Episodes
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🎨 Lucas Beaufort: Skateboarding Has Taken Me All Over the World to Paint | Passion Pod Ep. 186
In this episode of Passion Pod, host Chris Johnson welcomes Lucas Beaufort—an internationally recognized artist, skateboarder, and muralist whose passion for skateboarding has inspired a creative journey across the globe. Lucas shares how skateboarding became the foundation for his art, leading him to paint murals in cities worldwide and collaborate with top skate brands.
🛹 What you’ll hear in this episode:
Lucas Beaufort’s journey from skateboarding to becoming a global artist
How skate culture continues to inspire his artwork and collaborations
Stories and lessons from painting murals around the world
The intersection of art, travel, and the skateboarding community
Advice for aspiring artists and skaters
Insights into Lucas’s creative process and philosophy
🌟 About Passion Pod:
Passion Pod features inspirational stories from unique guests who’ve built careers around what they love. Hosted by Chris Johnson, each episode delivers creative insights, motivational stories, and practical tips for dreamers, entrepreneurs, and artists.
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In this episode of Passion Pod, we sit down with Ali Sultan, a stand-up comedian and writer based in New York City who’s taken the comedy world by storm. With appearances on Comedy Central and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Ali’s comedy specials and albums have reached millions of viewers worldwide.
Born in Yemen and raised in Ethiopia before moving to Minnesota at 15, Ali shares his incredible journey from discovering stand-up comedy on late-night TV to performing globally. We dive into his roots in Minneapolis, his ties to Eau Claire, and how his first open mic experience sparked his passion for comedy.
Ali opens up about performing clean sets, playing quirky characters at college parties, and the importance of creating art for the right reasons. Whether you’re a comedy fan or simply looking for inspiration, this episode is packed with laughs, heartfelt moments, and plenty of wisdom.
Tune in for an unforgettable conversation with one of comedy’s rising stars!
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Trevor Newlin is a Los Angeles based suit actor most notable for his role as the Xenomorph in Alien Romulus.
Trevor first discovered his love for theatre while still in high school growing up in Texas. After graduating he went to college for theatre before eventually attending film school in Los Angeles. His initial goal was to get into voice acting, but while he was still in school his professor recommended that he consider suit acting instead due to his unusually tall (6 foot 7 inches) and slender build. Peaking his curiosity Trevor reached out to the legendary suit actor Doug Jones through a simple DM on Instagram and miraculously Doug responded and agreed to a meeting that turned into a conversation lasting over 3 hours long. Taking Doug's advice Trevor found himself meeting make up artists and participating in Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. Things snowballed from there and he has since acted in international ad campaigns for Amazon, been featured in trailers for American Horror Story, wore a Wookie suit in Disney's Mandalorian 2, became a monster in Smile 2, and played his most iconic role of the Xenomorph in Alien Romulus.
In this episode we discuss a shared love for thePackers, hosting a podcast during the pandemic, meeting the team at Legacy Effects, becoming the Amazon Yeti, working on the set of Star Wars, taking arguably the most iconic creature role ever for Alien Romulus, and much more.
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Jarvis Lawson is a Milwaukee based photographer who has worked with dozens of organizations over the years including Alaska Airlines, Jordan Brand, Stella Artois, My Helsinki, Under Armour, Vice, and Visit California.
Everything started for Jarvis when he came across a skyline photo online that was shot with an iPhone. An android user at the time, Jarvis said up his money and knew he had to get an iPhone for himself. He immediately poured himself into photography driving to Chicago every day he could to take photos of abandoned buildings, skylines, gritty alleyways, puddles, and anything else that caught his eye. People quickly took notice and he began to build a following on Instagram using the hashtag #iphoneonly . He was even a featured photographer that Instagram itself interviewed and promoted.
After about a year of shooting exclusively with his iPhone his mom bought him his first DLSR. From there both his skills and his career truly blossomed. His first big break came when he was hired by Visit California to hit the road and capture the beauty of Northern California's parks and mountains. Not long after that he found himself shooting photos for My Helsinki to help promote tourism to Finland.
Jarvis has travelled the world shooting photos for many large organizations, but he has also done extensive work in the the product photography and portrait space for massively successful brands like Under Armour, Jordan Brand, Stella Artois, and more.
In this episode we discuss Jarvis's photography journey from his humble iPhone beginnings to capturing cycling trip in the Czech Republic, and so much more. He also opens up about how he built his career and gives a ton of valuable insight and advice that any photographer, or creative in general, could benefit from.
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Xavier Abdullahi is a rock climbing influencer and coach based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Xavier discovered his love for climbing in college and never looked back. In fact he dropped out of college so that he could spend all his time climbing. He never planned to be an influencer either, but when he saw a small brand offering chalk bags in exchange for posting content he made his @daddyxclimbs account on Instagram and within a few months was 15,000+ followers. He never pretended to be an elite climber, instead he made uplifting and relatable content to bring smiles to the faces of whoever was watching. It wasn't long before other brands started taking notice. With the help of a couple of sponsors, and his local climbing gym offering him a part time job, he was able to start climbing nearly every day.
In the episode we discuss his rough childhood in Minneapolis, his mom marrying someone she met on Yahoo chat, moving out of the city, discovering his love for the outdoors, experiencing racism, being awarded scholarships, getting hired by The North Face to create content, being awarded over $5,000 worth of ice climbing gear, becoming friends with the legendary Mt. Everest climber Dom Mullins, flying to Washington to create content for Zig Zag Climbing, building real relationships online, dealing with burnout, best climbing movies, dream places to go climbing, and so much more.
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Blake Eason is a news anchor for WISN News based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Blake grew up in the small town of Warner Robbins, Georgia and is a self proclaimed "theatre kid for life". After graduating high school Blake moved to the big city of Atlanta to begin his journey in media with an internship at The Bert Show. His original dream was to host a game show, but when the pandemic shut down Los Angeles he decided to give local news a try. His first journalism job came with WRBL News in Columbus, Georgia before moving up the ranks and securing an anchor role with WKRN TV in Nashville, Tennessee. After a couple of years as a morning anchor in Nashville he recently accepted a job as the 5pm and 10pm news anchor at WISN News in Milwaukee.
In this interview we discuss the hectic schedule of a new reporter, hosting the championship parade for the Atlanta Braves, learning from his idol Ryan Seacrest, intentionally losing his southern accent, separating personal beliefs to share unbiased news, public speaking advice, viral TikTok moments, favorite rappers, and much more.
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Richie Burke and Bre Barnett are the hosts and faces behind Milwaukee Uncut, Milwaukee's alternative media source for news, interviews, skits, guides, and more.
You've likely seen their faces on social media as their videos have reached millions of views and their social media platforms have skyrocketed over the last year. What most people don't know is the story of how they got there.
In this episode we discuss the origin story of Milwaukee Uncut, early entrepreneurship mistakes, proposing on social media, going viral at tailgate parties, Giannis Antetokounmpo showing up at their studio, favorite guests they've had, giving back to the community, and much more.
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Timmy Bishop aka Timmy the Dreamer is on a mission to be the first person ever to give motivational speeches to kids at schools in all 50 states.
Timmy grew up in the Twin Cities playing basketball obsessively until he came to the realization in high school that at 5 foot 8 his dreams of playing in the NBA weren't realistic and decided to go to college for business like so many others. While attending UW Madison his mental health slowly got worse and worse as the reality of what his life after school would look like started to set in. He knew he didn't want to be working in an office staring at a computer screen the rest of his life, but he didn't know what to do about it. As his internship came to an end he had a meeting with his boss Dave that changed everything.
He expressed to Dave his longing to build something he was proud of, his dream of traveling the world, and his desire to help people. Dave listened and told Timmy "You can't do that. It's time for you to grow up."
After that Timmy knew he had to make a change. He wrote up a contract with himself promising to chase his dreams and signed it. the following 3 years were a whirlwind that's honestly hard to believe. In search of a mentor he met Charlie Rocket and joined his team traveling the country making dreams come true. Through the power of social media they reached over a billion views, changed thousands of lives, donated millions of dollars, worked with countless celebrities including Oprah, MGK, Aloe Blacc, Gary Vee, Steve Harvey, and many more.
Timmy felt that he had found the secret and won the video game of life, until he got the worst phone call of his life. His close friend Chris, who was also one of the major investors behind what they were doing had tragically died at the age of only 33. It was a wake up call that Timmy didn't know he needed. While he had lived his dreams over those few years, he also neglected his family, his relationships, his mental health, and more. He knew he could no longer work 7 days a week with Charlie and the rest of the team and moved back in with his parents in Minnesota while he figured out his next move.
Since then he has laid the groundwork for Dreamer State University. He's become a youth keynote speaker traveling the country in a van inspiring kids to listen to their hearts and pursue the lives they've always dreamed of. He's already impacted thousands of kids, but he's still just getting started.
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DJ Willie Wonka is a Minneapolis based music producer and DJ for underground rap legend Prof. Willie grew up in Chicago before moving to Minneapolis to attend college at the U of M and earned a degree in Applied Economics. Once he started making beats in his dorm room using a stolen computer program from Limewire his life was never the same. After graduating he worked regular jobs including being a manager at Enterprise Rent a Car and was even a bill collector for a while. All throughout that time he never stopped making making music and chasing his dream to be a music producer.
One day an idea came to him that changed everything. He searched online and found a list of "Top 10 rappers in Minnesota" and sent them all his Soundcloud page through Twitter with all his beats for them to listen to. Prof liked what he heard and 6 months later their first collaboration song "President" released. It's been over a decade since then and Willie's role has evolved from producing songs once in a while to being Prof's full time DJ. Willie also contributes heavily to the creative direction for a lot of Prof's music videos, tour sets, social media content, and more.
In this episode we discuss his journey towards a full time career in music, becoming Prof's DJ by accident, favorite music producers, industry lessons he's learned, drinking habits on tour, hanging out with Redman, and much more.
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Nate Vomhof is a Milwaukee based drone photographer/videographer who's also a full time pharmacist. Nate first picked up a camera when he spent 6 weeks on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico as part of his rotations as a pharmacist fresh out of school. His passion for capturing architecture and nature grew and after moving to Milwaukee hit a bit of a roadblock. He started to struggle with finding ways to capture the city in unique ways when so many other incredible photographers have shot all the same landmarks. His roommate had a drone, but was attaching a GoPro to it to get a different perspective. Once drones started coming out with their own cameras Nate knew he needed his own. In 2018 he got his first drone and the rest was history.
Since then Nate has become a Milwaukee celebrity with his photos/videos reaching millions of views through not just his Instagram (@natevomhof 25.6k followers) , but from all the major clients he has worked with including Top Chef, Harley Davidson, Visit Milwaukee, The Brewers, and many more.
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Dexter Patterson aka Wiscobirder is a professor at UW Madison and the co founder of the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin. Dexter has always loved nature and birds, but they really didn't become a focus in his life until 2010 when he saw a video of an osprey catching a fish and it blew his mind. Most people know Dexter as a bird enthusiast, but what a lot of people don't know is that he also played a major role in the Wisconsin hip hop scene long before he discovered his passion for birds.
In this episode we discuss dropping out of college, starting a rap crew, building a music scene, working factory jobs, getting laid off during the pandemic, going back to school as a parent working full time, becoming a professor, starting the BIPOC Wisconsin Birding Club with his academic advisor, writing his first book, diversity in the birding community, accessibility to green spaces, obscure bird facts, how to look at life, building a life based around your passions, and much more.
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Ber is a independent music artist originally from Minnesota. Her parents had her in music programs from a young age and by the time she was in high school she was playing cover songs on her guitar at the open mic nights at the local Irish pub. After graduating she took a gap year and found herself in Norway learning about music, but also about life. Shortly after she was studying music at a university in the UK with dreams of becoming a songwriter. When her visa expired she decided to leave everything behind and move to Minneapolis and started writing songs while living in her uncle's basement. With her only friends in the music world being back in the UK, she spent most of her time writing songs with people over Zoom calls either early in the morning or late at night. It was one of those songs that ended up changing her life forever.
After her song Meant To Be that she wrote and recorded with her friend Charlie Oriain went viral on TikTok opportunities opened up for her in a big way. In fact, her first ever show was performing at the iconic SXSW festival in Austin, TX. Shortly after she was asked to open for Tom Odell for his "the monsters tour" and found herself performing for thousands of new fans every night.
Since then she has headlined her own tours around the world, but one thing hasn't changed. She's still just making music with her friends.
In this episode we discuss studying music in Europe, the Minnesota music scene, befriending her favorite band, exploring different genre's of music, finding ways to laugh through the pain, getting signed to a record label, touring the world performing music, the ebbs and flows of being a full time musician, performing a sold out show at First Ave, her friendship with fellow Minnesota music artist Landon Conrath and much more.
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Aaron Mader aka Lazerbeak is a Minneapolis based music producer and the CEO of Doomtree Records . His music career spans a quarter of a century and has amounted to producing over 600 songs that are all available to stream on Spotify anywhere in the world.
Lazerbeak is mostly known as a hip hop music producer, but he actually got his start by playing the guitar as a kid. In fact his high school band was so successful that they got signed by a label and were touring before they even graduated. At that point, he thought he was going to be a rockstar.
Life happens though, and instead of being a rich and famous rockstar he found himself working at a movie theater and borrowing money from his mom to buy a beat machine from Guitar Center so that he could make rap music with his friends. Those friends eventually became Doomtree and changed the culture of hip hop music in the Midwest forever.
Lazerbeak has had a long career full of highs and lows, but still manages to make a living from music to this day. In this episode we discuss his experience making Lizzo's first album, forming Doomtree with his friends, working for free, producing a song for Doja Cat in 3 hours, making albums for each of his 3 kids, running a record label from his living room, delivering pizzas until he was 30, his new solo album that's coming this Spring, and much more.
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Bryan Munar is a musical theatre actor who currently plays the role of Orpheus in the National Tour of Hadestown. We recorded this episode at The Pablo Center before their performance on Thursday, January 23rd.
Bryan was on the "regular" path for success in America. He graduated from college, moved to San Fransisco, and got a desk job making the most money he ever made in his life. The only problem was that it didn't make him happy. After a couple of years working at his desk he told me his "soul felt rotten" and that he knew something had to change. He began taking acting classes and got involved with his local theatre. As his skill progressed so did the opportunities that came his way.
Then one fateful day he got laid off from his job and the choice of where to take his life became clear. He got a job as a server at a sushi restaurant and worked his butt off pursuing his dream to become a full time actor. It took years of auditioning and being turned down before he was offered his current role of Orpheus on the National Tour of Hadestown, but he finally made his dreams come true.
In this episode we discuss the challenges of tour life, developing relationships with cast members, being real on social media, peanut M&Ms, personal and professional development, being an independent music artist, making music videos with friends, and much more.
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Mitch Wachtendonk aka "mawdoods" is a mixed media artist based in Green Bay, Wisconsin known for his unique approach to creating art from recycled shoe boxes. This "Kixed Media" approach began with simple ink doodles on the tops of shoe boxes and has evolved into something that really has to be seen to be believed. Mitch has worked with huge companies including Spotify and Nike, but still spends the majority of his time creating work in his small studio after he gets home from his 9-5 day job.
In this episode we discuss the origins of his shoebox art, doing commission work for huge brands, inspiring kids to create, valuing your work, investing in your craft, loving what you do, learning how to become a pro, favorite sneakers, thinking outside the box, and much more.
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Ike Wynter is a true environmentalist known for creating one of a kind art pieces exclusively using wood found on the side of the road and in dumpsters. Not only is all the wood he uses found, but he also doesn't paint, stain, or alter the color of the wood he uses in any way. Over the last year his art has been featured on NBC, CBS, The Today Show, and more. He's worked with the NHL, MLB, NBA, Crayola, the New York Stock Exchange, Mike Tyson, and countless others.
Ike has lived a very full life from touring the country with his band, to making dreams come true with the Dream Machine Foundation, to becoming a full time woodworking artist, and more. Despite how incredible his life looks like from the outside, he's battled with serious mental health struggles and speaks openly about his experience to help others feel less alone.
In this episode we discuss connecting with fans through music, meeting his heroes, building a multi million dollar junk removal business, dropping everything and moving to California for a dream job opportunity, battling depression, creating meaningful connections, making art with purpose, and much more.
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Darnell "Speedy" Artis is an official member of the World Famous Harlem Globetrotters who wears the number 3. He's known as the "fastest man on Earth" for his incredible dribbling abilities, but is also revered for his amazing accuracy as a long range shooter. Darnell made the Globetrotters team right after he graduated from Gywnedd Mercy University in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania. After a short stint playing professionally in Brazil, and leading the country in scoring I might add, he decided that he wanted to focus on his career as a Harlem Globetrotter.
Speedy has played 9 seasons with the Globetrotters and slowly worked his way up the ranks within the organization to his current place as a team leader, 3rd quarter showmen, court general, and PR representative. He even has his official jersey for sale at all their games as well as online.
In this episode we discuss his life as a Harlem Globetrotter, traveling to over 40 countries around the world to play basketball, inspiring kids, donating hundreds of turkeys for Thanksgiving in his community, his coaching business Underdawgs Basketball, creating Lonnie Young Summer League basketball in his hometown, learning how to be a sidekick, being ready for opportunities when they present themselves, responding to every DM he gets, and much more.
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Tommy Vext is a platinum selling singer songwriter that first rose to fame for his iconic cover of the Cranberries mega hit song Zombie with his former band Bad Wolves. Tommy left the band in January of 2021 and has since toured internationally with the band Ill Nino and has also released 2 cover albums and 2 solo albums on his own. Tommy's life and career has had plenty of controversial moments, but you can't deny the fact that he has always stayed true to himself and helped countless people through both his music and his philanthropy.
In this episode we discuss sober living, becoming an independent artist, surrounding yourself with the right people, writing honest music, being vulnerable with others, overcoming adversity, giving back, and much more.
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Grace Reiter is a content creator, actress, and comedian from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Grace was a guest on the show back in the Spring of 2022, but she had so much fun that she decided to come back for a round two.
A lot has happened since our first interview. She's acted in her first feature film, performed for Saturday Night Live, joined the team at American High, graced the red carpet with Chelsea Peretti, and much more. Still only 23 years old, she's just getting started...
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