If we need a bit of a pick-me-up, sometimes we just need some good encouragement and a new perspective. Life is full of struggles and personal battles; getting to connect with others that have been through it and made it out the other side can be cathartic. Mix in some encouragement, inspiration, and humor and you get a fun, conversational podcast called D&K in the Lab.
Co-hosts Dex G and Kurt Lee are the brains behind the podcast and have some fun stories to tell. “The premise of the show was to talk about Division 1 basketball stats and players and Dex’s experience playing basketball in college,” Kurt explains. “There was a certain mindset I had to get into and personal stuff that I had to overcome first,” Dex added.
But D&K in the Lab isn’t just about sports, there is a lot of fun conversations, witty banter, and content to connect with more than just sports fans. “This is really for everyone, whether or not you like basketball, you can really get a lot out of it still,” Dex says. If you are facing negativity and self-doubt, there is a lot of motivation to change the outcome of your situation by shifting your beliefs to overcome rather than to let your struggle walk all over you.
Built on personal experience, Dex is no stranger to fighting for what he wants. “I always wanted to play basketball,” he says. “But, I didn’t have the support of my friends and family. No one expected for me to get very far with it.” He proved them wrong when he started playing at Suffern High School in New York.
Dex went on to graduate from Marist College and then continued his education at Montclair State. “I joined their basketball club and helped them go undefeated at 7-0 during that first semester,” he remembers. “What made this so awesome was that MSU competed in the NCBBA. This gave me so much confidence that I kept playing even while I was taking classes at different schools to become a medical records professional.”
Dex feels he really reached a higher level when he became a member of the team at SUNY Ulster Community College, a division 2 NJCAA. “I felt proud to be one of the four players who made it to the next level. I actually committed to playing at County College of Morris after Montclair, but after a month and a half on the team, I transferred to SUNY Ulster and walked on the team later on in the season. I also played semi-pro for the East Carolina Cardinals.”
It wasn’t until the pandemic, however, that Dex decided to take his love for basketball in a new direction by starting his podcast with Kurt. “It was actually his idea,” Dex says. “We were like a lot of people: frustrated that we couldn’t play basketball. Kurt suggested that I talk about my life and other players’ to try to inspire the next generation of players and anyone else who faces a tough road to achieving their dreams.” Kurt, while not a player, is an avid watcher of the game and knows the stats of every player, so he was the perfect partner for Dex.
“To understand our podcast, you have to get how difficult it is for high school players to make it onto a Division 1 team in college,” Dex says. “It’s not easy to do. At that level, it’s all about winning – losing isn’t acceptable. Yet, so many high schoolers are aiming for that dream. That’s one reason they’ll like this podcast, as will anyone interested in inspirational stories. I interviewed Division 1 players like Ahmad Clark, who plays for Albany University, and Chris Galbreath, who plays for Sam Houston State. They get real about how hard you must work to make it to that level, how you have to eat, and how brutal the training really is.” That’s one of the messages Dex would like to get across to high school players: the importance of changing their mentalities so that they can play at the Division 1 level.
“We really want to do more with the podcast. We are having a lot of fun and we have a great audience,” Kurt says. D&K in the Lab is a good place to start when you are looking for something new to listen to. Put in on in the background or on a long car ride and let the message entertain and lend a shift to your perspective.
