Grade A Nation

10 Episodes
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By: Grade A USA

Grade A Nation is what podcasts are meant to be: great conversations with great guests from all walks of life. We get to the bottom of discerning fact from fiction in a world that is sometimes seemingly filled with phonies and fakes. Topics are discussed with a quirky blend of humor and honesty. Hear from the interesting personalities of the day at their most unfiltered with compelling interviews. The podcast for folks that don't want to be pandered to or have their time wasted. A program presented by Grade A USA and hosted by Chris Thomas.

E182: Uniform of Youth -- Mystic Ventures from Crypto to Skin Care with MadeMan Jeremy Gardner!
03/19/2023

After moving out of the public eye for a bit, Jeremy Gardner stops by for a cool conversation. We cover his early years as an only child at tension with his parents for not listening and rebelling against authority; some of this might be attributable to being neurodivergent. Jeremy discusses how his time at the University of Michigan facilitated the development of the Bitcoin Education Network, a nonprofit encouraging blockchain awareness and adoption around the world.

Interacting with more and more people in the crypto space led to the development of the betting platform and prediction market Augur...


E181: A Crypto Green Thumb? Environmentally Conscious Bitcoin Mining w/ William Szamosszegi!
02/19/2023

William Szamosszegi is the CEO and founder of Sazmining, a project that works with renewable energy hosting facilities in an attempt to provide sustainable powered mining rigs that can be used by individual investors interested in Bitcoin mining. For those concerned about the energy wastefulness and potential environmental harm presented by Bitcoin mining rigs, Sazmining pools money from customers together and places a bulk order on discounted mining rigs along with renewable energy contracts.

William discusses what inspired his work in this area and the logistics of carrying it out. He also states why he views Bitcoin as...


E180: Personal Food as Medicine Plans? Talking Elo Health (not Electric Light Orchestra) w/ Ari Tulla!
02/18/2023

On this installment of Grade A Nation, Ari Tulla, the cofounder and CEO of nutrition service Elo checks in to talk about how better food choices are a core part of a strategy to achieve personal wellness and feeling healthier. Elo strives to give personalized nutrition products based on a collection of information about each member, as well as direct video chat consultations with a dietician.

In the course of the conversation, we discuss the fast food epidemic, how so much is spent on wellness each year while more people are increasingly either overweight and feel sick, gaps...


E179: There's Goldbacks in Them Thar Hills! – Talking Physical Gold Money with Jeremy Cordon
02/14/2023

On this installment of Grade A Nation, Jeremy Cordon, the founder and CEO of Goldback Inc., joins the program. A Goldback is physical gold money that can be used in transactions small and large in several U.S. states.

Jeremy discusses how his time at a Libertarian think tank shaped his views about precious metals, his prior work on a cryptocurrency project Quintric and how that experience influenced the Goldback project, why Goldbacks grew in popularity during the pandemic, whether the viability of the Goldback project long-term is tied to the political choices made by states to recognize...


E178: Nothing Too Serious -- Painting from Miniature Las Vegas with artist Daniel Matthew York!
02/01/2023

On this installment of Grade A Nation, Chris Thomas chats with artist Dan York about his delusionism paintings. What is delusionism, you ask? The paintings are certainly unique; some folks will call them funny, others might call them provocative, while even a few others will potentially label them deranged nonsense. Dan wouldn’t have it any other way!

We discuss his upbringing, artists and comedians he admires, his opinion on critics, the art scene in Nashville compared to other cities, his love of buck-toothed women with large breasts (or at least his love of painting women that way), an...


E177: Turning a Negative into a Positive -- Interviewing 80s Music Stars with Robbie Burgess!
01/22/2023

Robbie Burgess lost his father and attempted to take his mind off the grief by starting an online music station. While struggling to make it financially viable, he wanted to press on and interview the musicians that made the 80s music so memorable to him with a podcast show. Robbie’s passion for music came about at a very early age. His parents split up when he was one; going along to his dad’s gigs in a country music band immersed Robbie into the music world. A self-proclaimed music fanatic, Robbie talks Queen, Phil Collins, Steely Dan, Wang Chung, Dura...


E176: A Teen Mom Triumphs Over Abuse and Divorce!
12/21/2022

Original Summary - On this installment of Grade A Nation, we have the opportunity to hear the amazing life story of Marie Mosley. Marie had a difficult childhood which led to rough circumstances in her teenage and adult years, but she was ultimately able to persevere. We discuss: -Her dad passing away from diabetes when she was five years old, living in a shelter after a building fire, then losing one of her sister’s and a niece when she was just twelve years old. -Feeling like God hated her and challenges of feeling like there was a cloud hanging ov...


E175: A Beautiful Mind! Bill Ottman --- CEO and Co-founder of Minds
12/08/2022

Grade A Nation has the honor of welcoming Bill Ottman on to the podcast. Bill is the CEO and co-founder of the social networking app called Minds. Bill is definitely a polymath with keen insights into a lot of different things, which makes him a Grade A podcast guest!  We discuss: -Acquiring the Minds.com domain name and the chaotic domain name market -The purpose of Minds as a social platform, with an emphasis on free expression and creator monetization -Minds integrating with the decentralized relay protocol Nostr that can eventually bring about interoperability between a variety of social media p...


E174: The Biktarvy Playhouse Theater Presents the Mike Cotayo Comedy Cavalcade!
12/02/2022

On this four year anniversary edition of Grade A Nation, Chris Thomas chats with Mike Cotayo. There is a famous joke about Mike: "a comic, a social worker, and an escort walk into a bar, and they're all Mike Cotayo." Okay, enough kidding around! Mike Cotayo is a great comic that has done it all and seen it all. From flying through a windshield in a car crash at 18 months old to getting HIV in a West Village sex club, Mike has a ton of life experiences to incorporate in his stand up material. We cover Mike's: -lack of confidence...


E173: A Jack of All Trades -- Chatting with Playwright, Actor, and Musician Jack Canfora!
11/26/2022

Jack Canfora chats with Grade A Nation about his various pursuits over the years. Although Jack has accomplished quite a bit, his heart is in writing plays and the live theatre. On the show, Jack and Chris Thomas talk about: -Jack's passion for the written word and the musical nature of English -which genre of music matches Jack's voice -how to approach writing and editing in a way that accentuates your strengths -why being paralyzed by depression in his twenties might have inhibited Jack's progress as an actor -what it means to be a natural born pessimist and the challenges...