After taking a few years off from creating one of Atlanta’s earliest platforms connecting hip-hop culture and technology, the influential podcast Digital Good Times has relaunched, with impeccable timing for today’s conversations around true diversity and inclusion in tech.
Emman ‘Small Eyez’ Twe is the founder and CEO of Digital Good Times, which refers to itself as a “grassroots tech empowerment media company,” and a platform for a diverse worldwide demographic of artists, creatives, and techies. We covered them plenty of times here at Hypepotamus, prior to the hiatus.
“We bridge the gap between disconnected communities by spotlighting compelling stories, producing engaging content and hosting collaborative events.”
Technology isn’t DGT’s only area of focus, but it is the center of attention which connects to everything from rap music to visual arts, street wear fashion, social justice issues, and diversity and inclusion in technology.
Launched in Sept 2014, at its peak it had more than 65,000+ unique podcast feed downloads per month and more than 2,200 downloads daily. 86 episodes have been recorded and downloaded by an audience that includes college grads, startup founders and employees, photographers, educators, musicians and other creatives across industries.
Small Eyez is an Ohio native who has lived in the Atlanta area for more than 20 years and has seen the city adopt a more tech-saavy attitude and awareness across culture. He’s a “tinkerer” and self-described nerd who says he’s been into technology since 8 years old, having learned to program in MS-DOS. Going on to teach himself graphic design and how to create websites, he says the absence of a community to which he belonged pushed him to create Digital Good Times.
“Starting to see that these tools and these knowledge sets I only knew about in my friend group was like, dang, I wish there was something that talked to people and informed them on what they need to know, that’s relevant for our community — the Black and Brown community — in particular,” Small Eyez says in an interview with Hypepotamus Editor-in-Chief Mike Jordan.
So what made Small Eyez and his cohorts Tristan Kharvari, Jack Preston and Ash-Lee decide now was a good time for a digital comeback?
Watch the interview with Small Eyez below to find out, and visit Digital Good Times at their website, or through their various digital channels here.
