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The Mango Times Podcast is where midlife curiosity meets adventure, humor, and human stories. Hosted by Fletch, the show features thoughtful conversations, great banter, and stories from the porch to the open road.
In Season 6, each episode explores what it looks like to wake up in the second half of life and decide there’s still plenty of adventure left...through interviews, personal reflections, recurring segments, and a little bit of well-earned shtick.
New episodes drop every other week and stay under 30 minutes. Pull up a chair, ride along, and join the conversation.
48 Episodes
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Send Fletch a text! The itch isn’t a meltdown. It’s a message. We kick off Season 6 of The Mango Times by naming the midlife feeling many of us carry but rarely say out loud. Therapist and fellow motocycler Chris Oneth joins me to unpack what people casually call a “midlife crisis”—where it comes from, why it shows up, and why it might be less about blowing things up and more about waking up. We move past the red-sports-car cliché and talk about identity, deferred desires, and the roles and e...
Send Fletch a text! Happy New Year and Welcome to Season 6 of The Mango Times Podcast. This year’s theme is Adventure at Midlife — the journey of waking up, rethinking life, laughing more, exploring deeper, and discovering that the second half might be the best half. Join Fletch for conversations, stories, road notes, porch wisdom, and a few surprises, including new interviews and fresh sessions with Pop in the Smoke Shop. Subscribe and let’s ride. ⸻ Guest Information No guests on...
Send Fletch a text! It’s the final Mango Bite — and the final show of the season. As a little gift for your Christmas week, I reached back out to all of the guests from 2025 (plus a few new A.I. friends) and brought everyone together for a reunion reading of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas. Also… happy 95th birthday to PopPop. 🎄 ⸻ Guest Information Everyone is a guest on this episode. Resources and Links Nothing to link for this episode. Music used in this episode: All music in this ep...
Send Fletch a text! For the month of December, The Mango Times podcast is taking a breather while I gear up for Season 6. In the meantime, I’m sharing weekly Mango Bites — small, meaningful moments pulled from the early days of the show. So… what if the draw isn’t the nicotine, but the quiet? In this focused Mango Bite, I revisit pipe smoking as a deliberate ritual, not a race to the bottom of a pack. Instead of inhaling deep and dosing often, I talk about keeping the smoke in the mouth, savo...
Send Fletch a text! For the month of December, The Mango Times podcast is taking a breather while I gear up for Season 6. In the meantime, I’m sharing weekly Mango Bites — small, meaningful moments pulled from the early days of the show. For the second week, this Mango Bite comes from Episode 13 where I sat down with my favorite guest, my wife Kendra. We revisit a powerful conversation on everyday kindness, sparked by a simple “Be Kind” shirt and the surprisingly big reactions it drew—f...
Send Fletch a text! For the month of December, The Mango Times podcast is taking a breather while I gear up for Season 6. In the meantime, I’m sharing weekly Mango Bites — small, meaningful moments pulled from the early days of the show. This first Mango Bite comes from way back in Season 1, Episode 4 — a conversation with my friend James Estes about taking on a 100-day creative challenge. In these few focused minutes, we talk about the simple power of a handwritten letter… why ink on paper s...
Send Fletch a text! It all started in Hoopa, California. A tiny motel, a dial-up connection, and a young guy who thought it might be fun to write down a few stories from his life on the Trinity River. That set off a 30-year chain reaction: a monthly family update grew into a website, a blog with running bits, and eventually a podcast that found an audience by telling the truth with a grin. I take you back to the Trinity River bridge where it began and trace the crazy and surprisingly durable ...
Send Fletch a text! The spark came back. After years of stop‑start attempts, grief, and a creative blackout, we rebuilt a season anchored in adventure—small, daily acts of courage and a few big ones too. From a solo motorcycle ride to Montana to quiet porch conversations with Pop, this year was about sticking with the craft, telling better stories, and letting a community shape the mic as much as the mic shapes the community. Fletch discusses the roots of the show and how a year of adventure...
Send Fletch a text! Did you ever wish you were a little braver, a little sillier, and a lot more present? On this episode, Fletch is joined in the studio by Isaac Gross and Tara Rico from ModPlayers Improv for a conversation about adventure, creativity, and the fine art of being silly. Together they talk about saying yes, and, taking risks, creating characters, and finding freedom in laughter when life doesn’t follow a script. We break down the four pillars of improv and along the way,...
Send Fletch a text! What if a book could be the nudge that gets you on a motorcycle, into a canoe, or across the ice? Join Fletch on the porch as he sits down with Pop to grab their TOP 5 FAVORITE dog-eared adventure books. These are the stories that make you want to lace up your boots or shove off from shore. These aren’t just stories of survival. They’re roadmaps for grit, leadership, curiosity, and courage in the face of the impossible. This conversation isn’t just a list; it’s a field gu...
Send Fletch a text! Could you walk for 12 hours straight with no phone, no music, and no distractions? That's exactly what I'm planning to do this Sunday, October 5th, 2025 to celebrate my 57th birthday, and I'm inviting you along for the journey – metaphorically speaking. After listening to an interview with Colin O'Brady on The Next Big Idea Podcast, I was captivated by his 12-hour walk concept. The premise is beautifully simple: walk out your door and just keep walking for 12 hours, leavi...
Send Fletch a text! Have you ever wondered if a childhood dream could still shape your life decades later? My journey began at age seven, sitting in a beanbag chair with a book about a teenager who sailed around the world alone. That story planted seeds of adventure that would eventually lead me to a motorcycle, thousands of miles of open road, and remarkably, to the front porch of that very same sailor. This episode chronicles my solo motorcycle trip from California to Montana – a journey I...
Send Fletch a text! In this episode, Fletch takes you along on his solo motorcycle ride to Montana — the first leg of The Second Half Ride. From Modesto through mountain passes and high desert to Big Sky country, this ride was more than miles; it was a search for clarity, adventure, and what it means to step into the second half of life. Buckle up (or helmet on) for stories from the saddle, reflections on adventure, and a few bug-splattered truths from the road. ⸻ Guest Information No Guest -...
Send Fletch a text! How do you turn a life of big adventure into lasting impact? In this episode, I talk with my longtime friend Tom Slater, who’s climbed rocks with routes that bear his name, surfed all over California, skated with style, and then turned his attention toward building things — for others. Tom shares his journey from physical adventure to community creation: from co-designing a skate park in Nipomo to launching a new disc golf course from scratch. It’s a conversation about ris...
Send Fletch a text! What would your life look like if you decided to add a little adventure? In this first episode of a new series I'm producing about Adventure, I sit down with my old friend James Estes. James has this gift for finding wonder in the ordinary—whether it’s taking a different route to work, walking his neighborhood like a tourist, or saying yes to the unknown. We talk about: Why adventure doesn’t have to be epic to be meaningfulThe Helen Keller quote that guides his approach t...
Send Fletch a text! What if… instead of assuming the worst, you chose to assume the best? In this episode, Fletch reflects on what it means to give others the benefit of the doubt. He welcomes his wife Kendra and their friend Lisa to talk about a very personal experience where they learned the power of giving others the benefit of the doubt — and why it’s so hard in today’s world. Pop rolls up on the back porch to also share his opinions and wisdom with a challenge to choose grace over ...
Send Fletch a text! Burned Out and Broken - How He Started Over After Methamphetamines. In this powerful episode, Fletch sits down with his longtime friend John Ady, who just celebrated 25 years of sobriety from methamphetamines. John shares his honest and redemptive journey from addiction to recovery and what it took to Just Start. They talk about hitting rock bottom, the people who showed up, the faith that kept him going, and the quiet decisions that changed everything. This episode is a r...
Send Fletch a text! Welcome to Episode 37 of theMangoTimes Podcast: Show Up - It’s the most underated Superpower! In this episode, Fletch interviews longtime friend and ultimate “shower-upper” Lisa Kjeldgaard. Based on the Fletchifesto idea that 80% of life is just showing up, this conversation dives into the power of presence and why it matters. Lisa reflects on her background, her education, and how those experiences shaped her values. Together, they explore what it means to show up f...
Send Fletch a text! Welcome to Episode 36 of theMangoTimes Podcast: You Don’t Know Everything (And That's The Good News!) Remember that time you were absolutely certain you were right—and then turned out to be completely wrong? Yeah, me too. In this episode of theMangoTimes Podcast, we’re talking about the art of not knowing everything. It’s based on one of the most honest blog posts I’ve written: You Don’t Know Everything, where I unpacked the hard truth that being confident isn’t the same a...
Send Fletch a text! On June 6, 1944, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Northern France in what would become the largest land/sea invasion in history and a major turning point in World War II. D-Day along with Pearl Harbor days, were honored and remembered evey year in my home growning up. Today, 81 years later, I sat down with my 94-year-old father—to talk about what life was like back then and what he remembers from that extraordinary time. In this special World War 2 episode of t...
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