You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes
We Made It Weird #239 — “The Denver Fiasco”
Released: February 1, 2026
Episode Overview
In this especially candid and riotously relatable episode, Pete Holmes and his wife Valerie recount their recent ill-fated family trip to Denver, lovingly dubbed "The Denver Fiasco." They blow off steam, deconstruct the disaster, and muse on everything from the weird vulnerability of traveling as a family to deeper reflections on parenthood, marriage, and self-compassion. As always, their banter veers from hilarious to honest to heartwarming—offering fellow weirdos a cathartic dose of comedy and realness.
Table of Contents
- Episode Theme & Tone
- Setting the Stage
- Travel & The Denver Fiasco
- Sick in Denver: Altitude, Babies & Vomit
- Parenting: Tantrums & Tapping Out
- Reflecting on Comedy, Suffering, and Self-Kindness
- Notable Quotes & Moments
- Timestamps for Key Segments
Episode Theme & Tone
Theme:
Resilience and relationship in the face of domestic chaos. Pete and Val turn the misery and misadventures of a ruined trip into shared laughter and self-reflection, exploring “the medicinal value of comedy” and the honest struggles of everyday life with a family.
Tone:
Silly, confessional, self-deprecating, and emotionally open. The hosts’ signature, affectionate riffing ranges from absurdist inside jokes to deep partnership vulnerability.
Setting the Stage
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Why they podcast together: Their podcast doubles as essential couple’s therapy—“A great relationship hack is to have a podcast together because we needed to connect like this. We wouldn't have done it.” (Pete, 00:54)
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Immediate post-vacation talk: They dive into recording straight after returning from the trip, openly admitting their mutual bad moods due to the fiasco nature of Denver.
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Meta-commentary on their vibe: The first few minutes are about breaking out of a funk. They joke about puberty voices, group texts, and needing comedy now more than ever.
“I'm not done being in a horrible mood, so I'm quite delighted.” (Pete, 09:35)
Travel & The Denver Fiasco
- Purpose of the trip: Visit close friends Sam and Ariella and meet their new baby (“their third baby!”).
- Val’s emotional urgency: She’s been feeling the pull to meet the baby since its birth and laments missing the newborn window.
- Pete’s perspective: Less connected to the baby urgency—“I see it, and I'm going, does this make me want a baby? No.”
- Travel logistics: Booked a nicer family hotel (Four Seasons… filled with NBA players), planned to make the trip into a treat.
- Early woes: The city is further away than expected (“I thought that would be more fun...”), Pete ruminates on how he miscalculates travel times and distances.
Sick in Denver: Altitude, Babies & Vomit
The Sickness Creeps In
- Altitude confusion: Val wakes up the first day in Denver feeling awful. Is it altitude or illness?
- Ice skating & Target: Brief rally during a solo adventure with their daughter Leela.
- Casa Bonita letdown: Val forces herself to go to the famous themed restaurant but has to bail at the last minute, admitting, “I was just actively trying not to throw up.” (46:50)
Domino Effect of Vomiting
- Val’s hotel ride: Pete drives Val back, bag at the ready. “There's like some functions of the body that when you see them, you're like, right. This is one of the things that happens.” (49:20)
- Leela gets sick: The next day, their daughter throws up in their friends’ car and again at Casa Bonita—in the literal treasure cave.
- Shout out to the restaurant staff for being “all over it.”
- Parental guilt: Pete: “That’s a bad feeling when your kid barfs in your friend's car.” (58:55)
- “Room” becomes their world: They’re quarantined together in a cramped hotel room, completely derailed from the trip’s intentions.
- Everyone’s mood: “We’re trapped in room. I’m trapped in room. And I feel sick.” (80:23)
Parenting: Tantrums & Tapping Out
The Hotel Tantrum
- Leela’s meltdown: After the illness and disappointment of missed parties, Leela has an epic tantrum, now with advanced vocabulary: “I hate you. I wish anyone was my mommy except for you.” (75:08)
- Val’s exhaustion: “I just didn’t have it in me. I went into the bathroom, closed the door, and sobbed my eyes out.” (76:03)
- Tapping out: Val texts Pete to come back from his dinner hang because she’s at her wit’s end—“this is my worst nightmare because I never do that.” (80:08)
- Reflections on single parenting: “You need somebody to tap out in these moments.” (79:15)
The Delayed Fiasco Realization
- Parental guilt and regret: Both grapple with feelings of failure, disappointment, and the sense of having wasted time and money. Pete especially tortures himself tallying up the cost of their misadventure (“It’s like reading the letters of an affair—you don’t need to know.” 85:05)
- Solidarity in suffering: Open about the need to “delete” these kinds of nights from memory, but grateful for the space to process honestly.
Reflecting on Comedy, Suffering, and Self-Kindness
- Comedy as medicine: They repeatedly note that connecting and laughing together is the true alchemy—“With you, it all seems instantly alchemized into gold and laughter.” (22:26)
- Spiritual tools & self-doubt: Pete discusses struggling to embody self-awareness teachings when actually in the depths of a bad mood: “Not only am I miserable...I can’t apply what my favorite new guy is telling me...And it sucks.” (87:00)
- Self-kindness in parenting: Both discuss the challenge of being “great” parents under stress and the importance of not weaponizing self-improvement tools against oneself. (88:00)
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
On the universal suffering of parents:
“If you see a kid melting down and a parent reacting in however way they are mustering to react, the only thing you should say is, 'Been there, you’re doing great.' That’s it.” (Val, 102:09)
On comedy and connection:
“A great relationship hack is to have a podcast together because we needed to connect like this. We wouldn't have done it.” (Pete, 00:54)
On baby ambivalence and self-forgetting:
“There should be a word for people who need to be reminded who they are. I amnesia!” (Pete, 43:19)
On letting go of the story of a 'ruined trip':
“But this show helps me realize it’s all part of it, and the story of it.” (Pete, 87:44)
On being in the thick of it:
“Trapped in room. I’m trapped in room. And I feel sick.” (Val, 80:23)
On parenting regret and self-flagellation:
“It's like finding out your wife's having an affair or finding a box of letters. Don't read the letter...It's the money version of reading the letters. Why are you torturing yourself?” (Pete, 85:05)
On parenting a “deeply feeling” child:
“If you have another parent friend that has a spirited child…there’s a weird look that we give each other…we’re in like a different kind of cave.” (Val, 73:39)
On stranger ‘energy work’ and karmic credit:
“She goes, 'I'm sending you love.'... Five minutes later she said, 'I see what I did worked.' I wanted to turn around and be like, what the fuck are you saying to me?” (Val, 95:35)
Timestamps for Key Segments
| Time | Segment Description | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:22–02:50 | Setting the mood, length of episode, why podcasting together works | | 09:35 | On the need for comedy during stress (“I’m not done being in a horrible mood… so I’m quite delighted.”) | | 22:01 | Start of the Denver trip recaps, “nothing went our way” overview | | 28:03 | Deciding to make it a family trip: the emotional stakes of seeing the baby | | 44:09 | Fiasco begins in earnest: sickness, schlepping, logistical woes | | 46:45 | Val forced to leave Casa Bonita due to illness | | 49:36 | Val’s vulnerable moment: grateful for partnership and support through being sick (“I’m so glad we have this…”) | | 58:55 | Pete cleans up after Leela’s car puke incident; cascading guilt and sense of failure | | 75:08 | Leela’s epic tantrum (words: “I hate you. I wish anyone was my mommy except for you.”) | | 80:08 | Val’s breaking point—texts Pete to come back, reflections on rarely needing help | | 85:05 | Pete’s “money math” breakdown at the airport—“It’s like reading the letters of an affair…” | | 87:00 | Spiritual self-criticism—struggling to apply teachings mid-meltdown | | 90:14 | Airport incident with “energy worker” woman claiming energetic credit for Leela’s improved mood | | 102:09 | Val’s advice to the world: parent solidarity—“All you should say is, 'Been there, you’re doing great.'” | | 104:44 | Reflections and perspective shift: embracing fiery kids, family stories in the making |
Final Note
This episode is a master class in making everyday suffering and family chaos hilarious, communal, and bearable. Pete and Val’s radical honesty about their own struggles with travel snafus, parenting exhaustion, and their very human (sometimes very flawed) coping is a kind of “relationship standup” for the soul—complete with one-liners, hard-won insights, and the persistent reassurance that you’re not the only weirdo out there.
“Keep it Crispy!”
(The episode’s signature sign-off, inserted at surprise moments, arrives to close out a story that is now not just about a fiasco, but also about forging gold—together—from life’s mess.)