<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0QuMbd_1GuXGyYz00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0QuMbd_1GuXGyYz00" width="1200" height="800" >From the stories making headlines to the restaurants, music and culture that make Denver one of a kind, Westword is there. Help us raise $50,000 by December 31 to keep independent local journalism going strong in 2027. Podcasts have become a dime a dozen over the past decade, but a local podcast sown and grown in the Denver metro is closing in on a countrywide honor.Kevin Batstone, one of the two hosts of Aurora’s Discussion Combustion Podcast, has made the final round of five in radio darling Ryan Seacrest’s Top Host competition. The winner of the national competition will receive $25,000, their own six-episode podcast series produced by iHeartRadio and a guest appearance on On Air with Ryan Seacrest.“At first I was kind of, like, ‘Man, I’m going to have to campaign for this to run.’ And I have. I’ve had to campaign, but … We built a community. We’ve done this for seven years. We have people that will get behind us,'” Batstone says of leading the competition. “Our podcast guests have rallied.”But the opportunity didn’t just stem from luck. Batstone and his co-host, Arthur Rawe, have been busting their podcasting tails since the beginning of 2019 as they establish a production company — and it all started with two dudes having a beer together at a chance meeting.<ul><li>Is Douglas County about to approve a contradictory commissioner board?</li></ul><h2>Late-night babble</h2>The idea behind Discussion Combustion isn’t necessarily novel, but highlighting local professionals has given it legs. The show — which usually runs around an hour — involves conversations with anyone willing to share their experience or knowledge. That concept is the basis of the majority of worldwide podcasts that have garnered millions of views, like The Joe Rogan Experience and NPR’s Fresh Air, but Discussion Combustion mostly focuses on those in the Centennial State.The podcast has hosted over 300 guests, including local entrepreneurs, chefs, musicians, artists, teachers and people with personal stories that don’t always make it into the spotlight.“In today’s day and age, where bots are everywhere on social media, we don’t know what an authentic connection is,” Rawe says. “And people are on their phones while they’re at a dinner table, not to actually have an authentic, organic conversation that is not scripted.”Part of that drive for organic conversation comes from Rawe’s openness about recovering from opioid addiction and desire to share stories that could help others, but Discussion Combustion’s roots aren’t fully sober. The show grew out of a conversation over Budweisers in 2009, when Batstone and Rawe lived at the same apartment complex. They became quick friends and often spent nights talking away life into the early morning hours. When podcasts started to peak, they figured they might as well give it a try.The first few episodes were a mess, according to Batstone. The duo was getting drunk, and they couldn’t find any professional guests, so they brought their buddies on. But that sincerity garnered some attention, and they got their first sponsor, Mountain Made CBD, in 2020. At this point, Batstone and Rawe decided it was time to tighten it up and become a real operation.“It was still free flow, but not so much about just getting hammered,” Batstone laughs.The YouTube hits started to increase, and the equipment needed an upgrade — and so did the makeshift studio, which the two describe as a “psuedo frat house.”“This thing went just berserk. We were banging out 35,000 to 40,000 views a week on YouTube,” Batstone says. “Then we were, like: We got to get out of the basement. We got to go professional. Let’s get a real space.”The show received a lot of help from the Denver area’s under-recognized, tight-knit podcast community, according to Batstone and Rawe. They started working with other podcasts, like local comedian JD Lopez’s Left Hand Right Brain and local award-winning podcaster Jon Ekstrom, to share interviews and technical knowledge.“There’s a great community out here, and it was fun, because we would all share interviews and then share how we’re doing the recordings,” Rawe says. “And I feel like they helped build us up, and we also helped build up the local podcast community.”By 2022, the duo moved into an office space in Aurora and built out a studio for both podcasts and YouTube videos, retrofitting the room with professional microphones and cameras and founding Discussion Combustion Production.The duo also hosts Happy Friday America, a weekly podcast where Batstone and Rawe go over unconventional news stories. However, the discussion-based format of their flagship show is what gives them solace — through addictions, milestones and other life tribulations.Rawe describes podcasting as giving him “a purpose” when he was struggling with opiate addiction. “It gave me something that I needed to show up for and perform every single week. It helped me want to be a better person for myself and for anybody who happened to listen,” he says.And now the show is getting some national recognition.“(Batstone) is one of the best hosts I’ve ever known,” Rawe says of his business partner. “He does all these different shows, and he’s really been a guiding light to get us going places.”Batstone, a longtime NASCAR fan, has also launched the Mash the Gas podcast out of the same studio, teaming up with correspondents across the country to cover the sport. That podcast is off to a promising start, he says, allowing him to travel to races across the country with NASCAR media credentials.“I just thought, ‘We have a media footprint. I want to use it,” Batstone says. “I want to do what I love.”</div></body>

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From the stories making headlines to the restaurants, music and culture that make Denver one of a kind, Westword is there. Help us raise $50,000 by December 31 to keep independent local journalism going strong in 2027. Podcasts have become a dime a dozen over the past decade, but a...

Colorado podcast closing in on national award

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From the stories making headlines to the restaurants, music and culture that make Denver one of a kind, Westword is there. Help us raise $50,000 by Decembe

Colorado podcast closing in on national award

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