RARE HUMANS: Recent Episodes
Evan Roberts
A conversation with former Division 1 college basketball player and 3rd generation music executive Alex Rifkind
Jason Hill is a multi-instrumentalist known for inventing, building, and mastering his own unusual instruments which help create his unique scores and productions. Hill is the lead singer, guitarist, and producer for the band LOUIS XIV. He has produced, written records or otherwise worked with such artists as The Killers, David Bowie, Ariel Pink, The White Stripes, and more.
Jason Hill now spends most of his time as a film composer working with acclaimed director David Fincher on the psychological thriller film Gone Girl and has since worked on many projects with Fincher such as the Emmy-winning series MINDHUNTER.
Raised in a small Texas town, Blair Caldwell began his career dreaming of a way to get his photography on billboards, magazines, and album covers. After just a few years, Blair was already shooting with some of today's greatest musical artists like Beyonce, Normani, and SZA. Blair’s style is self-described as ‘neat photos.’ Not much going on in the background, clean walls, and clean portraits. His ability to capture the subject's details and emotions in a clean and effective way is what sets him apart from other photographers.
This is Blair Caldwell
Jesse Thomas Biddle is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. He was selected in the first round of the 2010 MLB draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. Biddle has previously played in the MLB for the Atlanta Braves, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, and Cincinnati Reds.
Josh Levi is a singer-songwriter from Houston, Texas.[1][2] He first gained attention for his role in the NBC television series Friday Night Lights. He then gained further prominence as a finalist on the third season of The X Factor. In 2021, he signed with Issa Rae's Raedio and Atlantic Records. Josh then voiced the character of Aaron Z from the fictional boy band 4Town in the Pixar animated film Turning Red* which resulted in earning him his first Billboard Hot 100 charting hit with Billie Eilish. He then was nominated for his first Grammy due to the success of the track.
Justin Odisho runs a YouTube channel specializing in the fields of photo & video editing. He teaches millions of worldwide viewers industry-standard software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop. Justin has worked directly with companies such as Amazon, Adobe, GoPro, Youtube, Best Buy, and various influential individual creators. He has spoken publicly and been featured on TedX, TV, Podcasts,classrooms, company conferences, and more.
Benoni Tagoe is a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of experience building businesses around creatives and influencers. From creating a solid vision and culture managing talent and teams to building backend infrastructure, his work blends the entertainment industry with a startup mentality.
Benoni built Issa Rae Productions' foundation and managed relationships with Google, YouTube, and other platforms. He negotiated brand and digital international content deals and handled all distribution agreements for digital content.
Benoni is now the President at Raedio, the audio arm of HOORAY Media, where he has led the acquisition of music supervision company Bonfire Collective, secured a significant deal with music publishing company Kobalt, secured a label deal with Atlantic Records, and created a sync agency for TV/film.
Simon Horrocks has over 30 years of experience in the music industry as an artist and a business professional. After 5 records and 8 years of nationwide touring with Capricorn Recording artist The Freddy Jones Band, Simon transitioned from artist to manager handling on behalf of Alliance Artists, such clients as Survivor, Bad Company, Wayne, Blue Epic, and the Grammy-nominated Howard Tate. Simon is a Co-Founder of Affix Music, a Los Angeles-based music licensing company specializing in placing quality independent music in Television, Film, Advertising, Games, and Digital Media. The company has set artists with some of the biggest brands in the world, including The Walt Disney Company, HBO, Warner Pictures, EA Sports, NBC Universal, Turner Broadcasting, ABC Television, Clear Channel, and Verizon. 2015, Horrocks teamed up with longtime friends Dave Neupert and Dave Trumfio to build Gold-Diggers. A unique venue, boutique hotel, and recording studio complex in East Hollywood, CA. As an extension of the brick-and-mortar Gold-Diggers brand, Horrocks launched Gold Diggers Media, a digital extension of the Gold-Diggers brand.
Cooper Wilson is an artist manager based in LA, leading a roster of talented singers, songwriters, and DJs through his own management company High LQ. Cooper's most accomplished artist, Josh Levi, was recently nominated for a Grammy and voiced a lead character in Disney Pixar's 'Turning Red.' Cooper is well known within the music industry for his incredible work ethic, but most notably, his attitude towards the industry and the light he brings to every room.
On todays episode of Rare Humans, I talk with a long time friend, Annie Hughey. She is an adventurer, free skier, alaskan trailblazer, and a pure soul. We talk about her most recent adventures, dealing with fear, friends along the way, and her future plans.
J. Sakiya Sandifer is our first guest on the Rare Humans Podcast. He is a thinker, art director, speech writer, and modern day art renaissance man. He also happens to be someone I look up to and admire. Sakiya has built the career of his dreams on his own terms. In this episode, we talk about life, ego, books, and the pursuit of happiness.