Fit Dads Podcast - 100th Episode!

Ryan Dutton
3 days ago
5 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Chaos, Coaching & Conversations — Recorded LIVE from Heist Brewery

A Fit Dads Podcast Milestone

There are certain moments on this little podcasting journey where Brad and I have looked at each other and thought, “How on earth did we end up here?”

Episode 100… recorded live… inside Heist Brewery in Sheffield…That was definitely one of them.

The Fit Dads have officially hit triple digits, and what better place to celebrate than a brewery that has probably powered at least 40% of our bad decisions and 60% of Brad’s most outrageous takes?

A massive shout-out to the Heist team for letting us take over the taproom, sprawl across their tables, and most likely disrupt someone’s quiet Tuesday night stout. Episode 100 needed something special, and Heist absolutely delivered.

Looking Back at 100 Episodes: The Journey, The Surprises & The Wobbles

It’s funny — when we started this podcast, the idea of reaching 100 episodes seemed laughable.

Two dads, two personal trainers from Sheffield, rambling about fitness, fatherhood, food, failures, and whatever madness our kids had inflicted on us that week? Surely that had a shelf life of about eight episodes.

And yet… here we are.

This milestone episode gave us the perfect excuse to look back at the journey so far — the wins we didn’t expect, the mistakes we needed to make, and the lessons that have genuinely reshaped how we coach, parent, train, and live.

We talked about:

The episodes that surprised us
The ones that sparked messages from listeners we’ll never forget
The conversations that changed our thinking
And of course… the episodes we nearly didn’t release because we thought, “Is anyone really ready for this chaos?”

There have been moments of absolute gold, and moments where technology (and sometimes common sense) abandoned us completely. Yet somehow, every wobble pushed the podcast in a better direction.

The Fit Dads Network: Small Start, Big Community

One of the early topics we covered live was the unexpected growth of the Fit Dads community.

From day one it’s just been Brad and I chatting — no sponsors, no professional studio, no elaborate marketing team (unless you count Brad occasionally posting something five days too late).

And yet the podcast has built a network of:

Dads
Lads
Mums
Coaches
Athletes
And people who just want a dose of honesty in a world full of highlight reels

We reflected on just how powerful that has been. The community makes the podcast.Every message, every shared episode, every “listen to these two idiots talk sense for once” recommendation — it all matters.

Promoting the Pod, Stats We Didn’t Expect & Guests Who Changed Everything

We dove into the behind-the-scenes stuff too — the kind of things listeners don’t always see.

Like how awkward we’ve been with promoting the podcast (we are getting better… slowly).

Or the stats that shocked us: the countries listening, the age ranges, the spikes after certain episodes.

And then we talked guests.

From experts to athletes to people sharing their personal stories, some of the most meaningful episodes have come from conversations that were never planned to be emotional… but ended up being exactly that.

There were guests who educated us, challenged us, and in some cases, left us speechless — which, if you’ve ever heard Brad and I talk, you’ll know is nearly impossible.

Our Biggest Failure (And Why It Helped)

Yep, we've made a few howlers along the way.

To be honest, we've made every mistake you can imagine. But there's one that is considered our biggest F-up.

We messed up the one thing that is essential to podcasting, the audio. On an episode with non other than Olympic level nutritionist Shane Nugent.

The episode was shot at an idealic location. The peacock at Barlow in Derbyshire.

The knowledge bombs came thick and fast. Everything from an MVP list of foods to consume, to how parent's can master getting their kids into diverse ranges of food.

Throughout the episode I knew it would be something our audience would take massive amounts of value away from.

We finished up.

High five's all round.

Went to shut everything down.

Only to realise the audio recording software had screwed us.

No audio. No recording. Massive tail between out legs moment.

At the time, we kept it quiet from Shane as we wanted to double check it hadn't exported somewhere else. But it was wishful thinking.

The only audio we had was from our camera. Sat a good four metre's away from us all. Right underneath an air con unit.

We sent it off to professional editors, but there was only so much magic they can work.

It was a big wake up call for us however. Resulting in a full re-evaluation of how we recorded everything. From the audio, to the video, to our contingency plans, should anything ever go wrong again.

Fitness Facts, AI Tangents & the Chaos That Comes Naturally to Us

No Fit Dads live episode would be complete without a few detours.

We covered some unexpected fitness facts that made the audience look at us like,“Are you sure you’re qualified to run a fitness podcast?”

We also went on an AI tangent (shock), debating everything from digital coaches to whether robots are going to take over personal training.

One day Brad will learn to say the word “algorithm” without sounding like he’s casting a spell. Today was not that day.

And in classic fashion, the chaos flowed exactly as expected.

Festive Food Ratings: The Controversial Event No One Asked For

Quite possibly the most serious discussion of the night involved rating Christmas foods with all the intensity of two men deciding the fate of the country.

We discussed:

The elite tier of Christmas dinner components
The controversial foods that need banning
Whether pigs in blankets deserve their own national holiday
And the absolute frauds of the festive season (looking at you, dry turkey)

The live audience was either with us or ready to stage a walkout. Nothing divides a room like someone daring to say “I could take or leave mince pies.”

The Future of the Fit Dads Podcast

After the nostalgia and the nonsense, we wrapped the night by talking about the future.

Now that we’ve hit 100 episodes, where do we go from here?

Everywhere.

We’re thinking:

Bigger guests
Bolder topics
More live shows
More collaborations
More community involvement
More honesty
More conversations that stretch beyond fitness — the mental, emotional, personal, messy parts of life that dads rarely talk about openly