Photo contributed A former teacher and librarian by day, Jordan Mattox is also the creative force behind Fresno’s Best podcast.

Jordan Mattox, a long-time teacher who is now a librarian with the Madera Unified School District, uses his podcast to highlight those helping their community, including business owners and people passionate about their work or craft.

Launching in December 2019 and available on Apple Podcasts, the Fresno’s Best podcast is an interview-style program highlighting people in the Fresno area working to improve their city. It has 131 episodes.

Mattox has interviewed members of the community including Fresno Chamber of Commerce President Scott Miller, current Fresno City Council President Annalisa Perea, Legacy Construction CEO Bill Cummings, Fresnoland Founder and Director Danielle Bergstrom and more.

Originally from Anaheim, Mattox moved to Fresno when he was 5.

Prior to starting the podcast, Mattox and his partner were living in Southern California when they had a family situation arise requiring them to return to Fresno, where she is originally from.

Mattox said he received calls from friends in Southern California expressing concern that he was moving to a place like Fresno.

“That bothered me. I’m a firm believer that people deserve dignity and that there are great people everywhere. I don’t believe in extrapolating generalizations on people based on the setting and income levels of people who live there,” Mattox said.

Mattox started the podcast with two friends, Amy Gavroian and Thomas Adlard, believing that there needed to be a podcast that highlights people doing interesting things in Fresno.  

Both his friends had to step back from the podcast, and Mattox continued on his own.

Mattox said many podcasts are more entertainment focused, and he wanted his to include more intellectual and heady conversation with his job as a librarian and his love for teaching.

He said his goal with the podcast is for people moving into town from other places to hear stories from the area that may change their perspective on the community.

Mattox also created and hosts The History of California podcast, exploring various historical topics covering the Golden State with a strong passion for history.

Though he has interviewed prominent and widely known figures in Fresno, he also does a lot of cold calling to people he finds interesting and gets referrals and recommendations from his podcast guests.

A challenge for Mattox however, is trying to not interview the same people that others might be interviewing.

“In a lot of ways Fresno often feels like a small town. There’s a lot of focus on a small group of people in town and so I am always trying to expand my circle of who I interview,” Mattox said.

Since his goal is to provoke more intellectual conversations on his podcast, he said he sometimes interviews people that might have canned responses, or not interview as well, which is tricky to turn into engaging content.

Mattox eventually started interviewing more business owners, even garnering criticism from some saying he was becoming a “business podcast,” which he feels is an unfair assessment.

But Mattox he says he doesn’t have a real strategy for finding interviewees. He just wants to learn from people he finds interesting.

As a podcaster, Mattox said the market is oversaturated to the point where it’s hard to find something of interest, which is why he named his “Fresno’s Best” podcast, to make it easier to find for people interested in the area.

“I think we need more podcasts that are locally based. We listen to a lot of big city centered content and not enough stuff about our local community,” Mattox said.