Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - 292 | what a year it's been

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

In this episode, we’re taking a moment to reflect on our past year together- and honestly, what a year it’s been. We’re walking through everything that happened: the trips we never imagined we��d take, the amazing guests we've had on this show, the chaos that came with doing Special Forces, writing our upcoming book, settling into a new house, and all the unexpected highs and lows in between. This year challenged us, stretched us, and changed us in ways we’re still processing, but it also reminded us how lucky we are to do life- and this podcast, together. Most importantly, we just want to say thank you. We truly wouldn’t be here without you- our listeners. Your support, messages, and encouragement mean more to us than we can ever fully explain. We’re beyond grateful to have this community and so excited to celebrate another year of Couple Things with you. Here’s to what’s next 🤍 Love you guys! Shawn and Andrew Omaha Steaks ▶ Save big on gourmet gifts and more holiday favorites with Omaha Steaks. Visit https://www.OmahaSteaks.com. And for an extra $35 off, use code EASTFAM at checkout!! Follow our podcast Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/shawnandandrewpods/ Follow My Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnson Follow My Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjohnson Shop My LTK Page ▶ https://www.shopltk.com/explore/shawnjohnson Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnson Follow Andrew’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEast Andrew’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewdeast?lang=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things. With Sean and Andrew. Today is the 2025 Year in Review. We do these year reviews as much for us as we do for you. I love stopping and reflecting, thinking about everything that we went through this past year, everything we accomplished, everyone we met. And hopefully it's helpful for you as well. For those who have been longtime listeners, this is now our sixth year of this show.

And the year in reviews are always like a pinch me moment where it's like, I can't believe we talked to that person or I can't believe this comment happened that really made all of this feel very meaningful. So it's been a heck of a year. And I thought we might just start by doing some milestones talking about some big things that have happened this year because there was a lot. A lot. I think it was one of the busiest years we've ever had. We built a new house, which we just got into. That's right.

Just crazy. We did. We'll probably be sharing more about the house on this show in the next couple weeks. but we haven't really talked about that on the show much. On the main channel, we have a little bit. We moved in the week before Christmas, adding a move to the Christmas chaos. I'm not sure I would recommend it. I don't think I would recommend.

I was thinking about that. I'm not sure I'd do that again. Because we got the kids home, no school, everyone's sick. Yeah. You're traveling. So we were in our house for like three nights before we started the holiday travel. Well, and we moved out of our old house a month before we moved into the new. house. We moved in with my parents. We took a week-long vacation. We were just uprooted for a really

long time. And it was crazy. I think I'm still coming off of it. And yeah. That was a milestone. And that came right on the heels of another milestone, which was the wrap of our Special Forces TV show, which we did a lot of content around on this podcast. Which is some of the best content we've ever posted or the best engaged content we've ever posted on this show. TPD on if it was actually good or not, but people listen to it a lot. And I'm still shocked. This was all, that was all your idea. I thought it was going to be too much, but people still didn't get enough, it seemed. I'm still shocked. We did it. I know. I know. I was looking at pictures. I was like, what the heck was that. Was that real life? Anyway, that was crazy. What a journey. Thank you all

for listening to that. That also was concurrently happening that the show was airing as we were finishing our final manuscript for the book that literally we interviewed publishers two and a half years ago, June 2024. We submitted the proposal that summer, finished the first draft this summer, and then there's all these rounds of edits. This is my first book, so it's been a heck of a process. Now we're in like the cover design phase.

But that's coming out this spring slash summer, you guys. and we are so excited. It is our first book we have written together. I have written a few, but being able to do this together was an interesting form of marriage counseling. I think it was good. I think it was good.

We, more on that project than any other thing, I think our difference in styles really showed itself. Sean is so conversational and so good at relating to people, and I'm more like academic, and I'm like, we got to have this stat, this study, this. Interesting. I'm placing some of our arguments we've had today. Andrew is very analytical, statistical data focused.

Yeah. And the book gives you both sides. On top of all of that, so just those three alone would be a full year. But we decided to take it up a notch. We decided right before we flew to Morocco, Africa, we would go on a month-long trip around the world with our children. We flew from Nashville, Tennessee, all the way out to Osaka, Japan, where we spent seven days.

We then flew from Japan to Singapore for seven days. We thought it was close, honestly. We could just look at a map. Work on our geography. I thought it would be like a little hour and a half flight. It was not. We circumvented the world. Yeah, we did.

We then went from Singapore after 14 days total so far to Dubai and spent a week there before flying back and literally dropping the kids off at home and flying back to Africa the next day. It was, I think, less than 36 hours before we turned around to go to Morocco. That was a lot of international trips. It sounds exotic and fun. Wow. I wish I could do that. It was incredible. No doubt. Some of my favorite core memories with our children were from that trip. Yes, but I think the amount of quality time we get with them is equal to at home as it is on vacation. I think it's just more memorable because you're like in the desert or whatever. But you and I like adventure and we like being curious.

That's one of our family like values is actually is curiosity. Yeah. And like adventure. And so being able to be curious about different cultures with our children and to see how well they did on 48 hours of flying. They crushed it. Longer than that. How many hours to form? A year and a half year old was with us.

Yeah. Bear was a year and a half. Yeah. He projected out vomited on the international place. This is more of a personal side note, but Sean and I, every year for Christmas, we give each other the gift of, like, presenting experiences that we want to do with each other over the next 12 months. This will be a down year. And we were just thinking, like, obviously the travel is really fun. And a lot of people kind of idolize travel, I feel like.

And this year, we were like, let's tone it down because we just want to. be with our kids at home we did go balls to the wall this year though so i think we're a little tired of traveling give us a year and we'll be back at it yeah we just only want to go to italy this year for like a month only yeah we'll uh we'll get into some of the show specific milestones and highlights but we'll finish our personal ones real quick we did get to do a lot of really fun stuff like uh be a part of the college game day experience which was like a dream come true for me as a football fan got to host the pbf all-star games so cool which was so cool we also produced two pieces for pbf which was crazy and then that league got merged it got bought so i think it i don't know

i mean were we a part of it who knows but it happened and it was great we also launched beam kids that was this year that was february it was like five years ago and then in july we launched instant hydration and the feedback from both those products have been really really fun we still Now we're like 18 months into drinking beam kids. The kids love it as much as they ever have. We love it as much as we ever have. And we have some new flavors coming. So stay tuned.

And iterations, which I'm really excited about. Oh, yeah. There's been a couple of things that I've been wanting and it's happening, which it's like so small, but like such a cool thing for being kids and instant hydration. So, oh yeah, there's a huge iteration with both that we, what? Yeah. We also got to do some really cool things. With charities, we hosted the St. Jude event here in Nashville.

We're actually hosting it at our property this year. Meetings will start soon for designing that party. Yeah, it'll be fun. That event raised $2.5 million, which we're pumped about to be a part of that. Sean also joined the Children's Miracle Network board, which is awesome. That's been quite the experience, and you've added such valuable perspective there. you also got a we got to do some cool things with the military which is what made the special forces show so cool we also went to teawanna we did we did what was this year with the family we

did a house build in memory of my dad and we did a lot of fun family things like the palmer cousins summer camp which is a great you got your doctorate that's right we did it that was many years in the making and it was a really wild year we are we haven't scheduled yet but we got to do our year and review reflection the goal setting I know we need to get rid of our spice first have you been Andrew and I have some end of the year spice I think we're decompressing from this is really nice honestly the podcast you guys don't realize this we're like around people all the time but the podcast is besides date night dang near the only time where it's just sean and i yeah and we have arranged and constructed our life to be like that to be full but this i i don't think we've

had enough of just you and i so we got to get back on the date night thing after the holiday break i will say it is comical us being here we had to squeeze this into a workday our schedule's kind of crazy with the holidays we had to bring in a new babysitter today And she's the sweetest thing, but I do feel like our kids are devouring her. They're old enough now to like take advantage and say, oh yeah, my mom said I could do. And I just bless her heart. Man. Yeah.

Crazy. Also, for those who want more of the year and review reflection type of stuff, we sent out the newsletter, year and review. Let's see, this week. and if you want, have you been getting tagged in people doing our goal setting system on Instagram pictures? Have you been looking at this? I haven't been. I've been getting tagged in it. It's really fun. It's exciting. Started some fun conversations about people who have gotten a lot of benefit from it. So we can link that down below or maybe we'll send a newsletter out for it. Okay. Top 10 highest viewed videos on couple things this year. Okay. You want to go, you want to go a couple things

highlights now? Now that we've got the personal ones behind us. Let's do it. Okay. So, okay, that weird stretch between Christmas and New Year's where the decorations are still up, everyone's home, and you're trying to reset without totally starting over. We always end up hosting, cooking more at home and wanting meals that feel special, but not complicated. That's why we love Omaha Steaks heading into the New Year. It's such an easy way to start fresh while enjoying some really good food, whether you're having people over or just want to level up weeknight dinners. From plump, juicy air-chilled chicken and big beefy burgers to elegant sides and decadent desserts, everything feels elevated without extra effort. And of course,

their legendary USDA certified tender steaks like bacon-wrapped filet mignons and top sirline filets are always a win. Big beefy burgers is a fun little trio there. It's a fun word to say. Big beefy burgers. Big beefy burgers. Anyway, we've cooked Omaha steaks for friends and family before and the quality really speaks for itself. Every steak is perfectly aged, hand cut by master butchers, and backed by a 100% guarantee. You could taste the difference. Omaha Steaks has been America's original butcher since 1917, five generations of uncompromising quality,

and they carry everything from steaks and burgers to chicken, pork, seafood, and desserts. Save big on gourmet gifts and more holiday favorites with Omaha Steaks. Visit Omaha Steaks.com for 50% off sitewide during their sizzle all the way sale. And for an extra $35 off, use code Eastphiates. fan at checkout. Order today for delivery or in store pickup at your local Omaha steak store. Terms apply, C-Sight for details. The Special Forces series kind of led the charge. We also had some really strong guest interviews. And then I guess even some of the Olympic stuff still did well from last year. By the way, the Milan Olympics are coming up in 2026. The World Cup is coming up in

2026. I think we're going to have some fun. I've been going to all of them. That'd be a blast. Anyway, the top 10 highest view videos. First was the Special Forces cast interview. We had seven people on the show, Special Forces, were from Nashville. Yeah. We had six of them here in the studio. Hilarious. That was such a fun time.

It was also like so close to after we had gotten back that it was also fresh. And we had all just gone to dinner like a couple nights earlier. And it was like the first time we got to decompress from. what we went through together. Oh, my gosh. Because we were all on the show for different durations of time and you don't get to see each other

after the show. And then we all came back to Nashville and jumped right back into school and mom life and work life. And that was hysterical to like talk through getting tortured and jumping out of helicopters

and airplanes. Eric Decker was literally in tears laughing from Rovey who was just on a roll. Another highlight was, I really enjoyed hearing people talk about you and how impressive you were. It's like, it was just cool to get, I have my perspective on you,

and sometimes I get pigeonholed into that. And now it's like, it's just fun, refreshing to get another perspective. I told me, Haley, when we got home, I was like, Sean is like the Kobe Bryant. I get it. Like, I get why she's achieved what she's achieved. Like, those two are such psychopaths the way that they, and also you, you weren't nice.

You were, when you're like the sweetest person. The sweetest, like, I was like, oh, my God, she's the sweetest, nicest, kindest person. And then the show starts, and she turns in to exactly what you read about the greats, you know, like, where she doesn't, she is, like, on another level and she is never not dialed in. Like, ready to go. And I wasn't surprised at all that you guys just killed it. Yeah. Oh, man. Ravi was hilarious.

And then our little shorts that we did, the reels that we did to promote it were also pretty fun. So that was the most viewed. It had 145,000 views, and I don't know how many listens, but probably something close to that. The second most viewed was the Special Forces Episode 1, and it was a strong start to the series. I think it surprised all of us. We have a secret that we've been keeping for a while. In real time, we are filming this on June 20th. I have no idea when this will air.

and we returned from this excursion on June 18th the night of June 18th so we're about 18 hours removed from this but we have alluded to this for quite a while but the adventure that we just went on was a TV show we did the Fox TV show together called Special Forces and then I'll never get sitting down and I can't believe they didn't throw people to see show people throwing up but I was literally dry heaving yeah dirt yeah and it was so miserable from a mental standpoint from a physical standpoint the whole thing all i heard at one point was ds say get low and so i squatted down and just went after her stomach because it's the only thing i can reach there was so much excitement from our audience around that show that really made it feel fun to do together and i feel like doing the podcast on top of the show was just like a bonding thing with the audience as opposed to like making it Sean on TV it was no this is still the Sean we know on the podcast that now we're seeing her in this format also we sent and you yeah yeah but I wasn't just on the show okay thank you you were incredible on the show

I appreciate that okay should we rehash that no no no no it was fun you'll you'll notice a lot of the top view videos were special forces and we sent Fox the network like a debrief on all the content we posted and they were like never in my life or my career have I seen talent from a show send this type of analysis so anyway it's it's kind of fun to apply our skill set to that speaking up we don't know what this year has entail but we absolutely adore Fox we have created a relationship with them you might see us on some more stuff guys they did give us some invites but we'll see how it goes We'll see.

Kind of going down the list, there's one here that kind of breaks up all those special forces episodes, which was the secret of, or the science of happiness. With Arthur Brooks. I love that guy. I love that guy. He's like the professor I would want. His teaching method, and you could see how he taught. just in sitting here. It was such a like open-minded conversational way.

In every sentence he said, I literally wanted to like press pause and be like, I need to think about that for a while. It was, it was inspiring and unbelievable at the same time. The guy's got it all. Like, first of all, the timbre of his voice is just real nice. Yeah. He's got the look too.

He's got the glasses. He's kind of like the professor vibes. He's real nice and warm. but then the crazy thing is you'll ask him a question about like hey so what makes someone happy and he will just rip off stats off the top of his noggin and you're like I don't know how you do that how do you retain that much information I really want to take a class for him like why am I afraid of my emotions because we're human and if you've if it's like you're looking to mirror and you're like, that guy's a winner.

That guy's an NFL player. Then what you set yourself up to be is I feel good about that person because of the title that I have given to that person. And if I lost that, that person in my eyes would be worthless and I don't want to face those feelings. I don't want to cry right now. Yeah.

And this is the thing. And there's something else about this too that really high performers have. That why do you feel that? Because you feel as a high performer like you better you can't you're unlovable you're unlovable unless you're earning it and how do you earn it by doing something incredible so all high performers have this in common like yeah straight days straight a you know good in sports first chair in the orchestra and that's when mom and dad paid

attention that's when mom and dad said you're good boy you're good boy you're good girl right and And so the result of it, you programmed into your little brain that I'm lovable when I do these things. I'm not lovable because I'm lovable. I'm lovable because and when I do these things. And that's how your brain is wired. Kind of a good thing, though, sometimes, right? I mean, isn't that motivation for incredible achievement?

For sure, but... But you should also teach value at a foundational level. Yeah. If I'm a parent. And look, this is a problem if you're trying to earn her love. It's a problem if you're trying to earn her love. her love. And this is what high performers do. They're trying to earn their spouse's love, right? They're trying to earn their children's love. I mean, look, I'm still trying to earn my father's love,

and he's been dead 23 years. I'm like, I'm a professor at Harvard. Do you? Proud of me? He was a professor. Yeah. Right? And that's just kind of, that's the wiring that goes into really high performance. Now, it's not, it's not deterministic. You can be free, but you've got to know. You got to know that that's the tendency. You have to understand that, you know, God doesn't love you more if you're a better long snapper. He doesn't love you more. He loves you because you're his son. That's the whole point. And maybe you put roofs on houses and maybe you're temporarily unemployed, but you're still his son. And that's what actually it comes down to. And understand, that's why a supernatural perspective on this is freedom. And it's really the only freedom.

We're going to have them back on the show. I'm pumped about in February and, uh, Anyway, that was really fun. Fourth most was Special Force episode two. Fifth was Special Force episode six. Sixth was we're on Special Forces. Seventh was episode seven. It was all Special Forces. Do I literally fracture my back again for this?

And you've done so well the entire course, you're like, they're going to pay you as like having an epic downfall. I had a very bad day. This was a very bad day. Going into the Sikner, we had just watched the videos of our kids. I had just had a conversation with the DS. This is the interview. And this is when we talked.

about how robotic I was and they wanted to know who I was and they wanted to see more emotion and I remember walking in getting ready to leave for the sickener just having seen my kids which like broke a wall down which was really hard I missed home and I just wanted to hug them and I wanted to hold them and then having the conversation of them wanting to see more emotion was very confusing but combining all of that going into the sickener I had dropped a wall and so it's almost like for the first time in those eight days of the course I was actually feeling how difficult it was I wasn't numb anymore mix that with uphill which is my kryptonite that type of endurance is not my strength mix that with like heavy heavy heavier than me chains it just bottled up to this i was i was cracking i was

absolutely cracking i thought i was going to break my back again in my head i was doubting i was like is this worth it do i literally fracture my back again for this trying to show emotion but i had let too much emotion in so then i started bawling and i couldn't like contain it and i was just so overwhelmed with so many things. I was like, I don't know how to do this. There's too much emotion coming in. I miss my kids. Is this worth it? This is freaking hard. I was breaking. And then eight happened to be what happens off camera at the Olympics. Did we do that this year? Yeah. We did. That's so fascinating to me. Yeah, because we kept getting a bunch of questions about it. I think. Oh, yeah. We did. We did. Yeah. As being a former Olympian give you a different perspective

on the games. I just appreciated it a lot. get really sappy and sentimental and yeah i love the olympics just like a football player loves football i love the olympics what do you love about it i love that it's so unifying i think being able to go to one place and see every country in the world there respectively like cheering for the same thing is really special I will never forget walking around the Olympic Village and seeing every size, shape, color person from all over the world speaking every language.

And, like, we're all there for the same reason. It's just really, really cool. It is a beautiful iteration of sport and the unity that can come through sport. And then 9 and 10, Special Forces episodes again. Yeah. All I'm saying is, it was my idea to do, the Special Forces episodes.

You did a great job. And I think I did a good job. Your new champion of special forces, world's toughest test, Miss Sean Johnson East. Yes. Let's freaking go, babe. And runner up. Andrew is... I don't know if runner up's the right word.

There's a lot to debrief here. I feel so glad that we could share this news. We have no more lies to hide. I know. It's all out there. Sean won this thing. crushed it top to bottom honestly Stone Cold Killer

She shows up and dominates Whatever the challenge Whatever competition you want her to dance She'll dance and she'll freaking win You want to do gymnastics She'll freaking win that too Show up and put her with some Navy SEALs In the middle of Morocco Saharan Desert

Boom baby, she's on top That's my girl I'm freaking proud of you I'm freaking proud of you Andrew I think anybody who makes it to that last day finishes the course I think that last day is confusing and hard I love you

I feel like you're the best team I could ask for I love you when Sean wins the team wins Which means we stack in dubs out here dude When Andrew wins the team wins It's not a It's not just a me thing We are a team

I love you This reality TV thing is savage It is savage Now you're going to go on dancing with the stars get ready guys i also felt like it was needed i felt like the show needed that commentary because they cut out so freaking much i really really hope i i think this show needs it needs to grow here in the united states and i think they're kind of honing on what works and what doesn't it needs a second hour it needs it dude because when you start watching the episodes closer to the end

and they have the time to do actual like character development because they don't have 18 cast members it makes it so much more it gives it so much more depth as a viewer

to where it actually makes sense why someone is so uncomfortable in that particular challenge you miss a lot of that and I'd say the first half of the show because they're trying to squeeze so much in you don't really understand why is she crying literally just standing on the road like you don't know

because they don't have the time to put in the background anyway speaking of character development we did have some standout guest episodes um the interviews are my favorite part about this show even though the Sean and Andrew shows or episodes perform the best by like a view metric I feel like personally it's most fulfilling when we get to meet somebody else, hear their story, pick their brain about whatever they're experts in. So a couple of the ones that performed exceptionally well and had strong engagement were one. John Deloney.

Arthur Brooks, obviously first. John Deloney. That was such a fun conversation. We should have him back on. I agree. And we should do, you guys should submit questions that we do like ask Dr. Deloney because he is incredible. incredible at what he does.

Yeah. You phrased it as never dating anybody else. Yeah. Say more on that. I love dating. My wife hated it. That was a nightmare for her. I just like meeting new people and like, like, tell me about you.

Like, I like that part of life. So always wondering, like, are they going to call back? Like the other night when I was like, hey, I want to go to dinner and you didn't call me back? Like that rejection hit home, but I was like, man, I'm going to win his heart. And look at me now. This is awesome. But like, it's that like, I like, I like being out. And so, but saying like, okay, I'm going to take that part that I think is going to brings me life and joy and actually, man, watching the office reruns for the 50th time or the 5,000th time, that's richer in a way that I never could have imagined, you know.

Yeah. We have a friend of ours who is newly married in the sense of they've been married two years, which I feel like is very new. But when we first, when he started talking about our marriage and asking him. questions he was like anti-marriage like I don't believe in it I don't believe in like giving up my freedom I don't believe like all these things like the antagonist and I remember we just tried to sell him on why we think it's so amazing and it's not because you don't argue it's not because you don't absolutely want to punch each other in the face every once in a while like excuse me you know I mean I've seen her hit it's not because it's like easy but like it is the most

amazing thing you can do if you really work for it and I will say he came up to us a couple weeks ago, two weeks into marriage, and he said, everything you said was correct. Like, it is the greatest thing I've ever done in my entire life. And it was funny, I was like, now I gotta convince you about the kid thing. And he's like, no, no, no, that's not for us.

And I was like, oh, you never know. You never know. That's a whole other level. But it is funny how there is such a misconception around intimate, long-term commitments and relationships where people just think, I have to give up so much and just be unhappy for the rest of my life.

But think of it like this, like, I think that the cultural lie that we buy is that freedom is total untethered. And so it's like going on into a football game and nobody knows the rules and some guy just goes hut hut. And then it's like, that's not fun. It's not safe. Nobody would have a good time. And bounded by here's the boundaries, here's the rules, here's the scoreboard. Then you're free to go be as awesome as you want to be to quit the game.

Like there's real freedom in that being tethered to somebody. and being anchored to something bigger than yourself. And I never would have believed that. We had Carlos and Alexa Pinovagan. Hysterical. Oh, my gosh. That was, that was that? People loved that episode too.

Do you remember the short we filmed with them? Oh, my gosh. I can deal with, like, trauma well, because I go numb. Mm-hmm. As parents and stuff, we've taken our kids to the ER for 18 stitches to the face. And, like, yep. But it's like the second that happens, literally. Are you?

It's the same kid every time. 18? He had 18 in his eyebrow. He had nine in the underlayer and the nine on top. Oh my gosh. For the second time. Who's the blood parent though? Like, I can't do blood.

Me. Okay, so. No, we both are. We're both fine. Yeah, we're both. Oh, no. I'm like, my kid. Is it okay?

Is it okay? But it's like I thrive in that environment. Same. Like I go void of any emotion. I go void of like, it's like, here's what we're thriving, though? I think, how you're operational. I feel nothing. I'm operational, I feel.

What's your definition here? I thrive. I'm doing so well in my... I have no emotion. I have no memory. Dude. I won't even remember this. I think he's actually interesting.

Are we done? People love that, too. And then we had Hunter and Devin Cordle, which Sean has been a fan of theirs for a long time, and we've got to sit down with them. Delightful. And it's always so interesting because, like, I feel like we caught them in a really interesting phase of life, if you remember that conversation.

So anyway, love the guests that we got to have on the show. True or false. Do you agree with this statement or not? Marriage is for personal fulfillment. I'm trying to think through this life, too, so just work with me. Do you agree with that or not? No. Yeah, I don't.

Interesting. Why? I think you have to, it's not about yourself. It's about the other person. like you have to wake up every day and choose to serve especially when you have kids because there's a part of it that is personal fulfillment like when you choose to marry somebody because they make you feel good they make you but and as like a Christian like we are believers and so we feel like that we're supposed to serve the other person and so in a healthy relationship

if you're both doing that and you're both being fulfilled definitely you know but I don't think like you go into it with that attitude so so it is true that a side effect of marriage is personal fulfillment but that's not the purpose is that what you're saying i think so i think that's a good way to put i think i agree with it but that's my main takeaway from how you guys have described your story so far is like i think a wonderful example of like a willingness to sacrifice yes and it's amazing like it's not i know there's hurdles and hiccups you all have been through but it's like it seems to have come from such this amazing place of like just love and connection and like keeping the main thing the main thing which was the relationship and then it's like sure i'll delay school which i'm sure that was a big discussion

sure i'll leave paramedic school the way you guys have talked about it is so unique and very refreshing so it's something we haven't heard it's something we believe in but it's something we have not heard which is really it's really refreshing oh thanks yeah thanks so that's a compliment i like a testament to our relationship some of the feedback from you all um one comment on the author Brooks episode was someone thought it was probably one of my favorite podcast that we've had which is great ours to professor brooks you're coming back uh someone commented on carlos and alexa's episode that literally my favorite episode in four and a half years of the podcast loved it so fun and funny and then someone else said i don't think i've ever run to watch a podcast so

fast two of my favorite couples that was on the hunter and devon cordal podcast as well also stats this year you want to give it some stats let's do let's do three no i'm gonna rip through all of them i'm also curious because some of these i'm like what is that true apparently we had 7707% increase in listeners compared to last year how's that possible lander is that right unless people went back and listened well i guess as i guess as we have more episodes there's more to listen to year over year also pretty much a thousand percent growth in listeners year today 990 99% growth in listeners. I don't think that's possible.

Did you have chat GPT? I did not put this together. This was a squad that put this together. Listened to in 100 countries. Ranked number 25 on the charts, top 1% of podcasts. On Spotify. Love it. We had 249,000 new listeners. So I'm good with that amount of stats if you are.

Also, that's just on Spotify. That doesn't take into account YouTube, which I'm curious. Can I just look this up real quick? Well, I will say in our review, there's been some complexities here because the list of most viewed was most viewed on YouTube, not listened to on Spotify. You're right. Okay, 2025 we had 3.41, sorry, 0.415 million views. Pretty good.

And, okay. You're so right. I'm again, I'm doing this more for Things we're looking forward to this year Let's just list them off We are going to be taking some Amazing trips But at a slower pace than we did last year

We might be on some new TV shows We're dropping a book that we are so proud of And we can't wait to share We're doing a book tour Doing a ton of press Going to be talking to you guys The Milan Olympics are happening We obviously

Always have a hand in the Olympics and it's our favorite. The World Cup is happening and we are going to be a part of that as well. It's going to be great. It's going to be an epic year. We might go on tour, so we'd love to meet you all in person

for the book. I think we'd do that. I also had the idea of bringing back the dating series. People loved that series that we did, it had to be six, seven years ago. Also, some of the notes from the team

who put this together. I said, T's taking team to Milan. L-L-L-L-L-L-J-K. But we might take a big field trip together to Florida, which would be great. And also, they wanted to let us know that, well, shout out to Maya, who helped us get to over 100,000 followers on the podcast Instagram page. She did a great job.

She posts all these shorts that you see on Instagram. The podcast Dudhat does have a page on there if you're looking for it. And shout out to Lexi and Caroline. Lexi runs the show. She keeps us organized on time, on point. Yes. And Caroline for editing and posting everything. Yes.

Also, the biggest audio episode noted was everything we wish we knew as a newlywed. It just makes me think we should, if you're curious and want more content like that or more guests or a specific guess, let us know in the comments. I did have the idea of doing a live therapy session. With you and I? Yeah. That could get a little dice, but I'm, who would be? Not live, like, film it. Okay.

And then post it. All right. I feel like we did that with special forces. Was it not? That felt like a therapy session. That was just physical. That wasn't spoken. Anyways, also one of our favorite episodes will be coming out in the new year.

We, Andrew and I will sit down and do our yearly goals. We will walk you guys through again how we do that. we will share some of our highlights from our goals that we have for 2026 and encourage you all to do the same but that should be coming out early January and with that let's ring it in 2025 you were wild and full of some craziness but you were a good one yeah thank you for a wonderful 2025 can I go on an unscripted ramble real quick I just I keep thinking about this podcast and you know all these stats that we just read through there's a lot of people listen to this show yeah and i know that with the podcast i listen to i look up to those people those people have

influence on me and i i feel like uh it's a responsibility and if if you feel close to us as a listener then just know that sean and i are grateful and also sean and i are imperfect and we have a lot to learn and grow through together and we're trying to do that openly and honestly, which is why we do this podcast. I'm just proud that we don't get wrapped up into controversy in an attempt to grow our show or get in front of new eyeballs. And one thing I am proud of looking back on 2025 is some of the episodes that we did were like really nothing more than personal interests but it is clear that this community shares some of those personal like the the episode on redemption yeah that's like such a niche random thing that's

is that good for a YouTube video I don't know but like Sean and I had a really interesting conversation about that that we wanted to share with you all so I'm just glad that we don't have to talk bad about other people on our show, you know, as a commentary type format or get involved into controversy or polarizing things. Like, all we want to do is lift each other up and honor each other. I want to honor Sean and try to like prioritize marriage and family. And so that is kind of like unexciting content. But you all have made it. a platform and anyway know that Sean and I think about that often and we're grateful for it always and we try to do things like steward that responsibly and that's why you know we do

things like go back to school or that's why we do things like have random guests on that we can learn or we're always trying to talk to people and Sean's ready for me to wrap this up so your run like he's getting extended here we're slowly No, no. I'm sappy now as what it is. Like, it is unbelievable. We enjoy it. We always want your feedback. Please submit any talking conversation idea you want us to cover for the new year. And we'll add it in. We'll go on a rant about it. I love you, babe. I love you. It's a great year. Thank you all for listening. That's all we got. I'm Andrea. I'm Sean. Until next year. Why are your hands so cold?