About Us
The Liberty Street Geek Podcast was created in 2013 as a solo show hosted by Dean. This happened in a third-floor walkup in southeastern Massachusetts. The gear: an Audio Technica AT2020, a Mac Book Pro, and Garage Band. The sound quality wasn’t great, but the spirit of the show started to develop. The show covered movies, and The Walking Dead. At the time Dean didn’t know much about podcasting, but he learned that he could flap his gums for 30-45 minutes. Part of him wondered what it’d be like to have a co-host, but the other part of him wasn’t crazy about relying on other people to produce content. The latter was quickly squashed when he came across Matthew Anderson.
Matthew was driving around in the company extermination truck, likely headed off to eradicate some cock roaches in a gnarly crawl space in South Carolina, and he was listening to Dean talk to himself about The Walking Dead. There was plenty he agreed with, and plenty he didn’t. Matthew had his own podcast (It’s So Nice) at the time that he produced with a couple of friends, and decided that he’d like to talk to this “Dean guy” regarding his monologues about The Walking Dead.
Dean’s website had a little plugin (Speak Pipe) attached to it that allowed listeners to leave voicemails and Matthew decided that he would leave this Dean guy a message to see if he wanted a guest on his show. Matthew was a big zombie fan, and he was confident he could lend to Dean’s ramblings. Dean listened to the message and decided to reach out to Matthew if only because Matthew, in Dean’s opinion, “had a good voice for podcasting,” and he was sufficiently complimentary of Dean’s style. Eventually Dean and Matthew got onto a Skype call and had immediate chemistry. A guest spot turned into a permanent co-hosting gig for Matthew, and the two got along swimmingly.
In 2014 Dean and Matthew decided to take the podcast a little more seriously and started to brainstorm logo ideas, podcast title ideas, and wondered what direction to take the show. Eventually they landed on the Science Fiction Film Podcast which boasted the all-too-familiar LSG gas mask logo (and early podcast art) – designed by Dean’s brother Jacob after the two of them brainstormed ideas in a Chipotle. Dean’s wife at the time, Jessica, had podcasting chops of her own and did some filling in for Matthew on the SFFP because it was apparent that The Walking Dead would have to have its own podcast. Jessica’s fill-in role grew into her co-hosting seat on the Game of Thrones and Hawkins Report (Stranger Things) shows, as well as her frequent appearances on the SFFP.
Matthew’s role continued to grow as well, and he started to podcast twice a week. He would split his duties between the SFFP and The Walking Dead Podcast. In a short period of time the SFFP started to gain a following as did The Walking Dead Podcast. Listeners began reaching out to Matthew and Dean to tell them that they listened to and loved the shows. This took both Matthew and Dean by surprise, and their following started to grow rapidly. When a few listeners asked how they could support the show, a hobby suddenly became a business. These same listeners also asked if they could send some goodies in the mail. This led to a brief stint on Patreon and a PO BOX rental. Things were looking up.
Dean’s longtime friend Johnny Butters entered the picture and helped shape the face and aesthetic of LSG Media. Dean would poorly describe something to Jon, and Jon would whip up a podcasting cover art that was far too professional to be attached to anything LSG created, but it stuck. Jon still continues to maintain the polls as well as creating any art for LSG Media. Jon’s vision of what LSG was doing lined up precisely with what the hosts thought things should look like.
The success of the SFFP and The Walking Dead grew into the Game of Thrones Podcast (hosted by Dean & Jessica) in 2015. The Hawkins Report (hosted by Dean & Jessica) in 2016, which was one of the most popular shows by LSG Media. Recommissioned: A Battlestar Galactica Podcast (hosted by Dean & Matthew) in 2017 which covered the entirety of the reimagined BSG. The X-Files Podcast (hosted by Dean & Josh) in 2018, which initially started as just a fun romp through favorite episodes picked by Dean and Josh, and eventually they ran through 4 seasons sequentially before Dean and Josh parted company. Josh can still be heard on the RPG podcast, Nastygram. He podcasts there with mutual friends of LSG and Dean’s aforementioned brother (Jacob) and if you’re on Discord (and you should be) you likely know Dean’s long-time friend, Jon (Jazzahn, not to be confused with Butters).
There were a couple other brief shows such as Real Quick (solo movie show by Dean, yup he went back to to try a solo show for a short time), and Without Limits (a Westworld show hosted by Dean & Jessica), and a show called Sudden Departure: which discussed the often-overlooked HBO show, The Leftovers. This was also hosted by Dean & Jessica.
The Science Fiction Film Podcast ran weekly for 5 years. The Bounty system was born (listeners could commission movie podcasts) during this time, and in September of 2019 the SFFP was officially retired and The Lost Drive-In was born. The goal: to get back to movie genres that were closer to the early days of the SFFP while maintaining the flexibility to go outside of science fiction. The aforementioned bounty system was scrapped, and programming control rested firmly in the hands of Dean and Matthew.
The current programming line-up is The Lost Drive-In which has been running for almost 4 years as of 2023. In late 2020 long-time listener and friend, Scott joined the show as the third chair. His debut episode was Halloween III. Frequent guest and long-time friend Nathan sat down with Dean and the two of them decided to finally put their heads together to start a Star Trek podcast, and thus Kirking Off: A Warped Star Trek Shakedown was born in April of 2021. Kirking Off recently added a third chair with the arrival of long-time listener and friend, Brian.
In November of 2022 the website libertystreetgeek.net went kaput and LSG Media lost all of its memberships (around 400). The recovery efforts have been remarkable, but there is still a long road ahead. With a new dedication to thematic programming, a more robust approach to member rewards, and more consistent programming with the members-only content – confidence is high. Lots of shows have sprung up around LSG Media as listeners have embarked on their own shows (and credited LSG as their inspiration), and this is a great source of pride from the LSG Media crew. To know that what they do is so unremarkable that anyone thinks they can do it too…
Teasing, of course.
If you ask the hosts they’ll tell you that it is humbling to know that what they do inspires others to follow suit with their own shows and their own styles. As the team looks forward to 2023 and beyond the goal remains the same: to be brutally honest, irreverent, and entertaining. Come for the movies and stay for the hosts, and partake in the madness that is LSG Media.