Set & Centered

Flash showed up uninvited, hit the mute button, presented his cat butt to RJ, and left like nothing happened. Oakley had opinions about the cats. Hartley chewed through wires on the Expedition that turned out to be fine, which is the only way that story was going to end well. Two Canadian gooseapuses used the pond as a rest stop during a storm and took off like seaplanes. Then RJ opened the stenopad. What followed was a full housek...

Oakley, Finley, and Flash are all in the studio and none of them were invited. Spotify thinks Set & Centered listeners should also check out Calm Your Daily Stress and Handbag Designer 101, which we are choosing to take as a compliment. Mark wrote to Shania Twain from an aircraft carrier in 1994, she wrote back with autographed photos for the whole crew, and he found out the same day he took a catapult launch off the USS Theodo...

Finding Nemo has been fully watched, including the turtle scene this time. RJ returns with an official updated review — same five categories, same seven-duckie scale — and the scores have moved. Some significantly. Meanwhile, a Mother's Day gift spent six days in the Dallas regional facility before anyone told it to leave, RJ walks through the entire tracking history in real time, and somehow it's riveting. Then: Mark's...

RJ watched Finding Nemo. It took two months, a lapel mic, a homemade review template scored in duckies, and royalty-free background music that sounds — his words — a little like porn music. He also accidentally skipped the turtle scene. Mark is not letting that go. The official Set & Centered rating system makes its debut, Dirty Dancing is formally up next, and somewhere in East Texas, Chimp Crazy remains unwatched.

...

RJ went down a YouTube rabbit hole at midnight watching West Coast swing dance competitions in Singapore. This led to a completely serious investigation into why nobody has brought the Macarena back. Then there was a road trip to Palestine, Texas to mail a Mother's Day gift, a spontaneous decision to try a new chicken finger place instead of Chicken Express, and 27 minutes of waiting for food that absolutely did not earn it. This e...

We came in planning to talk about ranch projects. We left knowing more about boa constrictor reproductive anatomy than we ever asked for. In between: a twenty-minute spiral about whether the air purifier should be on Auto or Pet mode (we never resolved it), a scorpion in the yard that sparked a heated debate about footwear policy, an ants-in-pants story from a vehicle recovery that cannot be unheard, and Mark — who claims to ...

We’re back in the studio swapping road stories, ranch updates, and the kind of pet logistics that never show up on a map. A cross-country detour to pick up a family dog turns into a homecoming full of food math, messy cleanup, and one very nervous pit mix.

In this episode:
• Returning to in-studio recording and missed release catch-up
• Pacific Northwest plans derailed by a North Carolina dog pickup
• 4000 dri...

We head outside to record and immediately prove we should not be trusted with telescopes, technology, or having a podcast. We start under the night sky and somehow end up in a wandering tour of pop culture, nostalgia, pets, small business economics, and the chaos of trying to capture shooting stars. 

In this episode:
• Forgetting the plan and leaning into the tangent
• A Star Trek gripe about "full fire" visuals&n...

Mark checks in from Oregon while RJ holds it down back in Texas, and we bounce from family dinners and pizza in Turner to the logistics of hauling a "Barbie Boat" across the country to Texas (via North Carolina?). The conversation drifts from AI false alarms and chat bot annoyances to smart telescope tracking, stargazing plans, and life with a cautious new puppy. It’s part travel diary, part real-life planning session, and pa...

We start where we always do — somewhere ridiculous. Brontosaurus names, Pluto's planetary status, a fearful stray puppy who won't come inside but absolutely will paw at the door the moment you turn your back. Then Rob joins us from Arizona, and we get to the reason Lake Lucy exists. He tells us Lucy's full story: how she came to him from an Air Force family in crisis, how she protected his family on a dark street without bein...

We bring Rob on from Arizona and immediately get hit with peak brother energy, tech chaos, and a fish tank that sounds way too much like a bathroom. Along the way we check on Maggie, relive listener nicknames, argue about a movie quote poll, and somehow end up on AI actors and online privacy.

In this episode:
• Maggie update and small routine changes that help 
• Rob’s long teased full guest appearance and instant t...

The tone flips fast when you live with dogs: one minute you’re laughing about pop culture, dumb polls, and a joke so bad it’s good, and the next you’re dealing with the kind of responsibility that keeps you up at night. We laugh, we vent, and we land on the same point: caring for animals means showing up even when it is messy and heartbreaking.

In this episode:

• Seattle trip recap and helping wrench on a Chevy C10 ...

Ever had a small fix turn into a life upgrade?  That’s the pulse running through this one where we juggle dog chaos, missing pens, and a surprise studio cameo while chasing down tech issues and a trench full of roots. We laugh hard at ourselves, but there’s real progress hiding in the mess: a lost keepsake found in seconds, a fresh set of tires, a utility trailer that suddenly does the work of a weekend crew. ...

She was nine pounds of absolute chaos who destroyed a house in Tucson, reduced grown adults to tears, and then quietly became the reason a 50-acre dog sanctuary exists in East Texas. We hand the mic to Mom — who was there from the beginning — to tell the real story of Patsy: the terrier who demanded applause on command, outlasted every expectation, and taught a family that structure and patience aren't punishments. They...