SHOW NOTES

Anxiety, stress, a hotel that sent one towel for two people, and Melissa’s mom telling her the cherry earrings look like her ears are bleeding right before they rolled her into surgery. EP 68 is an honest, unfiltered episode about a really hard week — and somehow also one of the funniest.

Melissa’s mom had serious spinal surgery at MD Anderson to cement fractures caused by cancer, and this episode doesn’t pretend everything is fine. David and Melissa talk openly about what it looks like when stress has nowhere left to go — the irrational fears, the locked-out hotel room, the single towel, and the moment Melissa’s dad threatened to destroy the hotel on social media despite having no idea how social media works. The second half gets into a real conversation about anxiety: how to tell the difference between a discerning spirit and a season of fear, why stress keeps building when we don’t deal with it, and where it eventually lands. The episode closes with a sketch segment where David reads phrases and Melissa has to label them helpful, mildly offensive, fight starting, or full-on attitude.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“My mom is about to go into major surgery and she goes, ‘those earrings always look like your ears are bleeding and nobody will tell you.’ That’s when I knew I needed to check myself.”

Melissa, on the moment she realized she was about to take it out on the sick lady in the hospital bed

“Stress is looking for somewhere to land. If we don’t deal with it, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and it starts making us weaker and weaker. And eventually it’s going to land on top of you.”

David, on what happens when you keep ignoring it

LINKS MENTIONED

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

✨ Beautiful Yu Health Supplements: bit.ly/beautifulyu

📖 Melissa’s Book - Chicken-Fried Women: bit.ly/ChickenFriedWomen

WATCH OR LISTEN EVERYWHERE

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowYouTube

🎧 Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowApple

🎧 Spotify: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowSpotify

FOLLOW & SUBSCRIBE

📱 Instagram - @TheRadkeShow: bit.ly/TheRadkeShowInstagram

📘 Facebook - The Radkes: bit.ly/TheRadkesFacebook

📝 Subscribe to Stretch Marks on Substack: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack

ARE YOU READY TO BECOME AN INSIDER?

Become a paid subscriber to Stretch Marks and get:

• Weekday POV Audio Messages

• Twice-monthly We’re Here for You Wednesday advice podcasts

• Monthly paid-only posts

• Community access for real conversation

Subscribe for $9/month or $90/year: bit.ly/MelissaRadkeSubstack