Bye. It is time. What time is it? It's time for
Poduty and the News. What a great guest I have coming
up this morning. Bubba starts. Bubba, welcome to the show.
Jeff, thanks for having me, man. This is a pleasure to be here with you
this morning. I saw your live yesterday and you were
outside, you were bundled up. It looked like a blizzard compared
to the weather we have here in Pittsburgh. Where were you? You were just walking
around in like a white out condition. What kind of weather did you have
yesterday? Just a little bit of snow. Kind of our first
snow of the year here in South Dakota. A little bit
late actually for what we usually get, but
not quite white out. Sometimes it'll snow horizontally.
So what's do you know about how much
average snowfall you get out there? You probably get more wind than snow. I would
guess here in eastern South Dakota, it's
considerably less. I'm not sure what we average, but the town that I
grew up in, in the mountains in western South Dakota, in the Black Hills,
we average like 280 inches a year. Oh,
280. I think Pittsburgh is like 50.
We're probably closer to that in eastern South Dakota, but like you said, it
all kind of blows in and blows out here on the plains.
Yeah. Well, Bubba, I
have just one question for you.
Do you know what time it is? It's time for Poduty and the News.
What time is it?
Podcasting from the stage.
The only live news podcast about
podcasting from the stage.
Poduty and the News. Bubba, welcome to the show. It's Bubba
starts everybody. I love the theme song. I was
grooving. Once that bass line kicks in,
it gets you out of your seat, gets the blood pumping. We call this show
Coffee with Poduty and the Crew. As of today, Bubba is
officially part of the Poduty and the News Crew. And, and I got my
coffee. All right, what we say is we're busy all
week. We're doing things, we're planning events. Some of us are working full time jobs.
We're recording a lot of podcasts in the evening. But Saturday is just like
that time for podcasters. Let's sit back, let's have a cup of
coffee together. Let's talk about what's going on in the podcast
industry, what's going on with each other. And honestly, Bubba was
probably one of the first people that reached out to me last June
when I opened this theater space. And like almost instantly he,
he got the concept. He was already like, let's do some events,
let's start working together, how can we support each other? And I was always really
grateful for that conversation. And we reached out, we
reconnected about two weeks ago and we booked this
event and I was so excited to bring you back and always wanted to just
publicly thank you. Like, you were there from the beginning and, and really
kind of saw what this, like, DIY movement I'm trying to do here.
Yeah, well, and it probably helps that I come from the live
event space. Right. I'm a musician, I've been a songwriter
and, and for 25 years I've been doing nothing but live
events and then got into podcasting. So where a
lot of podcasters now are, like coming from their home studio
and trying to figure out how to do that in the real world. I'm
coming from the space of I have seen how to do this and
have built a career out of building live events. Now I'm just putting
microphones and cameras in these spaces, capturing it and bringing
it out there. So when I saw you post about this show and,
and what it means is like, well, this is a perfect fit for me and
something that I can bring a lot of, you know, not just
insight, but some great commentary on.
Yeah, I think after we spoke that first time, you were like immediately
leaving for a 20 city tour. Like, you just,
like, I'm getting on the road tomorrow, I'll see you.
Well, in podcasting has brought such a different
angle to what I do. No longer am I just beholden to
bars or restaurants that have live music and only
having that one event. Now I can podcast and be in three or four
different places during the day doing interviews, supporting
local businesses and local artists, and then also
performing at night so I can get out on the road. And it's
not necessarily about a two to four hour performance now.
It's about, I'm in this city, how much can I get done? And,
you know, that's probably the reason that we won the Content Creator of the Year
award this year from the Midwest Country Music Organization is
that I'm not scared to put that microphone in anyone's face and to
spotlight and showcase their business or
art or whatever they may be doing.
Yeah, I was going to bring it up and I think you returned from that
and you're like, hey, I'm going to an award show. You did win the Content
Creator award. Tell us a little bit about that award and what it meant to
you after all these things you've been working on digitally.
Well, and it's so cool because the organization, the
Midwest Country Music Organization where we won the award from.
It's voted on by the members. And I had really spent that
year. The show and the scene projects really kicked off
from the Midwest Country Music Organization award
show the year prior, where I just showed up. I had just started
this podcast, but I knew that I was never going to have a
better chance if artists were who I was interested in interviewing. I
had an opportunity to sit down where I knew, you know, a couple hundred
of them were going to be in one place at one time. So we brought
our microphones with us to that first year in 2024,
and I sat down and did 25 interviews at Jam Night the night before the
show. And that kind of kick started
our whole operation through the summer of 24 and into the
fall. Obviously connecting with all these people and doing most of our
interviews over, you know, Zoom or now Stream Yard like
we're doing here today. I was able to capitalize off of all those
connections that I already had kind of in. In my network.
So it was really cool to see all of them turn around
and to vote for us after we received the nomination. To
be able to stand on that stage that a year prior, I had stood
and been like, this is what I want to do. These are the people that
I want to do it with. And now we're, you know, kind of
leveraging that award into access to other
award shows, like the Josie Music Awards down in Nashville.
Jeff, I was just working the red carpet at the Grand Ole Opry House a
few weeks ago. Oh, wow. That's incredible.
That's like your Babe Ruth moment a year prior. You stood on that stage, and
this is what I want. And then you. You set all that in motion with
all that content, and. And you're doing something in a field that you
love. Like you mentioned, you go tour. What else can I do while I'm on
tour? Well, I can do a podcast show. I can meet the local talent. I
can interview them, put them in the. In the spotlight. And it's
just. It's one of these things, and you're in the perfect niche. And exactly what
we talk about here is if you love something, there's other people who love
what you do. They love the same things that you love. And you're bringing
that community together through music, through these meetups
and just connecting on a whole nother level that you couldn't do
just by trying to sell a CD or download an MP3 file of your music.
You're making these deeper connections. Right? And,
you know Music has become so devalued in society
now that, you know, the record companies and Spotify have kind
of taken all the money out of it for independent creators, creators that
I had to find something else. I had to adjust and you know,
it was really a moment. And I had been doing the podcast for several
months. But you know, coming into the election cycle last year,
and no matter how you feel about it, we saw the impact of digital
media, we saw the impact of social media and
podcast, especially with something like Joe Rogan reaching
millions of viewers. When Elon Musk stood on the stage and said, we are the
media, I went, oh, he's talking to me. He's talking about us,
Jeff. Right. So how do we start to do that?
Now it's turned into covering sports, the news and some
politics. We have a mental health network and
where we can have a little bit deeper conversations that aren't just about music.
I have four networks now that are all focused on
something a little bit different and realizing that soaking up a little bit of that
digital real estate, even if you don't have all of the content
fleshed out, was the first thing. Go buy the properties, right?
Go, go purchase the things and then you can build on top of that.
So right now the Scene Project Sports Network is really starting to
gain some traction. We're doing pregame shows for NFL teams
and covering some pro wrestling content. I was at a PGA
Tour event earlier this year. It's just been an incredible ride. But
it's also predicated on the fact that one, I
never stop talking, so that helps. And I'm willing to talk to
anyone and support non profit local
charities, local causes, wherever I am. And I think that's
something that podcasters that are either just starting out now
or looking how to elevate their platform. It's really something that you
need to focus on and something we're going to talk a lot about with these
news stories that we have today. And I'm keeping it with music on the
first story. Are you ready to hit the first one? Yeah, let's get into it.
We're going to ska her way. The Grammy
Museum puts women front and center. This comes to us from
MX Dwn. Tonight we skank into history
as the Grammy Museum holds its first ever all female ska
panel. Scott Her Way or Scott Scott or ska.
Featuring icons like Dunia
Best, Gina Rodriguez, Tara Hawn, Karina
Danique, Queen P and more. This
powerhouse LineUp packed the 200 seat Clive Davis Theater
to celebrate women's long overlooked influence across
all Waves of ska, from Jamaica's rebel roots to
two tone to 90s ska punk. And today's revival
stories range from battling sexism to confronting
racism in the scene, to discovering community and empowerment on
stage. It's a reminder that live events still matter. But
put passionate creators in a room, give them a mic, and the
culture reveals itself. And yes, there was even a
podcast tie in with the history of LA SCA series,
proving how live discussions can fuel long term
content and community after the lights go down.
Excuse me, I didn't get enough water before the show today, but
this, this is exactly what Bubba's talking about. This is what
Bubba's doing. You know, we'll elaborate a little on this, a little bit more,
but bringing this community together. And in this case, here's a community that
maybe got overlooked through a movement through, I think in the 90s.
I was listening to the Toasters and you know, these New York City
bands and was there enough recognition and
this was a way to talk about, hey, you know, what we were contributing to
were part of the scene. And not only that, we're probably a bigger
part of the scene than many of the guys are. And this was a great
way to recognize all that talent on, on one single stage
and bring a community of like minded fans together.
Bubba, I mean, if anybody can talk about this story, it's going to be you.
I love what they did here. This is incredible.
Exactly what we were just talking about, right? How do you take these
live events and you're already doing these things and a lot of these panel
or, you know, songwriter showcases or whatever it may be that are taking
place in a live setting, they, they're all it.
A podcast. Podcast is just life, right? Like, it's just
capturing life as we know it. So anytime you can put
a camera in front of somebody or capture the audio and
repurposing that, it's, it's brilliant. When I saw
this first story, I kind of got giddy because
it's exactly the vision that I saw for your space, Jeff.
Yeah, and, and what you're talking about too is, yes,
they had this live event. They had 200 people come out
and they're making multimedia out of one single event.
So you did get the live experience, but they recorded that live experience
to be released, distributed, chopped up into shorts. It could
be used for, for months to come, even to build and
promote the next event that's coming up. And that's one of the
most powerful things about live events is yes, you are getting this
experience that you couldn't get. Just listening to a podcast, you would
never recreate the energy of that room. You could never see the
faces of the people who were answering the questions and how they think in
the moment and how they react to crowd question and how they react to the
fans. You'd only get the audio when you download the MP3
3. But events like this really bring podcasts to life,
right? And I'm not necessarily a podcast purist. To
me, you know, YouTubers and those are
podcasts, right? Like it's, it's all the same to me. I
don't make a differentiation. That may put me in some hot water with
some other people that have been podcasting for 10 years and
feel that it's audio only, but it's content, right?
And anytime that you can make one piece of content into
four different platforms that it can now go to, it can be
live, streamed as, you know, ticketed live event, then
put out as a YouTube program and a podcast.
You're really hitting on all facets of what, you
know, where these people are at. Because everyone consumes content differently,
right? A lot of our YouTube watchers are, aren't
necessarily podcast listeners and vice versa. I was going to say
I was one of those podcast purists that a podcast
has to be an MP3 file distributed by an RSS feed
to an app or, you know, some sort of aggregator. And I held that
position for years. And I wouldn't bend like no matter what
kind of content you produced, you had to have at least
that MP3 element to be a podcast.
And I have changed a full 180 on this position.
I'm so much more interested in the individual creating
their own content and creating their own asset. How they distribute
it and what they call it, I don't care. I want to support those
independent creators who are taking the chance on themselves. They're rolling
the dice for themselves and their future with not answering
to anybody. They're creating their own media
conglomerate, their own media assets, and that's, that's where we
should focus our attention on not getting lost in the woods or in the
weeds about what the definition of a podcast is. And you know,
2017, Jeff would walk up on the stage and slap me and like, well, you're
crazy. And. But this just like Bubba says, not
everybody consumes POD or information the same way. Some people
like to read, some people like to watch videos, some people like audiobooks. There's some
people like reading books. You have to be there in the
way that they want to consume that content and being able to do a live
event, which might be a different way to consume content. People like to get out
of their house. They like to sit down with people, mingle,
have a meet and greet before and after, and then they may go back and
listen to it anyway. I do that all the time. All the stuff I record,
I end up listening to just because I want to remember
that moment. Yeah. And it's not to say that every YouTube
video is a podcast, right? Like, how to's on
YouTube, teaching you how to do something like, that's not a podcast,
but every podcast is a YouTube show,
right? Like, if you're doing. If you're having a
conversation with someone and at this point, because, you know,
webcams are so easy to come by, or your phone,
even if you're just repurposing a Facebook live that you've done, as long
as you're having conversations, to me, that's what a podcast
is. And there's no, there's really no excuse for
anyone who is doing an audio podcast to not turn a
camera on or even just put the audio feed onto the YouTube
channel. You. You have to be everywhere, even if it's just a graphic
rolling, you know, tetragrammatin.
Rick Rubin's podcast is mostly audio now. He has
some video, and they've advanced, but for a long time it was just like a.
A static picture of a TV with like a little sound wave on
it, but people were still there consuming that content
in that fashion. So, yes. Is it perfectly,
you know, you know, symmetrical both ways? I don't think
so. But every podcast should be on YouTube and in all of the
places. Yeah, 100% agree. The, the
barrier to learn audio is, let's. Let's say on a
scale of 1 to 100, that's like 75 to 80
of the hundred of creating a podcast. The amount of
extra effort it takes to do video is only those 20 extra points.
It's not much harder to add video into your podcast if
you get audio right the first time. So figuring out the audio, you have to
have good audio regardless if you're just doing an audio podcast or a
video podcast. But the skill level to add that video
in isn't anywhere near as difficult as just doing
the audio. So if you already got to the point where you have the audio
done, like Bubba says, turn on a camera, you'll get better and
better each time you do it. You'll figure out different things, different lighting,
different positioning, but it doesn't take much more effort
to just add that video. Technically, no. Right.
Like the technical side of it is not much harder. Now, does it take some
getting used to talking into a camera? I mean, I was even guilty of it
early on until somebody made it a point to me that I had a bad
habit of looking at the screen that was above my webcam.
Right. And, and looking at the person who can't see me anyway.
But I'm trying to engage with them as if I were in the room with
them. I'm trying to look them in the eyes even though their eyes can't see
my eyes. So I had to be trained on, hey, look into the
camera when you're talking and to become a little bit of a
TV personality and to bring those elements in.
But you'll learn it. You can learn those sides exactly what
you said there. There's this much more technical knowledge that
you have to have now. Can you get better at that? Can you bring more
cameras and have camera switchers and do a lot more production behind
the scenes, getting higher quality cameras? But if you have a 4K
webcam at this point, you can make some pretty good quality content
from your studio or wherever you're producing your content from on
audio. Absolutely. That's. Let's keep that momentum
going to Story number two comes to us from
Buffalo Rising Anna Gasteyer brings the booze, the
brass and the big holiday energy Comedy legend
Anna Gasteyer is bring is trading SNL sketches for
Santa hats as she takes her holiday show Sugar and
Booze, a holiday spectacular to Rockwell hall
in Buffalo on December 13th. Known for her
jazz infused holiday album and her love of in the room
moments, Gasteyer says live performance is
her natural habitat where the audience becomes
a full blown character, shaping the time in chemistry and chaos.
Her holiday spectacular blends storytelling, big band
swagger, prizes, cocktails and just enough mischief to make
even the grinchiest grinch crack a smile. And
while the show is cozy and nostalgic, its message is
timely. In a world glued to screens, people are
craving shared energy, connection and a reason to laugh together.
Something podcasters can absolutely take the heart when crafting
their own live experiences. You want to take this one first,
Bubba? First of all, I love
her. She is so funny and such a great
comedic actor and to see that
she's bringing this out into the live and bringing
it to podcasting and all the things, it's so
cool and I hope this is really a trend for a lot
of other people in the world and a lot of other
comedians and everyone Just like bring us more content.
And I think that with the.
With the success of a lot of these comedians
releasing their clips out on social media and they're growing their
fan bases in that way, I think you're going to continue to see this trend
of even the top notch. I mean, this woman's been on SNL for
Dec. A decade or more. I. I do believe. Right. And
bringing that. When you have these upper echelon of performers
starting to do it, I think the rest of the industry starts to follow suit.
So I'm really excited about this. And the audience as a
character is such a cool point that I don't think
we've really thought about because most of our lives, at
least for guys our age, Jeff, that it's always
been that. But I don't think we identified that audience as a character.
Right. And really thought about it that way. But it
truly is an audience can dictate
the whole entire show. Some audiences are receptive and almost
have a barrier up that no matter what you throw at them, they don't
want it. You know, they're just, you got to figure out, how do I crack
that wall. Some audiences are the easiest audiences you've ever performed
for, where everybody's laughing, clapping, they're having a good time, and
that energy comes back to the stage. If the
performer's struggling because the audience isn't receptive, that makes the
show a lot more difficult that when the audience. You treat the audience like
this character, like, okay, this is a fun, happy person.
This is a grumpy, miserable person. And you can feed off that energy
and try to move the crowd around to have the show that you
want to have. And you know what we see with these celebrities
and actors and musicians who already have an established
base, they're doing what you're saying. They're building these giant
events, they're filling theaters and arenas, and they're really
laying the foundation for other people to start doing
their own live podcast. What we saw here at the
theater was there's two groups of people right now. There's the people
who record in their home studios and their basements and maybe a home office.
And then there's people who are like Anna are filling
arenas and theaters, but there's nothing in between. So
how do those smaller independent podcasters get to
Madison Square Garden? You get to the Benedam center in
Pittsburgh. We have to have some sort of middle ground. And I
think when we see these celebrities doing these big events, they're showing the
public that podcasting is A form of entertainment.
You can do this. Like, if you're doing this at home, why not
try a local bar or a restaurant or a coffee shop in your community
and try to do your show live. Take that first step
to being a bigger and better show. You'll love it, I promise.
Everybody who's done a live show, at least here at the theater and around, we've
done some around coffee shops and restaurants, they have the
greatest time meeting new people and performing their show in front of people,
even if it's only 10 or 15 people. It's a completely different
way to present your podcast. A completely new form of
entertainment that most people haven't even thought of. And when we see these
bigger events happening, that really is that plow,
that groundwork being laid so that other people can follow
in the footsteps. And if you're not aware of how much is
happening already, go back. I have 30 episodes of
six live news stories each right now. There's 180
examples I'm giving you of this is a form of entertainment that is
happening now and it's happening in a big way. And, and Anna's cashing
in on it. Yeah. Tony Hinchcliffe sold out
Madison Square Garden in a podcast that started to
like eight people with some comedians doing one minute
bits at the original room at, you know, in Los
Angeles at the Comedy Store. Right now they've moved on and
it's at the Comedy Mothership in Austin, Joe Rogan's club. But
I pull a lot of in inspiration from what I've watched
them build. I was a huge fan of the show. I watched it growing and
growing and to see what they've done over
the last, you know, year or two, to bring that into
bigger and bigger, I mean, stadiums now, right?
Msg, come on. It doesn't get any bigger than that.
It's just incredible to see what can be done. But also,
he showed up every Single Monday for 10 years
before that ever came about. Right. And I think
that's most people don't have the stomach to do it
for no one. And what is great about the live setting for
these is you get that instant feedback if you're just in your,
you know, your spare bedroom or your basement or your detached
garage like I am, and you're doing this and you're not getting the
downloads and you're not, you know, you're having great conversations
because we all know that feeling as podcasters. After you had a great conversation,
you're like, that was awesome. Right? That's what got Me addicted to
podcasting was that. That was great. I learned something new about
you that changed my life because of what I've learned
about my guests or what they've been able to learn about me.
Now you're amplifying that. Even if it's only two, five people in a
coffee shop, you're getting that reaction and connection
with those other individuals. And that's what we're
craving and something that this article alluded to. People are
craving personal connection with human beings.
Again, we have become so detached by. By
contributing all of our time to these things. Right. And spending all
of this time, how do we start to use them to find other
humans that we want to connect with? And I think guys like me and you,
Jeff, like, we've kind of used these social networks and things to
connect with other podcasters or fans or
building something in the real world. Not everyone
does that. Right. A lot of people are just kind of doom scrolling
around. How do we get them off? Well, you have to meet them where they're
at first, but then you have to give them the opportunity to
come out and to join you without a lot of barriers to that, whether
it's cost or it's travel. So having more
live podcasting events by whoever is doing them is
not just growing our industry, but it's changing the world.
Yeah. There is a wave of people waking up
from their phone addiction. And ironically, I really
think AI is the thing that's waking people
up. I talked about this before, this theory that I have
that, like you mentioned, doom scrolling. It's so simple. But now
we're getting this AI slop in our doom scrolling and
when you find out that something's AI, you kind of feel duped. You feel like,
ah, that wasn't real, or it gives you a gross feeling
that you're watching this stuff that has really
no human connection. It just looks like it's something that could be
real and that is filling social media
and people do not like it. And I think that's the thing,
the catalyst that's waking people up from, like, what am I doing?
I work all day, I come home, I sit on my phone for four or
five hours, and then I fall asleep. What kind of life am I
living? I'm by myself. Even if we have a family
of four people, you're probably alone in that house on your phone,
and people are rejecting this in droves.
And these types of events that Bubba's doing, that I'm doing, that people are doing
all over the country are going to have an
avalanche of people who start coming to these events.
I've been saying I'm maybe I'm a little bit ahead of the curve and I
know that what I've built is something special and people are starting to trickle
in. But it's, it's going to come fast. And if you're in
a position where you've been creating content for years, this is the time to
start thinking about community events, community theaters, community
spaces, and where can you do your show, how can you adapt your
show to a live audience? And that's going
to take us to our next story because this is one that I love
finding stories that you file under. I never expected that
industry to have a podcast and this one is
in the watch industry. Timekeepers and truth
tellers, Vintage watches take the stage in New York
City. This comes in from Hodenke in New York City. The
Business of Watches podcast brought collectors together for a live
recorded conversation with James Lambden, founder of
Analog Shift and longtime co creator of the Red Bar Meetup
Community. Speaking in front of a packed audience at UBS
House of Craft, Lambdon broke down the vintage and pre owned
market from value swings to the rise of big retail players
while explaining why not all
authenticity guarantees are created equal.
The event blended market wisdom, storytelling, audience Q and
A. Proving once again that niche experts shine
brightest in live settings where passionate fans can ask real
questions. That's a very important part of the story. It's a
great reminder that a podcast becomes more than a podcast
when you bring your community into the room and let
curiosity shape the show. And you know this, you
know, here's an industry. I know people are passionate about watches. People spend a lot
of money collecting watches. But I never would have thought that
this is an industry that needs a podcast or here's an event where we
can bring people together. And these people are capitalizing on
this. They're probably retailers and collectors.
So keep that in mind. Maybe your business is in some sort of industry. Well,
there's fans of that industry, people who love that. And they're doing an
event where they're bringing watch collectors together, watch
retailers together, putting them in a room and they're just talking about this
one thing. They love this one accessory that goes on your
wrist. They've made a whole little media empire out of it.
It's brilliant. I think it's, it's so
interesting. I'm not a watch guy. I've never had the money to be a
watch guy. But
every niche has die hard
fans. Right now we have some Pretty big brands out there in the world,
the NFL being one of the top, that have millions of
fans. But even the watch community probably has several hundred thousand
people worldwide that are rabid about
watches and everything that goes on with them. And you even
think back to, you know, before pre
Internet, that there was people that were writing books on these things and there were
people that were buying those books. And
this isn't something necessarily new. It's just a
new form of media that's getting it out there.
I love this, Jeff. I don't know how you feel about it, but I think
this is so cool. Yeah, you mentioned a really cool thing
about, you know, people used to read books, but now they can go experience the
book. You know, they can see the retail value in real person and.
And have this immersive event I was watching a few episodes of.
Billy Corgan has a podcast, and he did a great one with Devo.
And I just started thinking about his business model of
his podcast, where he's brought these rock legends on
Devo, and he's just talking about the history, how they got started, what some
of the meanings behind the songs were. And just like you said, there's.
What he's doing is what we would have read in a Rolling Stone magazine as
a static article. Instead of reading that article,
I'm experiencing the article live as the author,
Billy Corgan is interviewing the band Devo.
It's like you're reading this immersive Rolling Stone article
in video form, and that's what these events are like.
You could read a book, a trade publication, about how much is a
1920 Timex or Rolex worth? You know,
with the gold plate. I don't even know anything about watches either. But you could
read a book and get a value, or you could talk to people who are
actually doing it in this immersive event. And,
you know, I just love that. I didn't expect to find a Watch
podcast this week. Right. Well, because we're not watch people.
We're not looking for it. And you mentioned something off the top of
the show that, like, because you love something, there's a pretty good
chance that other people love that too. Why not talk about
it? And if you're already having these committees, which it seemed like they were
from this story, that they were already doing these smaller meetups and doing
Q&As and things like that. The podcasting element of it
is literally somebody just showing up with a camera or a microphone
and recording it and then putting that content out there
as a show and doing a little bit of polish to say, hey, here's something
you might be interested in. Side note, huge Billy Corgan
fan. So I'm gonna have to have you send me a link to this new
one. I listened to his Whole33 podcast where he went
over his songs on his new album and told the stories behind
this massive album with a couple of his
hosts from his wrestling outfit that came on and
hosted the the podcast. I'm thrilled to hear that he's doing that. I grew up
a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan. Family's from the Chicago area, so a little
bit of regional bias there. But Billy is such an
incredible and a deep individual that
I bet it's awesome conversations that he's having with some of these other rock
legends. Yeah, the questions are really great and deep.
He's one of those interviewers that can meander a question through a story.
That's like my favorite type of question to ask when you're, you're kind of
figuring things out as you're asking the question and you,
I think if, if you like Billy Corgan, I think you'll really like the series
and it's a. Lot of the same elements of what would make his. Now I
haven't been on the biggest stages in the world and been a number one, you
know, chart topping artist, but that's the reason that I feel
my show with the Scene projects brings so much
value to the music community. Because I'm not asking
top, top level questions, right. I can get very in the
way. I've been there and done that. I'm a songwriter myself. I know what it
takes to be inspired to write something or touring. And I'm
not asking the superficial type questions that someone who's
not in the industry would be asking. And that's what makes our show
very interesting. And I imagine with Billy Corgan it's even more so
because the man has been there and done all of it. He's one of the
biggest rock stars that we have on the planet. Still,
speaking of big rock stars, how about a 14 year old
live streaming to 15,000 people with the Pope?
We have the Pope on the line. A 14 year old goes live with
15,000 people watching from the Baltimore sun
in Indianapolis, a national audience watched a remarkable first
Pope Leo the 14th taking questions digitally from
US students, including 14 year old Mia Smothers of
Baltimore, live streamed from the National Catholic Youth
Conference to a cheering auditorium back home.
Mia, one of five students selected
nationwide, opened the Q and A with a vulnerable question about mistakes
and mercy, prompting the Pope to speak about forgiveness, hope,
and a reality that sin has never sin never has.
The final word. With 15,000 people in the room
and countless others streaming worldwide, this moment showed
how powerful remote engagement can be when tech,
tradition and community collide. It also shows how a
simple digital connection, just one kid with one question,
can turn into a global shared experience that
feels as live as and electric as
any stage performance. And this is, this is
like we are at the peak of technology right now. Can you
imagine? We have the technology in our houses to
connect the world together. You can go live with your
computer, your microphone, your camera, and you could have just as
much technology as made this event happen. And that
this theater, I always joke, this theater is like a place portal to the world.
If you, if you remember Star Trek, they would always go down to that little
place. They say, beam me up, Scotty. Well, this stage is just like
that, because when you're watching Bubba's over here to my left on the
stage, even though he's in South Dakota. We have people leaving comments.
We have questions coming in. If we were open to the public right now,
the lot, the studio audience could be asking Bubba questions.
From Tarentum here outside of Pittsburgh to South Dakota, this
really becomes this full circle. And that's what this
conference capitalized on. They had everybody together,
15,000 people in a room, and they're like, hey, we're gonna ask, we're just gonna
ask the Pope some questions. Well,
and we are, in our lifetimes, we're going to see the
quantum world become a reality. And then you're talking about
instantaneous transfer of information to
where, Jeff, I, I will be looking like I'm
sitting next to you, holographic and those kind of things.
We are going to see it in our lifetime. I know it seems far
off, but I just read something yesterday that
China's deploying robots to, to patrol their borders now.
So I think the future is a lot closer
than we even think about. And exactly what you said about that stage,
exactly why, when I saw it and your whole concept, it's why I got
it, because I've had the opportunity with my podcasting
journey, to interview some really smart people. Now, South
Dakota may be, you know, 20 years behind the times in most
things, but because of the Internet, I'm able to stay on the forefront
of technology. And this is incredible. I, I.
And look what it became. And we're seeing. And children ask
the best questions, don't they? I mean, that's what it comes down to. Yeah, that
connection in real time, you just can't, you couldn't have done
that 20 years ago. And now you have the power to just do that in
your home. And that's what's the important takeaway here, is
what you mentioned. Let me two takeaways. I want to go back to something you
said. AI and China, robots controlling the border.
Now we know that there's a wave of AI going
to, that's going to replace white collar workers. They're going
to just wipe people out. You know, an AI can read a
spreadsheet better than, you know, 10 accountants. So we know
that some point corporations aren't going to side with people, they'll side with profits.
They have a history of doing that. So we know that they're probably going to
replace a substantial portion of the workforce. But what
AI can't replace is you and your authenticity.
If you have a show, you have an asset. If you have
a community, you have an asset. AI can't replace
you on stage. Entertaining people, never. One of the reasons
I built this theater was to diversify.
You know, I can, yes, I have an income from a job, but I have
an income from a theater and I can build on that and that can become
something bigger and that nobody can take this away. AI
cannot recreate a real life in person experience.
And, and if you have something like that, the passion that
Bubba has for, for sports and music, he's building an
asset that can't be replaced by AI I'm
doing the thing with the theater and I'm helping small creators do things that
can't be replaced by AI and this event with 15,000
people of like minded thoughts of faith, they're coming
together and they're, they're interviewing the Pope, like, which is crazy
to think that that's even something that was possible for a 14 year old 25
years ago. But here we are in a time where
these authentic in person events mean
so much to so many people. It's incredible what we
can do. Now most of my show is built off of
over the Internet interviews. Now I have live events that I've filmed
and things that we've done. But most of what I've done has never been in
a traditional studio. Another reason why I fell in love
with your theater is like, oh man, I would love to shoot content there, right?
And all I have to do is really show up because you've done everything, all
the cameras and the space and everything is already there. You just have to
show up and have conversations. That's What I'm
trying to work into and build a network of theaters like
yours that I can just travel around, talk to the people and
organize events around those places. Because at its essence,
AI is always going to be artificial. It's not
going to be interactive and to be so.
And we use a lot of AI to amplify what we're doing for a
lot of our. Not necessarily content creation, but for the editing process
and a lot of these things because I couldn't afford to pay
a human being to spend the hours and hours and hours it would take them
to do it when the AI can do it in a matter of minutes.
Now, is it going to replace me as the host and as the
networker or who finds all the people? No, it can never do that.
You have to put in the work to make AI
an asset like I use it. I'm. This theater is basically a one
person show. I was telling Bubba beforehand, I'm here by myself. I ran the song
before I got the recording going. We got all these things happening and it's
just me right now in the theater running things. And a large portion of
that is AI I give Bubba, he got a 12 page document about
the stories that we're covering, where I have my teleprompter page in giant
18 point font and then I have bullet points of things that are
related to the show as a fallback in case we get lost or
something to come back on. But in the theme song, I always get nervous playing
the theme song for musicians because I'm like, hey, yeah, I used AI to create
that theme song. But I need those things to be able
to bring this thing to life. This is kind of like the
prototype, the proof of concept. And as this grows, I'm
going to use less and less AI and rely more and more on people.
This is a community event, a community space. But if you have the
knowledge, you can use AI to amplify that knowledge. You
can't use AI to become something better, but you can use
AI to be a better person. So what do I mean by that? If. If
you. If I didn't know anything about nuclear physics and I wanted to just go
into AI and ask it about nuclear physics, I could get some
very basic explanation and then that would be the extent
of my knowledge. I wouldn't know anything more. But if I'm building a theater and
I'm entertaining people, and as I do that more and more, I'm getting
more and more knowledge about ticket sales, about event planning, and I start
to put that back into AI, my experience. AI is going
to amplify my knowledge and experience because I have it already.
And it's going to allow me to do more and more things by myself
because I have the foundation. So
we say don't just be that person that relies on AI to
be somebody. Be the person first and then become a
thousand times better through the use of AI. But you have to
have a foundation. You have to have something to
amplify. You have to bring in something
to feed this. And for me, I'm recording sometimes
five, six interviews in a day. There's no way
I would have the time to sit down and meticulously edit
all of these things. I use a service called Podcast AI that
does all of it for me. So all I have to do is record it,
plug it in, it runs all of it, it chops it all up into shorts.
Jeff and it's done in a matter of minutes. I could never
replicate that. And I paid humans to do this. I couldn't afford it.
Right. Especially as these ideas are new and are not
making any money. I can't wait for the sponsor support to be able
to pay for this. You know, so many hours of this human being's
time to do those things. What I would like to do is to get so
big that I have to pay a human being to do the copy and pasting
that I'm doing now so that I can have more conversations.
Absolutely. Speaking of energy hogs, I don't know if it's. That's a terrible
transition. But we're going to go to our fifth story tonight
about EVs plugged in and powered up.
V2G takes the live stage in Melbourne. This comes to
us from the Driven at the Everything Electric show in
Melbourne. The Driven podcast went live to break down
the future shaping potential of Vehicle to grid technology,
or V2G for short, which allows electric vehicles to
feed power back into Australia's clean energy
network. Recorded on site with an engaged audience,
the episode explored how EV owners could eventually support the grid,
lower energy bills and help stabilize renewable power
during peak times. It's a perfect example of how taking a
podcast into a live environment elevates the conversation.
Real time reactions, hands on demos, and a
tech savvy crowd that's eager to ask questions and challenge assumptions.
When you put innovation on stage, you don't just inform,
you energize. And I work in the automotive industry, so I
always, I always come to these stories with a little bit of skepticism. If, if
you had to charge your EV to get a full battery.
And then a lot of cars do integrate with houses. Now if there's a power
outage, you can plug your EV into the house. Isn't it just going to
drain the battery? That even though you're giving it back to the grid? I'm not
sure how you get more energy into the car. But now I
challenge any electric vehicle to run when it's negative 30
here in South Dakota for two weeks straight in February
and to maintain its ability. So is EV
the end all be all? I don't think so. But things like this
to reduce emissions and to bring these kind of. How
cool. And then not only are they talking about it, because
what would usually happen is that these smart people are all in a room
talking to each other, and then that conversation never leaves that room.
Now, because it's a podcast that it goes out there. And even
though we might be too stupid to understand what they're saying, we at
least are informed about what could be coming in the future.
And if we are so inclined to research
and study this and get more, you know, informed on it
now, at least we know what's out there. Where even five years
ago, this would have never hit the market. Yeah, it would have
been buried in a trade publication or only a small event at
a conference. But because they're recording it and broadcasting it and extending the
reach of that conference is another benefit of doing these live
shows at an event is you're extending the reach of that event.
Exactly. And now it's on a show that's talking mostly just about
podcasting in the news. But now we've brought this out and we're
introducing it to other people that would never have an idea what
this is. And maybe that person that hears about this
story from our show is the next person that has the
big idea. Well, well, why wouldn't they do this? Right? We don't know what electrical
engineer might be consuming our content on a whim on a Saturday
morning that becomes a catalyst in this next
big idea. It's incredible what's happening. I say it all the time on my
show, Jeff, that podcasting is how the world is healing itself.
It's changing the world in every single conversation, and you just
don't know what that is. So keep talking and keep
podcasting. There's no better way to spread
information. And I realize why I picked this, because I do like the next
story of Climate Town. Climatown is a
YouTube channel that does these really snarky
stories about the environment. It's amazing YouTube
show, but I was must have been going with an environmental theme to close out
the show and Climatown is going live. This is a YouTube channel
doing a one night only at SF Sketch Fest. This comes to us from
Eventbrite. Climatown, the YouTube powerhouse known for
turning climate science into razor sharp comedy is
taking its research fueled chaos to the Great Star theater for a one
night only live show at the San Francisco Sketchfest on
January 21st. Raleigh Williams and Matt Nelson will
perform a full episode before it hits YouTube and
promise they'll never perform that version live again. With
600,000 subscribers and millions of views, this is a chance
for fans to see climatown's blend of humor, activism
and deep dives in a totally new format. It's a perfect
reminder how creators can reward superfans with exclusive
live experiences. That feels special, unrepeatable,
and worth the ticket. The kind of moment that turns
a passive viewer into an active community member.
You want to start off our last story? This is really cool because
it is coming from the podcasting side first
and the YouTuber side First and now bringing that into a live
setting. So this is really cool to me to see that people
are getting it from both sides of the aisle now and
bringing that out. Man, how cool would it have been if MythBusters was a live
show? Yeah, I would, I would have went if they would have toured the country.
I know they did do some like special appearances, but had they gone on
tour, even if it was the same show in every city, I still would
have went. Yeah, you would have followed them around from city to
city because you're never going to get because of the live
format and because every audience is its own
entity and is its own character in the story. It's
always going to be different. And, and I saw this from
a. I was in a battle of the bands up in Minnesota
last year. Now, my band didn't win, but I saw what they had done and
I was like, you could recreate, you could take all the same bands on
tour and because you're doing it, you know, part of the judging is off
of crowd participation or interaction that you could
shake it up, redo the order of the
performers, redo the, you know, the crowd and
different judges and you could get a different winner every single week.
Taking something like that on the road. This is, you know,
while not the same thing, is really cool to see that people are getting
it and are bringing their content out into it,
rewarding their fans that have been with them. I mean, 600,
000 subscribers on YouTube is huge. You know, that's not the
biggest, but that's massive for someone who's independently creating
media. That's a massive fan base. And now you're able to reward
some of those listeners and viewers by bringing them in.
And they get to be in the room with these people where they felt like
they've been in the room with them for years possibly,
but now you actually get to shake their hand and look them in the eye
and to tell them thank you and you get to enjoy the show too. I
think that's so awesome. Yeah. When you watch the YouTube channel, you,
you know, this is a polish. They took multiple takes, they,
they wanted to get the storytelling perfect and now they're going to
like, hey, let's try this in a live environment. You get one
take, one shot and you know you're going to make mistakes in a live environment.
I made some today, but we keep the show rolling. And
if you've watched Raleigh do his even on the
show on the YouTube channel, you could tell it's, it's a little
crazy, it's a little close to the edge on some of the takes and it's
a very well done show and one that I do enjoy. And for
$35 you can spend a night, probably a
90 minute, two hour show of them putting this together
and you get to see how, you know, how it works in real time, how
they react off each other. And seeing something
that you watch, you know, perfectly polished on YouTube, then
seeing live is a whole new experience. If we talk about the great bands
of the 80s when I was a kid that, that were touring, you know, we
heard Bon Jovi on the radio every day. But I got to see
Bon Jovi with Cinderella at the Civic arena in like
1986. And it was, it was so amazing
to see these people who were, you've heard on the radio, you saw on
mtv and then they're in front of you on the stage, you're like, cut
it out. This is ridiculous. I can't believe I'm seeing them
perform these hit songs live. And, and that's what we're seeing with
podcasters, that's what we're seeing with YouTubers. They're taking their talents to
the stage and amplifying that, that audience experience.
And that's a two way street. As someone who spent time on stage
for most of my life at this point, I can attest
to that. But also I saw an interview with James Hetfield, the, you know,
lead singer of Metallica, who's been doing this and at the top of the rock
world, a legend in his field. And the interviewer asked
him, like, what. What keeps you guys going? You know, you've been doing this for
a long time. You've played all the biggest. Like, you've done it all.
What keeps you going? And he's like, the people. The fact that I can
look out there, lock eyes with one person, and to see them light
up charges me up. I'm ready to go. And I want to deliver
the. The performance of a lifetime every single
time that happens. And. And that's a not going back to AI. AI can't
replace that. It cannot replace human interaction
and. And connection with another human being.
And it's really cool to see that people who have grown
a large fan base online are now getting to bring that
into a live setting. And maybe it's their first time doing a
live thing like this ever. And they're going to be in a room full of
their fans, and they're going to get that feeling that I've gotten on
stage performing for thousands of people.
It's pretty incredible. Yeah. Nothing replicates
coming off stage after performing to a live crowd. And
if you're going to perform to a live crowd, no one better to talk to.
Bubba starts. Bubba. That's going to wrap up the show. We didn't tell
people how to connect with you, where to find you. What's the best way to
find your sports show, your. Your music shows?
You find everything@the sceneprojects.com we're
all over YouTube. That's where we're definitely trying to grow the most right now. I
want to hit that 500 subscriber mark by the end of the year. I think
we only need about 69 more. Nice.
And we're gonna keep on pushing, so. Appreciate you having
me on, Jeff. This was so much fun. I can't believe it's over already.
It does. It goes so fast. You never know. You know, for
an hour like that was our show, almost felt like it was like five minutes.
But yeah, I'll put all those links in the show notes. Make sure you check
out Bubba support what he's doing, not just in South Dakota, but doing
those tours all around the area, the Midwest. I'm sure you
have some dates coming up. We'll find those on the website. The links in
the show notes. That means I'm going to. Oh, my plugs. I got
Poduty shirts, $10, four colors, five sizes
to get the early bird price. I'm just selling them for 10 bucks. I want
to see them out in the public and see people wearing them and rocking them.
And they just arrived last Saturday. Poduty
hats are here. You can get your Poduty hat. They're in the
snapback. It says a snapback on the picture there. That must
be the style of hat. And we got some upcoming shows. We got the Pittsburgh
Podcast meetup. You can watch it in the theater. It's free
6pm next Saturday, December 6th. Or if you can't make it to
Pittsburgh, watch the live stream at 7pm I live streamed one hour.
It's the Q and A portion where we we tackle your most
pressing podcast questions. We go anything from what's
an MP3 file to how do I distribute through an RSS
feed is a video, a podcast, even questions that we answer. Today
we've got the Jingle Bell Jam. We got a talent show Dec. 20 from
6. 8pm this benefits the local food
bank and the Knead Cafe, which is a donation
based cafe. It also supports
other food initiatives. They have a community dinner that they do once
a month. It's the Knead Cafe, ironically
started by Bon Jovi, another two Bon Jovi references in one show.
We've got the audio fiction primary. If you don't like just
talking into a microphone and telling stories, well, you could write a drama.
And Jessica Sutton is going to show you how to do this after Christmas. It's
the Saturday after Christmas and we got the humorous podcast.
I'll tell you what's not humorous. Me coughing on the microphone. It's coming up
in 2026. We'll have dates and deets
at poduty.com P O-D-U-T-Y.com
Bubba, thank you again for joining me. This was everything I hope to be
and so much more. This was a total blast.
I had so much fun, Jeff. And I just want to tell you, I'm so
proud of you, man. What, what you're building is not just important,
but it's really entertaining. And I hope people show up for you
and start filling up that theater and continue to support everything that
you're doing. Thanks for having me. You're welcome. If they, if you
build it, they will come. And I've got one last question for you.
What time is it?
What. Time is
it?
The only live news podcast about
podcasting from the stage.
Day.
The only live news podcast about
podcasting from the stage.
The only live news podcast about podcasting. Yeah,
dude. If you asked anyone to create that for you as a
musician, they'd be like this guy. I'm not doing that. Why do
we want that song again? You want me to say what?
How to Poduty? No. What's up? Poduty? I don't
even know. It sounds like what my cat left in my garage
for me earlier today. Oh, my God. I'm gonna get canceled.
So we had an outdoor cat that I've been feeding, and it's getting cold now,
so I was like, okay, you can stay in. She usually goes outside and uses
the bathroom. And I opened my door to the garage today, and I was like,
oh, she. There's cat in here. There's cat I should have put a box
in for, but she'd been good. But it was me. I'll find a big. I
was like. This man was the size of a dog's. Like, what are you eating
out there? Yeah, I'm burning sage in here.
And that's a super Poduty,
dude. What a cool show, man.