Episode 9 - Cody's Date From Hell

Episode 13 - Looksmaxing for the End Times

This week on The Handsome Hour, Wes, Cody, and Stony connect the dots between taxes, fake jobs, plumbers, motherhood, dating markets, and mars colonies. The episode starts with a story about a former USAID-funded nonprofit executive who went from a six-figure salary to a retail job making $19/hour, which launches the guys into a debate about fake jobs, NGO status inflation, government patronage, and whether certain parts of the economy are quietly distorting the dating market. Stony argues that overpaid prestige jobs can inflate people's sense of romantic market value. Wes compares the whole thing to The Sopranos "no work" jobs, bloated college administrations, tollbooth patronage, and Army paperwork nightmares. From there, the conversation turns into a bigger theory of modern male frustration: taxes, housing costs, low agency, and the collapse of ordinary provider status. If a plumber does real work, pays the taxes, and still can't afford the car, house, or date-night life that used to make family formation possible, what happens to dating? Cody frames it as a world where government and institutions have become "the alpha in the room," leaving most men cosplaying control inside a system that can crush them at any time. Then Wes makes the case for venerating motherhood as one of the highest-value contributions anyone can make to civilization. The guys talk about family parades, functional households, reproductive culture, and why society celebrates almost everything except the thing that actually reproduces society. The back half zooms back down to the individual level: if the 1950s provider path is gone, what should ben actually do? Cody argues that most problems collapse to volume: do more things, meet more women, try more paths, and let feedback sort the rest. Wes connects the rise of looksmaxing to young men feeling economically blocked and searching for new forms of dating "alpha." Stony pushes back on boomer advice, average effort, and why "just try harder" does not land the same way in a more competitive world. Finally, the guys get into boomers, non-retirement, career-as-purpose, the sadness of aging rich without family, and the one fronteir solution Cody still believes in: go to Mars, because men need new worlds to conquer. Click here to view the episode transcript. [https://share.transistor.fm/s/b3e37115/transcript]

Episode 12 - Should Women Pay Rent?

This week on The Handsome Hour, Wes, Cody, and Stony start with Civil War ancestry, West Virginia roads, and Waka Flocka Flame's tour bus — eventually making their way to the darkest corners of dating, scams, matchmaking, extortion, and who pays rent when your girlfriend moves in. First, the fellows unpack a viral lawsuit involving a JP Morgan executive accused of turning a coworker into her "sex slave." The story is lurid, bizarre, and probably not what it first appeared to be, which opens up a bigger conversation about false allegations, trial-by-internet, humiliation fantasies, MeToo reversals, and why some claims become memes before anyone knows what actually happened. Then the episode turns to high-end matchmaking. Wes and Cody debate whether services like Blaine Anderson's are really matchmaking, or more like expensive introduction services selling hope. Is it wrong to help rich men get dates with beautiful women? Are gold diggers only possible when men are looking only for looks? And how does "B2B SaaS morality" apply to love? From there, Cody tells the story of how a woman tried to scam him off of Bumble by stripping on FaceTime. The guys break down the economics of sextortion, why the $500 price point feels oddly insulting, and why the coming age of deepfakes may make blackmail easier and less powerful. Finally, they tackle a classic relationship finance dilemma: should your girlfriend pay rent if she moves into the house you already own? What starts as a Reddit post reaction becomes a deeper discussion about ledgers, gender roles, contribution, provider instincts, household reciprocity, parenting, chores, and why the healthiest relationships don't feel like anyone is keeping score. Click here to view the episode transcript. [https://share.transistor.fm/s/56d4a914/transcript]

Episode 11 - Don't Be a Dancing Monkey

This week on The Handsome Hour the fellows tackle the most handsome question yet: how much should you optimize yourself for dating, and when does self-improvement become neurotic performance? The episode starts with a dialogue on Stony's advanced age and a discussion about aging well, sleep, skincare, Brian Johnson's protocol, and whether drinking more water is the secret to looking younger. Wes reveals he's using peptides to cut weight and get back into peak shape, which sparks a full debate about fitness, fat distribution, face fat, dating apps, and whether being more attractive actually improves your odds of finding a wife. From there, the guys explore a deeper framework for self-improvement: should you get 10% better at the thing you're already good at, or fix the thing you actually suck at? Is being fit a big dating advantage, or just another diminishing-return status marker? And if your soulmate only wants you when you have visible abs, was she ever your soulmate? The back half takes a philosophical turn: Cody lays out his case that the real key to attraction is not optimization, but alignment — owning who you are so fully that you stop performing for approval and start radiating actual magnetism. Wes connects this to self-acceptance, status, and why wanting another person's approval can make you less attractive the moment they sense it. Stony ties it all together with a story about British politeness, American bluntness, and the cost of filtering yourself into a boring carbon copy. Click here to view the episode transcript. [https://share.transistor.fm/s/4687bca9/transcript]

Episode 9 - Cody's Date From Hell

This week on The Handsome Hour, Cody tells what may be the single worst date story in podcast history. A night that starts as a normal Bumble meetup and escalates into a screaming sidewalk fight, a racist Uber driver, police involvement, and a post-date harassment spree. Wes and Stony help unpack the whole disaster in real time, debating crazy vs. malicious, whether honest feedback on dates is ever worth it, and why the most entertaining people are sometimes the most dangerous to keep around. Before the main event, we talk about the Star Wars sequels for 13 minutes, so skip to 13 minutes if you don't want to hear that. Sorry.  There are also detours into sex research gone too far, "fun" professors, and other stories. At the center of it all is a conversation about dating risk: how much weirdness is charming, how much is a red flag, and when a story stops being funny and starts becoming a genuine threat. Cody's date becomes a case study in why bad dating experiences poison trust for everyone else, and why one truly unhinged encounter can make modern dating feel like a minefield. In this episode: - Cody's date from hell and the Uber showdown that followed - What happens when "no chemistry" turns into a full public meltdown - Police, receipts, and why recording saved the night - The difference between eccentric, unstable, and actively malicious - Why boring might be safer but chaos makes better stories - Star Wars prequels vs. sequels and the death of cinematic sincerity - What happens when your Big 10 professor brings a Sybian to class Click here to view the episode transcript. [https://share.transistor.fm/s/226cd87f/transcript]

Episode 10 - Bad Boys and Bad Algorithms

This week on The Handsome Hour, Wes, Cody, and Stony go remote and start broadcasting on shortwave radio from a decommissioned oil platform. From there, they hit the discourse: rejection texts, Venmo requests, "nice guys," bad boys, dating-app algorithm hacks, and why modern gender narratives are making everyone worse at finding love. First: a brutal post-date text exchange. A woman cancels because she wants to explore things with another guy, and the rejected man responds by requesting $250 on Venmo and calling her trash. The guys debate who's really in the wrong, whether men should still pay for dates, what "chivalry" means in a feminist dating market, and why getting angry over rejection almost always makes you look worse. Then they tackle the eternal question: should you become a bad boy? Stony argues that men have to respond to market feedback. Cody pushes back, saying you shouldn't let the market deform your personality. Wes splits the difference with a practical framework that shows why he is the master: improve the traits everyone values -- fitness, style, confidence, conversation -- without pretending to be someone you're not. This leads in to a bigger conversation about awkward young men, missed signals, and why so many guys were told the wrong rules. The guys talk about the lost art of approaching women, nonverbal communication, flirting, escalation, and why "just be respectful" often fails to explain what women actually respond to in the real world. Later, they examine one of the strangest dating-app strategies yet: boosting your profile by changing your orientation settings so the algorithm thinks you're more desirable. Is it genius? The episode closes with bigger questions: whether attraction grows through repeated exposure, why dating apps are so bad despite being the most common way couples meet, why women increasingly report negative views of men, and a viral red button / blue button thought experiment about altruism, self-interest, and game theory. Click here to view the episode transcript. [https://share.transistor.fm/s/5e765922/transcript]