Two dads take on parenting with Two Dads One Mic podcast

Joey Powell and Jake Fehling hope to not take themselves too seriously when they chat with their guests during their podcasts, which launched last year.

Posted 12:47 a.m. Jun 17, 2013 — Updated 12:47 a.m. Jun 17, 2013

Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

In the world of parenting, dads Jake Fehling and Joey Powell are fairly new at it. They're still in the thick of those early years ... filled with diapers and pacifiers and tantrums and Goldfish crackers scattered all over the place.

Fehling has three - two young boys and an infant girl born a few weeks ago - with his wife, Page Crawford of NBC 17. Powell, a former account executive for Capitol Broadcasting Co. (which Go Ask Mom is a part of), has a little girl and a baby born this month with his wife Becca Edwards.

Parenting topics and fatherhood often come up as they talk to friends over beers. Both Fehling and Powell have worked in the media industry and they'd scanned the web for resources for and by dads. Each, on their own, came up with the idea of doing a podcast for dads.

The two travel in similar social circles and they finally started talking to each other about the idea. Eventually those chats turned into Two Dads One Mic, a podcast that launched last November.

Powell's connections at 99.9 FM The Fan helped get the podcast started. Powell is now executive director of the Me Fine Foundation, a non-profit that helps families with terminally ill children.

What do they hope to do?

"We have no idea," Powell said ... as Fehling, a vice president of KFA Search, weighed in at the same time to say "change the world."

The podcast is loose and freewheeling and sometimes not safe for work. They don't offer many parenting tips of their own. Instead, their focus is on others who might have something to offer or be able to help them navigate life as thirty-something guys who like sports and beer and just happen to be raising human beings.

"I'm just figuring out how to be a dad," Powell said. "I still don't have a clue."

Their guests have ranged from local sports guys - Adam Gold and Joe Ovies from 99.9; Mark Armstrong, a sports anchor for WTVD; Jones Angell, the play-by-play voice of UNC - to authors, bloggers and a CEO. Fehling also has worked in sports media and public relations.

Jennifer Durbin, author of the Clueless Chick series, was their first female guest. And I guess yours truly was the second. My interview with the two dads should be online soon.

They've also emceed a couple of events - a working mom's luncheon with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Bookmarked! reading festival at North Hills for the Lucy Daniels Center.

They are working to build their audience beyond the Triangle, recently interviewing Mike Julianelle, whose blog Dad and Buried has built a national following. He recently moved to the Triangle with his family.

"To have him come in and talk big picture about fatherhood was huge for us," Fehling said.

For these two dads, it's all about admitting that parenthood isn't all rainbows and chocolate chip cookies everyday and not taking themselves too seriously.

"What you will get is hopefully a lighter look at parenthood from two guys who are lucky enough to be married to awesome women, and are just enjoying the ride while they figure out the difference between a burp cloth and a blanket," Powell writes.

I had a great time chatting with them!

Here's their podcast. Follow them on Twitter at @TwoDadsOneMic.

Go Ask Mom usually features local moms on Mondays. In June, in honor of Father's Day, we're featuring local dads.

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