Conversations with Arik T

Today we’d like to introduce you to Arik T.

Hi Arik, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Tyler and I have been friends since we met in high school way back in 2002. Since that time we have shared many crazy moments and our friendship developed into a brotherhood. After we graduated in 2006, we made it a point to stay in touch, even as our paths grew further apart as he went on to College and I went the immediate career route. We made it a point to at least meet up once a week and catch up, share a laugh, and have a drink or 2. This became our Sunday tradition for years and then the pandemic happened. Hanging out physically became impossible and we resorted back to texts, memes, and the occasional phone call.

We decided that it might be fun to catalog our conversations and humor and what better way is there to do that than a podcast? That’s how the idea for Team T&A Podcast was born. We started recording what would have been our regular conversations on a Sunday and let the listeners be a fly on the wall in our lives. We stepped it up over time and started adding themes, so you could listen and maybe even learn a thing or 2 from our funny and random adventures. As we’ve grown our podcast to include segments and guests, we also started gaining a little traction and a following who we love to include in our show with questions and retelling their stories as well. We really wanted to be a distraction for everyone going through these chaotic times we are living in and offer an hour a week where you can laugh, learn, be shocked, horrified, and sometimes even be proud of your 2 podcasting friends Tyler and Arik.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Our podcasting journey has been a relatively smooth road. There was a lot to learn, and with the support and patience of our followers, we really tried to continue to get better. We’ve overcome scheduling issues, we tried various recording software until we landed on something that consistently worked for us.

We also had the privilege of meeting amazing people who surprisingly agreed to join us as guests and even regulars on our show. The first episodes are night and day apart from our newer ones but after over 100 tries, you should hope for some growth right?

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our Podcast is essentially an escape for an hour each week. To us it is absolutely therapeutic, to come on and share stories or dissect a topic really brings out the very best in us. Because we’ve been friends for so long a lot of the time we will finish one another’s thoughts and set up a joke knowing that it’s about to get crazy. We love and thrive off of feedback from our listeners and try to be as interactive as possible.

Something we are most proud of has to be the feedback we get. Times are really strange and people constantly send us messages about how a segment of ours was so relatable or how they are so happy knowing they aren’t the only ones who think that way about a topic. A lot of times its people relate to Tyler’s grim outlook on society and the world. We’ve been called polar opposites which we also use to our advantage. Tyler is the more serious and I (Arik) can turn just about anything into a joke and am notorious for laughing at all the wrong times. While others aim for “Content” we really are proud to go against the grain and share how we really feel about everything.

What are your plans for the future?
This is my favorite question to answer.

I love looking ahead, our Podcast has grown to well over 100 episodes (we have new episodes every single Wednesday) and we are always looking for the next great segment that will blow the doors off of the hinges. We are looking forward to having more guests on, taking on more topics, and researching things that we and our listeners find fascinating.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @TEAMTANDAPODCAST
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-283667993
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/2vJyQHbKPWFn6NsThn1jQn?si=hmabRa1ZSH-HzDDZce7DWA&utm_source=copy-link&nd=1

Image Credits
Art by @c.e.a.l