It is safe to say that over the last two years podcasts have become quite popular, but Klein College of Media and Communication alumna Angel Taylor, KLN ’15 (she/her), has been in the game since February 2017 when she and her brother-in-law, Kevin Strickland, CLA ‘03, launched their podcast All Of The Above.
“Our main goal was to promote and highlight local entertainers, musicians, entrepreneurs – basically anyone local,” Taylor said.
All Of The Above is based in Philadelphia on the PHL Radio app and airs once a week. Taylor and Strickland collaborate on each episode as Taylor reaches out to artists and interviews guests while Strickland gives a rundown of current events and edits the show for air.
Recently, Taylor was invited to cover the premiere of Bad Boys Los Angeles as a representative of the podcast. Taylor called this a “full circle moment,” as it was the payoff of all of her efforts reaching out to public relations companies in order to make connections.
With less than a week’s notice, Taylor flew out to LA in order to pursue the opportunity she had been offered. She is incredibly grateful to her husband, who encouraged her to go and took care of their infant son while she was gone.
“I think it definitely shows her ambition and her determination and willingness to take any role,” said Taylor’s friend, Sedequa Johnson, CPH ’15 (she/her). Johnson has loved seeing Taylor pursue new opportunities ever since they met on the By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) dance team at Temple University in 2011.
In addition to her participation in BAMN, Taylor pursued the media studies and production LA study away program in the fall of 2014. There, she worked as an assistant for the Kardashian and Jenner families.
“It helped catapult my experience in the entertainment industry,” Taylor said. With the Kardashians and Jenners, she saw back end production for Keeping Up With the Kardashians, did administrative work and even went to the families' houses.
Taylor planned to move back to LA after graduating from Temple in 2015, but Strickland and Taylor’s sister really wanted her to stay in Philadelphia. The creation of All Of The Above gave Taylor the perfect reason.
In between graduating and launching the podcast in 2017, Taylor did sideline reporting for University of Pennsylvania women’s field hockey and women’s basketball, and she moved to Connecticut to work for NBC Sports and the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
“She’s the type of person who gives whatever she can without any expectation of anything coming back to her,” said another one of Taylor’s BAMN friends, Onya Brown, CLA ’14 (she/her).
Johnson and Brown both noted that Taylor is “Philly through and through,” and they see that reflected in her desire to promote local talent. They have loved watching All Of The Above grow from a small, conversational podcast that they themselves were guests on, to one that is helping Taylor gain new opportunities like covering the blue carpet for Bad Boys Los Angeles.
Other than Johnson and Brown, perhaps Taylor’s favorite guest she’s ever had on her podcast is the man that is now her husband. If it wasn’t for All Of The Above, the two never would have met!
New episodes of All Of The Above air on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on PHL Radio and you can listen to previous episodes on all streaming platforms.