

This week: Poet, author, and artist Tyler Gillespie takes us behind the lore of the “Florida Man” headline. Alligators as an artistic muse. Hunting pythons in the Everglades. Britney’s memoir. Sam’s middle school notes. Celebrating the counter-culture in Florida. Max’s fantasy of becoming a merman. The perpetual high of the catholic school festivals. The new winter holiday Oreo drop. Getting bored...

This week: Legendary playwright, director and custodian of the arts and theatre in St Petersburg, Bob Devin Jones sits down with us for a retrospective of his career and peek into what’s to come. Love at first bike. Founding TheStudio@620. Dirty John’s burlesque. Directing at the Kennedy Center. Pre Theatre dining. Finding Hamlet. Chocolate chip cookies. The great St. Pete Renaissance.

This week: Jamie O’Berry, brand and marketing manager of Tampa Bay’s Indie Flea and owner of O'Berry's succulents stops by for a chat. We introduce a new podcast side quest. Celebrity boot succulent planters. The cat trailer. Max’s introduction to Daft Punk. Woolworths. Traumas of the touch tunnel. Enterprise Village. The stress of the white elephant gift exchange. Running social media for...

This week: Max and Sam dig deep into Halloweens past. Pun costumes. Horror movie trivia. Season of the Witch is the best Halloween film. Sam is famous in the spook community. Working in a haunted house at the Tampa Zoo. Sam’s staring role as a severed head. A night out in NYC as the Conjuring universe. Our history of trying to out-scare each other. A 100-year old family ghost tale.

This week: Denielle from St. Peter’s Ghosts Tours joins us for some haunted St. Pete history. Spontaneous human combustion. The Blob. Max’s haunted valet parking gig. A malevolent presence at the Blocker mansion. Where does one buy a hearse? The 12-foot skeleton owner Facebook group. Yes, THAT bathroom is definitely haunted. Little green men in the creek. The ghosts of St. Pete High School.

This week: Sam and Max crack open a storage unit from their childhood. Reviewing Cher’s Christmas song. Pumpkin spice mimosas. Sam’s childhood bedroom. Teen Beat magazine. Leo’s kissable lips. Growing up in the foreign services. Walking on Central Ave St. Pete in 1901. Sometimes we just need our mom. A reading from Max’s 1st grade journals. Splash Moutain.

This week: Starting spooky season off right with influencer and true crime buff Sam Shepherd. Creating a Tampa Bay crime podcast. The odd smell coming from the apartment next door. The Ybor City axe murderer. Lobster Boy. The gangs of Savannah. Staying in a haunted hotel alone during the covid shutdown. Strange happenings in the hotel bathroom. The Margaritaville Cruise.

This week: Reactions from our family recorded live on a cruise. The Facebook group. Our mom tells her side of Max’s lost at sea story. Making vacation friends. Max’s gaydar. Aunt Connie’s hot takes. An oreo review with our nieces. Pepperoni burns. Racing to beat a hurricane in the gulf. Sam’s great sea sickness. Max comes clean about a childhood injury. We call on the people to abolish printers. 2...

This week: Florida sucks don’t move here. Starting a clothing brand from scratch. Smoking in 5th grade. Getting sponsored as a surfer. Finding the right brand name. How the Hemmingway House inspired the brand. Pivoting after a trademark dispute. Since when do people in Jersey say y’all? The first time you have a customer that you don’t know. Starting a floating music festival. Sam’s early art. Tee...

This week: Do all dogs go to heaven? Communicating with all animals past and present. The energy cloud. You pets are watching...everything. A brief and high octane relationship with a doomed fish. Max’s cat Mildred may have a gambling problem. Is there a connection between our childhood pets and our adult pets? The cat distribution system. How Sam met her husband’s dog before she met him. Mildred’...

This week: Running a travel blog full time. Learning what SEO is. Escaping Ohio winters. Partnering with tourism boards to produce content. Collecting brochures from the hotel lobby display. Visiting all 50 states in the country. Balancing content creation with actual vacation time. Pinterest invented the barn wedding. Max’s motel rescue fantasy. The trend towards small boutique hotel experiences....

This week: Dive into some of Max & Sam's back to school memories. Staring each year with a new personality. In Catholic school, it's all about accessories. Sam's checkerboard ska phase. The politics of the high school courtyards. What do service clubs even do? The adventures in Max's first car. Edible glue. The origin of Max's pumpkin spice addiction. Sitting in the queue f...

This week: Artist and muralist Chad Mize joins us for our 25th episode! The story behind the iconic "Paris London Tokyo St Pete" shirt. Keeping the city's history alive through art. SPACE. The future Indie Flea. Sam's history of haunted apartments. Coming out to your dad at El Cap. Swatch collecting. Max's capri era. Methy Mouse. The Drama of Max's Rays pride hat. Queen B...