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💥 A Podcast Awesome Deep Cut
Episode Description:
🛎️ Guess what? We got a fever … and the only prescription is … well, you know. In this very special episode of Podcast Awesome, we hit pause on our usual tech-and-icon-nerdery to unleash a full-throttle ode to one of the wackiest icons in our set: Cowbell Circle Plus.
What starts as a nod to the legendary SNL sketch featuring Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken (The Bruce Dickinson, thank you very much), quickly turns into a globetrotting, time-hopping, cultural deep dive through the unexpected history of the humble cowbell. From medieval Irish cow raids 🐄⚔️ to German cowbell zoning laws 📏🔔 to the altars of rock and roll 🥁🎸, we unpack how this sonic sidekick moo-ved (hehe) from pasture to punchline.
Plus: Icon Designer extraordinaire Jory Rafael stops by to share how we brought the Cowbell icon to life (spoiler: it did not involve raiding any farms).
🧀 What We Cover in This Episode:
🐄 Cowbell as medieval emergency alert system
🏴☠️ Cattle raids and why your cow needed anti-theft bells in 12th century Ireland
🛠️ The surprising craftsmanship behind cowbells (hello, zoning laws!)
🌍 How cowbells show up in global rituals
🎶 The greatest cowbell moments in music — from Foghat to KISS to the Beastie Boys
😂 The SNL sketch that made “More Cowbell” the rallying cry for comedy nerds everywhere
🔤 Behind-the-scenes with the FA team: how we turned “More Cowbell” into an icon
🤘 A lightning round of underappreciated cowbell bangers
⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 – Welcome to the Weird World of Cowbell
01:15 – SNL Meets SVG: The Inspiration Behind the Icon
02:30 – History Lesson: Cowbells as Analog GPS
04:20 – Cattle Raids, Irish Wars, and Why Your Cow Needed Protection
06:10 – Cowbell Zoning Laws? Yep, That Was a Thing
07:00 – Superstition, Spirit-Banishing & Ceremonial Bells
08:15 – Enter: The Iconic More Cowbell Sketch (2000, SNL)
09:00 – Icon Deep Dive with Jory Rafael
10:20 – Musical Cowbell Moments You Didn’t Know You Needed
11:30 – Wrap-up & Credits Roll Like a Cow in a Parade
🔗 Links & Resources:
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Pork chop sandwiches!! 🫡 🏃♂️➡️
Gather round the interwebs young Gen Xers and Elder Millennials ...
In this oddball solo episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt rewinds to the early 2000s and dives deep into the glitchy, glorious chaos of Fensler Film’s GI Joe PSA remixes — a series of bootleg web videos that helped shape meme culture as we know it.
These gloriously low-res VHS-rip remixes mashed up 1980s GI Joe cartoon PSAs with absurdist humor, surreal voice dubbing, and non sequiturs that burned themselves into our collective consciousness.
Before TikTok. Before YouTube. Before broadband was normal … we had burned DVDs, word-of-mouth weirdness, and lines like:
In this episode, we explore:
So gather 'round, old-school internet nerds. This one’s for you. And knowing? Well… you know the rest.
🔗 Links & Credits
🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns (Lemon Productions)
🎹 Interstitial music by Zach Malm
🎥 Video support by Isaac Chase
#PodcastAwesome #GIJoePSAs #InternetHistory #MemeCulture #FenslerFilm #DesignNerdery #TimAndEric #PorkChopSandwiches #AbsurdistComedy
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Where did the “All Your Base Are Belong to Us” meme come from — and why did it break the early internet?
In this nostalgic deep dive, Matt explores the wackadoodle origin of one of the internet’s most gloriously awkward memes. Before “going viral” was even a phrase, this phrase from the 1992 Sega Genesis game Zero Wing somehow made its way from mistranslation to mass internet hysteria — with techno remixes, Flash videos, Photoshopped street signs, and even a nod from AOC herself.
Yes, this was real. And it was spectacular.
Whether you're an old-school web nerd or just want to understand why your coworker keeps saying “Set up us the bomb,” this one's for you.
🔹 What We Cover in This Episode:
🕹️ A breakdown of Zero Wing’s hilariously mistranslated intro
🎶 The techno remix and Flash video that made the meme explode
🧠 Why “All Your Base” became the blueprint for internet weird
📡 How meme culture has evolved from delightful chaos to... whatever’s happening now
🧑🚀 AOC’s legendary tweet that brought it all full circle
⏱️ Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro + Barry White podcast voice
1:31 – What is the Ballmer Peak of memes?
3:00 – The original Zero Wing translation trainwreck
4:32 – “Set up us the bomb”: the remix and Flash frenzy
6:15 – AOC, memes in politics, and nostalgia rebooted
8:00 – Final thoughts on the beauty of shared digital nonsense
🔗 Links & Resources:
🕹️ Original Zero Wing meme history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us#:~:text=%22All%20your%20base%20are%20belong,the%201989%20Japanese%20arcade%20game.
👾 The remix that started it all: Invasion of the GABA Robots: https://archive.org/details/invasion_of_the_gabber_rob
🧠 AOC’s legendary tweet: https://x.com/aoc/status/1086483485668319233
🛠️ Credits:
🎙️ Hosted, produced, and edited by Matt Johnson
🎵 Theme music by Ronnie Martin
🎧 Music interstitials by Zach Malm
🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions
📣 Like the show?
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“Layouts are sexy but, you know, words still matter.”
In this solo rant-style episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt takes a silly, unhinged dive into the world of Lorem Ipsum — the gibberish placeholder text that’s haunted designers and writers alike since the 1500s. From Cicero’s scrambled Latin to zombie-themed mockups, we trace the wild history and the weird world of filler text.
So ... why do we still treat real content as an afterthought? And what happens when a layout only works with nonsense words?
You’ll laugh. You’ll cringe. You’ll maybe rethink that next wireframe.
🧠 What We Cover in This Episode:
⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 – Welcome to the Fake Latin Fight Club
01:00 – Oxford Commas, Passive Voice, and Writers with Rage
03:00 – Sarcastic Quotation Marks and Melty “Cheese”
04:00 – What Even Is Lorem Ipsum, Anyway?
05:30 – From Ancient Rome to Adobe Default Settings
06:45 – The Rise of Bacon, Hipster, and Zombie Ipsum
08:00 – THE RANT: “If Your Layout Only Works With Nonsense…”
09:30 – Final Thoughts: Fonts Are Cool. Content Is King.
🔗 Links & Resources:
🎙️ Subscribe + Listen:
📱 Apple Podcasts | 🎧 Spotify | 💻 YouTube | 🌐 podcastawesome.com
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Design meets activism. Philosophy meets iconography. Wheelchairs meet graffiti.
In this philosophy-packed episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt chats with professor, artist, and co-founder of the Accessible Icon Project, Brian Glenny. Together with colleague Sara Hendron, they took a bold journey to make a tweak to the accessibility symbol — which led to a humble street art sticker to statewide legislation.
Brian’s story unpacks how a wheelchair icon went from stiff and static to dynamic and full of agency — and how that tweak sparked a global conversation about representation, identity, and inclusion.
Along the way, we hit:
If you’ve ever wondered how symbols shape culture — or why an icon isn’t “just an icon” — this one’s for you.
And knowing? Yep. That’s half the battle.
🔗 Links & Credits
🚧🎨🏙️Brian's Wiki Page
👀 Learn more about Sara Hendren
🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
🎹 Interstitial music by Zach Malm
🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns (Lemon Productions)
🎥 Video support by Isaac Chase
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#PodcastAwesome #AccessibleIconProject #BrianGlenny #DesignActivism #InclusiveDesign #IconographyMatters #DisabilityRepresentation #GraffitiArt #DesignEthics #Semiotics #ContentIsCulture #DesignPhilosophy
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In this very special episode of The Nerd Show and Tell, we finally cornered the elusive co-founder of Font Awesome — Travis Chase! 🧢✨ From dialing into the web back in the modem days, to co-founding a company that powers millions of websites, Travis shares his unique journey from almost-accountant to accidental icon-company-boss. Or something. You’ll hear tales of telephony code, Star Wars devotion, and how building a company that doesn’t burn people out might be the most radical idea of all.
He’s part artist 🎨, part developer 💻, full-on space western nerd — and yes, he’s that guy you want on your trivia team.
🧠 What We Cover in This Episode
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 – Intro: We Finally Wrangled Travis
01:00 – Side Hustles, Modems, and Making the Web Happen
03:00 – From Art School to Programming Wizardry
06:00 – Answering Machine Nerdvana (Travis’ Favorite Dev Story!)
09:00 – College Friends → Startup Squad
12:00 – That Time They Got Into YC
15:00 – Building Font Awesome the Fun Way
18:00 – Culture that Actually Cares About People
21:00 – What Travis is Nerding Out About (👀 Star Wars Unlimited!)
24:00 – AI, Card Games, and Cross-Pollinating Passions
25:00 – Favorite Icons + Wishlist Packs (Laser swords, anyone?)
27:00 – A Chill Goodbye and More Nerd Show and Tell to Come
🔗 Links & Resources
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Summary
What does it take to shoot a high-energy, humor-packed, visually delicious Font Awesome marketing video? A 12-hour day, a diner full of chaos, and a guy in a hot dog suit. In this episode, Matt chats with Jory and Isaac, two key players behind the Font Awesome 7 video, about the hilarious mishaps, creative choices, and ridiculous amounts of pancakes that went into bringing the video to life.
They cover everything from why FA videos always feature food-themed settings to the art of keeping a cast of recurring characters (aka the Font Awesome Cinematic Universe). And yes, Easter eggs abound — including a cameo from FA co-founder Dave Gandy, cheers-ing a Stormtrooper, blue milk in hand. Plus, Isaac documented the whole process, creating FA’s first behind-the-scenes mini-documentary.
Key Takeaways
🔥 FA videos don’t follow the “no comedy in tech” rule — and that’s exactly why they work.
🎬 From coffee shops to candy stores to diners, FA videos always have a warm, real-world setting (because a lab full of beakers? Snooze).
🤝 The same cast keeps coming back — because the FA Cinematic Universe is a thing now.
📹 The behind-the-scenes doc captures the chaos of shooting in one day —including an entire subplot about pancakes raining from the sky.
🌭 A guy in a hot dog suit wore it all day. No, really. All day.
👀 Hidden Easter eggs in the video include an inside joke about “changing the recipe” and a blue milk cheers from FA’s co-founder.
Timestamps
🎤 0:00:09 - Welcome to Podcast Awesome! Matt sets the stage for this episode, talking about the Font Awesome 7 video shoot, the team behind it, and why humor is baked into FA’s DNA.
🎞️ 0:04:06 - The evolution of FA videos: From Kickstarter promos to a full-blown recurring cast — how FA has built a Cinematic Universe of its own.
🍪 0:10:45 - The FA video playbook: Coffee shops, candy stores, and diners—why FA videos always happen in warm, real-world food settings instead of cold tech labs.
🎭 0:18:05 - Bringing the band back together: How the same actors, crew, and production team keep the FA vibe consistent (and keep the jokes landing).
📹 0:26:11 - Lights, camera, pancakes! Improv moments, VFX wizardry, and an actor in a hot dog suit — who refused to take it off all day.
🎬 0:32:16 - The behind-the-scenes doc: For the first time ever, FA captured a full BTS look at a marketing shoot — outtakes, problem-solving, and late-day delirium included.
🐣 0:35:31 - Easter eggs and inside jokes: Dave Gandy’s blue milk toast, a deep-cut Star Wars reference, and a menu full of hidden Font Awesome-specific gems.
Links & Credits
🎥 Watch the Font Awesome 7 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmYXJGEyBXI
🎬 Check out the Behind-the-Scenes Mini Doc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3pTha-tT3c
🎵 Theme song by Ronnie Martin
🎛 Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions
🎤 Podcast production by Matt Johnson
🎥 Video production and behind-the-scenes doc by Isaac Chase
Got thoughts on the episode? Hit us up on social and let us know what your favorite moment was!
Now go make something awesome. 🚀🎨
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Learn why accessible web design matters for everyone — not just users with disabilities. Lindsay Miller joins Podcast Awesome to discuss WCAG, ADA, design best practices, and tools for accessible development.
🚨 In this insightful episode of Podcast Awesome, host Matt Johnson is joined by Lindsay Miller, accessibility advocate and member of the Web Awesome team, for a deep dive into the principles, practices, and purpose of accessible web design.
Together, they explore what web accessibility really means, debunk common misconceptions, and offer practical insights for developers, designers, and digital creators. From ADA compliance and WCAG standards to UI/UX challenges, you'll learn how small choices—like proper contrast ratios or semantic HTML—can have a big impact.
🔍 Key Topics Covered:
🛠️ Mentioned Resources:
Whether you're building for clients, open-source, or your own product, this conversation is a must-listen for anyone who believes in a more usable, equitable internet.
🎧 Produced and edited by Matt Johnson
🎵 Theme song: By Ronnie Martin | interstitials by Zach Malm
🔊 Mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions
📹 Video editing help from Isaac Chase / @theisaacchase
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Font Awesome 7 Here We Come!
In this episode of Podcast Awesome, we’re serving up a heaping helping of new icons, fresh features, and ProPlus goodness with Font Awesome 7! Host Matt Johnson is joined by icon designers Jory Raphael and Noah Jacobus to break down what’s new — like seven all-new icon packs, a smoother-than-butter upgrade path, and under-the-hood improvements that make your icons sharper, faster, and slicker than ever.
Is it too many icons? Maybe. Are we going to stop? Absolutely not.
🎙️ Listen in as we talk about the design tweaks, ProPlus perks, and the iconic (heh) collabs that made Font Awesome 7 a reality. Plus, we drop some exclusive details on the biggest sale of the year!
💥 Don’t miss out — hit play and then ... Go make something awesome.
Timestamp Summary
🌟 0:00 | Font Awesome 7 Launch: New Icons and Features Unveiled
🚀 3:37 | Font Awesome 7 Enhancements and New Pro Plus Icon Packs
🎨 9:24 | Icon Designers Unleash Creativity with Font Awesome Pro Packs
🌌 17:18 | Creative Icon Design Inspired by Silicon Valley and Cosmic Events
🧠 21:09 | Innovative Icon Design and Preparation for Launch
✏️ 24:00 | Creating Art with Thumbprint Drawings and Icon Packs
🧭 24:48 | Creative Exploration and Unique Icon Design Inspirations
🔍 29:17 | Exploring Icon Packs and Their Creative Development
📦 32:05 | Font Awesome 7 Launches With New Plans and Icon Packs
📣 34:57 | Font Awesome 7 Pro Plus Icon Packs and Marketing Ideas
Resources & Links
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🎬 Summary
In this Nerd Show & Tell episode of Podcast Awesome, we finally catch up with the one and only Isaac Chase — the wizard behind our ever-growing library of video content at Font Awesome. From his early dreams of making it in film and television to becoming a full-time creator on our team, Isaac shares about the challenges of starting in the film industry during the COVID era, storytelling in marketing, and more.
We chat about his background in film and marketing, his favorite movies (slow burns, unite!), creative influences, and how his love for storytelling finds a home even in screencasts and product walkthroughs. Plus, Isaac drops his hot take on the next big icon pack idea (we're looking at you, Severance fans 👀).
🧠 Key Takeaways
🎓 College Grad, Creative Dad Connection
Isaac studied digital film and TV production at Missouri State University and joined Font Awesome part-time during the industry-wide writer/actor strikes — eventually going full-time thanks to a well-timed offer (shoutout to Travis Chase, a.k.a. Isaac’s real-life dad).
🎥 From Film Sets to Screencasts
His deep love for film — especially slow-paced, thoughtful stories like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Past Lives, and Arrival — translates into his thoughtful, user-focused approach to content creation at FA.
📼 Video, Video, Video!
Isaac helped launch our video podcast format and has been leading the charge on screencasts, animations, and behind-the-scenes storytelling (more to come on that, soon!) 🎬
💻 Learning on the Job = Built-in Bonus
Despite not having a dev or design background, Isaac's learned loads about accessibility, UI, and component-based design just by working on educational content — and he's loving every minute of it.
🧃 Favorite Icon?
The cup-to-go ☕ icon has a special place in his heart (because coffee + nostalgia), and he’s got a soft spot for our teleportation icon too. ✨
🎨 Design Nerd in the Making
Outside work, Isaac’s nerding out on graphic design, especially in music merch and poster art. He’s diving into the visual side of music culture — and working with musician friends on their branding.
⏱️ Chapter Markers
🟡 00:00 – Introduction to Podcast Awesome
🎥 01:13 – Isaac’s role at FA and current projects
🎓 03:21 – Isaac’s background in film, college, and the writer's strike
🛠️ 09:12 – From film school to corporate creativity
🍿 11:22 – Favorite movies and the magic of slow storytelling
🎞️ 16:46 – How filmmaking skills shape his current work
📺 22:55 – Screencasts, branding, and learning to teach
🎨 29:43 – Nerding out on design, music merch, and FA icons
📦 32:33 – Isaac’s icon wish list (hello, Severance pack!)
🎉 44:00 – Wrap-up and thank-yous
Produced and edited by Matt Johnson
Edited by Isaac Chase
Theme Music by Ronnie Martin
Interstitials by Zach Malm
Mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions 🍋
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From the publisher's feed
On Podcast Awesome we talk to members of the Font Awesome team about icons, design, tech, business, and of course, nerdery.
🎙️ Podcast Awesome is your all-access pass into the…
From technical explorations of our open-source tooling, chats with web builders, icon designers, and content creators, with the occasional gleeful rants about early internet meme culture, we bring you stories and strategies from the trenches of building modern web software — with a healthy dose of 80s references and tech dad jokes.
🎧 Perfect for:
🧠 Come for the design wisdom, stay for the deep meme cuts and beautifully crafted icons.

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