Local conversations, full-strength curiosity.
The Nerdball Podcast turns ordinary starting points into long, easygoing conversations with guests, friends, and local personalities. Lorenzo Melcher usually begins with what a guest is into lately, then follows the answer toward sports, work, school, hobbies, family, movies, music, or whatever story opens up.
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The Nerdball Podcast is a local conversation show with a sports-adjacent heart and a wide-open guest list. Lorenzo Melcher brings people into PB Studios and starts from a simple place: what they are into, what they have been doing, or how a season has gone. From there, the talks wander in the best sense. A student can begin with bedazzled skincare and end up talking about photography, family cottages, school plans, and the awkward process of figuring out the future. A program director can move from sourdough and dropped hobbies to stand-up comedy, improv, Marvel, Harry Potter, Universal Studios, Oscar movies, and the comfort of Bob's Burgers. Wrestling conversations get especially detailed. Myles Takats talks through school, nationals, college routines, roommates, recruits, and the expectations around a season, while Brian Whitner breaks down a state championship run, sectional strategy, and what it means to beat St. Ed's after years of runner-up finishes. Coaches and former coaches bring another layer. Dave Hall connects baseball and old football memories to the practical language of blocking schemes, position coaches, and long relationships around Perrysburg athletics. Other episodes stretch beyond the field. Jake Pelewski talks through restaurant music, requests, birthday songs, and the balance between performing and staying out of a dining room's way. Mark Weber connects electrical work, trades, family influence, and a mayoral run. Kevin Smith's conversation reaches back to the lunchroom conversations that helped push the podcast into existence. The show keeps the rough edges of real conversation: restarts, affirmations, digressions, and little moments of recognition. That looseness is part of its identity. It is not trying to sound like a national interview franchise. It works because it treats local stories, teenage uncertainty, coaching strategy, hobbies, trades, and friendship as worthy subjects without dressing them up too much.
Made for: For listeners who like relaxed, people-first conversations with a local sports and community backbone. It especially suits fans of athletics, coaching stories, hobbies, trades, and hometown personalities.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its patience with ordinary detail. It lets a guest’s hobby, season, job, or memory expand naturally instead of forcing every conversation into a polished interview arc.
Lorenzo sits down with his guests to see what they ”Nerdout” on. Then they get into all sorts of topics! Listen every Thursday to hear all the great conversations! Also, listen every Tuesday for Things I Learned, where Lorenzo tell you five things he learned from the previous week!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Lorenzo Melcher turns relaxed guest conversations into a close view of the schools, sports, trades, and civic ties shaping community life.
Lorenzo Melcher lets The Nerdball Podcast follow the interests and experience of each guest, giving its conversations an unusually open route through community life.
Lorenzo gets from bedazzled skincare to career doubts, so your curiosity never has to pick a lane.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose, local conversation turns small personal details into a grounded portrait of growing up.
Emmy Clark offers a compact portrait of a high schooler sorting through the pieces of a life in motion: hobbies, family traditions, and the open question of what comes after graduation.
A relaxed conversation about hobbies, movies, and comfort shows finds meaning in how people make room for enthusiasm.
Erica Michaelis of Leadership Toledo joins the NerdBall Podcast for a conversation that drifts in a relaxed, associative way. Sourdough bread making leads into a broader look at hobbies: how people pick them up, how they fade, and why some simply stop fitting into everyday life.
Myles's All-American goal sits amid the daily demands of school, making weight, and shared living.
Myles's junior wrestling season is framed by the routines that keep it moving: final tests, early mornings, shared housing, making weight, and catching up on schoolwork after nationals.
A state title story built around the quiet strategy behind the bracket.
The Nerdball Podcast works best when it treats a state wrestling title as something built long before the final whistle. Lorenzo Melcher asks Brian how a program that had finished runner-up in 2022, 2023, and 2024 finally got past St.
A grounded look at making restaurant music more responsive without letting requests take over the room.
This episode treats restaurant music as a matter of judgment as much as taste: how does a performer handle requests, birthday notes, and last-minute asks without losing sight of the room?
A mayoral run is traced through lawn care, family advice, and electrical construction.
Mark Weber's mayoral run is framed through the work that came before it: time at a Toledo hospital, lawn spraying for ChemLawn, and the move into electrical construction after high school.
Southern conviction with a live-room laugh.
Direct questions, playoff answers.
Political comedy with obsessive backstage aftershocks.
Garage banter with a voting bloc.
Lorenzo Melcher introduces the NerdBall podcast and welcomes guest Kyle Sakowski, discussing podcast logistics and Kyle's recent move.
Host Lorenzo Melcher interviews Mark Weber, a Perrysburg city council member and mayoral candidate, on The Nerdball Podcast.
School board candidates Dawn Burks and Jackie Huffman join the NerdBall podcast to discuss their re-election campaigns.
Lorenzo Melcher introduces the NerdBall podcast and welcomes guest Tyler Seggerman.
Lorenzo Melcher interviews Lukas Pollack, a former water boy turned football coach and U.S.
On The Nerdball Podcast, Lorenzo Melcher talks with Emmy Clark about bedazzling skincare products with her sister, scraping silver from gum wrappers, and restarting dot-painting projects when one mistake ruins the piece.
["The NerdBall Podcast talks with Leadership Toledo program director Erica Michaelis about ADHD, sourdough bread, and why she named her starter Madeline Millie.", "She explains bulk fermentation, stretch-and-folds, and how room temperature and water quality can change a loaf.", "The conversation moves through Fortnite with her son and Matt, Universal's Epic Universe, Harry Potter, Marvel, Star Wars, and Bob's Burgers.", "Erica also discusses motion sickness after turning 30, a past herniated disc surgery, and why she notices details like Michael B.
Myles Tacketts tells Lorenzo Melcher how he managed 174 pounds at Bucknell by cooking more meals in his room, cutting back on cafeteria food, and following coach-set eating targets.
Brian Wittner says Perrysburg wrestling ended St.
Head baseball coach Dave Hall discusses his football coaching background and the wing tee offense on the NerdBall podcast.
Jake Pelewski tells Lorenzo Melcher how a 600-700 song catalog, QR-code requests, and digital tipping could change his live set flow.
Kevin Smith joins Lorenzo Melcher on the NerdBall podcast to discuss their friendship and the origins of the show.