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This episode is my media origin story.

I grew up in an analog world where music and media still had gatekeepers. MTV broke artists. Radio decided what you heard. Recording studios were expensive, and working in media was a profession you trained for, studied, and slowly earned your way into.

Then everything changed.

In this episode of Confessions of a Gen-X Mind, I trace my path from high school journalism and tech theater, to radio, to early streaming at Yahoo, and into today’s algorithm-driven creator economy. Along the way, I unpack how payola, label influence, and MTV placements shaped the music business long before Napster blew the doors off. I talk about being an early Napster adopter, watching Lars Ulrich testify before Congress, and realizing that the old business models were never coming back.

I also get personal about why I was drawn to media in the first place. ADHD, external validation, the pull of the spotlight, and the slow realization that fame is a terrible life goal. Democratized tools made it possible for anyone to create, which was both a gift and a curse. The barrier to entry vanished, but the noise exploded.

This episode is about adaptation. About growing up analog, surviving the collapse of traditional media, and learning how to create with intention in a world where everyone has a camera, a platform, and an opinion.

Not to romanticize the past.
 To understand it.