"Wendy's 4 with Brooks Wheelan" is Episode 493 of Doughboys, hosted by Nick Wiger and Mike Mitchell. "Wendy's 4 with Brooks Wheelan" was released on May 1, 2025.
"Tomorrow.... with Brooks Wheelan"
Synopsis[]
Brooks Wheelan (@brookswheelan, Alive in Alaska) joins the 'boys to talk outdoor experiences, camping, and Quarter Sheets before a review of Wendy's. Plus, another edition of Slop Quiz.
Nick's intro[]
“The point to remember is that a giant leap into space can be a giant leap toward peace down below.”: this was one of many prescient quotes by the futurist Willy Ley, the early 20th century’s foremost populizer of the then-theoretical concept of space travel.
Willy Ley
In life, Willy Ley was the Carl Sagan or Neil DeGrasse-Tyson of his day - a pop-culture figure who appeared on The Tonight Show and consulted on Disneyland’s Tomorrowland as an evangelist for exploring the cosmos. Today, his pioneering work is mostly forgotten. A recent New York Times story by Maureen Cavanagh revealed that Ley’s ashes were housed for decades in the cluttered basement of a New York City apartment — akin to future generations finding Bill Nye’s skeleton in a storage unit.
Born in Germany in 1906, Ley fled his homeland in 1935 for some reason, and settled in the U.S., where he went on to publish popular books like 1944’s Rockets: The Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere and 1953’s The Conquest of the Moon. As a German-American immigrant, he was also a key figure in recruiting ex-pat German rocket scientists like Wehrner Von Braun to the U.S. space program as part of the post-World War II Operation Paperclip.
While Ley witnessed his idea of spaceflight come true in his lifetime, he didn’t live to see its apex: he died less than a month before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon on July 20th, 1969. Later that very same year, back upon the pale blue dot we call Earth, Dave Thomas opened his first burger restaurant in Ohio, a business brainchild named for his actual child. But Thomas, like Ley, did not live to observe his vision make history decades later: his chain’s longshot Cinderella run which climaxed in its triumph in Munch Madness 2025, as the square-patty purveyor hoisted the trophy named for Thomas himself.
Sadly, Ley’s vision of space exploration leading to world peace was far too optimistic: instead, space has become a new front for militarization, satellites are an essential tool for the surveillance state, and enormously successful public-sector programs like NASA have been defunded in favor of privatization by hobbyist asshole billionaires. But at least Dave Thomas’ chain has a new Cajun chicken sandwich.
This week on Doughboys… we return, once again, to Munch Madness Ten: MMX The Tournament of Tournament of Chompions of Chompions: TOTCOC winner Wendy’s.
Fork rating[]
Wendy's is one of the most visited chains on Doughboys. For main reviews, the first visit in 2016, it received 5 forks all around and made the Platinum Plate Club. Then in 2020, the Doughboys returned to focus on the Wendy's Breakfast; Nick and Mitch gave it four forks each, but that part of the menu did not qualify for the Golden Plate Club. In 2021, they returned again and everyone rated Wendy's 4.75 forks, so it was demoted to the Golden Plate Club.
Spoonman and his sad lettuce
Wendy's has also been a part of most Munch Madness Tournaments, but most notably winning the 2017 Chicken Fight and the 2025 Tournament of Tournament of Chompions of Chompions.
| guest / host | ordered | rating |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger |
|
4.5 forks |
| Mike Mitchell |
|
4.5 forks |
| Brooks Wheelan |
|
3 forks |
| shared |
|
Nick and Mitch each went to Wendy's on their own, and then the three of them ordered together to the studio.
Everyone was somewhat underwhelmed of the limited-time menu items, but still likes Wendy's. However, with these scores, Wendy's has been removed from the Golden Plate Club.
Slop Quiz[]
In this segment, Nick presents a food-related exam and Mitch and the guest compete to see who gets more questions right.
For this episode, Nick gives a name that is either a new-age food brand or a tech startup.
| clue | Mitch | Brooks | score (MM - BW) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Koshi | - | food | 0 - 1 |
| Weetabix | food | - | 1 - 1 |
| Wee-o | - | 1 - 1 | |
| Citrix | - | 1 - 1 | |
| Crunchbase | startup | - | 2 - 1 |
| Zevia | food | - | 3 - 1 |
| Ono | - | 3 - 1 | |
| Honey | 3 - 1 | ||
| Nature's Fynd | - | food | 3 - 2 |
| Joy | food | - | 4 - 2 |
| By Humankind | 4 - 2 |
Mitch wins!
Roast Spoonman[]
The White Lotus
| “ | The White Low T | ” |
–Nick in Chicago | ||
The Feedbag[]
| “ | Do you have any particular conspiracy theories on chain's business models? | ” |
–Garrett in NJ | ||
| guest / host | food conspiracy |
|---|---|
| Nick Wiger | |
| Mike Mitchell |
|
| Brooks Wheelan | McDonald's fries used to be better |
Quotes[]
| “ | When Gaia is performing her daily tasks, to me, there's nothing better. A simple wave roll. The sun setting. She is beautiful. | ” |
–Mike Mitchell | ||
| “ | Napoleon is one of our top hat guys! One of history's biggest hat guys. | ” |
–Nick Wiger | ||
| “ | I snuck Fazoli's into a movie theatre one time and realized you're not supposed to eat spaghetti in the dark. It was a fucking bloodbath. | ” |
–Brooks Wheelan | ||
Drops and Plugs[]
| reference | notes |
|---|---|
| a bunch of Doughboys quotes | in Mitch's drop (by Steve S. in Chicago) |
| Alive in Alaska | Brooks' plug |
Related Episodes[]
| Wendy's episodes |
|---|
|
Photos[]
