Passion Pod

imjarons is a comedy content creator based in Chippewa Falls, WI. In just a couple short years he has grown a presence online to include over 3.5 million followers on tiktok and 450k on Instagram. This is the first time imjarons has ever done a long form interview such as a podcast and this is your chance to see who is really behind all the wacky GoPro videos that so many people can't stop watchin...

John Poveromo is a Jersey based comedian and podcaster. John has been performing stand up comedy his entire life and started his on podcast called Dystopia Tonight during the shutdown of the pandemic. Since being able to tour again he now balances both. Oh yeah, he's also a cartoonist who even put out his own book. John's positive attitude and humor are infectious to say the least. I even got to w...

Landon Conrath is a singer/songwriter based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I met Landon when he performed at "The Sandbox" which was a garage venue at our mutual friends old college house. Since then his career has exploded. With over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify he has taken to the road and been almost nonstop touring all over the country since we met. In the episode we discuss his musical...

Matthew Byas aka Maffyuu is a drummer, producer, and an original member of the popular band Phony Ppl based in Brooklyn, NY. Maffyuu is also the son of hip hop legend DJ Jazzy Jay and was destined to play music from a young age. Maffyuu and the core members of Phony PPL met and formed the group when they were all still in high school and have since signed to the major record label 300 Entertainmen...

Erik Ross is an Austin Texas based artist known for his unique paintings of characters that are easily recognizable as his own. I met Erik randomly in Los Angeles over a year ago and we kept in contact in case I was ever planning to visit Austin. Erik's art career has taken off over the last handful of years and he is finally having his first big show this coming June. Tune in and hear how he went...

DJ Kam Bennett is an established DJ based in St. Paul, MN. Kam grew up in St. Paul, but has grown his career far outside of just the midwest. He started out DJing parties while still in high school. When he got the call from Lil Bibby to be his DJ his career really took off. Since then he has worked with a ton of big names in the music industry and played shows all over the country. These days he...

SonReal is a Canadian music artist known for his unique mix of hip hop and folk music. He originally gained mainstream attention when his hit music video "Everywhere We Go" reached over 400k views in it first week back in 2013. Since then he got signed to a major record label, moved to Los Angeles, and put out several successful albums. In more recent years though he moved back home, got married,...

Michael Sieben is an Austin, Texas based illustrator and the current managing editor of the hugely popular Thrasher Magazine. He is also the co owner and artist behind Roger Skateboards. Michael grew up skateboarder and earned himself a bachelors degree in fine art before finding his way into the skateboard industry. From making little local zines for fun to writing and editing the most successful...

Sprig of That is a tabla, fiddle, and guitar trio that play midwest-raised and globally inspired acoustic folk music. The band consists of Krissy Bergmark on tabla, Isabel Dammann on violin, and Ilan Blanck on guitar. Sprig of That came to Eau Claire and performed at Forage as part of the All Ears Listening Session series. I was lucky enough to catch their live performance and record an interview...

Sol is an established hip hop artist based in Seattle. He has been a full time musician for over a decade and recently went on a cross country tour with his friend and fellow music artist SonReal. I was able to catch him before his show in St. Paul for this interview.

Adam Accola is one of the main people running Colab EC and is also a member of the board of directors for Converge Radio. My show originally premiered on Converge Radio several years ago and has been a weekly, and now twice a week, radio show ever since. Converge Radio is Eau Claire's local independent station that plays a wide variety of music, talk shows, and much more. Colab EC is Eau Claire's...

The Gully Boys are a 4 piece band based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They performed at the Brickhouse in Eau Claire, WI on Saturday December 3rd 2022. I was able to sit down with all 4 of them to record this interview before their performance. In these interviews we discuss how the band was formed, touring the country, playing covers, winning Minnesota's "Best New Band" in 2018, adding a 4th member,...

Daniel Donato is a guitarist and singer/songwriter originally from Nashville, Tennessee. Daniel started busking at the age of 14 and grew his skills considerably when he started playing in the famous Don Kelly band while still in high school. At first his dream was to become a studio musician and play on every major country record, but instead he felt the need to start creating his own music. Stil...

Willy Santos is a professional skateboarder from San Diego, California. Willy's skateboarding career has spanned decades with too many incredible moments and stories to ever tell in one sitting. In this interview we discuss sending in his one and only sponsor me tape, meeting Tony Hawk at a schoolyard, getting courted to ride for Birdhouse, skating in the first X Games, owning a skateshop, buildin...

Lawrence Lanoff, or better known as Lawrence the Energy Master, is a renowned director, author, tantric expert, and shaman. Lawrence grew up in New York and had a pretty crazy childhood to say the least. His career spans decades with way more to cover than possible in one interview. This episode will really get you thinking and open your mind to new ways to look at life.

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...