It's been a long hiatus but my series called The Unskippables is back. I speak with a musician about an album they think is perfect from start to finish. An album with no skips. This week I caught up with my old friend Payton Smith. I say "old" because I met him 7 years ago, but he's still 26. I've been following his career since he was a teenager. Payton is such an impressive songwriter and guitar player.

In this episode we discuss Eric Church's album "The Outsiders." Despite being one of his least commercially accessible albums, "The Outsiders" has been a standout to the Church Choir and all of his fans.

Payton and I discuss how he found himself in Nashville at such a young age, how the pandemic derailed all of his momentum and how Eric Church has always been an inspiration to him.

I'm excited to welcome country singer Taylor Austin Dye to the show. If you're not familiar with her work, I hope you'll check it out (after you're done listening to the podcast). I know you'll be very happy with what you hear. Taylor is poised to make some big waves in the country world over the next year as she's out there with her first radio single, "Man For That." In this episode we discuss where she found her love of music, what it was like to go from a town of just over 100 people to Nashville, and how playing on Broadway helped her hone her craft.

The man behind so many of the incredible promos and branding of 90's WWE (and WWF), David Sahadi, takes some time to talk about his history and time in the world of wrestling. We discuss his new memoir, "Backstage Pass: Tales From Beyond The Squared Circle." His story is great. He literally was the reason the WWF went from an entity that was kind of a joke in the sports world to a massive organization that has created so many superstars.

It brings me so much joy to have an opportunity to speak with the founders of the Eastbay catalog. The days that the catalog appeared in the mailbox were the best days. I spent so much time looking through each sneaker, reading all of the descriptions, and circling the shoes I wanted the most. Art Juedes and Rick Gering founded Eastbay and they are sharing their story in the new book, "The Book of Eastbay: Two Friends And The Catalog That Changed The Sneaker Business Forever."

The book is available now wherever you get your books. You can also find it and read the prologue at bookofeastbay.com

For a certain generation of people the movie Labyrinth, originally released in 1986, still holds a very special place in their hearts. Taken at face value the film is a fun (maybe fun isn't the right word) romp through an imaginary world filled with goblins, fairies, smelly bogs, and other interesting creatures. But, maybe there's a lot more to this film that has helped it stand the test of time. Author and professor Jes Battis decided to take their love for the film and share their thoughts in the new book 'It's Only Forever: Labyrinth.' This will go down as one of my favorite conversations of this podcast.

My feed on Tiktok is filled with music, some politics and horny national parks. You can look that last one up yourself. The music content has been giving me so much joy. I love discussing music with people, and reminiscing about the songs, and artists, that I've loved over the years. Recently my algorithm started showing me videos from Professor T. I've really enjoyed his content. Not only is it a lot of music that I personally love. But we're also about the same age. I feel connected to his stories because I have so many of the same. I also find it so important to keep these stories of older music alive for a new generation. Professor T was kind enough to give me some of his time for my show. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Back in December my fyp on TikTok started showing me these videos of a guy talking about a new clothing brand he was designing and launching. The brand is called Smallside. His goal was to sell the clothing and use the proceeds to give back to the community by turning small forgotten spaces into soccer fields. I became very interested in his progress. Eventually I wanted to find out more about who this guy was. I reached out and he agreed to join me on the show. His name is Ryan Hendricks and he is the founder of Smallside (@smallsideco on instagram and tiktok).

If you watched any of the Olympic snowboarding competitions you may have noticed the same thing I did. These elite athletes, the best in the world, were struggling to land their signature tricks and runs. One could take that as they were trying to go big for the gold and just didn't have "it" that day. But, you could also take a look at the conditions on the mountain in Italy and realize maybe it wasn't the best quality for these riders. Josh Sullivan is a writer for Snowboarder Magazine. He published an article called, "OPINION: The Olympic Slopestyle Women Deserve Better." Josh and I discuss how schedule changes, weather, and judges held back some of the best snowboarders in the world.