What is The Geek Speak Show?
More than just a podcast....
Each episode features interviews with independent Geek Culture creators, as well as A-list talent. No spoilers, leaks or "sources" on this show. Henry keeps it 100% fun & 100% authentic. Click on the button below to learn Henry's story.
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For The Geek Speak Show's origin, keep reading....
Henry San Miguel
Host/Executive Producer
It Started With An Idea...
After years in music radio and transitioning to Talk radio in 1999, Henry longed for radio shows featuring discussions about his favorite topics: comic books, science fiction, fantasy, movies, TV shows and the paranormal. Except for Coast To Coast AM with Art Bell, none of those topics were heard on the radio at that time. In 2005, Henry was in an executive management position at a Talk Radio syndication company located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was there that he started planning what would become The Geek Speak Show.....
Origin
By 2009, Henry was back where he had grown up: San Francisco's Mission District. He was back at the legendary KGO 810 and 560 KSFO talk stations. He was also at 102.9 KBLX. Working alongside legendary Talk Show hosts (including Art Bell) inspired him to create a radio-ready version of what would soon become The Geek Speak Show. At KBLX, he met two very important people in the show's history: Damien Minor and (John) Romo. Damien would become the show's producer and Romo the show's co-host. From the beginning, Henry knew that having a female voice is what would make the show different. A few young ladies gave it a try, but none of them had the sound that Henry was looking for. It wasn't until the Summer of 2010 that Henry met one of Damien's classmates, Angel Nevarez. Angel was exactly what Henry had in mind for a co-host and so, with the team now assembled, the show made its debut on Monday August 9, 2010....
The Geek Speak Radio Show made its debut on Monday August 9, 2010. It aired live from 11 AM PST to 1 PM PST on Talk Zone. Even though it was an online radio station, the show sounded exactly like what Henry had envisioned: A radio Talk Show about Geek Culture. The show established itself as a new destination for Geek Culture news & commentary. The first two shows also set the bar high when it came to guests and topics, featuring San Diego Comic-Con's David Glanzer and Roddenberry Entertainment CEO Rod Roddenberry. The second episode featured a serious discussion of video game addiction, with many listeners calling in and sharing their personal experiences with video game addiction. The Geek Speak Radio Show was an instant hit with listeners. It was also an instant go-to for filmmakers, actors and other Geek Culture creatives, with the first season featuring interviews with Chloe Grace Moretz, J.J. Abrams, Nicholas Meyer, Paul Dini, Ashley Bell, Back To The Future producer & co-writer Bob Gale, Claudia Wells and James Tolkan and the first of many visits from then Head of Marvel TV Jeph Loeb, which started Henry's long-time friendship with Marvel TV and Marvel Studios.
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Henry and Romo were the main hosts, with Angel Nevarez as the female co-host and guest booker/show producer. Damien Minor served as the show's first producer, occasionally joining the on-air discussions.
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Talk Zone was quite pleased with The Geek Speak Radio Show and wanted to keep them on the network for an extended period. While grateful for the support from the network, Henry knew that The Geek Speak Radio Show's future was not on Talk Zone....
The Show Heads To Space....Cyberspace.
It's hard to imagine today, but back in 2010, not everyone had a smartphone. Which meant that not everyone listened to or knew what podcasts were. Although Henry had spent (at the time) almost 30 years as a radio broadcaster, he knew that podcasts had the potential to do what video did to the radio star. He took The Geek Speak Radio Show off Talk Zone and launched the show as a weekly audio podcast. It went from five days a week to once a week. Henry decided to release episodes on Wednesday as that's new comics day and he imagined the listeners playing the episodes while on their way to their local comics shop. (It happened. At least we like to think that it happened...) Henry and Romo remained the main hosts, with Damien still serving as the show's producer. Angel Nevarez left the show shortly after the Talk Zone run, so Henry once again searched for a new female co-host. He found three. Rachel Rossilli, Arielle Kessweder and Louise DuCray became co-hosts on the show and remained so for the next three years. In that time, The Book Club was introduced and became the show's most popular feature. The Halloween episode started to become a listener favorite, as the downloads went from the usual thousand to over two thousand for the Halloween episode. In 2013, Angel Nevarez returned to the show and became the main co-host along with Henry. Romo and Damien had moved on by this point, so Angel remained as the only original member (besides Henry). From 2013 through 2016, Henry & Angel became a very popular Geek Culture destination, thanks to their friendship & love of everything geeky (and spooky) that was on full display in every episode and every event they covered. The show experienced its biggest growth during this time, going from a thousand downloads to over five, sometimes six thousand downloads per episode. Angel Nevarez left the show in 2016, marking the last of the original three members to depart. Henry was a solo host for that season until he met Lex Paton in 2017. Lex was a model and up-and-coming actress who loved video games and Geek Culture. She was exceptionally talented on the microphone and she and Henry became instant friends and great co-hosts. In late 2017, Henry met Erin Olash, another model and influencer who loved video games and Geek Culture. Erin and Henry became good friends after she was on a video game-centered episode and Henry asked her to become a full-time co-host. From 2018 to mid-2019, Henry & Erin continued to grow the show's audience to just under 10 thousand weekly downloads. During some downtime at San Diego Comic-Con in 2018, Henry & Erin created Paranormal Perception, born out of both of their real-life paranormal experiences. That show quickly grew an audience almost as large as The Geek Speak Show. Everything was going great with The Geek Speak Show. At least, it seemed that way.....
After more than 10 years, Henry started to notice a change in Geek Culture. Not a better change, either. Podcasts like The Geek Speak Show had sprung up since the show's premiere, but most of them started to report leaks and rumors as facts. "Influencers" started to make a name for themselves by being negative about everything, calling anything they didn't like "woke". And audiences ate it up. Having no desire to transform The Geek Speak Show into that, Henry ended the show in 2021.
After Henry ended the show, he would still attend conventions and visit comic book shops on Wednesdays. Every time he did, he would be asked to bring the show back. Shortly after he ended The Geek Speak Show, Henry met Shanclen and his brother Hero. It was because of Paranormal Perception, but when they weren't talking about paranormal topics, they would talk about the MCU, Star Wars and comic books. In 2023, after a lot of requests from Shanclen, Henry decided to revive The Geek Speak Show. On May 4, 2023, The Geek Speak Show, Vol. 2 made its debut with Hero & Shanclen as co-hosts. Couple of problems, though: The film industry was just getting back to normal after a global pandemic...then back-to-back strikes by the writers and actors again shut down productions. So Henry and the boys had to get really creative with the first few episodes. Out of that was born the new Issues of the Day episodes, which are becoming a favorite with listeners.
So now you know the show's history, from 2010 to Volume 2. How long will the show be around this time? Who knows, but it won't be too long. Henry is getting older and he won't have the same energy he did when he started the show. But that won't be anytime soon. In fact, he still has one more surprise in store for Geek Speak listeners before he calls it a career......