Square Burgers, Round Regrets, And One Very Crowded Gym

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Ever felt out of place in a gym built for someone else’s goals? We open with a candid check-in and a plan to test-drive a large, crowded facility, using that moment to explore how fitness spaces shape motivation, identity, and what “works” as our bodies and priorities change. That honest uncertainty becomes a throughline for everything that follows: curiosity, doubt, and the quiet work of choosing what fits.

We shift to the renewed search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and break down the details with fresh eyes: Ocean Infinity’s “no find, no fee” contract, the 55-day intermittent window, and why a new 5,800-square-mile zone matters after a decade of unanswered questions. The real story here is human—families seeking closure, the limits of technology against vast ocean topography, and the stubborn hope that evidence still waits below. It’s a sober look at how complex investigations evolve, why debris patterns influence search maps, and what success would mean after eleven years of grief and speculation.

From there, the spotlight turns surprisingly personal: the story behind Wendy’s name and the pressure it placed on Wendy Thomas Morse. We unpack the branding genius of a recognizable face and the unintended weight of living as a mascot. Dave Thomas’s late-in-life apology adds a poignant layer, reminding us that legacy marketing isn’t only about logos and taglines; it’s about people navigating expectations and identity in public view. Then we examine research on aging and recovery, reflecting on the idea that around age 75 our bodies rebound more slowly from illness and injury. We talk functional fitness, practical training choices, and why adapting workouts matters more than chasing numbers on a barbell.

We close with a holiday moment that ties it all together: a child’s beloved walnut-shell ornament, long lost but never forgotten. That memory becomes an invitation to share the small objects that hold our biggest stories. Subscribe for more thoughtful, curious mornings, leave a review if this resonated, and tell us: which ornament carries your history—and why?

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:30):
Well, hello and good morning.
Happy Wednesday.
Uh I have a long day ahead ofme.
Did not sleep well last night,but you don't care about that.
Let's move on.
I did go buy a gym close to myhouse yesterday to check it out,
and I have a week's past to goin and try it out.

(00:53):
So I'll be doing that thisafternoon.
I don't know that I'm gonna likeit.
It's a large gym, two floors.
Lots of people were thereyesterday at four, and I'm
usually going, well, it wasabout 4.35 maybe.
No, it was about 4.30.
And I typically go about 3.30.

(01:13):
You know, it's when I getstarted.
And there were a lot of peoplethere.
I'm like, well, do you guys nothave other jobs?
You know, whatever.
It's just there's a lot ofpeople there.
I don't know that I'm gonna likeit.
Because I like to do differentthings.
I don't sit there in front of amirror and lift dumbbells.
I mean, I'll do some arm work,but and I, you know, I'm 58

(01:34):
years old going on 59, and Idon't lift a lot of heavyweights
anymore.
So I don't want to take up spacethat somebody else, you know, is
designated.
Whatever.
I'm getting down in the weedshere.
Let's move on, shall we?
I have three stories on X.
I'm gonna go check out the gym.
We'll see how it goes.

(01:56):
Um I try to get my mindset rightand get off of the negativity.
Alright, the first thing we haveup is uh the deep sea search for
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 isto resume 11 years after the jet

(02:16):
vanished.
Now I did not read this story,so I really don't know what it's
about.
We're gonna find out together.
Hopefully it's not a bust.
Malaysia's Transport Ministrysaid Wednesday that the deep sea
hunt for Malaysia AirlinesFlight 370 will resume December
30th, renewing hopes of finallylocating the jet that vanished

(02:37):
without a trace more than adecade ago.
Do you think they'll find it?
I don't know.
I doubt it.
I mean eleven years.
The Boeing 77 the Boeing 777plane disappeared from radar
shortly after takeoff on March8, 2014.
I remember this well.
Well, not real well, but youknow, I remember it carrying 239

(03:00):
people, mostly Chinesenationals, on a flight from
Malaysia's capital to Beijing.
So what this is all right.
We know what happened.
Let's see, but let's scroll downand see if we can find why.
The Transport Ministry said in astatement that U.S.
based marine robotics from OceanInfinity will search

(03:23):
intermittently from December30th for a total of 55 days in
targeted areas believed to havethe highest likelihood of
finding the missing aircraft.
Did they not do this already?
The latest developmentunderscores the government of
Malaysia's commitment toproviding closure to the
families affected by thistragedy.

(03:44):
Malaysia's government gave thegreen light in March for a no
find, no fee contract with OceanInfinity to resume the seabed
search operation at a new oh5,800 square mile site in the
ocean.
So they're searching at a newspot.
Ocean Infinity will be paidseventy million dollars only if

(04:06):
the wreckage is discovered.
Aha! The search was halted inApril due to bad weather.
An expensive multinationalsearch failed to turn up any
clues to its location, althoughdebris washed ashore on the East
African coast and Indian Oceans.
Well, we'll see.

(04:28):
Maybe we'll have an update onthat, but it's not going to
start and or resume untilDecember 30th.
So we shall see.
Alright, moving on to the nextone.
Uh Wendy's founder regrettednaming Burger Company after his
daughter, and here is why.
I wonder why.
Now I'm hungry for Wendy's.

(04:49):
Now I want French fries and afrosty.
Just like Wendy's burger, shethought she'd be treated like a
square.
Having a multinational foodcorporation named after you
might sound like anyone's dream.
However, Wendy Thomas Morse feltthat being the face of her
father's burger franchise was soawkward that she kept her mascot

(05:09):
status a secret from others.
I don't think that would be hardto do.
I mean, you know, so I mean,there were times I didn't want
people to know because I didn'twant them to have assumptions,
the sixty-four-year-old fastfood scion told people.
I guess my assumption was thatthey wouldn't think I was cool

(05:30):
or hip or whatever at the time.
Are you embarrassed of yourdaughter?
Morse was eight years old whenher father, Dave Thomas, decided
to name Wendy's after her.
Could you and what else would hecall it?
He wanted a character because heworked previously for the
colonel at Kentucky FriedChicken and knew how much that
persona mattered, she recalledper Food and Wine magazine.

(05:53):
He said, Wendy, pull your hairup in pigtails.
So I did.
He got his camera and tookpictures of me and my sister and
said, Yep, it's going to beWendy's old-fashioned
hamburgers.
The hamburger magnet opened hisflagship restaurant in 1969 in
Columbus, Ohio, which became aresounding success, prompting

(06:14):
him to build in other branchesand around the nation.
By 1978, the burger monger, uhfamous for its square meat
patties and frosty drinks, hadopened 1,000 outlets.
But why is you but why are youuh regretting it?
I guess we already talked aboutit.
Um the meat uh the rise provideduncomfortable more for Morse,

(06:37):
who, despite being very proud ofher fame, rarely disclosed her
celebrity status.
I would never, if I met a newpeople, I would never tell them
who I was, she admitted.
It's usually someone else thatsays it says it, and then it
gets awkward and then it getsall better.
And while she eventually came toappreciate being the face of the
franchise, her father Dave cameto regret the decision and even

(06:58):
apologized to her ten yearsbefore his death in 2002,
probably ten years before my dadpassed, he talked about my name
and namesake, and he just goes,I'm really sorry I did that to
you, Morse recalled.
To hear your father say,probably should have just named
it Dave's and that would havebeen a lot easier was a lot.

(07:18):
However, she admitted that itwas nice to hear that her dad
emphasized, empathized, uhempathized with her over the
pressure and the responsibilityof being the namesake.
Nobody knew who you were whenthey met you.
I promise you, because youreally don't look anything like
the Wendy's character cartooncharacter.
Come on.
Whatever.

(07:40):
Moving on.
All right, I picked this onejust for this headline because
I'm getting up there and Iwanted to learn about this.
The age our bodies reach atipping point and stop being
able to bounce back easily.
Huh.
I need to find out when this is.
Sticks and stones may break yourbones, but they won't heal as

(08:03):
easily past a certain age.
I wonder what that is.
And of course, this is New YorkPost.
Maybe they will quote somedoctors.
I don't know.
New research has found the pointof no return when we no longer
recover as well from illness orinjury, no matter how strong or
healthy you may feel.
According to researchers atDalhousie University, I'm

(08:27):
probably not pronouncing thatright, in Canada.
Well, there you go.
It's Canada, so don't believeanything I'm about to say from
this article.
What because they they like toeuthanize people.
Once we hit around the age of75, the body can't recover as
well as it once did from adverseevents.
Researchers measured the healthof nearly 13,000 people with an

(08:51):
average of age of 67 based onmore than 30 attributes,
including chronic diseases,cardiovascular conditions, and
how well they performedactivities.
They use the frailty index, atool that measures how many
deficits a person has, whichgenerally states the well-known
fact that it has as a person'sage increases, their functional

(09:14):
capacity decreases.
Using it at that's why I like todo CrossFit workout, it's
functional fitness.
Using it as a measure andbuilding a new mathematical
model of human aging,researchers looked at changes in
two key health areas adversehealth events like illness or
injury and recovery time.
In the index, if the indexincreased, it meant a

(09:37):
participant was experiencingmore health setbacks and not
recovering as well.
Unsurprisingly, recovery timeand health setbacks both
increase with age.
Well, this is no duh.
Of course, when you get old,you're not gonna bounce back as
quickly.
Did we really need a study andresearch about this?
We knew this already.

(09:57):
Sounds like somebody's justmilking the government for some
money.
And then whatever.
I'm not even gonna finish thisbecause it's stupid.
We need to have the question ofthe day.
Okay, I want to do a Christmasrelated question.
I will try my best to doChristmas related questions all

(10:19):
the way up until Christmas.
We shall see, because there's alot of days left.
That's a lot of questions tocome up with around Christmas.
But this morning I have aquestion for you.
We I don't have any sentimentalornaments, Christmas ornaments
growing up.
I did as a kid.
I used to have, you know, mymother had some and I did as a

(10:39):
kid.
I remember, I remember havingone that I loved so much.
It was a wall, it was a half ofa walnut, and it had some fit,
you know, like a some cotton inthere, but it had like a little
button with a face drawn on it,and then a little blanket over
it, like a gingham blanket overit.
And it was supposed to be likethe manger of the baby Jesus.
I freaking loved that ornament.

(11:01):
I don't know, and it was sosimple and small and basic.
I don't know if it was handmade,I don't know if my mother bought
it.
I don't remember anything abouthow how we came about to have
it, but I remember as a child Iloved it.
That was my favorite one.
I wish I had it today, but Idon't.
And I don't have any sentimentalornaments.
Uh, you know, I just never haveany with the kids.

(11:21):
I didn't, I just didn't haveany.
Uh so when Trump won his secondpresidency uh this last year, I
went out and got all reddecorations for the tree.
So my tree is like a MAGA tree.
It's all red.
Everything's red.
Except for the tree.
The tree's green.

(11:42):
But everything's reddecorations.
So my question is to you do youhave any sentimental Christmas
ornaments that you still havewith you today?
Or what is your favoriteornament that you remember as a
child?
Okay, that's what I've got foryou today.
Gotta go.
Thanks for listening.
Bye.