One year. 36 episodes. 42 countries. 200 cities. And somehow, no one has taken our microphones away yet.

This week, Premeditated Opinions turns ONE, so we're looking back at the first year of the podcast, the episodes we're proud of, the guests we loved, the things that absolutely did not go according to plan, and everything we've learned since two elder millennials sitting in a pool said the four most dangerous words in modern adulthood:

“We should start a podcast.”

But before we celebrate, we have to talk about Dolly.

The news of Dolly Parton's death hit us harder than we expected, and we spend some time talking about celebrity grief, why losing someone you've never actually met can still feel deeply personal, and what made Dolly such a rare kind of public figure. From her music and movies to her generosity, humility, and the stories of kindness that followed her throughout her career, the world genuinely feels a little less bright without her.

And yes, Pamela made her entire work team observe a moment of silence for Dolly over Zoom.

Everyone complied. As they should.

Then, we're raising a glass to one year of Premeditated Opinions and revisiting some of our favorite moments:

- The early episodes we absolutely do NOT recommend going back and watching

- Our wildly ambitious, absolutely-no-budget Christmas special

- The time Josh got stranded in St. Thomas and we figured out remote recording

- The incredible friends and guests who've let us tell their stories

- Real estate advice, modern dating, LGBTQ+ Outdoors, AI, memory champions, games, relationships, and all the other places these conversations somehow took us

- The surprise of discovering that people have listened to us in 42 countries and roughly 200 cities

- And the very humbling realization that recording a podcast is actually the easy part. Marketing one? Apparently a full-time job.

Mostly, though, we're talking about what this little experiment has become.

We started Premeditated Opinions because we thought it would be fun to sit down, turn on some microphones, and talk about whatever was on our minds. A year later, some of our favorite moments have come from getting to step into other people's worlds, share the stories of people we love, have conversations we didn't expect, and occasionally say something insightful completely by accident.

We're still figuring it out.

We're still balancing day jobs, families, broken air conditioning, travel, sick days, barking dogs, and whatever else life decides to throw at the recording schedule.

But we're still here.

And so are you.

Cheers to one year of Premeditated Opinions.

Thank you for letting us into your ear holes. We understand that real estate is at a premium.

🎧 Listen now, then come find us on Instagram and YouTube and tell us: What was your favorite episode, guest, or moment from our first year?

And if you've been here since the beginning, first of all: we love you.

Second: please don't go watch Episode 1. We've grown.

Support the show

Stay Connected with us on these platforms:

Website: https://www.premeditatedopinions.com

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@premeditatedopinionspodcast

Substack: https://substack.com/@premeditatedopinions

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/premeditated_opinions/

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@premeditated_opinions

And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share us with your friends and family!

Summer is winding down, parents are running on fumes, and somewhere in America another kid just announced, "I'm boooooored."

This week on Premeditated Opinions, we're diving into one of modern parenting's biggest debates:

How much screen time is too much?

Is five hours outrageous? Are iPads ruining childhood? Should we feel guilty every time our kids fire up Roblox or the Xbox... or are we all just trying to answer work emails before someone asks for another snack?

We talk through our own family's screen-time experiment, why we've started putting more intentional limits around devices, and what happened when boredom was no longer solved by another episode or another scroll. (Spoiler: the kids eventually started hanging out with each other. Wild concept.)

Of course, because this is us, the conversation immediately detours into growing up in the 1900s—when entertainment looked a little different.

Along the way, we also talk about:

- Riding bikes until the streetlights came on

- GoldenEye, Halo, Counter-Strike, and legendary LAN parties

- Questionable amounts of Mountain Dew... and apparently caffeine pills in Louisville

- Why "go play outside" isn't as simple as it used to be

- The difference between entertaining your kids and raising resilient ones

- Why Lindsey Stirling might be one of the most underrated live performers touring today (and why our daughters may have been permanently spoiled for future concerts)

At the end of the day, this isn't really an episode about screens.

It's about parenting without a playbook, giving yourself a little grace, and remembering that none of us are getting this perfectly right.

We're just trying to raise good humans... one negotiated hour of screen time at a time.

Support the show

Stay Connected with us on these platforms:

Website: https://www.premeditatedopinions.com

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@premeditatedopinionspodcast

Substack: https://substack.com/@premeditatedopinions

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/premeditated_opinions/

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@premeditated_opinions

And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share us with your friends and family!

Some people have impressive talents.

Others use those talents to make a difference.

This week on Premeditated Opinions, we're sitting down with two-time USA Memory Champion, Guinness World Record holder, and Brain Athlete Ron White, a longtime friend of Josh's whose life somehow manages to be even more fascinating than his résumé suggests.

Yes, Ron can memorize decks of cards in under two minutes.

Yes, he can teach complete strangers to memorize the first digits of pi in just a few minutes.

And yes... he'll casually memorize a 30-digit number you made up five seconds ago.

But that's not why we wanted him on the show.

We wanted to talk about what happens when an extraordinary skill meets extraordinary purpose.

After serving in Afghanistan, Ron committed himself to memorizing the names of every American service member who died during the war—more than 2,400 names, in order. Today, he travels the country with a 52-foot memorial wall, hand-writing every one of those names entirely from memory to honor the families behind them. It's one of the most meaningful uses of a unique talent we've ever encountered.

In this episode, we talk about:

- How memory actually works (spoiler: it's not photographic memory)

- What it takes to become a two-time USA Memory Champion

- Building a speaking career from free seminars to international stages

- Going viral from 13,000 to 1.8 million Instagram followers in one year—completely organically

- The Afghanistan Memory Wall and why honoring the fallen became Ron's life's mission

- Live memory demonstrations that honestly made us question our own brains

- The viral videos that changed everything—and why teaching people is far more rewarding than simply impressing them

Along the way, Ron teaches us a memory technique you can try yourself... and somehow convinces Pamela & Josh to memorize more digits of pi than they ever planned on knowing.

(Which, admittedly, isn't a very high bar.)

This conversation is funny, inspiring, wildly educational, and a reminder that the coolest people aren't always the loudest—they're often the ones quietly using their gifts to serve others.

🧠 Learn more about Ron White and his work at Brain Athlete (www.brainaathlete.com), and be sure to follow him on social media if you'd like to learn how to remember names, speeches, numbers... or just finally stop walking into a room and forgetting why you went there.

Ron White Memory Expert YouTube: https://youtube.com/@brainathlete?si=VIv4qCAa3lct5QCq
@realbrainathlete on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realbrainathlete?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

Follow Premeditated Opinions on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you pretend you'll "listen later."

Support the show

Stay Connected with us on these platforms:

Website: https://www.premeditatedopinions.com

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@premeditatedopinionspodcast

Substack: https://substack.com/@premeditatedopinions

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/premeditated_opinions/

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@premeditated_opinions

And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share us with your friends and family!