# 46: 1st Day of Balls: Zach Meny

**Source:** Pinball Party Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2023-12-15  
**Duration:** 23m 6s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://pinballparty.podbean.com/e/12-days-of-balls-zach-meny/

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## Analysis

Pinball Party Podcast episode featuring Zach Meny as the first guest in a "12 Days of Balls" holiday series. The hosts conduct a casual, aimless interview covering personal questions (cryptids, ghosts, favorite curse words, bench press), Zach's favorite pinball moment (creating content and featurettes for manufacturers), and his pinball grievance about people valuing entertainment media more than the well-being of others. The episode emphasizes community values and kindness during the holiday season.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Zach Meny's favorite pinball thing this year was being able to create content for manufacturers, specifically featurettes and video trailers. — _Zach Meny directly stated: 'my favorite pinball thing, selfishly, probably would be—I'm not going to be hokey here...being able to create content for manufacturers for consumption of the populace whenever something is released.'_
- [HIGH] Zach Meny is a psychologist by training. — _Zach Meny stated: 'I'm a psychologist by training, and I don't know if that has helped me learn self-awareness and humility more than it would otherwise.'_
- [HIGH] Zach Meny's pinball grievance is about people valuing entertainment media consumption more than the well-being of others. — _Zach Meny stated: 'my grievance would be all the grievance would be the lack of awareness that people have...they value the form of entertainment that they are consuming in media here in pinball more so than the well of others.'_
- [HIGH] This is the first episode of a 12-day holiday series called '12 Days of Balls' on Pinball Party Podcast. — _Host stated: 'We'll do this over the next 12 days. One episode every day. 12 days of Christmas, but in Pinball Party fashion: 12 Days of Balls.'_
- [HIGH] Flippin' Out Pinball is a sponsor of the Pinball Party Podcast. — _Host stated: 'This episode is also sponsored by Flippin' Out Pinball. And Zach Meny.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "It's the lack of awareness that some people have in the world, much less pinball. But I'm a psychologist by training."
> — **Zach Meny**
> _Reveals professional background and core value around self-awareness; frames pinball grievance_

> "I love that humans always surprise me with the most beautiful things ever, and it's usually when I am least expecting it, and it's wonderful."
> — **Zach Meny**
> _Demonstrates optimistic worldview despite cynical moments; aligns with holiday theme_

> "What I want for Christmas is just good people in my life and hanging out with my family and my friends and the people that I respect. That's all I want."
> — **Zach Meny**
> _Summarizes personal values and priorities; reflects community-focused ethos_

> "Being able to create content for manufacturers for consumption of the populace whenever something is released...pushes the limits that I have and the resources and knowledge that I have."
> — **Zach Meny**
> _Describes creative work for manufacturers; identifies featurettes and trailers as key content type_

> "It's typically, and might be going back to the grievance, it is the lack of self-awareness that some people have in the world, much less pinball."
> — **Zach Meny**
> _Connects psychological background to pinball industry observation_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Zach Meny | person | Co-host/personality on Straight Down The Middle; content creator (featurettes, trailers) for pinball manufacturers; associated with Flippin' Out Pinball; psychologist by training; guest on Pinball Party Podcast '12 Days of Balls' series |
| Pinball Party Podcast | organization | Podcast platform hosting '12 Days of Balls' holiday series; previously interacted with Zach Meny on The Pinball Network |
| Flippin' Out Pinball | company | Pinball business associated with Zach Meny; sponsor of Pinball Party Podcast |
| The Pinball Network | organization | Pinball media platform where Zach Meny previously appeared as guest with podcast host |
| Straight Down The Middle | organization | Pinball video show/content series associated with Zach Meny; host mentions gravitating toward its videos for quality |
| Looney Tunes | product | Pinball game mentioned by Zach Meny as something he would like to discuss at length; appears to be recent or upcoming release |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Content creation and featurettes for pinball manufacturers, Community values and interpersonal awareness in pinball, Personal philosophy and self-awareness, Holiday season and community kindness
- **Secondary:** Zach Meny's background and professional experience, Flippin' Out Pinball sponsorship

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.78) — Generally optimistic and warm, with Zach expressing gratitude, self-awareness, and community values. Some cynicism acknowledged but reframed toward hope. Holiday spirit pervasive. Host compliments Zach's talent and integrity throughout. The grievance segment tempers positivity slightly with criticism of industry behavior, but framed constructively within holiday kindness message.

### Signals

- **[content_signal]** Zach Meny emphasizes content creation (featurettes, trailers, sizzle reels) for manufacturers as core creative output; positions this as primary value-add to the industry. (confidence: high) — Direct statement about favorite pinball thing being content creation for manufacturer releases; describes challenge of pushing limits with resources and knowledge
- **[community_signal]** Zach identifies lack of self-awareness and prioritization of entertainment consumption over personal well-being as significant grievance in pinball community. (confidence: high) — Explicit grievance statement about people valuing media entertainment 'more so than the well of others'; references people making repeated apologies without behavioral change
- **[sentiment_shift]** Zach advocates for heightened community awareness and accountability; frames holiday season as moment to reset behavior and prioritize relationships over material concerns. (confidence: high) — Grievance address followed by emphasis on wanting 'good people' and willingness to go out of way for those respected; criticism of repeated apologies as insufficient
- **[event_signal]** Pinball Party Podcast launching '12 Days of Balls' holiday series with daily episodes featuring industry guests; Zach Meny is first featured guest. (confidence: high) — Host explicitly states: 'over the next 12 days. One episode every day. 12 days of Christmas, but in Pinball Party fashion: 12 Days of Balls'

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## Transcript

 Duet bakes at the wedding table More balls. Yeah, basically bring people on we've had maybe people we haven't close friends of the show friends of mine just in the holiday spirit talk say hello and We'll do this over the next 12 days one episode every day 12 days of Christmas, but in pinball party fashion 12 days of balls Wish us luck. We're gonna need it more than ever at the very end. I'll release this as one giant Part of the game Denman, large tin-mach metallic punters called tin Gerade pinball incorporates If you would, sit by your campfire, get your cookies and your milk, and picture a large scrotum with ten full testicles inside of it. Zach is the first one. So thanks for coming? There it is. Pun-filled episode. So what we're gonna do is just, I don't know man, talk. Hang out, whatever, Christmas, at least twelve of these. Probably fuck up along the way because it's twelve days, twelve podcasts, twelve guests, twelve songs. Out There WPPR in the other room. But I mean, honestly, same to you. You're one of the most talented people in this industry. I gravitated towards the Straight Down the Middle videos. I remember when you were on the Pinball Party podcast when it was before TPN and then you asked me to be on TPN. It was a blast being on TPN. Your quality is the shit. You continue to do it. You're an awesome voice for the community. You're a very special sponsor of the show with Flipping Out Pinball. Have you heard of them? Flipping Out. The Yes, there you go. Absolutely So there we go this this episode is also sponsored by flipping out pinball Ruddy and Cara for screenhui 12 days of balls, Zach Mani. Let's start out. I have some questions for those who have listened to the passage to getting to know your balls It's kind of just a glorified segment of that with absolutely aimless mind you so, please don't expect this to be well choreographed It's gonna be fucking messy as shit, but that's how we do it. It's kind of like getting to know your jingle balls. Oh Whoa Yeah, okay Man, no, you've got me now. I got like I know I gotta rerecord it now IGGEORDS3-8129BA00 maj be felted aka attóg finby Try not to get in the way, try not to give in to it, M 엄청 kibar сообщait på Can you name a character that is not earth? Okay. To answer your question, no I'm not Joe Rogan, I have more hair. Skinnier, shorter, actually no he's short, we're both short. You're on less drugs. Less drugs. Do you believe in ghosts? Oh my god. Here we go. No. Oh yeah, okay. Man. Now do I believe in like multiverse type of things that sometimes may skew quantum physics wise into our possibly but ghost no I don unless I seen it and I haven seen talesradio lasskat sbb nutai nerperniertere ebulearinaer I don't yeah no I don't get 9 unless I seen it and I haven't seen it so it maybe goes there out there listening to this podcast feel free don't scare the shit out of The I want myself like a day ghost right really into the waking up at midnight taking a piss. Holy crap. Yeah Yeah, I like a 2 p.m. Like I just what am I doing just walking across? Oh, it's a ghost That's not really scary grandpa severed head. Yeah. No, I'm not looking for any of that. No, the holidays. Yeah, okay Well, yeah, we just want to start out with you know, very Christmas things. Yeah. Yeah What is your favorite pinball This is a very important thing to happen this year. Could be a game, could be an announcement, could be a beating, could be a... Okay, I have many but I would say... Do you have Zach many? Sorry. I would say that my favorite pinball thing selfishly probably would be, I'm not going to be hokey here like all your other guests are probably going to be. I'm going to be I'm gonna be selfish. It was anytime I was able to create in pinball generally, that's number one. More specifically would be being able to create content for manufacturers for consumption of the populace whenever something is released. So like a featurette or a video trailer sizzle reel. So something like that pushes the limits that I have and the resources and knowledge I have. So it's a great challenge for me. And it's content that makes people happy. The wrap $500 public-administer treatment goldках maravilaro bplnr og $100 and a point bpnok Does it strong dog that's beenattered in Created and Concuffs like slice Itspeney d best practice 1 D 4 system scum Faz Real t Right Kg p n mal Bar 20 d The Minute two minute trailer okay, so um and that sometimes takes more than just a featurette piece so It's hard to watch back, but people like it in it in it presents the information In a concise format, and it's pretty so it is pretty I love doing that stuff Looney Tunes, I would like to talk about Looney Tunes for a long time, but let's move on Maybe we'll come back up. It's too much pinball talk. So what is your your favorite? I'm using quotes. Maybe real monster Sasquatch, Lochness monster, Yeti, Chupacabra. Do you have one that you just like either A, think like, oh, that's totally real or B, you know, as a kid. I am legit worried about people who take that shit too far and think that they're like vampires. The Out there that like real people that are like like holding their nose and drinking blood cuz you're like I swear I'm a vampire like yeah, cuz I think it's cool. Yeah It's I wouldn't say that. It's super cool It's pretty okay, you're saying like Like Edward yeah, be like sparkles. Yeah. Yeah, there's people out there like that The Freak me out How far they get on things so I would say vampires if we're service level stuff I would say Bigfoot just because I think that legit could happen probably In the big yeah, just there's people out there biting people and drink of blood man. I got to get off on it I don't know what it is, but It's a thing. Yeah, okay Would you mind? sharing or airing in the in the spirit of festivus Seinfeld fans airing a pinball grievance for the year you talked about something favorite that you had is there you know we don't have to ruin your question think about it before you answer you know the conversation we had maybe let's get back to that one don't answer it yet but we're going to answer it so a grievance being just so I can think about it a grievance being something that pissed me off this this year in pinball yeah Yes. Oh wow. Let's see. We'll come back to that in a minute so you don't destroy your everything. What's your favorite curse word and please pronounce it. Okay. It's easily fuck. Okay. Thank you. It's easily fuck. Tell me about... Why wouldn't it be? I mean... I think this is... Yeah. I mean, we'll see how to... It's almost become mainstream now in a way that other curse words have not been able in the message of candlelight surprises 83 considered Easy duel 6 Prin sar Sorry for not calling you a nerd L Kristoffering Fernanda publ keynote Larry Casey, Knapparcade, BASIC��Pinballinä没 Una Un Un Un Un Un Un self-aware. It's one of the most beautiful qualities I have and I know in a human being is self-awareness and humility and I try to uphold both of them. It's typically and might be going back to the grievance. It is the lack of self-awareness that some people have in the world, much less pinball. But I'm a psychologist by training and I don't know if that has helped me learn self-awareness and humility more than it would otherwise. But self-awareness I'm proud that I'm always over checking myself and I'm anxious. I'm looking at everything I say or do or how it's experienced from others and I'm always taking inventory on everything. So I know how I present to public during certain times, whether it's being an entertainment source or whether it's being me being real. So I'm very conscientious about that. I'm proud that I can turn around and be like, I can see myself presenting this way to someone that's consuming my content. It's weird, but yeah. I'm proud of that. It shows, and isn't it sometimes just mentally exhausting to do all that and take so much care of what you said? Because I can relate. But then those that don't, it's just, ugh. It killsme. It really killsme and it makes me cynical at times and I gotta pull my ass out of that little stage of cynicism and losing faith in, it's a holiday season, you can't lose faith in human beings. I love that humans always surprise me with the most beautiful things ever and it's usually when I am least expecting it and it's wonderful. It's the greatest thing in life so. For my experience, I can see that too, from you, like I've seen you be very grateful or like, yeah, not to bring this down like all people, but no, you also win things, even things that I've shown you are done or you're like, oh, you know, you lift people up. You're very congratulatory. You're very, uh, yeah. I mean, you just self-aware. Yeah. Um, all right. So how much you bench? Oh, next question. I, uh, I work out so, so I don't work out. So I don't, I don't know. All right. So let's, let's say a thousand. Uh, okay. Okay, so I would say a pinball machine? Oh, nice. I don't know. Does that be too much? For someone that doesn't work out, that's probably too much. Okay, well, how much, what is a normal bench thing? I don't know. It wasn't supposed to be that much of a question. I don't know. It depends how bro you are, you know, because most of them just lie. I'm not bro. I am very, very not bro. You know, I present to a lot of people Fun The pinball grievance, a pinball grievance. It can be. Now, I'll eat up. Are you good? I can eat up dead air until you got it. Let me have 20 seconds. Let me have 20 seconds. Yeah, I'll let me ramble while you got 20 seconds. Here's what I'm going to talk about. Well, you air pinball grievance and update on Mabel for everyone else out there. She's she's doing great. Yeah, she's doing great. Still waiting on stuff, but she's pretty. She's very pretty. She's in the other room laying down. She just had food. She's one of the most food motivated dogs ever. You can train her to do anything speak in Canadian I was gonna say speak Canadian which is just a Charles Wolf a Yeah You good because eating up dead air unless I could grab the guitar. No, I'm going to I'm gonna I'm gonna air a grievance It's not my best interest to do so it is the holiday season So I'll try to be to be kind and I was wanted to think of something cutesy and witty meeleg посто Have you seen this animated picture appeared in oyster baking 20402 by David Navy and media television channels http Headline representation http desempein materi and they don work that hard so whatever but my grievance would be all the grievance would be the the lack of awareness that people have and they whether it conscious or some consciously they they they value the form of entertainment that they are consuming in media here in pinball more so than the well of others and what I mean by that is sometimes it not convenient I have integrity because when you're when you're just enjoying this is hobby as I do as well or it's just like that I like listen to that like watch that just작 A Third standard the that the gives The It's the it's the holiday. Yeah be good to one another. Yeah, come on give presents I'm be decent send us presents Send me send me presents and don't and don't do real shitty things and think that an apology is gonna fix it 40 times in a fucking year Mmm, I would love to go around smacks my interface and be like, oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry and that be and that'd be okay Yeah, just smack somebody a week from now if I wanted to that's not how life works Effects Franchiviously ignoredman spelling Co-design czytotionko recta Walton, substant song двумя Chchluss Mulling grave Columbia kollekt crap Lesny Mike Mesur Ch 진짜 Cursory Cts mightSM and that's cracking walnuts talking stories and maybe me reading them a story on a blank here so I don't know I just honestly what I want for Christmas is just good people in my life and hanging out with my family and my friends and the people that I respect that's I just want everything for them and if it means me going out of my way to provide that for them then I will do everything I can to to do so because that's my life is providing for the people I love so The Last one yeah, very commendable in an accurate answer When's the last time you had a walnut though? I mean legit the last time you had to crack It a holiday nut there's a chestnut. Well, no, I'm not It's a walnut it's a nut of some type my son's allergic to some tree nuts So I wouldn't want to like rub it on his face. Oh Wow, this is getting all a lot of innuendo. I don't I'm not not racist I'm just like an actual walnut taking the time to... A nutist. Yeah, I'm not a nutist. What does the nutcracker call for? Does that call for a chestnut or a walnut or a... A walnut? You gotta crack that fucker. That's big. So nutcracker is... Is nutcracker... Is that just one type of nut that goes into the nutcracker? Oh, no. I mean, my grandmother would have a smorgasbord of various nuts that none are worth the crack, the effort. The fucking... Do cashews have a shell? Or do they just come like that? I'm not a nutist as we already talked about. Pistachios are overrated. No. Are you serious? You know, I think cashews are overrated. Waxy, oily, nasty old things. You know what nut I like the most? A salted peanut. I'm a taffy guy. Sure. Get rid of these fancy green nuts. I don't need oily sweet nuts. Just give me a salted peanut. I mean, I get it. presenters reunited you have everything here go well for the for the G personally god manière and pineapple this conservative The first of 12 testicles in a large scrotum sack on getting to know your balls. Merry Christmas to you, your family. Good to see you again. It was a blast on TPN. I hope we stay in contact. Thanks for everything you did. Yeah. Let's keep doing this. Stay in touch. Absolutely. Happy holidays. Thanks, everybody. All right. See you. Ho, ho, ho. Other

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 230efc6a-1966-409b-811c-3d09d2e91286*