SHOW NOTES

Melissa’s mom broke her hip at her chemo appointment at MD Anderson. The safe in their Marriott hotel room was opened and her jewelry was taken. The Pottery Barn furniture delivery went to the wrong city. And somehow Gene and Annette handled all of it better than Melissa handles a bad hair day.

This episode tells the full story: the surgery, the jewelry, and Tony the hotel security officer who spent the better part of an hour stalling and sending Melissa’s dad upstairs and back downstairs and to the lobby counter before walking over to a plain cardboard box in the corner of the office and producing everything. Tony had known the whole time.

The Pottery Barn truck pulls up at the family home in Lufkin while the entire family is gathered at the house on the phone with various people about the hotel situation. Melissa’s dad, on the phone from Houston, somehow senses the truck before anyone says a word. The episode closes with a TikTok couple quiz and Melissa ordering herself a shirt that says First of all, Jesus thinks I’m a delight.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“My parents can handle a day like that ten times better than I can handle a Tuesday. If I wake up and my hair decides to go left when I wanted it to go right, somebody is going to know about it.”

Melissa, on the gap between her parents’ grace and her own

“I’m going to need someone who works for the Marriott Corporation to contact me. I mean it. Like, Melissa@MelissaRadke.com I want to hear from you.”

Melissa, putting it on record

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

SHOW NOTES

Car shopping, major purchase negotiations, and thirty years of evidence that Melissa and David approach money completely differently. EP 73 is one long case study in how two people who love each other can be on entirely different planets at a car lot.

They have been to three dealerships. Melissa gets out and starts opening doors on every car she passes. David watches with the face of a man who has seen this before. Early in their marriage Melissa got into a stranger’s car at a Dallas lot and did not notice until the man tapped her on the shoulder from the back seat. This week a pastor from their church leaned into the test drive window and told her he doesn’t see her in a Kia. Three different people have now said this. Nobody will explain what it means. David wants to build an app to analyze the data. Melissa wants a Ford Expedition like Big Darla. The episode also covers the $100 purchase rule they made as newlyweds, the two Eddie Bauer bikes Melissa brought home from Target without warning, the LG refrigerator David bought alone that has never worked right, and a sketch segment where they try to hold water in their mouths and make each other laugh.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“I get out of the car and I am like a mosquito at a nude beach. I know what I want to do but I don’t know where to start.”

Melissa, describing her approach to a car lot

“He tapped me on the shoulder and said he “I have loved this car for many years. My wife is inside working out a deal on another one. I’m really happy with this one.” There was a man. In the back seat. With his child.”

Melissa, on the 1995 Dallas car lot incident

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

SHOW NOTES

Hammer pants, comfort shows, manic TikTok lives, a school bus that almost got hit by a train, and a hospital board that Zoomed a woman while she was in active labor. EP 72 is one of those episodes that goes everywhere and somehow all of it works.

It starts with Remi sending Melissa a photo of a Twilight vampire and saying her hair looks like it and then somehow arrives at David confessing he owned a pair of hammer pants despite growing up in a house where secular music was not allowed. From there: why manic TV families get more eyeballs than calm ones, Remi’s comfort show being Modern Family because she says it feels like living in her own house, Melissa’s comfort shows being Andy Griffith, Golden Girls, Three’s Company, and Law and Order SVU which she has fully committed to.

The second half gets into things we are now watching live on camera that probably shouldn’t be including a Kendra Scott TikTok live that had people genuinely worried, a Florida school bus driver who told her students she wasn’t waiting for a train and almost got the back of the bus clipped, and a hospital board of directors that made a patient join a Zoom meeting while she was in active labor. The episode closes with Melissa and David learning to play Tilt and Shout from TikTok Shop in real time, which does not go smoothly.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“My comfort shows are Andy Griffith, Golden Girls, Three’s Company, and Law and Order SVU. In the criminal justice system, the people are represented — I’m like, in the nap and wake up comforted. Those are their stories.”

Melissa, defending her comfort show lineup

“Remi says Modern Family feels like going to sleep while everyone is just talking and visiting in the living room. And she is not wrong. There is no other couple on television more like us than Mitch and Cam. I will let y’all decide who’s who.”

Melissa, and David is not thrilled about the comparison

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