Mango Bite #1: One Hundred Day Challenge

For the month of December, The Mango Times podcast is taking a breather while I gear up for Season 6. In the meantime, I’m sharing weekly Mango Bites — small, meaningful moments pulled from the early days of the show.

This first Mango Bite comes from way back in Season 1, Episode 4 — a conversation with my friend James Estes about taking on a 100-day creative challenge. In these few focused minutes, we talk about the simple power of a handwritten letter… why ink on paper still matters… how a stamp and envelope add just enough friction to make care visible… and how a daily letter can reconnect you to mentors, friends, and family you’ve been meaning to reach.

It’s light, practical, and a whole lot of fun.

If this sparks something in you, tap the link in the notes to hear the full interview with James — and then tell us what you’re committing to for the next hundred days. If you enjoy this Mango Bite, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more people can quietly make some noise with us.
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Guest Information
James Estes - Born and raised mostly in California, James has a deep love for his home state. He’s been married for nearly 33 years and has three adult children. A lifelong professional in IT Telecom, James also draws daily and is a devoted coffee drinker. He’s an avid reader with a soft spot for science fiction and the occasional Pulitzer Prize winner. Whether it’s a quick getaway or a far-off adventure, James loves to travel.

Resources and Links
Season 1, Episode 4: 100 Letters in 100 Days with James Estes

Music used in this episode:
All music in this episode is licensed for use through Epidemic Sound.

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Transcript

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Welcome To Mango Bites

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hey, this is Fletch, and I want to welcome you to Mango Bites. What's a Mango Bite, you ask? Well, during the month of December, I am taking the month off from my regular schedule podcasts, and on a weekly basis, I am just releasing a mango bite. A short clip from a previous episode. Something to wet your appetite. Maybe you haven't listened to my back catalog. So I have found some fun clips from some of my favorite episodes, and I'm sharing them with you here as Mango Bites, with the hope that maybe it would trigger you to want to listen to the whole episode. So on this

Mango Bite #1 Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:42

first edition of Mango Bites, I am going back to season one, episode four. It was titled 100 Letters in 100 Days, and it was with my good friend James Estes, where we sat down and we talked about doing a 100-day challenge. Here is just a clip of that show. So this one though, because of the topic, I think it should come up a little bit sooner because it's we're on a bit of a time schedule, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Definitely, definitely. But we don't, you know what? The thing is, we don't have to yes, we are on a time schedule, but our time schedule starts when we started. Right. So we're not we're not answering. We're not on that same that uh that other article I told you about. We're not on his time schedule, but we're on our time schedule. 100 days. We're not answering to the man. I'm telling you right now. We're not that's right, we stick it to the man. So Jimmy Buffett have a song about that? Stick it to the man on Coconut Island? No, maybe not. Maybe maybe I'm mixing different different genres.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

You are, and I think it was Take This Job and Shove It by uh Johnny Paycheck. Okay. Or Coconut Island by Jimmy Buffett. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, um, so what's give us the give me the gist. What are we talking about?

SPEAKER_01 1:58

The gist is is that you you take 100 days that you can do something preferably creative. It can be any vein. You you want to paint a painting uh every day, you want to make a drawing every day, you want to write a poem every day, a piece of fiction, you want to snap some pictures and write something about it. One of the ones I saw, they they had a hundred, they were an art student and they had a hundred, they had paint chips from like, you know, you want to go down to Sherwin Williams, you want to pull off those paint things. They picked a color every day randomly and wrote about that color. Wow. There's a lot of them. There was one person who I went through and they they had a hundred uses for like a wooden folding chair. I I didn't look at them all, but apparently, you know, doing different things like using the sh using the chair as a shield and wow. I don't know, maybe have you maybe break breaking maybe the last one I would do if I would if I did the chair, the last one I would use it like you know, break it over someone, you know, someone breaking in.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Or this is my hundredth day bonfire, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

So I think this hundred days thing, there's something to this.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

You gotta you can pick something good that really touches a key nerve. So yeah. Or do you pick something that really will cr will push you to like stretch yourself into different directions?

Committing To Written Letters

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Yeah, I mean, like for for us, we've tried to do the hundred days of poetry.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Have you you've done I haven't had a hundred, I've done the thirty.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah. Yeah, so I'm thinking about writing a hundred personal letters. I don't know if I have a hundred people in my life.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

That's what I was thinking, but then you'd have to like kind of invent some people, like maybe your worth the rest of the past friends from the past, your your long lost relative, your aunt Bessie that you don't know very well, but yeah, she might be house housebound.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Now, my question, my thing is a hundred written letters. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

I think I agree. Written. Let me add that written. Because text messaging doesn't count to me. No, no, no, no, no. It has to be some effort. You have to put a stamp on it, you've got to drop it in the mail.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah, so do you think we're gonna be able to pull off a hundred days?

SPEAKER_01 4:06

I think so, but maybe we just give it a little thought about what we do. Like we don't have to start tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Alright, so so we're gonna work on this. I we have about a week.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Alright, so you're back in town. Maybe we touch base, however, whatever method, you know. Or

Wrap‑Up And How To Hear More

SPEAKER_01 4:21

we could use a third party. Because it's always it's always fun party. Pony like the like a Pony Express, I could send you like a virtual Pony Express.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Oh, okay. Third party. Okay. So I tell somebody something and then they pass that on to you.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

I could maybe like find like a friend of your friends on on Facebook, and then we could like intermediary.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

So, all right. Well, hey, this this was a good first edition. I think you're gonna be a recurrent guest on the Mango Times podcast. I think people are gonna have you back on like this. Okay, well, I I've had a good time. Yeah.

unknown 4:49

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Hopefully I'm not offending your couple of listeners.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Nah, I don't. I I you know what I'd like to say, we can only go up from here. Hey, sky's the limit. So that was Mango Bite number one, season one, episode four, one hundred letters in one hundred days, with my good buddy James Estes. If you'd like to listen to the whole show, just slide down in your show notes and I'll have a link directly to the show. Or you could just slide down your podcast apps. All the shows are up there, they're cataloged all the way back to the beginning, and you can listen to episode four. In the meantime, I hope you're having a great month in preparation of the holiday season. Thanks for tuning into this quick episode. I'll be back next week with another mango bite for you. But in the meantime, don't forget to get out there and quietly make some noise.