Hot Mikes.
Not responsible for feelings hurt, minds changed, or coffee spat onto keyboards. Proceed with curiosity. Or caution. Your call.
Not responsible for feelings hurt, minds changed, or coffee spat onto keyboards. Proceed with curiosity. Or caution. Your call.
Mikaela Vance is equal parts calm and confrontation. With a background in media studies and a lifelong habit of questioning everything (especially authority, trends, and the group chat), she brings a grounded, clear-eyed perspective to Hot Mikes — the kind that makes you pause mid-scroll and go, wait, is that true? She’s especially interested in the way we perform belief, curate identity, and justify our worst decisions with the right font. Her episodes tend to explore the deeper mechanics of culture: what we say versus what we mean, who benefits, and who’s quietly opting out. When she’s not recording, she’s probably journaling in the margins of a book, walking aimlessly with headphones in, or workshopping yet another theory about why the internet feels haunted. Mikaela isn’t here to provoke. She’s here to notice what most people miss — and to say it out loud, with care and clarity.
Mike Russo isn’t trying to win arguments — he’s trying to ask better questions, ideally with a cold beer in hand and a little room to think. He grew up fixing fence posts and tuning out talk radio until he realized something: nobody was really explaining anything. So he got curious. A degree in political science, a brief misadventure in law school, and a decade of listening later, Mike brings a straight-shooting, bullshit-proof sensibility to Hot Mikes. He’s interested in systems — how they’re built, who they serve, and why we keep acting surprised when they fail. His episodes tend to start with a headline and end with something closer to a worldview. If Mikaela’s picking up on the cultural frequency, Mike’s crawling around under the hood. Off the mic, he’s probably split between three tabs: one legal opinion, one jiu-jitsu forum, and one Craigslist ad for a used smoker he doesn’t need. He doesn’t posture, he doesn’t pander, and he’s not here to play devil’s advocate. He’s here to figure out what’s real — and why nobody’s saying it out loud.
Micah Boone is what happens when you read too much, sleep too little, and develop a sense of humor as a coping mechanism. A lifelong student of absurdity (both cultural and existential), Micah brings a sharp, skeptical eye to Hot Mikes — the kind that doesn’t just notice the cracks in the system, but wonders who keeps repainting them. With a background in philosophy, stand-up comedy, and asking uncomfortable questions at otherwise pleasant dinner parties, Micah’s episodes tend to wander into the uncomfortable middle: where truth, hypocrisy, and good intentions collide. He’s less interested in taking sides than in asking why we built the stadium this way to begin with. Off-mic, he’s probably rewriting a punchline, re-reading the footnotes, or watching a niche documentary no one asked him to summarize — but he will. He doesn’t moralize, he doesn’t sanitize, and he’s allergic to buzzwords. Micah’s not here to fix the culture. He’s here to make sure we all know how weird it’s gotten.
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