Making friends as an adult can be surprisingly hard, but the pickleball community has a way of bringing people together fast. In this episode, we sit down with pickleball coach and author Colleen Riddle, whose book Came for the Game, Stayed for the People explores the pickleball friendships, fresh starts, and unexpected connections that can grow from simply stepping onto the court. We talk about w

Have you ever made it to the front of the paddle line at pickleball open play, only to have your partner dis you because she didn't want to play with "a beginner"? Yeah, that happened to today's guest, Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen, one of the celebrities who play pickleball when no one's filming. After sharing drinks with Mary and her husband, Ted Danson, we knew we had to have her on the

We all love a Gail. We've met her at open play, we've been her on a bad-line-call day, and we've absolutely texted the group about her afterward. We love her enough that we tracked down the woman behind the Gail character in the movie, The Dink, and brought her to your favorite pickleball happy hour podcast. In this episode, we sit down with Cleo King, the actress who plays Gail in The Dink, to ta

What really goes on behind the scenes of Major League Pickleball? In this episode, we sit down with LA Mad Drops team owner Alex Geesbreght to get an inside look at how MLP works, from team contracts and player movement to the MLP draft, scouting, ownership, and the business behind the sport. Alex walks us through some of the biggest questions we have had about pickleball players, pickleball teams

Pickleball has a remarkable way of pulling people into your life who probably never would have been there otherwise. You can be on the court with someone 20 years younger than you, someone 20 years older than you, a complete beginner, or a highly competitive player, and somehow everyone still feels like they belong. That mix of movement, competition, family connection, and community is a big part

Nobody warns you about this part of pickleball. Your favorite doubles partner moves away, levels up, or… stops putting you on the calendar. Suddenly, “it’s just pickleball” doesn’t come close to describing what’s happening. In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Amanda Sovik-Johnston, founder of The Connected Competitor and the sports psychologist behind the blog post “Pickleball Will Break Your He

You know how everyone at open play decides how good you are as a pickleball player before you've hit a single ball? Your paddle, your shoes, your warmup, whether the next twenty minutes are worth their court time? It happens to beginners. It happened to an Oscar winner, and she told us about it over dinner. Rivulet invited us to what we understood was a cast party for The Dink movie. Instead, we e

What if the most “irresponsible” thing you ever did… (joining a sport with a wiffle ball and a weird name) was actually the smartest move you’ve made for your physical health, your sanity, and your social life? In this episode, Casie & Lauren are doing what they do best: pickleball + truth + tequila. We’re talking Mardi Gras (yes, balls , yes, beads , yes, strangers screaming at you like they’ve k

You know that friend who texts you at 1am just because she figured out you’re both still awake? Now imagine she’s also your doubles partner, your hype woman, your matching-outfit co-conspirator, and the person who gets genuinely jealous when you drill with someone else. That’s what’s waiting for you in this episode. This week, we’re sitting down with Cecy Feld and Holly Kerr of Feld/Kerr Picklebal

It turns out the distance between a Michelin-starred restaurant and a pickleball court is shorter than anyone expected, especially when the person crossing it is already wired for pressure, creativity, competition, and just a little bit of chaos. This week, Casie and Lauren sit down with Chef Richard Blais, a chef, entrepreneur, author, television personality, and newly declared aspiring picklebal

What happens when a Dallas pickleball duo suddenly finds themselves wearing St. Louis Shock colors? This week, we’re unpacking how we became part of the St. Louis Shock's Minor League Pickleball program while still serving as Dallas Flash ambassadors. What starts as a “how did we get here?” story quickly turns into something bigger: a look at why pickleball’s next chapter may depend less on supers

This spring, DUPR hit pause on your history and asked a simple question: Who are you right now, without all that baggage? Turns out that's a harder question than it sounds. We know because Casie did the Reset, knew it didn't count, watched her number drop, and still had to talk herself off the ledge on the way home. So we brought Tito Machado, CEO of DUPR and the man who's spent years trying to co

This week, Casie and Lauren sit down with Jay Paterno, son of Penn State coaching legend Joe Paterno, and author of Blitzed: The All-Out Pressure of College Football's New Era. This one is part sports conversation, part cultural temperature check, and we did what we do best: take a sports story and find the human behavior hiding underneath it. Because it turns out that money, pressure, loyalty, eg

It’s one thing to pick up a paddle sport on a whim. It’s another thing entirely to realize (somewhere between a rec game and an invite-only underground games scene) that this “casual hobby” has started organizing your calendar, your social life, and, subtly, your sense of self. This week, Casie and Lauren sit down with Clare Frank, former Chief of Fire Protection for the state of California, longt

What happens when two big personalities collide on the pickleball court? You get a duo that turns the game into chemistry, rhythm, and unapologetic energy! Today, Casie and Lauren sit down with Jeanne Koepke and Pam McCurry, a duo who found more than just a partner. They built a rhythm, a routine, and a friendship that reshaped this stage of life. What starts with pickleball tournaments and mixed

Pickleball players will build an entire life around playing. Watching the pros? That’s where things get interesting. In this episode, Casie and Lauren sit down with broadcaster, commentator, and certified pickleball numbers guy, Will Daughton, to ask a deceptively simple question: if rec players are so obsessed with pickleball…why aren’t more of them watching the pickleball pros? What follows is a

Ever wonder what your parents would say if they were handed a microphone and asked to review your sports career? Would they praise your hustle… or finally reveal that one time you blamed the wind for a missed shot? In this special bonus episode, an extension of Episode 38, we invite the ultimate behind-the-scenes MVPs onto the mic: our parents. This isn’t your typical lineup of sports interviews.

Ever wonder what it takes to raise a kid in competitive pickleball without turning every car ride home into a post-match press conference? A junior pickleball match only lasts so long, but parenting the player behind it is the part that follows you home. This episode gets into the family side of the game, where the travel is real, the pressure is sneaky, and keeping the joy alive can matter just a

What if the most “irresponsible” thing you ever did… (joining a sport with a wiffle ball and a weird name) was actually the smartest move you’ve made for your physical health, your sanity, and your social life? In Episode 37, Casie & Lauren are doing what they do best: pickleball + truth + tequila. We’re talking Mardi Gras (yes, balls , yes, beads , yes, strangers screaming at you like they’ve kno

You’re standing on the court, paddle in hand, staring at an empty net while the Tournament Director is nowhere to be found and your "10:00 AM start time" has officially become a suggestion. We’ve all been there… trapped in a bracket that feels more like a gridlocked parking lot than an elite player experience. In this episode, joining us in the hot seat is Mike Hoxie, the "Tournament Titan" and fo