Mike Rhyner
273 episodes listed below
Local talk, loose talk, sharp detours.
Your Dark Companion Podcast runs on room energy: quick checks, half-serious questions, sudden detours, and guests with stories worth letting breathe. Recent episodes move from Rangers talk and high school football broadcasts to a film festival, TV criticism, weather, and purpose-driven work.
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Your Dark Companion Podcast is a loose panel conversation built around interviews, sports-talk muscle memory, and North Texas nostalgia. It rarely enters through the front door. A bit about a microphone, a lightning strike, a baseball aside, or a light pointed the wrong way can become the runway before the actual subject appears. That wandering is part of the show’s design. Recent episodes bring in guests tied to a film festival, TV criticism, weather, Rangers talk, purpose-driven work, high school football lore, and personal storytelling. The conversations are quick, clipped, and interruption-friendly. Then they stretch. A guest can describe the logistics of covering three high school football games with a skeleton crew, and the room lets the story build until the late-night exhaustion becomes as interesting as the game itself. Another episode turns a school pageant memory into a long comic set piece about teenage bravado and bad approval processes. Sports keep tugging the show back. Baseball, the Rangers, old Ticket references, local radio personalities, and football-adjacent memories show up like house regulars. So do media stories. The show can talk about Friday Night Lights, the Dallas International Film Festival, peak TV, and old broadcast work without sanding off the casual mess of the conversation. It is not a clean expert panel. It is a familiar room, with recurring voices, quick corrections, callbacks, and a willingness to let sincere moments get undercut before they become too tidy. That makes the show feel unusually lived-in. Its best clips are not thesis statements; they are detours that reveal how people remember work, place, friendship, embarrassment, and the odd bits of local history that stay lodged in a group’s memory. Listeners looking for formal interviews may find it unruly. Listeners who like personality, interruption, and stories told by people who still enjoy the room will understand the appeal fast.
Made for: For listeners who like unpolished interview rooms, North Texas memories, sports-talk banter, and guests allowed to tell long stories. It especially suits people who enjoy podcasts that value chemistry over structure.
What sets it apart: The show’s edge is its room feel: recurring voices, abrupt pivots, old local references, and interviews that keep the interruptions in. It turns sports, media, school stories, and local memory into a shared hangout rather than a tidy Q&A.
"Whatever I want it to be about on a given day; is what it is." Your Dark Companion couples your familiar friends from radio, Mike and Grubes! Mike brings his classic interviews that draw you in, and Grubes—The Devil—drops…well the drops, and throws the occasional grenade. Mike likes to draw on his fascinating acquaintances and friends allowing them to tell their stories as you've never heard them. But he also goes outside his network, sharing Grubes' network, and often outside of both, to bring you those they don't know, but believe have a story that will make you la...
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Sports lore becomes comedy through detailed guest memories, loose interruptions and a studio conversation willing to follow every useful detour.
Your Dark Companion lets sports talk wander until the side road becomes the destination. Mike and Grubes preside over loose group conversations where a coaching hire can revive an old scandal, an anniversary can interrupt the opening, and the machinery of the recording itself is…
Like crashing a sports-radio reunion where you get old chemistry, stray grenades, and stories with actual mileage.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose, funny episode that builds to the Mr. Hebron pageant story.
This episode moves like a loose, quick-cut conversation, starting in sports talk, then a lightning strike, then jokes that keep catching and revising one another. The center of gravity is the Mr.
A late-night high school football broadcast story that makes a skeleton crew the whole point.
This piece follows a high school football broadcast built on local gear, a small crew, and a Thanksgiving stretch that ran from noon until after 1:30 in the morning.
Holiday sports talk that settles into a loose December detour.
This December hybrid opens with room noise, a lightning strike, and a fast turn into football talk. The pace stays lively as the banter keeps circling back through corrections and callbacks, so the conversation never feels static even as it jumps from one subject to the next.
A shaggy sports-talk hang that turns pointed once gambling enters the frame.
This sports-talk hang keeps to baseball chatter and an easy back-and-forth, then keeps circling back to gambling and its pull closer to the playing level.
Big Rob's Mavericks Maniacs story traces how a group routine took shape, spread, and drew notice.
Big Rob's Mavericks Maniacs story rests on a plain idea that keeps getting better: a crew of 300-pound guys learned routines from Shella over the first three years, and a request for one more eight count ended up folded into the act.
History argued after dark.
Piracy stripped of romance.
Forgotten women, complicated on purpose.
Michael Pasmar drops into a loose, sports-talk-heavy conversation that kicks off with a lightning strike outside the window, baseball chatter, and immediate banter.
It starts loose.
This episode features a casual, humorous conversation with James Faust about the Dallas International Film Festival, interspersed with technical banter about recording equipment and a lightning strike incident.
A casual and humorous conversation among hosts discussing random topics like a lightning strike, sports tips, and personal anecdotes about wearing pants.
This episode features casual sports talk about the Texas Rangers and personal anecdotes, including shout-outs to Tom Gribble and radio personalities.
The host discusses the start of the baseball season, focusing on the Rangers' performance against a strong opponent in Philadelphia, with casual banter about weather and sports talk.
Two radio hosts engage in playful, irreverent banter and set up a purpose-driven interview episode.
The hosts engage in casual banter and introduce an upcoming interview with a guest from the north.
Two radio hosts chat about their mutual friend Jesse, his personality, and his fitness transformation, with humorous self-deprecating banter.
Mike reminisces about his 1981 SMU college experience, driving a Camaro Z28 with a zoo bumper sticker, and contrasts it with the coolness of Eric Dickerson's purple Trans Am.
Mike and Grubes engage in casual, humorous banter about Twitter terminology and a lightning strike during a live show.
This episode features an interview with Sean Heath, the Dallas Mavericks PA announcer, discussing his role and experiences in sports broadcasting.
The hosts discuss the Pittsburgh Steelers' hiring of Mike McCarthy as head coach, questioning his likability and the oddness of the hire.
Two radio personalities engage in casual, humorous conversation about music, lightning strikes, and podcasting.
Mike and Grubes engage in comedic banter, drops, and interviews with a dark, irreverent tone.
Two radio hosts engage in casual, humorous banter after a lightning strike, setting up a comedic episode.
The hosts engage in humorous sports banter and introduce their podcast with a casual, comedic tone.
A conversation about the evolution of food writing and the Food Network's shift to competition shows.
Mike and Grubes engage in casual sports talk and banter, discussing baseball and reacting to a lightning strike.
A comedic talk show where hosts Mike and Grubes engage in humorous banter, drops, and interviews, with a lighthearted tone.
A comedic talk show with radio-style banter, drops, and casual interviews.
Host Mike interviews guitarist Jeff Skunk Baxter at the EarthX conference, discussing his career with Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.
The crew meets at Dudley's on December 22.
This episode features an interview with Cliff McClelland, the creator and producer of a new Christmas film involving Santa and zombies.
A comedic radio-style talk show with hosts Mike and Grubes engaging in humorous banter and interviews.
A comedic talk show with sports radio parody, banter, and interviews.
A comedic radio-style podcast with hosts Mike and Grubes engaging in banter, drops, and interviews, occasionally featuring true crime guests.
This episode features an interview with Ed O'Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt organization, discussing Teddy Roosevelt's journey to the Badlands and his historical significance.
The room starts loose and stays loose.
Big Rob brings the noise.
Mike Reiner hosts a live sports talk show featuring a special interview with Hall of Fame Rangers broadcaster Eric Nadel.
Mike Reiner hosts a comedic talk show with drops and banter, introducing a new guest.