Pulling Threads

Alex Cleary
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Mostly shit talking, occasionally to great people...

  1. 3d ago

    The Council Took Our Dogs And Held Them Ransom

    We left a gate open, both dogs bolted, and the council scooped them straight into the system. What followed was a two-day nightmare of hold music, an animal rescue place that wouldn't answer the phone, and a council rule that forces you to desex your dog at three months before you can get them back. Add in the emotional cost of telling our wives their children were in dog prison, and you've got the most expensive open gate in history. In this episode: - How Veda and Donny ended up in dog prison and what it took to get them out - The Brimbank three-month desex rule and why every vet reckons it's too young - Why the animal rescue place never answers the phone (and why we understand now) - The tire-change call every bloke prays for, and why it was her fault - Korean billionaire investors, karaoke on a dirt runway, and an old bloke who shit the bed - A remote operator smashing the wall with the batwing right in front of the investors - Gazza in Perth saving $2,500 a year on free Bunnings EV charging - The Bunnings trade account hack that lets you walk straight past the checkout Timestamps: (02:03) We're allowed to keep our podcast equipment (06:29) Setting the scene, Donny comes over to a mud pit backyard (10:33) The gate's open, the dogs are gone (13:44) The council took them, four youths to grab Veda (23:59) Held to ransom until they're desexed (24:59) The Brimbank three-month desex rule (31:25) The demographic at the lost dogs home (41:08) The final bill, $900 and the emotional toll (42:40) The flat tire call every man wants (43:53) Why you can't trust a mechanic (49:00) Crib time, investors on site and cleaning the workshop (51:33) Korean billionaire investors and karaoke on a dirt runway (56:24) The remote operator who smashed the wall on cue (63:55) Robots, AI and losing your johnson (73:51) Stingy or Smart, Gazza and the free Bunnings charging Full episode out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the pod on Instagram: @pullingthreads

  2. Sep 6

    The Mental Trick That Turns Every Setback Into A Win

    Welcome to the inaugural Page Parliament. That's the book club we can't call a book club because Alex would've bullied anyone who was in one. This week we pull apart To The Limit by Amber and Blaine Burke, one of the deepest female freedivers in the country and a 24-hour national champ who came second at King of the Hill. We go front to back on the mental game that separates the people who could physically do it from the people who actually finish it. Turns out the sport barely matters. It's all up here. In this episode:- Why chasing hard things for the sake of it is the wrong way round, and what to do instead- Stress inoculation training and why you should prepare to fail every single time- The genius mindset hack that turns your opposition's every move into their weakness- Playing games with your own head to get up a hill you can't get up- The story of the astronaut who went blind on a spacewalk and stayed calm- Why Troy went from laying down after work to running 30Ks and owning a calendar- The mine owner who calls the high achievers 'jets' and why he wants them all- Why the best win is Mark Dowdle thanking his crew, not some bloke screaming I'm a G Timestamps:(00:14) Welcome to the inaugural Page Parliament(04:40) Who Amber and Blaine Burke actually are(11:01) Why freediving is genuinely terrifying(16:41) Surround yourself with people doing dope shit(21:22) Troy from sedentary to a calendar in twelve months(25:48) Find the thing you love, then find the discomfort in it(33:51) Stress inoculation training and prepare to fail(43:52) Playing games with yourself to get up the hill(49:44) The woo woo stuff and the stories you tell yourself(56:40) The most common story in ultra running(57:56) The mine owner who calls them jets(63:00) What a good win actually looks like(66:06) The genius trick that turns everything into a win(72:42) Phil Gore and sleeping the same way every day(74:32) The final verdict in Huzzahs Full episode out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.Follow the pod on Instagram: @pullingthreads Pick up To The Limit here

  3. Aug 30

    How To Run A Race That Makes Zero Money Off Ticket Sales

    A random German backyard ultra just put on the best livestream in the game and it hurt to watch, because every idea we'd documented after King of the Hill they pulled off one by one. The event is never how you make the money. It's the vehicle to advertise how you make the money, and if you can't get that right you're selling your house before the event dies. Plus why whinging about your missus makes you a bitch, and the set-in-stone rules for the workshop ox. In this episode: - Why Last Soul Ultra's livestream blew the whole scene up with 100k concurrent viewers - The $48k tracker that would put a GPS on every King of the Hill runner - The real reason we're stressed and a bit f****d heading into King of the Hill - Why elite athletes who won't make content are hindering themselves and the whole sport - Alex on trying for a baby and why a goal changes everything - What makes you a bitch: talking shit about your partner when they're not there - The complete rules for controlling the stereo in the workshop - Page Parliament book club kicks off with To The Limit by Amber and Blaine Burke Timestamps: (00:16) Back in the studio, 6k on Facebook and the rage followers (05:11) Why we do a podcast that takes the least effort possible (07:38) Last Soul Ultra and the livestream that blew the scene up (09:39) The event is not how you make money, it's the vehicle (17:26) The $48k tracker we'd need for King of the Hill (23:15) Why we're genuinely a bit f****d coming into King of the Hill (28:13) Mark Doudel, Elo and characters making the sport more professional (30:43) American exceptionalism and the mindset that fuels it (41:24) Why elite athletes should suck up the pride and make content (45:16) Alex on trying for a baby and treating it like a workout (53:30) What makes you a bitch: talking shit about your partner (01:06:48) The rules for controlling the stereo in the workshop (01:24:32) Page Parliament book club and To The Limit Full episode out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the pod on Instagram: @pullingthreads

  4. Aug 23

    Simon Cochrane: The Bloke Who Broke The Ultraman World Record On Coke And Red Bull

    A 10K open water swim, 420 kilometres on the bike and an 84K double marathon across three days — and Simon Cochrane did the lot on Coke, Red Bull and Tailwind. That run set the Ultraman world record. This week he sits down with Alex and Troy and goes through 39 Ironmans, a Tarawera 100 miler won on a torn calf, and the sinking kayak that left him swimming six Ks on his own in the middle of a lake. The bloke has done more damage to himself than most people can imagine, and he still won't call himself a professional. In this episode: - The world record run fuelled entirely on Coke, Red Bull and Tailwind for three straight days - Why UTMB charges Kiwis an extra 400 euro in carbon credits for travelling the furthest - The kayak guy who forgot the bung and sank three Ks into a 10K lake swim - Pushing through the last 6K of a 2 hour 29 marathon looking like dog shit - The 32 hours versus 19 hours gap between an average punter and a world record holder - Whether finishing in 6 hours is actually harder than scraping the cutoff - Buying a runner like a racehorse and the wild event idea it sparked - Doping in ultra running and what drug would actually get you further in a backyard Full episode out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the pod on Instagram: @pullingthreads Follow the Simon on Instagram: @Cochranesimon

  5. Aug 16

    The Cameras Died And I Had To Let It Go

    We just ran Harry's Longest Mile and the livestream shit the bed in the first two hours. Two cameras dead, roaming cam audio clapped out, and Alex sitting up in the commentary box on one hour's sleep watching the whole thing fall apart. Then he cracked a Red Bull, stopped fighting it, and it turned into the best event we've ever run. In this episode: - The three major livestream failures and the moment Alex just accepted it was cooked - Why the Longest Mile format is like a beep test that turns into a sprint to the death - Ross McPhee, 52, coming seventh and running a lap he was never going to make anyway - Kate Mason hanging with the blokes on legs half their length - The Blaine Burke comment that stopped us being tight arses and put real prize money on the table - Getting the truck bogged in the Kilmore infield and needing a tractor to drag it out - The DIY race clock Alex sank 40 hours into and the $30k livestream plan Ethan killed three times - Why we made zero dollars and reinvested every cent into gear Timestamps: (00:16) Coming off the back of Harry's Longest Mile (02:16) Dad going zero to a hundred and running an event on eggshells (03:12) The three livestream failures explained (04:48) The moment Alex accepted it was cooked and started enjoying it (08:35) Ross McPhee, 52, coming seventh and refusing to quit (10:31) The Longest Mile format explained (14:51) What the livestream does for the athletes' families (23:23) Celebrating the person who buries themselves, not just the elites (31:32) Kate Mason hanging with the blokes (37:14) Bogging the truck in the Kilmore infield (41:11) The wrapped and the Strava overlays for every athlete (53:56) Prize money for the fastest mile and chasing middle distance runners (01:22:13) The Blaine Burke comment that changed everything (01:23:19) Being broke makes you creative, the DIY race clock (01:28:44) What we sucked at and what went off Full episode out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the pod on Instagram: @pullingthreads

  6. Aug 9

    The Domestic Sparkies Who Left My Ceiling A Spider Web

    Alex climbs into his roof cavity for the first time and finds out exactly what eight grand of domestic rewiring actually bought him. Spaghetti cables, insulation ripped up and left in a pile, and a condensation tube shoved together by some dodgy c**t that slowly rotted a hole through the heater. Then Troy gets into the thing eating him alive at the new mine: a leaderboard on every wall that turns machine maintenance into a game you can never actually win. In this episode: - The roof cavity horror show and what industrial standards look like next to domestic work - Why the building inspector sees ten times what a sparky can - An investing conference full of true blue Aussies and the first humanoid robot Alex has seen in the flesh - The card surcharge ban that doesn't remove the fees, just makes them invisible - What makes you a bitch at work: the sad c**t who whinges about his cross shift for five years - The brutal mining hierarchy from nipper to jumbo operator and who gets leapfrogged - Goodhart's Law on a mine site: when the board goes green, the actual work stops mattering - KPIs, bean counters, and getting chased up 15 seconds after fixing a machine Timestamps: (00:13) 3K on Instagram and the substation reel blowing up (02:22) The rewire job Alex found in his roof cavity (05:10) Eight grand, backpacking on a shoestring, and the rewire that ate the trip (09:59) Insulation ripped up and left in a pile, HVAC rubbish never removed (12:10) Why a leaking roof isn't the worst thing that can happen (16:40) The investing conference and the safest room in Melbourne (21:28) Seeing a humanoid robot for the first time (24:56) King of the Hill anxiety and the hay fever injection waiting list (33:52) What makes you a bitch: whinging about your cross shift (38:44) The mining hierarchy from nipper to jumbo and who gets leapfrogged (51:34) Card surcharges banned October 1st and where the fees actually go (59:53) The mine leaderboard and Goodhart's Law (01:08:11) KPIs, ticking boxes, and maintenance that only exists on paper (01:14:43) Bean counters, chat GPT quotes, and getting undercut by your own supplier Full episode out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the pod on Instagram: @pullingthreads

  7. Aug 2

    The Government Is Cutting Trades Short To Pump Out Tradies Faster

    South Australia reckons it can fix the housing crisis by cutting apprenticeships short. Excavator operators in 18 months, road tunnel work halved, painting officially a trade you can knock out in three years. Alex and Troy pull it apart from the inside, because both of them came out of their own trades still dog shit and scared, and no shorter block was going to change that. Plus the AI watermark trick that lets you steal photos off real estate agents and event photographers, Troy's exploded knee that turned out to be nothing, and the Tradie Olympics they'd actually pay to watch. In this episode:- Troy's knee blows up mid-run and the physio plugs him into a machine that feels like the electric chair- The AI move to strip watermarks off photos, and when it's smart versus a genuine dog act- Real estate agents AI-ing the dream backyard when it's really rock and rubbish- Fast-tracked trades pulled apart, trade by trade, with the real numbers- Why 43 percent of construction apprentices drop out and what a shorter block actually fixes- Supertrowel, Japanese master planers, and the trade Olympics the boys invented- The 1000 metre cable run in a single shift that nobody even noticed- Kids online, AI deepfakes, and why there'll be no emoji on Alex's kid's face Timestamps:(00:17) Back in the promised land, lager talk and Troy's first injury(02:03) Patellar insertion inflammation and the snake oil physio machines(05:51) Alex's migraines and the Spec Savers upsell(10:59) Stingy or Smart, AI watermark removal on stolen photos(15:37) The Gold Coast marathon photo heist, dog act or fair game(21:14) Real estate agents AI-ing the backyard to sell you the dream(23:46) Fast-tracked trades, every trade and the new timeframes(26:13) Still dog shit as a fourth year, why the time doesn't fix you(32:43) The horrible diesel fitting trade upgrade at TAFE(35:25) The real reasons apprentices drop out and whether this fixes any of it(41:41) Supertrowel and the trade Olympics the boys would run(50:46) Cable joins, the sparky pride nobody else understands(56:13) The 1000 metre cable run in one shift(01:02:04) Kids online, AI deepfakes and no emoji on the kid's face(01:17:30) The Pulling Threads book mob, and picking a name that isn't sissy Full episode out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.Follow the pod on Instagram: @pullingthreads

  8. Jul 26

    The Sport Too Big For The Bloke Running It

    Alex nearly got flogged with a crowbar outside a mine Christmas party, Troy front-kicked his bedroom door ready to fight an intruder that turned out to be a Korean-speaking robot vacuum, and both of them reckon backyard ultra is being held back by one bloke and a Facebook group. This one goes everywhere. In this episode: - Troy's 3am home intruder that turned out to be his robot vacuum Chun-Hee doing laps of the house - The real home defence conversation: guns, pepper spray, knives, baseball bats, and why none of them are great options in Australia - Alex's crowbar fight outside a mine Christmas party and the bloke who started it by pulling the finger at a car - The Biotropica backyard ultra controversy: four world records broken, entire event disqualified via Facebook post - Why backyard ultra needs a proper governing body and not one person making calls from a Facebook group - Alex's custom flat-pack kitchen install and the moment he became his father screaming at family to hold things steady - Reverse PTSD: when you realise you're doing the exact same thing your old man did to you as a kid - The greatest mine site names in Australia and beyond: C**k-Eyed Bob, Frog's Legs, Revenge, and Peculiar Knob - Phil Gore commented on their reel and it wasn't exactly a compliment - Troy shaved his armpits and Hannah stuck her nose fully inside one Timestamps: (00:13) Phil Gore commented on our reel (09:34) Year of the house update and custom flat-pack cabinets (12:57) Reverse PTSD and dad's ceiling sheet nightmare (19:32) Troy admits Alex was right about shaving armpits (24:36) Someone broke into Troy's house at 3am (32:51) Home defence strategy and the gun debate in Australia (36:34) Alex's crowbar fight at the mine Christmas party (53:45) Biotropica backyard ultra controversy and the full event DQ (65:06) Why backyard ultra needs to professionalise now (77:10) The rules holding the sport back (82:30) List of the week: best mine site names in Australia and the world Full episode out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow the pod on Instagram: @pullingthreads

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About

Mostly shit talking, occasionally to great people...

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Cleary
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    93
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Alex Cleary
  • Show Website
    Pulling Threads