Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 419: 2026 Fitness + Nutrition Goals, MVP Predictions, Stranger Things + More

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

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Welcome in everybody to another episode of the Progressive Overload Project. As always, I'm your host, Danny Matranga, joined today by Matt Lakoko. Today we're sharing our 2026 fitness goals as well as our 2026 nutrition goals. This will be the first episode. You're probably going to hear this in December. So I want you guys to kind of think with us as we answer, what are things you can do in the new year to improve your performance? your health, your longevity, all of these things.

We're going to keep it practical, simple, and honest, and encourage you guys to do the same as you process this. We'll talk a little sports. We'll talk football. We'll talk college football as well. We'll also talk politics. What we're enjoying, we'll talk a little bit about Trump meeting with Mom Donnie, things that I thought were kind of fun there.

We'll talk about Black Friday. We're actually recording this the day after Black Friday, the new Stranger Things, the new Frankenstein, and more. but kicking it off with our 2026 fitness goals. And I think this is something that's kind of helpful for you guys as you listen to just listen to what people who do fitness for a living and also people who have maintained their fitness for over a decade, like how it is that we set goals and discuss our goals,

you'll probably notice we're not that sensational, we're realistic, we know what's reasonable for where we're at. you might think we should be more ambitious but I want you guys to kind of hear us and just kind of see the practicality and the pragmatism of these suggestions what we're working on we'll be very honest with you guys

and a lot of this is just off the cuff but when it does come to setting goals you have to remember that there is a framework that's proven to make your goals more likely to succeed and that is a framework where your goals are somewhat specific you can measure them they are something that you can actually achieve they're realistic for you and they have a timeline so we're going to filter everything

through that today starting with our fitness goals um one fitness goal that i have for sure for twenty 26 is to do more cardio i've been quite bad about doing cardio i could probably stand to join you on that one yeah i'm the best about it either i genuinely do not like doing it and i would say that I probably get less than 30 minutes a week of like direct deliberate cardio on my bike. I do walk the dogs a lot and I do lift weights, which has some form of cardiovascular benefit. Interestingly enough, I just got my like blood panel back from the doctor and like all of the things that you would look at to be like, how is your cardiovascular health doing?

Came back really, really well. and we'll talk about cholesterol in a minute cholesterol even came back well talk about that when we talked diet but that's not a good enough reason for me to continue to like put off doing cardio i can't be like well look you know clearly i have a strong base of fitness it shows in the last methods are producing the current results yeah i think i'm just getting a little lucky honestly my genetics you're giving me some insulation i have good health cardiovascular health from the cardio i do the lifting i do in the sauna right And the walks, but in 2026, I want to add at least two days a week of cardio that is of a moderate to high intensity, either in the form of like direct work on my assault bike, running, not like becoming a runner, but just actually running, or doing something like a combat sport, like a Muay Thai or a boxing, something where my heart rate will be incredibly high. one, because I'm bad at it, and two, because my cardio is pretty shitty. And I think the aerobic effect I would get from doing that twice a week would be tremendous. My health would be crazy, improved, and those lab markers would be even better. And I think as I get older, I need to be smarter about that. Yeah, honestly, listening to you talk about cardio is also kind of, like, bringing back something I think I did indirectly this year.

And it involves just, like, spending time with my dog. granted i don't have like a horse of a behemoth like you do uh who's insanely fast like i am faster than my dog but like we'll go out to the park and we'll just run sprints yeah and he loves to play chase and i get my own cardio indirectly he's healthy too um that is kind of seasonally dependent because i'm not sloshing around on no wet lawn or grass uh just because i don't i'm lazy and don't want to like bathe my dog after so um but that is something that i'll do in like the really nice months when the weather is awesome get to enjoy some sunshine like get some vitamin d and uh take my little guy out on a walk um i guess

my main fitness goals this year like i know i have like youth on my side and then also like what what i do for work and my movement habits but i would say just like maintain like my main goal is to make sure that as i continue to get older i can still do all the things that bring me joy in life um that are physical like snowboarding um i do play slow pitch softball in like a men's league and for me it's sometimes hard to turn off the competitive edge and um making sure the body's prepared so i don't just go out and like rip a hamstring is advantageous obviously right um but the main thing for me is i want to kind of see the doctor more and and do maybe a few more like blood tests to see like where i'm at i do have some like family

health history kind of complications that genetically i'm almost inevitably pre-posed towards so I think just understanding those more and then curtailing my current methods as like a result. But I'm done kind of chasing max bench, squat, deadlift, certain numbers that I have to hit or attempting to be the strongest person in the gym by any means. It's just I want to be like my strongest self and live like the highest quality life that I can. yeah i think my second goal um of like the year with wellness or a fitness adjacent goal is to improve my digestive health a little bit like all of this year i've dealt with like nausea and indigestion and having like a modestly upset stomach and my wife went to the doctor

recently because she had had these issues and she did a few tests at the lab and she tested positive for some bacteria that she had picked up from something she'd eaten. And I was like, I'm going to go in and get these labs done too, just in case I picked up something, who the hell knows what. But a lot of these digestive symptoms are a result of like drinking way too much coffee, you know, having too much caffeine too early in the morning, eating too many calories too late in the day because I'm not being consistent with my nutrition across the day.

So this could have fallen into the nutrition category, but I do think it's more of like a health, wellness performance one. And so something I'm going to be working on in the next year is making sure that I have more days where my digestion is on point and solid and measuring that with anything from like, you know, bathroom to who knows what.

But really paying attention to it. And like I know gut health is like this big term and everybody's selling something for gut health. I can't stress enough how much I think things like stress and sleep and caffeine play a role on your gut health and I'm not really trying to guess I'm trying to take the bull by the horns here and really work on eating more of the right stuff eating less of the wrong stuff and and considering my digestive health part of my performance definitely I'm kind of like there as well I think the monitoring of it is the hardest part for me just because like the majority of my clients are kind of first thing in the morning like usually through the early afternoon and the windows in which to get some foods is kind of tough so um i guess this blends a little bit with the nutritional frame we're going to talk about here in a second but i think i want to start prepping more at home spending more time in my kitchen i don't really eat out a ton as it is but just doing like a little bit of like meal planning maybe and just like packing a lunch and taking it to work

um things that are kind of like quick and easy to it that i can sneak in between clients rather than feeling the need to sit down for a full-fledged meal um wasting less food is ultimately what it comes uh around to just because the amount of times i'll look at the end of uh the fridge at the end of the week and been like all the things i intended to eat and then you know various spontaneous hangouts uh happen and we go grab food and then i'm essentially just like it might as well just be throwing away some money. Yeah. I feel wasteful and I doesn't really make me feel good.

My wife hates when I do that. I'm like the king of that, bro. I fucking have to. We throw away so much food in this house because I'm like, yeah, no, I want to get sushi. Yeah, no, I want to get ramen. No, I want burritos. Right. I don't feel like that shit we bought. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it sucks because then you get to the end of the week and you're like, oh, yeah, I never did end up getting that, eating that rotissory chicken. So let me just throw an eight-in-eight-pound chicken away. and just hear it hit the fucking trash bottom. I'm a piece of shit. You might as well just lit that money on fire. 100%. And it is super attestating because, again, I think you're on to it.

This is going to segue into nutrition. So we'll just at this point blend it. We'll just say it's anything fitness or nutrition you're going to work on in the new year. Like, not only being less wasteful, but like for me, I have to stop ordering so much fucking door dash. It's convenient, bro. I can understand the allure to it. I just haven't gotten. get in the habit of doing it, mainly because I remember the first time I tried to order something

from like Chick-fil-A. It's like my usual order, right? And the price was like 50% higher and it's like, fuck that. I'll just go drive and pick it up. I'm not spending that extra money when it'll take me like 15 minutes out of my day to go, that's worth it to me. You're totally right. So here's where I got fucked. They have this thing called Dash Pass, which is basically a benefit that I get because I have a fucking Chase credit card. And, you know, Chase is like, oh, get this credit card. Asshole, we're going to get. I can picture that in their pitch meetings, bro.

We're going to get some asshole. Get this credit card. Yeah. Hey, get this credit card. We give you all these fucking perks. Like, if you're on a trip and your cell phone explodes, we'll replace it. Or if you crash the rental car, we'll cover you. It's like, I never need those.

Right. But I will use this dash pass. They give you. Well, you don't need that either. But when they give it to you for free, It takes your DoorDash delivery fee down to zero, basically. And it takes all these stupid other little fees down to, like, zero. And so, really, you're not paying double like you normally do.

You're paying, like, way less. And now, you can sign up for this Dash pass for, like, 1099 a month, which honestly is a good value if you order DoorDash a lot. Right. But there's some serious shame in, like, joining DoorDash premium. Major. Like, I have DoorDash pro. Like, you unlocked a new level?

because you use it so much. That's not going to do your health any favors. No. Like that dash. So, you know, it's a slippery slope. When they give it to you for free, you're like, I have to sign up because it's one of the perks of this car. Well, who's not taking something for free?

Because it's only like 15 to 20 percent more now, I do the same thing you do where I'm like, well, how much driving is it? How much money is it? How much time is it? And if it's like, ooh, it's only 10 percent, 15, 20 percent more to have somebody just bring it right to me versus it's literally double all of a sudden it changes in favor of just having it brought to the house and there's just not that many good options on door dash so it sucks but frequently i'm ordering like mediocre food that isn't that good when it gets here it is still

expensive and the macros kind of suck so i really do think like i want to spend like maybe like every other month i'll just delete the app like every other month six months a six months a six months of no door dash and i can have six months where i do have it because it is very convenient with the kid to be like fuck i'm dead i'm tired my wife's like i'm tired too i'm like okay i'm ordering dinner because i'm cooked i also feel like as your kid gets a little bit older and is going to throw a fit with whatever you cook but macdonalds is going to be on that kid's brain or like whatever dude kids kids are like that convenient it's convenient he eats only a whole foods now though which helps like my wife like cuts up fucking you guys have established that right he eats so good of course

But it's like, he eats better than anybody. He's just like raw, not raw, but like plain, plain cottage cheese. Fucking kiwi, egg yolks, just cooked. It's like, damn, dude, that's literally the most nutrient-dense plate you could put together. Only 5% of it ends up in his stomach, but, like, he eats perfect. Because the rest of the fits on his. It's all, oh, dude, today is so fucking funny. So, you know, I make my smoothie every day.

Anybody who follows me You know this too Because I post it like three days a week I make the same smoothie every morning In the same blender I've had this beast This I'm a shitty influencer Okay so

I've had this beast blender for like four years I post it Two three times a month Blending my shit in there Tag tag them People ask me 50 times a month probably What's that blender?

And I'm like it's a beast blender I got it at Costco For my wife for Christmas In 2021 it still works and they've offered to send me one two or three times and I never fill out the form and they also want me to make like a video with it and I'm like I don't know about that that just seems like a stretch and I don't want it that bad so I'm still rocking the same one the same one that I've had for five years and used every day so over I've used this blender 1500 times I've never had it explode my wife has used it like 10 times it's exploded three of them And I thought, today she was making him a little pancake, like a spinach, cottage cheese pancake. And I walked downstairs, and she was like, three or four times. Like, can you unscrew this?

And like, okay, can you screw it back on? You unscrew this? Can you screw back on? I was like, what is she? She's adding more and more things into this bomb. She's turning it into a bomb. And, like, I'm blending it. And, dude, it's like hissing.

She's, like, pressing the button. And it's like, dude, it's not looking good. and then just boom it literally popped and flying everywhere goes spinach pancake mix so bright green like the container itself the bottom the bottom of the container popped and the seal kind of cracked okay and it just shot out all over the kitchen all over the baby all over the roof all over the floor all over the carpet and i was like god damn it i use this blender every day it's never exploded once it's like the second or third time it's exploded on you and i'm thinking i should have replaced it for free but i was too lazy to have them send me a new one so so after this pod you're filling out that application i'm gonna fill that form out and i'm gonna you listen guys okay don't be mad but when you see me whore out on my page with my bee splendor you have to give me a pass because my wife blew the other one up making spinach pancakes but um honestly i think eating more from home like eating more of our single

ingredient whole foods eating more stuff like the baby would be good for me in 2026 and again just keeping it very simple one thing i do think would be fun is to actually cook more and the style of the places i've traveled and like there's so many things we liked in japan and i was like gosh we should learn how to make that at home so like try more recipes essentially yes and cook more but it's just very difficult when you have a kid i feel like it sounds so lazy like such a cop out but it's it is hard to cook during those moments and then when he goes down it's not really high on my list right right i can understand like the level the day's stress is taking a toll on you and then having to come home and be a parent at the same time i mean i haven't yet gotten to that stage of

life but i'm this is pure assumption and speculation but i could imagine wanting to gravitate towards something that's just easier and less time consuming therefore you get more relaxation time. 100%. We're moving on to sports here, guys, talking NFL specifically. MVP, defensive player of the year, rookie of the year on offense, rookie of the year on defense predictions. We're at like week 13 maybe in the NFL?

Something like that. So we're literally in the last quarter of the season, crazy. This season went faster for me than any other season. I don't know why that is. Did you feel that? I felt like to flu. I just get into like a routine of things but you know obviously football is played on the certain days that it is and in between the days you fill it in with whatever yeah whatever else you got

going on but you think part of that is also like being a dad now like last year you really weren't a father I'm betting less on it I my fantasy teams are very mediocre so I'm playing I'm like less on that I missed two almost three weeks of the season traveling right but it just feels like I flew by, but I think we'll start with MVP predictions, 13 weeks in. I don't think my prediction will surprise anybody, donning the Rams attire. But I really do think Stafford is having one of those passing seasons that's similar to the one Rogers had a few years ago where he won the MVP because he just, like, was so efficient as a passer.

Totally. And I think, you know, if you are by far the best passer in the league and you have a all these touchdowns and very few interceptions and your team is at or near the top of the conference you're in a good position and i honestly think it's kind of a shitty field i don't it does feel that way i i don't think stafford's like uh dueling with anybody right now i don't think anybody's working hard to keep up with him it's kind of a flat thing and it seems a little top heavy with him it's not like an arms race the way it has been the last couple years were Alan and Lamar, Mahomes, and Allen are these really high-level players

are having generational seasons. A lot of great quarterbacks are having down years. For sure. And you got like the one other person I think you could probably toss in there with Stafford, although I do think Stafford is the frontrunner, as much as I hate to say that, is Drake May. But part of that feels like the Patriots just have like the best record in the league. And that's what the MVP feels like. It's kind of boiled down. too is like who is a contributing player one of the more if not the most contributing player on a team with the best record in the league i for one think like you can also go in a number of different areas like maybe this is a year where you know no offense to staff or do you go in a

different direction you go jonathan taylor because i think you can make a case that he's won quite a few games for them having the season that he's had um i my homer with with my niners i i genuinely really think Christian McCaffrey should be in the conversation. Yeah, definitely. There's no, with all the injuries, there's no chance that the Niners are where they are record-wise and even in the playoff picture if he's not doing what he's doing. He, like, leads the league in receptions from the running back position. And he handles so many touches.

And he's, like, stayed healthy this year, which I know is a number one concern for a lot, myself and a lot of Niners fans is like, are we going to get a full season out of this, dude? Those probably are the four guys. I mean, maybe JSN, if you want to just. Just say he is the best player on the Seahawks. But if you are honest about Sam Darnold and you remove that Rams game, he has had incredible statistics. And it's like, dude, they could easily,

if they won the Rams game and Stafford through four interceptions, you'd be talking about Sam Donald potentially being the MVP. But I think what we're ultimately doing is we're like, could it be Drake May, maybe? Could it be one of these running backs? Maybe. but it's never a running back. And May statistically has been great,

but I think Stafford statistically has been elite. And I do feel like they bias heavily passing touchdowns for MVP voting. And I think if you pass for the most touchdowns and your team's on the top of the conference, it'll help. The other thing is the narrative is there. He's old. He wasn't supposed to be playing.

He plays in L.A. was going to suck and then all of a sudden his back doesn't suck and he's like I'm good I'm still good I still got it right and that narrative is kind of fun and exciting and it has more going for it than anybody else's so I do think he'll win it based on on that but it's a it's a down year overall he's just having a good passing season you can fit some of the other guys we just talked about into like the categories of like other awards right like yeah mcalfrey comeback player of the year yeah Jonathan Taylor of the year.

Offensive player of the year. And I think that should be, those two are way closer. Totally. That should be a co-player award. It very well may be. There should be co-offensive player of the year for Taylor and JSN and JSCN and McAfrey.

They've all done crazy things. It's just so hard to delineate who deserves it between those three. That's insane. Well, they're all going to get like the all first team all pro. That is like probably what they probably care about more. Defensive player of the year is like That's a runaway. It's Miles Garrett.

It's not even close. It's honestly been like Miles Garrett and T.J. Watt. Like since Aaron Donald retired, those two guys have been consistently excellent. I think Max Crosby's been consistently excellent. Fred Warner's been consistently excellent. But it's kind of Miles Garrett's award to lose every year because he's going to get the sack ground. Torrid's start. I saw he was like on pace for like 27 sacks.

He's going to break the record. I hate the on pace for her, but, like, I could totally see it because I would love for him to break the record. Who is it by T.J. Watt now, or is it still Michael Strayhan? Maybe they're tied. I'm not sure. I'm not sure, but that'd be crazy. Yeah, so he's, you know, an offensive rookie of the year is really difficult because so many guys have had, like, great moments, but weird overall years. It is a code.

I think you could say it's Agbuka. I think you could say it's McMillan. I think you could say it's Jackson, Darry. I would just give it to McMillan Because he hasn't missed time And it looks like he's going to gently outpace Agbuka here down the stretch But I would

Not as competent of a quarterback You can make the case for that too Versus other offensive weapons My takeaway is pretty weak rookie class I was very dissatisfied with this rookie class I think Genti was Underperforming in large part Due to a bad offensive line

but he may well be a mediocre player. I think Hampton was so underwhelming. This is just me personally, and then he got hurt. I think Henderson is incredibly explosive, like we all predicted. And they're finally using it. But the situation's a little weird. All of the receivers just kind of bummed me out at different points. I think Agbuka and McMillan are the two that are the most solid.

Tyler Warren, I think this is just my take probably, probably, is the best offensive player in the class maybe loveland but loveland going 10th overall didn't produce a lot for me in it in my opinion i i don't know anybody who really stands out the next one we had was did you have an offensive rookie of the year offensive rookie of the year i think you kind of named them already it's like really hard to think like it's not going to be one of those wide receivers so like defensive rookie of the year there's one for you that's not easy i'm not so good with remembering like the draft class so you're going to have to like toss out a few names um the defensive rookie of the year's the favorite right now according to cal she walker when the

season started who was an edge rusher that the falcons drafted uh they also drafted james pierce junior in the first round um who else uh let's see here we're going to go defensive rookie of the year dude currently yeah this guy Carson sweatshinger yeah he's a He is like, so to put this in their perspective, he is on Kalshi, which, you know, take that with a grain of salt, if you may. 68% likelihood to win the award. The next closest is Abdul Carter at 8%. So that's sensational. So Sueshinger coming out was like one of the better linebacker prospects in the class, which is cool.

Did I even recognize half of these names? He wasn't supposed to be that good, but he was one of the better ones. He's been amazing. Abdul Carter was the favorite. He was the third pick in the draft. To a good defensive line. Totally. He's been disappointing.

And so I think it says a lot that like Swesinger is going to win it as a second or third round pick. I don't even know where he got drafted. To be honest, I think eight weeks the season went by and never heard of it. Kind of a week rookie class. And I'm glad that the Rams traded out of this year's first round to get some tools for next year. I did see Arch Manning's game last night. And I will say, if he wants to.

come out, I honestly still think you'd probably be the one-on-one. Very possible. I don't really know who else is in the run. Super-duper possible. Super-diver possible. I think there's a few like really nice defensive end prospects that are supposed to go top five, but honestly, I could totally see

Arch Manning pulling Eli Manning and be like, I don't want to play for that team that has the number one overall pick. I'm going to go back unless you trade that pick for me. Just because we've seen it with the Manning's already, but hey, maybe Arch is different. Did you see the turtleneck?

Are we now moving to Mom Donnie, Trump, that Burgundy Turtleneck? That Ron Burgundy Turtleneck? I could not believe my fucking eyes. I've never seen him smile at somebody like that in a hot minute. I've seen him as assault reporters verbally. So for those of you who aren't aware what we're talking about, last week, at the beginning of the week, maybe at the end of the previous week, the new mayor of New York City, Zoran Mamdani went to DC to meet with Donald Trump

And they really hit it off Based on Trump's face and body language And like gushing countenance He was just loving life To Matt's point You never see this guy smile It's kind of antithetical to the tough guy brand And like he does the scowl

Like that mug shot that he took Like he tries to make that face a lot That is his presidential portrait Yeah he tries to like rock that face He was smiling at the sky looking up at him. I think he knows like, okay, Mom Donny is a rising star.

He has a lot of charisma. He has a lot of popularity. It's New York City, which is where Trump kind of got his star. One of my clients said that he said, dude, how much of this do you think is just Trump is and always will be a New Yorker

and wants to be popular with New Yorkers so he doesn't want to, you know, lose any favor. It's a great point. But I guess when they met, they really got, you know, down to it on the affordability. stuff and Trump knows he's getting killed on the economy and so you know mom

donnie was plus 40 with young guys uh mostly because of the economy so I think they talked about some stuff they shared some common ground but I just thought the fucking faces and the like smiles and the laugh and the body language did you see the memes it was incredible ones that were like get somebody who looks at you like Trump looks at mom donnie yeah it was incredible he was incredibly smitten with him like you were saying I couldn't believe what I was watching I was like this is crazy and like either this AI I was like either mom donnie is like a generational just charismatic person or Trump is just like so unbelievably able to be won over and right you know and like I think both can be true it wouldn't like he lives in a bubble he lives in a bubble so this is definitely his first time meeting the guy oh yeah and like it's so much different to meet somebody than it is to like bash him on the internet and I wonder if Trump is like as susceptible as any of us to being charmed guaranteed he's also worth saying noting he is pretty charming and he is like i know everybody hates him and thinks he's dumb idiot and not everybody hates

him he's popular with a lot of people but a lot of people who dislike trump i think they discount how funny he can be and how charming he can be in a social setting yeah and like i don't think mom dani was being fake any more than trump was being fake i think they both were genuinely schmoozing with each other right hitting it off because they both are outsider types that were bet people bet against them totally and they really showed like hey i look i want you know and there's a lot of commonality between the two in terms of how they speak against the establishment but that meeting was so funny to watch and then like a few days later he's wearing the same burgundy turtlene that was hysterical that dude it's i did not have that

on my bingo card i would not have seen that coming in like a million years i did not have think they were going to get along that well oh my god well i kept seeing like a ton of like you know conservative personalities and talking points about like yeah at the start of this meeting trump's gonna teach him who's boss and like he mom donnie's gonna go back to new york city having learned a thing a too yeah yeah and like all this stuff and then and then like they were completely just like silent like as the thing went on because i don't think they expected there was like as like accepting oh god no they you know they were like he's gonna torch him he's got these completely contrasting ideas to what we're trying to run here

dude they were hung out his fans were hung out to dry they were like dude we've you've been telling us for weeks this dude is a socialist jihadist insane person yeah pretty much who's gonna destroy this city that we all love and now you guys are like boys and you're kissing his ass and people were like what the fuck what are we doing out here where we look like fools now so there is an element of maga core that i think felt like they got totally duped by that they're like dude what the hell you we're like out here attacking this guy who's really popular on your behalf and then when you have them over you guys are buddy buddy it makes us look awful well that's the risk you run about trying to pre-predict what somebody's going to do yeah you set yourself up for those i'm not really

that empathetic with for you true but the coverage after the fact was like pretty bad and it was like they were like man trump had mom donnie in his back pocket man he had him doing circles and smiling trump is such a master communicator i was like oh my god dude it's just like come on he liked him because he has no real beliefs he doesn't actually believe a lot of the shit that he pushes he's like this guy that's like that's when he was like you know this guy might actually do some stuff these guys have good ideas people are like right right right but it's like he's not it's not beyond him anyway moving on we'll talk uh one little angle here on markets we don't talk about really is consumption and

we're recording this on black friday i'm curious did you get anything on or around black friday i actually did not take advantage of any black friday deals i have like my own kind of like thoughts on it and i think it's an advertising scam it is a big time i i actually saw this video from Target of all places. And I've seen this a few different years in a few different ways. But this year they were, you know, advertising the Christmas stuff, like the fake late Christmas tree. And they had their sign that was like on sale down from 175 to, I think it was like 125.

And then, but on the boxes, they had these little white out stickers over like the brand, which also had the price on it. And the price was like 140 bucks. so they were trying to say originally it's like 175 and they're marking it down to 125 but the original cost of the product itself was only 140 and i've seen a number of cases where they like slip in the red tag on it being like oh it's this item it's this now and then someone will go pull it out and it's like literally the exact same deal all year long yeah that sounds right i maybe i'm wrong about this maybe i'm not but i really think black friday the deals that are offered are

first up charge 30% and then down charge like 50 obviously i'm making those numbers up but i don't really think you're getting like a true deal that you can't get any other time of the year so i don't really spin crazy i also feel did you ever as like i was in high school roughly when this happened when online shopping wasn't as popular where you would like wake up with your boys at like 2 30 in the morning to try to go get in line somewhere yeah on black Friday I miss those days oh yeah I thought that was so freaking fun I remember people like trying to be the first 50 people in the store to get some extra coupon off and then you go shopping with it and you know people would kill each other over like two dollar DVDs they'd

put out like a two dollar DVD bin with like mostly shitty movies but like there might be a few good ones in there yeah people would be like diving in there like ripping him apart at Walmart or something yeah and I remember going after Thanksgiving when I was like 13 14 and like one of your buddies had a car. I've been like, fuck yeah, dude, we're all going to Walmart.

They open at midnight. Yeah, Black Friday. We're going to wake up or we're going to stay up. Yeah, and it was a total blast. And now it's like Black November. Like,

Black Friday is here. It's like, bro, it's fucking September. Like, No, Black Friday's here, and you're buying our shit.

And it's Black Friday in October. Right. And it's Black Friday on the first day of November. It's like I, I unfortunately did have to do Black Friday. Because I got my wife some AirPods and I blew up my laptop by like not putting it in the case and walking around with my backpack wide open so it like flew out in a cracked hell of bed so this laptop i've had which has been a bitch for making content

and just doing emails has like a huge black hole in the middle of it from the screen bleed and then another one on the side so i bought a new macbook and i was like looking at macbooks for a long time like at least a month and i was like okay i'll see if there's anything for black friday they had the same deals all month and then on actual black friday i decided to pull the trigger um and then i like logged in the next day same deal so it's fucking saturday so it never really goes away and it's i was like the whole thing i feel like black friday like electronics were like the best deal you could possibly get and you know hearing your story it's like okay well if we're not even getting deals on that like where are you even getting them you're not really i don't again

i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna go back to what i said i don't really think you're getting any more deals for like shopping for loved ones on like thanksgiving like or nothing well the day after but for christmas um i i do like the season of giving i i love giving giving presents i that makes me feel like really good but it does feel at times like the materialistic society and culture america's building definitely takes a lot of the spirit out of the christmas season for me um it's all about the shit yeah whether it's like like you said rampaging the stores for whatever toys so you can get your kid or the amount of gifts under the tree that end up getting posted on social media for a small little flex and status or whatever you know i think there's a lot more important things

that i kind of want out of life than the material things like the material does nothing after a while i don't i don't have anything that i like really want that i don't make okay enough money to go by myself throughout the year if i genuinely want it so i end up doing like more experiences like trips and things like that that's how i give my gifts and uh I'm at an age now where I think most of the people in my life kind of also, like, really appreciate that. So that's kind of where I'm at. And I think everyone around me kind of is on board as well.

Finishing up with some media, the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, the day before Thanksgiving was the day the new Stranger Things came out. Have you watched any of it? Oh, yeah. I've seen three of the four. Oh, okay. They're releasing it in chunks. So I think there's three releases, this November one.

Christmas. Christmas and I think somewhere in January. I can't remember how many episodes total, I think it's somewhere between like eight or 10. Yeah, I haven't seen a single one. Not like of any season ever. Of the last season. I've actually seen all of the season just like really spread out.

So I don't, I'm not that up to date. I would need to watch a recap. Yeah. But I could jump. I'm thinking about jumping in soon. I'll send you like a little like message board that I saw because the creators of the show dropped like this little like Easter egg thing saying like for the season. five you really only need to watch four four episodes is like two of them in season two and two

in season four so that way you don't have to spend your time watching four seasons completely uh i i really like the show i think the cg i production value i'm pumped i think it's pretty i think it's pretty incredible like it's been a long time coming i think they've got like three or four years since season four yeah it's been a long time coming so i'm excited to see kind of like how it unfolds but probably actually tonight i'll watch that fourth episode Did you watch Frankenstein? I have not. Okay, so after you watch the fourth episode of Stranger Things, I'll start it.

Watch the new Frankenstein from Guillermo del Toro. Holden really liked it. When you say new Frankenstein, like there's multiple seasons. It came out in 2025. It is a movie, two hours, 30 minutes or so. Guillermo del Toro directed it. It stars Oscar Isaac, who's pretty good as Victor Frankenstein. And then he builds his monster.

And it's like pretty solid. very modern it's aesthetically like gorgeous if you like the aesthetics of stranger things you'd like this it's like a perfect time of year for it i'm a spooky christina loved it so it's like everybody i know who's seen it either enjoyed it a little bit or loved it so it's definitely worth watching for sure i'll check that out all right guys if you enjoyed the episode be sure to follow on spotify as well as apple leave the show a five star rating and review so more people can find it follow the show over on instagram as well as us on instagram and we'll catch you on the next BOR.

BOR. BOR. BOR. Thank you.