Friend-group tangents with real comic velocity.
Better Buddies turns simple prompts into loose, energetic friend-group debate. RJ and the table can move from grebes to Star Wars jokes, from food combinations to celebrity reputations, or from protein trends to Greek myth without treating the tangent as a mistake.
PRESS PLAY
Better Buddies is a casual panel comedy show built around the kind of question that sounds small until everyone starts answering it. RJ usually opens with an icebreaker, then the room turns that prompt into a running exchange of jokes, corrections, half-serious theories, and personal taste tests. The conversations move quickly. A discussion of double standards becomes a comic argument about compliments, fairness, rent, and who is allowed to be called beautiful. A bird photo detour can become a dispute over whether a grebe sounds like a real animal or a Star Wars character. Food episodes lean into specific, slightly chaotic preferences: pizza with ranch, pineapple with olives, fries with milkshakes, chocolate-covered pretzels, and a Taco Bell order improved by an Arby's side quest. The show likes opinions that are too specific to be useful and too committed to ignore. Tanner's hatred of green peppers, for example, becomes a full panel inquiry into bell pepper color, flavor takeover, and whether sweet peppers deserve a hearing. Pop culture is a constant shortcut. The table references Keanu Reeves, Nick Offerman, Tom Hanks, Borat, Pokemon, Queen, Evanescence, and improv shows without slowing down to polish the connection. Sometimes the conversation gets unexpectedly nerdy. A protein-diet prompt widens into diet culture, then veers into Cersei, Odysseus, hospitality myths, and changing moral frames in old stories. Another episode lingers on fantasy audiobooks, unusual narrative structure, and Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Fairies. The tone stays warm, even when the teasing is pointed. Better Buddies is not a cleanly segmented interview show, and that is the point. Its best moments come from a panel trusting the tangent long enough for the bit to reveal itself. The show can be silly about names, food, and celebrity images, then suddenly earnest about books, luck, or the way stories change over time. It suits listeners who enjoy quick group chemistry, conversational pile-ons, and jokes that get funnier because nobody lets the premise escape too early. The rhythm is familiar, but the specificity gives it shape.
Made for: Best for comedy listeners who prefer loose panel banter, recurring friends, and low-stakes debates over formal interviews. It especially suits anyone who enjoys pop-culture shorthand, food opinions, and digressions that become the main event.
What sets it apart: Better Buddies stands out by treating the weekly icebreaker as a launchpad rather than a segment. The show’s charm comes from how quickly ordinary prompts turn into layered riffs, oddly committed opinions, and unexpectedly earnest side conversations.
A Podcast By Buddies, For Buddies, With Buddies. Hosted by RJ Mitchell with a rotating cast of friends, just some good goofs and conversation to remind you that there‘s some joy in the world.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Better Buddies turns a friend's latest obsession into lively, specific conversation that makes games, books, and online curiosities easy to share.
RJ gives Better Buddies a dependable engine: pose an icebreaker, let the table worry at it, then follow the conversation wherever the group's current interests lead.
One icebreaker later, your group chat has wandered from Circe to protein pudding.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A protein-powder yogurt hack sparks a funny, loose conversation about diet culture, future embarrassment, and Cersei's changing myth.
Better Buddies treats today's protein fixation as the kind of cultural habit that may look ridiculous with distance. RJ, Tanner, and James move from diet culture and overconfident protein claims to Chef Tova, whose protein-powder-and-Greek-yogurt idea gives them a clean way into…
A thoughtful Star Wars discussion links friendship, failure, character work, and the battered machinery of war.
Better Buddies starts with an open, grounded exchange about success, failure, and the value of a strong support system, then moves into the Alphabet Squadron trilogy.
A typecasting question opens into algorithm complaints, a bad Al Gore movie, and idle-game browser drift.
Better Buddies uses a plain question about actors who keep circling the same role as permission to roam. RJ, Tanner, and John bounce from Johnny Depp and Alan Tudyk to Awkwafina, then drift into the idea of a terrible Al Gore movie built from years of stray audio and cartoon…
Sharp Black pop culture commentary with gossip, jokes, and blunt advice.
Awards season, celebrity memoirs, and new music picked apart with host Louis Fertel and guests.
Comedian Chris Gethard takes one anonymous call a week and can't hang up first.
Isa Calderón and Lucía Lijtmaer riff on feminism and TV history from Spanish stages.
Graham Clark and Dave Shumka turn one small topic into a full episode of tangents.
The Better Buddies podcast hosts discuss which well-known person does the most good for the world, focusing on Tom Hanks.
A humorous discussion about lagomorphs, their classification as rodents in disguise, and their unique biological traits.
Better Buddies Episode 307, “Silksong Supplement,” starts with an icebreaker about what people credit for their biggest successes and failures, and RJ, Tanner, John, and James keep returning to support systems, family pressure, and self-sabotage.
RJ, Tanner, and John open with a typecasting prompt about actors who keep playing the same kind of character, naming Johnny Depp, Alan Tudyk, Awkwafina, Dwayne Johnson, Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Jason Momoa, Adam Sandler, and John Barenthal.
RJ, Alex, and Tanner spend the opening minutes turning the icebreaker question about double standards into a chain of jokes about compliments, shaving, voting rights, and even the Constitution.
The hosts discuss bird photos and debate whether the Wisconsin old-fashioned is better than other versions.
Hosts RJ and John discuss which celebrity is the most down-to-earth, with Keanu Reeves and Nick Offerman as top contenders.
The hosts of Better Buddies discuss which of their beliefs are justified, focusing on a debate about green peppers being the worst food.
The hosts share and discuss their favorite food combinations in a lighthearted icebreaker segment.
RJ argues that protein-maxing every meal is a fad, not a health practice.
Tanner's childhood "Pyrrhic victory" was staying home from a Boy Scout campout after refusing to get in the car.
The Better Buddies podcast hosts discuss which well-known person does the most good for the world, focusing on Tom Hanks.
The hosts of Better Buddies share an icebreaker about three impactful life events, leading to a discussion about 9-11 and its effects.
The Better Buddies podcast hosts discuss how to conduct a poll while playing an icebreaker about actors who play the same character in every movie.