Looking back on everything, I think the most promising or fulfilling or successful things happen from just authentic plays without some grand vision or some grand aspiration of becoming something massive.

I just wanted to show my nephew that Ashnaz could be black and the only way I could do that was on a cannabis.

So from the age of three, my guest today, Micah Johnson, he knew that he wanted to be a professional baseball player when he grew up.

And from that moment, he literally lived baseball 24-7 every moment of his waking hours. And in 2012, as a young adult, his dreams came true when the Chicago White Sox drafted him.

But what Micah didn't know was that a true or calling in life was just getting started. A couple years later, he was traded to the LA Dodgers.

And Micah almost on a lark discovered painting, something that had never been any part of his life. Art was just not a part of his world. He was all baseball all the time.

But something about it, it called to him in a way he never saw it coming.

And now while his full-time job was pro baseball, drawing and painting and creating art, it became a new, increasingly consuming passion.

But it was a single moment when his young nephew came to him and asked him whether black people could be astronauts that changed everything.

In response, Micah painted this moving depiction of a young, confident black boy in an oversized astronaut helmet ready for adventure as a way to not just answer yes.

But create a powerful visual depiction of courage and possibility.

At around the same time, Micah was feeling called to bring his baseball career to a close and go all in on this new passion around art.

But no longer a novelty as a pro athlete slash painter, he found his art hard to sell. He was really struggling until everything came together when that character he painted for his nephew.

He met this emerging world of NFTs, crypto art, web3, and the power of digital aspirational movements.

And he turned that painting into a character named Aku that then began to build a world and a community and an enterprise and a movement around it.

And Micah's work has centered now around empowering young African American kids to see the possible and dream without limitations.

And then Micah began releasing NFTs in January of 2020. And by the way, we're going to talk about what that thing NFT is.

So you can actually understand it. You've probably heard it floating around in the ether a lot lately.

And in February 2021, Aku's message became a viral sensation and the first NFT ever option to become a major motion picture film.

We air this conversation. Micah is just coming off, helming a 15,000 square foot immersive multidisciplinary experience in Miami's art basil called Aku's world.

We dive into all of this in today's conversation, along with a bit of a mini primer on these mysterious things called NFTs and crypto art and web3, which has been creating quite a stir these days.

And becoming a growing fascination of mine as well. So excited to share this conversation with you on a quick note before we dive in.

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