Talking Pools Podcast
If you’ve ever stared at a test kit like it personally insulted your family… welcome home.
Talking Pools Podcast is the pool industry’s “pull up a chair” show—part shop talk, part field manual, part therapy session—built for people who actually live on pool decks: commercial operators, service techs, builders, facility managers, and anyone responsible for water that can’t afford to go sideways. The network was created to level up the pool industry with real-world conversations on water chemistry, filtration, troubleshooting, construction, safety, and the business side of keeping pools open and budgets intact.
Here’s the hook: it’s not theory-first. It’s experience-first—a roster of seasoned pros (with 250+ years of combined “been there, fixed that” wisdom) turning complicated problems into practical moves you can use the same day. And it’s not one voice, one vibe, one corner of the industry: it’s a network of shows designed to reflect how diverse this work really is—different regions, different specialties, different personalities.
Also worth saying out loud: women aren’t “special guests” here—they’re on the mic as hosts, from the beginning, with an intentionally balanced roster. That matters, because the best ideas in this industry don’t come from one lane—they come from the whole road.
If you want a podcast that can make you laugh and make you better at what you do—without pretending the job is easier than it is—Talking Pools is the one you queue up before the first stop, and keep on when the day starts getting weird.
Talking Pools Podcast
The Truth About Shock, PHTA, Horror Pick & Empty Pools
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In this bone-chilling Halloween episode, host Rudy Stankowitz dives headfirst into the haunted side of the pool world—where the ripples in the water might not be from your circulation pump. Beneath the calm shimmer of moonlit pools lies a darker current: ghost stories soaked in chlorine and mystery.
Rudy takes listeners on a guided ghost tour through some of the most notoriously haunted swimming pools on Earth—the Queen Mary’s first-class plunge, McCarren Park Pool’s eerie echoes, The Rave’s waterlogged concert hall in Milwaukee, and the Baker Hotel’s decaying spa in Mineral Wells, Texas. Each haunted tale blends the supernatural with the mechanical—the hiss of an old centrifugal pump, the slow groan of a corroded valve, and the whisper of gravity-fed drains that might still be pulling something from the other side.
But before the goosebumps get too deep, Rudy grounds the chills in cold, hard chemistry. He pulls back the cover on one of the pool world’s biggest myths—the “10x rule” for breakpoint chlorination—and exposes why the dosing instructions printed on your calcium hypochlorite bucket might be dead wrong. You’ll learn the truth about shocking a pool: when it’s needed, when it’s not, and how misreading combined chlorine levels can turn your wallet into the real victim.
Then, things get even stranger. A listener calls in with a question about Jack’s Magic products that takes an unexpected turn. Rudy shares his latest paranormal investigation findings—because of course he’s the only guy who can go from breakpoint chlorination to EVP recordings without missing a beat. Add in the PHTA’s latest initiative to help member businesses, and wrap it all up with a ghost story that’ll have every pool pro double-checking their filter room after dark.
From haunted hydraulics to myth-busting chemistry, this episode proves one thing: in the pool world, even the dead don’t always rest at the bottom.
Highlights:
- 🧙♂️ “Do you ever notice how every swimming pool has its own kind of hum?” Rudy opens with a haunting reflection on water’s memory.
- 🧴 The real reason you don’t need to shock your pool every 7–10 days (and how to test before you dose).
- 💀 The ghostly pool at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville — long buried, but locals still hear splashing.
- 🚢 Inside the Queen Mary’s art deco pool: a masterpiece of copper piping and Atlantic crossings… now echoing with phantom laughter.
- 🧰 Haunted Equipment Porn: centrifugal pumps, sand separators, gravity-fed loops, and the eerie silence they left behind.
- 🏚️ Rudy’s firsthand paranormal investigation at the Old Newberry Jail — site of the tragic “Newberry Six” lynching of 1916. He records overnight EVPs, interacts with EMF spikes, and captures strange responses through a spirit box.
- 💡 Listener Q&A: “Greasy Ass Bathtub Ring” from Rockville, MD asks about scum lines and Jack’s Magic enzyme packs (yes, they work).
Featured Sponsors:
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🧼 Jack’s Magic – The stain and scale experts. Their SuperPACs make greasy scum lines a thing of the past. JacksMagic.com
⚙️ AquaStar Pipeline Filters
Thank you so much for listening! You can find us on social media:
Email us: talkingpools@gmail.com
