500 and Growing Podcast

Born in 1997 in Chicago Illinois. His parents decided to move to Cuernavaca Morelos in Mexico when He was five years old, where a year later, his mother registered him in Tae Kwon Do classes. After three years he won his first competition and it made him realize that martial arts were what he wanted to dedicate himself to. When he was 14 years old he decided to give martial arts another chance and...

Born in Montreal, Canada but grew up between the suburbs and Chicago.  Jessie Santiago is a media content creator promoting the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) on his Youtube Channel FMA Pulse.  He achieved his Guro title in 2 different FMA systems, Defensor Method of Filipino Martial Arts and Taboada Balintawak.  Jessie continues to be an avid practitioner as well, traveling and learni...

Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, surrounded by urban art and public murals, Rahmaan Statik became inspired to be involved with the subculture of Street Art. A consequent arrest for “vandalism” put him on a mission to legitimize the production of aerosol murals. This became the main focus of my work: public murals that fuse the graffiti aesthetic with a classical training received from the...

Founder of ESSO Afrojam Funkbeat and  Sound Events Chicago, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and producer Armando Pérez began his journey of live music performance in his hometown of Chicago IL. Blending his cultural roots with personal life experiences from growing up in the Windy City, his fusion of genres and energy can be interpreted by all ages and backgrounds. With a long history of national...

Tyson "Newlife" Sanchez is Doctor of Physical Therapy, Run Coach and World Music collector/DJ. He founded his Oakland-based Mobile Physical Therapy Clinic in 2018. He is licensed in Physical Therapy in both California and Illinois. He also provides ergonomic assessments, personal training and mobility training to anyone anywhere else in the world that has internet access. He is also a DJ whose wor...