A popular podcast of the Brian Ballard–founded Ballard Partners, 13th & Park features entertaining and informative interviews with leading figures from the worlds of politics, media, sports, business, and more. The digital show is hosted by Adam Goodman, an acclaimed media consultant whose inquisitiveness and fair-minded approach has helped the program garner more than 2.9 million subscribers on YouTube.
In November 2025, 13th & Park looked back at some of the most unforgettable conversations from its recently completed third season. Across 82 episodes, guests shared with Goodman everything from funny personal anecdotes to deep insights into federal policy. To continue this look back, let’s learn more about the three most popular episodes of season three.
Chris Wright (August 25, 2025)
Chris Wright believes that every community deserves to reap the benefits of energy. As the 17th US secretary of energy, he is working to achieve that goal.
With more than 600,000 views, Wright’s episode is the most popular one of the season. Sitting down with Goodman in Ballard Studios in Washington, DC, last summer, Wright discussed innovations in the energy sectors, such as in shale, and how taking a kitchen sink approach to power generation is integral to creating affordable, reliable energy.
Prior to becoming the energy secretary, Wright established himself as a pioneer in the shale industry. As the founding CEO of Pinnacle Technologies, he led his company in creating hydraulic fracture mapping technology, a development that helped to give birth to the shale industry in the late ‘90s. His career has also seen him serve as the chairman of Stroud Energy and, most recently, chairman and CEO of Liberty Energy which, under his direction, expanded the shale industry into oil.
Wright holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from MIT and studied electrical engineering at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. As a former academic, Wright talked with Goodman about making the transition to entrepreneurship and how he felt upon learning that he had been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as energy secretary.
Johnny Bench (October 8, 2024)
The second-most popular episode of season three saw former major league baseball catcher Johnny Bench join 13th & Park to look back on his legendary career. Bench also discussed the myriad ways that being a professional baseball player has changed since the ‘70s.
During that decade, Bench won two National League MVPs and helped to lead the Cincinnati Reds to four World Series appearances, winning two championships. Dubbed the Big Red Machine, the team has been lauded as one of the best in Major League Baseball history.
Bench spent the entirety of his 17-year career in Cincinnati, where he won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves. Also a formidable hitter, he led the league in home runs and RBIs in multiple seasons. He is recognized as perhaps the greatest catcher in baseball history and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.
Mehmet Oz (September 22, 2025)
Another Trump administration cabinet member was featured on the third-most popular episode of season three. Whether as the star of his own TV show or as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Dr. Mehmet Oz has made it his life’s mission to improve the health of Americans.
After graduating from Harvard University and both the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton Business School, Dr. Oz pursued a career as a heart surgeon. He later appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show as a featured health expert, then went on to host The Dr. Oz Show for 13 years. During this time, he won nine Daytime Emmy Awards and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Dr. Oz is also the founder of HealthCorps, a nationwide program in which recent college graduates teach high school students how to be health-conscious. Confirmed in April 2025 to lead CMS, he is focused on achieving the administration’s vision to “Make America Healthy Again” while fighting fraud and waste. Dr. Oz discussed all of this and more with Goodman during his highly viewed episode of 13th & Park.
