Meet The Hosts
Ben Salango
As a teenager, Ben snuck a sip of whiskey from a bottle his dad kept hidden in a cabinet. He absolutely hated it. It took nearly three decades before Ben tried whiskey again. This time yielded a different result. A self-proclaimed whiskey amateur, Ben started chronicling his whiskey journey and soon turned it into a podcast along with co-hosts Joe Nassif and Kyle Mork. Before long, Bourbon Podcast had thousands of weekly subscribers worldwide and over 100,000 followers on social media. Bourbon Podcast frequently ranks in the Top 10 on Apple Podcasts in the hobbies category and reached #1 in July 2024.
Ben is a trial lawyer and an elected County Commissioner in Kanawha County, the most populous county in West Virginia. In 2020, Ben won his party's nomination for Governor of the State of West Virginia.
Joe Nassif
Co-Host of BourbonPodcast.com | Founder of Appalachia Barrel Select | Founding Member of Appalachian Whiskey Society | All Things Bourbon on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok
Joe’s journey in the whiskey world began in 2012 and is broadcasted through BourbonPodcast.com, where he co-hosts and provides detailed insights, reviews and research for the podcast’s whiskey episodes. As the founder of Appalachia Barrel Select and a founding member of the Appalachian Whiskey Society, Joe has led the effort to build an organization of nearly 400 members located in the heart of Appalachia in Charleston, West Virginia. With over 75 private whiskey barrels selected from Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana, his expertise and dedication to the craft resonate with each curated episode of BourbonPodcast.
Joe is an avid collector, drinker and reviewer of fine whiskeys, boasting one of the most extensive collections of bourbons and ryes east of Kentucky. Though whiskey is his current passion and hobby, professionally, Joe spends his time as a managing director with a national investment banking firm where he has successfully financed over $11 billion worth of public projects over the past 25 years.
Kyle Mork
The “color commentator” of Bourbon Podcast, Kyle offers an everyman’s perspective on America’s native spirit. He started drinking and collecting bourbon about 15 years ago and since then has progressed from a self-proclaimed bourbon snob to a bourbon pragmatist, who relishes discussing the relative value of different bourbons and exploring the stories and methods behind various labels.
He has a preference for high-proof, bold bourbons with intense flavors that leave a lasting impression.
When he’s not sipping a Four Roses private barrel pick, Kyle serves as president and chief executive officer of Greylock Energy, an oil and natural gas company headquartered in West Virginia and with operations throughout Appalachia and the Rockies.