An Interview With Pop Culture Cosmos



Pop Culture Cosmos, the maker of podcasts in all realms of the entertainment industry, was kind enough to allow us to interview them. This is a pivotal time for them, as they have now launched the brand-new popculturecosmos.com. Make sure to visit their new site and read their content/listen to their podcasts at any time.

Q: When did you first get the idea for Pop Culture Cosmos?
A: When I look more retrospectively into it, I guess I've been fascinated by the influences that pop culture has had on our society within recent years. It's possible it may stem from its iconic entertainment outlets and foundations created and developed in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Or it could be how many these pop culture elements have captured our imagination today as our technology and desire to broaden our horizons continue to shape the way we perceive elements of our society now or what we would like them to be in the future. Either way pop culture has time and again been a resource for conversation and further investigation for myself and others as we try to decipher what makes many of these elements connect (or do not connect) with audiences and how that will set up a future for many of these entertainment intellectual properties.

At the tail end of our first run with the Game Source Podcasts, I started doing shows with my fellow National University Alum Josh Pederson where our shows started to become much less contained within the video game space. And as I was doing them, I started to bounce off of Josh if we could together craft a show where it had no boundaries on what aspects of pop culture we could talk about and try to find as many outlets as we could that would want to hear it. After speaking with Josh, I sat down with my friend (Nintendo Quest and Missing Mom Director) Rob McCallum who had been a frequent guest and approached him on the prospect of marketing something like this to not only a podcast but a family-friendly form that I believed would eventually reach a wider audience. After describing how to vast we wanted the subjects to be, he came up with the name and dare I say the rest is internet history.

Q: You seem to retweet some material on Twitter. Do you have any criteria as to what you decide to retweet?

One of the first goals of Game Source was to try and get our audience up to speed on the latest news and information on the video game scene. At first, we would write the articles ourselves but in this fast-paced "gotta have it now" world we live in I found it easier to share a great deal of the information off of reputable news organizations and give the audience an idea of items in the video game space they would or should care about. As Game Source has continued on social media due to its large amount of followers and additionally added Pop Culture Cosmos the same concepts apply when searching out for informative, interesting and entertaining ideas to report on. While I do try to share the latest news and information I also try to look for and enlighten our followers with items that deal with the business and analytical side of these pop culture items and trends as well to emphasize what impact they might have on our audience. What I share to social media also has given me the basis for much of the material I need to research and investigate in order to provide our listeners with a better product when it comes to our podcasts. I think it has made for a good blend over the years with whomever I'm on these shows with as it provides an interesting look from not only a fan's perspective of the here and now but someone talking about the possible future of whatever pop culture topic we are speaking about.

Q: What was the first podcast series you made? Why did you decide to expand past that format?

Since 2007, I have been heavily involved with the video game marketplace to the point where the idea of committing to creating a service devoted to providing information on the gaming scene became a reality and Game Source, our original format was born. In 2009, we started creating regular podcasts devoted to video game information and opinion which became a success in its own right with regular contributors and a volunteer staff that grew at one time into the twenties. But as someone who has lived through so much of what has become our popular culture, I like so many others found myself regularly in life talking about what was going on with Star Wars, Marvel, Television, Sports, Science Fiction, Collectibles, E-Sports, Consumer Electronics and other items along with video games that eventually these  general conversations found their way into our Game Source Podcasts (tinyurl.com/yc2ub2zg). About one hundred plus episodes in (and over a hundred more side podcasts) it seemed inevitable to start thinking about how we could grow as podcasters and journalists and start evolving more of the aspects of pop culture we like to talk about in daily life into our shows.

The only sad part was when Pop Culture Cosmos was starting to get noticed and I made the decision to leave many aspects of Game Source behind (i.e. the podcasts, website, etc.) that was a decision that many great people I was working alongside disagreed with. I truly miss hearing their outstanding thoughts or reading and seeing the tremendous contributions they would make because of their devout love for the video game genre. But it's not like we just stopped talking about video games because we still devote a great deal of time to them on our programs. And while the complexities and time consumption of life and family have taken some into a new direction, for others I would imagine since our focus is not 100% video game-centric they decided to move on to other challenges which I have the utmost respect and wish them well on. One of the most gratifying parts of my last ten years doing this is meeting so many great people and watching them volunteer to be a part of and contribute to either Game Source then or Pop Culture Cosmos now has been an awesome experience and I will forever be grateful for their time and effort.

Upon looking back and also reflecting with Josh, we still feel that this was the best decision we could make with the direction of Pop Culture Cosmos. Josh and I still can devote time to video game focused podcasts but our work with the PCC has given us a great opportunity to meet and interview a wide amount of awesome people from all walks of life (including the great folks at the TVRG) from all around the world we probably would not have if we just had concentrated on one particular genre. And for the most part, it has worked out even more than I ever would have thought as in our early search for radio stations, we sought out The Podcast Radio Network and was fortunate enough to convince owner John Sweeney to start playing our Monday program. Two additional shows to the network, hundreds of thousands of listeners and almost two years as the #1 show on the station later and I think I am finally convinced we made the right decision to move forward with our view of the pop culture universe.

Q: Where can your podcasts be found?

We are extremely fortunate to be on fifteen radio stations (both over the air and internet) around the world in places like the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia which replay our shows seven days a week which is really cool that each day someone can hear our show on one of their favorite stations. Now, we are always looking to expand that radio audience and connect with even more listeners in the future by hopefully adding even more radio stations our audience can choose from. Additionally, our shows can be played at any time on the Pop Culture Cosmos channel on any one of over thirty (at least that was the last time I counted) different podcast networks and outlets with some familiar names being Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Anchor, Podchaser and our home base on Podbean. We even have the support of awesome groups like the ESO Network, We Be Geeks, Goona Geek and Tangent-Bound Network options that are pop culture focused to make it even cooler. It's easy to find our shows by just typing or saying "Pop Culture Cosmos" on Google or any search assistant or one can check out our pinned posted schedule with a listing and links of many of those outlets on our Pop Culture Cosmos and Game Source Facebook Page.

Q: What type of articles do you typically write, and how often do you write?

I will be the first to tell you that as a Journalism major (graduated 2017 a year after Josh) I should be writing a lot more than I am currently. The time it has taken trying to grow and provide continual quality content to the Pop Culture Cosmos channel and also be there for my incredible family has kept me from writing as much as I should because feature writing is something that I have found I truly enjoyed over the years. That will change soon however as we just launched a popculturecosmos.com site with an enhanced look and even more pop culture articles that will hopefully give those a better understanding of what we at PCC love about our entertainment world. For now, I have quite a few articles, opinions and reviews that are up at popculturecosmos.wordpress.com.

Q: Have you ever been nominated for any awards?

It's always awesome when we get positive acknowledgment out there on social media as we have on our shows and all the five-star reviews on Apple podcasts and Podchaser. To answer your question, we were humbled in 2017 when the Pop Culture Cosmos Show was nominated for the Discover Pods Awards in the Best Society and Culture Podcast and although we did not win at the very least it gave us a sense that we are doing something that is appreciated  by both the general listener and the podcast critics out there and we hope that it will be that start of a larger appreciation for our content going forward.

Q: Who are some of the guests you have had on our podcasts a lot?

When it comes to a show like ours, you're almost expected to not only be able to have hosts that can speak intelligently about a lot of pop culture topics but also have the ability to provide interviews that capture the listener's attention. In the two-plus years of the program, we have been able to speak to a tremendous array of informative people from all over the world talking about so many different pop culture topics. As always we truly appreciate anyone who takes time out of their day to talk to us and while those we are able to speak to once or occasionally are always awesome to have on our shows it's those who want to keep on coming back regularly when asked (or who even approach us) that makes us feel like being on our show is something pretty special for them to do.

Our most frequently recurring spots are occupied by Rob McCallum, who continually astounds our audience with his views of the pop culture universe. Also our fantasy football expert Tyler Baker, whose strategic and analytic acumen has helped hundreds of league owners worldwide. With both, having provided for some awesome conversations regularly ("The Cosmic Crossfire" and "Fantasy Football Paydirt Podcast") on our Monday and Friday programs. Their frequently featured spots and the interest by our audience to hear more allowed us to help produce additional podcasts which exclusively feature their work utilizing those now infamous segment names (including Tyler bringing his show over to our channel for its second season).

But our goal each year is to at the minimum provide 104 (twice each week, every Monday and Friday) high-quality programs and in order to do so there needs to be some truly interesting guests that can provide an interesting point of view each and every time they appear on the show. And while I hope to get even more guests to come on the program regularly, we are uniquely blessed to have so many already a part of the Pop Culture Cosmos experience.

I'm not sure entirely how many appearances qualifies as "a lot" but all these individuals have appeared a number of times on our program to help keep our shows fresh and always interesting to listen to:

-Our resident Television experts, Jessica Boggs and Hunter Vogt of The TV Ratings Guide (thetvratingsguide.com).
-The man in the know when it comes to the NBA, Anthony Barbarin
-Board Games specialist Salvador Villa of Mario Party Wars (Mario Party Wars on all social media outlets)
-Video Game analyst and owner of Retro City Games in Las Vegas, Nevada, Douglas Haughaboo
-Horror Movie expert and host of the Hunnicween podcast, Jason Todd Fineburgh
-Star of the documentary "Nintendo Quest" and head of A Galaxy Far, Fare Away, Jay Bartlett
-BBQ Grilling Champion from Australia and host of the Smoking Hot Confessions Podcast, Ben Arnot
-From The Walking Dead Fan Base (50,000+ members strong), Daphine Matthew
-Pro Wrestling podcasters extraordinaire, Mike Crockett and Billy Donnelly
-Sports Card and Memorabilia collector and host of That Sports Card Show, Vince Autullo
-TJ Jognson and Dutch of the Voice From The Underground: The Podcast
-Fresh Media Works founder Chris Doelle
-Hosts of the Wine, Women and Words Podcast and our resident book specialists Diana Tierney and Michele Leivas
-E-Sports competitor Cristian Daniel Zamudio

Plus we regularly play songs from independent articles Hyperschmitt, Plazma Z, and Warren Ferandez.

Now if I forgot anyone it surely was not intentional but there were just so many I tried to remember. Even though this is a lengthy list we can always find time for more regular contributors if they are interested in appearing on our programs and provide their own voice on the latest news and trends in popular culture. All they have to do is just let us know why they want to be on our show and we can go from there (popculturecosmos@yahoo.com). We're always looking to provide more unique points of view for our listeners.

Q: What does the future look like for Pop Culture Cosmos?

We invest so much time each week into developing the Pop Culture Cosmos experience and are extremely optimistic that someday the fruits of our labor will be paid off in full. Hopefully, our ongoing search for more media platforms will continue to bring in more listeners and allow us to create even better content in the coming days, months and years. I sincerely hope you get a chance to catch our shows and if you do take the time to do so it does not go unnoticed nor unappreciated by us here at the Pop Culture Cosmos. Honestly, I believe it can be a good future for us provided we stay committed to producing high-quality content that keeps everyone up to date on what's going on in pop culture. And as long as we continue to have fun doing it I see accomplishing whatever goals we here at the Pop Culture Cosmos set out to achieve.

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