Taiki Green (Momentum): Trevor Bauer, Filmmaking, and a Solo Trek to Japan

We've been covering music for a while now, but I saw a lot of people's stories passing me by that intrigued me and I had no place to put them. Heart Beats is a series where we will explore people's stories who don't have any direct ties to the music industry. Taiki Green and the story of Momentum is the perfect place to start this series. Momentum is media company that connects athletes and fans by allowing them to share stories, passions, and expertise in ways nor offered by traditional news and media outlets. Before we recorded this podcast, Taiki and I spoke months ago about both of our visions to create platforms that deepen the human connection. Taiki co-founded Momentum with Trevor Bauer, a professional pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. I don’t talk about it much on this podcast, but baseball is my first love and I played the game for 18 years of my life. The first video I ever came across on Momentum was a montage of Trevor Bauer mic’d up for a 2019 Spring Training Start. As a former player a current fan of baseball, this video brought to a life a lot of the inner conversation that goes on in a pitcher’s head before and during the game. Things like humming along to music during warmup, trying to throw the absolute piss out of the baseball, saying what’s up to fans before the game. This video and other stories on Momentum hit home the fact that professional athletes are human beings. They are not immune to the tendencies, emotions, and thoughts that we all experience, the good and the bad. In this conversation, Taiki talks about his own journey with the game of baseball, working with Driveline (a data-driven baseball performance facility located in Kent Washington), what sparked his interest in filmmaking, a solo-trip to Japan, and the mission behind Momentum. By the way, you can find links to all of the projects we talk about in the description of this podcast or go to watch-momentum.com. Without further ado, here is our wide-ranging conversation with Taiki Green and the story behind Momentum. https://watch-momentum.com/ The Aux: https://www.auxoro.com/theaux