My guest on this episode is Marshall Thompson, a friend, former co-worker from my Cognitect days, and fellow maker and learner. He is currently employed by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, where, as the name implies, he pursues no less lofty a goal than curing cancer. This being Get Smarter and Make Stuff, we did not limit ourselves t…

It was my great pleasure to sit down (virtually) with James Avery and talk about learning and making. And specifically about the huge project we both spend the majority of our time working on together: growing Kevel (formerly Adzerk), the company we both work for. James is more than just an employee, though: he is the founder, and had a host of int…

It was my great pleasure to sit down with Carin Meier and have a conversation that – as usual – ranged across a wide variety of interesting topics. We talked a lot about Carin’s current professional interest in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, but we also took a swing through gardening along the way. I always have fun talking to Carin,…

New show! This time, I talk with Peter Bettenberg, a longtime friend of mine. Peter is an amateur blacksmith, and one of the board members of the Minnesota Guild of Metalsmiths. We talked about his journey to blacksmithing and how that connects him to his grandfather (a member of the Dutch Resistance during World War II), how a Halloween costume id…

Crass nepotism?! Why yes! Luckily, while my guest on this show is one of my brothers, he’s also a fascinating maker and learner. We talked about woodworking, music, curling, teaching as a learning technique, and a bunch of other stuff. I’m really glad I had him on. I think you’ll enjoy our conversation as well. Oh, and I’m told we sound a lot alike…

My good friend Andrew Ehlers is a really interesting guy, and is someone I wanted to have on the show right from the start. I’m so glad I did. It was fun to discuss his projects both current and former, including the cherrywood dining room table we built together, and the stand-up paddle board he’s taken on as a pandemic project. The first was an a…

The inimitable Fogus was on my list of desired guests from the moment I started thinking about having a podcast. He is a rare combination of humble, smart, and nice, and I have always greatly enjoyed talking to him. And he’s always working on something interesting, whether that’s making a game, writing some bit of software, or reading books on a mi…

What do you do when you’re a programmer that loves ClojureScript but you decide you might like to learn electronics? Well, if you’re my friend Mike Fikes, you jump in with both feet and find a way to marry the two up. On this episode, we talk about Mike’s journey towards electronics enlightenment by way of creating Esprit, his project to get Clojur…

On the long, long list of interesting people I want to talk to about getting smarter and making things, my friend and former coworker (and boss) Russ Olsen is definitely up near the top list. We have many times driven down to Durham, North Carolina together, as we both work there and live relatively close to each other in the Washington, D.C. area.…

Three episodes – I think that means we’re here to stay! And I could not be more thrilled to welcome on to the show my coworker of many years and my close friend Tim Ewald. Tim and I have spent many hours talking about woodworking, our shared hobby. So it’s no surprise that we chatted a lot about his latest projects. But, as seems to be the pattern …