PAFO - Pond Around and Find Out

The PAFO band is back together and apparently a lot can happen during one trip to California for a movie premiere.

KG returns from his trip and he’s got stories. Viking funerals, inappropriate and questionable flirting, an unexpected full-body massage, and a whole lot of trauma dumping. Somehow, he may have gotten the best deal of the night.

Zoe, Chris, and KG talk about the importance of knowing when to let go, and an unexpected message from a listener reminds everyone why the Pondoff's Anonymous network exists in the first place.

It's inappropriate, heartfelt, and everything you've come to expect from PAFO.

The PAFO band is back together and apparently a lot can happen during one trip to California for a movie premiere.KG returns from his trip and he’s got stories. Viking funerals, inappropriate and questionable flirting, an unexpected full-body massage, and a whole lot of trauma dumping. Somehow, he may have gotten the best deal of the night.Zoe, Chris, and KG talk about the importance of knowing when to let go, and an unexpected message from a listener reminds everyone why the Pondoff's Anonymous network exists in the first place.It's inappropriate, heartfelt, and everything you've come to expect from PAFO.

KG is out of town, there's no guest, and Chris and Zoë are left to figure out how to run PAFO on their own. What could possibly go wrong?

After a little technical difficulty, the two catch up on Zoë's trip to San Diego for her sister's wedding, complete with emotional speeches, drinking games, questionable behavior at the after-party, and a rainy ceremony that turned out better than anyone expected.

They get into Goodwill shopping, the changing face of the Delmar Loop, the cost of higher education, Chris's parenting adventures, and why Abercrombie & Fitch apparently smelled the way it did.

Plus, Chris talks about the future of the Pondoff's Anonymous Podcast Network, some exciting opportunities on the horizon, and just how much everyone misses having KG around to keep the equipment working.

No guest. No producer. Just Chris and Zoë doing what they do best: getting completely sidetracked.

Zoë out of town. Chris sick. And KG too inept to fly the plane solo. Enjoy this PAFO Best of Summer '26 with some of our favorite moments from this summer's episodes. See ya'll next week.

Darin Atkins AKA The Plowboy or The Plowhawk is back behind a microphone, and apparently he had some things he needed to get off his chest.

The former TMA board op joins Chris, Zoë and KG for an episode that starts with old radio stories and somehow ends up covering fatherhood, marriage, drugs, religion, college football, bathroom disasters and an alarming amount of ass hair.

Darin talks about what life has looked like since leaving radio, getting married, buying a house and becoming a dad and why, after eleven years on the air, some of his biggest regrets aren't things he said. They're the things he was too worried about his job to say.

He also looks back at being fired on a Saturday morning and being asked to come back before his float trip was even over, making $38,000 a year in radio, his past cocaine use, and some of the people and experiences from that chapter of his life that he can laugh about a little more freely now.

And then there's the bathroom story.

Darin recounts producing what may have been the most catastrophic bowel movement in St. Louis radio history, only to open the door and discover an unsuspecting coworker waiting to enter the blast zone.

Throw in Illinois–Mizzou shit talk, ranking the attractiveness of college football coaches, becoming a first-time father and a surprisingly thoughtful conversation about faith and judgment, and you get about what you'd expect when Darin Atkins finally makes his way onto PAFO.

The girls are back, and we've got opinions, babe.

This week, we're talking St. Louis sandwiches (because some of us have taste), why men make giving a simple compliment so damn complicated, and the difference between being admired and being objectified.

We also get into some heavier conversations about consent, assault, and why women are so fucking tired of having to explain the obvious.

And because we believe in balance, we finish things off with Girl Dinner Diaries, questionable Reddit behavior, and a man eating a meatball sandwich in questionable circumstances.

Just another day for Girls in the City. 💋 Let Us Slay.

The girls are back together, and PAFO immediately goes off the rails. Chris, Zoë and KG get into Bonnie Blue’s alleged million-dollar baby name, looksmaxxing, a mysterious dead rabbit, shower etiquette and why Americans apparently have strong opinions about how the rest of the world wipes its ass.

KG admits to pissing in the shower, Zoë questions whether a button is actually a button if you’re only tapping it, Chris explains his history with gambling, and somehow a conversation about breaking bones in your face to become hotter produces the very important reminder that micro fractures in your face are forever.

Doug Vaughn spent 30+ years on television in St. Louis. Apparently that still wasn’t enough punishment, because now he’s doing PAFO.

The longtime St. Louis sportscaster joins Chris, KG and Zoë and they take a look back on his broadcasting career, from making $9,600 a year at his first television job in Rochester, Minnesota, to working in Miami and eventually spending more than three decades at KMOV.

He talks about covering some of the biggest moments in St. Louis sports history, including the Rams winning the Super Bowl, the Cardinals’ World Series runs and the Blues finally winning the Stanley Cup. He also explains why he doesn't think St. Louis will ever get another NFL team.

But this is PAFO, so eventually the conversation gets considerably less professional.

Doug weighs in on whether people deserve second chances after being jerks online, discusses kink shaming, hears about salmon being stored next to communion bread, considers the culinary possibilities of peanut butter and mayonnaise, and receives an extremely questionable message from Tony Big Toes.

Doug reveals that apparently showing people his “PAFO” was something he only did during his drunken college days for a few extra bucks.

It’s two of St. Louis sports history, broadcasting stories, generational disagreements and the kind of conversations that probably explain why Doug spent 34 years working in television before finally deciding he’d had enough.

This is PAFO with Doug Vaughn.

Clayton Patterson stopped by for what was supposed to be a meeting and somehow ended up behind a PAFO microphone. Two hours later, we had covered everything from John Mayer to childhood trauma, anxiety, alcoholism, parenting, House Hunters, family, sobriety and an argument over who can still skate.

Clayton opens up about spending most of his life struggling with anxiety and a lack of confidence despite presenting himself to the world as the exact opposite. He talks about becoming semi-agoraphobic, how having kids forced him to confront some of those fears, and how alcohol became an easy way to quiet a brain that rarely seemed to shut off.

That eventually became a nightly dependence that Clayton could hide behind being a highly functioning husband, dad and professional. He also opens up about growing up as an only child, his mother leaving when he was 11, spending much of his childhood around psychiatric hospitals, and the complicated relationship with her that followed him into adulthood.

And because this is still PAFO, none of that prevents the conversation from wandering into whether “moist” is actually a bad word, why Clayton once appeared on House Hunters, texts nobody fully understands, and a very serious challenge involving Chris, Kurt and a pair of ice skates.

Chris, Zoë and KG are back for an episode that goes in about as many directions as humanly possible.

What starts with Bridgerton, PAFO’s questionable audio equipment and KG’s miserable trip to Columbia eventually turns into a thoughtful debate over booty shorts, body image, double standards, purity culture and why Americans are so quick to connect nudity with sex. Zoë makes the case for wearing what makes you comfortable, KG tries to figure out where his newly discovered old-man instincts came from, and Chris attempts to keep the conversation somewhere within the boundaries of human decency.

There’s also the Good Good/Callaway controversy, mental-health medication side effects, Zoë sharing a story about the guy who waited way too long to shoot his shot, college football, and a discussion about whether PAFO could eventually go live — which immediately raises the very important question of how quickly this show would need a dump button.

It’s funny, uncomfortable, and occasionally insightful. In other words: PAFO.

Chris, Zoë and KG are back for another episode of PAFO despite the fact that no one seems to know what a PAFO is.

KG has a new gym crush, which naturally leads to Zoë offering to help orchestrate an elaborate plan to make a move. He also reveals some unexpected personal growth after turning down another “business transaction.”

From there, KG recounts his investigative mission to a UPS Store to determine whether Iggy was telling the truth about his new friends Pruul and B complete with a fake passport-renewal question, an unnecessary selfie and the discovery that Iggy did, in fact, get one important detail wrong.

The crew also debates the new studio decor, discovers there's apparently a real human skeleton hanging above the stage at Venice Café, considers taking their questionable talents to an open mic, reviews the increasingly absurd alternate versions of “Navy Caps on the Road,” gets into dating Facebook groups and online anonymity, and discovers that PAFO has somehow found listeners well beyond St. Louis.

It's gym crushes, fake errands, real skeletons, foot pics, Bridgerton and enough tangents to make you forget how the conversation started.

The critics said Girls in the City was dead. The critics were wrong.

KG and Zoë are back, glossed up and ready to speak their truth.

This time, the conversation goes from honesty, Mother Nature and the questionable necessity of structure to creativity, music and why both KG and Zoë have a habit of getting extremely excited about a new hobby before occasionally abandoning it completely. KG admits he's starting to realize he's a lot more creative than he ever gave himself credit for, while Zoë makes the case for letting your freak out and caring a little less about who's watching.

They also get into crying at concerts, dancing in public, blowing kisses during road rage, what to do when one of your friends is crashing out, whether your twenties are actually supposed to be taken that seriously, and Zoë's apparently dangerous relationship with Sport Mode.

And because no episode would be complete without an ethical dilemma they found on the internet, KG brings back Am I the Asshole? with the story of a woman whose sister-in-law gave her a realistic doll made to look like her recently deceased baby. Yes. You read that correctly.

It's creativity, vulnerability, friendship, main-character energy, bad ideas, weird hobbies and the occasional existential crisis.

Girls in the City is back. We'll see you again whenever we fucking feel like it.

TMA producer Jackson Burkett joins Chris, Zoë and KG for an episode that starts somewhere in the middle of a conversation and pretty much stays there.

Jackson talks about growing up in St. Louis, studying golf before eventually finding his way into sports media, and the strange full-circle journey that took him from a 16-year-old using a high-school project as an excuse to visit TMA to producing the show himself years later.

Along the way, the crew gets into Jackson's 470 unread text messages, his wisdom-tooth saga, The Sopranos, Entourage, Jerry Seinfeld, Shane Gillis, golf, and what it was like entering the TMA universe at 22 years old as Chris's “little piggy.”

And underneath all the usual PAFO chaos, the conversation finds its way into something a little deeper: curiosity, certainty, sobriety, how our perspectives change with age, and the value of remaining open to the possibility that what we think we know might not be the whole story.

Chris, Zoë and Kurt are back for another PAFO recapping KG's first episode of College Football Anonymous, talking women's sports and who would actually survive if the three of them were abandoned in the wilderness. Zoë also gets candid about PMDD, bipolar II and what experiencing a mixed episode actually feels like.Plus: disgusting air fryers, TikTok algorithms, whether socks belong in the bedroom, Chris offering up his own body in the event of starvation, and why Kurt says he enjoys college football more now that he's sober.Prepping is overrated.

Chris, Zoë and KG are back for another PAFO that goes just about everywhere.

KG brings some potentially life-changing news involving his extremely tall wrestling crush Lillith Khan, including an unexpected DM and a possible path to finally getting her on the show. The conversation naturally spirals into Mick Foley, wrestling injuries, whether wrestling is actually a sport, and why KG apparently wants “the strap.”

KG also officially unveils plans for a new addition to the network: College Football Anonymous, which Zoë may or may not have accidentally volunteered to co-host despite barely knowing when the season starts.

Later, the crew opens up the PAFO text line for some listener advice, including a workplace dating situation that turns into a full Girls in the City-style breakdown about mixed signals, backup plans and whether “if they wanted to, they would” is actually true.

There’s also a surprisingly thoughtful conversation about internet pile-ons after a golfer admits to cheating, another attempt to settle what counts as first, second, third and home base, possible PAFO team-building activities, and enough awkward tension at the end for Chris to apologize for basically everything he may or may not have done.

As always: no plan, too many tangents, and somehow an hour and a half later, we’ve solved absolutely nothing.

The band's back together.After a few weeks apart, Chris, Zoë, and KG are finally back in the same room.This week, the gang catches up on church camp, summer trips, Boys Day at the Cardinal game, Gracie Abrams, TV shows that everyone swears you'll love if you "just get through the first season."Things eventually take a more thoughtful turn as they talk about confidence, self-talk, why it's so easy to be cruel behind a keyboard, and the difference between genuinely believing in yourself versus just trying to survive your own inner dialogue.As always, there are plenty of ridiculous detours, questionable takes, and at least a few moments that probably should've stayed off the internet... but then again, this is PAFO.

The Girls In The City are back and they're talking bald women, forgotten birthdays, and Kurt accidentally giving Monty an extra year of life but in the antithesis of GITC Episode 1, KG & Zoë actually get pretty deep and meaningful in this one. They talk about what it really means to love someone well, where the line is between parenting and control, why people are usually looking to be heard more than they're looking for advice, and how leading with curiosity can completely change a difficult conversation. Then, because this is Girls in the City, the episode wraps up with an 'Am I the A**hole" involving a flat-earther, a mother-in-law, and whether proving the Earth is round is worth blowing up Thanksgiving dinner.

When the girl's away, the boys will play.With Zoë away at Church Camp, and with a last-minute guest cancellation, Chris and KG sit down with absolutely no agenda... and somehow end up covering just about everything.The guys talk about the growth of the podcast network, the different audiences each show attracts, the comments section, TV crushes from the '90s, Saved by the Bell, 90210, Dawson's Creek, hockey players, soccer, golf, rugby, and why Zack Morris might actually be a terrible friend.Then, in true PAFO fashion, the conversation takes an unexpected turn as KG opens up about his short-lived Division I baseball career, the pressure that came with it, and the difficult decision to leave the game because of his mental health. Chris reflects on why sharing our stories matters and how vulnerability can impact people in ways we'll never fully know.

This week on PAFO, Chris, Zoë, and KG welcome back Theresa Solsten to break down Zoë's first-ever trip to Deer Creek—a three-night Phish experience she agreed to despite never hearing a Phish song before getting in the car.

The crew relives the weekend from start to finish: Shakedown Street, hippie culture, jam bands, concert etiquette, Phish Around and Find Out, "Girls in the Creek," and what it's like experiencing one of America's most passionate fan bases for the very first time.

They cover a lot in this one: Enneagram personalities, Riverport, the Guns N' Roses riot, duck lips, recovery, road trips, friendship, and why sometimes the best adventures are the ones you never planned.

While Zoë heads to Deer Creek for a Phish weekend, Iggy steps into the co-host chair Episode 26 of PAFO, aptly titled "Boys In The City."Chris, KG, and Iggy bounce from recovery culture at jam band concerts to social media backlash over Girls in the City, birthday stories, family memories, Italy adventures, podcast growth, TMA, and everything in between. The laughs come easy, but the episode also takes some heartfelt turns as the guys discuss grief, addiction, mental health, and why asking for help can save a life.

If you or someone you know needs help, please reach out to us here at Pondoff's Anonymous.