The Journeyman

01/11/2026

Bang Bang.

01/02/2026

I have learned that interviewing lives in a strange balance. On the surface it feels simple, just two people talking, but doing it well takes real intention. One on one conversation is where emotion shows up and where connection actually happens. That has always been true, long before podcasts or digital platforms. Talking is easy. Creating a conversation people want to sit with is not.

An interview is never just for the person asking the questions. You are opening a door and inviting people into a room they would never normally be in. That means listening closely, building on what is said, and knowing when to push for clarity instead of letting a moment die. Timing matters. Flow matters. You can't camp on one idea forever, and you can't let the energy drift just because it feels comfortable.

Not every conversation goes the same way, and that is part of the craft. Some guests give you everything, others give you very little, and it is your responsibility to work with what is there. When it is over, the responsibility does not stop. You owe it to the conversation to represent it honestly and without distortion. The craft is still alive. It just asks for more effort and integrity than most people are willing to give.

01/01/2026

We’ve all felt that surge of energy on January 1st. It’s easy to get swept up in the hype of everyone else’s resolutions, career moves, or self-improvement journeys. It’s phenomenal energy, but it shouldn't be the only thing pushing your pursuit.

​Before you jump into the deep end of social media advice and "new year, new me" content, take a long walk with yourself.
​My advice for 2026 is simple: Rediscover yourself before you set your goals. Find your own purpose and root yourself in your own truth before you allow outside influences to sway you.

​Information is everywhere, and it’s a tool we should use, but we can't rely on it to tell us who we are. When that initial excitement starts to dissipate (and it will), your truth is what keeps you locked in.

​Find who you are first. The pursuit follows.

12/22/2025

So, when it comes to the race tropes that are played politically from both sides, typically something like this is expected. It isn't anything to write home about in regards to its originality, like, we've all seen this movie before. What's intriguing to me, however, is the shift.

​For Nicki Minaj, whose fanbase is heavily built on the LGBTQ+ community, just like most pop artists that are out, like the Lady Gagas, the Miley Cyruses, or the Katy Perries, to see the influence and support she received from that community only to then stand on her morals? If those are genuinely her beliefs, I can respect that- not a problem, but to stand on it all of a sudden and speak dismissively of trans people is a shift for me that is interesting. Everybody has a right to say what they have to say as long as you aren't trying to create ill will or threatening someone, but it’s a shift nonetheless.

​She was at one point at the top of the game in hip hop, a polarizing female rapper, but it's been a decline recently. So now this shift, and her support for the slaughtering of Christians in Nigeria, is what garnered her attention with the MAGA constituents. The way I look at it is when they find someone polarizing that fits the demographic they could use, they will wine and dine you. It is disappointing when your opinions and beliefs are manipulated by a party to better distribute and push an agenda.

​So what happens with Nicki Minaj from here? Is this a total upfront from music and the Harajuku Barbie persona altogether?? You can't just go back to making music like you used to, because now your Barbz aren't really who they were anymore. Now you've introduced a whole new category, the MAGA Barbz. So what’s the music going to be like? If at all. And this isn’t about separating music from politics. This is about the Barbz fandom and potential disconnect with them from Nicki’s standpoint.

​It isn't so much Nicki Minaj to me personally, it's the top full upfront. This weekend with Erica Kirk at Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest conference at the Phoenix Convention Center, this discussion about her life growing up as a Christian and her very vague explanation of her faith, seemed like she was pulling things out of the air to make it sound good. It’s the most eloquent I’ve ever heard Nicki Minaj speak, and I would have loved to hear that any other time. Is this what we do? Is this a new form of code switching? I have to ask: what they got on you, girl?

12/22/2025

I was catching up on Podnews this morning (highly recommend if you want to stay sharp on media trends) and saw a wild stat from Bloomberg:
​In just one month, people watched 700 million hours of YouTube podcasts on their TV screens. That is nearly double from just a year ago.

​To put that in perspective:
​Traditional Late-Night (Kimmel/Colbert): ~173M hours/month.

​YouTube Podcasts: 700M+ hours/month.

​YouTube is calling this the "new late-night," and they aren't kidding. We’re seeing a massive shift in how we "lean back and chill." Even Netflix is pivoting, betting big on video podcasts and iHeartMedia deals for 2026 to keep subscribers engaged between big hits.

​The line between "watching TV" and "watching a podcast" is officially gone. 📺

12/20/2025

Giant is officially closing five major fulfillment centers across Pennsylvania, including Philly, Lancaster, and Willow Grove. This is a massive signal of where retail is headed.

​For a few years, everyone thought huge, centralized warehouses were the future of grocery. But the reality is that we have become a "DoorDash society." We do not just want delivery; we want it immediately.
​In our house, this shift is already 100% rooted. My wife does all our shopping online, and we practically never step foot in a store anymore. It is just part of our culture now. Giant is realizing that to keep up with families like mine, they have to ditch the slow, distant warehouses and fulfill orders directly from the local stores in our own neighborhoods.

​It is a major pivot to avoid the "Blockbuster Trap." While the buildings are changing, the mission is clear: Speed is the new king of the grocery aisle.

​The "I need it now" era is turning our local Giant stores into high-speed delivery hubs.

12/20/2025

12/19/2025

So my wife and I noticed something the other evening. Now, things could have changed since we saw this, but this was only two nights ago, so I doubt it.

We took the girls to see the Christmas Lights at Penn Medicine Park. It was awesome. There was a little scary moment because someone in front of us had a medical emergency. We do not know what happened and hopefully everything turned out okay, but the girls had a blast and we really enjoyed it too.

On the way back, though, we noticed something strange. Park City Mall had no Christmas lights outside. That felt weird. We both remember it being decorated around this time of year. It just made me stop and think.

This isn’t just a normal shift. I mean, change happens all the time. Society moves, the way people exist, the trajectory of life shifts constantly. We’ve seen it over and over. But it is bizarre when it hits something so ingrained in our everyday life, the Americana experience, the social aspect of going to the mall. That isn’t the same anymore.

If you’ve ever gone into the mall now in Park City, you know what I mean. There’s a quietness to it. An emptiness, in a way. Not saying it’s not busy, but it’s just not the same. Maybe that’s why they can justify not putting up Christmas lights. Now again, I don’t know, maybe that has changed in the last two days. But when we drove by, it looked like a big dud.

Malls are changing. Places like Round1, movie theaters, restaurants, those things are thriving. Entertainment and leisure are what bring people out now. But the traditional shopping that once made the mall feel alive, that is fading. Spaces are being repurposed, like the old Bonton building finally being occupied by Raymour & Flanagan. It is good to see, but it also highlights the shift.

I do not care what anybody says. Malls across the country are changing, and Park City is no different. This is just life. Not necessarily the end, just a shift. A change of scenery. A change of direction. A change altogether.

12/19/2025

Yo! We aren’t witnessing the end of an era; we are witnessing the start of a MUCH bigger one.

​Charlamagne Tha God’s $200 million deal and the jump to Netflix in 2026 is a massive signal. I’ve always believed that audio and video are a 50/50 shot. One doesn’t replace the other-they complete each other.

​Audio is the foundation for our hustle. It’s for the gym, the commute, and the moments when you’re on the move. That intimacy and "different strokes for different folks" vibe isn't going anywhere.

​But this Netflix move? This is the Big Wave.
​It changes the game because it focuses on the "Lean-Back" culture. After 8:00 PM, the numbers spike because people aren't just scrolling on their phones anymore, they’re turning on the big screen to watch a 2-hr cultural event.

​By taking The Breakfast Club and the Black Effect Network off YouTube and putting them on the world's biggest streamer, Charlamagne is making video content even more imperative. He’s taking the podcast out of the "social media" category and making it prestige television.

​It’s about total coverage. You listen during the day while you’re moving, and you watch at night while you’re relaxing.

​I want to hear from the group on this one: When the sun goes down and you’re finally settling in at 8PM or 9PM, are you reaching for your headphones to just listen, or are you putting the podcast on the big screen to actually watch the interview?
​Is the "video wave" changing how you consume content, or is audio still king for you?

12/19/2025

It’s actually wild to look back now because two years later, Katt Williams’ "prophecies" have officially moved from just being viral clips to being the actual reality we’re living in. When Katt sat down for that interview, a lot of people treated it like a high-speed car crash, loud, entertaining, and mostly just for the views. But as time goes on, it’s becoming clear that the man wasn't just being theatrical. He was speaking with the confidence of someone who had actually been in those secret rooms and lived to tell the tale.

​The accuracy is honestly staggering when you look at the scoreboard.

◾He gave us a blunt warning about Diddy and the "freak-off" culture long before the federal indictments started rolling in.

◾He even dropped that low-key warning shot to Shannon Sharpe about his personal life that seemed like a joke at the time, only for the world to see it play out in the headlines later.

◾From calling out the "industry plants" and the gatekeepers to the specific receipts on joke theft with Cedric and Steve Harvey, it feels like the math is finally mathing.

​It is fair to say that after two years, there isn't much of anything Katt said that seems wrong. If anything, he was dead on. The numbers even back up the shift he started.

That one interview pulled in over 83 million views and generated roughly $6 million in revenue, proving that people are hungry for the truth over the corporate script. We didn’t just watch an interview; we watched a guy lay out a roadmap for the "Year of Truth," and two years later, the receipts are finally being cleared. My man was not wrong.

12/19/2025

Wwwwhhhhhuuuuuutttttt?

Class is back in session! Kadeem Hardison, Jasmine Guy, Cree Summer, and Darryl M. Bell are returning for an A Different World sequel series, coming to Netflix! 🎓✨

12/18/2025

Let’s talk about this massive partnership between Netflix and iHeartMedia.

About a year ago, I remember telling my wife that Netflix was eventually going to step into the podcasting space, especially on the video side. For a long time, YouTube has been the home base for video podcasts. That’s where the culture lived. That’s where people went to watch conversations, not just listen to them.

Now, I know subscription-based podcasting already exists. That’s not new. But it’s never existed on this level. This is different. This brings the podcast out of your phone and into your living room. Big screen. Couch. Remote in hand. That changes how people consume these conversations and how seriously they take them.

Watching Netflix make this move, and seeing iHeart involved, isn’t surprising at all. Podcasting has grown into a real pillar of modern media. This isn’t some niche corner of the internet anymore. We’re talking about a format that now sits in the same conversation as television shows and streaming series.

What we’re seeing now is the beginning of a real shift where you’re going to pay to watch certain podcasts. Subscription-based visual podcasting is coming, whether people are ready for it or not. Netflix today. Prime and Hulu tomorrow. It’s the same kind of wave we saw when WWE moved to Netflix. A signal of legitimacy, scale, and serious money moving through the space.

From a creator standpoint, video is no longer optional. You have to have it. But you also can’t slack on the audio side. The real advantage is being able to dominate both. Strong visuals bring people in, strong audio keeps them loyal.

There are pros and cons to all of this, but for me, the pros outweigh the negatives. More exposure. More opportunity. More ways to get seen and to get paid. None of it is easy. I already know that firsthand. But this move confirms something important. Reading the room matters. Trusting your instincts matters. And when you see the shift coming, you keep going.

I’m excited to see what Netflix and iHeartMedia do in 2026. This is just the beginning.