A gruff, openhearted rant that turns irritation into a rough-edged pep talk.
Chris Newpower turns a complaint about service dogs into a blunt, human conversation about grit, bad luck, and the way people behave when life stops being polite.

Chris Newpower
197 episodes listed below
Everyday aggravation, middle-lane wisdom.
Livin' In The Middle is Chris Newpower's brisk run through hospital chairs, awkward gifts, funeral mishaps, service dog skepticism, and whatever social habit has finally snapped his patience. The tone is messy, personal, and moralizing in a way that often lands somewhere between complaint and kitchen-table advice.
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Livin' In The Middle is a personal-rant show with a long fuse and a loud snap. Chris Newpower starts with an everyday annoyance, then keeps circling it until the annoyance becomes a story, a theory, and finally a little speech about how to live. The subjects are rarely grand at first. A hospital visitor recliner with bad wheels turns into a battle with furniture, tubes, food tables, and helpless awkwardness. Being called buddy becomes evidence in a larger case against impersonal male language. A Christmas gift becomes a study in marriage, laziness, and the gifts people buy because they secretly want them too. A funeral can still have a funny bow on it. That is the operating mode here: ordinary discomfort, turned over by a narrator who cannot stop making it mean something. The show has a comic impatience with modern habits, especially around young people, social etiquette, travel, service dogs, and phrases that sound harmless to everyone else. It also keeps coming back to family. Newpower talks about his wife, his younger brother Jamie, his son, his mother, and remembered kitchen-table conversations with a mix of teasing and real tenderness. The result is not a balanced panel or a tidy essay. It is closer to a running conversation with one dominant storyteller, full of restarts, corrections, exaggerations, and sudden moral clarity. The title's middle is not a policy position so much as a temperament. It promises a refuge from the noisy edges, but the refuge still has opinions, grudges, and a few sharp elbows. The show suits listeners who like conversational comedy with real-life mess baked in. It can be sentimental without getting soft. It can be cranky without pretending to be detached. The best episodes make mundane frustrations feel strangely theatrical, then pull back just enough to say that hardship, embarrassment, and inconvenience are not interruptions to life. They are the road itself.
Made for: For listeners who like personal stories, blunt social commentary, family anecdotes, and comic complaints that eventually turn sincere. It fits people who prefer rambling, personality-driven monologues over polished interviews or scripted culture takes.
What sets it apart: The show makes tiny irritations feel epic without losing the kitchen-table scale. Its hook is the swing from ridiculous grievance to homespun resilience, especially around the repeated idea that life's bumps are not detours but the road.
This podcast is your refuge from the noise of everyday life and provides highlights of life's challenges along with weird observations from a guy who lives life in the middle and never in the extreme.
A hospital recliner becomes Chris Newpower's sworn enemy, and suddenly your petty grievance feels perfectly reasonable.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A gruff, openhearted rant that turns irritation into a rough-edged pep talk.
Chris Newpower turns a complaint about service dogs into a blunt, human conversation about grit, bad luck, and the way people behave when life stops being polite.
A cramped hospital visit becomes a sharp, comic gripe about space, irritation, and being short.
This episode turns a hospital room into a small pressure cooker, with Chris Newpower working through the awkwardness of visiting someone while trying to make sense of the bed, the wheeled recliner, the IV stand, and the cramped furniture around them.
A suit fitting becomes a wry, personal comedy about age, memory, and funeral-board photos.
A suit fitting becomes the center of a brisk, personal comedy about aging, changing size, and the photos that end up on funeral boards. The episode folds that private discomfort into talk of Masonic rituals, a funeral director nearly tumbling into a cemetery pit, and the strange…
A loose year-end riff that turns small annoyances into something more revealing.
Episode 162, dated Dec. 31, 2025, finds Chris Newpower closing out the year with a New Year's Eve run that lands best when a small complaint opens onto something wider.


Wellness talk with real-life static.


Petty conflicts, loud verdicts, real care.


A handwritten Colonel Sanders recipe at auction was later identified as likely stuffing.
Chris opens with a gripe about service dogs and says he has finally had enough.
Chris starts with a complaint.
Chris Newpower's March 25, 2026 episode of Living in the Middle recounts his father-in-law Dave's funeral through stories about a 20-year-old suit, a new coat, Masonic rituals, and a cemetery burial.
Host Chris Newpower introduces a unique episode featuring a friend and shares personal anecdotes and observations.
The host teases a travel week and then dives into his wife's obsession with the Olympics, framed as a refuge from life's noise.
Host Chris Newpower rants about life's challenges, a young woman who rubbed him wrong, dentist visits, and a repulsive woman story.
Chris Newpower opens episode 162 on New Year's Eve 2025, welcoming the new year with the best of 2025, including cures for diseases he says he was not aware of.
The host shares childhood memories, a run-in with the Amish, and a story about a New York hand model.
This episode discusses topics like weather terrorism, graffiti writers, and a shocking story about pet disposal in Denmark, all while promoting a middle-ground perspective on issues.
The host shares a personal story about dog sitting for his son while navigating winter in Minnesota.
The host rants about local TV weather people's nightly safety meetings, shares a 4th of July recap, discusses cotton issues, and warns against premature spending of lottery winnings.
The host shares observations from a wedding and general holiday festiveness, promoting a balanced, middle-ground perspective on life.
The host rants about weather alarmists, recaps a golf weekend, and shares a funny dental visit story.
Host Chris Newpower shares humorous stories about freeway golf, bad texters, and baby names, offering a lighthearted take on everyday life.
The host shares a funny random thought, a standout stand story, and explores bizarre hockey player superstitions during the NHL playoffs.