We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Zach Popp. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Zach below.
Zach, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
The Boardwalk Podcast is named after the Kandahar Airfield Boardwalk, a wooden walkway lined with stores and shops that served as an escape for people stationed in Kandahar during the Global War on Terror (GWOT). We walked the Boardwalk after lunch and discuss myriad topics ranging from politics and sports to science fiction and Afghanistan itself.
Zach, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
The original idea was to create a current events podcast discussing American politics. During COVID, podcast popularity boomed with seemingly everyone having one. After a few friends recommended podcasts by national-level political pundits, we found ourselves underwhelmed with punditry and political theater. We decided if this is what the big names on television are producing, we could do better, even if nobody listens. When the three of us hopped on the chat for the first episode, we talked about Afghanistan for an hour before ever hitting the record button. That’s when we decided to make the podcast Afghanistan-centric.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
No Good Men Among the Living by Anand Gopal
Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton
Games Without Rules by Tamim Ansary
War by Sebastian Junger
Army Field Manual 3-24
Charlie Wilson’s War
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
Following the culmination of our military service, the three of us met as civilian contractors in Kandahar, Afghanistan. We were intelligence analysts supporting the US mission in southern Afghanistan and formed a friendship over cigars, kabobs, and our shared disdain for senior military and political leadership misrepresenting the realities of the War in Afghanistan.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theboardwalkpodcast/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBoardwalkPodcast/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/theboardwalkpod
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkuGAa5_U7BNTmfZtsNjecA
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/3eAAxXR2Zk6NbXXRIhwld2?si=092wsdR_TyGzKuoeGt6tug&nd=1