Philly Who?

Ben Thomas is and one of most sought after audio engineers in Philadelphia. At only 23 years old, he’s worked with artists such as Brian McKnight, Post Malone, and Lil Dicky. He’s received two Soul Train Award nominations and an NAACP Award Nomination, and he's also the cofounder of nicethingsMUSIC.

In this episode, you’ll hear how Ben originally planned to work in finance on Wall Street. But, as his hobby of recording music evolved into something bigger, he began to put himself out there as a music producer. Pretty soon, opportunity came knocking. To date, he's worked with Ty Dolla $ign, Post Malone, Lil Dicky, Brian McKnight, among many others.

He’ll talk about what it’s like to work with some of the world’s most popular artists, and how he manages to stay consistent. And, we’ll talk about the Philly music scene and why it’s such a great place for up and coming creators to make a name for themselves.

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Rob Lawless is a Philly-based influencer who loves getting to know new people. He loves it so much, that for the past 3 years, Rob’s full-time mission has been to meet as many people as he possibly can. His goal is to spend 1 hour with 10,000 different people via his project Rob’s 10k Friends.

In this episode, he’ll share how, after graduating Penn State and bouncing around a couple of 9-to-5s, he didn’t feel like he was on a meaningful path. So, as searched for a purpose, he realized how much he loved connecting with people. He decided to try to meet as many people as he could, and set a goal for 10,000.

1 became 10, 10 became 100, and as of now he’s met over 2,300 people from coast to coast.

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Lauren Nolan-Sellers is an interior designer. In 2012, Lauren left her career as a teacher to start Trust the Vision Decor, an interior design and home staging company that has been named Best of Houzz four years running.

In this episode, you’ll hear how Lauren and Wendy discovered their talent for home design when they bought a house together and remodeled it. They had a housewarming party to show their friends, and the response was overwhelming.

While Lauren took the kind words to heart, she didn’t seriously consider starting her own business. That is, until pregnancy complications threatened her and her child’s life.

After gaining the perspective that comes with a life-threatening experience, Lauren and Wendy decided to bet on themselves. What follows is the story of how they quickly went from being HGTV dreamers to being among the top rated interior designers in the country.

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Jane is the Executive Director of Mural Arts Philadelphia, the nation’s largest public art program that employs over 300 artists annually . Over that past 30 years, Jane has lead Mural Arts to become an internationally-renowned program that has made Philadelphia one of the Mural capitals of the world.

In this episode, you’ll hear how Jane got her start as a Mural Artist while living in LA after college, and how she made waves fast by asking forgiveness rather than permission.

After a surprise Lupus diagnosis, she came to a graffiti-ridden Philly for treatment. Here, she stayed in the public art space, and got involved in the Anti-Graffiti Network.

What follows is the story of how Jane and her team grew Mural Arts into a world-class program that has made Philly an international mural destination.

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Josh Kopelman has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization.

In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – and took it public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1996. 

July of 1999, Josh co-founded Half.com, and led it to become one of the largest sellers of used books, movies and music in the world. Half.com was acquired by eBay in July 2000.

In late 2003, Josh helped to found TurnTide, an anti-spam company that created the world's first anti-spam router. TurnTide was acquired by Symantec just six months later.

Josh then founded First Round Capital in 2004 to reinvent seed-stage investing. Since that time, the firm has invested in over 200 emerging technology startups, including Uber, Mint, and Blue Apron. 

Josh was ranked fourth on Forbes 2015 “Midas List” of the top 100 tech investors, he’s been awarded Ernst and Young’s prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Year” award, and is an inventor on thirteen U.S. Patents for his work in Internet technology.

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Governor Ed Rendell is a lawyer, author, and politician. From 1992 until 2000, he served as the Mayor of Philadelphia. Shortly after that, in 2001, he was elected 45th Governor of Pennsylvania, and would go on to serve two terms.

In this episode, we’ll hear how he got his start in public service as Philadelphia District Attorney in the early 80s. He'll share how representing everyday Philadelphians inspired him to devote his career to Philly.

We’ll talk about his time as mayor, when he inherited a city on the brink of bankruptcy. He managed to balance the budget, achieve a surplus for 5 years, and set in motion the renaissance that created the city we know today.

And, we’ll talk about how, in the 80s, Governor Rendell almost quit politics altogether after his first two attempts at public office.

@GovEdRendell on Twitter

1993 NY Times Article - "Philadelphia Climbs Out of Fiscal Depths and Builds by Sharing Sacrifices"

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Max Tuttleman is an investor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who’s focused on studying and developing cannabis products. He’s currently a fellow at Thomas Jefferson University, where he studies how cannabis can be used to treat withdrawal symptoms from opiates and alcohol, and his brand Bouquet CBD recently released hemp oil ice cream.

In this episode, for the first time publicly, Max shares his story as a former opiate addict, and how a simple painkiller prescription thrust him into addiction.

He’ll take us through what it’s like to have your brain chemistry rewired by opiates, and how after getting sober, he immediately made it his mission to help others trapped by these drugs.

And, you’ll hear what he’s doing now to combat the crisis including funding city initiatives, advocating for programs, and even just going to the library and researching it himself.

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Jesse Ito is the Co-owner and chef of Royal Izakaya and Royal Sushi, a 2-in-one restaurant combo in Queen Village. Jesse’s claim to fame is his exclusive 10-seat omakase sushi bar, which is one of the very few restaurant experiences in Philly to get a 4-bell rating from the Inquirer. In 2017, Jesse was honored by Eater as a Young Guns Award Winner and made Zagat's 30 Under 30 list.

In this episode you’ll hear how Jesse got his start as a sushi chef working at Fuji, his father’s restaurant in south Jersey. When he was 24, Jesse and his family would sell Fuji and go all-in on bringing the omakase and izakaya experience to Philly. That bet would pay off, as 3 years later they’ve received the covered Philly Inquirer restaurant rating of 4 bells.

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Nisiar Smith is the CEO and Founder of The People’s Innovation Movement, a nonprofit that provides free financial literacy classes to Philadelphians. Nisiar also founded Philly Phinancial Literacy Week, which recently received a resolution from City Council making it an official annual city event.

Nisiar got his start in finance by walking into a bank when he was 18 and asking for a job. He worked his way up to being a credit analyst, and when he saw the data on Philly credit scores, he was taken aback. He came up with a plan to educate the masses about credit and empower them financially. When he pitched it to his bosses, they said no, because it wasn't profitable. So, he left the bank, and created a nonprofit organization from scratch.

In this episode, you'll hear the ups and downs of his journey, and he'll tell the story of how he’s made huge impact on the city before even graduating college.

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Lyonzo Vargas is the CEO of GLBL VLLG (pronounced "Global Village"), an entertainment and wellness company whose mission is to redefine urban wellness by bringing wellness to minority and underserved urban communities. GLBL VLLG’s flagship event is the VLLG JAM, a monthly jam concert where the headliner is the audience. The first VLLG JAM featured only 5 people in 2016, but today, they draw hundreds monthly in Philly, DC, Brooklyn, Austin, Houston, and London.

In this episode, you’ll hear how this unique mix of music, wellness, and community was inspired when Lyonzo, who was born, raised, and hardly ever left the Bronx, visited his heritage country of Honduras and saw a different path to happiness.

He’ll share how, after years of struggling to find success in a rap career, he finally found his purpose when he held the first VLLG JAM.

And, you’ll hear how he’s working to bring peace and wellness to underserved urban communities across the world.

Support Philly Who?

Donate via Paypal,

Venmo: @podphillywho,

Become a Monthly Patron,

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