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

SHOW NOTES

Five Easter services, a new blue dress, backstage Chick-fil-A, and four grease stains before the second service even started. EP 71 is the post-Easter debrief and Melissa has a lot to report.

Melissa found the most beautiful high-waisted blue Easter dress, wore it to the Good Friday service, ate a Chick-fil-A sandwich backstage, dropped a piece of chicken, and watched a friend’s attempt to retrieve it make everything worse. By the time it was over there were four grease stains and a few orange barbecue specks that no one knows where they came from. She finished out Easter weekend in last year’s dress from TikTok Shop. After five services, dress rehearsals, and hosting 35 people for Easter lunch, David and Melissa took a matinee break to see Project Hail Mary — four people in the entire theater, popcorn layered with butter, and both giddy about it. The episode also covers garage crying as a legitimate reset strategy, Melissa’s Dad having pre-planned his entire funeral including pallbearers who may need to be replaced, and a sketch segment where each of them sells an ordinary adult outing like a late-night infomercial.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“You flick the garage light off, you sit in your car, you pick up your favorite ice cream, and you cry about anything. Your marriage, your children, your parents. That is Garage Crying and it is for sale today.”

Melissa, presenting her revolutionary reset product

“My dad picked out the casket, the room, the songs, and six pallbearers. I asked him about it recently and he said, well, I may need to go back up there because everybody might drop dead before I do.”

Melissa, on Gene’s funeral pre-planning

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

Nostalgia, Hymns, Baskin-Robbins with Gene and Annette, and a prank phone call to Melissa’s Dad that he absolutely did not see coming. EP 70 is one of the sweetest episodes in a while and it sneaks up on you.

It starts with jingles and the way a smell or a song can drop you back into a memory before you even see it coming. Then Melissa tells the story of driving her mom home from MD Anderson and looking over to check and see that the little mole on her chest is still there — the same one she used to touch as a little girl when she laid her head on her mama. Friday turned into a ramen run with Gene and Annette that required nerve pills in the backseat because her parents were already at each other’s throats before they even pulled out of the driveway. Then David’s brother Bobby came over on Saturday, and they had an old fashioned singin’ — hymns, four part harmony, her Dad requesting Great Is Thy Faithfulness, and a room that felt genuinely holy. David closes it out by waking Melissa up with Tommee Profitt’s new album Resurrection of a King playing beside her head. The episode ends with Melissa pranking her dad into asking what’s the matter, daddy — and Gene delivered perfectly.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“My dad said, ‘don’t ever say your dad didn’t take you out for a scoop.’ And I just fell over laughing. What are we, Ozzie and Harriet?”

Melissa, on ice cream at Baskin-Robbins with Gene

“Those were the good old days — I hate when people say that. The good old days can be right now, depending on how you live your life and what you do with it.”

Melissa, on making memories in the middle of hard seasons

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

Also Mentioned This Episode

🎵 Tommee Profitt - Resurrection of a King (New Album): tommeeprofitt.lnk.to/troak

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

Honey-do lists, March Madness, and a 30-year argument that is still very much alive. EP 69 is one of those episodes where Melissa and David are basically holding court on a real marriage debate and the audience gets to weigh in.

Melissa gave David a three-item honey-do list on the first Saturday of March Madness. The shelf has been waiting nine months. The stove lights are out. The hat hooks are not up. David’s position is that March Madness is a protected holiday and the timing was foul. Melissa’s position is that she has 13 days a year to work with and she used one of them. Melissa’s mom called in live during the episode and described Melissa for the police as part of a TikTok trend — including a detailed note about lip filler that Melissa does not have. The episode closes with the Fair, Foul, or Technically Fair But Spiritually Wrong game: a marriage edition where every scenario hits a little too close to home.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“Out of 365 days a year, David is celebrating something that has to do with sports on 352 of them. That leaves me 13 days to work with and I used one of them.”

Melissa, presenting her case

“Technically fair but spiritually wrong. That is a real category and it applies to a lot of things in this marriage.”

Melissa, on the Fair or Foul game

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

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

SHOW NOTES

Real friendship, tipping culture, germaphobes, and the TikTok lady who puts adhesive pads on her shoes before she walks through her own front door. EP 67 goes from funny to deep to funny again — which is exactly what the best episodes do.

Melissa and David are back from 30A, where a week with their closest friends turned into long beach conversations about the questions you never ask but should: what would you do with a month left, how would you actually live if money wasn’t the ceiling, and why do we keep the hard things in the dark when bringing them out is exactly what makes them lose their power. Melissa opens up about sending a long-scared text to her best friend before her mom’s surgery at MD Anderson — no call, no Edible Arrangement, just someone to receive it. The episode also gets into the tipping debate at drive-through coffee stands, the shoes-in-the-house lady who took it further than anyone thought possible, and the sketch segment where David answers three personal questions about Melissa — including what he would ban her from doing if he could.

QUOTES WORTH HIGHLIGHTING

“You tip because of who you are, not because of the service.”

A comment that came in during the tipping conversation, and Melissa loved it

“Candy Crush was able to get a racquetball court built in their offices because of me. And you are still driving that truck.”

David, closing out the sketch segment

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

Also Mentioned This Episode

🎙️ Live Free with Josh Howerton Podcast: bit.ly/JoshHowerton

🛏️ Helix Sleep - 20% off sitewide with code MARCH20: bit.ly/SleepHelix

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