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Today's interview is with Ryan Groat. Ryan has been a guitarist, playing in hardcore bands for the past two decades. He got his start playing with his teenage friends in the hardcore band, Down To Nothing. This is where I first met him, when I recorded some of their early recordings, and quickly it became apparent the amount of talent he had for guitar, and enthusiasm he had for hardcore. After playing in DTN for 8 years, he left the band and started Fire and Ice, then later, Mutually Assured Destruction, his current band, all the while also playing over the years for the Richmond hardcore band, Bracewar. It was awesome to sit down with Ryan, and learn his path, and see his enthusiasm for hardcore, and learn how discovered this music, and what each band has meant to him.

Today's interview is with musician and designer, Dan Tulloh. I first met Dan back when we were both in our teens here in Richmond, and I quickly discovered him to be an amazing guitarist. His guitar work is something that blends heaviness, melody and structure, in a way I have found few artists to be able to pull off, shaping the bands he has played with, like Indypendant, From Earth To Ashes, Scarlet, and Sptifire. So it was awesome to get to catch up with him, and also learn about his professional life as a designer, and even talk about parenting a little bit. All in all, this was a great conversation to have, and I hope you enjoy listening to it, as much as we had having it.

Today's conversation is with someone who is making a big difference in the lives of the young kids who call her their teacher, Robin Cullum. I first met Robin years ago, and through bits of fate, I've gotten to know her more and more. Robin teaches kids that are deemed to have special needs. They may receive this designation for a variety of reasons, but the main thing they have in common, is that teaching to the lesson, is probably not going to work for them. These kids need to be engaged in different ways, to stoke their interest, and pull them into the fold. And Robin has come with ways to be an effective educator to them, so effective, that she has won awards for her teaching. This is one of those episodes, where what we talk about, transcends a lot of the specifics, and gets more into larger changes and happenings in our society. The kids are our future, after all. And the strategies and techniques Robin has developed, may be the way to move forward, while building relationships between educator and student, based on mutual respect and understanding, and teaching to the strengths of a student, rather than just trying to make them all fit the same lesson plan.

Todays interview, is with musician, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt and instructor, business owner, woodworker and overall awesome person, Trey Martin. Trey has had a few instances in his life, to pursue things tothe point where he became really good at them, one on the path of woodworker, starting from an early age, and two, in his path of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, started later in life. And where some folks may personally master something, Trey has also been able to hone a completely different set of skills, to translate these paths into not only personally satisfying work, but to create viable businesses around them. If you ever owned a business around something you love, you know, its a different skill set that the one required for your passion. So it was awesome to get to talk Trey, find out about how got into the world of making things himself, and to learn of the approaches he takes in trying to take something he is passionate about, and put it into the world, in a way that can both last, and sustain him. We also talking about some of the early 90s Richmond punk scene, that we grew up around.

Today's interview is with author, and academic, Chris L Terry. Chris spent his teen years singing in the Richmond, VA punk scene, where I first met him, and he has gone on from that to become both an author, and teacher. Chris' writing draws from his personal life, and offers a place of reflection to his experiences growing up as a human being of mixed race, in the south, admist the 90s, and punk rock. He is currently co-editing the book, Black Punk Now, to bring more visibility to the prevelance of black punk rockers in the narrative of punk rock. It was awesome to talk to Chris, and hear about how he came into building the life hes living, what he has found to work for him on his personal path, and what he is working towards.

Today's interview is with artist, Jack Lawrence. Jack began showing his work in late 90s, and over time, has built up a skill level that is truly astonishing for any painter. His work, painted so realistically you think it's a photograph, is usually made from staged sets he creates by hand, transforming his personal spaces, hiring actors to stand in, and then pulling that moment together, with the painting, as the record of the moment. As you can probably imagine, his work is an extension of a precise vision he wants to execute. And with this life around painting, he began struggling with, and then overcoming, a variety of addictions, resulting in him now, evaluating how to re approach painting, and life, from the mindset of sobriety. It was awesome to get to talk to Jack, and understand some of the amazing bits of his process, as well as heartening to hear his own reflections on life, and what makes value to him.

Today's interview is with musician, James Menefee. James started playing punk rock in the early 90's as the bassist for the band Fun Size, and over the course of that decade, took the band, from a band that self-released their own recordings, and played locally, to one that was on a label, and had toured the country. And later, formed River City High, a band that left off where Fun Size ended, and allowed James to explore a wider sense of musical influence, as well as became signed to MCA records. To me though, James was someone who, being older than my 14 year old self, and having gotten into punk and playing shows a few years before me, He was someone I looked up to in the 1990s southside Richmond scene. And at that early age, watching the way his band did things, inspired me, and folks like me, to try and do our own things as well.

Today's interview is with Jason Bayless. For the past few decades, Jason has worked as an activist working towards radical change, with an emphasis on decreasing the exploitation and suffering of all living beings. From working with PETA to uncover abuse in Ringling Brother's circus, to working to extend the voice of the Zapatista community to his own, Jason's work has centered around tapping into both community, as well as the better elements of people, to try and elevate the standards by which we all live, to a more humane and respectful level. And for the past five years, Jason has operated the Radical Guide website, providing folks with a directory of spaces, and places of importance, that are part of the history of radical struggles the world over, places that may not appear on your local google map. And most recently, Jason has begun to catalog the personal stories of how and where, folks became attuned, and radicalized, to this persistent stream of struggles, giving personal narrative and history, to some of the places in the guide.

Talking about art, earliest memories, Roblox, Youtube, etc. Bonus interview with a cat.

Today's interview is with Cody Jones. Cody grew up with a love for two things: DC Hardcore, and toys. And after pursuing a career in education, decided to leave a comfortable career to open his own toy store, the Toy Lair, here in Richmond, VA. Now a year in, Cody and his friends are bringing the worlds of underground art, and toys together in a really awesome way, from curating a selection of new and vintage items, to bringing new ones to life through their own production work.

Today's interview is with a visual artist many here in Richmond simply know as Oura, or Mister Oura. For the past few decades, Oura Sananikone's illustrative and graphic art an d characters have been a fixture in the Richmond, VA art scene, working across mediums from everything from zines to toys. And recently, with friend Cody, opened the Toy Lair shop in Carytown, here in Richmond, VA. So it was exciting to get to talk to Oura, and get insight into the person behind the art, how working across mediums comes into practice, and the way one structures their life to be a working artist, while maintaining personal balance and health.

Today's interview is with Jason Boyer. Jason began playing music in hardcore bands, and tattooing, while stil just in his teens. By the time i met him, he had developed into an amazing tattooist, and also had started on the musical path that he continues to this day, forgoing the more traditional band approach, to make his own music, on his own, first under the name, Nerve City. Today, His musical work has continued on that path and developed into a self-recorded, self-directed process that now includes the hand manufacturing of the release format, usually cassette, as a seamless part of the production process, with as much attention paid to the graphics and pressing production, as to the writing and recording, each done in a separate room of his home. His current work is being released under the moniker, Service Learner, where much of the audio he produces, are studies of what he is learning in the studio. And when it's not a musical day, maybe he produces a zine instead. Its a fucking fascinating process. So getting to talk to Jason, and learn how thia all works, was quite awesome to me. Note: When Jason agreed to do this interview, he had been up all night, kinda ramped up off adrenaline, after having to deal with some drama in his neighborhood. So I greatly appreciate him taking to the time to put that aside, and get into explaining what his creative world looks like. And so here we are, my interview with Jason Boyer.

Today, to celebrate my 50th episode, we are interviewing my friend Dave Brown, who we had our first podcast with 10 years ago when I started this. Dave was my first guest, because, when I looked around the folks in my life, my world, he has consistently been a person that inspires me, and who I respect a lot. And since the time I interviewed Dave, he has gone through some big life changes, that took him from being a person that was already so awesome to me, to him being in an even more awesome place, both personally and professionally. From changing places in his career to a more rewarding job, to having his fourth son and being able to be in a position to really absorb and experience that, and all the changes that come from these kind of things happening in your life, a very awesome thing to share. So being able to share that here, makes me really happy.

Todays interview, is with my friend, Zo, who you may know as yourbro, zo, host of the polkadotrabbit podcast, or from where I initially met him, as the singer of the 1990s Richmond hardcore band, indypendant. for years, zo has been a person in my life, that has met me with a deep energy, a focus on truth, that has resonated, and challenged my conceptions of the spiritual realms, and the physical world around me. And in that process, has awoken parts of myself to things inside myself, and changed the way I conceptualize and view my own life. And it is with that understanding, and a great respect for him, that I share our interview today.

Today's episode is with Adam Nathanson. Adam grew up in New Jersey, and in the 1980s began playing in Hardcore punk bands around New York City, first with bands Mister Softee, and Trauma, then with life's blood, and band that ultimately led to the band Born Against. After Born Against, Adam went on to form an even more musically interesting band, called the Young Pioneers. In this conversation we discuss his path in music, the stories of these bands, and also, the politics, from the political climates during some of the bands, to the one we are living in now.

Today's guest is Tim Towslee. We last talked to Tim back in 2017, about his experiences working as a teacher, teaching high school students, a job he had been working for over a decade. But in the last five years, some things had changed. Tim had become demoralized by the roles he was being expected to fill, and deeply effected, like any human being would be, by the issues he was witnessing among the students he was tasked with instructing, And it took a personal toll on Tim, resulting, as many situations lead to, with him turning to alternate ways to cope with both the stress and emotional toll of the work, in his case, by turning to alcohol. Tim's story today is one of being one of those teachers tasked with making up for the multiple failures of the system around us and feeling those personal effects, and his struggle, and success, in gaining back his own life, and mental health.

Michael is one of those rare folks, that combines talent, passion, and drive, in a way that makes them very good at what they do. And over the years, he has learned how to be, the photographer he has wanted to be. In this interview, we talk about Michaels experience working in the photography world, from his first job as a digital archivist at Magnum, to the grind of working as a photojournalist, to switching over to working freelance photography and the differences a change of pace in city can make. He also gives great advice the whole way through. This is a great interview for anyone that works in the creative fields to listen to.

Todays interview is with Jason Orr. Jay got his start playing guitar, with the band benchmark in Woodbridge, Virginia in the early 1990s, and by the late 90s, had moved down to Richmond, to play guitar with the hardcore band, Hate-O-Four. He then went on to play with one of my favorite bands ever, Dead Serious. He also contributed vocal duties with Press Your Luck, and the infamous Barfight.

Today's interview is with Marty Key. Marty is the owner of Steady Sounds, a record store which stood here in Richmond, VA, and became a fixture of Richmond culture in the 2010s. And also, Marty is a musician, starting out as the frontman for the Richmond Punk Group Bad Guy Reaction in the 1990s, and later, playing bass for a whole host of bands, from Bratmobile, to Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Young Pioneers, and Live from Hollywood Cemetery. Music seems to play a big part in his life, so it was great to talk with him, and get his thoughts on Richmond, the history of some of these bands, and the history of Steady Sounds.

Those sounds you heard at our opening, are of Lucky and Lo Lem, both rescued Northern white-cheeked Gibbons, which were recorded by today's guest, Primatologist Caroline Rowley. Caroline got their start in this field, as an undergrad at Tulane University, and then went on to Central Washington University for a Masters in Primate Behaviour and Ecology. And over the past few years, has applied these studies, most notably, as the director of the Endangered Primate Rescue Center, in the Cuc Phuong National Park, in northern Vietnam. But the thing that may stand out the most about Caroline, is the empathy, and compassion they have for the living world around us, and their personal passion and dedication to try and make things better, first through understanding them scientifically, then taking those findings, and trying to make the changes that seem to make sense. In short, Caroline is one of those folks that you hope exists in the field of science. And they are definitely real, and have a lot to say about the world we are living in.