The Pawcast Team
We have assembled a first-class team to power our 2 podcast shows. We profile hosts and key members of both the Pet Friendly Nation and Legends Unleashed! shows below. Each of our shows has a standard structure.
- For Pet Friendly Nation, we profile a pet friendly city and rate it. We also conduct interviews with humans who travel with pets – looking for the best story.
- Legends Unleashed! includes the AI-driven voices of Dugger, Marcie from Marketing, Stanley (Dugger’s hotel concierge) and one or more historical dogs. The podcasts are based on historical research we’ve done and should be considered fairly accurate – although some events (like when the dogs check into the hotel) are of course hypothetical. YOU’RE GOING TO LEARN SOMETHING!
PET FRIENDLY NATION
Maria Vasquez, Host
Maria Vasquez is dog mom to a Boxer/Boston Terrier mix named Ollie. Maria hosts Pet Friendly Nation where she looks at the growing pet friendly trend in the US. Maria is also active in the Champaign-Urbana community where she is active with various local and state political leadership organizations.
Pet Friendly Nation also includes contributions from various additional on-air talent including: Ken Barlow, Founder of Dugger Dinners; Kevin Barlow, a freelance reporter who has writing credits from various Central Illinois newspapers including the Daily Pantagraph in Bloomington; and others.
LEGENDS UNLEASHED!
DUGGER, CREATOR & HOST
DUGGER, the face of the Dugger Dinners franchise, is the host of our Special Series, Legends Unleashed!, our AI-driven interviews with famous dogs. While admittedly Dugger is a little light on his research, Dugger’s AI-generated voice is excitement-filled and brings energy to the conversation. And although his voice is parodied, Dugger is a real dog – a 15-year old bichon-frise shihtzu mix.
Check out Dugger Dinners where you’ll see Dugger on each of our pet friendly VIP Welcome Packages for Dogs. He’s the champion for the dogs that GO OUT, EAT OUT & STAY OUT.
MARCIE, Co-Host w/ LAYLA
MARCIE FROM MARKETING (with Layla) is co-host of the DUGGER PAWCAST and is the quintessential researcher and works to keep the podcast on track, despite Dugger’s bursts of excitement.
Marcie represents the true nature of the Dugger Dinners culture – an interest in anything that’s related to dogs, but she thinks Dugger can often be a little bit over-the-top. Her dog Layla is her constant companion.
Marcie is the creative personality behind the DUGGER VIP branding – Welcome Packages for Dogs that also accompany first-class marketing and leading-edge technology deliverables. Learn more about the program here.
STANLEY, PRODUCER & HOTEL CONCIERGE
Stanley is the Dugger hotel VIP Concierge and begins each of the podcasts by finding famous guests at the hotel check-in. But just because he’s a VIP hotel clerk – doesn’t mean that Dugger doesn’t make him work like a dog! He is also a member of the AI technology team – and gets credit for wiring the hotel lobby with AI technology so that famous dogs can speak when they check-in!
Stanley also serves as the poster child for the DUGGER VIP Welcome Waggin’ Program – available at pet friendly hotels across the US. It’s a natural – since he’s the concierge at Dugger’s hotel and he’s very organized. Learn more about the program here.
The HUman Element
- Ken Barlow is the founder of Dugger Dinners and series creator – and importantly, is Dugger’s dad. He writes the majority of the episodes and coordinates the AI technology for the podcast.
- Kevin Barlow is a former journalists with several newspapers in Central Illinois. He researches and drafts Dugger Pawcast content.
The Advanced Tech
The Dugger Pawcast is one of the first audio dramas to feature 100% AI-powered voices – and its certainly the first one to feature talking dogs!
We leverage the technology of Murf.AI – a great technology partner that provides des us an incredibly wide array of voice-over options and a variety of advanced functions that enable us to speed up, tone up, or add emphasis within the speech.
While there are tradeoffs between AI and human voices, with AI, we can infuse our podcast with a wide variety of voice options to reflect the wide range of expected guests.
But since it’s really a task of powering the thoughts of dogs and giving them a speaking voice, Dugger has concluded its the best way to give a real voice to some of the most famous dogs in history!
