Passion Pod

DJ Strizzo grew up and started his career in Tampa, Florida and is now touring the world with platinum selling artist Bubba Sparxxx. Strizzo spent a decade working in radio building his fanbase and catalogue of official remixes he produced. As he got booked to perform in bigger and bigger clubs, he also went on tour as a DJ for bigger and bigger artists around the country. In this interview we dis...

Bekah Worley is an illustration artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota best know for her bright and colorful folk art paintings. Bekah was a late bloomer in the art world, but over the last few years she has found her own voice and grown an audience to over 100,000 followers on Instagram. What started with printing on tote bags that she sold at markets has grown into her full time career. Bekah wa...

Jared Schutz aka Wisco Dive Bar Reviews is a dive bar enthusiast from Spring Valley, WI. It all started with a simple question. How many bars are there in Wisconsin? After a quick google search Jared found the answer to be in the thousands and so the journey began. He recorded his first review video in January of 2022 and since has amassed an audience of over 50,000 followers on Instagram, over 60...

Greg Lutzka is a professional skateboarder and entrepreneur from Milwaukee, WI. Greg's career has spanned decades and his list of accomplishments goes on and on. His new documentary titled "One Way Ticket" is now available on Amazon and gives a great summary of his career so far. Greg dropped out of high school and moved to California to chase his dreams of being a pro skateboarder. It didn't take...

Amber Pacific is a Seattle based pop punk band that has been performing together since the early 2000's and is currently working on their first album in 10 years. Matt Young (Lead Vocals) sat down with Chris Johnson on the Passion Pod after their performance on Saturday August 17th at Reverb Music Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In this episode we discuss how their music has evolved over the ye...

Amber Pacific is a Seattle based pop punk band that has been performing together since the early 2000's and is currently working on their first album in 10 years. Will Nutter (Guitar) and Dango Cellan (Drums) sat down with Chris Johnson on the Passion Pod after their performance on Saturday August 17th at Reverb Music Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In this episode we discuss how their music ha...

Ginuwine recently performed on Friday August 16th in Eau Claire, Wisconsin at Reverb Music Festival 2024. He was kind enough to sit down backstage with Chris Johnson on the Passion Pod for a short interview about his experience on stage, his personal music preferences, saying "yes" to things, his journey towards sobriety, and more.

Warren Anderson Mathis, or better known as Bubba Sparxxx recently performed on Saturday August 17th at Reverb Music Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Bubba was kind enough to sit down backstage after his performance with Chris Johnson for this episode of the Passion Pod. In this episode we discuss new music, how he coulda been Eminem, his relationship with Timbaland, flying first class, spending...

John Vesely aka Secondhand Serenade and his good friend and supporting vocalist/guitarist Will Garrett performed on Saturday August 17th at Reverb Music Festival in Eau Claire, WI and were kind enough to sit down backstage after their performance with Passion Pod host Chris Johnson. In this interview we discuss technical difficulties on stage, how they became friends and bandmates, playing for mas...

Dan Marsala is the lead singer for Story of the Year, and was kind enough to record this interview backstage on the Passion Pod with Chris Johnson before their performance at Reverb Music Festival 2024. In this interview we discuss which songs are his favorite to perform, juggling parenting and touring, the resurgence of emo music, longevity in the music industry, which rockstars he still fans out...

Anberlin's own Christian McAlhaney (Guitar) and Deon Rexroat (Bass) sat down with Chris Johnson on the Passion Pod after their performance on Saturday, August 17th at Reverb Music Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In this episode we discuss the band's hiatus, switching up their singer to Matty Mullins, creating new music during the pandemic, the current state of the music industry, advice for you...

Richie Murphy is the most followed D3 college football player in the country and he plays for the UW Stout Blue Devils and this is his very first podcast interview he has ever done. Richie went viral for the first time when he was only in 5th grade and has been steadily making content and building an audience ever since. He is about to start his final season as a college athlete, but he's already...

Kevin Bolger is an Olympic cross country skier for the United States. Kevin grew up skiing in Minocqua, WI where his family is originally from. However for the last decade he has spent the majority of his time living and competing in Norway and the rest of Scandinavia where the sport really thrives. Kevin started skiing in 3rd grade, but didn't start taking it seriously until he was in high school...

Beth Stelling is a stand up comedian and tv writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Beth grew up in Dayton, Ohio before attending college and pursuing comedy and theatre in Chicago. After spending 4 years establishing herself in Chicago she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of a career in comedy. Since then she has built an incredible career for herself as a touring stand up comedian numerous appe...

Kathy Wright is the Director of Reverb Music Festival in Eau Claire, WI. Kathy has worked in the music festival industry with Country Jam and others for decades and has endless stories to share. The owners of Country Jam bought a beautiful new property a few years ago and had the idea to create a whole new music festival to share the space in the summer and so Reverb Music Festival was born with 2...

Emily Carriveau is a content creator based in her hometown of Delano, MN. Emily is a stay at home mother of 3 boys who has had a lifelong obsession with crafting, garage sales, and fashion. When her sons wanted to get on social media she made her own accounts to "spy" on them, but quickly found that sharing her life online was not only fun, but also a career. Over the last several years Emily has...

JamesG aka @jamesmakesmusic is a semi professional Heelyer and music artist/producer based in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. James has been making music under the moniker of JamesG since 2012, but it wasn't until he started posted videos of himself doing tricks wearing his Heelys in 2020 that his career started to take off. As his videos started going viral online his music found more success as well. Th...

Lucas Beaufort is a French artist that travels and creates all over the world. Lucas started creating art at the age of 27 when he gave his brother a drawing for Christmas and his life has never been the same since. It's been 15 years since that first drawing and now Lucas has built an incredible career and life for himself. He paints murals, designs products, makes documentaries, and even publish...

Emma Dalenberg is a Minneapolis, Minnesota based stand up comedian. Emma grew up in a trailer park in Winona, Minnesota before moving to Minneapolis to attend college. Emma got her start in stand up comedy while she was still a student and a server at an Applebees. One open mic night was all it took for her to find a new obsession. Since then Emma has been steadily performing and building a career...

Ed Bieber aka Ed The Diver is a Wisconsin based scuba diver, environmentalist, and content creator based in Marinette, WI. Ed has been an angler all his life and one day got fed up with losing his fishing lures and decided to jump in after them. He quickly realized that when recovering his own lures that there were countless more lures to be found in the same spots. As his interest and mission bec...

Corey Kaiser is the owner of Wisconsin Clothing Co and based in the tiny town of Kieler, Wisconsin. Corey's family has owned a printing company for a long time so he grew up in the business of printing apparel. After graduating from college in 2018 he joined the family business full time and his career began to blossom. The family business helps clients from all over create their apparel lines, bu...

Ryan Ruebl is the man behind the Meanwhile in Wisconsin Facebook page that has over 340,000 followers. Ryan began creating Wisconsin themed content way back in 2012 and has been a big inspiration and catalyst for a ton of other content creators ever since. Ryan has endless stories from making viral videos with Charlie Berens to making Kwik Trip ads with Green Bay Packers stars like Rashan Gary and...

Riak Dut is a comedy content creator based in Rochester Minnesota. Riak has been a big fan of all types of comedy his whole life. Not much is known about this viral content creator, but on this episode of the Passion Pod we get a glimpse into his life. He opened for both the Ying Yang Twins and T.I.?!

Wave Chapelle is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin based rap artist known for his lyrical skill and wavy style. Wave grew up on the North side of Milwaukee and started rapping way back in the 8th grade. His skills and audience grew throughout high school and by the time he graduated he felt it was time for a change and moved to Memphis, TN to continue his rap career. Shortly after moving there he met Yo Gott...

Passion Pod Episode 140 @imjarons is a Wisconsin based viral content creator known for his character he portrays when he wears his insta360 camera. Not many people know the actual Jaron so he agreed to come do an exclusive interview on the Passion Pod. The only other interview that Jaron has done in the past was also on the Passion Pod, but he first time around we had just met that day and Jaron a...