The Mango Times Podcast is where midlife curiosity meets adventure, humor, and human stories. Hosted by Fletch, the show features thoughtful conversations, great banter, and stories from the porch to the open road.
In Season 6, each episode explores what it looks like to wake up in the second half of life and decide there’s still plenty of adventure left...through interviews, personal reflections, recurring segments, and a little bit of well-earned shtick.
New episodes drop every other week and stay under 45 minutes. Pull up a chair, hop on the back of the bike and join the conversation.
I didn’t disappear, life just got loud and summer got full and that’s exactly why I wanted to hit record again. Consider this a fall reset for the Mango Times podcast: a quick hello, a real update, and a nudge to keep making room for adventure even when work and obligations try to crowd it out. If you’ve ever worried that you’re “behind” on your hobbies, your creativity, or your big plans, you’ll hear a familiar rhythm here.
First up, motorcycles. I finally bought a Harley-Davidson, a 2023 Street Glide built for long days and longer trips, and I named it Rosinante for all the right reasons: Don Quixote’s horse, Steinbeck’s road storytelling, and a candy-apple red machine that feels like a rolling invitation. I also share a Sierra Nevada ride and a Yosemite loop that reminds me how wild it is to have a world-class place in your backyard, especially when you meet travelers who crossed oceans to stand in the same valley air.
Then we swing from highways to stage lights. I’ve been experimenting with stand-up comedy, learning what it feels like to bomb, and realizing that the point isn’t fearless perfection, it’s showing up and getting better. There’s also a new improv project brewing, plus a brand-new father-daughter podcast: Just One More Thing, where Abby and I rewatch Columbo and ask the only question that matters now, could you still get away with it in 2026?
Got a friend with a great story, a career switch, or a long-delayed dream? Share this, subscribe, leave a review, and send me their info so we can get them behind the microphone.
Hey friends, Fletch here. Welcome back to the Mango Times podcast. Yes, I'm still here. Nobody actually canceled the podcast, but apparently you do need to record an episode every once in a while for it to remain a podcast, right? You know, summer got full, life got full, uh, it just kept moving, and now we're heading into fall, and I wanted to pop on just to say a quick hello, just to catch up with you and let you know that adventure is still very much underway around the Mango Times. Now, whereas the podcast might have been a little slow on content, that's just because I haven't had any great stories of other people's adventures. I did want to share a few of my
own. There's been a lot of motorcycle riding. I think you remember last year, the big trip to Montana. Well, I've decided to add to my motorcycle garage and find yet another motorcycle to take me to places across this country of ours. And to finally live out a dream that I've always had here of my own pop here on the Mango Times podcast, who you've heard, you can go back and listen to episodes where Pop's interviewed. I finally purchased a Harley Davidson. For those that are into it, it's a 2023 Harley Davidson street glide. It's a big bagger that I can take out on the road on multiple days, multiple week trips, hopefully in the future. But it's this idea that I can get out on the road on adventure and still kind of live through this dream of my dad riding his Harleys all the way back to 1948. This is a bright red, candy apple red Harley Davidson. And I named it Rosinante. Why? Because it's rosy red. It's Rosinante because that was the name of the horse that Don Quixote rode. It's also the name of the camper van that John Steinbeck drove across the United States and travels with Charlie. So it was the perfect name for this motorcycle that's going to take me on adventures far and wide. So that
has been underway. There's been a lot of Sierra riding up in the Sierra. As a matter of fact, I just did the big loop through Yosemite, where I went up one way and came down another way. And it always amazes me when I drive through Yosemite Valley in the fall with my helmet up and just getting to feel the cool air on my face and ride through on a motorcycle that there are people from all over the world that have come to Yosemite. I met people from Europe, I met people from Asia who were just visiting the park that day. And yet it's in my backyard, and I'm allowed to just drive up at any time. Well, my brother and I went up, we we go to the Awani Lodge, we park the motorcycles, and we sit out on the back lawn and smoke a cigar in the shade of Half Dome. And it's always just an amazing adventure that we can accomplish in one day. Let's see
what else. There's been some more experimenting with stand-up comedy because apparently after all day of being a dentist, I like to spend my evenings trying to find other ways to make people feel uncomfortable. It's actually been a really fun experiment for me to get up behind a mic and just go out and make some people laugh, but also just to watch people not laugh, to bomb and to see what that feels like, to just say, here's a joke I thought of. Oh, no one else thought it was funny? That's okay. I can just move on. People ask all the time, how do you do it? How do you go up? Well, my favorite question is when people say, How do you do that, Fletch? How do you go up on a microphone and and just perform while no one laughs? And I always like to correct people. That's that's actually not the goal. The goal is to actually make people laugh. But yeah, it is a thing. You know, you you get up and you think of some funny, you know, in my case, uh the bits I come up with aren't just like standard bump bump bump jokes, they're they're more like reflections on life. And if someone doesn't think it's funny, that's okay. But I do listen to a lot of stand-up comedy, and a lot of it is just not funny. There's a lot of people who bomb, and that is what I finally got to was the point where I said, Well, I can go up and bomb. So why not? But I have been going to a lot of local stand-up comedy, a lot of pop-up comedy, a lot of the we we have this one comedy show in our area where you don't know where it's gonna be or when it's gonna be until the morning of. So you sign up unknown, you have no idea who the comedians are gonna be or its location, and then it's just a pop-up comedy show that's been a ton of fun to go to and just kind of be in that world. I've also been kicking around some improv ideas. There's a new little group that I've been working on with my buddy Isaac called Two Guys Improv, and we're gonna see where that goes, but for now it's two guys improv just because there's just two of us. So we have some local gigs that we're gonna be performing at, and hopefully build a new improv troupe. Apparently, I mean, if you think about it, I'm collecting hobbies that include standing in front of people without even knowing what I'm doing. That's the improv in the comedy.
And then one more thing that I'm really excited about, and that's that my daughter and I, Abby, are launching a brand new podcast called Just One More Thing. It's a father-daughter rewatch of the episodes of Columbo. You know, we're going through it, we like to say we're going through it one raincoat, one cigar, and just this deeply suspicious amount of time spent discussing old television murders, and we're having a blast talking through whether they would actually happen today. Could you get away with that murder in 2026? Or would you need all the non-technology of the 1970s to get away with it? But just a lot of fun as a father-daughter team talking about it actually through the decades as a 20-something year old and then as a 50-something year old. And and that's fun. So that launches here in the next few weeks. You can pay attention for it. It's the Just One More Thing podcast, and it's a Columbo rewatch. And I'll try and put links up on my social media if you follow me there. But that's a lot of fun. And they're just short little episodes once a week. You you do have to watch the episode. That that actually makes it better, is if you actually watch the Colombo episode and then follow along with us. So,
meanwhile, what about the Mango Times? I'm looking for more guests here at the Mango Times. If you know somebody with a good story, somebody that's trying something new, uh, someone that's changing direction or finally doing what they've talked about for years, send them my way. They don't have to be famous. I think some of the best conversations I have have been people, friends who have just switched careers. And I'd love to hear what they're up to and how they got there. That's how I want to end this season on the Mango Times podcast, all the way up through the end of 2026. So if you have anybody and you're thinking right now, you know what, that'd be great. You can just slide down in the show notes to send me a text, and I'll reach out to them. Uh, just give me their contact information and I will get them behind the microphone. I have some very, very slick ways of getting people here who are not even in my location. So I'd love to I'd love to hear from them, I'd love to get them on. Hey, that is the fall update. I'm still here, I'm still curious, and I'm still making room for a little adventure between work and everything else. Hey, thanks for sticking around. I'm looking forward to bringing you some new conversations. This is Fletch, you're listening to the Mango Times, and as always, why don't you climb on back? Let's get out there and quietly make some noise.
