Season 2 - Episode 3 - Brian Hayden

In Season 2 Episode 3 Mike welcomes his fellow left-handed friend Brian Hayden (host of the @findyourventure podcast) into the virtual podcast studio for a rousing conversation about friendship and many other key life topics.

Follow the podcast on Twitter: @friendsofmiked

Email the podcast at [email protected]

Key moments from the pod: 

0:30: Mike welcomes listeners to S2E3 (Season 2 Episode 3).

1:50: MIke officially announces the first “Point Fiver” of Season 2 which drops as Episode 3.5.

3:35: Mike corrects a major error from S2E2 (The Zach Williams Episode).

4:45: Mike talks about what’s going on with him, including watching the Euros Soccer Tournament and the TV show Hacks on HBO Max (and a song played in the show called “Pizza Guy” that can be used for many more situations that ordering pizza)

10:00: Mike welcomes Brian Hayden to the podcast.

10:50: Brian shares his life story with the listeners and Mike chimes in how Brian’s move back to Ann Arbor, MI as an adult inspired Mike to do the same.

14:20: Brian updates the listeners on how his life is going at the moment.  Spoiler alert: it’s going well.  Brian also notes what he’s actually enjoyed and appreciated about living through the COVID pandemic.

18:30: Brian talks about which friend(s) he’s been friends with the longest, including a major global event that happened right as he met his two longest standing friends.

21:30: Brian then breaks down what has kept his two longest standing friendships going strong (laughs and lack of judgment).

23:25: Mike and Brian recount the last time they hung out in person over at Mike’s house to play cornhole, drink a lager, and observe the sign in Mike’s bathroom.

27:00: Brian tells the story of growing up in Chicago and playing “Bozo’s Buckets” with his family over Christmas.

29:00: Mike and Brian tell the story of the first time they met each other and started establishing their friendship and how one of their favorite things to do was beating a joke into the ground.

32:25: Brian tells the genesis of the legendary Spahn/Hayden Invitational Golf Tournament.

36:30: Brian and Mike talk about grabbing beers at a classic Ann Arbor townie bar Frasier’s while in undergrad and then the even more classic Allen Park townie bar Simon’s, which involved Brian and others waking up in Mike’s parents’ basement.

43:30: Mike and Brian then discuss possibly the greatest rec basketball team ever to play together on the north side of Chicago: the North Side Pistons and continuing to play basketball for fun as you grow old.

46:40: Brian gives his philosophy on what makes a good friendship at this point in life.

47:50: Brian talks about what he’s excited about in the next 6 months and it involves an amazing family trip Brian and his family are about to embark on to Botswana while Mike gives his impressions of his own safari trip to Kenya/Tanzania.

51:00: Mike takes Brian through the (not so) Rapid Fire segment, including talking about activities Brian likes to do with his entire family, which involves skiing and camping, but also Hide and Seek, his favorite parts of living in Ann Arbor as an adult, including where he loves to go eat with his wife (and also a restaurant they used to love in Portland, OR when they were living there named Cafe Mingo), and Brian’s favorite pro athletes to cheer for when he was a kid, and the first time Mike went to a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley which was with Brian.