The Okay Podcast Powered by The Strength Co. - Ep. 114: Wisconsin Recap, Supper Clubs & The Foundry feat. Connor King

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

Grant and special guest Connor King recap their weekend trip to Wisconsin where Strength Co. plates are made. They talk about the foundry, supper clubs, and cheese curds, as well as some lifting and sports talk. Podcast Hosts:Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and LifterTres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and LifterJoin the Slack and Use code OKAY:⁠https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks⁠Check out BW Tax: ⁠https://www.bwtaxllc.com⁠BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thestrength.co/mrhelmet/?utm_source=The+Okay+Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=Okay_Pod⁠Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro05:15 - Staff Brief14:31 - Wisconsin Trip36:01 - How Strength Co. Plates Are Made42:52 - Supper Clubs52:55 - The Foundry01:03:07 - Knee Sleeves01:10:50 - Big Week In Sports

Welcome to What's the remark? There's nobody here for me and you. I am your host. I am your host, Grant, Broji. And we are recording live live from Ableton, Wisconsin. That's true. We're in Appleton, Wisconsin. We are Midwesterners at heart.

Midwesterners. They're like literate southerners. I've always said that, never not said that. We're live from Appleton, Wisconsin. I'm joined in studio with Stranko. Everybody knows it from Stranko. Connor King. We'll let him talk here in a minute once we get to this stuff going into Do Not Disturb. Episode 1-1-4.

So we're live, two people in studio, two mics. We're a mobile podcast. I think this is the best setup. I've ever done. in about 1-0 minutes. I set it up faster than no 844s could set up a base X. And we are ready to rock also joining us from Kern, Texas. Is that a real place?

Yeah, it's got to be. I mean, Jeff. Hypothetically, how would you spell Kern? Kilo Echo Romeo November. Okay. Let me see. Yeah. Jeff, could you fact?

Oh, he's still not here. Jeff's still not here. Fricking Jeff. Frigin Jeff. not here. Kern, Texas has got to be real. There's a Kerr, Texas. No, Kerr.

Oh, man. Is that what you meant Kerr, right? I meant Kerr. Is it K-E-R-R? Yeah. Okay. Where are you in all reality? Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City, Texas. My favorite part of Texas, Robert Trey Gottlitch, the third. That's T-R-E-S-Tress.

Some people would spell it T-R-E-Y-T-R-T-E-T-E-T-E-T-R-E-T, but his parents didn't know what they were doing and they just went with Tress because he's the third. Price of Bitcoin is $65,608.30. Today's date is June, 16 in the year of our Lord, 2026. And this airs on Friday. We'll no longer be in Wisconsin. But we've been in Wisconsin for a few days. I'm sure we'll talk a little Midwestern folklore, don't you know.

But we got a lot to talk about today. but first, let's remember this podcast brought to you by BW Tax. BW. Tax, great guy better at taxes. We've always said that, never won't say that. He hails from the New England area, act in mass to be specific. He lives in South Carolina. And hopefully that's a reminder that he can live in South Carolina. He can be from Massachusetts and he can do Trays, taxes, and Texas. That's how taxes work. You actually don't have to have your tax guy in your local city. And what I like to say is it's never too late.

It's never too early to start next year's taxes. This podcast is also brought to you by green gridironers. We call them Mr. Helmet, Green Gridiron, Gridiron, Green. If you Google either one, you'll know what I mean. Click the link in the show notes. Get over there and get yourself a Border Patrol helmet. There's a lot going on to border. You need to protect yourself.

Get a Border Patrol helmet. Get an ice helmet. You probably get in America 250. UFC fight helmet, you know, and there's some guys that probably should have worn that this weekend. We're going to talk about the UFC fight. We're going to talk Wisconsin. We're going to talk college world series. Trace probably got a lifting question. We got Chow Radar. A lot going on at www.com. So if you like Stranko, if you like the 250th commemorative plate, if you like Chow, let me put it to you this way. I'm in the Midwest where they harvest things. And the only

person that harvests more things in Midwesterners is me and email addresses. So anyway, with that, Connor, say hello real quick before we kicked it in this terrible step. It's right of the program. Yeah, long-time listener, first-time podcaster. Honor to be here in Wisconsin and on the pod. Thank you guys. Not your first time on the pod, though.

I think I made like a five-second sound bite. That was my favorite was the 100th episode is when you called in for about 45 seconds. That was on the 405 for you, Southern California people. It was tough. But yes, the Arnold. We call that South California on here. Yeah. But you were on the Arnold for, I don't know.

Yeah, we did a little more. Yeah. We were right on the stage, the deadlift platform. That's great. Right across from SBD, had Jen Thompson on, had strangers on. Go back and list that episode. That's got to be in the first. That's set one.

So it's in the first 100 episodes. 25. Yeah, I was going to say first 25. I don't know what it is. PJ, just put down a little ticker on the bottom of the screen. First, I want the price of SpaceX to go. and then I want Dunkin' Donuts to go. And then when Dunkin' Donuts is done,

put the episode that everyone needs to click. Thanks, PJ, for what you do. With that, I'll kick it over to three for an abbreviated staff brief. Yes, sir. No, this is still the three alpha. Three still out. He didn't let me many notes, sir, so there was probably a quick meeting. Hey, this Trash Five.

Trash Six couldn't make it today. He's still on the field, too. So let's get through these slides quick. Well, let me ask you guys. You guys want to brief you? You want to push? Oh, sir, I'm linked towards push. Yeah, I'm going towards push here.

Okay, okay. Go ahead, three alpha. Yes, sir. S-1's out in the field. No, no, she said. Trash five, numbers are bumping. Numbers are bumping. A plus on a report card.

S2 is still in his vault. Shreda Horamuz is still closed, I believe. Checking X. I. Have we been to the website? Have you been to the website? Oh, no. Let me check it.

Did you already check it? I have not. I just assumed. Of Hormuz. I assumed it was your home screen. Yeah, I don't, I'm on the road. Okay, it's different. This trash five.

Could you guys keep the sidebars to a minimum? Oh, yes, sir. So, dot com. There's a website. Is it straight of Hormuz Open.com? It's a real website. This is not an app yet?

Oh, here it is. The answer is no. Straight of Hermuz continues to be cut. Sir, this is Lance Corporal Schmucketele. Estrada Furmuse is closed. Oh, good. Thank you, Lance Corporal. Let me see.

S3 talked about some Phops coming down. Phops, everything will be trash, cops. Some things are trash. That's pretty much all I have to brief on that, sir. As for dumpsters, actually happy to report 100% dumpsters online first time in history. So too bad the S6 isn't here or trash six. Excuse me. Let me see.

Medical? Medical. Out. In the field. Probably doing, probably doing tourniquet training. Yeah, this RBE element is very light. Yeah. Dental? Oh, that's part of medical. Yeah. Let's do a little some fun here. Let's see what we do here. I'll get some outline stations. We anybody? Well, we're going to try to get an outlying station live since we're on a different, a little bit different time zone than we usually are.

We're on what we call Central Standard here in Wisconsin. Can you hear that? Yeah. Now it's. Hey, big luck. Hi. Hey, Big Nate. Is that you?

You're live on the OK podcast. Hello? Oh, is this the chaplain? This is the chaplain. Hey, this spoke to little chaplain. Oh, little chaps, little chappy as we call. Little Chaps was on the phone. This is Trash 5.

Trash 6 is out in the field. We were going to outlying stations. We didn't have a message from you. And we just wanted to make sure that, you know, God's word did not return void. Did you have anything from us, chaps? Holy cow. The meeting is this early in the day? Well, chaps, we're doing a training exercise in Wisconsin right now.

And so we're on what's called Central Standard Time. Oh, my gosh. And we're actually even recording early in the day. So I know that you may not have had your quiet time yet, but maybe the Lord can just speak to you right now. Man, let me go to the Lord. I wouldn't let little chaps pick up the phone if I would have known this was a meeting call. For a second, I thought the chaplain was a child that's been talking this whole time.

Hello, yeah, nothing much for the group. Yeah, sorry, guys. The slides weren't updated this week. It communicated end of day, Phops. There was no time check. Clock check. Sorry. Time hack. A trash five is it's called a time hack. There was no time hack.

It's an intuitive process this meeting. You're supposed to just know when it's going to incur occur. There's no real battle rhythm. Nip lock. Yeah. Okay. Well, for all FOPs, future operations, for those of you who just tune in them, you know, me, I know

the lingo. Just remember that, you know, time is whatever it is. And speaking of time, You might be wondering, you know, my children, I've got children, because I'm a chaplain, the more children you have, the more holy you have, or something like that, Philip Weber. They said that, you know, the more children you have, more time doesn't make sense, the more questions they have. And they often ask me about, you know, time and what that means and how God exists. And, you know, it's just one of those attributes of God. And so, you know, attributes of God, praise Jesus, he loves you, nothing else for the group over.

Hey, great brief. Everyone can hear you. You can't hear them. But the Lord hears everything. Yeah, he does. Amen. Amen. It's part of his attributes.

That's an incommunicable attribute, I would say. Yeah. If we want to get into the terminology. Hey, this is trash five. Can you keep the sidebars to a minimum? Oh, yeah. Yes. Sorry.

Sorry. Attention on deck. That's what we do attention. Yeah, that's a good time to do attention on deck. You're starting to get it. Well, well, chaps, we didn't want you to be left out. We're going to kick it out to some more outlying stations. But if you want to watch this right now, you can see us on X.

Man, on X, we stream this covert operation just to do the everything? Yeah, so as soon as the SEC war started just putting all the secret information on X, we did the same thing. So, yeah, just tune in right now. All right, yeah, yeah, sounds good. I'll tick Donald Trump or something. He'll just retweet it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he already retweeted it. You're live.

Okay, sounds good. Okay, no, no, no, for the group. Okay, I don't know. Okay. All right. Man, off to a good start. Let's go through some more outlying stations. And then this is, Jeff's going to come back and be like, man,

they don't even do the staff brief anymore. Cooper Clark said his kid. Okay. He's almost ready for the okay podcast, 50 Cow Challenge. It looks like, I'm going to guess about a three and a half year old on an assault bike. We got Midwestern Dr. Jake from State Farm, former guests of the podcast. He says, okay. We have John Kay, Midwest Wisconsinite, abiding in Colorado.

Cheese curds should squeak, all secure in sector seven. Do you have any thoughts on that? I'm still waiting for my curds to squeak. I've eaten great cheese here, but I haven't gotten a squeaky one yet. I don't think. It's all pretty new to me. Yeah, we're going to get into that. Yeah, I think you're right, John.

It's tough to find a squeaky curd. I'm also Midwest Wisconsin. Does he mean like I'm from the Midwest and that is Wisconsin or does he mean Midwestern Wisconsin? I'm curious. I'm a central Wisconsin guy. I'm a pack a guy. Do business in South Wisconsin.

I'm in Appleton right now. John, you get to clean that up for next week. Paul W. Foss. you guys got any of those Excel tank tops left? Be a real shame not to rep one of the Liptar lift easy. Paul, I will look

and I think that sums it up for outlining stations, but a week lately. Let me go to requests. No hidden requests. Yep, that's it. Hey, this is trash five, trash six. We want you to know. He appreciates what you do

and securing the trash. That is a gala sergeant major. sir, I think you forgot to kick it to the Cajun Sajun Major. Oh, yeah, sorry, sorry about that, Sir, Major. Do you have anything for the group? Sorry, Major, do you have anything for the group? Is the Cajun Sergeant Major not here? He always goes first.

Okay, Sautier Major, excuse me, that the goal of Sauter Major was going to talk, but he's a little bit shy today, okay? I hear y'all eat some of them cheese curds up there in Wisconsin. I don't know about that. I'm more of a little gumbo. little bit of, you know, et tufe, you know, down here in the bayou, that's what we like to eat. But as far as what I have for the group, not a lot, I just change your socks, change your socks,

shaving mustache, and that's about all I have. Thank you. This is the gullas, Sergeant Major. I just want to say that we had the best, we don't have the best turnout to the far more stewed boil last week. And I want to, if you could send a message to the four or three, I want that broken down dumpster, word just fine for the shrimp pills. Also, could you also dare to afford that I'm about out of old bay seasoning and maybe he's sent something over another for the group?

Hey, just I want everybody to know, we can leave. We can leave. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. S6 out in the field, really calms are up. Com seemed to be good. That's about all we have. Sir, you got anything else?

No, that's it. No, no. We don't do that for a major. Excuse me. Okay, should we start the show? Let's start the show. We're flying to Wisconsin, direct flight, Orange County to Appleton exists. For you Midwesterners that want to come out of the Strenco, the gym and Costa Mesa, you can't. And you can on a Legion Air for about $100.

Legion Air, potential sponsor. And we're going to fly. And, you know, it's a, it's a slog to get to the airport. Connor's got to, you know, say bye to his kids, prep for deployment, first time leaving his family. I got to say bye to my kids. We get on the plane. I said, by the way, I packed a little podcast gear. You're going to be on the podcast.

And he goes, yeah, I'm about 100 episodes behind. And so. You're man. So he, he listens on the flight and he leans forward. He was in the seat behind me. And he goes, yeah, I'm going to be worthless in that military staff brief. Very civilian. Yeah.

I got nothing. Yeah, I did. Happy to listen. I think you did great. Dude, I'm like 10 years removed. 10 years plus removed from it. So sometimes they throw something out. I have no idea what's going on.

Yeah, nothing's changed. Yeah, nothing. It's true. If you don't know it now, it just means you didn't know it then. Well, that's 100% accurate. I didn't know it didn't either. Yeah, that's it.

How do you want to, are you driving? I can. Do you want to drive this one? Yeah, I mean, we can do this a couple different ways. We can get to the topics and then we can kind of do Wisconsin recap. I think we've had some fun events. here we should spend some time on. I think we had some foundry updates. You want to lead with that?

Yeah, no, I say, I say, that's, I say let's lead with that, man. I'm kind of curious kind of how that went when y'all got there, kind of, you know, schedule of advance. Yeah, I'll kick it to, to Connor here a second. So we kind of did what Connor so eloquently put out to me the reverse order of the life cycle of making a Stranko plate. And so what I mean by that is we, and we'll talk about this in detail, but we landed and we went to a home gym member. He's a massonomics crew member. If you're not a massonomics crew member, I think you can do it for as cheapest $3 a month. But he opened up his gym for us to go lift.

We kind of tore his gym. And then we basically ended up teaching him the starting strength method in his gym. But anyway, we lifted with Stranko plates. And that was down in South Milwaukee. and then we'll talk about the baseball game and stuff, but then from there we went to the coders, which is in Racine, Wisconsin, so down on the border near Illinois.

How far was that from the house? Well, we were in Milwaukee, so that's about 45 minutes south, like down by the border. Yeah, yeah. So we went to Racine. So basically we used the plates. Then we went to the coders, which is the last portion of the plate.

Actually, yeah, the last portion of the plates. they went to the machine shop, which comes before coding, and then we went to the foundry, which is where it all starts. I guess we technically kind of missed the handling portion where someone puts an OK podcast sticker in it and boxes it up. But we went from plates in a garage to where they get coated, to where they get machine, to where they get casted. But yeah, I don't know.

Maybe we talk about the little home gym tour. Yeah, we kind of went birth back to Conception. There it is. Shout out to Big Andy. I'm not sure what he is expected. We got there. He had a beautiful detached garage set up. Big plans for it. So we go in there and he's got a nice, you know, rack. I don't forget what brand it was. He cut it off to make it fit within like a quarter inch of the ceiling. So it fit perfectly. He's got his beautiful Stranco plates. He got a secondhand giant, giant big giant huge. Four way. I mean, it's got a leg press on it. It's got a a cable row. It's got all that stuff. He's got an assault bike, which we'll get to at the end there. And then he's got plans. Half his garage, he just went in, this was like an old farmhouse.

I think he got it from his grandpa. So he had an old tractor back there. So they had to, you know, it needed some tender loving care. And he's, you know, walled it all up. And it's a work in progress. He's got plans for a tiki bar. So half his garage is going to be a tiki bar. I'm trying to still figure out with the cultural connection. I've talked to like four Wisconsiners that are really infatuated with Tiki culture. To be fair, you've talked to about 400 Wisconsiners because every Wisconsiner talks to you. Hey, what's going on? You don't look like you're from around here, don't you know?

They will not let you just sit and drink at a bar alone. Yeah, they won't let you do anything alone. It's like, hey. Yeah, so his gym setup was cool. I thought what was interesting is his, all his straight-up plates were secondhand, which was not entirely true. bought some tins from me. So if I ever get tins that are returned for whatever reason, it's usually from like a cantacrous. Cantacrous, that's a good use of the word, right?

Customer, can'tacrous customer. I have a favorite kind. Contacarus. Yeah. So it's usually like nothing really wrong with them, but it's like, you know what? Do I want to convince the person there's nothing wrong with them or just make them happy? Sometimes it's making them happy. But I don't like to do scratching dent sales live. We talked about that last week. So I'll tell people in our Slack channel. I'll tell people on our Discord and the Massalam's Discord channel, which I'm a paying member of them.

It's not mine. About it. So he got some from there. But he got all of his plates from Wisconsin and paid relatively retail, just didn't pay shipping. And he didn't have a full suite.

He had some other stuff. But yeah, so we did, you know, we got enough work out in. We were going to the Brewers game later to, you know, not feel terrible when we got there. So, I mean, I think I deadlifted like 425 for 5, like just do something. And then we benched like a bunch of sets of tens, did some pull-ups.

He ended up coaching a lot more than I think we expected. Yeah, I mean, we got out of the, we got out of the car with like the camera rolling. I'd never met the guy, right? And so got out of camera rolling. Now, when you watch that video, the vibes are going to make up for it. I know. But, brother, we are not professionals. We got out.

I had the road mic on. I had everything going said. I'm teaching Connor about some ISO stuff. and but we had the road mic plugged into the headphone port on the camera. And it's not supposed to go there. No, it's supposed to go on the mic port. And I think as revenge from World War II,

the Japanese put them right next to each other. So to confuse Americans. So we got that's a long game. It's a 50, 50. Yeah. Well, but one is non-two is one. The Canon EOSR, which we shoot with, has its own internal mic.

So the audio's, it's good. I went back and let's do it. It's going to work just fine. But I was pretty disappointed about that. But then, you know, if you can't do anything about it, why worry about it? So, yeah, anyway, but why don't you tell them about the 50 Cal challenge? Yeah, so we start talking and selling them on the 50 Cal. Where are we at with that? 68? 68.

68. So we're putting some pressure to jump on there. And he was a great sport. He lifted. He deadlifted. We pushed him a little bit harder and he was probably expecting. No, there's a 20-pound PR, by the way. Oh, 20-pound deadlift PR.

Well, it's kind of interesting. interesting, and I don't know if Big Andy's a listener, and I don't mean this in a bad way at all. It was kind of interesting. He had a pretty robust gym set up. I'm like, so what program do you follow? He's like, oh, I got Juggernaut AI. I've been doing it. He's like, then you reached out to me and I knew you sold plates.

He's like, but I didn't know you had a YouTube channel. He's like, and I've been watching all your starting strength videos. And I'm like kind of thinking maybe I should do that. And I was like, well, yeah. Like, I think you should. Like, that's how you start strength. And like, I mean, I think Juggernaut AI is great. program. Like a lot of people get really strong on it, but it's like, if you're just getting started,

hey, why not just keep it super simple, do three sets of five and add weight? And so, and I said, no, we're here to lift. Like, do you want a lift? And he's like, yeah, I'll lift. And I was like, now do you want like some tuning up? And he's like, yeah, so we ended up coaching him off on his deadlift and fix some stuff. And yeah, he pulled 275 for single, which was, we put it on the Instagram. It'll be in the YouTube video. But yeah, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, I think he did $2.45 for a triple first. And then $2.25 for a triple. And then like $2.45 for a single.

And then went $2.75 for single. And then continue with the $50.Cal. Yeah. And he was feeling pumped. Good about the deadlift PR. And then immediately morale crashed because he volunteered to get on the bike. I don't have fully understanding what the 50 Cal challenge entailed. Kind of voluntled.

Yeah. Voluntled to do it. Yeah. We wanted him to have that number 68 spot. I'm sure great to impress him to do it. No, not at all. Not at all. But to be fair, he had a cheerleading squad pushing him through it.

If he was alone in that tiki bar slash garage gym, I don't know if he would have made it through. He would have got a worse time. Yeah, I told him sub five was like respectable. And the 50 count challenge, if you haven't done it, listen up. We got 68 people that have done it. At 6.9, I'm going to send out a mailer. mean there's going to be an email like literally written by me to the people that have done it. There's going to be a coupon code for you to get a bunch of percentage off on apparel and merchandise.

And if you buy something, the sticker's going to come in your package. And the coupon code's also just going to give you sticker free if you just want the sticker. So if you don't, if you did the challenge, I'm going to ship it to you at my cost. Like you're going to get that or you can get some money off. And that's going to go out at 69. Now, we got 68 right now. You're listening to Friday. I'm going to do that next week.

So I come back from Wisconsin tomorrow. That email is going to go out next week. So, one, if you're on number 69, nice, you should go get that spot. Two, really have until Sunday to go to the OK podcast, Fintecal Challenge, and still make that mail or get that coupon code. Nobody's listening live right now. Probably some on X. Yeah, I mean, I'm not checking.

How many people are in space right now? It's usually less than how many people are. If you're listening live, I fly in to Orange County tomorrow at 10.30 a.m. And I'm getting on my bike and I'm taking the 69th spot. So if you're listening on an X. Which is your only chance. And you want to grab that spot before I do. Yeah.

You need to get to it. You get to it. But anyway, he started it. And it's the same thing. We got one person listening live. That's right. Nice. Go get it, Grant.

Yeah. Yeah. Go get it. I lost my train of thought there. Yeah, so we get them on the bike. And it's like, if people don't know what it is, they just don't know what it is. And it's about 20 cows in, no matter who you are, that people are like, oh, my goodness. Like, I got a long way to go.

And the 50 cow challenge favors the heavier man. It favors. And that doesn't mean you have to be in great cardio shape. It favors the man that can put weight. in the pedals but weight in the armed things. And Big Andy's not a heavier man, lighter guy. So I told him

five minutes is the golden standard. And I think it was 456. He was. We were screaming to get him there. Yeah. It was close. Within five seconds, I think. He was able to get it. And then it was a half hour of recovery,

I think. And we felt terrible because we had places, we had the Brewers game. So, general wellness check. He's getting his breath back. We take a selfie with him. He probably doesn't even remember it. Dude, we left his house.

We notified his wife to check on him. He was like just in a bucket of sweat and sorrow. And we're like, hey, man, sorry. We got to go somewhere else. Yeah. Anyway. What's the recovery on that? 30 minutes probably.

So you feel normal again, 20 minutes. Yeah, I think it's a half hour. Grant did it. And then he had. It took me a month. It took me a month. It took me a month, yeah. But people in the Midwest are just built tougher, okay?

They recover faster. You know, they're not these vegan diets in there, self-driving cars. You know, they're not those kind of people. Yeah, but he did a good job. And it was fun. And, you know, we toured his gym, nothing like the guys from Jim Radar do. I don't know the guys at Jim Radar. I know that they seem cool.

I know the guys at Massanoics, not the guy's gym radar. But, you know, they're not enthusiasts, but they like nerd out on the equipment. Whereas, like, I walk into a gym. One, are there strengtho plates? Nothing I care more about. Two, is there's strength a barbell, right? Or maybe some, you know, horse stall mats that we cut up for you. But once we get through, did you buy my product?

I go into, do you have what you needed to do to do what I coach, which is starting strength? So we did a, you know, we talked about some equipment, but I'm much less of an enthusiast of the guys that are an enthusiast are. But yeah, it was fun. It was good. So it probably be two videos coming from that. One of like a home gym tour of sorts and two, some coaching and lifting stuff. But anyway, yeah, we left there and went to the Brewers game. Yeah, got back to the hotel through our brewer's swag on. And, yeah, Connolly. That's a stadium. Oh, man.

Wonderful. Family. It'll always be Miller Stadium. It'll always be Miller Stadium to me. That's what all the Wisconsin people say around here. Yeah, it's called America. Wait. America's family.

Family. I mean, it's like an insurance firm or something. American family. American Family Stadium. Yeah. I think they do my car insurance. They seem pretty American. And family friendly.

And the park's family friendly. Yeah, for sure. But they still serve Miller? Oh, Miller's all plastered all over that place still. It's always Miller Park to me. It's a guy that's manufactured in this, for six years. To me, it'll always be Miller Park. But no, it's nice. They went up instead of up and back. So we sat with the machine shop guys. The guys do our machining. We had Eric there who

does, if you got a plate ship to you from Wisconsin, Eric packaged at himself. He came down to the game from Euclair and sat with us. We had Troy Sr., previous guest to the podcast. He said, if you're ever in the area, let me know. He lives in Michigan. I said, well, I'm in Wisconsin. you know, this date. And he said, oh, he said, great. I said, we're going to a ball game. He said, yeah, I'll be there. And I'm talking to Troy the second.

And I say, hey, yeah, I'm going to Wisconsin. I'm going to go to a game with your dad. He goes, what game? He's like, you're going to Detroit too? I said, no, I'm Milwaukee. He goes, dude, that's like a six-hour drive. And I said, man, he acted like it was in his backyard. And so he showed up.

We had a great job with him. But anyway, back to the stadium, the coders, the people that do their e-coding, they all brought their families. So two guys from the coding shop, brought their wives and five or six kids in total. And so they were up on the fourth deck. And so, I don't know, maybe six inning. I went up to see them. And man, the views from up there were great, too, because it's not an up-and-back build.

It's just like an up. And so even up in the 400 levels, it was good. And I didn't realize just because I'm not paying attention, but it's a dome. so they never have a rain, a rain out. If it starts rain in, and it's still natural grass, but if it starts rain in,

it takes 30 minutes to close the roof, the roof. They got a... They got a... They got a pitcher who's like for the Tsai Young, don't they? He pitched Friday night. Oh, okay.

And they won Friday. I can't remember. He's young. Throws like 105 or something, 103. Yeah, it doesn't matter. If you're from what's... If you're a Brewers fan, you know who we're talking about.

And therefore, you're good. If you're not, you feel... Yeah, you feel like we've talked about you. We finish the Brewers game. Oh, maybe the fifth inning. It's like, okay, we got to eat. Connor and I'd gotten up, done that gym workout, and hadn't eaten. Eric picked stuff from the hotel.

We went to the game, tailgated a bit, went in, but we didn't eat. And so I went to go get food. And, man, you know, having John Cena on the podcast is one thing. But seeing John Cena in Miller Stadium is another thing. So especially now, so last time I saw Connor was in person was Arnold. And especially now seeing that picture where Connor looks like the last action hero since I don't know what workout he's been doing here recently. Oh, right. Yeah.

She's really now. I've been doing recently. Yeah. Just now you really do look. No mustache, lost 15 pounds. Yeah. Yeah. Gained it all back in 48 hours here in Wisconsin.

Yeah. We go to the concessions stand. It's American dream, dude. And Conner's at the, you know, boot to the right up with this one. And the guy's like, man, it looks like John Cena. I'm like, that is John Cena. And he turns back to the wait staff and everyone cooking. He goes, hey, we got John Cena out here.

Crowd forming. And they came running forward. I'm like, it's John Cena. I'm waving them off. I'm not. I did this and took a. photo, but the guy in the back doesn't know that. And they're telling their buddy who's obviously, so he comes, he like finishing up his cook and comes running out thinking he's going to meet his

hero. And I'm like, I'm sorry. And he was, yeah, I mean, he's still happy. Took photo. I mean, to do photo. Then I air dropped it to the guy. We. And then he goes, I don't want to get in trouble at the stadium. Yeah, whatever you want, it's on the house. And I'm like, no, I'm like getting like four hot dogs for like a bunch of people and peanuts. He's like, no, no, no, it's free. It's free. That's John Cena. So we got four free hot dogs, free cheese curds. I have cheese curds on my hot dog. Alpasteur hot dogs.

Wisconsin on my mind. Is it because they thought you were John Cena? No, I was pretty clear. I was clearing that up that I was not actually John Cena, but I think they were just so thrilled with the experience. They love the experience. And then they were like, oh, you're not John Cena? Are you the guy from the OK podcast?

And I was like, yes. And that's when they started flowing the free food. They were like, where's Trey? I want him to get my spot. on Chow Radar. And also, John Cena doesn't, he doesn't need free hot dogs. That's what I'm about to say, man.

He's the last person who needs free. I need free hot dogs, not John Cena. And you got free hot dogs. And I got free hot dogs. Brewer's 1-4-0-tham. We call it the Strength Co-Effect. And yeah, we left the game, went to go leave, and Eric's

truck wouldn't crank. He's got an 04, Dodge, Ram, manual transmission, some kind of electrical thing going on in the clutch. He brings out a socket set because he's from Wisconsin. So, of course, he has a socket set, just ready to go. Tells us how this is the best socket set he's ever owned. I'm like, dude, your battery's all corroded up.

Like, let's clean it. Man, I wish we had a brush. Oh, I got a brush because I'm from Wisconsin. And I have everything I need all the time. So we pop off the connectors. We clean the terminals, put it back on. Still doesn't work. Triple A pulls up.

The guys, I'm going to put a battery charger on it. Eric's like, nope. I just need to try to turn it over like about 200 times and eventually it will go. And I'm like, you knew this was going to happen and you still decided to be a Uber? So anyway, he cranks the truck. We get in. He drives us five miles to the hotel before he's going to go back to Eclare. We get out at the hotel and we realize the sockets have been on the tonneau cover the whole time and the tail gets been down.

And we know we didn't lose anything. It's a great socket set. Yeah, it's the best socket set he's ever. It stayed. It holds on. It holds on pieces. It lives to leave. Yeah.

Yeah. We confirmed he made it back because he had a four-hour drive. Yeah, he made it back. I think he had to fill up with his engine on, which is not a good thing or a good thing. You think it's a good thing. I think anytime you get gas, you leave your engine running so that you can fill it with all the gas possible because you keep the fuel lines pressurized because if you're in a fuel jet system, you turn the car off or depressurized.

And so there's a little bit more gas that could be in the system. That sounds logical. I grew up in California. They just say, you're in general explode and you're going to die. Don't do it. That's what I was told too. So yeah.

You guys are for the grain. It's worth the risk. You guys are from those hippie states. In this economy, yeah, I'm doing that from now on. Yeah, it's hippie states. South Carolina, we just call it filling. Fillin. I remember that next time I'm filling up my Tesla.

Yeah. That's right. I mean, you leave your Tesla and I went out of the supercharger. Do you know? I think I leave it on 24 hours a day. I just get out of the car and leave. Yeah, terrible driving a rental. So that was a baseball game.

Yeah. So then do you get to see that? I'm getting back to the plates, man. The new plates coming out here in a couple weeks? Well, so we went to the coders. Okay. And the coders are... For people, just break it down real quick for me who are...

Like, I know, but like for those you don't know. Yeah. All this terminology, like, walk us through and a brief thing. We did it backwards when you're telling the story. story is logical in my head, but, but a plate is casted. So there's iron, could be scrap metal, could be old car parts, could be whatever. We use something called conversion gray iron and it is melted down into Lord of the Rings. Think Lord of the Rings, you nerds. Think of that hot flaming stuff. I'm there. I'm with you. I'm with you. Yeah. And you pour it into a mold and then the mold,

the sand breaks away from the mold. And now you have the casting. So you have a 45 pound plate, but it's rough on the edges and it's just raw gray iron. It gets grinded down at the foundry to remove like where it breaks free from the pattern. And then it goes to a machine shop. And the reason our plates are accurate, the reason that they're easy to grip, the reason that the inner diameter is nice and tight on the bar is because we machine to that. So we make the plate too big intentionally, meaning, you know, it weighs 47 pounds, almost, and then we machine it down to 45 pounds in the correct diameter, and then we clean up the inside diameter.

Every way to chamfer on, so nothing sharp. So it's like a little curve everywhere where there would be a right angle. There's a little bit of a chamfer there, and it gets machine. But now it's still like bright, silver, raw iron. And like if you touched it, if you touched it this morning, if you touched it at 10 in the morning, like at noon, you'd see your handprint because it's just raw iron. and once the oils from your hand, and it will start to rust.

And by tomorrow morning, your handprint would be rust. So we, in order for that, and it happened, everyone handled it with gloves. You put something on it called RP oil. So a light coating of oil on the plate. So as it gets transported from the machine shop to the coders, meaning it's going to get a coating, it doesn't rust on its way there.

When it gets to the coding facility, there's a bunch of different stuff you do. You can powder coat it. There's a bunch of different ways you can powder coat it. It's actually what I should say. You can paint. it. Some people do a wet paint. If you've ever had the York deep dish

plates, not old school York, China York, still York Deep dish plates. That's a wet paint. That's why it chips and flakes. Powder coat can chip and flake unless you do multiple coatings. Do multiple coatings. You're going to lose some of the shiny finish

and there's some things that come with that. And then we e-coat the plate. So it goes to an alkaline wash and then it goes into a electrochial water bath that a current is put into the water as the plates there and it adheres to the plate for protection and there's dye in that to make it black but really you can only e-coat gray or black you can't really I can't make a pink

eco plate and then it goes into the oven and it bakes so we went to the coders next as we're doing on the 250 pound plate I'm not gonna show all my cards yet but there may be some things that make it pop on there some colors that are going to come. And so we were at the coders, particularly looking at that. So we had a good time with them. I mean, it's just fun to see like a manufacturing production line.

I know you've seen the process. I mean, you're part of the process. But for me, I had very vague understanding. And so those three phases, like every, all those three teams were very generous, like, with their time and explaining it to like total ignorant like me. Yeah. And just, you know, it's more appreciation.

And they take prime, like, the pride they take in the whole process. And I think we did foundry today. It's just, that's like Fourth of July. Yeah, we'll get to, yeah, I think we'll get to that. Yeah, so the coders we show up.

They had those cringles. You've read those cringles from Trader Joe's? It's like a giant pastry. Those are made in Racine, right? Oh, okay. Yeah, so Connor brought one over to my house. I don't know, Easter or something.

And I was like, oh, Racine, Wisconsin. That's where we coat our plates. So we show up and, you know, these guys, they're all like down home Wisconsiners, right? They're just like thoroughbred Americans but they're also very like,

you know, corporatey and you know, we run the okay podcast. We're not too corporatey. And so it's like, you're going to go into a conference room. Do you want coffee? Do you want water?

Here's a cringle. And I'm like, heck yeah, I want a cringle. So we had some cringle, we had some coffee. Then we walked around. We actually sampled.

We did some test codes on some tens. I'll talk about that, not this episode, but soon to come once I make some decisions. But we did some test codes and some tens that were pretty cool. So like we did it live, like while we were there. Hung out with those guys, left the coders, went to the machine shop. And the machine shop for me, so we didn't, we had some samples at the coders.

But for me, whenever you're seeing your product being mass produced, it's like, man, it wants me to put my sales hat on and be like, we make the coolest product ever. So, like, you walk in there and there's robots, you know, grabbing 1.25s. There's dudes lifting 45s, putting them into the machining. They're coming out. They're going in. Like, everywhere you look is just strength Coke products. And you're like, this is awesome.

I saw that bin of like, what was it, though, 1.7, 1.7. 5s. 1.25. Yeah, that's it. I'm sorry. Yeah. That's pre-machine. Yeah, that was really cool to see.

Yeah. So anytime you just see that stuff in mass production, that's fun. So we went there, good time with those guys. guys. Got some potential couple products, new products that are going to, I don't say come from thin air, but not be casted and come directly from those machine guys. They're also laser guys, right? So they can cut steel and do a bunch of different stuff.

So we get some stuff that may be coming from them soon. I definitely have a few things. And I mean, the robots are cool, right? I was one of them that had to keep it a cage in case it goes feral. Yeah, that's true. We got to keep this one caged up. I was like, whoa. I don't know if it's an AI thing or Terminator thing, but...

I know Grant never watched this. Connor, do you ever watch, like, on Discovery Channel of, like, how it's made? Oh, yeah. I watched that. Oh, okay. I just assumed you did. Not as a kid.

I'm more watched unwrapped because it was about food with Mark Summers unwrapped. It's kind of like how it's made for fat kids. Yeah. No, I didn't know if the bunny ears got that one. Yeah. No, well, how it's made, I think I watched, I mean, I'm a titan of industry, right? So that's right up. right up my alley. No, I watched

that, not as a child. I watched that as a young adult. You could watch TV as a kid. A lot of you guys were watching like Game of Thrones. I was watching how it's made. Okay. And that's how we got Shrenko plates. You're welcome. The seed was planted early. Thank you, Discovery Channel. Potential sponsor.

Let's see. I think we go into the supper club next. Yeah. Another big Wisconsin thing we had to check off the list. Yeah. So Wisconsin Supper Club. You can go to Wisconsin and supperclubs.com. It's a big thing in Wisconsin. And we asked a bunch of folks

that were, you know, sub 40, like, hey, I've heard we gotta go to a supper club. I'm like, yeah, it's a restaurant. And then, of course, in our goings out after the ball game, eating dinner, of course, there's just random Wisconsiners that talk to us, hey,

where are y'all from? And then we have to quickly, like, prove that we're not gay. We're nestled up at the bar. We're from California. Connor just quickly like spits out. I'm from California. I'm like, I'm not from California. First, I'm from South California.

Second. Third, I'm actually from South Carolina. No. I just live. And so I'm like, I got a ring. He's got a ring. I got two girls. He's got two girls.

It's a business trip. So I kept seeing my partner and I are from California. It was. Yeah, so we had to clear that up a lot. You don't get pulled in hands and confusing people. Yeah. I would like to say I'm as straight as they come. but I think Tanner is.

But in any event, this old couple that we met after the game, we're watching the Chapel Hill game after the Brewers game, downtown Milwaukee. Central Standard. Central Standard.

Yeah, this is called Central Standard for Central Standard Time. The time's over on now. And we said, we asked him like, hey, what do you think of supper club? It's like, oh, you got to go. You got to go. It's incredible.

It's like, okay. So anyway, we leave the machine shop. We're down there in Slinger, Wisconsin. We drive up through Oshkosh, up through Fondalak. And we get up to Wapaca and we go to Simpsons. I think it was 1927. 34 was the founding.

And we met up with the starting shrink coach and his wife and a guy from the foundry, you know, was taking us to dinner. And so supper club, I think the starting strength coach who's born and bred raised and built in Appleton, Wisconsin, summed it up the best. And, Trey, I think you'd be a huge fan. He says, and Wisconsin, listeners, don't you know. I need you to chime in this week in the comments or whatever, but they said, what he said was restaurants want to turn tables. They want to get as many

people through the door as possible and, you know, therefore generate more revenue. He said, supper clubs want you to hang out. So you come in and there's an hour wait and the patrons aren't upset. They go to the bar and they order, you know, Wisconsin old fashion and like a adjacent to the bar is like a front like lounge room area and people come to a supper club like knowing there's going to be a wait and but they're okay with that and so they go and everyone hangs out and let me tell you is it is it is it a chain or is it a type of restaurant it's a type of restaurant that okay I guess was popular in the 40s because it's popular in the 40s but they're frozen in time like it's that place I mean it was built in the 30s so like it could have been 1950 in there

Yeah, they're like, yeah, I think we renovated once in the 60s. Yeah. And then that was it. Is it just called like Appleton Supper Club? This was just called Simpsons. Before the Simpsons show. Way before. Yeah, way before the Simpson show.

But it's on Wisconsin Supperclub.com, but that doesn't matter, right? I think that website is just like, like, imagine if someone had an idea of like, where does tray eat? Can we put that on a map and have it and be called Chow Radar, right? That basically Wisconsin Supperclub.com does that for people. but he said it's not about turning tables you hang out he said and then like when your table's ready you go eat but there's no pressure there's never like uh the whole process is slower but not a bad way yeah in a good way it's like more conversation and it's you know you've been at a restaurant and you can

tell there's people waiting and like you know your kids finishing his chicken fingers and you're kind like yeah she probably like get going i could tell someone wants to come there's none of that pressure and we were also there on a Monday so it wasn't packed and then when you're done eating everyone goes back to like the bar lounge area. And there's like a big fireplace. There's a bunch of chairs. It was a good experience. Yeah.

Yeah. It's, yeah, it was great. Yeah. It was great. You're in that you're there for the night. You get there early. Yeah.

And all shucks, I got to wait. I guess I'll drink three old fashions. Yeah. You just, all right. Terrible. Yeah.

And everyone just stays and hangs out. And that's what they call it supper. All supper clubs are a restaurant. Not all restaurants are supper club. We've always said that. Yeah. Always said that. Yeah.

Is that the place that you did put on Chow Rider? No. Oh, we skip Pete's garage. I guess we'll have to. That's an Oshkosh. No, I put one place on there just to like test the Chow Radar was working. That's like a place. You're ready to 4.5.

It was great. Yeah. Simpsons? No. Pete's. Oh, Pete's special. I mean, that was my first taste of Wisconsin. Yeah.

It's like you roll in and there's no waitresses. There's a bunch of rules on the table. and they're known for being like mean and rude unless you follow the rules. So you're supposed to go up to the bar to order your hamburger or cheeseburger and you tell them where you're sitting. Like I'm sitting under the Guinness sign. I'm sitting under the dartboard. I'm sitting under whatever.

And then when the food's ready, they just say like, Guinness table. And if you don't get up and get the food, they start throwing stuff at you. Right. And so it's all listed out. It's like 10.5 and a full page of rules while you're sitting there. But no, it's great.

burger was great and they had a competition called Beat the Meat. And it was two double cheese burgers with bacon and prime rib on top. And four gallons of French fries. Yeah, the two double cheeseburgers with prime rib and an endless basket of fries. And you have to eat it an hour and a minute's free. We didn't attempt it. We should have. Our table neighbor was just like, no, I'm just doing this, you know, for the love of the sport.

He wasn't trying to do it an hour. So we were encouraging him. So we go in there and there's cheese curds on the menu and you can get, regular or Cajun. And I had been in this place before, and I was like, kind of before we're going to the city, because city life is city life, right? You know, it's different based on where you are, but like a city is a city, which is different than Oshkosh, Cajuns. So we order the Cajun, as one does, cheese curds. I don't know. Why don't you talk about the sticks? Oh, yeah. So I knew curds are a big deal and I've been told like you can get them fresh and that's really the way

to appreciate the cheese. You go to like kind of a farm or dairy and get those. But most of the bar food you start off. I mean, I think I started almost every meal here with cheese with cheese curds. I can start dinner with cheese. Yeah, I'm going to get more in me here pretty soon. And they bring them out. And then this table next to us is like they've got they've got the whole thing going.

They've got the challenge going. And before that happened, I said to you, I'm looking at the menu. Yeah. I said, what's the difference between cheese curds and mozzarella? And I was, that was my, I was like, are they just four cheese curts, smushed together to make a stick? And I asked the people next to me. And the lady goes, you're not from around here?

And I go, no. No, I'm gay. I'm from California. My partner and I are just visiting on our honeymoon. And I go, what's the difference between a mozzarella stick and a cheese curd? And she's like, well, he's wrapped in a wonton. And I didn't understand. Connor looks at me and I said, and I go, a lot shoes.

A one. These ones are wrapped in a wanton. And so I've been in Wisconsin for a 35, yeah, an hour. So I'm still trying to like figure out the dialect and everything. And I'm thinking it's a fancy cheese. Like, oh, they double wrapped in a fancy cheese. Like some, some Wisconsin cheese called Awanatan. Yeah.

And I go nod my head. Oh, very good. And then you can't ask about food in Wisconsin without them saying, have some. Here, have mine. Have mine. They won't take no for an answer. No, have some.

So as soon as I bite into it, I go, one time. It's wrapped in a wanton ton. But a W-O-N-T-O-N. Yeah. Oh, okay. We both thought it was a wonton, like some type of new cheese. Yeah, wanton's potential sponsor, I guess.

Don't you know? Don't you know? Yeah, so it's just mozzarella wrapped in a wonton. Not a fan. No, not as good as the Kurds. I don't dislike it. Yeah, Cajun Curds are the way to go. All Chow's pushable chow.

It's a whole lot of beige, but it's great. It's tasty. Yeah. Anyway. What's up with the Cajun cur? Was there just like a whole day on it or what? something Caj and Sergeant Major

I can't give you I give you what family secrets from the bay you I don't know in my opinion there's the best cheese skirts we had though

yes Pete's garage they were the best yeah so fast forward last night went out to a cabin one of the

ladies high up in the plant 60s right when I started six years ago when I first came out she said, like, hey, I know your small business. We have a cabin.

Do you want to stay in it? And I'm thinking, like, lady, I've like only talked to you over the phone and on email. She's like, yeah, but my husband says you're a Marine. I'm like, well, yeah. She's like, he was a Marine. And I was like, okay. So the first time I go there in 2020, I show up. They meet me.

They got like the bedding rolled out. He's like, hey, I got a Glock 19 for you. It's got an extended max, 16 rounds, you know, just in case anything happens. and I'm thinking I'm in the middle of nowhere. Like nothing's going to happen. He's like, here's access to all my trail cams. You can go jogging on the trail over there. You're probably seeing a big, you know, he like gives me the whole run down.

So anyway, we stayed there last night. And I'll tell you, there's something about just two bros hanging in a cabin listening to music till midnight that is like unmatched. We got there after the supper club. All you hear is like crickets. As soon as you get out of the car. I haven't heard silence like that in your life since I was maybe in the womb

I don't know I mean it's just the country because we're from the south yeah super country got out this morning they had a little folders a little Mr. Cafe pot

made a pot of folders Connor and I sat on a little porch sun like bakes right on the porch probably 730 in the morning I mean we were here for the best four days of Wisconsin weather I think yeah 100% Best days of weather.

And I mean, we sat out there for two hours drinking coffee and, you know, running our sucks. And I think we saw one car. And I don't even know if I saw that or if I dreamt it. But yeah, it was good. Then we went into the foundry. And it's good. That's my fourth time in the foundry.

I think your thoughts on what you saw probably be more interesting in mind because like the shock and all factor. Yeah, I was excited. I mean, anytime you got to watch a safety, like a 15-minute safety video before you step in. It's going to be a good time. It's going to be a good time. So I was pretty locked into that. And, you know, guys treat us well.

Go in there. Nice conference room. Talking specifics. Grant talking business, ideas. I'm politely nod in my head. They got no cringles, but we weren't in Racine. So I totally understand that they had the nice little donut spread and everything. Oh, they had like gobble-gold, cheese.

donuts. Like they had enough to, and I told them it's two people coming. And Kevin, who I've worked with for six years, like knows me. And you could have fed 15 people donuts and pastries. And they're like, hey, do you want anything? The plant managers area has been there 15 years, whatever. And I see the little coffee machine. I'm like, oh, yeah, actually, it's like the pump coffee.

I'll take a coffee. I go up and I've already had 19 cups at this point. And it's empty. I'm like, oh, that's fine. There's a water machine. So I fill up water. We sit down. We're talking about the new 250 pound plate, excuse me, 250th commemorative 45 pound plate.

That's right. I know everyone wants me to make a 250 pound plate. But, and so we go through all the stuff, the tooling, the changes, the insert. We're talking where on current parts, just kind of like our overview of all the part numbers we have with them, you know. And then it's like time to go toward the foundry. That's where I'll kick it back over to Connor. And one of the guys, it's like a production manager. like he's 6-1-2-95 he's you know he he likes his curds and uh he's like I love that we

laid out donuts for these guys like these guys clearly don't eat donuts and I was like yeah yeah I told you guys not to do that I just really want a coffee that was the only thing that was empty that's like the Wisconsin's version of like flowers on the table just like decorative donuts yeah Yeah, it was a good spread. I mean, they, I mean, look at these. If you're watching on YouTube. Oh, that's pretty slick, man. Made in the USA, which is a rare thing for a coffee mug, dishwasher, microwave, and oven safe. I was checking out the specs.

If you're not watching YouTube, it's a Wapaka Foundry mug, and it's like overbuilt. It's super thick. Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty awesome. So they had that. Some sweet looking hoodies, yeah. Yeah, laid out for us. And so they give us our PPE and, you know, get, your glasses, your hard hat, a big old, like, thick bright orange jacket, little disposable ear plugs.

Because it's, I mean, it's, I understood it's like, it's loud. So take you on the floor. And I'm still trying to wrap my head around because we saw so much. And Ryan gave us the tour and was leading it and super patient with his time and stopping to explain to me things. He's, you have to scream it because we all have earbuds on. And it's loud. It's just like, it's chaos.

It's controlled chaos in there. Everyone knows what they're doing, but it's just a lot going on. And I'm just, you know, I'm following, but I'm also thinking of the safety video I watch. I'm like trying to stay in the lines. Everyone's just, just like to say, my first rodeo. And I'm making sure I'm not crossing yellow lines or anything. The main problem was is I grab the safety glasses and I grab ones for corrective lenses. And I don't know it because you're, we grab them from the conference room and then you walk down this long aisle.

So we walked down the long aisle and I'm like, oh, we're at the earbud stayed a portion up with the earbuds in like a pro because I'm Marine and we always wear earbuds. I got my jacket, hardhead on. Right as we step out on the floor, I put my glasses on, I'm like, whoa. And then I'm like, whoa. And man, I just had drunk goggles on for, you know, the entire time we worked around the plant. So the corrective portion was like down in the bottom. So I'm like pulling them down and like trying to only look up. And then we went downstairs.

I would like try to look down. I almost fell down the stairs. It was wild. I mean, if the strength go ends because Grant fell in a vat of molten iron, that would be wild. Talk about that. Actually, that would have been poetic. Yeah. I mean, it's all fun. You're watching people just do their job. I mean, there's some automation robotics going on, but there's American jobs everywhere just doing their thing. And it's, it's a good reminder for me like, oh, this is real work. Like, people are doing real work. Real work. This is real work. And they do this all day every day. Talk about the lava. I mean, I'm just, anything shiny and glowing, you got me. And there's sparks flying. And they've got these, I don't know, what's the correct term? Just the, the cauldrons.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah. uh, cauldrons to zipping around like it's like, like it's a Disneyland monorail suspended from the ceiling. California. Yeah,

California reference. Suspended from the ceiling just zipping around. And these like red laser lights come on so they know like, hey, don't walk under the giant cauldron. And they're just zipping through this whole factory floor and dumping it. And then it's a fireworks show when they go dump this molten,

uh, iron into where it needs to go. And they're spark. flying and then it just zips around and goes and fills up at the other part of the plant. And this was... It's actually a pretty good reference. It's literally a monorail above your head and they're going and we went up into the room where you see him grabbing all the iron. That thing goes into the pot. Yeah, the scrap piles outside. Yeah. And that goes into, you know, the melting pot and then the cauldron comes up and gets filled. And then it's going

from, you know, machine to machine and, you know, they're running a cast iron pan. They're running. And I mean, you saw, I saw carburetors. I saw, you know, wheels for John Deere. You know, you see anything industrial you can imagine is happening in there. And so whatever parts running, they're dumping it in. And yeah, it's pretty cool. And I think it passes you. It's like immediately the temperature's up like 30 degrees.

Like you could just like feel like, yeah. Is this foundry pretty old? Like I wonder like how one gets into that. Like, oh, I'm just sort of foundry. Oh. I know that story maybe for another day. But yeah, it's old. I think it's like the 30s.

Oh, okay. So it's a bit of a bit. Yeah, yeah. So, like, dad did it. Granddad did it. Yeah. Yeah, he's talking about like a corporation now. But yeah, no, Foundry people.

I mean, we met with our customer service rep in the afternoon today. And he's been there 15 years. And, you know, he moved. He was my old customer service rep. But every time I come out here, I see him. So we saw him. And now he's at a different plant because, you know, he's like getting promoted, whatever. And then he, like, mentioned.

that, you know, his dad retired from a pack of foundry. I'm like, well, how long was he there? He's like, you know, 41 years. And it's just like, it's definitely a bit of a family business. We also met a guy that was serving us. And I'm like, where are you from? He's like, Milwaukee. I'm like, what brings you up here?

He's like, well, like, I came up here to try to work at the foundry. He said, oh, we do business at the foundry. Like, how long did you work there? He's like, two days. Wasn't for me. And I was like, oh, fair enough. It's too hot. Yeah, if you watch these guys work, like, definitely not for everyone.

Like, it is, uh, Yeah, it's, they're working. That's American down there. That's American. So when you buy a Strait Co plate, there's some guy in a pack of Wisconsin that thanks you. And there's, yeah, there's four plants, three? Did you not watch the video?

Five plants, one machine shop, two finishing shop. Yeah. He saw some shiny. I know. And in terms of. Distracted by the sparks. So, Connor, out of all that, since it was your first time, like, what process was like the coolest one to see?

I mean, the foundry is the most, like, spectacle because it's, yeah, if there's sparks and you're seeing all this stuff happen, taking scraps of metal outside, there's as high as a mountain just melting it down, watching the whole thing go. But have a respect for everything. And then just seeing, like, the robotics and the lasers happening, machine shops is super impressive and cutting edge. And then just with, like, the coders, the attention of detail and just like their flexibility of like, yeah, let's try this. what do you think, you know, like super open to... To each one kind of unique. Yes. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. It's good stuff. Yeah.

It's fun. Well, it sounds like a pretty good time. Very American trip there, man. Hey, we're an American company. This podcast is powered by the Strength Company. If you want the 250th commemorative 45 pound plates, go to www.com. So in place you can sign up to reserve your spot right now,

those plates are for sure happening. I have approved the documents with the foundry, the changes to the plate that will happen for that limited run are for sure happening, being an American flag on that plate. There's some other things that we're not going to announce yet. They're going to be super cool. So sign up for that and make sure that you're the first know.

We're going to take care of the OK podcast listeners before we take care of anyone else. This podcast is also brought to you by BW Tax. BW Tax, great guy, better at taxes, as we said earlier in the show. Talk to BW just last week. He's doing well. He's been enjoying the World Cup, and he's been sending me tons of means of foreigners

enjoying different parts of the United States, which we will probably talk about. But remember, why not go with a tax guy that you know? Head over to bwtax LLC.com. If you listen to this podcast, you basically know BW. All right. All in all. Yeah, all. Yeah, it'll start a show, man.

Yeah, might as well. So we take this two ways. man it's a good wisconsin talk sounds like you're helping to get time i got two coaches here so we need to do a lifting question yeah you want to get into that or or going to sports

one or the other let's go lifting and then probably finish for sports most of our tough we just hit in that Wisconsin recap yeah y'all kind of nailed it all that was kind of the idea i mean it's on the brain man so i was watching the videos you posted uh i think what

You post like two or three of them here in the last couple days. Yeah, we've been on it. Yeah, you'll have been, man. So I was watching one. I think it had a clip of you squatting. And squatting pretty heavy. And you were not wearing knee sleeves. Yeah.

So in Connors, this is very, like Connors here, very apropos, because Connor was with me when I bought like my first solid pair of knee sleeves. I'm going to guess apropos means like fitting? On point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, look at you.

Yeah, I know if that's a correct pronunciation, but yeah, it sounds good. Edgar Allan Poe. Yeah, Edgar Allan Poe. So, yeah, Connor, Connor's there when I bought my first pair of knee sleeves. I use knee sleeves pretty much every time I squat. Yeah. But then seeing you not using them, is there a time, I guess, get to the question, is there a time that y'all recommend using knee sleeves or is there, hey, don't use knee sleeves?

And then once you get through a certain weight, start using them like, what do you, What's your thoughts? I'll let Connor answer first. Yeah. Knee sleeves. So like the standard like neoprene like a wetsuit that goes slides over your knees. They don't really, they don't give you any like elastic feedback. They're often confused with like a knee wrap, which does give you some a little bit of a bounce out of the bottom of a squat.

And that's considered like equipped lifting. But if you're just using knee sleeves and people kind of use them for different things, really it's just if it's comfort. if you're lifting in a cold garage, if you're in Wisconsin winter, and it helps kind of warm the knees up first. If you tend to have achy knees or an old injury, gets the synovial fluids all warmed up and just kind of makes your knees feel better a little bit sooner.

There's no real advantage to just saying, okay, well, hey, it's a light day, so take your knee sleeves off. If you get to the gym and you forgot your knee sleeves, that's not the reason why you don't squat. You still squat. So it's just, you know, sometimes if you don't have the time, you could just leave them off. But there's no, I think.

So, yeah, it's really not. If you like wearing your knee sleeves, wear your knee sleeves when you're squating. But if you forget them, then you still squat. Yeah, yeah. My general thing with knee sleeves is like if you start lifting without knee sleeves and you have no knee pain, right? Like maybe there's no click. Clicking can be fine if clicking is not associated with pain or cracking, you know. But if if you don't have pain, you know,

I would just keep squatting without knee sleeves. Now, if you are squatting and you come to me, I just had a lady, Susie, that I work out with in the gym, that was complaining of some left knee pain. She had recently been in extra usage of her knee because she just moved in California, and there was a lot of stairs and moving boxes. And so her knees were a little bit irritated.

And so I had her get some knee sleeves to provide some warmth and some pressure, warm-up fluids, as Connor said. And I think they can help. But I think if your knees don't bother you, you don't need them. I used to always squat with knee sleeves just because I was new into lifting. And it was like, oh, there's more stuff I can buy to the lifting, this thing that I love. I'm just going to like buy the thing that I can buy and use them. And now I generally do not wear them.

When I am running a lot, which like lately I've been running two times a week. week on top of my lifting. I say lately, like literally the last two weeks. I'll tend to start to feel my knees be a little bit bothered and I'll throw them on. I think the short like Rayban, 7mm, classic blue knee sleeves, sold on Amazon, you got to buy two of them. They're sold and singles. Those ones I've owned the longest or that type. I've replaced them a few times. I don't think they provide a bunch of assistance. I don't think they provide any. I think that They're short enough, meaning they kind of only cover the knee that they don't. The SBD ones that are longer, they cover more of the quad and down into the calf.

That's what I got. Yeah, they're better in terms of like tightness, thickness. They're harder to get on. I think those provide a little bit of assistance, which is okay. My dad just told me, you know, he has one knee replacement. He squatched twice a week. His knee started bothering him. And he's like, I already got knee sleeves.

What should I do? I said, what knee sleeves do you have? and my dad is a frugal man. And so he bought like the, you know, those like copper ones on Amazon. It looks like your circuits running through your legs. Three millimeters.

It's on the Fox News. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mr. Pillow also makes me sleeves, like three or four millimeters. I said, well,

that's not doing anything. And I said in his scenario, because he had one need of swelling. I said, get, I hadn't get the SPD ones. And I told him what size came up for his larger medium. And I told him,

I was like, this is going to be like an emotional event to get them on. I was like, but you're going to like have some success. So I think if your knees are bothering you or if you're young, I want a competitive edge, I think the super thick, longer knee sleeves. Actually, they'll add five pounds your squat, right? Like they'll give you a little bit of assistance without having to wrap and cut blood flow off and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, I'm not super passionate about this topic.

The reason I generally don't wear knee sleeves is if my knees are bothering me, I don't wear them so I don't have to clean knee sleeves because knee sleeves get super sweaty. Like I'm sweating behind my kneecap right now and I'm sitting in a 66 degree hotel room, right? So yeah, but if my knees start bothering it. I think it was last week I ran three miles hard and I went to squat Friday and I actually started warming up without them and then I swapped and put them on. So yeah, that's my thoughts on knee sleeves. I think there's coming out kind of blur the line between knee wraps and knee sleeves because

they have some robust ones. Yeah, they got some power. Definitely are helping people. Yeah. Yeah. And he wraps if some... If someone's got, I think if someone's got, you know, some people have the kneecaps that'll shift and stuff, you know,

I think knee wraps can be even more helpful because you can go even tighter, right? So sometimes older folks, knee wraps, and young folks, if they have like an injury. But, you know, older folks, if they tend to have lost a bunch of cartels. and stuff. And so, like, putting a lot of compression in there can help. And they're not doing that for the advantage of to lift more weight. They're doing it so that, you know, they can squat with their knees pain-free kind of deal. That was a pretty bad squatter when I started. I'm not a great squatter now, but kind of a motor pattern idiot. And, like, my coach is like, hey, you know, throw these knee sleeves on. Sometimes it helps people. I have, like, knee slide and my knees were moving when they shouldn't be in

the knee time, the knee and the hip bend time. And wearing the knees sleeves kind of made me more aware of like when my knees were bending. So I think there's a select population of like newbie lifters that might find that it just makes them a little more aware of their knee movement pattern when they're squatting. Yeah. My body connection kind of thing. But well, okay. Let's let's keep pushing. That's kind of the main question I had. Yeah. All right, let's get into sports, man. Did you, do you have any of the NBA finals? Did. Yeah. We watched the Knicks game. Apparently Milwaukee has a bunch of Knicks fans. We call it the Little Apple. I was pulling for San Antonio hard

just to annoy the patrons of the sports bar we were at. Yeah, it doesn't surprise me. Yeah, that was disappointing. It's, man, I saw a stat. San Antonio led the series like 75% of the time. I believe that. And just continued to blow it one after another. It was first time since 73, maybe?

Yeah. one of those two. There was, yeah, there was. Did you watch the final game? I caught like the fourth quarter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, dude, I was dying laughing, though. I was on social media.

They were Elmo, like on X, like posted something. He said, hey, I wish both teams could win or something like that. Elmo, like, if everyone has fun kind of thing. Yes, Elmo is Sesame Street. It was just Nick's fans just roasting Elmo's X and Cammo. His head was on a pike in one of the streets in New York. No, they had a stuffed Elmo. They didn't not like, they said, stay in your lane, Elmo.

You're from, I don't know, where is Sesame Street at, Trey? I think he's placed in the Bronx. I think you're, yeah. So that's, that was hurtful to the New Yorkers. Dude, that cracked me up. Nick's fans, you know what? They're one of a kind. Well, yeah, because they're a Knicks fan one day and they're everyone in the other day, you know?

Well, that's true. Yeah. There ain't no Boston fan, but. No. Oh, then, so, dude, it's been kind of like sports week because then we had NHL, which I didn't catch any of that game. I was just happy Vegas didn't win. I don't like the Hurricanes winning. Would you have rather Vegas won?

Yeah. And I know I'm a Carolina guy. I just like, I'm telling you, brother, there's more Vegas. There's more hockey fans in Vegas than there are in the Carolinas. Which, which I don't doubt. I just didn't. I didn't win because, what, that franchise started. five years ago. So I like that sentiment, but they've already won one, right?

They've won one. Imagine an opening a business and having success in your first five years. I feel like to be a true fan, you have to wander through the desert a little bit. Well, yeah, but to be a good owner, you just win. Yeah, no, I don't know. I actually don't really care. Like I, I respect. I was inclined to pull for the Golden Knights over the hurricanes. Just because you don't like the hurricane.

But like I respect your South Carolina fandom because they're not good. I live in the desert. You're just a diehard. Yeah. I was born here. Raised here. Molded by it. You didn't see the desert to you were man.

Look at me with my Dark Night reference. Sounds pretty good. I was pretty impressed. Yeah, you pulled that out. But I don't know. We'll see. I was like I said, I was happy Carolina one. Sounds like you weren't.

But I don't. It was a good series regardless, both of them were. So, uh, college world series. You've been following it? I haven't been keeping up at all. Yeah, pretty good.

Uh, watched the Chapel Hill game. Day one. Oklahoma, man. Just buzz saw on people. Waxed Alabama. Uh, waxed. What beat Georgia.

I think they beat Alabama 6-0, beat Georgia 4-3. Um, back to my thing of wanting to get fired up for Citadel. Just shows that, uh, Oklahoma's a pretty dang. good team. Let's see. West Virginia we caught a little of today

beating Troy. Yeah. Oklahoma beat Alabama 9. Nothing. Wait, maybe I'm wrong. No, they lost. No, then they beat Georgia 4-3. And then Georgia lost to Texas, I think. No, Georgia, Texas

playing right now. Yeah, yeah, Georgia, Texas, Georgia beat Texas in the opening. Now they're playing them again. Right now, it's bottom of second, 0-0. Western and Crush Troy, we caught some of that. Chapel Hill I watched. So we're waiting to figure out who fills out the other

bracket. But yeah, no. Go dogs. Go dogs. Yeah, it's been good. I didn't realize Grant told me that your mom is a huge Longhorn fan. Yeah, yeah. So she spent a lot of her time. She wasn't born in Austin, but her parents were kind of rolling stones.

That's right, they weren't in a band. They moved around a lot. But no, yeah, she lived across from Austin. for a long time. So she's, that's her team. I got a helmet for Mr. Helmet. So she's got her longhorns with an orange visor. I went extra because she's my mom and got her the orange visor put in the extra like $2. And so that sits up on the man. It sits up by the TV. She's got an old Bevo statue with, I think two of the legs are missing that she's had since the 70s that she puts up on the TV and

flies her flag. So I haven't gotten to the point where I bought any burnt orange, but I'm happy for her and I support them when I can. I need to get your address and your mom's address and I'm just going to start just spamming y'all with A&M gear. That'd be great. You could join my dad because my dad will root for whoever Texas is playing. That's the kind of relationship they got. Good man. Yeah. Yeah, I'm by your kids, some like Texas A&M.

I'll send you a picture. So my mom's got a cheer outfit, a little kid cheerleader outfit for my daughter. That was my older sisters when she was a kid. It's been through like four members of the family. She's also got a helmet. It pains me to say that's pretty cute. Yeah. I'll send it to you once my youngest grows out of it.

Okay. That's what you want. Did y'all watch? Kind of keep moving on. Dude, like I'm selling, man, this whole month has been packed of sports. Did you watch the UFC fight at all? Yeah, we watched that too. We watched, I think technically the last three,

I was texting my cousin Placito and he was giving me the rundown. I'll tell you what. If we're talking with the fights, UFC, I don't dislike UFC. Connor says because I'm not a warrior. I don't like actually find it that enjoyable to watch. It's too fake. The aesthetic on the White House lawn was incredible.

Like that flyover, the red, white and blue, like. Surreal to see it. I'm in Wisconsin making Stranko plates and like Thunderbirds and Blue Angels are flying over that was pretty sweet Dude I'm just

Imagine being like a European person right now And just seeing like New York The Knicks fans going crazy Yeah I guess Caroline doesn't really count But then like catching like the UFC 250 I don't know Wild walking through like the West Wing They go out for their fight

It's just crazy That's being escorted by Marines, right? Yeah, yeah, some and multiple services. But yeah, no, it was, it was quite the spectacle. I was watching the Chapel Hill game. And then as Chapel Hill locked it up because they were in a good game, we switched it over. And I think we saw, was the Miller.

What was the guy we saw getting interviewed by Pat McAfee today? I got with the red hair. Yeah, pink hair. He was his jacuzzi, given a little post-fighter. Yeah, yeah. No, it was good. Yeah, it was fun. We were watching from the phone.

We couldn't get it on the spot. Yeah, we were on. Paramount Plus. I don't know. They couldn't figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. But. And then did you see Tech parted away with Brendan Swordsby?

I did. Like, I only saw a headline. So what I saw was Aaron Rogers running with the American flag when he came into that Jets game and Tours Achilles. And it said like Sorbsby's time in the S or Texas Tech. What happened? They just booted them. So it's earlier in the week, like the Big 12 followed, I think, a lawsuit against Texas Tech, right, saying, hey, we're not going to allow this kind of thing.

Yeah. And then I think Texas Tech finally came together and said, hey, we'll just part ways with them. So going back, I think, like, we talked last week, you were asking me, like, why do he get in trouble? So he did bet on his own games. Oh, yeah, get rid of them. And so, and he's like, he didn't bet to, like, win or lose, but he would, like, bet, like, on over or under passing yards kind of stuff. On himself. And it was just on himself, essentially.

So, but yeah, so that's why he did get in trouble. Yeah, he's gone. So he's going to put his name in the hat for the NFL auxiliary NFL draft. Okay. So I think that happens in June. I don't know, dude, if you're an NFL team, like, would you take a risk on, take a risk on this guy after all this bad publicity?

Oh, 100%. Cowboys will. So. Yeah, that's your team. That's America's team. It's all our teams. It's America's team. Yeah.

So, but no, outside of that, man. No, so you sent what one I want to talk about the most of me. It was a World Cup. So it kind of started off, and I was texting you about the Mexico game. Did you, who was there? My brother, Home Depot, brother. Went down to Mexico to watch the game. Yeah.

I mean, when you're an exec at Home Depot, those are options to you. Yeah, he went down and he said, this would be interesting. So, George's a big sports fan. He's a miserable game. but he's got son of Georgia. We've been an NBA finals game together, watched the Celtics win it. You know, we've been to a lot of ballpark.

He's been a lot of sporting events. And he went down and I was like, dude, you're going to have a blast. I was like, I'm telling you, like, the Mexico game. I was like, Americans get fired up for the World Cup. We do. Like, I'm fired up. I was like, that's like their thing. And he went and he just kept sending me videos.

He's like, it's like a party in here. He kept saying, like, it is like a party. I said, and when it was all the sudden, I said, how was it? He goes, dude, it was potentially better than a top tier SEC game in terms of experience. And that is not, that's something I expect you to hear from me because my wife, you know, has a Mexican heritage. And so I'd be like pro like, hey, I speak some Spanish. I like tacos. Like, yeah, let's go Mexico.

But like my brother being like, yeah, he, he couldn't believe it. And he just kept sending me videos of the after party, people in the street. And they didn't leave. So we kind of watched the World Cup of my house, see this family over. We all watched it. Game ends. They leave. He put his kids bed.

I put mine to bed. My brother said like the stadium ended or the game ended and no one left the stadium. And like they were just like pumping La Chona over and over and like everyone was dancing. And the game ends in L.A. And 20 minutes later like stadium's empty. Now, credit to Americans, my people, there was like spots throughout L.A. where there was like watch parties that kept going. But that game down there was just not,

just kept going. But yeah, no, it looked like a good game. Yeah, I watched that one. Then we watched the US one, which was great just to like dominate Paraguay.

I don't even know where Paraguay is, but yeah, we beat them. No, dude, there's been some good game. The US one, and I'm excited about this game Friday. Australia?

Yeah. I think it's going to be pretty good. But dude, I, the thing I've been just like, like, obsessed with, there's all these,

like it's like a sciop for America, like all these Europeans like coming over just like talking about how great America is like going through small town America. Yeah, I love all the random. It's like what, Nashville or Chattanooga, Auburn, Alabama. Like, yeah, it's.

Dude, the Scottish people in Boston. Yeah, I haven't seen that much of that. We've been busy trying to make American stuff. Well, that makes sense. But like they went to Finway. Oh, I haven't seen any of that. Yeah. And apparently like after the game,

like didn't leave Finway and we're just like sitting there drinking and singing. Yeah. And that's what I would do. South Koreans in Mexico was fun to see. South Koreans like in Mexico part with the like all the Mexicans like it was food. They're like this is amazing. This is great. Japanese in Dallas was crack me up.

They, uh, they, because they went to like a Mexican restaurant and they didn't realize you get free chips and salsa. Yeah. These are free. He's like, oh, I didn't see that one. He goes, we did not earn these. And then they kept eating them because like apparently it's like impolite to refuse a gift. And they were just like, they just filled up on Trism.

It's also, man. Phenomenal. But no, man, it's been some good times. I think just made some good games. I'm excited for Friday. And let's give the listeners for bringing this thing down an update on Jeff. Jeff's alive. And he's back.

He got back. Yesterday. Yesterday. I think my internet connections. Can you still hear us, Trey? Yeah, you're still good. Okay, cool. Yeah, he's back.

He had, you know, he was tired. So we gave him another week off. So Jeff will be back for episode 115 next week. It's like we plan. Yeah. You guys save rounds, alibis? No, not for the group. Yeah, anything for the group?

Not for the group. Thanks for having me. Trey, well, you take it down for landing. All right, man, what episode? Episode 114. Of the OK podcast, as I always like to thank our sponsors. BW. Tax, good guy, better taxes. Gridiron Green, Mr. Helmet, as we like to call him, use that link below.

Get yourself a helmet. While you're down there looking at that link below, go ahead and click on the Slack channel use code. Okay, give yourself a little discount. What do you do there? about living, life, love, sports, but more importantly, you talk about lifting, a bunch of coaches on there and get some feedback from, check it for them, make sure it's good. Use code, okay, give yourself a little discount. If you're not watching on YouTube, get on there, go ahead and do it.

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