Interviews – Mistress Carrie – The Baddest Bitch In Boston Radio And Podcasts!

Hey, it's Mistress Carrie, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey, it's Mistress

Carrie, and you are listening to Studio 2009.

Wake up, wake up, wake up. Hello and welcome

to Studio 2009 here on the Geekcast Radio Network.

I am, of course, TFG1 Mike. What does the TFG1

stand for, you might ask? It is Transformers

Generation 1. A fan thought a number of years

ago, thought, oh, you're an egotistical idiot

and it stands for the fucking great one. No,

no, no, no. It's Transformers. And for our latest

podcast approach, I've got a person in the studio,

or sort of in the studio, that I've followed

her radio career in Boston for 22 years. She's

been in radio for 25 years or more from Boston,

Massachusetts. She also was the first non -news

journalist embedded with U .S. troops in Iraq

in 2006 and also in Afghanistan in 2011. She's

a military wife and supporter, a skydiver, and

so much more. It is none other than my favorite,

the baddest bitch in Boston, Mistress Carrie.

Oh, thanks. I hope I can live up to the intro

now. Oh, stop. Stop. Yes, I stole Dennis Leary's

line from your podcast intro. Yes. Hello, how

are you? I'm really good. Thanks for having me

on. Absolutely. This is a dream come true for

me because, like I said, I've been listening

to you since late 2002, early 2003. This is just

going to be so fun. So you have been in radio

for over 25 years, pretty much in the same city.

I don't think you've ever have you ever gone

to a different you've always been in Boston,

right? Yeah, I did the first 29 years of my career

at WAF. I wasn't there all of those the first

half. I was an intern and worked in the promotions

department and kind of worked my way up. But

in April of 1998. I started full time on the

air. I started doing nights and I worked at AAF

from on the air from April of 98 until the station

went off the air in February of 2020. Yeah. So

now I'm on a bunch of stations around the country,

but I'm still based here. Yeah. You're always

going to be based in Boston. I mean, after all,

Boston does rule. So I just don't want to move,

you know, made it where you really don't have

to. I spent time during COVID building what I

call MCHQ, which is where I am right now. And

so I can basically work anywhere from my own

studio. I'm a podcast machine. That's what you

like to do. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes the editing

gets a little long, but other than that, it's

okay. Well, that was definitely one of the skill

sets that I'm glad I mastered in radio because

it made it so much easier for me when I launched

the podcast and stuff because I already knew

how to do all of that stuff. Yeah. So, yeah,

WAF, man. That really stung. Rest in peace. Rest

in peace. So did, remind me, because I think

I remember the way this went. Did the station

just go off the air or did they change? Was it

a format change? No, it's not a format change.

So there's different entities for a radio station.

There's the intellectual property, right? The

brand. There's the call letters, which you license

from the FCC. And then there's the signal, the

actual frequency. Right. So WAF as a brand is

still owned by Odyssey. Okay. The call letters,

Odyssey still controls, but they've been transferred

to a different radio. Yeah. Basically just they're

parking them. That's what they call it. they

don't want the call letters to be used by anyone

else so they stuck them on like an am signal

somewhere just so that no one else can have them

107 .3 is what got sold so it was just the signal

that was just okay yeah so waf as a brand and

the call letters are still controlled by odyssey

they just don't really do much with them but

But, you know, it's kind of hard to have a radio

station without a signal. That's very true. Sold

107 .3, which, you know, is now Christian Rock

Radio. Yeah, see, that's what, like, I thought

it was the whole just format and call letter

change. No, no, no. No, it was way more than

that. The signal for a bunch of money over President's

Day weekend of 2020. Um, and so when we came

back to work on Tuesday after president's day

weekend, uh, I did my show from 10 to three,

did my crossover break with Mike shoe right before

three o 'clock. And then as we were playing my

last set of commercials for my show and Mike

was getting ready to start his show while the

commercials were running, the bosses pulled us

into the office and told us what was going on.

And so we, we found out at three o 'clock on

Tuesday, the, uh, Whatever that day was. Whatever

that day was. It went off the air on the 20th,

which was the Friday, so. Yeah. Yeah, that's

crazy, but. Yeah. It was a shit day. Yeah. I

know. Did you always, when you were growing up,

did you always want to be on the radio? It's

really weird. I have this conversation with musicians

a lot because I think that anybody that. looks

back at their childhood or anybody that's raising

kids now, there's little hints of what that person

is going to become. Right. And while a lot of

musicians were handed little toy guitars and

whatever, and I had a little tape recorder and

I used to just kind of talk into it and record

into it. And that was like one of my favorite

things. And then. I got devious with it. You

know, when when parents kick kids out of the

house, they come out of the room and they're

like the adults are talking kind of thing. I

always wanted to know what they were talking

about. So then I took this little toy tape recorder

and I used to hide it in the plants to record

the adults so that I could hear what they were

talking about. And of course, I always got caught

because I was a kid and an idiot. But I distinctly

remember. This tape recorder, this little cassette

recorder being something that I loved having

and loved going around. So when I look back.

It's it's obvious, but I always wanted to be

in the music business because music was something

that really drove my life, like in junior high

and high school specifically. And so I went to

school for communications. And they had a radio

department at the school. And after my freshman

year of college, I got an internship. I always

thought I was going to I wanted to work in a

recording studio. That was like my dream. I saw

all those videos on MTV of them sitting behind

those giant sound consoles. And I thought, that's

what I want to do. And they didn't have college

for that. So I said, I'll go to school for communications.

I'll learn how to edit audio in the radio department

and stuff. And then after that freshman year,

I did an internship at a recording studio and

I spent the whole summer recording a mariachi

band, like literally helping the engineers move

mics to record like maracas. And I was like,

this is not Motley Crue. This is not what I signed

up for. Like, and so sometimes in life, it's

not about learning what you want, but it's learning

what you don't want. And after that. Couple of

months. I had to do so many hours. It was like

250 hours or something like that. And as I was

getting ready to hit my hour limit that was required

for me to get the credits for school, I had a

girlfriend that I had grown up with and we were

in the same college and she was going to school

for communications and she had an internship

at AAF who at the time was right around the corner

from the recording studio in Worcester. Yeah.

And her and I used to meet for lunch all the

time. And we're poor college kids. So we'd go

up the street and get a sandwich or whatever.

So I went to AAF that I had grown up listening

to and was waiting in the lobby for her to come

out. And the production director, this guy named

Mitch Todd, who still works in radio, he actually

works at Sirius XM now, has this unbelievable,

booming, amazing radio voice. And he was the

guy that was in charge of like putting all the

commercials together and that kind of stuff.

And he saw me waiting and he was like, who are

you? And I was like, oh, I'm Carrie. I work at

Licks around the corner. That was the name of

the recording studio. And from time to time,

the recording studio would would produce commercials

for clients. And then I would have to deliver

those commercials to AF to air and, you know,

before email. And and so he was like, oh, how

do you like it over there? And I was like, well,

I kind of like it, but it's not what I thought

it was going to be. He was like, well, what are

you going to do for the rest of the summer? And

I said, you know, I don't know. And he's like,

well, why don't you come and intern for me for

the rest of the summer? Wow. And, you know, because

he knew my friends that had been interning at

the radio station, I was like, really? And he

was like, yeah. So I spent the rest of the summer

cleaning the heads of his recorders, learning

how to edit audio tape with a razor blade and

a grease pencil. And just doing whatever like

grunt work, like dubbing commercials, doing office

work, like whatever. But watching how he made

something from nothing. And I was fascinated

by how he could change his voice and record.

And every once in a while, if he needed a girl

voice, he would go, hey, come over here and record

this line for me. And I remember like the first

commercial. I don't remember who the client was,

but I was. so amazed that i was on a commercial

that was going to air on the radio and he dubbed

it for me onto a cassette so i could take it

home and play it for my parents that's awesome

because it was like this was the first time my

voice was ever on the radio was on that commercial

and i think somewhere in some closet somewhere

i have that cassette and dig it out I know I

have to. I have a lot of stuff on cassette that

I need to do. I have pretty extensive archives

from my career that I need to find the time to

dig through. But that cassette, I was like, oh,

my God. And then I went back to college in the

fall, got my associate's degree in radio, had

really started working on the college radio station,

had done my own show. And then I transferred.

for my junior and senior year to Framingham State,

who had a broadcast radio station. And they were

right down Route 9 in Framingham from where WAF

had moved to in Westboro. And I went from interning

for Mitch to interning for the promotions department.

And then I started interning for the morning

show. And so my last two years of college, I

would get up at like four in the morning. I would

drive to AAF, intern for the morning show. They'd

get off the air at 10 by 1015. I would leave,

drive down Route 9, find a place to park at Framingham

State and then go to my classes for the rest

of the day and then leave, drive back to Lemonster

where I grew up because my family had a business.

And so I would go back to the bakery, help. finish

up the workday at the bakery, help clean up the

bakery and then go home and do homework, go to

bed and get up the next day at four o 'clock

in the morning and go back to AF and do it all

over again. Cause I was a student and ship I

didn't get paid for. So it was really by accident

that I ended up completely shifting what I thought

I wanted to do, which was work in that recording

studio. And then I just kind of fell into this

internship at AAF. And then the April of 1994,

right before I graduated from college, I got

offered my first paying job in radio, which was

to be a paid member of the street team van handing

out bumper stickers. And I think the starting

pay was like three 75 or $4 an hour or something

like that. But I was like, I'm on the payroll.

And. So that was like my first paying job. My

first day of work was the Boston Marathon in

April. Still in college. And there I was like

trying to get the radio gear along the marathon

route to set up the broadcast for the for the

DJs that were broadcasting from the finish line.

So but I had then when I started working in radio,

I thought I was going to end up a producer. Like

I never imagined I would be the one behind the

microphone. I thought. I'll end up being the

producer because I interning for the morning

show. I was helping the producer. I wasn't on

the air. I was doing grunt work behind the scenes

and setting up interviews, helping to record,

running the show on the board, which was kind

of what I thought I was going to do as a producer.

And so it just kind of happened that, you know,

I recorded a demo to be Opie and Anthony's producer.

And that demo, I had to use my own voice. And

it was that demo, not getting Opie and Anthony's

producer job that ended up opening the door for

me to become a DJ. So it's all kind of by accident.

But that little cassette recorder, it all started

back there. You got to find it. I don't have

it anymore, and I wish I did. Oh, the recorder.

The recorder, yeah. I wish that first radio commercial

would be great. I don't know if I have any of

the tapes that I recorded when I was a little

kid, but I really wish I had that original recorder.

It was like this long black cassette recorder

that had a handle, and I wish I still had it

because it really did kind of put me on the path

to where I ended up, you know? Yeah, absolutely.

For me, I grew up in Massachusetts. I was born

in Stoughton. I lived in Kingston for 13 years

of my life. My problem with finding out who I

wanted to be or what I wanted to be or what,

you know, is the whole, like you were saying

with the, you know, trying to figure out who

you are. I was born with cerebral palsy. So I

can't exactly, you know, like I'm not going to

go be a, you know, Ted Williams for the Red Sox

or, you know. Bobby Orr for the Bruins or anything

like that. So I always liked creative writing.

I always liked that kind of stuff. I've been

writing for, it'll be 20 years next year that

I have actually been writing stuff down as far

as like poems and stories and stuff like that.

But yeah, I mean, I just, well, I say this in

every podcast I do and anytime Boston comes up,

Boston is, and I'm sure other people say this

about wherever they live, but Boston is. a different

oh it 100 is there's there's research to prove

what you're saying it's so unique and so different

and it's a state of not to rob new york of their

their line but it's a state of mind that you

know once you're in boston you're in boston and

Two things gravitated me towards listening to

you starting in late 2002, 2003. Number one,

your voice, because you have one of the greatest

female radio voices I've ever heard. Thank you.

And the purple hair, because purple and black

are my two favorite colors. You're the first

purple haired DJ I've ever followed. The second

one was in Louisville. Her name is Laura. She's

now doing stuff in Michigan. So you have done

so much. You've been able to talk to so many

bands. Like, is there a moment that like stands

out amongst all the rest of all the people you've

talked to? I think the moment that changed it

for me was the first interview that I did because

I started on the air. in April as the night jock

of AAF with with no like radio experience I had

done eight weekend shows you know like in the

overnights and whatever after I applied to be

Opie and Anthony's producer and didn't get the

job they were like do you ever think about being

a DJ and I was like no and then Opie was like

what are you an idiot and then I said yes and

um Then Opie and Anthony got fired. That's how

the slot opened up. They shifted people around.

The night show became open. And they said, we're

going to throw this girl on and see what happens.

And so that started in April. And that summer,

and I don't remember what the date is, but I'm

sure I could figure it out. Down on the South

Shore, Doug Flutie, I think it was called the

Mount Blue Restaurant. Doug Flutie and Steven

Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith. partnered

on a restaurant. Wow. And they had called in

the favor with the radio station to help promote

this thing. They wanted it to be a big opening

thing or whatever. And so they had reached out

to AAF and my boss had said, look, they're, you

know. they're telling us that if, that if we

help them promote it or whatever, that, that

we're going to get an interview. So we want to

send the rock bus, which for anybody that doesn't

know what that is, was a big RV that had flames

painted down the side. It was our portable broadcast

unit that we took to concerts and whatever. And

they were like, we want to send the rock bus

down. We want to make a big deal out of it. Like

the guys from Aerosmith are going to be there.

And they're saying that if we broadcast from

there, that you can interview Steven Tyler and

Joe Perry. And I had just started on the air

a few months before. And I was I grew up listening

to Aerosmith. Like you don't have to be from

Massachusetts to love Aerosmith. Like it's Aerosmith.

But especially when you grow up in Massachusetts,

a whole different thing. So I was like, oh, my

God, I'm going to interview Steven Tyler and

Joe Perry. And this was right around the time

that Armageddon had come out. Yeah. And they

had supplied the soundtrack for that. Yeah. And

so I did a bunch of research. Found out that

Joe Perry liked to smoke cigars and my dad had

a friend that owned a cigar shop. So I found

out what kind of cigars he likes. So I brought

a box of cigars with me and Joe Perry and Steven

Tyler came on the rock bus and I'm live on the

air. Never done an interview with a rock star

before. Showed him, which was a huge lesson for

me, showed him that I had done my research because

I had his favorite cigars there waiting. And

as and I got to find the tape and I'm sure I

have it somewhere, but I got to find it, although

it'd be so embarrassing to go back and listen

to it now. But there I have pictures and there's

video somewhere, too, of me interviewing these

guys. And there's a song in the movie Armageddon

that never got released as a single that Aerosmith

put on it. But it's in the strip club scene.

okay yeah before they go up on the rocket ship

they they go to the strip club yep and the song's

called what kind of lover you on and they never

released it as a single because i don't want

to miss a thing became like the biggest yeah

exactly so as we were talking about the armageddon

soundtrack steven tyler started singing what

kind of lover you on But he put my name in the

lyric. Oh, wow. So we're on the air. And I have

some of this audio. And he goes, Carrie, so very.

You say one thing, then you do another. You got

it all wrong, but you blame it on your brother.

You kick in the dog because you can't catch the

cat. You know it ain't cool, but you like it

like that. And I just was like, Steven Tyler

is singing his lyrics with my name in it live

on the radio. How did I get here? And that moment,

I remember it so vividly because I was like,

is this really what I do for a living? And that

started it all. But I think they always say,

like, you remember your first, you know, to be

able to say Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith

were my first rock star interview ever is insane.

Yeah. It's insane, but it's also amazing because,

you know. It's just great. Funny that I totally

fell into. Yeah, it's just another link in this

weird chain of like, how the hell did I end up

here in the first place? Exactly. Before I ask

you the next question, I have to tell you that.

When I was living up in Massachusetts, my mom

was dating this guy for a number of years and

he owned Plaza Cleaners in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

And Joe Perry was one of his customers. Everybody

on the sell shore has an Aerosmith story because

for so long, those guys. They acted like regular

people when they were home and they went to the

grocery store and went to the cleaners and like

did whatever. And people be like, oh. Yeah, I

used to bag groceries when I was in high school

and Steven Tyler used to come in and buy groceries

all the time. Like it's hard for people that

are fans of Aerosmith to like imagine Steven

Tyler buying groceries. But the longer I'm in

this business, the more I talk to musicians and

artists, the more they just strive to be regular

people when they're home. They just want to do

regular stuff. So it doesn't surprise me at all.

It's like, oh, yeah, of course, Steven Tyler

and Joe Perry were their customers. Yeah. So

you got the late night. shift and all that where

did the mistress part like what is that story

so I started so one of the things when when I

had was asked when I applied to be Opie and Anthony's

producer and made that demo I needed a demo so

I used my own voice and just used Carrie and

then got asked have you ever thought about being

on the radio and started nights I was a roadie

Like when I was working between 94 and 98 as

on the street team part time in the promotions

department, I graduated from college, had debt.

So I had started building stages and rigging

lights. I even drove semis for a while and was

a tech for bands and, you know, events and whatever.

And. So when you're a female roadie, especially

in the mid 90s. in the sausage fest of like the

new metal era, like you really had to be able

to kind of handle yourself. So I was always tough.

I always spoke my mind like these are this is

not a character. This is just how I am. And so

when I got asked if I ever wanted to be on the

radio, you know, I was like, well, no, but I'll

give it a shot, whatever. And so they were like,

well, just use your name. So I just used Carrie.

And after the first couple of months at night

and the night show back then was the show that

debuted all the new music that played the heavier

music. And there there used to be this thing

called Safe Harbor, which was after 10 o 'clock

at night until six o 'clock in the morning. like

the FCC rules kind of didn't apply and you could

be a lot more risque because the the mentality

was that impressionable children were in bed

and so you could be a little bit more risque

and whatever and so because I didn't have any

radio experience and I didn't get a lot of direction

they kind of just were like just put her on the

air and see what happens I talked like I would

talk At a show with the roadies and telling dirty

jokes and, you know, just whatever. And so I

learned when I rather than them giving me instructions

on what to do, I learned when I colored outside

the lines and got my hand slapped like that's

how I learn. So I was constantly pushing boundaries

and it wasn't my intention. I just didn't know

what I was doing. Yeah. and once the band started

calling and we started having these crazy drunk

parties in the studio at night because i didn't

know i couldn't um you know the radio always

had that mystique about the voice and i don't

know what the person looks like until the internet

kind of pulled the curtain back people didn't

know what radio people looked like unless they

saw them at a concert or something so guys started

calling me on the request line saying I feel

like you're the other woman in my life. Like

I spend more time with you than I spend with

my wife. You're the other woman in my life. It's

like I have a mistress and my wife knows about

it. That I spend every day with my wife and every

night with you. You're like my mistress. And

so I started airing this stuff and putting these

calls on the air. And then it just kind of happened

organically again by accident where it was like.

You know, somebody was like, yeah, you're like

my mistress. You're like this little side chick

that I spent nights with. And, you know, you

say all the things and like whatever. And then

somebody was like, oh, OK, Mistress Carrie. And

then the next caller was like, all right, Mistress

Carrie. And then it just kind of stuck. And the

radio station, because I always looked the way

that I look, my hair was already purple. I always

wore all black clothes like. That was all me

before Mistress Carrie was a thing. Yeah. And

so they were like, well, this kind of fits. And

I realized it was going to stick because they

made bumper stickers and they were making bumper

stickers for every show. And they were like.

What do you want your bumper sticker to say on

it? And so the joke was, I wanted my stickers

to look like they were spray paint stenciled,

like on a road case, like what the bands have.

And so my bumper sticker said, property of Mistress

Carrie. And whatever I put those stickers on

was mine. And so then I started going to shows

and guys would start putting the stickers on

them. And then it became a thing. And then they

started making t -shirts that said property of

mistress Carrie. And it said slave on the back.

I started wearing my shirts that said slave on

the back and it turned into this whole thing.

And then it just stuck. Yeah. So I didn't give

myself the name. It was into me and it just kind

of stuck. And so the rest is history. Now it's

been. you know 26 years yeah i think that that's

been my name yeah that's awesome though so it's

either i answer to mistress carrie i answer to

carrie i answer to mc it just depends you know

mc is the newest one but i kind of like that

too because it's it's double it's either see

the initials or mc behind the microphone yeah

absolutely yeah like you had mentioned i forget

if it was might have been in the I'm behind on

listening to the podcast, but I think it might've

been in the most recent Josh. I think it was

one 56 when you're talking to Josh Todd about

the new album and all that and everything else.

And you had said in there about how, you know,

back then when we were kids growing up, you know,

You always want to be seen, not heard. I prefer

it the other way around. I'd rather be heard,

not seen. Because, again, going to the voice,

like you were saying, the radio voice back then,

we didn't know unless, you know, unless we called

the station and said, hey, can I have like a

printed photo? Because they used to do the. I

have those eight by tens that I autograph. Yeah.

autograph photo oh man those are good old days

so you spend all these years on the radio you

have all these amazing experiences in the middle

of it you learn to skydive so in 98 so i started

on the air in april that summer the mistress

carrie thing kind of showed up and then in september

i got a call on the request line it was a friday

night and these guys called And they were partying

late night. And they were like, Mistress Carrie,

you're always talking about how crazy you are

and whatever. If you're really as crazy as you

say, then you'd let us throw you out of a plane

and come skydiving with us. Now, at this point,

WAF, to just go back a little bit, WAF was way

ahead of its time and always was when it came

to adapting to new technology and creating. Content.

We were content creators and had viral content

before that was even a thing. And back in the

mid 90s, before I was on the air, we launched

a television show called Real Rock TV. Oh, wow.

And it was and nobody would air it. So the only

network that would air it was Univision. And

so on Saturday nights at midnight on Univision

was a half hour show called WAF's Real Rock TV.

And it was basically what a radio station's YouTube

channel is now. It was skits from the DJs, band

interviews. The newer bands would let us go and

set the cameras up and video some songs of their

performances. And it was hosted by Opie and Anthony.

But all of the other DJs. Would go in and do

skits and stuff. And if we went out and did appearances.

Or if we went out and did events. The cameras

always came. And there would be these video montages.

So Opie and Anthony were the hosts. When they

got fired. And I started on the air. By that

summer. The producer. This guy Ian Barrett. That

I'm still friends with now. Had said do you.

Because I love doing the stuff with the TV show.

And he was like do you want to host it now. And

I was like. Absolutely. So by the summer of 98,

I was hosting Real Rock TV and that was a new

episode every Saturday night. So when these drunk

guys called and said, if you're really as crazy

and ballsy as you say, you would let us take

you skydiving. And I was like, well, could we

could we bring the Real Rock TV cameras? And

they were like, yes. So I said, I'll come. So

I grabbed Ian. So we went to Jump Town in Orange,

Massachusetts. Ian came with the cameras and

they were going to take me on a tandem skydive

and they were going to send a guy out with a

camera on his head so that we would have the

videotape of me jumping out of the plane so we

could put it on Real Rock TV. Right. And I was

like, let's go. So we did it. And that was in

September of 98. And it was the greatest thing

I'd ever done. And when I landed, I was like,

Oh my God, that was amazing. I want to do it

again. I loved it. And because it's new England,

it was almost winter time. I was like, I'm coming

back in the spring. And a lot of people say that

when they make a tandem skydive, they're like,

I'm going to come back and do it again. And then

they just don't for whatever reason. So in the

spring, those guys called me back and they were

like, Hey, you said you were coming back. Are

you coming back? And I was like, yeah, I'll come

back. So I came out. Made another tandem in the

spring of 99 and loved it so much that by Memorial

Day weekend of 99, I started taking the class.

It's called AFF or Accelerated Free Fall to get

my license. So in the summer of 99, I took all

summer to do all the jumps, take all the courses.

And Labor Day weekend of 1999, I got my skydiving

license and I've had it ever since. How often

do you do it now? I mean, in the last, you know,

obviously COVID not. Yeah, COVID and I've been

nursing a shoulder injury for the last 18 months.

So I haven't jumped a lot in the last couple

of years. But my shoulder is pretty much back

to normal. I'm building up the strength now from

it not being able to be used as much over the

last couple of years. But I jump as often as

I can. I love it. It's one of the things that

I've found that really relaxes me in a weird

way. I think anytime you can find something that

forces you to myopically focus on one thing that

blocks out the noise of everything else. And

it's different for everybody. But for me, I think

my personality is so extreme that I have to literally

be plummeting towards Earth near certain death

to focus. And to let all the noise shut off.

And so skydiving is really the only thing I've

ever found that for that one minute of free fall,

the world gets really, really quiet. And skydivers

are such a diverse group of people. They're like

a cross section of society that skydiving is

the only thing all those people have in common.

And then they go back to their lives. And a lot

of people that I skydive with that I've known

for a long time, I don't even really know what

they do for a living. Because when we go there,

we don't talk about work. We talk about skydiving.

Yeah, it's just about what you're doing. It's

not about, yeah. So, and especially for me, as

my career really started to take off, 98, 99,

2000, like. I went from being a truck driving

roadie that was completely anonymous that had

purple hair and the same voice to then being

someone that overnight became someone that people

knew and recognized. That was a really hard transition

for me to become known and recognized and to

kind of learn how to handle any. I don't like

using the word fame, but like to any level of

fame. Yeah. Adjustment. And, and it was, it was

really weird for me, especially because I was

the only woman on the air. And especially at

that time in music, which was super, you know,

that, that new metal era, if you've seen those

documentaries about Woodstock 99, like, you know,

about I was there and because of my personality

and because of the way that I was on the air.

It was very easy for me to quit back at people

and be like, get your hands off me. Who do you

think you are touching me? And people loved it

when I was bitchy because it was part of my persona.

But that adjustment was really hard for me. So

finding a hobby where people didn't want to talk

to me about rock stars and talk to me about being

famous and talk to me about work that they just

wanted to welcome me into this community and

teach me a skill. And it being an extreme skill,

I loved it. And so I've been doing it ever since.

That is so cool. That's so awesome. It's awesome.

Yeah, I remember I was at some, I forget which,

it was some school in some neighborhood in Louisville,

Kentucky back in 95. And this is just so stupid

and geeky, but it's who I am. The Power Rangers

movie came out. And you see Jason David Frank,

may the man rest in peace. You see him as Tommy

Oliver, as the character of the White Ranger

at the time. You see him skydiving, or as cheesy

as it is, you see Batman and Robin in Batman

and Robin at the beginning of that movie, you

know, sky surfing off the thing. It's like, I

want to do that, but I know I physically cannot

because of the cerebral palsy and all that, but

I've just... You could. You could. I've seen

people that were quadriplegic do tandem skydives.

I've seen amputees skydive. There are ways to

do it. I mean, there's there's restrictions and

there's things, you know, there's weight restrictions.

There's definitely accommodations that need to

be made for mobility issues. But there have been

people that are. So that's one of the things

I love about the sport. There is no it's. It's

the great equalizer. There is no physical benefit

to being a man or a woman as a skydiver. I jump

with people that are 18 years old, which is the

minimum age requirement. And I jump with people

that are in their 80s. Men, women, race doesn't

matter. Sexuality doesn't matter. I jump with

people that lost a leg in Afghanistan. You know,

the sport is so... amazing in that way yeah that

if you're a jumper you're just kind of in but

i've seen people there was one guy that i saw

years ago he was in his early 20s and when he

was 18 or 19 he got into a catastrophic motorcycle

accident and he was a quadriplegic and he really

wanted to go skydive and they worked it out with

the drop zone that they were going to find a

way to accommodate They got him into the harness

and because he didn't have control over his extremities,

they had to kind of bound them. Like they basically

had to like duct tape his extremities down because

when you're in free fall, they were going to

move, you know, and they needed him for his safety

and for the safety of the tandem instructor for

his extremities to be contained. But they did

that and they, they got him up in the plane and

they sent a video guy with them and they did

the tandem. and then they you know were able

to land safely and the kid was in tears and the

family all ran out to the landing area and they

thought he was hurt in some way because he was

crying yeah and they said he said this is the

first time since my accident that i forgot i

was paralyzed because that moment in free fall

he felt so free yeah and it's just in that moment

and That's what the sport does. So don't write

yourself off about the cerebral palsy that you

can't do it. Don't. Don't. Never. At almost 500

pounds, I don't think it's going to work. Well,

that would be the tough part because the equipment

does have restrictions. Yeah, exactly. But. I

just, I love watch. I don't watch it all the

time, but like, you know, obviously stuff like

what you filmed and stuff for your jumps. And

I know it's fiction, but like. the movie drop

zone, all the stuff they were doing. Point break.

But like, yeah, no. So I've always, I've always

loved that. And I don't want to get too deep

into this. Cause I know you did a whole podcast

on it and I'll link the episode in the show notes

for people, but briefly your time embedded with

the troops. Life changing experiences for me.

So I went twice. There's two episodes of my podcast.

There's the AF to Afghanistan episode, which

was my trip to Afghanistan in 2011. And then

there's the Boston to Baghdad episode, which

is about my trip to Iraq, which was my first

trip in 06. And both of those episodes, I sit

down with the producer, the person that went

with me to talk about that. So if you really

are curious, and they're long episodes. Yeah,

I've listened to them. Two or three weeks overseas.

Yeah. but I can tell you that they are the most

life altering experiences I've ever had. When

people say, what are like the most proud moments

you had in your career at AAF or your career

in radio or broadcasting? I always cite those,

you know, being, being the purple haired rock

DJ that gets plopped in the middle of Iraq in

2006. And embedded with troops from Massachusetts

who had to accept an embedded reporter and the

responsibility of taking care of a really juicy

target for the enemy at that point. A purple

haired female American journalist like there's

no bigger target for propaganda purposes than

that. And to be able to I always said that those

trips. The mission was twofold. Number one, it

was to deliver messages of well wishes and support

from home. But it was also to be able to see

with my own eyes what our troops were doing overseas

and to be able to tell people at home who trusted

me to tell them the truth. What was really going

on to bypass the propaganda of. You know, our

troops are baby killers or they're not trained

well enough or all of the things, especially

in the early days of the Iraq war. And you can

debate the war itself. The reasons why our troops

got sent there, that was never my focus. I wasn't

there defending the decision of the president

in Congress to send them there. My whole thing

was these guys all joined the military before

9 -11 for the most part. And a lot of people

joined after 9 -11 and basically said, send me

where you need me. They filled out a blank check.

We decide when it gets cashed. And I just wanted

to go and see what it is that they were doing

and be able to report back. And the relationship

that I had with my audience is that they knew

I'd tell them the truth. Exactly. Good, bad,

or indifferent. Right, yeah. And so I was critical

of some of the media reports that I had seen

because it wasn't completely factual where I

was in my experiences one way or the other, because

I also get really upset when our military gets

politicized. Like one political party supports

the troops and the other one doesn't like it's

all that pisses me off more than more than anything,

because our military. And our first responders

are not pieces on a chessboard. They're not political

pawns. These are people that regardless of who's

in office, go to work every day to do what they

think is right. And they trust in us as the populace

and in our politicians as the leaders to use

them properly, efficiently, morally, whatever.

And so I was critical of things when things were

reported. improperly and i was also critical

of the military and of the government when it

needed to be as well and seeing how hard it was

for our troops to be away from their families

for a year -long deployment seeing the the kids

in these villages seeing how hard these battles

were seeing how difficult it was for our troops

to make the transition to coming home to normal

life again. There are people that I met on those

trips that protected me, the units I was embedded

with, that have become my best friends in the

world, that have helped me through the hardest

personal times that I have had in my whole life.

And I consider them family. And I think they

think the same of me, that we... were kind of

forged in fire and it completely altered. You

know, when 9 -11 happened, everybody that was

old enough to realize what was going on remembers

where they were. And for me, that was the day

that I realized that just being on the radio

and interviewing rock stars and partying backstage

at shows and telling dick jokes on the radio

that my life had to be more than that. Yeah.

That my platform that I was afforded by my job

needed to be used for something else. And having

grown up in a family of the military and first

responders, it was always pressed upon me that

you needed to do something to be a part, to give

back and to be part of the community. I wasn't

born with. Cerebral palsy, but I was born with

a birth defect that kept me from being able to

enlist in the military, although I'm not saying

I would have, but it was never an option for

me. And so I saw that job at AAF as an opportunity

to be able to play my part. And so we did a lot

of support the troop stuff. We did a lot of care

package drives. I started getting really involved

with veterans nonprofits. Advocating for veterans,

you know, the pushing for better reintegration

care, supporting Gold Star families, supporting

the families of deployed military members and

their families. I just, it became my life's passion.

And getting a chance to see them at work, quote

unquote, at work, really gave me a perspective

that most American civilians don't have. We,

you know, we as civilians see what we see on

the news or we see, you know, people in uniform

on Memorial Day and the parades and whatever.

But to be given this very specific opportunity

to see them doing what they do in harm's way

was completely a life changing experience for

me. Yeah. So in high school in 99, when I graduated.

It's like, oh, what are you going to do now?

What path are you going to take? What are this?

What are that? They did some sort of physical

and then written test for the military. I fore

-effed, obviously, which is fine. But like, I

grew up, my uncle Keith, who is my dad's brother,

he was a Navy Seabee and he was in Desert Shield

and Desert Storm. So I grew up like... My first

radio mistress when I was younger was Delilah

After Dark. And she would always talk about,

you know, the troops and things like that or

what's going on because of, hello, the desert

storm and all that. Yeah. Everything else. And

her audience is moms. Yeah. And those moms were

home missing their kids. Their kids, yeah. So

I would always, you know, hear about it. I would,

and I would always lay awake sometimes listening

to her show and just thinking about where my

uncle was, what he, you know, if he was okay,

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, absolutely.

It changed the family dynamic, not just for the

member of the military that's gone, but their

family at home has to learn to live without them

temporarily. The kids, you know, have to realize

their mom or dad is going to miss birthdays,

Christmases, holidays, Little League games, recitals,

all of those things that other parents almost

see as a nuisance sometime. Like, oh, we got

to go to baseball practice or, you know, whatever.

And and, you know, who's going to mow the lawn

and who's going to, you know, handle a busted

pipe or, you know, all of those little things.

And the military spouses go to bed by themselves

at night and they're afraid to watch the news.

And heaven forbid, you know, they're injured

or killed in action. It completely changes the

trajectory of that family and leaves a scar that

will never go away. Once that military member

comes home safely, hopefully from deployment,

everybody's different. It's not just the service

member that's different. The family's different

because they had to learn to live without that

person. And our military members, especially

when I was going on these trips, were getting

deployed multiple times. So they'd be gone for

a year and then they'd be home for 18 months

and then they'd be gone for a year. And it's

like that is going to change a person. Yeah,

it's not only going to like you said, it's not

going to change just the person in the military

going over there because that's a whole other

mental thing. But like you said, it's also going

to change the family. But like you're saying,

going and being deployed for 18 months, coming

home for three months, that's it's a hard adjustment.

And it's hard for a military member to come home

because they feel like they're not needed anymore

because they're there. family has had to learn

to operate and reallocate responsibilities because

that person's missing. Yeah. And so then it's

like, well, where do I belong in this unit now?

Because you figured out how to live without me.

And the family is like, well, we had to figure

out how to live without you. And it's a, it's

reintegration is hard and seeing it first on

my trips. And now being married to an active

duty military person and having been with him

through multiple deployments at this point, I've

seen it on both sides now. And I have a lot more

empathy than I ever had to the families because

now I really understand what it's like because

I've been there to be afraid to watch the news,

to get calls that things are scary, that, you

know, people have been killed and like. You know,

it's it's difficult. And to also see my husband

adjust to being home again. You know, it's it's

it's a lot. And the repercussions are felt forever,

you know, dealing with injuries, even if they're

invisible injuries, you know, post -traumatic

stress, traumatic brain injuries, all of those

kinds of things. You know that. The biggest thing

that I try to push for is, you know, whenever

our government, whenever we as a society are

pushing for any kind of military action, war,

whatever, everybody always thinks that the price

of that is the planes, the guns, the bullets.

You know, the price of that needs to be factored

in for the life of the individuals. Because of

the care that's required forever. And, you know,

we're seeing now that the guys that I was embedded

with, because I was embedded with infantry units

for the most part. And so at the time, women

weren't allowed to be in those units. But when

I say my guys, I mean the people I was embedded

with. Yeah, yeah. Discounting the female. No,

no, no. Yeah, yeah. I also met because they're

freaking badasses. But the guys now are facing

these burn pit. And, you know, much like the

Agent Orange Vietnam veterans, much like the

Gulf War syndrome, that after every conflict,

it's not just the battles, but it's also the

environment and the repercussions. And those

burn pits, you know, they were burning all of

the waste, all of the trash, everything on these

bases. And it was completely toxic. There's burn

pit registration now and the sign up, the registration

for these benefits is getting ready to expire.

So if anybody's listening to this that's a veteran,

you can go online and get a list of all of the

burn pit locations, all the bases and the times

that these things operated. And you need to go

online and you need to register because you might

be totally fine now. But you could get a cancer

or something 10, 15, 20 years from now that could

be tied back to these burn pits. And if you don't

register for these benefits now, they're not

going to be available to you if and when you

ever need them. Just like the Agent Orange stuff,

just like all of those things. And this burn

pit stuff is going to be the way that the first

responders that were on the pit. after 9 -11

and John Stewart advocating for the treatment

for them because of all of these crazy cancers

that they got. These same things are coming up

now because of the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And I looked at the list and between my two trips,

I think I was on like nine of the bases where

these burn pits were. And I was only overseas

for. Just shy of six weeks, three weeks, just

shy of three weeks in Iraq and three weeks in

Afghanistan. Wow. And I remember how forced my

voice was and how long it took me once I got

home to stop coughing all this shit out of my

lungs. And I was only there for a few weeks.

Being there for a year or two years or three

years. I can't imagine. So for anybody that's

a veteran that was over there, you got to get

involved with this burn pit registration and

get your name in there now because the taxpayers

have paid for these benefits to be there for

you. You need to take these resources. Yeah,

you'll have to send me a link to that so I can

put it in the show notes because please, people,

do what she's saying. That's just wow. Yeah,

this is all factoring into the price of war.

So as we move forward in this world that continues

to be riddled with conflict, you know, if you're

getting an estimate to build a house, you don't

stop counting the money at the framing. You got

to count the drywall and the furniture. You got

to count everything. You got to count everything.

And so as we look at the price of war. Taking

care of our troops when they come home has to

be factored in to that price. And then we need

to make a decision of. Is it worth it? Is what

we're fighting for worth what it's going to cost,

both in financial and in manpower and in all

of these other things? And it was these were

all lessons that I learned from those trips.

It was incredibly educational. And really gave

me a more well -rounded view of of military life.

You know, which was also great when I met my

husband, because I had a little bit better of

an understanding because of all my military friends

that I had met overseas and the conversations

I had had with their spouses, because I wasn't

with my husband. At the time. Now, when I went

on those trips. Yeah. yeah yeah once you get

the experience and then you you know if you're

single or whatever and you find somebody who

is a service member or is a first responder and

you you've already you know you you go in eyes

open heart open all that stuff it's like whatever

like this is slightly different but i always

tell everybody i will do all the work All those

people have to do to be on the podcast is either,

if they want the questions in advance, fine.

I usually don't, but it is what it is. I don't

have to do that either. Yeah, I like surprising

people kind of thing. I said you either got to,

you know, show up, answer the questions. That's

all you got to do is talk. I'll do everything

else. Or, you know, read the material, watch

the TV show, watch them, you know, and then come

with your notes and opinion. And like I said,

we'll just have a fun old time. Hi I'm Terry

Smith the host of Music Talks the podcast where

I ask guests a simple but beguiling question.

Choose a song from each decade of your life and

tell me why these songs mean so much to you.

Guests and listeners love this format. And if

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Terry Smith. If you'd like to be a guest on the

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Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher,

and everywhere you find great podcasts. So, um,

can I go now? Let him go. He did everything you

asked. No. Now back to the show. Do you see how

your patience paid off? Before we get into the

27 questions about podcasting. Sure. Boston Marathon.

Man. Things that I've done to support our veterans.

Exactly. So I listened to that episode as well.

And again, folks. I've followed her practically

almost, you know, pretty much all her career,

you know, like I said, from 2001, 2002 up till

now. So it's like I have all this certain knowledge

because I've listened to all these episodes and

people should. There's a question later about

time length on a podcast. And for me. Anywhere

from 30 minutes to an hour and a half is kind

of a sweet spot. But for me, because I have.

This is basically all I do. I don't have, this

is my quote unquote job. I have all the time

in the world. So I like listening to two, three,

four hour shows. And it goes back to listening

to five hour morning shows on the radio in the

80s. When you grow up with that, you're perfectly

fine listening to that time length of thing as

long as the show keeps going and keeps. yeah

like each segment is something completely different

like the first hour is this and podcasting is

on demand so if you want to listen to an hour

of it and come back to it later it's right where

it's convenient for you exactly all right so

the marathon's a killer for anybody for anybody

that grows up kind of in new england the marathon

is is a thing i think If you're in the running

community, the Boston Marathon is the Everest

of marathons. Absolutely. But I think until the

marathon bombing, I don't know how much people

in other parts of the country realized how woven

into the fabric of Boston the marathon is. And

so everybody at one point or another that's been

at the finish line or along the route cheering

on the runners, which everybody has done, even

if you don't know somebody that runs. Yeah. You've

always said drunkenly, I'm going to do that someday,

like whatever. And, you know, we took it obviously

really personal when the marathon got bombed.

And I think the Boston strong thing for people

that aren't from the area, they don't really

understand it. Going back to what you were talking

about, like Boston is the little brother of New

York. The brother that, you know, people always

pat on the head and but the bigger brother is

there and gets all the attention. And Boston

is scrappy. Boston's also very territorial. Oh,

yeah. Which is why it's been such a famous radio

market for so long, because Bostonians are very

tribal and they don't like change and they don't

like outsiders. And that's why people in radio

in Boston have been able to have such longevity

of career. Because once Bostonians like something,

they never want to give it up. And so for the

Boston Marathon, that's our day. That's our party

day. It's our signature athletic event that puts

us on the map. It's this thing that takes over

the state because the marathon's got to run from

Hopkington and run through the whole state. And

it's this huge thing. And so when the marathon

got bombed. The tough rock, which was the military

members that rocked the marathon in uniform with

the heavy rucksacks and stuff. Those guys were

on the course that day. And then after the bombing,

they moved the tough rock off the course because

of the backpacks, because you can't have those

near the course anymore. So I the bombing happened

in 2013. So I had come back from Afghanistan.

So in 2014, I did my first tough rock with a

bunch of the guys I was in Afghanistan with.

And rocked the marathon took me 10 hours and

10 minutes because I had 50 pounds on my back

and I was wearing combat boots. And I did the

tough rock for four years in a row and raised

money for a veterans charity. And then I had

some friends that were running the marathon in

2019. And the home base program, which is a partnership

between the Boston Red Sox and Mass General Hospital

that helps. treat the invisible wounds of war.

So post -traumatic stress and traumatic brain

injuries and veterans, uh, was starting a marathon

team and got a bunch of bibs because you either

qualify for the marathon, which is really hard

to do, or you get a charity bib and then you

have to raise a lot of money to get access to

these bibs because the Boston marathon bibs are

really hard to get. Yeah. And it just so happens

that a lot of the people that are now running

the home base program, including the executive

director, is a retired general jack hammond who

was the commanding general when i was in afghanistan

he's since retired from the army and is now the

executive director of home base and they were

launching their marathon team and i had talked

to him and i was like you know what if i'm ever

going to do it they're willing to give me a bib

i know i can raise the money screw it i'm just

going to do it and i made the announcement that

i was going to run the marathon And I was going

to document my training on the air and we were

going to do fundraising events. So we ended up

raising, I think, just shy of $18 ,000. And I

ran the marathon. It's one of the hardest things

I've ever done. I finished in six hours, 24 minutes

and 50 seconds. Not that I was counting. And

it's one of my greatest achievements because

it's incredibly. People think it's mental. People

think it's physically difficult, which it is.

Yeah. For me, the mental side of it was the bigger

hurdle for me to get over. My body hurt. But

you feel really alone when you're the thing about

running is your brain is constantly telling you

to just stop. And I think anybody that has a

challenge that they're trying to overcome. The

hardest part is getting over the doubt in your

own mind, running whatever the challenge is in

your life. There's that voice in your head that's

like, you can't do it. Why try? You're wasting

your time. You're never going to get there. And

overcoming the doubt in your own mind is the

hardest challenge. And when you're out on that

course and you're physically exhausted, the voice

is telling you to quit. And the crowd convinces

you not to. That and for me, I had a broadcast

and a party live on the radio at the finish line

waiting for me. I had that threat over my head

of I can't quit because. hey how am i going to

get to the party like what am i going to take

a cab yeah and i'm going to be a failure and

i'm going to let down all the people that donated

the guys from shine down did a fundraising event

for me i'm going to let my family down all those

months of training i'm going to let the charity

down and the mental fortitude required to convince

myself that i could finish it was so hard to

muster and so empowering and fulfilling crossing

the finish line. Like it's one of the greatest

things I've ever done because the opponent was

myself. Yeah. That's so cool when you can conquer

fear or conquer doubt or, you know, look at something

and say, okay. I don't want to get around over,

under whatever. I want to get through this. How

am I going to get through this? And then you

just, like you said, muster up the strength to

just do it. You know, if you're going through

hell, keep going. You just pedal to the metal,

hold on for dear life, white knuckle it and just

go. And that same life lesson got me through

AAF being gone. That same life lesson has gotten

me through all of the challenges of my life that,

you know, if you're if you're going to go through

hell, just go. Yeah. All right. Well, we're going

to finally transition into these 27 questions.

And you mentioned with AAF being gone again.

I will, whichever episode, you're going to have

to send me like an email with like 20 different

links because I want to be able to link, because

I want people to go back and listen to your episodes

because they're just so amazing. AAF's gone.

Yeah. Come home, sit on the couch, lay in bed,

have breakfast, lunch, dinner. But what do you,

you've been in radio so long. What do you do?

What were you, I know you said earlier that you

wanted to just. beat boston is your like he's

like you said you know curl up in a ball and

die yeah and so we went off the air at midnight

on friday night we all kind of hung around went

out drinking i woke up the next day and i felt

like i had watched my best friend be taken off

a ventilator and die the night before literally

happened basically And I had already had plans

the following week to go to Vegas to a rock radio

convention that I was going to as the assistant

program director of WAF. Trip was paid for, booked,

whatever. And my boss was like, go. So I had

to register an email address because I didn't

have one that didn't say at WAF dot com on the

end. Right. Yeah. I had to make business cards

and I was like, OK, I'm going to go to Vegas.

And I'm going to find a job. And I had already

started getting calls. In the week before AAF

even went off the air, as soon as the press release

went out at five o 'clock on that Tuesday, people

started calling. And I was like, OK, well, this

is good that people are calling that I might

have opportunity here. So I went to Vegas. My

then boyfriend, now husband, was like, I'll fly

out to Vegas and meet you because he's in the

military. So. he lives in another state because

that's where he's stationed right now he's like

i'll fly out to vegas and i'll be there with

you i was like great he lands in vegas turns

his phone on you know when the plane's taxiing

and you turn your phone back on and he got word

that he was getting deployed again that i literally

like four days or five days after aaf went off

i found out that he was getting deployed again

and so i went to the convention networks, you

know, people knew who I was because of AAF. And

so I was, and I realized pretty quickly that

there was a lot of doubt that I could do what

I do, not on AAF, that I could do what I do outside

of Boston because I was so associated with the

city, so associated with the station. And I came

home and now it's the first week of March of

2020. And I had some job interviews and I thought,

okay, there's some really great opportunities

here. Luckily for me, I had a severance package

because of my contract. And then COVID hit. And

by the second week of March of 2020, all hell

broke loose. And the world was shutting down.

Radio stations were putting hiring freezes in

place and sending all the DJs home to work from

home. And I started to go, OK, wait a minute.

What if these opportunities that I've been interviewing

for. go away because it looks like they're going

to, what am I going to do? Yeah. And I spent

a lot of time trying to figure out is my radio

career over? Should I be putting energy into

what my next thing is going to be outside of

the industry meeting that this, I had a great

career, a longer career than most people, 29

years at the same station. I'm going to move

on. And then I started trying to, I'm a list

maker. I'm a planner. I started making a list

of like my skill set. And all of my skills are

associated with that. And so then I started thinking,

well, if I'm going to try and continue my career,

I don't have a place to work. And so I need a

studio. I don't have a way to work. And I thought.

okay, I could get into audio books. I could get

into voice work. I could get into voice acting

and do animation stuff. Like what could I do

with this voice that to me is always been my

voice. But when people like you say you have

this distinctive radio voice, like there's a

part of me that's like, I do, even though this

has been my job for so long. So it's like, what

else can I do with it? My audio editing skills,

all of that stuff. So I started building my studio,

which I call MCHQ. And in order for me to build

it, I was like, well, if I'm going to build it

and spend all this money because it was expensive.

And that was a really big decision for me to

spend money that I could have used to pay my

mortgage. Like it was a gamble when the world

there was so much uncertainty. So I started a

company because I was like, well, if I need to

have a business so that I can write all of this

off as a business expense, I need to be smart.

So I started a company. And I started building

my studio and I started my video show cocktails

in the war room and started video streaming.

That started on March 14th of 2020 because I

was home and there was nothing else to do and

people were looking for connection. So I started

my video show by accident. My career is just

a string of accidents. Happy accidents, I call

them. So I started my video show Cocktails in

the War Room on March 14th of 2020. I did 80

nights in a row where I would just live stream

on Facebook, on my phone or from a computer,

talking to people, interacting with the people

on my Facebook page. At the time, my Facebook

page was the biggest social media outlet I had.

So I thought streaming there would be the smartest

thing. Right. And people we would talk about.

You know, the live streams bands were doing,

the concerts that were getting canceled, the

craziness, the development of the vaccines. It

was just a community thing. Yeah. And I used

that time to build my studio, to build my website,

to get a graphic designer to make new logos for

me and to start putting together what I thought

the Mistress Carrie podcast would become. And

then I used Cocktails in the War Room, the video

show. to launch the podcast. So when the Mistress

Carrie podcast launched in June of 2020, Cocktails

in the War Room went from being a daily show

to a weekly show, which it is now. And so that's

every Tuesday night at 8 .30 Eastern. It streams

live on my Facebook page and then uploads to

YouTube after the fact. I think eventually I'll

probably transition to streaming on YouTube,

but right now it still streams on Facebook. The

podcast launched in June of 2020, and my first

guest was Brent Smith from Shinedown. And when

I was getting ready to put the podcast together,

I knew I wanted intro music. I was talking about

Dennis Leary, and I wanted an intro that was

super polished. And I knew that even though I

had a podcast at WAF called Mistress Carrie's

Side Piece, I knew that in podcasting that there

was going to be People that discovered the podcast

that didn't know me from WAF. Right. And I needed

them to understand what I was, who I was, what

I was about. And so I wanted to put this whole

intro together with all of these rock stars from

all of my years on the radio. But I wanted it

to have music behind it. So I called Sully from

Godsmack. And I said, hey, do you have an instrumental

piece of music you're not using? That you'd be

willing to let me use as a as an intro for my

podcast. He had he knew about the war room and

he also was stuck at home and he's got a recording

studio. And so a week later or so, I get a text

message from him and he was like, what do you

think about this? And he wrote and recorded this

like 90 second piece of music that he calls war

drums. And he recorded it at 107 .3 beats a minute.

Of course. To WAF's frequency. And that is the

intro music to my podcast to Cocktails in the

War Room. And it's kind of become like my theme

song. Yeah. And so once the podcast launched,

I was like, OK, let's see what happens. And we'll

just ride out the pandemic and see where this

kind of takes me. But it was all just completely

charging into the unknown, not only in my own

career, but in the world because of COVID. Yeah,

exactly. Because everybody was, you know, you've

got to stay home. You can't interact. You can't

this. And for me, because of the way I am, because

the way because I didn't hear the term cerebral

palsy and you think, oh, it's something to do

with the brain. And for me, it's my whole. This

is going to tie into something else that you

do. It's the whole right side of my body. So

as you can see, left hand completely normal,

fine, right hand, and no one can actually see

this because no one's going to, but like my right

hand is smaller than my, so guess what? Leg is

fine, but my foot, my right foot is smaller than

my, it's not normal. Exactly. You and I would

be so great in a potato sack race. Because all

the nerve damage for me is on the left side and

my left foot is smaller than my right foot. Yeah.

So for me, it's like, you know, like mine is

like one foot backwards. When I started my company,

people in the industry gave me advice and they

said, be really careful about the first thing

you do after AAF. Because you're only known for

your last job. And so anybody that's known me

for years, especially personally outside of work,

has known I have two different size feet. It's

been a thing. I've had operations. It is what

it is. And so anytime I would say, you know,

I really got to put my foot down about this.

Somebody that knows me would say the big one

or the little one. Joke. Which foot are you putting

down? My whole thing was whatever step I take

away from WAF, I'm going to make with my Bigfoot

first. And that's why the name of my company

is Bigfoot First Productions. Absolutely. Because

I'm taking the step into the unknown, but I'm

doing it with my Bigfoot first, meaning I'm committed.

But I'm not half -assing it. I'm going in Bigfoot

first. Absolutely. For me with the podcasting,

I just. Back in late 2008, because I actually

started 15 years ago with the network, Geekcast

Radio Network has been online since June 9th,

June 9th, no, June 1st of 2009. At the time in

2008, I was working for a group home because

in my teen years, I was ward of the state of

Kentucky and group homes and all that other stuff

and whatever. So at one point or another in 2004

or 5, they're like, would you like to transition

out of the HUD permanent housing program and

become a live -in resident employee kind of thing?

So basically, they're going to have me live on

campus or whatever kind of thing and work with.

Basically, it was. When all the case managers,

the normal, like, you know, social workers, whatever,

when they weren't there during the day, I would

take over at night and make sure everything was

fine with the building. Obviously, the kids that

were in the program were supposed to be asleep

and all that and everything else. And in 2008,

I had my days free, you know, because I worked

at night. So I needed something to do, and I'm

like, oh, okay. I watched for the umpteenth time,

but I watched Good Morning Vietnam and I'm like,

OK, I don't want to sound like the guy that was

on before. Today in Saigon, the weather is going

to be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

No, not. And the funny thing is, my very first

episode, I kind of almost sound like that. And

luckily, over the last 15 years, I've perfected.

How I sound and how I. It's an evolution, man.

Absolutely. You can be embarrassed about stuff

you did three weeks ago in this business. It's

just, it's a constant evolution. Absolutely.

And, you know, the intro that I did for you earlier

when I opened the show, I wrote what I knew first.

And then I went into your bio on your website

and I picked out several little bits. And I wrote

and created that because that's how I wanted

to sound. I can't stand this AI stuff. Yeah,

it's weird. And it's going to be the death of

radio DJs if we're not careful because there

are already AI radio stations on the air now.

And it's so creepy because to me, radio and I

think podcasting in a different way. It's all

about connection. Radio is your connection with

the audience. And they're direct. I think with

podcasting, the audience is kind of like it's

like a voyeur kind of thing where like you're

doing an interview with the people that are listening

to this. We know they're there. And it's like

they get to eavesdrop on this conversation and

obviously interact with the social media stuff

and the comments and all of that. But it completely

takes the human connection out of it when it's

done with AI. It's so weird that people want

that. Yeah. Are you on Instagram? I don't remember.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I have a couple Instagram.

I have one that's for me and another one that's

for the podcast that I just launched recently.

right so on instagram sometimes they will have

these male or female and i don't know who the

person is that does it and it's no offense to

them but they have these ai sounding voices yeah

they're like one of them is like a british accent

one of them's like and i'm like this is the worst

like i hate i am all about audio i'm all about

listening i i fall asleep to peter thomas on

forensic files every night not because of the

murder but just because of his voice again if

you can listen to stuff well and go to bed i

can't listen to anything it has to be totally

quiet really i can't out i have to like if it

goes off in the middle of the night and it ends

up quiet that's fine but i in order to get to

sleep i need to have something on and mainly

it's like like you were saying earlier about

getting into audio books. I listened to two different

audio books from Lieutenant Joe Kenda. He was

the homicide hunter on investigation discovery.

And it just, again, the voice of the person,

et cetera. Like if you did audio books, I'd probably

listen to those. I would love to, I would love

to get into, into doing audio books. I think

it would be awesome. Yeah, that would be so cool.

All right. So podcasting. Yeah. So you've been

in radio for X number of years. When did you

discover podcasts and what was the first one

you listened to? I knew about podcasts for a

long time. You know, at the radio station, we,

we used to do our interviews and stuff live,

but we would always record them. And then we

would start putting them up on the website for

people that missed it because radio is immediate.

So it's like, if you don't tune in at this time

to hear it. We started putting it up online.

And like I said, AAF was always a very early

adopter when it came to technology, social media,

having Real Rock TV back then, YouTube channels,

skits, like all of that kind of stuff. We were

always early adopters on that. And so we started

podcasting like just all of our stuff. And then

I launched the Mistress Carrie side piece when

I was still at AAF, which was basically. Kind

of like, you know, more long form conversations

with the people I had access to. But I also wanted

it to be able to be an arm for me to do a lot

of nonprofit stuff, to just interview interesting

people that I had access to that I couldn't really

put on the radio show for as long as I wanted

to. Right. And so I always kind of knew about

podcasting. You know, obviously there were people

that were on Rogan and like stuff like that,

that I that I had heard. But when I was working

in radio, I didn't listen to podcasts a lot because

part of my job being in the programming department

of the radio station. So on top of my responsibilities

on the air, I was the assistant program director.

And I used to spend a lot of my time in the car

listening to other radio stations and then also

being on the phone. with like managers and record

label people and like that kind of stuff. So

I wasn't really an end user of podcasts because

I was busy. I was so busy maintaining my career.

Yeah. I worked a lot when I was at AAF, not just

the four or five hours on the air. Right. Yeah.

You know, and that's the thing, radio DJs, you

know, you guys end up like you're saying. You

still have the on -air part, but you end up getting

promoted or doing this or becoming this or doing

whatever. Making the playlist, talking to the

band, setting up events, like hosting events,

recording commercials, like brainstorming ideas,

creating digital content. AAF was very active

on social media with video content and all that

kind of stuff, which obviously I do now myself.

And so I was just always really busy. Now, you

know, I always would listen to like, you know,

like some military podcast stuff. Like I listen

to Jocko. You know, he would have an author on

or be talking about a specific battle in the

wars or whatever. Not if I knew somebody that

served in that battle or whatever. So it was

always one of those things where like I would

I would listen to specific episodes, but I was

never really loyal to like one or two podcasts

that I listen to every episode, which was a really

great learning experience for me when I got into

podcasting that. There are going to be people

that listen to every episode because they like

me. But then there's going to be those people

that listen to that episode because of the subject

matter and the guest. Yeah. And hopefully you

can bring people to listen to more of your episodes

if they came to that episode because of the guest

and then ended up liking you. Yeah. And so that's

kind of how I kind of got into podcasting as

a listener. But we had always kind of been doing

it at AAF from. You know, the earliest time that

we could post the audio. Yeah. And something

that frustrates me is not that you mentioned

him, but everybody's like, oh, Rogan. And I'm

like. Pot Rogan, like whatever, like podcasting

was around 2005 before Joe even, you know, whatever.

And like I said, I started 2008, 2009. It's like

now in 2023, nobody remembers anything before

2010 or something with podcasting. And it's like

in those early days of learning and of, of what,

like just everything we do, it's crazy. We're

actually in the middle of starting the eighth

one, but. We do top 100 countdowns of various,

like we've done animated series, animated characters,

animated films. We've done seven different ones.

The last one was two years ago in 2021 during

the pandemic and during all of that and whatever

else. It was a six -part series. Total recorded

published audio time was just under 12 hours

for six episodes. It took me 100 hours. I blogged

this whole thing and whatever else. The point

I'm trying to make is podcasting sometimes on

this side, on the producer's side, can be very,

very isolating, just like in certain times with

radio when you guys are. Well, that's the thing.

Nobody wants to talk about podcasting before

Rogan, but there is a certain mentality in radio

where podcasters think they invented all of these

concepts, and it's like radio was doing this

shit a long time ago. A long time, yeah. We were

just doing it on the radio. Yeah. And we were

producing audio and, and editing it on the fly

with a razor blade and it needed to be on the

air in 45 seconds. And we were over there editing,

like we didn't have the digital technology in

the early part. So I always, I love how every

generation of technology is like bitter about

the generation that comes next. But for all of

the podcasting people that were OG podcasters,

there's radio people behind you going, you didn't

invent any of this. Right. No, yeah, no. We were,

radio was there for a really long time. Coming

up with a lot of these ideas. No, absolutely.

You know, and I give everybody the risk, everybody

that I've listened to ever. i like i said i lived

in massachusetts it's my home state it's my home

everything up until 1993. i ended up in kentucky

and i ended up in other places and i ended up

moving i ended up coming back to matt i was there

in 2001 september 11th i woke up turned the tv

on i was talking on the phone with somebody and

i saw one of the news footages of of like one

of the recaps of of the exploding i forget if

it was the north tower of the south tower of

the plane exploding and i'm like uh you needed

whoever i was talking to at the time you we need

to get off the phone you need to turn the tv

on and we need to figure this out because this

isn't a tom cruise like i thought it was some

new new film that was coming out and obviously

not it's this this complete and horrible tragedy

and i was in massachusetts up until late 2002

again and I haven't I've only been back one it's

been 11 years I went up at the time in 2012 to

get my mom because my mom wasn't in the greatest

of health but and and all that and whatever else

but yeah it's been about 11 years since I was

home and I just I don't know if I I don't know

when I'll end up getting back but I just knew

like financially because of the disabilities

and everything else I'm like Massachusetts is

way too expensive for me. I love it. It's home.

It's everything, but it's just way too. So, you

know, starting the, but yeah, no, everybody I

have ever listened to, I will like yourself,

you know, Hillman and all that in the morning

show and everybody, you know, Lauren and Wally

and all like, I always give all the credit in

the world to all the people I listened to on

the radio. it's it's when i'm doing the thing

because most people on 9 -11 when that happened

because this was in the early stages of the internet

and it's hard for people to imagine nowadays

not having that connection so most people turn

the radio on because they needed to know what

was going on and that was that was probably like

the last time that radio was like the preferred

media for something like that because the tv

could only air whatever they had and so it was

a loop of the old footage of the planes hitting

the buildings but radio had the ability to open

the phone lines that's what we did to let people

call and talk it out yeah we became the town

square we became the forum before people could

get on the internet and talk to each other And

to be a place where people voice their concerns

and their fears and on the other side of it,

to galvanize resources and to try and do good.

And, and that was a really, that week was exhausting

for us. We were in the studio like 18 hour days.

I cried driving home. you know, after midnight,

every one of those nights, cause we didn't play

music. We weren't playing commercials. We were

just live on the air reacting to whatever was

going to come through on the phones. And it was

heartbreaking. And so many people in Massachusetts

were missing loved ones because the planes left

from here. There were so many Bostonians on those

planes and it, it radio really rose to the occasion.

And then obviously the internet really. found

its footing and has exploded because of the technology's

gotten better. Both the networks and the actual,

the phones and the computers and all of that.

So radio, that was a high point for radio, being

able to be there on a very low point for the

country in the way that radio was able to do

it. But technology's changed so much now. And

to go back to where we're talking about the AI

stuff. It's amazing to me that that same industry

that was so integral on a day like 9 -11 in the

United States to now where radio stations are

willingly putting bots on the air as the hosts.

I just I don't understand. The selling point

of radio is the connection to the audience and

the regional connection. Yeah. And I think that's

why I obviously I've still followed you, et cetera,

et cetera, et cetera, whatever you've done. But

I think that's the reason why most of the time

I like. So for me, I from 2003 to 2017, I went

back to Louisville, Kentucky, and I had a nice

little life there. Obviously started the podcast

stuff there and everything else. 2017. Ended

up on OKCupid and ended up finding this, you

know, this person and everything else. And Karen

and I, you know, we just kind of connected. We

were just. you know on the same wavelength kind

of thing is amazing for a lot of things including

love well you know and my thing was at the time

i was 37 years old yes in a row and uh i didn't

want to i didn't want to play i just wanted to

be open honest up front all that stuff no stupid

whatever things and And I said, you know, I told

her about the disability. I told her about how

I don't and can't drive because of the cerebral

palsy. It's just not because the other thing

is that in addition to cerebral palsy, optic

atrophy with the stigmatism. So even if I had

glasses, it helps, but it's still not going to

help my actual mobility issues, et cetera, et

cetera. And she's like, oh, that's OK. That's

fine. She drove down from Chicago and we had

a nice little first weekend in September of 2017.

By October, I was moving to Chicago because when

she was in Louisville with me in 2017, we. bonded

over watching HGTV and House Hunters and all

this other crap. So we liked just, we weren't

going to buy any of the houses, but they offer

free house tours. Not like we're going to every

single one, but we found this house in Louisville.

It was a nice little split level, had a nice,

you know, top floor with like two or three bedrooms,

all hardwood floors, had a nice little. porch

atrium thing and and everything else and she's

like oh you know the porch it was like all glass

and all you know whatever up top and then wood

and stuff in the bottom and she's like oh i can

use this as my space i go downstairs and there's

like and you know this coming from us there was

wood paneling everywhere The paneled basements.

That's right. The paneled basements. So we were

down there, and I had already gone down there.

She was still upstairs, and I'm looking around.

There's like two or three more rooms, and then

there's this giant living room with a second

living room with a fireplace and all that. We

go to turn to walk upstairs, and keep in mind,

when I say we met on OKCupid, we met, we talked

like, I don't know, the next day after we exchanged

online messages. And we had been talking like

if we weren't the only time we weren't talking

is if we were asleep or if she was at work or

if I was recording a show, et cetera, et cetera,

et cetera. From August 6th of 2017 to September

9th of 2017, when she came for that first visit,

we go to this house. We're standing in this basement.

We're about to turn to go back upstairs to leave.

And all of a sudden, I kid you not, a literal,

it felt like a literal bolt of lightning hit

me and I saw the next 50 years of my life. That's

how it happens. And I'm like, okay, I know it's

probably not going to be this house, but I have

seen the next 50 years of our lives. And I'm

like, do you want to be with anybody else? Because

I don't. I love everything that you do. I love

all the stuff. I love all the connections we've

made together. I love all the things we have

in common. I love all the things we don't have

in common. You know, because not, you know. The

thing about couples and marriage and dating and

like, you don't want to date yourself. You don't

want to, you know, you want somebody who was

compatible. Stay away from those people. Exactly.

So I said to her, I said, you know, I don't want

to be with anybody else. Do you? She goes, no,

not really. And, you know, by October, I was

living in Chicago with her. And by December of

2017, we got married. And by, what is it? It's

September. By September 17th of 2019, even though

we had already gone through all the things with

Social Security and everything else and did all

the right stuff, by September of 2019, they're

like, yeah, you need to get divorced or you don't

get benefits anymore. And I'm like, what? That's

crazy. That happened in 2019, right before everything

else that happened. Yep. We went, we got vaccinated

and everything else and all that and everything

else. We did what we were supposed to do. And

she had a slight, not always, but a slight little

alcohol problem. It wasn't like it was bad because

obviously having a problem with alcohol is bad,

but it wasn't, you know. And unfortunately, in

2021, her kidneys and liver gave out and she

passed away. Oh, no. I'm so sorry. Thank you

so much. And I'm sorry to be telling you all

of this story on this episode. That's supposed

to be all about you. But so I'm like, after,

you know, being in that, like I said, back in

2017 being like, okay, well that, that 50 years

didn't work out. What's the next 50 years. You

know that you can make all the plans you want,

but. But you're going to have to adjust to whatever

hurdle is going to get put in front of you. It

just happens. Life happens like that. So I'm

out in Washington state where I because she wanted

to be on the Oregon coast. And I told her, I

said, I am more than willing to support that

dream. However, because of my disabilities and

because of some of your health issues at the

time, we need somewhere where. It's not going

to take an ambulance 20, 30 minutes to get like

the Oregon coast. It's coastal town. It's, you

know, small. It's Goonies. It's Goonies. And,

you know, I said, how about either Portland or

Vancouver, Portland, Oregon or Vancouver, Washington?

We ended up settling in Vancouver and we loved

it. You know, we never because of the pandemic,

obviously, we never got to the coast for a second

time and and all that. And she passed and. I

had to figure out where the hell I was going

to live next. And now I'm in the middle of nowhere,

Indiana. So this is what it is. It is what it

is. All right. Getting back to the thing people

actually want to hear about. So AF is gone. You're

at home. What was your plan for starting a podcast?

Like you say you built. mchq like which i don't

want to get too personal but like which room

in your house was was it always well the the

house like in a lot of places in the country

people don't have basements in new england we

have them right and because i had enough experience

in audio recording and stuff from the radio station

i knew it was going to be easier to soundproof

a room in the basement And so there's bedrooms

in my basement. And so I gutted a room in my

basement and built a studio out of a bedroom

so that I had a closet for equipment, boxes,

all my archives. I had the closet redone. So

there's drawers for all the old cassette tapes

that I need to go through and the old CDs and

all of that. And this room already had carpeting.

So that that was going to help with the soundproofing

where the rooms on the main level of the house

are all hardwood floors and tile and stuff, which

is bad for soundproofing. It only had windows

on one wall. So it made it easier to get soundproofing

window treatments to help block the sound reflection

coming off the windows. And so it just worked

out that that I just took a bedroom that was

in my basement that wasn't being used. It actually

is where my treadmill used to be. So when I was

training for the marathon, that's where I used

to run. The treadmill has been moved to another

room now. But so MCHQ became the room that was

the easiest for me to soundproof and control

noise from the outside world. But I also, you

know, wanted to make sure that I wasn't going

to need this room for something else because

it was going to be hard to undo what I was doing.

So once I built MCHQ and started really putting

a plan in place for the podcast, I wanted to

make sure that mine was going to be different

in some way. And I wanted to be able to build

off of what people knew me for at WAF, but I

also didn't want to be limited by what I used

to do at WAF, that I wanted to be able to use

the podcast as a way to expand. And so I know

from all of my time, interviewing bands and my

time as a roadie before I was a DJ, that I wanted

to have the opportunity to be able to talk to

not only artists, but the producers that help

make the art with the artists, the roadies that

actually tour with the artists and make the live

shows possible, the people that make the instruments

that help these artists write the music we all

love so much. And I also wanted to leave enough

room there for me to continue to do my work with

veterans. Always kind of tying it back to the

things in the rock and roll lifestyle, because

if you love rock music the way that I do, there's

things that come along with it, right? There's

the motorcycles and the tattoos and all of those

other things, the live concerts. And so I wanted

to have the flexibility and the freedom to ebb

and flow. within that lifestyle that if, you

know, an artist wanted to bring on their buddy

who was a tattoo artist, that's also tattooed

a bunch of other famous artists. That tattoo

artist is interesting and is within that kind

of rock umbrella. So I also wanted, because AAF

was gone and now the Boston area doesn't have

a radio station that plays new rock music at

all. That is heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking.

And one of the things that my show was always

known for and WAF was known for as a radio station

was being a platform to break new artists. And

we had a long track record of breaking new artists.

And I wanted my podcast to be a place that would

not only keep people in touch with the artists

that they already love, but that the audience

would also trust me enough to say, listen, I

know what you like. And I think you're going

to love this artist or this band, because that

was part of my job at WAF was mining through

all of the new bands to find the ones I thought

the audience of AAF would love as the assistant

program director. That was my job. And so I wanted

the podcast to be able to interview more alternative

artists that may not have gotten played on WAF

to be able to talk to really. classic, you know,

artists that may have been quote unquote too

old to play on WAF. But if it fit under that

rock umbrella, I wanted the freedom to be able

to do that. But the other thing with the podcast,

because when you're going to get into podcasting,

like you've got to figure out what makes yours

special and different, is that I had spent so

many years with the artists on the air doing

the interviews. But also off the air in the studio,

goofing off at dinners, at shows, backstage,

hanging out and had gotten to know the artists

as people. Which we hinted to earlier when I

was talking about Joe Perry cigars. And so it

was always something that I did to prep for interviews

was to really get to know them as a person. The

things that they liked, I always made sure that

they're. The way they like their coffee or what

they wanted to drink or like whatever. And if

a band had a day off in Boston, I would always

say, oh, well, let me take you on the Mistress

Carrie tour of Boston. And I would spend time

with them off the air. And so I wanted to give

the audience of the Mistress Carrie podcast the

opportunity to be able to get to know the artists

in a way that I was able to get to know them.

And so for the podcast to not only be about all

the things that were important. to the record

label and the manager and the band, obviously.

They got a record coming out, a tour, a new song,

like all of those things. But also to be able

to talk about them as people and the things that

shaped them as a person and the artists that

inspired them and what their family life was

like and their upbringing was like and the goofy

stories backstage on tour. and the collaborations

with other artists and the touring stories with

other artists and to really be able to show them

so that if you listen to an episode of my podcast

about an artist whose music you like, that after

that episode, you feel like you know them as

a person too. And so that was really the focus

of how I could make my podcast different. Yeah.

10 years ago when we were, I've always been a,

cartoon watcher i've never really been a comic

book reader i love reading like actual books

and things like that but i was never into like

full into comics and 10 years ago i got into

my buddy sent me a comic with uh the joker on

the cover and i'm like oh okay i'll check this

out we ended up reviewing all six seven issues

of that story arc and he's like all right well

we put this on this main feed but now if we're

going to continue doing this we so i created

the pull bag and with the pull bag Again, like

you're saying about wanting something different.

I didn't want to just be, oh, we're reviewing

this comic, we're giving it this grade, we're

doing this, we're reviewing all these classics

or whatever. So I created, at the time it was

25 questions, it's now 30 questions, what is

called the Origin Series. And it's a series of,

just like this, it's a series of questions that

I ask any guest that is in comics and whatever,

like whoever it is, just readers, not necessarily

artists or writers or anything, but just anybody.

And when the pandemic hit, I'm like, okay, I've

been reviewing cartoons and comics and movies

and all this stuff for like 10 years at the time

or whatever it is. And I'm like, I need something

different. So I expanded that into cartoons,

toy collecting, this one with podcasting, and

we've got a few others. And I just love doing

this because at this point, we're almost two

hours into this and we haven't even gotten so

deep into the podcasting questions. But it's

one of those things where it's like, I get to

spend this time with anyone. I don't care who

the person is. If you have a story to tell and

you want to answer these questions, come on the

show. And I just love doing it. And I don't love

doing it more than I liked doing. I still do

the cartoon reviews, the comic. I still do all

that stuff. But doing this, doing the interview

thing, it just... I'm like we're saying earlier

about Boston, about, you know, laser focused.

We when we like something, we like something.

When we don't like something, don't even don't

even try. We've made up our minds already. That's

right. There's no second chances. So, yeah, so

that's that's kind of how how I have been. Do

you prefer audio or video podcasting as a fan

and as a producer? I like them differently because

it's how I use them. I, if I'm sitting at a computer

or whatever, and I'm interested enough in the

interview or the subject matter, being able to

see the people is great. Like I love doing in

-person interviews for even for the radio, just

having that person. that you can see because

it especially through covid, like people were

at least on Zoom, you felt like you were somewhat

personally connected. But podcasting and radio

strength is is that you can use it while you're

doing something else. And so if I'm out walking

the dog or if I'm mowing the lawn or if I'm driving,

the video components are necessary. Yeah. illegal

and dangerous yes but it's but it's not necessary

so i like that it's available if i want to watch

it yeah but if i just want to listen to the audio

i'm totally fine with that too yeah absolutely

so i you know people ask me all the time about

the podcast and whether or not it's ever going

to become a video podcast as well and i'm open

to the idea but it's a completely different thing

Video is completely different and the skill set

is different. Then all of a sudden, I mean, I

designed MCHQ so that it could be wired for cameras.

But I feel like so much of what I do, you know,

the interviews that I do are while bands are

on tour or I'm going to interview them at a show.

Setting up the cameras, worried about the lighting,

like all of that stuff. One of the things that

makes audio so great is that it's lean and mean

you could do it anywhere. Yep. And so I'm still

a huge fan of, of audio podcasting, especially

because people use it when they're driving, exercising.

Anytime. If they're working heavy machinery,

they can't be watching a video, but they can

listen. Exactly. Yeah. I love that part of it.

Yeah, absolutely. And the thing is, like you

said, you have the Mr. Scary podcast, you have

Cocktails in the War Room. They are two completely

different, not separate, they're completely different

things because Cocktails in the War Room is you

sitting down every Tuesday night and actually,

you know, that's the interaction with the audience,

whereas the podcast is you having an interaction

with the guest. The audience on the video show,

you have a video show. The podcast doesn't need

to be video because, yeah, so. And I can guess

on in the war room sometimes, both in person

and, like, via Skype. Yeah. So that especially

during COVID, now, you know, I think I'm going

to start using, I've had a lot of success with

some live events with Cocktails in the War Room,

doing stuff with, like, veterans organizations

and stuff. and trying to the the war room audience

calls themselves the war room family and it's

an excuse for the war room family to get together

in person there are a lot of people that met

each other through the war room digitally because

of covid that are now really good friends and

and see each other in real life and so i love

the idea that the war room can be used to help

do a lot of charity work, do a lot of veterans

outreach stuff. But I love the flexibility that

I can bring somebody on the show live, which

I've done multiple times in person, take the

show on the road. I call it on deployment where

we take the show out to a bar or a club or whatever

and do the show live. But that I can also, you

know, like I had Metallica's whiskey distiller

on and we did a whiskey tasting virtually in

the war room. And I was able to talk to him about

the whiskey and blending whiskeys and how that,

you know, that treatment where they blast it

with Metallica's music changes the barrels and

changes the taste of the whiskey and all that

stuff. So I love being able to bring people on

the war room, too. But they're two completely

different things. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

So with all the radio stuff and everything else,

did you think the podcast, like you think the

podcast, you've been doing it for three, three,

three and a half years now. Did you think you'd

be doing this that long? How's the trajectory

for you of how far you've come since you started

it to now? I wasn't sure because there was so

much uncertainty at the beginning of COVID. Nobody

knew what the world was going to be like getting

out of it. And I wasn't really sure. So I was

like, I'm going to build this thing and I'm going

to give everything I have to it. And I'm going

to leave myself open to whatever opportunity

comes my way. So I committed to, you know, a

new full length episode every Wednesday. So those

are the numbered episodes. When I get access

to a bonus episode, I release them whenever I

can. If I get access to a interview last minute

or something, I put it up as a bonus episode.

In August of 2020, after the podcast. We started

to find an audience. I wanted to have a shorter

component that did what I used to do on the radio,

which is to keep people up to date with what

was going on in music. And so I launched the

sit rep. I steal a lot of my. My terms from the

military. Hey, look, it's not really thievery.

It's support. Yeah, I give credit that it's stolen.

So the sit rep comes out every day, Monday through

Friday, and it's around five minutes long, sometimes

a little shorter, sometimes a little longer.

And it basically runs through all the headlines

of the day in music and entertainment, specifically

rock. But if it's a big enough story talking

about Taylor Swift or talking about Netflix or

talking about TVs or movies or whatever, if it

fits under that kind of umbrella of entertainment

and rock, I put it in there to keep people up

to date, but have it to be really short. Yeah,

because people are willing, like you were saying

earlier, to listen to longer form things. But

if you've got. a short commute, if you work from

home, if you don't have a lot of time, but you

love kind of music and pop culture stuff and

you want to kind of be up to date with that.

I do all the work and the research. You can spend

five minutes while you're making your coffee

and brushing your teeth and get caught up with

whatever it is that's going on that day. And

then in the show notes, all the links to the

original stories are there. So not only does

that credit the sources of where I got the information,

but make it easier for people if they want more

info to read the full article, it makes it easy

for them to find. And what I've found out is

a lot of radio people listen to the sit rep because

I do a lot of their show prep for them. Even

Mike Shue that I work with, who I worked with

at AAF, he and I work at the same station in

Worcester, the Pike. And he's like, I listen

to the sit rep on my way to work. He has a five

minute commute. He listens to the sit rep because

he knows that I put it together late at night

the night before. So it's about as up to date

as it can be. Yeah. He's like, you make my show

prep really easy. And so the podcast has a lot

of different moving parts. And rather than have

the sit rep be its own podcast. I just put it

all under the same thing. So if you subscribe

to the mistress carry podcast, you get the full

length episodes and whatever bonus episodes come.

If I do an interview on cocktails in the war

room, I'll pull the, the audio out and put that

up as an audio feature called an after action

report. Another stolen term on the podcast for

people that didn't watch the war room, but would

be interested in the guests. And then there's

the sit rep. So there's a lot of content getting

generated on my podcast feed. yeah and it's it's

so good you know the funny thing is deserve the

right to expand it too absolutely well the funny

thing is is that with the sit rep because i don't

i i'm online all the time uh you know if i'm

awake and i'm sitting here at the computer and

i'm you know either prepping a a written blog

or working on a podcast or doing whatever. It's

like, at some point I'm going to have to look

at various like entertainment news or geek news

or whatever kind of stuff. Even, even just regular

everyday, you know, Oh, the weather today is

whatever, you know? And so half the time I'm

seeing all this stuff. I got to say though, we're

recording this July 10th, 2023. I got to say,

I think it was July 7th or 9th. I forget what

it was last week. listening to one of the sit

reps and i'm like holy shit creed is gonna do

a reunion what the hell yeah i heard it from

you first rumor right now i cite my sources so

if they end up being wrong i'm just calling your

attention to the fact that there's people talking

about it and saying look there are hints That

the pieces could be moving around, that this

could be something that's coming. And, you know,

for people that love Creed and they have sold

a ton of records and get played on radio stations

around the world every day. That's a huge announcement.

Those songs are beloved. Absolutely. They are.

I back in the day when they launched and then

when they're. The flip side of that coin launched

in, you know, 96, and then they got super famous

in 2000 and 2001. But when it was like Creed

or Nickelback, Creed or Nickelback, and Creed

kind of, well, I don't know, Scott went whatever

Scott did, and Creed went away, and Nickelback's

been here the last 20 -plus years and all this

and all that and everything else. And I got to

say, every time. They got really successful.

Both of those artists got really successful.

Yep. And sometimes people like to tear down people

that are successful. And that's that's just wrong.

It's like, you know, Bill and Ted, be excellent

to me. I hate to always rip that movie off, but

seriously, be actually like serious anyway. But

I remember like when I was listening to you,

like the early episode, I'm like, oh. Of course,

she's going to have Tyler from Theory on at some

point or another. And I've listened to the, I

actually, it's been 2011, it's been about 12

years. I got to interview Dave from Theory. Yeah.

And I've always wanted to interview Tyler and

I never have been able to do so. I just, that

band hit at a time when it was like, oh, like,

you know. And they're such nice guys, and they're

so fun, and they're hilarious. Dave, you know,

you're talking about, you know, bands being at

shows and things like that. When I interviewed

Dave, he was, I don't think it's still around,

but he was in, I think it's in South, it's in

one of the, Full Throttle Saloon. They were at

full throttle preparing for a shoot. It was like,

okay, I have this much time. And I'm like, okay,

fine. I'll ask you these 15 questions. It's one

of my favorite interviews I've ever done. I'm

like, oh, my God. Man, those guys are hilarious.

They've got that quirky Canadian humor. Yep.

And just everything they've done. I first found

them through, obviously, Spider -Man and Josie

and Tyler and Chad with Hero and all this and

everything else. And I'm like, ooh, who's that

guy in the back with the weird -looking goatee

beard? I'm like, oh, wow, okay. And then the

debut album comes out, and I'm like, oh, my God,

these guys are speaking to myself. And I've followed

them ever since. And it's just so, so great.

So, all right, as a listener, let's talk about

listening to podcasts. Yeah. What defines a good

podcast to you? I don't know. I think that's

such a subjective question. I think number one,

audio quality. I think if the quality of the

audio sucks, it's really annoying. And that's

something that you learn in radio, right? That

if, because AAF was always notoriously finicky

with its signal and people would say like, I

want to listen, but the static drives me crazy.

And so. I think that audio quality is a huge

thing. I think that the guest, you know, and

that's what makes podcasting so great is that

you can seek out the guests and the people that

you're interested in. So obviously I think having

a rapport between the guests and the host is

important. And I think that anybody that agrees

to be interviewed for any reason, You know, the

concept of like, we'll submit your questions

and then we'll agree about what we're going to

talk about. Like that takes all of like the spontaneity.

I understand there being people that, you know,

I understand the concept of, say, you know, a

guy like Wolfgang Van Halen. And how he doesn't

want to spend every day being asked about David

Lee Roth. Yeah. You know, that it's like, I get

it, you know, and, and for them to say, look,

can we just talk about like, you know, me or

like, you know, putting people don't want to

get constantly put in a position to be bad mouthing

somebody else. And I think that there's so many

people that are just looking for that soundbite

because they want to go viral and they're looking

to piss people off or like whatever. But if you

try to plan it too much, you miss out on the

spontaneity of things, which is usually where

the gold is. Yeah. So I think I think for anybody

to be like if I were in a bad mood right now.

And I was like, oh, I agree to be on this podcast.

I'm just going to do it. Just get over with because

I. It's like, you're better off rescheduling

because you're going on. So be open to whatever.

And I've interviewed people that when I started

asking them quirky questions or more personal

questions, they've kind of been taken aback by

it. I've never interviewed anybody that was like,

I don't want to talk about that. Like, just ask

me this. It's like, that doesn't make any sense,

you know? It's like the spontaneity of it. And

I think the chemistry with the guest and people

really being willing to like have fun with it

and let their guard down. But it also kind of

depends on the podcast, right? That you're not

looking for spontaneity and whatever when you're

listening to a true crime podcast. You know what

I mean? So it really depends on that. Like to

me, the true crime stuff, like there's so much.

negativity and like evil in the world that like

that's not my jam i understand why people love

them and there's a lot of people that love that

stuff yeah it's just not my thing although i

do love the people that are trying to solve unsolved

mysteries and crimes try to locate missing people

like that kind of stuff i love yeah glorifying

the murderers and kind of that i just i don't

understand that at all and it's not what i look

for as a listener but everybody has their own

what i do there are people that are like oh her

voice is annoying i can't i can't handle it and

those people do say that i see the comments on

you know youtube and on social media and stuff

and i'm like listen just don't listen then well

those people are wrong i appreciate that but

i also understand that not everybody's going

to love what you do and i'm yeah exactly i'm

fine with that Because people that do love what

I do, I love them and appreciate them. And that's

all that matters. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the

whole true crime thing. It's hugely successful,

man. I wish I had their paychecks. I know, right?

It was when I was a kid in the late 80s. A current

affair and unsolved mysteries. forensic, like

I said before, forensic files, all this stuff,

and I focus on the ones that are focused on,

not necessarily, like, I don't need to hear,

I don't, like, somebody, Investigation Discovery

did a really good version of the, whatever that,

the Didi case, or whatever it was, I forget what,

and then Lifetime comes along and says, oh, we're

going to do a movie version of this, and I'm

like, but I already watched the actual facts

that, like, But yeah, no, I like that stuff.

So it's like, there's a, there's a little bit

out there for everybody, you know? Yeah, absolutely.

As a listener to a podcast, what does it have

to have to draw you in? So if you listen to that

first episode, what do they have to do to get

you to come back? I think for me, it's about

the guest. Like it's to me, it's about, well,

if I started listening to the first episode,

most likely it's either that I love the host

already or it's I love the guest. And if I listen

to the first one for the guest, then the show's

got to either do such an amazing job in the first

episode for the host for me to fall in love with

them. But in all reality, it's hard to do that

in one episode. Yeah. Then the next guest or

three guests from there has got to be something

that piques my interest. And I think just like

with anything else, the more you listen, the

more that you're then going to be drawn in by

the host, the constant. So I think for me, it's

the interesting topics. And, you know, there

are those people that listen to every episode

of Rogan because they love Rogan. But then there's

the people that listen to specific episodes of

Rogan because of the guests. They either like,

you know, hearing the comedians he has on or

they like the scientists that he has on or like.

It just depends. And I think any podcast is like

that, that you're going to that's the beauty

of the medium is that you can scroll through

the episodes and go, oh, that one sounds interesting.

And, you know, hopefully for the podcast host,

it rolls into the next episode and into the next

episode and then you got them. But it's the same

thing with radio. It's like you're trying to

break people's habit. You're trying to find room

in their life for you. And that takes repetition

and it takes consistency. Absolutely. Consistency

is key. We say it every episode of this show

and all my other shows that I do. All right,

let's talk about time length. As a listener,

do you prefer short 30 to an hour and 30 minute

shows or do you prefer longer podcast episodes

as in two hours or more? Again, I think it goes

to how I'm going to use it. Okay. Like the longer

episodes, I have to be really interested because

most likely I'm not going to listen to it all

in one shot. yeah the first half or third has

got to be good enough for me to go okay well

i'm going to listen to the first third on my

way there the second third on my way back and

then tomorrow the third third while i'm you know

whatever a dog or whatever but i think the consensus

It's podcasting has been around long enough that,

you know, like you said, the sweet spot is like

45 minutes to an hour. If there's a certain level

of unfamiliarity that people are willing to to

to give up 45 minutes to take a chance on, I

guess they might not recognize or a new podcast

that they might not have listened to before.

But like with me, I'll do a 20 minute episode

if that's what I can get from the artist. I ask

when I book guests, most times a minimum of 30

minutes. If I can get 30 to 45, great. But I've

done two and three hour episodes, especially

the trips overseas. It's hard to boil down three

weeks in a war zone into 45 minutes. Yeah, no,

that would. Justice. Yeah. And rather than break

them up into separate episodes, which I thought

about doing. I opted to put them all in one cohesive

unit for organizational purposes so that I can

refer to them under that episode number and refer

to it by the release date and the episode number

to make it easier for people to find. And then

they can listen to it at their leisure. But I've

had episodes where I was talking to people and

I didn't realize we were talking for two hours.

And then I've gotten feedback from the listeners

that have said, I couldn't believe two hours

went by. Then there are other episodes that I

record and they're 45 minutes and I'm like, oof,

that felt long. Cause the person with you, they're

having a bad day or they just weren't giving

a lot of answers or whatever. And then, you know,

then you have to, I really try not to edit content

out of my podcast. So it's like recognizing like,

okay, this is going to need to be tightened up

a little bit or whatever. But you know, I, I

think if, you know, that that's, that's the beauty

of it is that, you know, especially if you follow

multiple podcasts, that if you've got 15 minutes,

you're probably following a podcast. That's got

a 15 minute episode for the amount of time you're

willing to give it. And if you're going to be

on a long drive or you're going to be on the

treadmill or whatever it is you're doing, you

can go, Oh, I've wanted to listen to this one.

And now I finally got the time to dedicate to

it. Yeah. But I'm open to it depending on what

I'm doing. The problem for me is that I'm sitting

in a studio so much working on my own stuff that

I don't have the time to listen to as many of

the podcasts as I would like to. Yeah, absolutely.

And I also do love those companion podcasts for

shows that I love. Yeah. The Sopranos one. There's

one about True Blood. Where would they get the

actors and they talk about the behind the scenes?

If I loved a TV show, like I love True Blood,

like I love The Sopranos, getting to hear the

behind the scenes stories, which is kind of what

I want people to use my podcast for, the behind

the scenes stories with the artists. I love having

that curtain pulled back and hearing, you know,

oh, and this scene, remember it was so cold and

it was this and it was that and then it went

wrong. I love those companion podcasts, too.

Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, I didn't start

at the beginning of podcasting, but 2008 is pretty

much close enough to the beginning as I can get.

And we always called them review shows. Like

if we're going to go through and we're going

to watch 98 episodes of whatever it is, we're

reviewing that content. And now people these

days are like... You know, oh, they're rewatch

shows. And like you were saying with the companion

podcast, it's like I not because it's because

I've watched the show, not because I'm doing

my own review series of the show. But like Pod

Meets World is Danielle Fishel, Ryder Strong

and Will Friedle from Boy Meets World rewatching

what they did as actors 30 years ago. Like you're

saying, I love listening to that stuff because

it's like you said, I remember this, I remember

that, and all that stuff. Yeah, if you really

loved a television show, those podcasts are great

for that. If you were a diehard fan of whatever.

Absolutely. As a listener, how many hosts are

too many on one episode? I think that that goes

back to the radio rule, too. When you've got

a radio show, like a morning show, and you've

got six different people, it's really hard. And

for me, as somebody that interviews people, sometimes

it's really hard for me to follow and can be

annoying when you've got six different people

trying to interview somebody. Unless you've really

put a plan together, it's really hard to keep

six different people from talking over each other

and and then interviews like. I really hate it

when there's the guest is answering a question.

And the other person, the co -host derails and

takes the person. on a tangent and they never

get back to finishing answering the question

that the first person answered. So I think a

couple people is good. I've never had a co -host.

I had a producer for like a few months in the

early days of my radio career. So I'm used to

doing everything myself. Yeah. So the concept

of working with a co -host. is hard there are

people like mike shoe that i worked with at aaf

and that i work with at the pike now that he

and i work great together but the concept of

having someone else drive the interview because

i'm so used to driving is is really hard and

you've got to get really good at it i think the

best shows are like two people maybe three the

max i think anything more than three is just

a disaster unless unless you juggle Unless you

juggle and those podcasts can do something that

I can't. Those podcasts can exist without a guest.

Yeah. That the host can sit around and talk about

something together. I have to have a guest on

my show because I don't have a co -host. So there's

pros and cons to it. But I think it's really

hard to keep track of more than three voices.

Yeah, it is. Especially for all the same gender.

You know, because then you're like, there's four

guys and they're all talking. And I can't tell

if one of them is a woman and then there's two

guy voices. It's a little bit easier sonically

to tell who's who. The only way you can tell

who's who is if somebody starts talking like

this, you know, that's not the other guy that

was originally talking. And then high and have

it. Yeah. You know, you have if you have. It's

hard. Yeah, it's very hard. When we do the top

100 countdowns, usually because I'm so used to

doing the intros and outros, my buddy Kevin,

who does all the math for us to get, because

we get multiple websites and multiple people

to submit lists, and he then does some sort of

weird math thing and makes it our master list.

Basically, I'll run through the intro like I

did to this, and then I'll hand it over to him

and say, okay. Take it away. What number, you

know, number 100, number one. So it's like and

then we have so that's him and I. But we in order

to have a kind of like balance, it's so weird

that I say it like this, a balancing act of opinions.

We usually have anywhere from three to five people

on those. But I'm juggling all of the time. He's

juggling all of the time. But we only do those

like we did the first one in 2011. We do them

like every two years or so. kind of thing. Cause

they're big projects to produce. So, so yeah,

absolutely. It's hard for me. And I, the things

that attract me to shows is like getting to know

someone that I admire in some way. And so, you

know, I find it with myself, you know, while

I know that there's people listening to the podcast

because they're a fan of mine, I know most of

the reason why people are listening to that episode

is that they're a fan of the guest. And so I

feel like I've failed and it's happened on an

episode where when I'm looking at the editing

and I look how much time I spent talking and

how much they spent talking, if I talk more than

the guest, that to me is a failure on my part.

Unless it was because they weren't a great guest

and I had to like draw and like really tug at

getting answers out of them. People that answer

in, you know, two or three word answers. It's

like, that's hard. But for the most part, it's

my job to steer, but it's their job to give me

the direction. Like it's their job to kind of

talk as little or as much about the topic and

then for me to focus on them. Yeah, absolutely.

That's why I like doing it myself. Yeah, absolutely.

I've worked alone for so long. It's what I'm

used to and how I'm comfortable. There are people

that co -host podcasts are like, I can't imagine

having to do this by myself. I'm like, I can't

imagine having to do it with somebody else. Well,

I mean, OK, so we interview people, you interview

people. But technically, I see the even though

they are the guest, that's like when you do your

sit reps, that's you. Right. In the room by yourself,

whatever. That's your radio because you've been

doing that for so long. That's fine. What I always

had a problem with doing, like if I'm reviewing

a show, I can't sit here. If I'm just going to

sit here and read what I wrote about the show

and not sound. Again, like I said with the guy

before Robin Williams and all that. So I like

bounces. Like we're bouncing off of each other.

I'm asking you all that. I'm not saying like

you are my guest, but like, it's also, it's almost

like co -hosting. Well, right. No, I know. But

I'm, but I'm saying like, it's that individuality

of somebody doing something by themselves that

I'm just like, Oh my God, I could not do that.

Yeah. Cause I can't concentrate on it. I'm, I'm

just so used to the idea of, of being in that

room by myself. It's fine. Yeah. Oh, because

to me, The other person is the audience. So the

beauty of radio is you're talking to and the

way they always explained it to me when I got

into it was just imagine one person. One person

in the audience that's listening and just talk

to that person. And then every person in the

audience will feel like you're talking just to

them. That was a really hard concept for me to

get used to. So he's in my studio. He's up there

on the shelf. I bought, and people have heard

me talk about this, I bought a Mr. Potato Head

really early on in the early days of my radio

career. And every night when I went in to start

my show, I would put Mr. Potato Head on the board

in front of me. And I got into the habit of talking

to the audience that I couldn't see by just talking

to Mr. Potato Head as if it were a person. And

I just talked to Mr. Potato Head. The hard thing

is, like having a conversation with Mr. Potato

Head, the audience doesn't reply back in real

time. So when you're doing radio alone, until

you get the calls, or now more likely than not,

the texts or the posts on social media, you don't

know if they laughed at the joke because they're

not there in the room. And that's really hard

to get used to. And a lot of people that do podcasting

with multiple people and an in -person guest,

you know, radio people, sit in a padded room

and talk to themselves all day the only thing

that doesn't make them crazy is that the microphone's

on yeah and that's a skill set that really requires

work to get used to and good at 100 yeah i've

only ever done two in -person recordings i my

buddy steve who created the network with me came

up in 2017 to chicago at the time he was my best

man at my wedding And we did a little podcast

before and after the wedding and everything else

and all that. And then I interviewed, I don't

know how much traveling you're doing, but if

you ever go to Waukegan, Illinois, there's a

place out there, Big Ed's Barbecue. I interviewed

Big Ed and they have this thing called, it's

every restaurant in every city and town has one

of these things if they choose to do it. They

have one of these burger challenges, and it's

Matthew. It's the Sheriff Burger Challenge. It's

like eight patties. It's this huge, like anything

Adam, what's his name, does on Man vs. Food and

all that stuff. So it's similar. So I had him

on. I had him over. and you know he brought i

didn't i didn't do the burger challenge i couldn't

do that but i interviewed him but generally i've

been doing this remote just like we're doing

this now like i that's all because i just i like

doing it this way it's much easier i'm in my

space you're in your space you're comfortable

to what you asked me before too about the first

thing and it's being able to control the audio

quality and it's hard to control it when you're

on location yep absolutely What podcasts are

you currently listening to if you are listening

to any of them? Hold on. Let me look at my phone.

I have been really busy balancing a lot of the

new radio station that I've been working on.

I got sucked into Smartless just because I love

those guys. And they just did a companion docuseries

about the Smartless tour that they did. But I

love Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes and Will Arnett

as comedians and actors. So the fact that the

three of them are on together is kind of hilarious.

That companion podcast, Truist Blood, I started

listening to because it's all the behind the

scenes stories about true blood, which I love.

I had been listening to Bruce Dickinson's Psycho

Schizo Espresso, which was really kind of interesting

because he Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden,

such an academic that that was really cool. i've

listened to conan you know i've listened to rogan

jocko god there's there's so many of them that

i i don't actively listen to all of them all

the time but i do follow and then then there's

you know some friends of mine have podcasts you

know like like mike she's been on podcasts that

i listen to and break the ice yeah and and Then

there's some bands like Flea from the Red Hot

Chili Peppers has a really interesting one called

This Little Light. The Offspring just launched

one called Time to Relax with the Offspring.

Johnny Christ from Avenged Sevenfold has a video

podcast called Drinks with Johnny. kind of like

cocktails in the war room except he does it with

guests at his bar whereas me i'm talking to the

audience more so that one's pretty good i like

it when the bands even do like um like short

series when they've got a record coming out and

they do a short episode each song like that kind

of stuff i like but yeah like right now those

are the ones that i kind of dabble in a little

bit but i haven't been listening to as many as

i have saved in my phone but i know It's like

my your podcast list on Spotify has like 50 plus

episodes that I've been meaning to listen to.

But for me, I usually most of the time, if I

find a new podcast that I haven't listened to

before, I always try to find that first episode.

So because usually in the first episode, as you

said earlier, and as we've been talking about

that first episode, the host and the people that

are on the show. That's where you get to know

them first and you follow them through there.

So I've got one podcast that I need to do that

with currently. I loved it when Blackstone Cherry

and Monster Truck got together during the pandemic

and did Cherry Chats. Because Blackstone Cherry...

Nickelback used to be my number one. It was Nickelback,

then Creed. I love Creed, don't get me wrong,

but I've been following NB for pretty much their

whole career. I find somehow, someway, I don't

know how it was, I ended up finding White Trash

Millionaire on YouTube, and I'm like, who are

these guys? And I looked into it, and I'm like,

oh, okay. And then I think I heard them on some

interview somewhere, I forget, back in 2011.

And I've been following them ever since. I love

those guys. yeah they're so cool i would love

to interview it's out there oh i yeah forever

with me absolutely all right And then by the

way, just in case you love music podcasts, like

the Mistress Carrie podcast is part of the Pantheon

podcast network. And all of the podcasts that

are in the network are music related in one way,

shape or form. So I go through and I'm always

kind of thumbing through all the podcasts in

the network because there's a lot of great ones

in there, too. So I was wondering when Pantheon

was going to come up because my buddy, Jesse

Jackson. he he's had his bruce springsteen podcast

for like i don't know 10 15 yeah he started in

2015 so whenever long ago that was eight years

seven years whatever it is uh he started a podcast

called set lusting bruce because he was a big

bruce springsteen fan and he has people on just

like i have people on and they talk about music

and they talk about bruce springsteen they talk

about music you know listening to me and then

So he is now on, he brought Pantheon came to

him more. So he's on there, but he also started

a John Hyatt podcast where he and Silva, his

friend, Sylvan Groth, they are reviewing every

John Hyatt song from A to Z. So both of those

are on Pantheon as well. I have, yeah, I absolutely

love some of the stuff that Pantheon does. Yeah,

like guys from the Shout It Out Loud cast, like

they had me on. Which, by the way, I owe them

an email about a project that they're working

on. And then I've been on Film Crickets, which

is guys talking about bad movies. And they've

had me on the show a few times, which has been

fun. So there's definitely like some really cool

concepts that are out there. And right now, you

know, podcasting had such a huge surge during

the pandemic. Because everybody and their grandmother

thought, oh, I'm going to start one while they

were at home and laid off. And then a lot of

podcasts have dropped off because people just

can't keep up. They don't realize how much work

it is to feed it. So I think now we're seeing

a time in podcasting where like the cream has

had to rise to the top because there were so

many podcasts that came out that it's like the

best of the best ones are going to be the ones

that survive. Just like in anything else. Yeah.

You know. There's a lot of ones out there. Yeah,

when you start a show, you have to have a plan.

You can't just throw things at the mic to see

what sticks. And please don't throw things at

me. You got to know how to feed it. You got to

be able to feed it. And your concept has to be

broad enough that you're going to be able to

generate the content required to keep the audience.

Which is why for me, you know, there were no

tours when I started mine because of the pandemic,

but I was fortunate enough to be coming out of

this very long, successful radio career where

I knew that I could start the podcast and be

able to feed it with interviews. And I've done,

I think this week will be 162 numbered episodes

and I've never missed a week. And that's on top

of. All the bonus episodes, the after action

reports, and obviously the hundreds of sit reps

that I've released in the last three years as

well. There are times when I'm traveling that

I can't do the sit rep because it's hard to do

it on the fly. But the weekly episodes, the long

form interview episodes, I always find a way

to get those up there because like you said earlier,

the consistency is so key. Yeah, Des Rocks was

161, which was a week ago. This is most likely

going up on Tuesday or Wednesday, the 11th or

the 12th or whenever the hell that is. Can we

get a preview of who's going to be on 162? Yes,

I will tell you who's going to be on 162. Nita

Strauss is coming on again to talk about working

with Demi Lovato and then going back to Alice

Cooper about all the collaborations on her new

album, The Call of the Void, that just came out

this past Friday. So she's got everybody from

David Draymond from disturbed Chris motionless

from motionless and white Lizzie Hale, Dorothy.

Um, she's got some amazing, um, Alice Cooper

sings one of the songs on a record. What bums

me out is that I recorded the episode a couple

of days before the record came out and she got

engaged. At the album release party. A couple

days after I recorded the episode. So I couldn't

congratulate her on the episode. That she got

engaged. So I had to. Edit something in. Congratulate

her into the intro. Because obviously she didn't

know. She was going to be getting proposed to.

So congratulations Nita. But she's amazing. So

she's been on the podcast before. She's coming

back on the podcast. So episode 162 is Nita Strauss,

and she's a badass. That's so cool and so awesome.

Yeah, that's the magic of editing is if you record

something and then something else happens, as

long as you haven't edited that episode, you

can throw in some sort of, hey, so just before

this episode starts, I want to be able to thank

or I want to be able to congratulate. You know,

you can always throw something in. It happened

to me, the worst case of that. was I was literally

interviewing Kevin Martin from Candlebox, who

I've known for decades. And we talked for like

over an hour. This was at the height of the pandemic.

And as soon as we said goodbye, I swiveled in

my chair and opened up my computer and saw the

news that Eddie Van Halen had just, it had just

been announced that he died. And I knew that

this Kevin Martin episode wasn't going to come

out for like another week and that it would just

be ridiculous that I didn't address that. Yeah.

So I called Kevin back and said, and he had just

seen the news. And I was like, I'm going, I tried

to figure out how to address it. And the way

that I came up with was just being honest about

it. And so I said at the beginning, Kevin and

I had this conversation and then we said goodbye.

And then we saw the news about Eddie Van Halen

and I called him right back. And that's how I

put. OK, yeah. Or and the segment after, because

it's exactly what happened. I didn't want to

try and fake it. It was just disingenuous to

do it that way. But Kevin, then he and I talked

for another 20 minutes about Eddie Van Halen,

about his experiences with Eddie Van Halen as

a person, about the influence of his music and

his guitar playing. And so that what I was like,

oh, man, which, by the way, is a radio experience.

And a thing that radio learned about pre -recording

stuff, because nationally, there were a lot of

morning shows that were pre -recorded the morning

of 9 -11 that the companies then had to scramble

to pull the audio down. And regionally, the DJ

that was killed in the station nightclub fire

in Rhode Island had pre -recorded his radio show

for later that night. And so there is always

a danger, both in radio and in podcasting, of

the pre -recording too far in advance because

you could get caught. Radio, it's a lot harder.

With the podcasting, it's like you can kind of

release it whenever you want. But I did get caught

on that Kevin Martin episode because Eddie Van

Halen passed away. And that is a defining moment

in music and something that needed to be addressed.

And Kevin was great about it. I like doing this

kind of stuff. I don't like really doing evergreen

content because I already put enough pressure

on myself when it comes to editing shows and

things like that. And we'll talk about editing

here in a moment. But like that evergreen, the

the sit reps you do and just keeping up with

like it fries my brain more than it already is.

I don't need two Fridays. I already have one.

Well, I do a lot of show prep for the radio shows

that I do. So I'm doing the prep anyway. Right.

No. Yeah. I mean, so it's just keeping up with

it all. But that's the kind of prep you have

to do if you're going to work in radio. Yeah.

So it that prep. That was a muscle that was already

strong for me. That was already in my workflow

every day is is just, you know, if I'm just screwing

around on the Internet, if I'm on my phone, I'll

email the link to myself. And put sit rep in

the subject so that I remember to put that in

the sit rep for tomorrow or whatever. But then

I have, you know, anybody that's ever seen me

work or looked over my shoulder on my computer,

I've got tabs and windows open. It drives me

crazy. But then at the end of the day, the last

thing I do at the end of my day and I do it late

at night is do the sit rep for the next morning.

And I've got all those stories open. And ready

to go. So I'm constantly doing that sit rep.

It's not like I sit down and go, OK, I need to

prep for the sit rep now. Oh, you're already

prepped. Yeah. Yeah, you're already prepped.

You got to. Yeah. And again, but it's that evergreen,

like you were talking about, like an interview

like this or an interview with whomever you're

in, like some if it needs to be delayed or if

something happens or like you said, if you're

traveling. That's fine to be able to delay an

episode with a subject or with a, you know, whatever

kind of review thing, but those evergreen, like

this is the daily dose of mistress carry kind

of things, sit rep, all that. Like you can't

just like, Oh, something happened that I have

to delay this until you can't do that. It's hard

to do. I have been asked by artists when they

agree to come on the podcast. Hey, can you, can

you delay this a week or can you release it this

week to sync up with the release of the record

or, you know, something like that, or, or we

can talk about this tour announcement when we

record, but it's not getting announced till next

week. So can you release it the week of the,

and I'm willing to do that stuff. Yeah, no, absolutely.

Yeah. But like, you know, I used to do a show

with a completely different hours that I don't

do anything with anymore, but it was like, find

us. your three favorite news stories or three

favorite news stories you want to talk about

and it was basically a weekly evergreen whatever

was going on that week whatever whatever it's

just i like the more interviewee style the more

you know talking about a movie or whatever than

than the act if i want news i'll just read an

article on the internet yeah i get my news Obviously,

I listen to the sit rep and everything else.

But in general, if I'm just needing to get a

dose of news, I'll go to a website more than

I will. Well, that that's that goes back to how

you're going to use it. Like there's a lot of

people that listen to me that don't sit in front

of a computer all day. Yeah, sure. Driving that

are trades people that are, you know, building

things, fixing things, you know, first responders.

There are a lot, even though more and more people

have more and more access. to computers there

are a lot of people that don't spend all day

in front of it which is good for podcasters because

those people are listening to podcasting but

i also have lived in a world for so long where

i am just getting bombarded with information

because that's my job but that's not everybody's

job yeah so there are those people that kind

of need someone to kind of curate for them which

is why the sit rep has been successful because

they're like look there's just too much Fill

it down to what I need to know and move on for

me. And that's where the sit rep kind of fills

a gap for that part of my audience. Yeah, absolutely.

So we've kind of talked about it and we've obviously

talked about your radio career and everything

else. And we've talked about the various some

of the various differences. But going from the

radio to podcasting, what do you see as the main

differences? podcasting versus being on the radio

i think live radio is a high that you get that

there's no other way to get it like you're literally

out there with your ass hanging out You've got

to worry about saying something stupid, saying

something controversial. You've got to keep it

moving when you're doing live radio, especially

if you're interviewing a guest like a band. If

I was in the studio, I'm watching the clock because

in my head, I'm like, I got to get into commercials

by this time. These guys need to get to the venue

to do soundcheck. What's the listener thinking?

I've got 30 questions and only time for six.

Which of the six am I going to answer? You have

no idea what's coming out of the mouth of the

guest. And you've got to be willing at any given

time to be able to completely derail your plan

based on what's going on in the world. So when

you're doing live radio, you are literally juggling

fireballs. And you don't have that necessarily

when you're doing a podcast because you're pre

-recording it and you can always go back in and

fix it. You've got, whether or not you do, that

safety net is there for you. And when you're

operating with a safety net under you, you operate

differently than when you're live. And if you

screw up, you got to own it and move on. And

those muscles are very different. And when I

got back on the radio, it was almost a year after

I had been laid off. And I had to get my brain

back into radio mode. Juggling the two simultaneously,

when I'm on the radio, I have to remind myself

that I can't swear. And in the reverse, when

I started doing podcasting, I had to tell myself

and get used to the fact that I could relax a

little bit more. That I could sit back and let

the guest go on and on and on in an answer because

I had the time. that if we wanted to go off on

a tangent, that we could talk about something

that would not be acceptable on the public airwaves,

that if the audience, if a band member swore

on the air live, my brain is now instantly looking

for the dump button and trying to make sure that

it didn't get on the air, whereas on the podcast,

I had so many people when I launched the podcast

reach out to me on social media and be like,

it's so weird to hear you swear. Yeah. Because

they listened to me for decades. For decades

on the radio, yeah. So I think, It's just two

completely different skill sets, but there is

a lot of overlap, too. But it took a lot of getting

used to to to get used to the idea of podcasting

where I could relax a little more. Radio requires

you to be a little bit more on the edge of your

seat. Yeah, it's very much so. All right. We're

going to talk about one other thing and then

we get like two more questions and then we'll

kind of wrap up. So we mentioned earlier about

editing podcasts. How much time do you put into

the editing of your shows? As much as it takes.

To me, it's whatever is required to make the

episode good. And when I'm doing an interview.

I can keep track in my head of like, oh, yeah,

I got to go in. And, you know, if their phone

rings in the interview, if they didn't mute it,

I got to OK, I got to go in and fix that. And

the way that I produce my podcast, because I

release a corresponding playlist with every episode

that's filled with all the music that my guest

has made and then all the music we reference

in the interview. So after I do the interview,

I save it raw. Archive it raw. Then I go in and

I start editing the interview from the beginning.

And I like to edit in a linear fashion. Absolutely.

So I start at the beginning and I edit as I go.

So I know what's already been looked at is ready

to be released. And as I'm listening to the episode,

I'm generating the playlist based on the references

of the music that we're talking about. And then

I edit as I go. And then once I've got. the actual

interview done, then I'll go in and record the

intro and the outro and put it together as a

final piece. And so, you know, if it's a two

and a half hour interview, it's going to take

me at a minimum of two and a half hours because

I'm going to listen to the whole thing because

sometimes I catch something. That the person

said that that could have whizzed by me as I

was getting my next question ready or whatever.

And I and I need to to propagate that playlist

to two and a half hour interview. I'm a pretty

quick audio editor. So the audio, the audio editing

part of it goes really quick for me. It's just

a matter of having to listen to it in real time.

Yeah, I listen to every second. I will. I don't

like filler words at all. There's nothing like

I can sit here and talk to you about Transformers

for 10 minutes. Not that I'm going to do that,

but I can sit here and talk to you and talk like

I'm talking and say everything that I'm saying

without. And this is not directed at anybody.

This is just in general. Usually when people

get in front of a microphone, they're like, oh,

well, I like this because of and I'm like, yeah,

cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. Well, that's, that's

different. Like for me, the people that are usually

on my show are used to doing interviews, so they

don't do that as much. Yeah. Yeah. And again,

it's not, I don't ever direct that at anybody,

but I just want everybody to know who's listening

to the sound of my voice. If you say I'm on my

podcast and it's like, we're talking, we're talking,

we're talking, we're talking. Oh yeah. No, you

got to tighten that up because that's annoying

for the audience. And it goes to the audio quality

that we were talking about that's going to drive

people away from the show. I catch myself doing

it sometimes. If I get too relaxed, if I'm interviewing

somebody I'm really good friends with, I notice

little audio ticks that I do. And I'm like, well,

this like that and like that. And I'm like, oh,

Carrie. I just did it again. I'm my own worst

critic. Yeah, so am I. I put so much pressure

on myself to make sure I put out the best thing

that I possibly can put out. The two biggest

things I always catch from myself and from others

is either um or like that tongue. Oh, yeah. That

noise. Don't even realize they do it. Right.

Yeah, no one realizes they do the tongue. Don't

realize it until you're editing it and you're

like, that person just did it. for the 700th

time but most times podcast guests are not people

that are used to being interviewed all the time

right yeah and what's also really funny and i

learned this doing radio just because a rock

star is comfortable on stage in front of 50 000

people doesn't mean they're comfortable in a

one -on -one situation with a microphone in their

face a lot of artists have a really hard time

being interviewed which is why i always put so

much effort into making them comfortable Absolutely.

It's their guard down. Like yourself and any

other anyone we've interviewed a lot of people

and I've interviewed a lot of people in 15 years

I've been very very lucky to be able to do so.

Every time I go to request an interview through

email or through whatever. I will say, whatever

you need, I can cater. Like we were saying earlier

about the time thing, if you only have 45 minutes,

fine. Generally, I will say to them as an introduction,

like, hey, normally the interviews are an hour

or an hour and 15 minutes or whatever. However,

I will and can cater to the time that you have

available, and that's more than fine. Because,

like you said, you want them to be as comfortable

as they can be. on your show and you want back

you want them to come back you want them to have

experience the first time and you want them to

come back i've been able to interview musician

stan bush over 10 times in 15 years Because every

time he does, when we first interviewed him on

the Transformers podcast for the original 80s

cartoon, it was about the soundtrack that he

did. It was about the music. It was about all

that. But everything else since then, it's like,

oh, Stan has a new album coming out. Let's do

that. You know, hey, do you want to do it? You

want to talk about the new album? Tell us about

this. Tell us. And you just make them comfortable.

And like you said, making everybody feel comfortable

as long as. Everyone I record with walks away.

When we hit the stop button on the recorder and

we do a little final prep before we say goodbye,

I'll always ask, did you have fun? And if they

say yes, then my job's done. And the editing

is the editing. That's all separate from the

guest. All right, so you have done a lot of interviews.

And I know it would be like picking children

you don't have, but was there... All right. The

question is, which one was your favorite? I'm

not going to do that to you. Give me your top

five favorites. Well, I got to put the Aerosmith

one on that we talked about earlier because it

was my first. Right. I think the Shinedown interview

from 2004 where they did Simple Man is one that

needs to be there. There's an interview that

I did, I think, back in 2014 with Chris Cornell

that's haunting to listen to now because he was

there with his wife and he was very open and

honest about his struggles with mental health.

And when you go back and listen to that now,

it's heartbreaking. And he did acoustic performance

that day, just him. So the only people that were

in the studio were me and his wife and Chris

Cornell. And he was just playing acoustic and

singing. And it's like it's a private Chris Cornell

concert for me. But the fact that he was so open

and honest about his mental health struggles

that day. Sadly, he talked about how he had felt

like he had. moved past a lot of those, which

we all know now that he hadn't. Right. That when

I look back on it, I'm like, wow, that was a

really powerful day. I mean, some of the interviews

that I did overseas to go back to my trips overseas,

I think were really important, even though they

weren't necessarily rock star interviews. There

was one that I did on the fifth anniversary of

9 -11 at Camp Cropper, which was the prison that.

We had moved all the high level insurgents to

after Abu Ghraib had been closed. And there were

two brothers that were both in the military,

but stationed in different parts of the country.

And they both ended up at Camp Cropper that day.

And we put them on the radio together and connect

them with their family back home. That's so awesome.

Which was really, really emotional and powerful.

And that one stands out to me as well. I mean,

the bands. Anytime you interview them. So many.

Yeah. It's harder for me to interview my friends

because a lot of time I know more about them

than they want to share. And I forget sometimes

what I'm allowed and not allowed to bring up

because I know them so well. But I have been

so fortunate. I mean, there were there was one

time that Damage Plan was getting ready to release

their first record. And Vinnie Paul and Dimebag

Daryl and the band came up and took over the

show. And it was as insane as you would imagine

it to be. And that was really fun. A lot of the

interviews that I do around acoustic performances

are huge favorites of mine because like in Zach

Wild's case, we were talking about specific songs

and how he wrote the riffs and he was able to

talk me through it because he had the guitar

in his hand. Yeah. So I love doing stuff like

that. But like you said, like there's so many.

And there's interviews that I have with people

like Scott Weiland, who's one of the only people

that ever gave me a hard time. I have this really

famous interview where he and I kind of got into

a fight when he was touring with Velvet Revolver.

There's there's interviews with Chester Bennington

and Mike Shinoda that I did at Royale or the

or the it used to be called the Roxy and then

became Royale like when Hybrid Theory first came

out. Yeah. And they were just these two kids.

Yeah. And I went and sat between them and we

did this interview that I've got somewhere that

I need to find because it's on cassette. Oh,

man. So there are those interviews with people

that aren't here anymore. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah.

Hybrid theory. When did hybrid theory come out?

It was 2000. No. 99? 2000? Somewhere. I know

Meteora was 2003, so it was somewhere before

that. Okay. Man, that's such a long time ago.

Yeah, anytime you do... Hybrid Theory was released

October 24th of 2000. Oh, wow. According to the

interwebs. Yay, interwebs. Yeah, it's so weird.

When my late wife and I were in the house that

she owned back in Illinois a couple years ago,

writer, producer, guy from animation, Larry Dottilio.

He did the He -Man cartoons back in the day,

the old Filmation He -Man cartoons. We had interviewed

him back in 2010, 2011. And I heard, somehow

I read it on my phone or something happened where

I saw the news that he had died. And I just like,

I didn't fall over in the kitchen, but it's a

good thing the counter was there because I was

about ready to fall backwards just because of

sheer emotion of realizing, oh, my God, I have

talked to this person that now is no longer here.

And that's just like a snapshot in time. And

it's crazy. And that my my archives are riddled

with those interviews. And it's it's my goal

to eventually start going through them again,

because I've done so many interviews over the

years that I've forgotten some of the things

I've done. I mean, just since I launched the

podcast, I've done 200 interviews again. Never

mind what I did in 22 years. On the radio. The

radio, yeah. I think, I don't remember if I was

listening to AAF in 2001. I probably was, but

I don't know. I wasn't more of or less of, but

I think I was listening to BCN too much back

then, sadly. But 2001 is a... Other than 9 -11,

it's a landmark year for two of the biggest rock

bands because we had Silver Side Up and we had

Animosity, Nickelback and Seven Dust. When are

they going to get together and do it? They need

to do a collaboration or do a tour together.

That would be interesting. That would be amazing.

Best concert ever. That would be a lot of fire.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, they both like using pyro a lot,

don't they, at their shows? I've had, let's see,

three of the five members of Seven Dust have

been on the podcast. LeJean hasn't been on the

podcast yet, but he came on Cocktails in the

War Room. So he's been put up as an after -action

report. He was one of my guests during the height

of the pandemic, and he came on via Skype in

the War Room. Right. I swear you did one with

him. Maybe it was just that after action report.

Yeah. He hasn't come on the podcast yet. Yeah.

Cause I've heard you talk to Morgan several times.

There's that a couple of times with Clint and

then freaking Connelly, man, that guy, he's a

machine. He's a machine. He's a machine. That's

the Boston marathon episode. Yeah, absolutely.

And I told him, I just want to talk about the

marathon. I'll have you back on and we can talk

about music and stuff later, but I want to get

super nerdy about the marathon because he's,

he's a serious athlete. Yeah. He's a serious

athlete. You can tell by the interview. Yeah,

absolutely. All right. We're going to wrap it

up here, folks. It's been once again, it eventually

gets edited. It'll probably be under three hours,

but I, like I said, at the beginning of this,

this is like, I've listened to you for 20 years

or so. And this has just been a dream come true

to be able to talk to you, pick your brain, talk

to you about stuff. And I've tried my best. I

appreciate it. I've tried my best to not like

tell the stories, but don't like, you know what

I mean? Like, I don't, you always have those

interviews where the rock stars or the movie

celebrity, like you ask them the normal question.

They're going to give you the same normal kind

of. That's the art of it. Yep. Is asking a question

that has been asked before in a way that doesn't

make it boring, that doesn't make it something

that they don't want to talk about again. That's

the hard part. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right.

So last two questions. What advice do you have

for new and or veteran podcasters in the art

of podcasting? I think it's all the stuff we

talked about. I think figuring out. what your

lane is and how you're different. And then figuring

out before you start that you're going to be

able to keep it going. You know, that you're

not just going to get three or four episodes

in, try to find an audience and then realize

I don't have anywhere else to go. I pigeonholed

myself into a concept that was too small. And

then have nowhere to go and have it, you know,

die on the vine. There's a lot of dead podcasts

out there that are just that are just sitting

there because people just left them to die. And

so I think I think if you can come up with a

concept that you think you can continually feed

and pursue and move forward with, make sure that

you can do it in a predictable. way, reliability,

and that it's going to be there every week or

every two weeks or every month or every quarter,

whatever it is that you tell your audience that

it's going to be there and that it sounds really

good. Absolutely. All right. So I know the answer

to this, but in case people that are listening

to this don't know, where can the people find

your shows? So the Mistress Carrie podcast is

basically available anywhere that you listen

to podcasts, including the newest edition, which

is the audio is now up on YouTube, which I was

a little bit late getting it up there because

it creates separate. You know, you got to go

in and get the metrics from YouTube on how many

people are listening and then get it from all

the other outlets. But all of the podcast outlets

you can think of wherever you get your podcast,

you can find the Mistress Carrie podcast. You

can go to Mistress Carrie dot com. and all the

episodes are there so if you don't understand

how to navigate podcasts which if you're listening

to this you obviously do there's embedded players

and you can literally just hit play off my website

but then all the links to all of the other podcast

outlets are are on the website you can find cocktails

in the war room um live every tuesday night at

8 30 eastern on my official facebook page And

those videos are there. And then they get uploaded

to YouTube after the fact. So those are there

as well. The SITREP, the After Action Reports,

all of that is on the Mistress Carrie podcast

feed. And if you go to MistressCarrie .com, you'll

also find the radio stations that you can find

me on. The website has everything. Yeah, absolutely.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. So in the show

that I've said that I want Carrie to email me

the links to so I can put in the specific episodes,

I've put in the link to her website and the link

to her link. I love Linktree. Linktree is amazing.

Yeah. Yeah. Linktree has got everything up there,

too. So that makes it super easy to just find

all my social links. There's a way to email me

there. The links to the online store, the concert

calendar, all of it's on the link tree and everything

is also at MistressCarrie .com. Absolutely. Absolutely.

All right, folks, we are going to go to a quick

break and we'll be back to close the show out

after this. Hello, geeks and geekettes. Looking

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All right, we are back here on GeekCast Radio

and Studio 2009 with Mistress Carrie from the

Mistress Carrie podcast, Cocktails in the War

Room, and everything she does. Thank you so much.

As I said before the break, just amazing. Thank

you. This is a dream come true. Thanks for having

me on. I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

All right, folks, that's going to do it for us.

Thank you for joining us here inside the studio.

If you'd like to get in contact with us, leave

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Just at Mistress Carrie on Twitter. Okay, that's

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