Passion Pod

Lorraine D'Alessio is a Los Angeles based model turned lawyer. Lorraine grew up in Canada and began modeling while still attending high school. From a young age she was already flying all over the world to work. Trying to deal with all the immigration laws and regulations every time she got off the plane wasn't exactly the easiest thing to handle. Lorraine chose to continue her education and becam...

Monsee is a creative director from the east coast that works and resides in Los Angeles, California. He's worked with countless big names including Ciara, JoJo Siwa, Beanie Segil, Travis Barker, etc. He's also good friends and works with Mikaila Murphy and Courtney Sanderson who were both guests on the show previously. Tune in and hear his journey from drawing sabertooth tigers as a kid to directi...

Lauren Abraham is a Los Angeles based model, tv host, fitness instructor, professional athlete, and somehow much much more. Tune in and hear her journey from growing up as a sponsored snowboarder to where she is today. Her story is inspiring and full of twists and turns. We share it all from being injured so bad she was in a wheelchair, recovering from addiction, hosting major sporting events on t...

Margo Graff is an actress, action stunt performer, producer, model, and so much more. She grew up in Minnesota, but has lived and travelled all over the world before making Los Angeles her home. Her story is both horrifying and inspiring at the same time. After years and years of bullying, abuse, and 2 near death experiences, she found martial arts as a way to heal and empower herself. Now at age...

Greg Eubanks is a Los Angeles based Real Estate agent who was born and raised in Minnesota. Greg made the tough decision to hit reset on his life after he graduated from the U of M to make the move to Los Angeles with nothing but a dream. It's been a long journey from sleeping on couches to where he is today selling homes in Beverly Hills. Tune in and learn a few things about hard work and determi...

LASKA is a 6 piece Pop-Folk band with members based in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Los Angeles. The group was originally formed by three sisters from Baldwin, Wisconsin that grew up playing music together from a young age. In this episode we interviewed 4 of the members (Bex Morton, Mookie Morton, Hannah Morton, Evan Middlesworth) one at a time at Driftless Sound Studio in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In...

Justine Monae is a Los Angeles based talent agent and owner of her own talent agency, Justine Monae Management. Justine was working for a bank while teaching twerk classes with a friend years ago when her career path managing talent of all kinds began. Imagine negotiating a contract worth over $100,000 with no prior experience or knowledge of how this stuff works going into it. Justine isn't one t...

Bryson Roatch is a creative director based in Los Angeles California. He started his career working with his older brother Jacoby Shaddix's band Papa Roatch. After proving himself as a valuable asset to the band he eventually became their full time creative director. From there his career really took off. While he is still the creative director for Papa Roatch he now works with multiple clients. H...

Miguel Pichardo is a fine artist based in Los Angeles, California. Miguel hasn't done very many long form interviews like this, so I was honored to be given the chance to share his story. He only became a full time artist 5 years ago after a hard fought life until that point. Have you ever died before? Miguel believes that he has, and it changed his life completely. Tune in and hear the whole stor...

Rikki Hixx is a Los Angeles based hairstylist originally from St. Louis, Missouri. Rikki was a bit of a late bloomer and spent a long time bouncing around jobs and cities before finding his calling cutting hair for Hollywood types. In this episode we discuss growing up somewhere that you don't fit in, tattoo apprenticeships, wanting to be a rockstar, what hard work looks like, and how you go from...

Chef Derrick Fox is known around the world as the punk rock chef as well as the 2nd place contestant on MasterChef Season 6. He is back on tv for MasterChef season 12. Derrick grew up playing the drums in a successful rock band. His band was touring around the country as the number one unsigned band on MySpace before he decided to switch his focus to food. When he was selected to be a contestant o...

Dominique Dafney is NFL player that plays the Tight End position for the Green Bay Packers. I took the short drive from Eau Claire to Green Bay to record this podcast with him during his spare time while he was attending OTA's. Although he was born in North Carolina he spent most of his childhood growing up in Des Moines, Iowa. Growing up he was involved in all kinds of things from every sport out...

Jake LaCoste is a Wisconsin based Rap/Hip Hop artist with his own brand Throttle Clan. He grew up in my hometown of Eau Claire, WI. He started rapping at a young age, but unfortunately also started abusing drugs at a young age too. His journey has been full of ups and downs. He's always made music, but stayed a struggling artist for a very long time due to his struggles with addiction. After going...

Fuller Moe is a Chippewa Falls native that attended college at UWEC in my hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He is a designer and educator that has worked with countless household names in the music industry including Childish Gambino, Snoop Dogg, Paul McCartney, Miley Cyrus, and more. He grew up heavily into the music scene playing in bands and designing tees. While still in college he had alread...

Grace Reiter is a TikTok star from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Grace has always been quirky and funny, but just before the pandemic hit one of her videos went viral. That video now has more than 13 million views and her following has grown to 1.7 million on the platform. With those kind of numbers she must be funny right? Yup, I can vouch for her there. At the time of this interview she had just re...

Brett Freund is a ceramics artist originally from Pittsburg that is now based in Minneapolis Minnesota. He's earned a graduate degree in ceramics and built a name for himself in the industry. His work is instantly recognizable with his unique signature style that you would have to see for yourself to truly appreciate. Brett was kind enough to welcome me into his home and let us record this episode...

Josh Remter is a Wisconsin based motocross racer and influencer. Josh has been racing for nearly his entire life as early as he can remember. Spending every weekend at the race track with his family has given him some really unique experiences. The motocross community really isn't all that big yet so he was able to meet a ton of big name racers over the years. He's even spent time hanging around w...

Claire Olivia aka @claireisaur and I found each other on Instagram years ago. Like me, she didn't really dive deep into her art until a little later in life. She didn't take all the art classes in high school. She was never in art shows and didn't go to college for art. Still, the interest was still there. She finally got the spark while working at Racy's, a beloved local coffee shop in Eau Claire...

Heady Hut is a glass and arts lounge owned and operated by Jake Connel and Sam Pastorello located in downtown Eau Claire. Jake and Sam started the business by just bottling and selling 99% isopropyl alcohol for cleaning pipes and other glass. It didn't take long for them to have the idea to open a full blown shop. Heady hut sells pipes and other glassware, but it's much more than that. For as much...

Ian Allison has been a staple in the music scene for a long time. After traveling the country on music tours for years he settled down in the twin cities to raise his family and be a significant contributor to the midwest music scene. Ian has performed all over the world with a ton of bands so his knowledge and experience are incredibly valuable and helpful to everyone that he works with. His ener...

Samantha Moon is a R&B/Soul singer originally from the island of Dominica. She's a natural born singer who now is based in Minneapolis Minnesota. She's been nonstop performing for years and established herself within the music industry. She has an incredible story to share. She even sings the first song she wrote when she was only 11. You're going to want to hear this...

Tom Gilles is a retired professional snowboarder from Wisconsin that now travels around the country as a motivational speaker. He attended college in Eau Claire years ago before dropping out to move out west and pursue a career in snowboarding. His career was full of emotional highs and lows before he eventually walked away while he still could. In this episode we discuss growing up in Wisconsin,...

Chris Kroeze's is a country music artist based in Barron, Wisconsin. Chris gained worldwide attention when he placed 2nd on the hit tv show The Voice. Chris and I are almost the same age so we naturally already had a bunch of mutual friends and acquaintances so it was really only a matter of time before this interview was going to happen. Despite being recognized everywhere he goes he is still hum...

Chastity Ashley is one of the few people I've met that lives in LA that is actually from LA. She was introduced to the drums at young age, but found her home with the less than common instrument the Djembe drum. That story alone makes this episode worth a listen. Carving out your own path and sound is how you really set yourself apart in the music industry. From drum circles on the beach, to perfo...

Jimmy got soul, it's true. Jimmy Love has been on quite a journey tryin' to make this thing work. You know the story of creatives moving to Los Angeles and living out of their cars? Yup, the struggle is real. His hometown of Fayetteville, NC is a pretty different world than Los Angeles is. Still, if you don't give up and keep creating, things do eventually work out in your favor. He came to dance,...