PLATE & PONDER: Empty-Nesting with Jen & Chris Fenton

Jen & Chris Fenton
  • 5.0 (21)
  • Relationships

Join a powerhouse married couple—empty nesters turning their kitchen table into a hub for unfiltered conversations on life's big questions. She's a dedicated inner-city charter school director, elected official, and former school board president; he's a seasoned media executive, professor, and author. Together, with decades of experience in parenting, politics, public service, and purpose, they sip wine, share a meal, and dive deep into current events, cultural shifts, geopolitical headlines, and the hilarious highs and lows of empty-nest life. Expect candid debates, heartfelt stories, intriguing interviews, belly laughs, and no-holds-barred insights that challenge your views and spark your curiosity. Perfect for fans of thoughtful political podcasts, relationship dynamics, and real-talk commentary. Unscripted. Unfiltered. Unapologetically real. Grab a seat—new episodes weekly. Download & Follow now to join the conversation! #Current Events #Politics #Relationships #RelationshipDynamics #PublicService

  1. 3d ago

    “Will Someone Finally Take the Blame? Press Secretaries, Family Retreats, Greek Ambassadors, Leo & Tobey, & Dad Bods

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Plate & Ponder, Jen and Chris dive into the maddening pattern of leaders and officials prioritizing self-protection over honesty. They unpack why so many refuse to be transparent, own mistakes, or actually help society solve hard problems and prevent bad outcomes—using the day’s news as Exhibit A. America’s brand-new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, made a disastrous debut: a truncated ~14-minute briefing where she stumbled through prepared remarks, mixed up “my president” and “my husband,” took questions from only a handful of friendly outlets, and then exited stage left. She also announced the resignation of U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle amid Wall Street Journal reporting on alleged pay-to-play efforts (including texts seeking help paying a $100k credit-card bill in exchange for access), improper gifts, and other concerns. Guilfoyle denies the claims and says she’ll fight them; the timing and handling leave plenty of room for suspicion and discussion about accountability versus damage control. The hosts pivot to lighter territory with Leonardo DiCaprio’s current “off-season.” Fresh off One Battle After Another, Leo was spotted shirtless and relaxed in Hawaii (with a distinctly middle-aged “dad bod”) alongside girlfriend Vittoria Ceretti, Tobey Maguire, Courteney Cox, and others for the wedding of Maguire’s ex-wife Jennifer Meyer. Maguire himself officiated, which launches a full appreciation of his filmography: the Spider-Man trilogy, Seabiscuit, The Cider House Rules, Pleasantville, Wonder Boys, Brothers, Babylon, and more. They celebrate his selective comeback energy and the quiet durability of his career choices. Jen and Chris then rave about a recent middle-of-nowhere retreat with their college kids plus another family and their college kids. Three straight days with nothing but hanging out, no phones as a crutch, and forced fun—board games, long meals, nature, and actual conversation—turned out to be surprisingly restorative and bonding in the empty-nest era. They also shout out the undefeated McGill Lacrosse Redbirds (off to a strong 2026 start under a new coach, with hat-tricks and solid wins keeping them perfect early), reflect on how much travel they’ve already logged and how much more is still on the wish list, and close by circling back to the larger theme: the difference between people (and institutions) who face hard things head-on versus those who mainly protect themselves. It’s a mix of sharp current-events commentary, Hollywood appreciation, sports pride, and the real texture of empty-nest life—exactly the kind of freewheeling conversation that travels well. Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected StoriesHow a dog taught Dr. Andy Neillie to lead. You don't have to be famous to be fascinating.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

    “Will Someone Finally Take the Blame? Press Secretaries, Family Retreats, Greek Ambassadors, Leo & Tobey, & Dad Bods

  2. Oct 10

    Oscars, Clemson Awesomeness, Dog Pooping Pisa, Bucket-List Road Trips, Skittles, & How Bout Them Canes!

    Send us Fan Mail In this unhinged empty-nest episode of Plate & Ponder, Jen and Chris dive into Oscar voting season just as Jen’s longtime crush on Robert Pattinson collides with an upcoming screening with him. They celebrate the McGill Redbirds’ undefeated lacrosse season, swap stories from their Southeast road trips, and unpack why Chris still gets emotional about Clemson University. The conversation turns to the real value of bucket-list trips with fellow empty-nesters, then pivots to the Miami Hurricanes’ actual chances of winning a national championship. Amid the serious talk, they pause to admire (and forever document) the dog’s latest masterpiece: a perfectly formed poop that looks exactly like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. They also get real about passion in filmmaking, Chris’s ongoing Skittles cold-turkey struggle, and the inconvenient truth that he still can’t quit Dairy Queen Blizzards. It’s chaotic, personal, surprisingly insightful, and the kind of episode you’ll want to send to every empty-nester (and dog owner) you know. Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected StoriesHow a dog taught Dr. Andy Neillie to lead. You don't have to be famous to be fascinating.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

    Oscars, Clemson Awesomeness, Dog Pooping Pisa, Bucket-List Road Trips, Skittles, & How Bout Them Canes!

  3. Sep 30

    Sunset Marquis MTV Afterglow, John Mayer's Sphere Wonderland, & Hard Lessons We Owe Our Kids

    Send us Fan Mail Jen and Chris Fenton sit down the day after the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards and serve a classic Plate & Ponder mix of glitter, grit, and empty-nest parenting. They kick off with the simple luxury of lunch at the Sunset Marquis while L.A. is still buzzing from Madonna, Swift, Snoop, and the rest of the VMA circus—proof that sometimes the best part of awards season is the quiet table the morning after. Then the conversation splits, hot and cold. Jen is all-in on John Mayer taking “Your Body Is a Wonderland” (and the rest of his catalog) to the Vegas Sphere in April; Chris is cooler on the spectacle, the ticket prices, and whether another giant-orb residency is what the moment needs. That banter becomes the on-ramp to bigger questions: the world’s shortage of basic humanity, the need to actually protect Good Samaritans instead of punishing them, and what parents should tell their daughters and sons after this week’s Cornell story—the alleged 2024 frat-house assault, the lawsuit, the reopened investigation, and the ugly texts that followed. They treat it as a teaching moment about consent, bystander courage, institutional failure, and not looking away.⁠ They close on two kitchen-table headaches that feel very 2026: airfares that keep climbing, and emergency rooms nationwide that are still short on attention, resources, and people. Typical Fenton: funny about the hotel lunch, split on Mayer, dead serious about how we raise the next generation and what we owe the people who show up when it counts. Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected StoriesHow a dog taught Dr. Andy Neillie to lead. You don't have to be famous to be fascinating.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

    Sunset Marquis MTV Afterglow, John Mayer's Sphere Wonderland, & Hard Lessons We Owe Our Kids

  4. Sep 28

    Madonna & Naked Eyes, Wanting to Live Forever, Dogs & Earthquakes, Classless College Football Celebrations, & Reuniting Empty-Nesters!

    Send us Fan Mail The ground literally moved under the South Bay this morning — a 3.6 quake just off Hermosa Beach at 8:40 a.m. that rattled plates, nerves, and every empty-nester who suddenly remembered how fast everything can shift. Jen and Chris sit down with coffee still in hand and unpack the shake, the “did you feel it?” texts, and why a minor jolt can feel like a midlife wake-up call. Then they turn to this weekend’s college football mess: Texas’ Colin Simmons drawing a flag for simulating a bathroom break after a sack, and USC’s Desman Stephens celebrating while Oregon’s Dante Moore lay on the field. They ask the empty-nest question nobody wants to admit: when did “just having fun” become so joyless and performative? From there the conversation gets personal. They talk about the friends you lose track of once the kids leave — the ones also staring at quiet houses — and why picking up the phone now matters more than it did at 35. That leads into the episode’s real heart: the questions we avoid until the earth reminds us. Who are you when the nest is empty? What would you actually do on your last day? Would you want to live forever if it meant more of the same? They close with a tribute to Pete Byrne of Naked Eyes, who died earlier this month at 74. Best known for “Always Something There to Remind Me,” he also gave us “Promises, Promises” — the 1983 hit that, yes, featured Madonna on the Jellybean remixes. Chris and Jen play the song, remember the MTV era, and connect Byrne’s lyrics about broken promises to the ones we make (and break) with ourselves and the people we love after the kids are gone. A local quake, bad sportsmanship, old friends, last-day questions, and an ’80s voice that still echoes. This is Plate & Ponder at its most South Bay, most honest, and most 1983. Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected StoriesHow a dog taught Dr. Andy Neillie to lead. You don't have to be famous to be fascinating.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

    Madonna & Naked Eyes, Wanting to Live Forever, Dogs & Earthquakes, Classless College Football Celebrations, & Reuniting Empty-Nesters!

  5. Sep 23

    Our Kids Figured Out Adulthood / We Still Can’t Figure Out the TSA.

    Send us Fan Mail This one is equal parts industry hope, parental pride, and travel-comedy trauma. Jen and Chris start with the news hanging over every working room in town: the Paramount/WBD deal is finally closed: After years of stalled slates, cautious greenlights, and too many talented people waiting by the phone, they talk about what they actually want next — not just bigger corporate headlines, but cameras rolling again. Crews working. Writers in rooms. Productions that feel possible. The hope is simple and specific: that a closed deal means an open slate. AMERICAN FILM & TV PRODUCTIONS ARE COMING BACK TO THE USA!!! IT'S GO TIME!!!!!!!! Then the conversation turns home: They talk about the unexpected beauty of this season: reconnecting with old friends who are empty-nesting too. Same dinner tables. Same slightly stunned look of “wait, they’re really gone?” Same discovery that the house is quieter, the calendar is stranger, and the friendships that survive this chapter feel even better. The heart of the episode is Kaylie and Dylan: Jen and Chris watch both of them becoming actual adults — not in the abstract, but in the details. They understand the value of a dollar. They know life takes hard work. They move through rooms of other adults with ease that still surprises their parents. Kaylie is stacking incredible grades and thriving in her sorority house. Dylan is doing the work at McGill and leaving it all on the lacrosse field. The pride is not vague. It’s specific, earned, and a little stunned, in the best way. There’s also a great Montreal detour:  Visiting Dylan and his housemates for a party night that was loud, easy, and exactly the kind of fun you hope your kid finds when they build a life somewhere else. The housemates sound like a sitcom in the good way. And then there is the TSA. After a six-hour layover, Jen and Chris came this close to missing the flight anyway. Dysfunctional lines, bad timing, the particular panic of watching a boarding door exist in the same universe as a security maze that refuses to make sense. It’s the kind of story that is only funny once you’re on the other side of it — which, thankfully, they are. By the end, the episode lands where Plate & Ponder always works best: food on the table, big life in the middle of it. Hollywood might be finding its footing again. The kids already have. The friends are back. And the Fentons are still, somehow, making the flight. Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected StoriesHow a dog taught Dr. Andy Neillie to lead. You don't have to be famous to be fascinating.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

    Our Kids Figured Out Adulthood / We Still Can’t Figure Out the TSA.

  6. Sep 16

    BREAD & CIRCUS Episode w/ Manning, Trump Tweets, Weather, Ed Sheeran, & Oreos

    Send us Fan Mail We dedicate this episode to the GREAT FRED C. COHEN... We cover it all on this one... And sorry about the long pause... And just know that's a pet-peeve of mine for podcasts I love too! We'll be back more regularly... But what did we cover? How bout 83 markets now! Thank you Botswana for joining the crew. El Salvador too! And how about the BREAD & CIRCUS trying to take our attention away from issues that do affect us all:  The Iran Conflict, The Russia & Ukraine Conflict, and the Future of AI to list a few... Then we hit McGill Lacrosse's 2-0 start! How proud we are of the boys for making their "Lacrosse House" livable and even visitable for parents! Jen & Dylan go grocery shopping while Chris watched that Circus (and the Bread that Dylan picked out)! It has been hot everywhere. We get it and are living it! THANKS to my amazing conference hosts in Vegas and Arizona. JSX is a fantastic airline - though I feel for the kid who puked all over the aisle and the dad who was getting blamed by his mom... AND HOW BOUT THE AMERICAN FEDERAL PRODUCTION INCENTIVE FOR TV & AND FILM MANUFACTURING... It's Inching Closer!!!!!!!!! Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected StoriesHow a dog taught Dr. Andy Neillie to lead. You don't have to be famous to be fascinating.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

    BREAD & CIRCUS Episode w/ Manning, Trump Tweets, Weather, Ed Sheeran, & Oreos

  7. Aug 31

    Rizz, Aura & the 70-Photo Female Approval Team: Decoding Gen Z During a California Heat Wave

    Send us Fan Mail Jen and Chris Fenton are back in the kitchen—and this time, the house is actually theirs. With both 19-year-olds officially settled into sophomore year of college, the Fentons have fully reclaimed empty-nest life: no more last-minute Target runs for dorm stuff, no more competing for bathroom time, and plenty of space to actually finish a conversation. The freedom feels almost illegal. The first order of business? Celebrating the household appliance that has apparently upgraded their son from “surviving” to “almost thriving.” After months of microwave meals and questionable takeout, the lacrosse house finally got a real stove. Cue the “gourmet” era. The boys are now attempting actual cooking—think protein-heavy pasta, suspiciously ambitious chicken, and whatever they can throw together after practice. Jen and Chris debate whether this counts as culinary progress or just organized chaos with extra dishes. Either way, they’re proud. Sort of.Then the conversation takes a hard left into the linguistic wilderness their kids now inhabit. The Fentons try (and frequently fail) to keep up with the latest slang: “sweats” (both the uniform of college life and the try-hard energy that ruins casual games), “aura” and aura farming (your invisible cool-point score that goes up or down based on whether you tripped in public), “rizz” (the charisma that gets you the number without even trying), and “NPC” (the person who just repeats the same lines and never has an original thought). They work through a handful of others that have leaked into family group chats, translating them the way only slightly embarrassed parents can—equal parts affection, confusion, and “we used to just say ‘cool.’” From there they zoom out to the cultural whiplash of then versus now. In the ’80s, one camera, one roll of film, and one decent picture was enough to prove a night happened. Today it takes 70 nearly identical photos, a group-chat approval committee, and several rounds of “does this angle make my arm look weird?” before anything gets posted. The Fentons roast the ritual while admitting they now participate in it themselves. The episode closes with a surprisingly revealing class-and-childhood comparison. Jen grew up in a house with three phone lines. Chris had one. That single detail still feels like a reliable rich-kid vs. middle-class indicator—though they quickly expand the list: Intellivision versus Atari, and Toto silent-flush toilets versus the ones that sound like a jet taking off. It’s part nostalgia, part social anthropology, and entirely the kind of conversation two empty nesters can finally have without anyone yelling “MOM” from another room.Funny, relatable, and just self-aware enough to go mildly viral with every parent whose kid just texted them something they had to Google. Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected StoriesHow a dog taught Dr. Andy Neillie to lead. You don't have to be famous to be fascinating.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

    Rizz, Aura & the 70-Photo Female Approval Team: Decoding Gen Z During a California Heat Wave

  8. Aug 26

    Chalk Dust, Woodshed Spankings, Teenage Chaos, & Teachers We Loved: Back-to-School Stories

    Send us Fan Mail For sure, Chris spent more time in "The Woodshed" getting disciplined than the average kid... So grab your lunch trays and settle in, empty-nesters—Jen and Chris Fenton are cracking open the yearbooks, dusting off the memories, and serving up pure Back-to-School week chaos on this unforgettable episode of Plate & Ponder. From the pure pandemonium of first-day jitters and locker jams to the teachers who made us laugh until we cried (and the ones who left permanent marks on our souls), the Fentons take us on a wild ride through elementary antics, middle-school mayhem, high-school highs, and those hazy college days we can still half-remember.They trade tales of their absolute favorite educators, the funniest classroom legends, and the most memorable mentors who somehow turned detention into destiny. Then the conversation deepens: the seismic moments that still echo—Len Bias’s shocking death that rocked a generation of young athletes, the heartbreaking Challenger tragedy that stopped the nation cold, and the everyday victories and heartbreaks that defined growing up. And because nothing says “compare and contrast” like two coasts, Jen and Chris dive into life as a student in quiet, classic Glastonbury, CT versus the bright lights and big personalities of Los Angeles, CA—different hallways, same universal scramble of homework, hormones, and hope. It’s equal parts nostalgia, laughter, and “wait… that really happened?!” reflection. Perfect listening while the kids (or the ghosts of kids past) head back to class and the empty nest feels a little fuller with stories. Pull up a plate, pour something strong, and ponder with us. School’s back in session—and the bells are ringing loud. Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected StoriesHow a dog taught Dr. Andy Neillie to lead. You don't have to be famous to be fascinating.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

    Chalk Dust, Woodshed Spankings, Teenage Chaos, & Teachers We Loved: Back-to-School Stories
See All (83)

5
out of 5
21 Ratings

About

Join a powerhouse married couple—empty nesters turning their kitchen table into a hub for unfiltered conversations on life's big questions. She's a dedicated inner-city charter school director, elected official, and former school board president; he's a seasoned media executive, professor, and author. Together, with decades of experience in parenting, politics, public service, and purpose, they sip wine, share a meal, and dive deep into current events, cultural shifts, geopolitical headlines, and the hilarious highs and lows of empty-nest life. Expect candid debates, heartfelt stories, intriguing interviews, belly laughs, and no-holds-barred insights that challenge your views and spark your curiosity. Perfect for fans of thoughtful political podcasts, relationship dynamics, and real-talk commentary. Unscripted. Unfiltered. Unapologetically real. Grab a seat—new episodes weekly. Download & Follow now to join the conversation! #Current Events #Politics #Relationships #RelationshipDynamics #PublicService

Information

You Might Also Like