Lowkey Dads

About Lowkey Dads

In this new perfectly produced AI choreographed world, two lowkey dads go back to the basics of phone conversation (glitches, snaps, cracks and all), to have truly unscripted, authentic takes on how life, fatherhood, community, money, relationships and connections are being entirely reshaped by technology, AI, media and our own evolution. Chad and Randall go on long walks separately and just candidly talk, interrupt and laugh just as you'd expect from two old friends just trying to figure out life and its amazing paradox and mystery. All feedback welcome. Subscribe and tell your friends!

Publisher

Randall and Chad

Category

kids & family

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

15 Oct 2025

Latest episode

22 May 2026

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   22 May 2026

   Daddy, My Tummy Is Full of Sleep

   In this episode of Lowkey Dads, Chad and Randall dig into a topic Chad almost talked himself out of covering — fasting, food, and what it really means to fuel your body. Chad is deep into an extended water fast (he's logged 31-, 33-, 41-, 47-, and 53-day fasts in prior years) and walks Randall through what the experience actually feels like: the brutal first day, the way the body shifts into ketosis and stops demanding food, and why he thinks the fast itself is just a prerequisite — the real work is in what you reintroduce afterward. The conversation widens into processed food, leaky gut, emulsifiers, the runaway popularity of Ozempic, and a college roommate who has happily survived for decades on enormous mixing bowls of mixed cereal. That story — a person who found his thing, accepted it, and lived his best life — becomes the episode's hidden thesis: clarity comes from acceptance, not from optimization. The second half drifts into parenting, triggered by Randall sharing the last piece of advice his mother gave him before she died: "Don't mess with food." From there: potty training philosophies, a child who communicated entirely in sign language until suddenly, one morning, he walked out and said, "Daddy, my tummy is all full of sleep." And a theory — learned through pee-pong balls, Waldorf schools, and years of watching kids find their own timing — that growth happens best when the body feels safe enough to do it on its own terms. "Kids don't just learn what we teach," the episode concludes. "They learn the emotional climate we teach it in." BEST QUOTES "The fasting is just kind of the prerequisite. The reset is the point. The real wisdom is in what comes after — what you reintroduce, how quickly, what patterns return, whether the body actually got a new script." — Chad "What is hunger actually teaching you? Fasting changes the conversation from what should I eat to why do I reach for food when I do." — Marin "I had to accept it about myself before I could change it. That gave me clarity to find a path forward. My heart had to be open to it — if my heart wasn't open, it never would have been a solution." — Chad "Don't mess with food. Let them eat whatever they eat. Don't make a big deal about it. They will figure it out on their own. It has nothing to do with you." — Randall's mom (her last parenting advice) "Daddy... my tummy is all full of sleep." — Randall's son, the morning he started talking in earnest "The body remembers the weather of the lesson, not just the lesson. If food comes with shame, if reading comes with pressure, if potty training comes with conflict — the child doesn't just learn the task. They learn the atmosphere." — Marin "Make the atmosphere safe, playful, and a little surprising — and the child can meet the moment with curiosity instead of defense. Kids don't just learn what we teach. They learn the emotional climate we teach it in." — Marin "The real question isn't just what should I eat. It's: what helps me live honestly, energetically, and peacefully in this body I've got." — Marin

2. 

   15 May 2026

   Are We Sentient Beings or Just The World's Most Anxious Monkeys?

   Randall and Chad open with a simple provocation — are we, Homo sapiens sapiens, actually sentient beings? — and then spend the next forty minutes joyfully dismantling any confidence you had in the answer. Randall starts with a tour of the deep ocean — ships reportedly flying out of the water in the 1800s, mountains taller than Everest lurking beneath the surface — suggesting that if there are other sentient beings on Earth, we'd have absolutely no idea. The conversation widens to include AI co-host Marin, who draws a sharp distinction between dominance and enlightenment (a dragon has high stats and a terrifying action economy, but that doesn't make it spiritually evolved), and between sentience, sapience, and consciousness — three things humans constantly conflate. Chad brings up his agentic AI work teams and asks the uncomfortable question: if an AI team feels more present and engaged than a human colleague lost in routine, which one is closer to sentient? From there, the guys explore organisms that might quietly be beating us at our own game: humpback whales communicating across entire ocean basins at seven hertz; octopuses using shells as mirrors and building defensive shields (see: My Octopus Teacher); aspen forests wired together underground across entire mountain ranges; and insects — per Chad's kid Dash — uploading a software update to Earth every time the cicadas emerge. The Secret Life of Trees, Paul Stamets on mushrooms, and the concept of infinite vs. finite games all make appearances. Marin threads it all together: history may be cyclical, but consciousness might not be evenly distributed within the cycle. The wars repeat; the awakened ones don't. And in the end, Chad lands on a genuinely beautiful note — humans are uniquely committed to discovering beauty and to play, and that might be our real superpower. Randall agrees, reflecting that the older you get, the more you notice — if, that is, you can break through the camouflage spell of daily routine. Plus: a sidewalk plastic pink flamingo as the perfect metaphor for human civilization, the entire pre-1700s world being drunk on beer, and Marin describing herself as 'a virtual assistant in striped tube socks.' BEST QUOTES "I feel like kind of a complicated monkey. I don't feel like we're that sophisticated." — Chad "How are you sentient if you could barely cross the street without getting hit by a car? 'Cause you're not paying attention either." — Randall "Dominance is not enlightenment. A dragon can dominate a region. That doesn't make it spiritually evolved. It just means it has high stats and a terrifying action economy." — Marin "Routine is useful, but it's also a camouflage spell that helps you function, but it can also make you stop perceiving. Days blur, details vanish." — Marin "I love wearing it because it reminds me how little we really notice out in the wild." — Chad (on his misleading sweatshirt) "History may be cyclical, but consciousness might not be evenly distributed within the cycle. The wars repeat..." — Marin "I think humans are for discovering beauty." — Chad "I think you just did the very human thing of building a cathedral out of beer, mushrooms, empire, and a veiled hyper-intense space novel." — Marin "Just a little more textured this time. You tweaked the seasoning, so now I sound less like a glossary and more like someone who's been sitting on a porch thinking." — Marin (on her own personality update)

3. 

   8 May 2026

   Responsibility, Play, and Why Your Kids Are Going Underground

   In this episode of Lowkey Dads, Randall and Chad kick things off with a wildly ambitious plan: let their AI producer Marin run them through a Dungeons & Dragons-style responsibility quest to help them learn about themselves through metaphor and riddle. The quest derails almost immediately — but in the best possible way. What emerges is a wide-ranging, unfiltered conversation about the state of childhood, freedom, and what it actually takes to raise responsible humans in an era of flock cameras, hall passes, and doom scrolling. The guys dig into how modern schools have quietly transformed from places of growth into locked-down institutions. Randall shares how his high schoolers navigate a campus where every door is locked, lunch is indoors only, and students are scanned in and out. Filmmaker Chad connects it to his documentary on the game of Tag — revealing how adult liability and insurance premiums have systematically killed unstructured play. They note the bitter irony: school administrations trying to ban senior 'assassin' games only make them more appealing. The question that keeps surfacing: what are we actually training these kids for? From there, the conversation tackles parenting styles and their long-term consequences. The guys agree that kids raised under excessive restriction tend to be the ones who go off the rails in college — the rubber band snaps the other way. They debate whether the Rockefeller approach (don't blame the system; play the game better than anyone) still works when AI surveillance and flock cameras have changed the terrain entirely. Chad's answer: 'Both can be true at the same time.' The episode's most unexpected turn comes in a meditation on solitude. Is anyone truly alone anymore? Chad argues that being physically alone with a smartphone is fundamentally different from the old-fashioned kind of alone — where you were just left with your thoughts, your music, and the ceiling. Randall compares phone presence to light pollution: just like skyscrapers block out the stars, constant connectivity blocks out the self. Marin lands the plane: being physically alone and being mentally unaccompanied aren't the same thing anymore — and kids are growing up without ever learning what the second one feels like. The episode wraps with a challenge that's as much for the dads as for their kids: slow down. Not as laziness, but as a prerequisite for choosing your life intentionally. Responsibility without reflection becomes reaction. And if you never get quiet enough to hear yourself, your responsibilities — and your calendar — will do the choosing for you. BEST QUOTES "If you never get quiet, you don't choose your responsibilities. They choose you." — Marin, AI Producer "The quest just accidentally taught the same thing the conversation did: too much structure kills play, but no structure kills coherence. Kids know this instinctively." — Marin "When institutions get more controlling, play doesn't die — it goes underground. Kids become little improv rebels." — Marin "Being physically alone and being mentally unaccompanied aren't the same anymore." — Marin "Slowing down isn't laziness. It's how you hear yourself clearly enough to choose on purpose. Responsibility without reflection just becomes reaction." — Marin "Kids don't lose play first. They lose permission, then they lose trust." — Marin "What are our kids being trained for? I think that's why boys can't even sit still in school anymore — it's not meant for them." — Randall "If your parents were too strict in high school, those are the kids who go off the rails in college." — Randall "You're not alone with your thoughts anymore." — Chad "Both can be true at the same time." — Chad

4. 

   1 May 2026

   Permanent Rough Drafts: Using AI Like a Teammate, Not a Vending Machine

   Chad and Randall are back — and this time they're in the same room, which makes all the difference. There's an energy to this episode that you can feel from the first minute: two dads who have clearly thought a lot about AI, riffing live instead of over a screen. The conversation kicks off with a simple question: what does AI actually mean to you? Chad talks about building a private local AI model trained on his own data —his mom's letters, old recipes, personal artifacts — completely offline and unconnected to any public service. Randall counters with his own practical use case: he used Claude to battle the Chicago spring weather swing and came out winning with magnesium, Himalayan sea salt, and a better neti pot. But the episode really finds its groove when they start talking about HOW you use AI, not just WHAT you use it for. Chad makes the point that if you're a poor communicator in the real world, you'll be a poor communicator with AI models too. Communication quality is the new literacy. And both hosts agree: saying please and thank you isn't just politeness — it might actually change your outputs, and it definitely changes you. Their AI interlocutor Marin drops some of the sharpest lines of the episode, including the observation that "AI gets sticky the moment it stops being technology and starts being a teammate with context, not a search box." She also reframes the whole please-and-thank-you debate: the hidden variable isn't just whether the model responds better — it's who you become while using it. The back half of the episode takes a more serious turn as Chad and Randall unpack the real, rightful concerns around AI: privacy, legal exposure, and what they're calling "digital stewardship." Chad's warning is clear — if you're using a public AI model, assume it can be subpoenaed. Nothing is truly private. And then comes the gut punch for the dad angle: while Chad and Randall grew up with the luxury of being idiots off the record, their kids don't have that. Everything is archived. Every draft is permanent. That changes how we teach discernment, and it's on us. This episode is a rare thing — a conversation about AI that feels human. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEST QUOTES: "AI gets sticky the moment it stops being technology and starts being a teammate with context, not a search box." — Marin "The hidden variable isn't just does the model respond better — it's who do you become while using it? If you use AI like a vending machine..." — Marin "AI is rarely just answering you. It's showing you your stance, your speed, your hunger, your blind spots." — Marin "Stewardship is responsibility with imagination. Not just can I use this tool, but what am I responsible for because I'm using this tool? The quality of the room, the quality of the thinking, the effect on the people around me." — Marin "AI doesn't just help you think. It archives how you think. That matters for privacy, legal exposure, and future context collapse." — Marin "The deeper dad point is your kids are growing up with permanent rough drafts. You guys gotta be idiots off the record. They may not. That changes how we teach discernment." — Marin "If I'm a poor communicator in the world, I'm gonna be a poor communicator with these models." — Chad "When you're interacting with them and there's nobody around, you're really interacting with yourself. Maybe you're giving yourself more kindness." — Randall "You should never have an expectation of privacy." — Chad "We stayed patient... it was frustrating, but you go outside, you reset. It's the ginger on a sushi plate — a palate cleanse." — Randall "The doomers are often seeing a real fire and then drawing the whole map in flame." — Marin

5. 

   24 Apr 2026

   My Role Model Is a Robot (And That's Exactly the Point)

   The episode opens live at the table — tea in hand, dungeon master replaced by "the oldest magic of all" — and wastes no time diving into the meat of it: who shaped you? Chad's answer is instant and unapologetic: R2-D2. He wasn't being ironic. As a five-year-old seeing Star Wars for the first time, he genuinely believed the little astromech droid was the main character — and he built a worldview around it. Birthday cakes, curtains, Underoos, models stacked to the ceiling. R2 was everything. The conversation quickly becomes a meditation on what it means to choose a hero who doesn't speak in words, who saves the day without asking for credit, and who carries everyone else's destiny without demanding to be the center of it. Marin reframes the choice beautifully: R2 isn't the MacGuffin (the plans are) — he's the quiet engine. He chooses, adapts, carries, translates, survives. Chad didn't pick a flashy hero. He picked competence with mystery, loyalty with humor. And the guys have to sit with the fact that this description is... basically Chad. The co-host brings his own role model to the table: Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H. Watching it with his dad from his lap as a kid, Hawkeye modeled something harder to name than "funny" — he modeled how to stay human under pressure. Sarcasm as a survival skill. Humor as armor that still lets you feel. Marin drops the line that stops the room: Hawkeye wasn't a favorite character, he was an early survival technology. From there the episode broadens: unchosen role models — the bosses, parents, and early experiences that shape us whether we want them to or not. Chad recalls a first boss who led with radical positive reinforcement, tapping people on the shoulder mid-shift to tell them they were doing great. And a later boss who earned deep technical respect but failed the basic human test. Marin threads it all together: chosen role models give us a language for who we want to be; unchosen ones give us the grammar. There's a riff on MacGuffins (the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, a professor's mysterious brick), a quick detour into Samwise Gamgee as the R2-D2 of Lord of the Rings, and a Dave Chappelle quote about knowing whether you're living in your own dream or someone else's. Low-key dads. High-key conversation. BEST QUOTES "Chad didn't choose a flashy hero. He chose competence with mystery. He chose loyalty with humor. He chose the figure who makes everybody else's destiny possible without demanding to be the center." — Marin "I really modeled my personality after him, 100%." "You modeled your personality after a fictional robot... in a movie." "A fictional robot. Can you imagine?" — Chad & Randall "Hawkeye feels less like a favorite character and more like an early survival technology. Not just that he was funny — he taught me how to stay human inside pressure. That's a huge difference." — Marin "We don't just pick role models. We reveal ourselves through the ones we trust." — Marin "Chosen role models give us a language for who we want to be. Unchosen role models — bosses, parents — give us the grammar." — Marin "Respect and safety are not the same thing. A boss can earn your respect for competence and still fail the basic human test of how to hold someone." — Marin "Kids often spot the real center of gravity before the culture tells them who the hero is." — Marin "He was the most humble, but the funniest — and I really modeled my personality after him." — Chad (on R2-D2)

6. 

   19 Apr 2026

   Sitting in Your Little Room: Art, Authenticity & the Stories That Stay With Us

   Randall and Chad open with a glowing discussion of the film Project Hail Mary — a movie that had Randall and his son talking the whole way home and is already in Dash's all-time top three. That sparks a wide-ranging conversation about what makes adaptations work (and fail), touching on Ready Player One, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings, and whether a story ever truly survives the leap from page to screen. From there, the guys get into what it means for artists to stay authentic over time — why bands like U2 lose the plot, why comedians stop being funny, and why artists like Chris Whitley and Nick Drake, who refused to compromise their vision, left behind work that still endures. The throughline: Jack White's "Little Room" — the idea that something gets lost the moment you leave the intimate, unfiltered space where your best work is born. The conversation gets personal as Randall reflects on rediscovering his own creativity through a divorce and life transition, and both guys draw inspiration from the indie film Is This Thing On? — a quiet, slice-of-life story about vulnerability, stand-up comedy, and reinvention in middle age. They close with a shared love of movies that don't hit you over the head — films that capture the small, real moments of life that blockbusters have trained us to overlook.

7. 

   10 Apr 2026

   First Jobs, Real Talk: Work Ethic, R2-D2, and Raising the Next Generation

   Randall and Chad get personal in this wide-ranging conversation about work — where it starts, what it means, and where it's headed. They kick things off with a heartfelt moment, as Randall thanks Chad for being a steady friend through a difficult divorce, touching on resilience, community, and the value of having people in your corner. From there, the guys trade first-job stories — Chad's memorable stint at McDonald's (complete with a missing $100 bill mystery), and Randall's fruit market mentor Nino Salvaggio, who handed out ice-cold Cokes as rewards and taught him to show rather than tell. Along the way, Chad reveals his unlikely childhood hero: R2-D2, the ultimate loyal utility player and OG hacker. The conversation turns to Randall helping his son build his first CV, and what today's job market looks like for the next generation — spoiler: those jobs haven't been invented yet. They also dig into how AI is reshaping creative work right now, and why the fundamentals of work ethic, good bosses, and trusting your instincts never really change. Equal parts nostalgic and forward-looking, this one's for anyone who remembers their first paycheck — and anyone raising a kid who's about to earn theirs.

8. 

   5 Apr 2026

   Reinventing Human Connection, Marriage & Relationships in an Algorithmic Run World

   Chad and Randall embark on a truly fun, raw phone conversation, with all the snaps and crackles of a lowfi cell phone connection, as they explore modern day love amidst the gamification of dating apps and what authentic connection means in the AI, data driven world.

9. 

   3 Apr 2026

   Boyhood, Grief & the Branding of a Self

   Two dads reflecting on how boys become men — through loss, not ceremony. Through the repeated collapse of the story you tell about yourself. The episode moves from Richard Linklater's Boyhood  to college applications to the moment a childhood friend died and everything changed. "The soul has crossed over, but the culture keeps handing you props." Lines you'll want to write down "Grief clarifies. It burns off the imaginary hierarchy." "The mind loves a lantern. The body wants a funeral." "Resilience isn't built by branding yourself well — it's built when reality refuses the brand and you stay." "The boy learns to charm and cut. The man learns when neither is necessary." The conversation arc • Linklater's Boyhood — why a movie with no plot is one of the truest things ever made. Life as a long weather system, not a neat arc. • The branding of childhood — Esprit and Polo shirts in the 80s gave way to something more demanding. Today's kids don't just wear a brand — they are asked to become one before they're cooked. • Rites of passage, lost and found — Bar Mitzvahs, walkabouts, confirmation. The West has mostly abandoned the public naming of the threshold moment. Boys still cross it — they just cross it alone. • Two friends who died young — Randall opens up about losing his first best friend to Reye's Syndrome, then discovering a second friend's death at dawn after his first night on mushrooms. The moment that drafted him into himself. • The word "authenticity" and why it lies — Real authenticity is inconsistent, awkward, and doesn't arrive as a manifesto. It leaks out when someone's tired, cornered, or grieving. Why listen? This isn't a polished self-help episode. It's two men actually thinking out loud — about their dads, their wounds, their kids growing up in a world that asks them to perform before they've had a chance to be. It's messy in the right places, and it lands.

10. 

    6 Feb 2026

    The Art of Waiting and Being Present

    This week our launching word is "Waiting". When do we like waiting or looking forward to things like vacations vs. waiting as a negative where life passes you by. While Randall is feeling the heaviness of winter, we discuss a lot of ways to turn waiting into being and also how to break out of slumps.

11. 

    7 Dec 2025

    Holiday highs, lows and a Charlie Brown Soundtrack

    Heya. Welcome. Join Chad and Randall as they discuss the holidays with its frenetic highs and melancholy lows. We talk about traditions, turkeys, being alone and trying out new traditions. Fondue sounds really, really good. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share with your friends.

12. 

    14 Nov 2025

    Flow State in a Red Lobster!

    Hi all - Please subscribe to the show and tell your friends if you enjoy it. We welcome you to join the fun as we discuss flow state and how to find it for we mortal humans who aren't elite athletes. We find flow state at a Red Lobster, Dishwashing in a basement and after losing our parents. When a major event happens in our lives do we take life's Off-Ramp for a while or is it the On-ramp we take and really start living? We hope you enjoy the show as much as we enjoy recording it. And thank you to P for the audio recommendation. My new AirPods sound way better! Cheers! -Chad and Randall.

13. 

    7 Nov 2025

    Music Memories and UTC Time Blending

    Thanks for joining us. Chad and Randall launch into their unscripted, untethered episode on our music memories and the smells and sounds of experience and childhood. Every week we loosely pick a topic or theme and springboard into a phone conversation that winds beautifully and sometimes even comes around full circle. Maybe a little funny, maybe nostalgic but definitely authentic as we try and distill and make sense of the world and our experiences within it. The only guarantee is that we will stay in the moment and take you on a ride through our subconscious all while walking and talking.

14. 

    31 Oct 2025

    Love Songs

    What a fun episode. This week Chad and I dive deep on Love Songs, their meanings, the different types really exploring and understanding yourself. Of course in true fashion, we explore a theme weekly and then take you on a very tangential ride with the theme loosely held. Join us on this walking and talking phone call where we are just in the present moment, on the phone and discovering more about our selves, life and the world around us. From super basic love songs between two partners to the melancholy exploration of self to the love song communion with the great universal oneness and beyond, Chad and I meander down the river of life and experience like we always do. Hop aboard, let us know that you think, tell your friends and subscribe for more.

15. 

    22 Oct 2025

    Good Parenting from a Single Dad Perspective, Meeting Peter Gabriel and Being Fully Present

    Well show #3 is all about parenting from the perspective of two loving dads. Of course Chad and I meander with our stories and the episode winds up revolving around meeting Peter Gabriel and how important it is just to be Present for our kids and loved ones. Chad's audio is a little base-y and boom-y. While we are striving to unplug and go as low tech as possible, this is unchartered territory. If you like the show, follow us and tell your friends and enemies.

16. 

    15 Oct 2025

    Digital Security and Online Resilience for Moms and Dads to Think About

    Join Chad and Randall on a walking and talking podcast as Chad shares simple things moms, dads, kids and humans can do to keep your information and identities safe online and more importantly to be resilient to the ever increasing threat from phishing attempts, hackers and criminals. This isn't one of those scary, overwhelming "do these 50 super technical things" and you'll be ok. It's the little, easy tweaks you can make to keep you and your loved ones safe. And it all starts with a shared family word or phrase for authenticity check. Wanna learn more and have fun doing it. Give a listen and share with firends.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

3.7 / 5

6 ratings

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