The Intersection

Emma Mckee is a legendary cross stitcher. In 2014, Emma stitched her first piece: An adaptation of Will Prince’s artwork for Chance the Rapper’s song “Hey Ma.” She followed that with a piece for street artist JC Rivera, Chicago’s “Bear Champ.”

Her portfolio expanded from there, as she firmly planted herself within Chicago’s rap community, as the scene’s preeminent — and only — hip-hop cross stitcher, earning the name Stitch Gawd

.Since 2014, she’s created countless pieces for musicians and artists both in and outside Chicago.

Follow Stitch Gawd on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestitchgawd/

View Stitch Gawd's online store: https://stitchgawd.com/store

In my interview with Zehra, we discuss how her understanding of art history informs her work in Venture Capital. We talk about the events she curates in New York, from breakfasts and panel discussions to pottery classes and workout sessions. Zehra emphasizes the value of genuine engagement, diversity, and community-building, highlighting the need for meaningful connections and respecting participants' time.

Follow Zehra on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zehranaqvi_

Matt interviews Jaeson, the founder of 88rising and OP3N. Jaeson shares his incredible story of growing up in the Bay Area in the 80s and 90s and how he was exposed to hip hop culture, kicked out of three high schools, became a youth pastor, paying Bruno Mars only $1,500 to record four Christian rap tracks with him before the fame, and even being mentored by MC Hammer who brought him around the early buildings of YouTube, PayPal and more. Jaeson talks about  East West Ventures and 88Rising, bridging gaps between the east and west through entertainment and technology.

Jamie Cho is a marketing lead at Wildr, working to make social media a more positive space. Her background is focused on consumer social & our conversation was focused around empowering creatives in the creator economy.

Follow Jamie:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoonseojamiecho/

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/itsjamiecho

#theintersectionpodcast #nostopmatt #theintersection

Ruben Harris is the CEO of Career Karam, the number one destination for career guidance & the largest platform to help workers find job training programs and get jobs in tech. Rubin has helped tens of thousands of people get into tech and inspire people to see that you can get into tech regardless of how much experience you have, where you come from, what school you went to, or what struggles you've been through. Career karma has raised over $50 million to date. Ruben has advised the cities of San Francisco and Miami on workforce development. He was a professional cello player. He has a deep love for Japanese culture, just like me, not to mention he's rubbed shoulders with the likes of Alexis Ohanian, Jeezy. Sway In The Morning, Tim Cook, Gary Vee, Mariah Carey, and more.



Follow Ruben …

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rubenharris

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvxlGJyvbwg/

Georgia Dienst's background includes Google, Google's Innovation Lab Google X, Kernel innovating in the field of neuroscience and neuromedicine. Today she's a CEO coach to VC backed founders. See her website: https://www.georgiadienst.com/ #theintersection #theintersectionpodcast #mattsmith

Matt and Isiah ThoughtPoet Veney get deep into room for improvement in Chicago's creative scene and the city as a whole.

ThoughtPoet is a writer, photographer, community organizer. ThoughtPoet has been featured in The Field Museum, The Chicago Tribune, Essence Mag, Southside weekly, and The Chicago Reader. He’s done work with G herbo, Taylor Bennett, Vic Mensa, Chance the Rapper, and even grew up on the same block as Mick Jenkins!

ThoughtPoet captures so much history and humanity through his photography, he’s even considered a historian in some sense through the authenticity of his lens.

Follow the Thought Poet… Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thoughtpoet77/

Ian Brock is the founder of Dream Hustle Code, making tech and being in the tech industry cool for kids that would have otherwise seen the space as lame or felt alienated by it. At only 18 years old Ian is an accomplished entrepreneur who has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Oprah, Steve Harvey, Ben Horowitz, G Herbo, Robert F. Smith, Eric Thomas and many more.

Follow Ian

Dream Hustle Code Website: https://www.dreamhustlecode.com/

Ian's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ian__brock/

Ian's Twitter: https://twitter.com/dreamhustlecode

Follow Matt

Matt's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nonstop.matt/

Matt's Twitter: https://twitter.com/nonstopmatt

Kim Aponi is a fashion designer, event curator, painter, and all around artist. She is the founder of Chi Products, a clothing and design brand representing Chicago and the world. Her team is based out of New York. She’s worked with Adidas, Pyer Moss, and collaborated with Urban Outfitters. She’s on the Vic Mensa team and is tapped in with a lot of music talent in Chicago. From throwing several hundred person events in Chicago to moving her team to New York, she’s an all around creative super star!

Follow Kim:


Instragam: https://www.instagram.com/kimaponi/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/exhalx Chi Products

website: https://chicagocreateslegends.com/

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Follow Matt:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nonstop.matt/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nonstopmatt

NoCapSawBuck is a recording artist, designer, and culture curator based out of Chicago. Follow SawBuck on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nocapsawbuckk/

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Follow Matt:

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/nonstop.matt/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nonstopmatt

SoloCelo is a recording artist from Chicago now based in LA and very close friend of Matt’s since elementary school. Within the past year Solo has gone from a few 1000 to over 190,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. He’s built a small but growing loyal fanbase at the intersection of hip-hop, rock, pop, and rnb sound. He’s been featured in Gary Vee’s Monday to Monday playlist of upcoming artists to watch. He’s won the Rising Artist showcase hosted by Social Works in Chicago and performed at Summer Smash. 

Follow Solo:

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@solocelo_?lang=en  
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/28iF2lSSdTB7jwUNQuh497  
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solocelo_/  

Follow Matt:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nonstop.matt/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nonstopmatt

Sonny is a recording artist and creative based in Chicago. He holds over 15 million streams on Spotify, been named an artist to watch by Lyrical Lemonade, featured in Vogue, opened up for Pusha T at Radius in Chicago and more. He's a part of a creative collective called High Life and is generally very tapped into the network of underground creatives and artists in Chicago.
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Follow Sonny Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3KDKJ7Z0kgJrQS1CH43PM4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn7ZJ5xgLS5/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hatesonny
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Follow Matt
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nonstop.matt/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hatesonn

Jewel Ifeguni is an associate producer at Decoy Games, a black-owned video game studio where only 2% of the gaming industry is made up of black people. She's the founder of You Matter Studios, a media studio with a focus on improving representation in media. And she has worked at Minecraft at Mojang at Microsoft as a Technical Project manager.  

Follow Jewel here: https://www.instagram.com/jewelzofthenile/
Learn more about Decoy Games: https://www.decoygames.com/

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Follow Matt...
on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nonstop.matt/
on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nonstopmatt

Baco is a multi-disciplinary artist from Chicago, mainly focused on music.

Follow Baco on Instagram: @lovebaco

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Reach out to Matt on

Instagram: @nonstop.matt

Twitter: @nonstopmatt

Aaqib Usman is the founder of Light Pong, the world's first 1-Dimensional game console or you could say the world's first connected toy company. As of this recording, I happen to work for Light Pong! Aaqib is an entrepreneur with an extensive background in bringing together the physical and digital worlds. He's previously the founder of Midwest Immersive, a tech installation and tech-based experiential company where he did work for Verizon, Progressive and many other companies.

You can connect with Aaqib via...
Instagram: @immersive.aaqib
Twitter: @itsaaqib

Learn more about Light Pong at: playlightpong.com

or on YouTube: youtube.com/playlightpong

Gabe Tavas is the founder of Symmetry Wood. At Symmetry Gabe has developed Pyrus, a material made from bacteria that closely mimics wood to prevent deforestation. 

Gabe and Symmetry won the national James Dyson award and have been featured in the World Economic Form.   

Gabe is a long time friend of mine and we worked as co-founders for 3 years on and off on different projects. 

Gabe is an avid maker-of-things, sustainability specialist, and materials specialist.  

Learn more about Symmetry here: http://symmetrywood.com/

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The Intersection YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheIntersectionPod

The Intersection Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0MXARDdPTmyuJra6uo1k3d

The Intersection Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-intersection/id1317620369

Mirza Baig is a software engineer and entrepreneur. He's the creator of an app called Monk Mode to help you stay on track of your desired habits, he created an event discovery tool for Muslim events at mosques around your area, and is building a coaching/therapy platform. He's also a founding engineer at Cash Drop. 

Follow The Intersection on Instagram: The.Intersection.Pod

Ruben Flores is the founder and CEO of CashDrop. He’s on a mission to create as much generational wealth for Latinos world wide as possible. He’s a serial entrepreneur and I’ve actually had the pleasure of interviewing him two other times in the past.

@the.intersection.pod / all socials

@cashdrop.biz to follow CashDrop

DM me on Instagram for podcast inquiries @nonstop.matt

Sir Trevor James is a producer, creative director, and entrepreneur and AM (Amin Mashadi) is a music artist, both part of the “Collected” collective. We sat down and discussed their most recent fully self-product event “Collected As One.” We talked about their experience going to music-focused colleges in Chicago such as Columbia and SAE. We discussed best practices in the music industry, Trevor and Amin’s growing-up stories (including Amin moving from Iran to Turkey to Chicago and being split from his family multiple times for years on end. We ended with how they want to evolve as creatives from creating music for movies to hosting events for fitness and car shows and much more.

Follow Trevor and Amin:

Sir Trevor James:

Instagram: @sirtrevorjames

Website: https://www.sirtrevorjames.com/

Amin Mashadi:

Instagram: @its.amofficial

Website: https://www.itsamofficial.com/

Matt Interviews Jaylen who goes by Trip and @rips.chicago on social media. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago in Chatham one block away from Cottage Grove. Trip talks about the trials and tribulations that he went through growing up and being a truly loving person while still standing your ground. Choosing to be interested in stuff that may have been considered “weird” by his peers but still being accepted in crowds of very different kinds of people from the nerds to the streets. Trip talks about why street culture is glorified, the influence of music, and how people try to be “gangster” when they’re really just doing “foul sh*t” .

Trip talks about being involved in photography and videography, moving into fashion + craftsmanship + design of all kinds with his brand “Rips” that he is building up and how he respects and puts real effort into educating himself on the process of any creative discipline he learns. He touches on the value of quality and working with smaller suppliers who he loves to build relationships with where he can pay someone and it truly matters. He touches on the vision for Rips and how he wants to take the brand to a point where he can step away from it and work on other projects. He also touches on his spiritual beliefs and what he thinks motivates humans towards certain behaviors.

Follow Trip:

Instagram: rips.chicago

Twitter: @RIPSCHICAGO

Matt talks with Graeme Phillips founder of Chicago Socrates, an artist collective and artist support network in Chicago. Graeme is a big advocate for mental health with his own stories of struggles and learning to work with the craziness of his own mind. Matt and Graeme discuss their own mental health stories in an open dialogue around working through the dark places that our minds can end up even when we least expect it and how to have empathy for those who’ve been consumed by temporary insanity. Plus, some philosophy and discussion on finding meaning in our lives.

Neither Matt or Graeme are formal experts in mental health or psychology, but have their own experiences and insights from those experiences to share.

Reach out to Graeme:

Personal Instagram: i.nstagraeme

Chicago Socrates: @chicago.socrates

Follow the host:
Instagram: @nonstop.matt

nonstopmatt.com

Kevin P. Davenport is the founder of Ideal Digital Chicago where they churn out youth by training them in digital marketing, working for Ideal Digital, and then getting them employed at a larger company. Author of the Ideal Candidate, Kevin knows that many disadvantaged youth grow up without basic life skills for living on their own and wrote a book plus created many workshops and events to help fill that gap. Kevin is an expert not just in unlocking youth potential and putting it to work but in coaching founders of all levels on his own as well as at the Chicago Urban League who are making $50,000-100,000 in revenue to grow their business. Matt and Kevin discuss his work and other topics such as improving education for entrepreneurship and diversity and inclusion in the corporate world.

Follow Kevin:

Instagram: @kevinpdavenport

kevinpdavenport.com

Talking with Daniel Polostky, the founder and CEO of CoinFlipATM a crypto ATM for converting your cash into Bitcoin or other crypto currencies. Based in Chicago.

Matt Smith chats with NikosOnTheRun, Jared Avaloss, and RoarJMckay… Talking about their creatives process, where they draw inspiration from, advice for multimedia creatives, how we can do better business together and much more.

Follow them on Instagram:

Nikos: @NikosOnTheRun

Jared: @JaredAvaloss

John: @RoarJMckay

Matt Smith talks with 3 artistic and musical masterminds on the come up in Chicago about work and life.

Follow them on Instagram:

Rob Baco: @rob.baco

NoCapSawbuck: @nocapsawbuckk

Dutcho: @dutcho6700

Matt Smith & Kevin Davenport talk entrepreneurship, taking care of yourself so that you can do better work, spirituality, and much more.

Kevin is a Chicago-based serial entrepreneur & social impact leader. He supports and uplifts other budding businesses and business founders. He is the author of The Ideal Candidate. His mission and vision is to build self-sufficient life and professional skills for 1 million youth, age 16-24.

Learn more about Kevin: theidealcandidate.org

Learn more about Do Good: DoGoodCollab.Com