CommonX Podcast

Save $1,000+ per year on groceries: The affordability crisis and how one founder is fighting back

Grocery prices are crushing American families. They're up 32% since the pandemic, and one entrepreneur is building a solution. Andy Ellwood, founder of Stretch (the Expedia for groceries), joins us to explain how his free app can save you $1,000+ this year by finding the cheapest stores for your shopping list. We dig into the affordability crisis, the data behind it, and what real change looks like when you give power back to the shopper. The CommonX Podcast features long-form conversations with musicians, cultural voices, veterans, entrepreneurs, and independent thinkers who bring lived experience to the table. Hosted by Jared Mayzak and Ian Primmer, CommonX explores music, culture, work, identity, resilience, and the systems that shape everyday life—without talking points or manufactured outrage. From iconic artists and creative pioneers to everyday people with extraordinary stories, each episode prioritizes honesty, curiosity, and meaningful dialogue. This is a Gen-X–driven show for listeners who value depth over noise and conversation over clicks. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

One Poem Stopped a Stranger from Ending His Life. He Never Quit After That. | Daniel Villegas

There are artists who perform. Then there's Daniel Villegas -- a Colombian-born slam poet, bilingual hip-hop emcee, and conga player who has spent over a decade making music that actually means something, without a label, a machine, or a shortcut behind him. In this episode, we get into how a Hamlet assignment in English class at 16 cracked him open, what it took to come back after a decade of near-silence caused by Lyme disease, and the night a stranger walked up after a college open mic and told him a poem kept them from ending their life. We also talk about how he writes in both English and Spanish and why it took years to get there, what the cultural weight of a song like "Time Travel" means right now, the real economics of being an independent artist in the streaming era, and how he's using creative writing workshops to unlock voices in young people who've been told they have nothing to say. Plus: an epic story about going completely blank on stage while opening for Immortal Technique, and the moment in a hospital bed when he decided to go all in anyway. Daniel's new album "Beats and Lyrics" is out now on all platforms. His vinyl "Evolution Gold" is available at his shows. → Going from the back of an English class to performing spoken word in front of crowds → How "Time Travel" captures the cultural moment around immigration, identity, and freedom → Big Pun, DMX, Vico C, and the 90s golden age that shaped his craft → Why independent artists win on creativity but lose on the business side → The bubble technique he uses to unlock voices in young people → What happened when he blanked onstage opening for Immortal Technique → The turning point: a stranger's confession about "I Wanna Live in America" Find Daniel: Instagram: @DanielVjGuys Music YouTube: Daniel Villegas Music Album: "Beats and Lyrics" -- out now on all platforms --- 00:00 Intro / Welcome to CommonX 00:57 Colombia, his grandmother, and the first music 01:49 The Hamlet poem that changed everything 03:38 Hip-hop influences: Mos Def, Big Pun, DMX, Vico C 05:07 How bilingual music evolved over time 07:04 "Time Travel," immigration, and cultural weight 10:13 Writing without a target in mind 11:36 Do artists have a responsibility to speak truth? 13:15 Pressure to represent vs. just being yourself 14:31 Stepping outside the lifestyle matrix 16:33 How he describes his own sound 18:19 "Jaguar" and writing music to lyrics (not the other way around) 20:27 Merging slam poetry and hip-hop 21:19 The hardest part of staying independent 23:38 Teaching creative writing to youth 25:12 The bubble technique for unlocking student voices 27:03 Epic stage fail: going blank opening for Immortal Technique 28:35 The hospital moment he almost walked away 31:21 Biggest breakthroughs: KRS-One, Flowbots, and "I Wanna Live in America" 34:32 New album "Beats and Lyrics" + where to find Daniel 36:09 Jared's Five --- Like what you heard? Subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. CommonXPodcast.com | Check the X-Files ⚠️ Chapter timestamps are estimated from transcript. Spot-check against final edit before publishing. The CommonX Podcast features long-form conversations with musicians, cultural voices, veterans, entrepreneurs, and independent thinkers who bring lived experience to the table. Hosted by Jared Mayzak and Ian Primmer, CommonX explores music, culture, work, identity, resilience, and the systems that shape everyday life—without talking points or manufactured outrage. From iconic artists and creative pioneers to everyday people with extraordinary stories, each episode prioritizes honesty, curiosity, and meaningful dialogue. This is a Gen-X–driven show for listeners who value depth over noise and conversation over clicks. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Two Choices, Zero Real Options: How the Party System Traps Your Vote

You pull the lever, but who really decided what's on the ballot? Metin Pekin, author of Breaking Democracy's Chains, joins Jared and Ian to make the case that the real problem with democracy isn't the politicians - it's the party system behind them. When billionaire donors and major financiers control which candidates even make it to the ballot, your vote doesn't choose your representative. It just ratifies someone else's shortlist. In this conversation: -> The "party bottleneck" - why you're voting between two managers of the same system -> Why campaign finance reform keeps failing (and why tinkering won't fix it) -> What a no-party democracy actually looks like in practice -> The Democracy Tax: a structural fix for money in politics -> The Vaclav Havel greengrocer analogy - and what it says about your vote -> How ranked choice voting and independent reps could break the cycle -> Why 45% of Americans call themselves independents but still vote for a party -> What to actually do if you want to change the system Metin Pekin is the author of Breaking Democracy's Chains, available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. If this episode got your wheels turning, check out: - E83: Ramon Perez on the Digital Democracy Project - E81: Tom Joseph on America's Main Street Party Subscribe and visit CommonXPodcast.com for more. The CommonX Podcast features long-form conversations with musicians, cultural voices, veterans, entrepreneurs, and independent thinkers who bring lived experience to the table. Hosted by Jared Mayzak and Ian Primmer, CommonX explores music, culture, work, identity, resilience, and the systems that shape everyday life—without talking points or manufactured outrage. From iconic artists and creative pioneers to everyday people with extraordinary stories, each episode prioritizes honesty, curiosity, and meaningful dialogue. This is a Gen-X–driven show for listeners who value depth over noise and conversation over clicks. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Stop Wishing Wrong: The Science Nobody Taught You | Brownell Landrum

She didn't just write a book about wishing. She mapped the science behind it across over a dozen disciplines. And once she explains it, you'll never blow out birthday candles the same way again. Brownell Landrum is the author of "The Art and Science of Wishing" and founder of the Cosmic Wish Experiment. In this episode she breaks down why most people wish wrong, what separates a wish from a prayer from a goal, and how neuroplasticity, the reticular activating system, quantum physics, and ten other sciences activate every time you make one. Also: limiting beliefs, collective wishing, why protest energy keeps us stuck, and whether Jared's hemp obsession already qualifies as a wish. Cosmic Wish Experiment: cosmicwishexperiment.com Learn more: commonxpodcast.com The CommonX Podcast features long-form conversations with musicians, cultural voices, veterans, entrepreneurs, and independent thinkers who bring lived experience to the table. Hosted by Jared Mayzak and Ian Primmer, CommonX explores music, culture, work, identity, resilience, and the systems that shape everyday life—without talking points or manufactured outrage. From iconic artists and creative pioneers to everyday people with extraordinary stories, each episode prioritizes honesty, curiosity, and meaningful dialogue. This is a Gen-X–driven show for listeners who value depth over noise and conversation over clicks. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

What the Media Left Out for a Decade | Emmy Producer Rob Rosen

Rob Rosen spent decades inside the machine. From KCBS Los Angeles to five seasons producing Reasonable Doubt on HBO Max, he has watched journalism drift from fact-gathering into something closer to activism -- and he has documented exactly how it happened. His new book, Crimes of Omission, makes a case most people already suspect but can't quite articulate: the media's biggest problem isn't outright lies. It's the stories they decide you never need to hear. In this episode, Rob walks us through the cases, the newsroom culture, and the moment around 2012 when legacy media stopped holding up a mirror and started choosing sides. If you grew up trusting Cronkite and Brokaw, this one will hit. TOPICS COVERED: -- The "crimes of omission" concept: bias through silence, not fabrication -- The 2012 inflection point when soft bias became active advocacy -- Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray: what the coverage left out -- Tony Timpa: the police killing that was worse than anything you saw on TV -- and that you've never heard of -- Why newsroom monoculture is the structural root of the problem -- What the morning meeting decides about your reality -- Reasonable Doubt: why 3 out of 4 cases they investigated, the convict was actually guilty -- How to protect yourself as a news consumer -- FCC pressure on legacy media and whether the market is the answer -- The vibe shift: is the public ready for objective journalism again? TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 -- Intro and Dead Files tangent (Jared is a fan) 1:17 -- What "Crimes of Omission" means 3:51 -- Why omission is more dangerous than an outright lie 5:01 -- The 2012 inflection point 10:21 -- Newsroom culture and who populates the room 13:30 -- Morning meetings set the national agenda 15:27 -- Behind the scenes during Ferguson and BLM 17:43 -- Where the pressure actually comes from 23:34 -- Reasonable Doubt: a real search for truth on HBO Max 27:46 -- Is there a path back to objective journalism? 35:13 -- Why covering Trump put the media on tilt 38:59 -- FCC and government pressure on legacy media 40:44 -- Why Rob wrote this book now 47:55 -- How to be a better news consumer 53:09 -- Tony Timpa: the case no one covered 1:01:25 -- Jared's Five rapid-fire Crimes of Omission is available for presale now. Out June 2nd. SUBSCRIBE for new episodes and follow us at CommonXPodcast.com. The CommonX Podcast features long-form conversations with musicians, cultural voices, veterans, entrepreneurs, and independent thinkers who bring lived experience to the table. Hosted by Jared Mayzak and Ian Primmer, CommonX explores music, culture, work, identity, resilience, and the systems that shape everyday life—without talking points or manufactured outrage. From iconic artists and creative pioneers to everyday people with extraordinary stories, each episode prioritizes honesty, curiosity, and meaningful dialogue. This is a Gen-X–driven show for listeners who value depth over noise and conversation over clicks. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.