Recorded in March of 2025 at the EarthX Conference, this episode of Your Dark Companion features one of the most singular minds Mike Rhyner has ever sat across from.
Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is best known as a legendary guitarist for Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers—but that’s only the beginning. Over the course of an expansive, thoughtful conversation, Baxter walks through a life that connects jazz chords, rock tours, missile defense systems, classified Pentagon briefings, and the physics of sound.
From growing up in Mexico City and learning guitar at age nine, to shaping the sound of Steely Dan’s earliest albums, to helping the U.S. government rethink missile defense as a civilian advisor, Baxter explains how curiosity—not category—has driven everything he’s done.
This isn’t just a music interview. It’s a deep dive into creativity, problem-solving, discipline, and how the same brain can comfortably live in studios, on stages, and inside think tanks. A rare conversation with a truly uncommon thinker.
Special thanks to EarthX for hosting this conversation at their annual Congress of Conferences—a global gathering that brings together leaders in science, technology, policy, business, and culture to explore practical solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges.
Learn more about @earthxorg their mission, and the Congress of Conferences at https://earthx.org.
Follow Your Dark Companion on Patreon for every episode: patreon.com/YourDarkCompanion
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To reach out email us at: Info@Stolenwatermedia.com
Recorded in March of 2025 at the EarthX Conference, this episode of Your Dark Companion features one of the most singular minds Mike Rhyner has ever sat across from.
Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is best known as a legendary guitarist for Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers—but that’s only the beginning. Over the course of an expansive, thoughtful conversation, Baxter walks through a life that connects jazz chords, rock tours, missile defense systems, classified Pentagon briefings, and the physics of sound.
From growing up in Mexico City and learning guitar at age nine, to shaping the sound of Steely Dan’s earliest albums, to helping the U.S. government rethink missile defense as a civilian advisor, Baxter explains how curiosity—not category—has driven everything he’s done.
This isn’t just a music interview. It’s a deep dive into creativity, problem-solving, discipline, and how the same brain can comfortably live in studios, on stages, and inside think tanks. A rare conversation with a truly uncommon thinker.
Special thanks to EarthX for hosting this conversation at their annual Congress of Conferences—a global gathering that brings together leaders in science, technology, policy, business, and culture to explore practical solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges.
Learn more about @earthxorg their mission, and the Congress of Conferences at https://earthx.org
.
Follow Your Dark Companion on Patreon for every episode:
patreon.com/YourDarkCompanion
IG: https://www.instagram.com/yourdarkcompanion/
X: https://x.com/YDC_Dfw
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@yourdarkcompanion
FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559876685445
The Old Grey Wolf:
X: https://x.com/TheOldGreyWolf
IG: https://www.instagram.com/theoldgreywolf16/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikerhyner579
To reach out email us at: Info@Stolenwatermedia.com
Thanks to our monthly supporters
"Whatever I want it to be about on a given day; is what it is." Your Dark Companion couples your familiar friends from radio, Mike and Grubes! Mike brings his classic interviews that draw you in, and Grubes—The Devil—drops…well the drops, and throws the occasional grenade. Mike likes to draw on his fascinating acquaintances and friends allowing them to tell their stories as you've never heard them. But he also goes outside his network, sharing Grubes' network, and often outside of both, to bring you those they don't know, but believe have a story that will make you laugh, make you think, think differently, or just entertain you…"that's what we are trying to do here."