Nerd Farmer Podcast

The Future of Public Schools is on the Ballot – Anne Lutz Fernandez, author of “Schooled” – 230 Oct 29, 2024

In this episode, we sat down with Anne Lutz Fernandez—former investment banker, retired teacher, and co-author of Schooled—to discuss education’s role in the 2024 election.

We discussed Trump’s first-term policies, Biden and Harris’s records on education, and how the next administration could shape public education going forward. Anne also talked about tensions between federal and local governance, the influence of unions, and what the Harris campaign could be doing to close the deal.

*At some point in the episode Nate misidentified Glenn Youngkin as the Governor of Oklahoma, rather than Virginia, apologies.

Going Further

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The Civil War and Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan – Professor Sherifa Zuhur – 229 Oct 21, 2024

The Civil War in Sudan is arguably the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The fight to control the government in Khartoum has reportedly claimed upwards of 150,000 lives and conditions for people on the ground are dire but the conflict rarely makes headlines in Western media.

Our guest this week is Professor Sherifa Zuhur. She’s a national security scholar of the Middle East and Islamic world. Zuhur has held faculty positions at the U.S. Army War College, the American University in Cairo, and MIT, and currently directs the Institute of Middle Eastern, Islamic and Strategic Studies.

She joined to talk about the conflict and its historical antecedents.

Going Further

Zuhur’s – Wikipedia Page and Publications
Institute of Middle Eastern, Islamic and Strategic Studies

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Tacoma Audio Voters’ Guide, Part I – Evelyn Lopez, Crossing Division and Nathe Lawver, Pierce County Labor Council – 228 Oct 10, 2024

This is Part One of a Tacoma Audio Voters’ Guide. In this conversation, we talked through the Congressional races, statewide initiatives, statewide offices, Pierce County judges, and a proposed fire and safety levy for the City of Tacoma.

In this episode, we were joined by Evelyn Lopez, host of Channel 253 show Crossing Division and Nathe Lawver, who brought the perspective of the Pierce County and Washington State Labor Councils to the conversation.

In a subsequent conversation, Evelyn will go over the State Supreme Court races and the proposed Charter Amendments for the City of Tacoma, over on her show Crossing Division.

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Building Movement for Hourly Wage Workers and Tenants – Ty and Zev, Tacoma for All – 227 Sep 16, 2024

In spite of an avalanche of outside money, Tacoma voters recently adopted a sweeping Bill of Rights for tenants that provides relocation assistance to families, in the case of steep increases in rent, and bans evictions during the winter.

The organizers of that campaign, Tacoma for All, are now undertaking a follow-up campaign aimed at helping hourly wage workers. They seek to raise the minimum wage in the city and to ban abusive scheduling practices, like erratic hours and “clopening“ shifts.

Two organizers from the campaign, Zev Cook and Ty Moore, joined us to talk about their organizing efforts in the community.

Going Further

Text of proposed Workers’ Bill of Rights
A Call for a Tenant Bill of Rights — #193
How Corporate Landlords are Driving Up Rents — #219
Tacoma for All – Website
Tacoma for All – Instagram

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**Running a Small Biz in Tacoma, Part 5 — Mario Amaya, Balcon X — 226** Aug 26, 2024
Mario Amaya is the owner and operator of *Balcon X,* a taco and pupusa (and *putaco*) restaurant located on Sixth Ave. *Balcon X* is named after his balcony where he got his start selling meals off 100th & Pac Ave.

Mario’s life in inspirational, a true story of overcoming obstacles and all the mess life threw his way.

Hit Balcon X up at 3102 6th Ave. They are is located in the space previously occupied by *Old Milwaukee Cafe.*

Thanks to Lincoln High School Librarian, Kristen Sierra, for connecting us with Mario.

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Running a Small Biz in Tacoma Series, Part 4 — Quincy Henry, Campfire Coffee — 225 Aug 08, 2024

Quincy Henry is the co-owner and proprietor of Campfire Coffee, located at 1554 Market Street. He joined us for Part 4 of our ongoing series on running a small business in Tacoma. We talked about starting the shop and roasting business in Downtown Tacoma, the business climate in the city, and his mission to get more kids from the area out in nature.

His coffee is delicious and his energy is infectious.

Going Further

Campfire Coffee on the IWL Podcast.

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Remembering Matt Driscoll Jul 29, 2024

Last week Tacoma lost one of its brightest lights. Matt Driscoll was a columnist for The News Tribune and the editor for the paper’s Opinion Section. But he was so much more than that. Rather than being a gatekeeper, he was an advocate for the less fortunate and less politically connected in our community. He made his column a forum for voices across the city, rather than a stale rotation of the usual suspects.

He also was a frequent guest on the show, so in tribute to Matt today we are re-releasing an episode of the podcast from 2018 where Matt joined me and Representative Laurie Jinkins in my classroom, for a conversation about evictions and housing solutions for our region and beyond. I think you get a real sense of the kind of man Matt was from this conversation.

His unexpected passing leaves a massive hole in the paper and in our civic culture.

A Go Fund Me has been set up to support Matt’s family.

More of Matt’s appearances on pod:

Covering Moral Panics – January 2024

Nerd Farmer Live – Summer 2023

Evicted #NerdFarmReads Bookclub – April 2018

Housing, Homelessness, and Political Protest – October 2017

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The Movies of 2024 – Chase Hutchinson, Film Critic – #223 Jul 22, 2024

Chase Hutchinson is a Tacoma-based freelance journalist and movie critic. He came on the show to talk about the year in movies. For our conversation, we tried to focus on films not based on pre-existing IP or sequels. So we’re mostly discussing smaller films — a mix of wide release, some available via video on demand (VOD), and others on various streaming platforms.

You will find trailers for each of the films we discussed below:

Do Not Expect to Much from the End of the World

The Feeling That The Time for Doing Something Has Passed

X / Pearl / Maxxxine

Going Further

Follow Chase on Letterboxd and on Bluesky

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The Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump and the Political Fallout Jul 16, 2024

In today’s irregular edition of the podcast, we discussed Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Trump and the political fallout from it.

I was joined in studio by Producer Doug and Evelyn Lopez, host of Channel 253 Podcast Crossing Division.

BBC Reporting on the Shooting

The (Worrying) State of the Sounders: On-the-field and Off — Dave & Carol, Hands-Free Footy — #221 Jul 08, 2024

Dave and Carol are longtime Seattle Sounders season ticket holders and former hosts of the Hands-Free Footy podcast. They decided, for a host of reasons, this would be their last year with season tickets. I asked them to join me for conversation about the state of the football club and its changing relationship with their fanbase.

This is a two-part discussion:

In segment one, we talked about our beloved Seattle Sounders and the troubles they seem to be experiencing off-the-field and in the stands with some of their core supporters and long-time fans.

In segment two, we talked about the recent run of success the Sounders have had on the field, and potential moves they can make in the summer transfer window.

Going Further

Time to Build for Club World Cup is Now – Dave Clark @ Sounder at Heart
Mentioned in Intro: Tacoma Neo-Nazi Sentenced to Four Years in Federal Prison for Violent Hate Crime – John Murphy, Tacoma Against Nazis – #185
Direct download link

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The Vibes Are Off, For Sure—But the US Economy is Doing Better Than You Think — Cameron Harwick, SUNY Brockport — #220 Jun 17, 2024

Cameron Harwick is a professor at State University of New York Brockport. He previously joined us in 2022 for a conversation about the causes and impacts of the inflationary crisis in 2022.

My goal in this episode was to help listeners better understand the various economic data and indicators that we encounter on a daily basis. There’s often a gap between the story these indicators tell us about the economy and the popular sentiment among the public.

This discrepancy has significant implications for the upcoming elections and beyond.

Cast of Characters

Cameron Harwick – Website

Going Further

Cameron’s Inflation Explainer – YouTube
Should Inflation Measures Include Borrowing Costs
Direct download link

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How Corporate Landlords are Driving Up Rents — Emmett O’Connell, Olympia Time — #219 May 27, 2024

Emmett O’Connell is a recovering journalist, who writes the blog Olympia Time and hosts the podcast Olympia Standard. He recently published an article examining the hoovering up of homes by corporate and institutional landlords and the impact this is having on communities.

Cast of Characters

Emmett O’Connell – Olympia Time & Olympia Standard

Going Further

Emmett’s Article – Re-examining the out-of-town (or just corporate) real estate investment in Thurston County
Blackstone Video – from show intro
This Machine Kills, #207 – Rent High? Blame Bob

Going Even Further: Prior Nerd Farmer Episodes about Housing

Everything in Real Estate Just Changed — Jasmyn Jefferson, Designated Broker and Co-Owner of Windermere Abode Lakewood — #217
A Call for a Tenant Bill of Rights — Zev Cook and David Galazin, Tacoma 4 All — #193
Understanding the Housing Market in Pierce County — Marguerite Martin, Move to Tacoma — #183
The US Housing Market is Not Okay – Nicole Beauchamp, Engel & Volkers NYC – #180
Why We Need Regional Housing Solutions – Rep. Jessica Bateman, Washington State Legislature, 22nd District – #154
The Bottom End of the Housing Market Has Been Destroyed — Will James, Special Projects Reporter, KNKX FM — #150

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Navigating the Moral Minefield of AI — Randy Girdner, Artist & Filmmaker — #218 May 13, 2024

In this episode, we are joined by Randy Girdner, an educator, filmmaker, and the comic artist creator of the web comic Maurice the Beaver.

This is a conversation about AI and my trepidation about its mainstreaming. I don’t have many answers but I have a ton of concerns. At the same time Randy and I are both regularly using AI programs despite our shared reservations about the technology, its creators, and the place it may come to occupy in our society.

Cast of Characters

Randy Girdner – Website

Going Further

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Everything in Real Estate Just Changed — Jasmyn Jefferson, Designated Broker and Co-Owner of Windermere Abode Lakewood — #217 Apr 23, 2024

In this episode, we dove into recent shifts in real estate with Jasmyn Jefferson, Designated Broker and co-Owner of Windermere Abode Lakewood. Jasmyn gave us her take on the Tacoma Housing market and the low-down on the recent NAR settlement. She talked about its impact on commission structures and what’s to come in the industry as a whole.

Jasmyn is a realtor but she sees the field through a different lens than most folks in the biz and I think that comes across in this conversation.

Cast of Characters

Jasmyn Jefferson

Going Further

The Case of the Missing $64,000 Homes – Takes & Typos
The NAR Settlement Explained – Yahoo! Finance
Jasmyn’s prior appearance on the show: The Housing Market and the Ethics of Real Estate, Part 1 — Jasmyn Jefferson

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Muslims Around the World Are Fasting: A Ramadan Reflection – Jasmine El Shear – #216 Mar 31, 2024

This month observant Muslims around the world are fasting in observance of Ramadan.

Jasmine El Shear is an Egyptian-American school counselor in the Gulf, advising Emirati students in navigating an American school system. She joined us for a wide-ranging conversation about the holy month of Ramadan, life for Muslim students in US schools, and her recent Umrah trip to Mecca.

Cast of Characters

Jasmine Elshear

Going Further

What Everyone (Especially Teachers) Should Know About Ramadan – #160
Experiencing Ramadan in the Gulf – Takes & Typos

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Revolutions Take Generations – Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, University of Southern California – #215 Mar 11, 2024

Nathan Perl-Rosenthal is an historian of the eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Atlantic world. He focuses on the political and cultural history of Europe and the Americas in the age of revolution, with a emphasis on the transnational influences that shaped modern national politics.

He’s the author of the recent article Revolutions Take Generations in the Atlantic and the book The Age of Revolutions. He joined us to talk about the lessons we can learn from the series of revolutions that took place in the 18th century and the lessons we can learn from them today.

Cast of Characters

Nathan Perl-Rosenthal – USC

Going Further

Revolutions Take Generations – The Atlantic
The Age of Revolutions

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“Should Biden Step Aside?” and Constitutional Issues Around the 2024 Election – Michael Artime, PLU – #214 Feb 26, 2024

We invited Professor Michael Artime from Pacific Lutheran University back on the show to discuss the upcoming election. In this conversation we covered several topics:

Ezra Klein’s suggestion that Biden step-aside as the Democratic nominee
The 14th Amendment challenges to DJT for along insurrection grounds
The state of our ever more fragile norms
The mainstreaming of Dominionist Christian-Nationalism, with the rise of Speaker Mike Johnson

Cast of Characters

Michael Artime – PLU

Going Further

Ezra Klein – Democrats Have a Better Option than Biden
Artime on Episode #77 – What a second Trump term might look like?

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How Journalists Cover Moral Panics and Contrived Scandals – Matt Driscoll, The News Tribune – #213 Jan 29, 2024

Over the winter holiday, Matt Driscoll, columnist and opinion editor at The News Tribune, reached out to talk about the firing of Claudine Gay from her role of President of Harvard University. Gay was brought down in a right-wing witch hunt following a much publicized plagiarism scandal. But underlying Gay’s firing was a coordinated campaign by conservative activists.

We brought him on the show to discuss these serial moral panics. In the conversation, he asked almost as many questions as I did. This is a discussion about how media covers politics in our digital age but also about what we as citizens owe ourselves and each other.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this one, you can hit me at nerdfarmpod@gmail.com.

Cast of Characters

Matt Driscoll – TNT Profile

Going Further

Driscoll on Gay’s firing – TNT
50% of Biden voters say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians – Business Insider
Ezra Klein on the State of Journalism – The New York Times

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Picture of Nate & Dave in studio with mics. — **Social Diversification, Blogging is Back, and How to Combat Disinformation – Dave Clark – #212** Jan 08, 2024
Happy New Year and go Huskies!

This week’s episode is a discussion about navigating the internet in an era of misinformation. Our guest is Dave Clark, founder of Sounder at Heart. He also writes at Full Moon Storytelling.

We talked about navigating the social media landscape, given the decline of Twitter. We also discussed why blogging and RSS feeds are the answer for many of us and we closed with a conversation about how to avoid outrage and clickbait in the 2024 election cycle.

**Note: this episode begins with a brief discussion of the Seattle Sounders roster moves, if you don’t need that in your life skip to 5:48.**

Cast of Characters

Dave Clark – Full Moon Storytelling

Going Further

Mentioned by Dave in the Interview: How to Run Your Own Social — Darius Kazemi, Creator and Moderator of Friend.Camp — #164

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A Tacoma-Centric Year in Review, Part II – Erik Hanberg, Citizen Tacoma and Evelyn Lopez, Crossing Division – #211 Dec 29, 2023

Happy New Year!

Recorded live in the Moonyard Studios in gorgeous North Tacoma, this episode is the second of our two part 2023 Year in Review. If you missed Part I, you can find it here.

We were joined again in the studio by Erik Hanberg, President of Channel 253 and host of Citizen Tacoma and Evelyn Lopez co-host of Crossing Division.

In this episode we each gave end of the year awards for:

Tacoman of the Year
Story of the Year
Things we’re watching going into 2024

Cast of Characters

Erik Hanberg – Citizen Tacoma

Evelyn Lopez – Crossing Division

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A Tacoma-Centric Year in Review, Part I – Erik Hanberg, Citizen Tacoma and Evelyn Lopez, Crossing Division – #210 Dec 26, 2023

Happy Holidays!

Recorded live in the Moonyard Studios in gorgeous North Tacoma, this episode is the first of our two part 2023 Year in Review.

We were joined in the studio by Erik Hanberg, President of Channel 253 and host of Citizen Tacoma and Evelyn Lopez co-host of Crossing Division.

Here’s the contact info for Compassion Tacoma the organization Evelyn mentioned who are providing mutual aid to people experiencing homelessness in Tacoma.

In this episode we each gave end of the year awards for:

Story you wish got more coverage
Profile in Courage
Tacoman who needs to go outside and touch grass
Organization who diminished their reputation

Cast of Characters

Erik Hanberg – Citizen Tacoma

Evelyn Lopez – Crossing Division

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Time for Closing Arguments in the Case of the Murder of Manuel Ellis – Peter Talbot, The News Tribune – #209 Dec 11, 2023

Peter Talbot from The News Tribune has been covering the trial of the Tacoma Police Officers who murdered Manuel Ellis on March 3, 2020. We spoke with Peter in October as the state was making its case against the officers. Now that the defense has ended its case and after a near miss mistrial motion, the trial is about to go to the jury.

We discussed the reasoning behind the motion to dismiss, the predictable “Invincible Super Negro” defense presented at trial, and what testimony and evidence may swing the verdict.

The info in this conversation is up to date as of the recording time, Saturday, December 9 at 9am PDT.

Cast of Characters

Peter Talbot – The News Tribune

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A Blueprint for Progressive Activists to Fight & Win – David Galazin and Michael Whelan, Tacoma for All – #208 Nov 20, 2023

Earlier this month, voters in Tacoma passed a Tenants Bill of Rights, creating among the most sweeping tenant protections in the country. The initiative was specifically designed to combat displacement in the community.

This effort was opposed by the majority of the City Council, the real estate and landlord lobby, and the bulk of the city’s establishment. The opposition raised more money than any ballot measure in city history and they lost.

The organizers of this campaign, Tacoma for All, are made up of tenants, activists, organized labor, and the faith community. In May, on Episode 193, we hosted David and Zev Cook on to talk about Initiative 1. We invited the group back on for a victory lap and so they could share their blueprint for building an effective and winning coalition.

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Launching a Reader Supported Soccer Journalism Project – Jeremiah Oshan, Editor-in-Chief Sounder at Heart – #207 Nov 07, 2023

Jeremiah Oshan is a recovering newspaper journalist and the editor-in-chief of Sounder at Heart. Sounder at Heart is the most read blog in US club soccer. The website was previously a part of Vox’s SB Nation but Oshan and the team took the site independent earlier this year.

He joined us to talk about that story and the roster questions facing the Sounders in the coming off season.

Channel 253 Members, you can find an additional conversation with Oshan on the Off the Record feed where we shared our MLS era best XI..

Cast of Characters: Jeremiah Oshan – Sounder at Heart

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An Update from the Trial of the Police Officers that Killed Manuel Ellis – Peter Talbot, The News Tribune – #206 Oct 30, 2023

Manuel Ellis was murdered by Tacoma Police on March 3, 2020. The long-delayed trial of the police officers that killed him is underway and this week we’re checking in with Peter Talbot from the News Tribune.

Peter covers crime & justice for the paper. He came on to talk about the state’s case so far in the trial of officers Burbank, Collins, and Rankin.

Cast of Characters: Pater Talbot

Going Further:

Charging Documents from the AG’s office
My pre-trial op-ed in the News Tribune

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The End of the Conflict Over Nagorno-Karabakh? – Sevinc Osmanqizi – #205 Oct 16, 2023

In March, on episode 188, we welcomed Azeri journalist Sevinc Osmanqizi on the show for a conversation about the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

On September 19, that conflict was reignited, with Azerbaijan winning a decisive victory and forcing over 100,000 ethnic Armenians out of the region. Some commenters called this the end of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a dispute that’s been raging on & off since the fall of the Soviet Union, but has roots even earlier.

So earlier this month we reached back out to Sevinc for an update and to hear her take on where things stand. But because I was traveling to Armenia last week, I thought it was prudent to hold onto this episode until I got back on solid ground here in the Gulf..

We made it back safe & sound and here’s our conversation.

Cast of Characters: Sevinc Osmanqizi – YouTube Channel

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Republicans in Washington D.C. Can’t Govern and the Country is Being Held Hostage — Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland — #204 Oct 10, 2023

Representative Marilyn Strickland is a former member of the Tacoma City Council, the former Mayor of Tacoma, and two-term member of the US House of Representatives. She joined us to discuss the recent dismissal of Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, and GOP hostage taking over the federal budget.

We tackled listener questions about transportation, infrastructure, and legislation around qualified immunity in the second segment.

Cast of Characters: Marilyn Strickland

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A Guide for People Thinking About Teaching Overseas — Brian Lettinga, Search Associates — #203 Sep 25, 2023

In 2019, my wife and I departed the US to begin our overseas teaching career. When I made the transition, I used a service called Search Associates. They helped me navigate the application process and land my current gig in the Gulf.

Now in 2023, it’s the early days of the hiring season for the 2024-2025 school year.

I will have to decide on my intention to return by the end of next month. Teachers around the world will face similar choices this fall and winter because of the nature of international school hiring and moving people across the planet, international schools hire early.

This episode is for folks wondering what it looks like to make the transition.

My guest Brian Lettinga joined Search Associates in July of 2020 following his 24-year career in international education. Brian spent his early years in international education teaching as an elementary school teacher, grades four and five.

Cast of Characters: Brian – LinkedIn

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Writing a Multigenerational Crime Masterpiece — Brian Panowich, author of “Bull Mountain,” “Like Lions,” and “Hard Cash Valley” — #202 Sep 09, 2023

I belong to a group chat. It used to be about the Seattle Sounders but as they began struggling last season it became more about crime novels, in the vein of Elmore Leonard. We now spend almost as much time talking about writers like SA Cosby, past show guest Eli Cranor, and today’s guest Brian Panowich, than we spend lamenting the Sounders’ inability to score goals at home.

Our guest this week, Brian Panowich, is the author of Bull Mountain, a novel that has been hailed as the “Hillbilly Godfather”—a description Panowich bristles at. Bull Mountain and his followup, Like Lions, are the story of the Burroughs, a family with a three generation long history of crime and mayhem on their homestead, Bull Mountain in McFalls County, GA.

Panowich is also the author of Hard Cash Valley, a story about a three way hunt to capture an ill begotten fortune from the Slasher—the World Series for cockfighting.

I’ve read and reread each of Panowich’s novels. They are propulsive page turners with emotional highs and deep lows. Panowich, a firefighter, turned flash fiction writer, turned novelist hails from Georgia and his upcoming novel Nothing But the Bones, from Macmillan, will be released in April.

This is a spoiler free conversation. Even if you haven’t read his books, feel free to dive in.

Also, join us for the next #NerdFarmReads Bookclub: Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond.

Cast of Characters: Brian – Website & Instagram.

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A 2023 Sounders Mid-Season State of the Union — Jackson Felts, KJR Radio — #201 Aug 29, 2023

The Seattle Sounders are possibly the least convincing third place team in the history of world football. They’re about three fourths of the way through what can best be described as a Jekyll & Hyde season. They started 5-1-1 but now they’re on a bad run of form, winless since July ninth in all competitions. Their best paid players aren’t producing and the beating heart of the team, Cristian Roldan, is on his second stint in the league’s concussion protocol. They are a team at a crossroads with no easy answers ahead of them.

Our guest, Jackson Felts, covers the team, hosting pre and post-game on KJR. We invited him on to talk about the state of the team, prospects for the remainder of the season, and the pivotal off-season ahead, arguably the most important in team history.

In this episode, we announced the next #NerdFarmReads Bookclub selection: Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond.

Cast of Characters: Jackson Felts – Instagram

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On the Culture of Conspiracy in America — Sarah Kendzior, author of “They Knew” and co-host “Gaslit Nation” — #200 Aug 22, 2023

Our guest, Sarah Kendzior, is a scholar with an focus on authoritarian Central Asian states. She leverages her academic background in her work as a journalist and commentator, offering unique insights about anti-democratic tendencies and movements at home. She is the author of three books: The View from Flyover Country, Hiding in Plain Sight, and They Knew. She is also the c0-host of the podcast Gaslit Nation with Andrea Chalupa.

She joined us to talk about her writing, the culture of conspiracy in the US, and the ongoing threats to American democracy.

This is our late/summer fall #NerdFarmReads discussion and our 200th episode!

Guest: Sarah – Twitter and Author Page

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A $47 Trillion Dollar Hole in the US Economy — Carter Price, the Rand Corporation — #199 Aug 14, 2023

Carter is a co-author of the paper Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018 along with Kathryn A. Edwards. The paper lays out how the average American’s wages would be $50,000 higher if income growth had continued at the same rates as before the period of wage stagnation, tax cuts, and de-unionization that has typified our time period. That $50,000 per worker, per year works out to a total of somewhere around $47 trillion dollars in wealth that has instead gone to high-income earners.

Carter has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, University of Maryland; M.S. in applied mathematics, University of Maryland; B.A. in mathematics and physics, Hendrix College.

Cast of Characters: Carter – Publications

Going Further: Time Magazine on Carter and Kathryn’s paper

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Running a Small Biz in Tacoma Series, Part 3 — Cassandra Williams, Love by the Slice — #198 Jul 31, 2023

This summer we are hosting a series highlighting small businesses and their struggles and triumphs in Tacoma. In part three, we have a conversation with Cassandra Williams, the owner and proprietor of Love by the Slice. Love by the Slice is a Black-owned business, located on Hilltop, directly across the street from 1111 and is the best bakery in the city.

Cassandra talked about how she got her start, selling cakes for church fundraisers, learned to decorate cakes from YouTube, and landed her space in early 2020… right on time for the world to fall apart. But she persevered and the bakery is thriving.

Her pound cakes are ah-mazing and legendary on Tacoma’s Eastside.

Going Further

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**Nerd Farmer Live: “Episode 200” – Lessons from the Last Five Years – Jenna Hanchard, Will James, Melissa Santos, and Matt Driscoll** Jul 17, 2023
In June, over a hundred friends and members of Channel 253 gathered for Channel 253 Fest, an evening of live podcasting from the Press Room in downtown Tacoma. It was a great event and this week’s episode is the audio from that evening.

Each All Star Guest appeared on the show for the first time in 2017 and joined us to talk about lessons learned and how they’ve become smarter over the last five years.

We’re calling this “Episode 200”, (it’s really episode 197).

*Matt and Melissa closed the evening*

Cast of Characters

Jenna Hanchard, Independent Journalist – Insta

Will James, KNKX – Insta

Melissa Santos, Axios – Twitter

Matt Driscoll, The News Tribune – Twitter

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Running a Small Biz in Tacoma Series, Part 2 — Umi Wagoner, eTc — #196 Jul 11, 2023

This summer we are hosting a series highlighting small businesses and their struggles and triumphs in Tacoma. In part two, we have a conversation with Umi Wagoner from eTc, the Tacoma-based rareware retailer and design shop in downtown. eTc is in their ninth year of operation, now located at 116 South 9th Street.

eTc is what Tacoma wears.

Going Further

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Running a Small Biz in Tacoma Series, Part 1 — Russ Heaton, Doyles Public House — #195 Jun 26, 2023

This summer we are hosting a series highlighting small businesses and their struggles and triumphs in Tacoma. Opening the series, we have a conversation with Russ Heaton the proprietor of Doyle’s Pub, named one of the best bars in America by Esquire. Doyle’s has been open in the heart of the Stadium District for seventeen years.

Doyle’s is a Liverpool and Sounders bar and as you will hear Russ wears his heart on his sleeve.

Admin

This Thursday, we’re hosting Channel 253 Fest. A few tickets still remain to join us for a live episode of Grit & Grain, shenanigans from the hosts of IWL, and for Episode 200 of Nerd Farmer. You won’t want to miss this!

Going Further

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Reporting on a White Supremacist Hate Group in Centralia — Isabel Vander Stoep, The Centralia Chronicle — #194 Jun 11, 2023

A social media post by the mayor of Centralia and recent reporting by our guest, Isabel Vander Stoep, revealed the existence of an Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) group in Centralia. So, this week we invited Vander Stoep to talk about her reporting on the group and their activities in the area. The AFA are a hate group that wraps their white-supremacist ideology up in Nordic traditions and folklore.

Here’s the overview from the Southern Poverty Law Center:

They defend neo-confederacy and traffic in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory:

Being a Confederate is no longer about where you live or even on which side your ancestors fought. You can be from Ohio or Pennsylvania or New York because what is now happening in New Orleans and elsewhere in the South, is your battle, too… The people who want more immigration for the precise reason that it will ensure a non-white majority in America. … These people are not just after Southerners, they’re after you too.

They also traffic in the adjacent white-genocie conspiracy theory:

While AFA leadership has often couched the group’s bigoted views in “cultural preservation” rhetoric, the “Declaration of Purpose” on the group’s website belies those curated claims in stating: “If the Ethnic European Folk cease to exist Asatru would likewise no longer exist. Let us be clear: by Ethnic European Folk we mean white people.” Such beliefs in white genocide undergird the AFA’s adherence to ethnocentrism and rigid gender roles, two through lines connecting AFA’s ideology to that of the broader far right.

For women they preach gender traditionalism against a “guereilla feminist” agenda:

It can be hard to know where we, as women, fit in today’s modern society; what exactly our role is; our purpose. Guerrilla feminism has torn the fabric of collective female self-awareness, and we are all led from birth on a journey away from ourselves, destined for confusion and depression via mass media marketing. We are brainwashed from birth to believe that our value as women is dependent on a combination of base sex appeal and a willingness to imitate our male counterparts in both personality and lifestyle.

Going Further

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A Call for a Tenant Bill of Rights — Zev Cook and David Galazin, Tacoma 4 All — #193 May 29, 2023

Housing is a frequent topic of conversation on this show. We’ve talked to realtors about the market for first-time homebuyers; we’ve discussed Matthew Desmond’s Evicted; we’ve talked about combatting displacement; we’ve discussed efforts to combat homelessness with Tacoma Housing Now; and talked about the national housing market with a NY-based real estate consultant.

This week we’re talking about the call for a tenant bill of rights with organizers from Tacoma for All. Tacoma for All is a citizen initiative led by tenants in Tacoma and their allies. The initiative calls for protections for renters, protection from predatory institutional landlords, fair practices around excess fees, mandated situational relocation assistance, and longer notification periods for rent hikes and forced moves.

Zev and David are organizers from Tacoma 4 All and joined us this week to talk about the initiative and their efforts to garner community support for it.

Going Further

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The Proud Boys are Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy — Brandi Buchman, Emptywheel — #192 May 15, 2023

After a nearly four month trial, last week leaders of the Proud Boys were convicted in federal court of seditious conspiracy. The Proud Boys are a right-wing paramilitary group that relishes street fights and violence against their political opponents.. They were instrumental in some of the most coordinated attacks on January 6.

Reasonable countries like Canada and New Zealand have designated them as a terrorist organization. But they maintain a place on the fringe of the US right, yucking it up with elected officials and getting name-checked by the former President during a debate in 2020.

Our guest is Brandi Buchman. She’s a contributor at Emptywheel, a former senior staff writer Daily Kos and the former Chief White House & Congressional Correspondent for Courthouse News. She’s dope enough that the goons at Breitbart have written several pieces attacking her. She joined us to talk about the recently completed trial and what comes next in the string of trials of the organizers of the violence on January 6.

Cast of Characters & Going Further

Brandi – Mastodon
Archive @ Emptywheel
Buchman on the trial – Lawfare

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Are Your Deposits Safe in Regional Banks? — Austin Patjens — #191 May 01, 2023

In one twenty-four period in March, over 42 billion dollars was withdrawn from Silicon Valley Bank in California. This led to the second largest bank collapse in US history and SVB went into FDIC receivership. In short order, Signature Bank also collapsed and several others were left looking wobbly. In response, many Americans began moving their money away from regional banks toward larger national, so-called too big to fail, banks. This trend represents an acceleration of bank consolidation, making the rich guys richer.

I wanted to get to the bottom of what’s happening in the banking sector and did so thanks to our guest, Austin Patjens. Patjens is the VP SBA Business Development Officer Sr at Heritage Bank (he joined us for this episode in a personal capacity). We talked about the health of regional banks and why he believes your deposits are safe at banks like his and other regional banks.

Cast of Characters & Going Further

Austin – LinkedIn
Heritage Bank – website

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**On Cormac McCarthy & “Blood Meridian” — Israel Calera — #190** Apr 17, 2023
This week, I sat down with Israel Calera. Iz is an artist and designer from Rio Grande Valley on the US/Texas border, the setting of much of Blood Meridian.

An original illustration of Cormac McCarthy by Iz

He currently resides here in Abu Dhabi and he (and his extremely loud cat Winky) joined us to talk about Blood Meridian, the 1984 western novel from Cormac McCarthy.

This episode is an outgrowth of a series of conversations in Takes & Typos that culminated here.

Cast of Characters & Going Further

Israel – Instagram

Blood Meridian – 1985 NYT Review

Cormac McCarthy and SA Cosby Are Masters of their Craft – Takes & Typos

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Understanding Washington State’s Extremely Regressive Tax System — Melissa Hellmann, Center for Public Integrity — #189 Apr 03, 2023

Long time listeners will know that the topic of regressive taxation in Washington has been a repeated talking point on the show. In 2019, we hosted an Adult Civics Hour called the Case for Progressive Taxation and the topic has come up on several other episodes. This week as tax season reaches its zenith, we wanted to get to the bottom of why the tax structure in Washington is so regressive and what we can do about it.

Our guest is Melissa Hellmann, an award-winning reporter who covers racial, gender and economic inequality. Prior to joining the Center for Public Integrity in August 2021, she covered marginalized communities for The Seattle Times. She previously worked at Seattle Weekly, and the Associated Press.

This conversation centers on Melissa’s prior reporting in Crosscut and the recent efforts in other states to make their systems more less regressive.

Cast of Characters & Going Further

Melissa – Twitter
Center for Public Integrity – Website
If you’re Black, saying ‘I do’ can increase your taxes – Discussed in Exit Question

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Understanding the Conflict Between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh — Sevinj Osmanqizi — #188 Mar 20, 2023

The show’s roots are local but it wanders wherever my interests happen to lead.

Since moving to Abu Dhabi, I have had the opportunity to visit several countries I never would have considered visiting prior. For example, this fall I went to the Republic of Georgia and this past February I continued exploring the Caucasus with a trip to Baku, Azerbaijan. I documented this trip in my weekly newsletter.

I enjoyed my trip to Azerbaijan. One of the topics that came up several times while talking to Azeris was the ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over control of Nagorno-Karabakh. This is a disputed territory claimed by both states that has been the subject of two wars. At one point, while visiting the Presidential Museum, it became clear to me that I was being propagandized about the conflict. So I did a deep dive that night at the hotel but the more I learned about the dispute, the more questions I had.

When I returned home, I put up the Bat Signal and listener Dr. Joanne Lisosky, from our friends at Pacific Lutheran University, connected me with an expert. Her name is Sevinj Osmanqizi. Sevinj is a journalist and author and best known for being on the other side of interviewers with political figures. She is one of the most critical journalistic voices about events in Azerbaijan and was labeled a “traitor” by the regime for opposing the 2020 Karabakh War. I invited her on to get the lowdown on this complicated conflict.

Sevinj is knowledgeable and passionate about her homeland and events there. I really enjoyed learning from her and hope you do too.

Cast of Characters & Going Further

Sevinj – YouTube – Instagram
Takes & Typos – on Azerbaijan

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“Dopesick” by Beth Macy — Nerd Farm Reads Audio Book Club — #187 Mar 13, 2023

This is our long awaited conversation about Dopesick by Beth Macy. Dopesick is the story of the orign and rise of the opioid crisis and the actions of pharmaceutical companies in flooding our communities with drugs. The opioid crisis, a uniquely American problem, was manufactured by capitalism and our market-based health care system.

In the book, Macy looks at how a black market pill crisis became a heroin crisis, and has now become an overdose crisis that claims nearly 100k lives each year.

Dopesick generated more conversation of the Channel 253 Member Slack than any topic we’ve ever discussed. The book and this episode is worth your time.

Cast of Characters & Going Further

Halley Knigge – Twitter
Trayton Otto – Twitter
Ingrid Walker – Twitter
Buy Dopesick from Kings Books

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The Art of the Southern Noir Novel – Eli Cranor, “Don’t Know Tough” – #186 Feb 27, 2023

Eli Cranor is an Arkansas based writer. His debut novel, Don’t Know Tough, is about a troubled young man named Billy Lowe, who is taken under his wing by the new football coach, Trent Powers, newly arrived arrived from California. It’s a southern noir novel, so you know it’s more complicated than that.

He joined us to talk about his novel, his influences, and what it’s like to write about the people and places you grew up around.

Don’t worry, this is spoiler-free conversation of Don’t Know Tough.

Cast of Characters & Going Further

- Eli Cranor – Twitter
- Eil’s website (warning: cute dog photo)
- Don’t Know Tough – NYT Review

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Tacoma Neo-Nazi Sentenced to Four Years in Federal Prison for Violent Hate Crime – John Murphy, Tacoma Against Nazis – #185 Feb 21, 2023

Tacoma Against Nazis (TAN) was founded in 2017 to warn the community about the presence of a violent neo-Nazi cell operating in the city of Tacoma. A member of that cell, Jason “Gravy” DeSimas, was recently sentenced to four years in federal prison for a violent hate crime in Edmonds, WA. While TAN’s anti-fascist protests drew the ire of local media, the arrest and conviction of Gravy for a violent assault drew near-zero local coverage.

So we invited John Murphy, an organizer of TAN, to talk about the sentencing, what happened to Gravy’s co-minglers, and how this story fits into other events we’re seeing, in particular the federal sedition trials in Washington DC of the Oathkeepers and Proud Boys.

It’s worth noting, Gravy was sentenced to 48 months in prison but credited with time served since his arrest, He will be back on the streets and likely back in Tacoma in two years.

Cast of Characters & Going Further

- Tacoma Against Nazis – Twitter
- TAN – Website & Blog
- DOJ statement on Gravy’s sentencing
- John’s Prior Appearance on the Show – The Seattle Sounders, MLS, and the Need for Courage Against Fascism
- Brandi Buchman – Reporter from Daily Kos covering sedition trials – Mastodon

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Sounders Club World Cup and Season Preview — Dave Clark, Sounder at Heart — #184 Feb 02, 2023

Last night (Gulf Time), as Auckland City and Egypt’s Al Ahly were kicking off in Morocco, we jumped on with Dave Clark, founder and writer at Sounder at Heart. Dave knows more about football in the Arab world and Sounders youth development than any writer covering the team, so he was the ideal guest for the conversation. We talked about the Sounders upcoming match against Egyptian giants Al Ahly on Saturday and the prospects for the upcoming season, which Dave thinks may be the final run for the core of the team.

Cast of Characters

Dave Clark – Full Moon Storytelling & Mastodon

Going Further

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Understanding the Housing Market in Pierce County — Marguerite Martin, Move to Tacoma — #183 Jan 23, 2023

This week we are joined by the founder and proprietor of Move to Tacoma, Marguerite Martin, to talk about what’s happening in the housing market in Pierce County. This conversation is a continuation of the discussion we had with NY based real estate consultant, Nicole Beauchamp, in December.

Marguerite, as ever, was fascinating and insightful and this conversion is worth your time.

Cast of Characters

Marguerite Martin – Move to Tacoma & LinkedIn

Going Further

The US Housing Market is Not Okay – Nicole Beauchamp, Engel & Volkers NYC – #180
My AI Is Sexually Harassing Me’: Replika Users Say the Chatbot Has Gotten Way Too Horny – Vice

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**LIVE: Adult Civics Happy Hour, Previewing the 2023 Legislative Session – #183** Jan 01, 2023
On December 22, Channel 253 hosted the first Adult Civics Happy Hour since the start of the pando. This is the second of two panels from that evening.

Cast of Characters

Rep Elect Sharlett Mena – 29th LD – Twitter

Rep Jessica Bateman – 22nd LD – Twitter

Sen Yasimn Trudeau – 27th LD – Twitter

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LIVE: Adult Civics Happy Hour, the Troyer Trial – Kari Plog, KNKX and Jared Brown, TNT – #182 Dec 26, 2022

On December 22, Channel 253 hosted the first Adult Civics Happy Hour since the start of the pando. This is the first of two panels from that evening.

Cast of Characters

Kari Plog – KNKX FM
Jared Brown – TNT

Going Further

Prior podcast coverage of the Troyer case: here, here, and here.

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He Was One of Us – Pierce County Council Chair Derek Young, an Exit Interview – #181 Dec 18, 2022

As we did when then Mayor Strickland left her position, this week’s episode is an Exit Interview with Pierce County Council Chair, Derek Young. Young’s career in public service began in 1997, when he was elected to the Gig Harbor City Council, he will leave elected office in January for a gig TBD.

We spoke about the unfortunate Troyer verdict, the ways he feels he’s left the county better than when he entered office, his relationship with Executive Dammeier, what it was like to serve on the council with Pam Roach, and what’s next for him.

Cast of Characters

Derek M. Young – not that Derek, this one

Going Further

Derek’s first appearance on the pod – Stop Worrying About Trump and Get Active Locally
#NerdFarmReads – Dopesick – LibroFM and Kings Books
Direct Download Link

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The US Housing Market is Not Okay – Nicole Beauchamp, Engel & Volkers NYC – #180 Dec 05, 2022

Housing is a topic we return to with regularity. This is largely thanks to its roots and association with the Pod Auntie’s Move to Tacoma Podcast. With rising interest rates (and inflation) shrinking folks’ buying power, I thought it was time for another check-in on the housing and real estate markets. This episode has a national focus, with the intent to do a locally focused follow-up in the coming weeks.

This week’s show guest is Nikki Beauchamp. Nikki is a real estate advisor. She is based in New York City but has a reach across the country and the globe. She was dope! This is my favorite episode we’ve had in a minute and she’s agreed to come back on the pod for a Part 2 down the road.

Mentioned in the show intro: Here’s a link to my new weekly newsletter, Takes & Typos.

Cast of Characters

Nikki – Insta and LinkedIn

Nerd Farmer Housing & Real Estate Conversations

The Housing Market and the Ethics of Real Estate – Jasmyn Jefferson – #107
A Protest Movement to End Homelessness – Rebecca Parson, Tacoma Housing Now – #113
How Homeowners in Rising Housing Markets Can Fight Displacement – Marguerite Martin – #117
The Missing Middle in Housing – Joseph Tovar, American Planning Association – #153
Why We Need Regional Housing Solutions – Rep. Jessica Bateman – #154
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The Midterm Congressional Results & the Washington Secretary of State Race – Melissa Santos, Axios – #179 Nov 14, 2022

The midterm election results are still being tabulated. The widely predicted Red Wave did not materialize nationally, as the Democrats retained possession of the US Senate while losing a handful of seats in the House. As of this writing, control of the House is undecided, but it’s likely the GOP will emerge with a fragile, narrow majority.

We reached out to perennial show guest Melissa Santos to talk through the results from the US Senate, District 3, and District 8 races. We also discussed the Secretary of State race and the questionable actions of State Democratic Chair, Tina Podlodowski.

Melissa was as ever informative and helpful in helping us understand the results in Washington.

Cast of Characters

Melissa – Twitter

Going Further

Axios Seattle Newsletter – subscribe
Melissa on the SOS race – Axios
Nate’s dank election meme
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Grappling with Chronic Inflation and Rising Interest Rates – Cameron Harwick, SUNY Brockport – #178 Nov 02, 2022

Cameron Harwick is a professor of economics and SUNY Brockport. I stumbled across a video that he made explaining the causes of the current period of inflation as a result of monetary policy. Much of what he said jived with what he have heard prior on the show from Bill Dickens. But there was some daylight between the two economists. So we invited him on to help us square the differences.

In addition, we talked about rising interest rates from the Federal Reserve and how those might impact the economy and complicate life for first-time home buyers.

Cast of Characters

Cameron – Twitter

Going Further

Cameron’s Inflation Explainer – YouTube
This summer’s inflation conversation with Bill Dickens of BJNJ
Direct Download Link

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Michael Lewis’ “The Premonition” #NerdFarmReads Bookclub – Derek Young and Halley Knigge – #177 Oct 17, 2022

This week’s episode is our audio bookclub conversation about Michael Lewis’ The Premonition. The book is about the state-level & federal bureaucrats who foresaw the pandemic, as early as the George W. Bush administration. It lays out the pandemic response plans they built, how they were passed on to the Obama administration, and eventually discarded by the Trump administration in 2017, with disastrous consequences.

Note: Our next #NerdFarmReads selection is Dopesick by Beth Macy. You can grab it from our friends at Libro FM (join using promo code “tacoma”).

Cast of Characters

Derek – Twitter
Halley – Twitter

Going Further

CDC to cut by 80 percent efforts to prevent global disease outbreak – Washington Post
The Great Influenza by John Barry
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A Post-Mortem on the Seattle Teacher Strike – Dahlia Bazzaz and Monica Velez – Seattle Times – #176 Oct 03, 2022

In September, teachers in Seattle Schools went on a five-day strike. While the usual suspects in conservative media collectively pulled a hamstring faking umbrage, the community was widely supportive of the strike. Yet many people were caught off-guard by it and its seemingly rapid resolution.

We reached out to Dahlia Bazzaz and Monica Velez from the Seattle Times to get their takes on the strike and its connection to wider state-wide politics and events in Olympia.

Cast of Characters

Monica – Twitter
Dahlia – Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts

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WTF Did I Just Watch??? A (Spoiler-Filled) Hour on True Crime – Hope Teague Bowling and Megan Holyoke – Hosts, Interchangeable White Ladies Podcast – #175 Sep 20, 2022

After a series of episodes about mass incarceration and duplicitous, corrupt sheriffs, today’s episode is something different. We talked about Running with the Devil: the Wild World of John McAffee, a new Netflix documentary film and Untold: the Girlfriend that Didn’t Exist, a series about the catfishing of Manti Te’o, then linebacker at Notre Dame.

Our guests and Hope Teague Bowling and Megan Holyoke of the Interchanagle White Ladies Podcast.

Cast of Characters

Hope – Twitter
Megan – Twitter
IWL – Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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The Case Against Ed Troyer, Part 2 – Justin Camarata – Reviewing Evidence from the Public Record – #174 Sep 07, 2022

In this episode, the second of a two-part series, we continue exploring the controversial term of Pierce County Sheriff, Ed Troyer. In this episode, we look and the public record including two official investigations into Troyer’s misconduct, first as the department’s Public Information Officer and eventually as Sheriff.

Our guest today is Justin Camarata. He is a former member of the Tacoma City Council and a regular guest across the shows here on Channel 253. This conversation leans heavily on the reporting of local journalists, particularly Kari Plog from KNKX. Each document or report we refer to in the discussion is in the show notes below.

Cast of Characters

Justin Camarata – Twitter

Going Further

Complaints prompted investigations into Ed Troyer’s professional conduct in 2015 – KNKX
Troyer lies about the death of Manuel Ellis – KIRO 7
The Moran Investigation – Pierce County
Anti-harassment order issued against Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer – KNKX
Is It Time For Troyer To Step Down? – Tacoma Weekly
Lewis Kamb and Jim Brunner on the Troyer incident in 2021
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The Case Against Ed Troyer, Part 1: Troyer and the Black Community – Jamika Scott – Tacoma Action Collective – #173 Aug 22, 2022

In this episode, the first of a two-part series, we dig into the turbulent term of the elected Pierce County Sheriff, Ed Troyer. In this episode, we look at Troyer’s influence on the investigation into the killing of Manuel Ellis and his stalking & harassing of Black newspaper delivery driver Sedrick Altheimer, which we covered in 2021. This conversation is focused on Troyer’s impact on the Black community and Black residents in Pierce County. In part two, we will take a longer look at the public record on Sheriff Troyer.

Our guest today is Jamika Scott. She is a former candidate for mayor of Tacoma, a filmmaker, co-host of We Art Tacoma here on Channel 253, and a member of the Tacoma Action Collective (TAC). TAC is a group of activists and organizers pushing for governmental reform & accountability in the City of Tacoma.

Cast of Characters

Jamika Scott – Website & Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Mass Incarceration & Restorative Justice at San Quentin – Katherin Hervey, Writer & Director of “the Prison Within” – #172 Aug 16, 2022

The United States imprisons twice as many people per capita as Vladimir Putin’s Russia and four times the number of communist China. The Prison Within is a documentary about mass incarceration and the harm it does to the incarcerated and all of us.

Our guest this week is Katherin Hervey. She is the writer and director of the film. We talked about her motivations for making the film, what she learned about our punitive system of mass incarceration, and what all of this tells us about the US.

Cast of Characters

Katherin Hervey – Homepage & IMDB

Going Further

The Prison Within
#ProtectPhoeun – A Cambodian-American being targeted by ICE
Direct Download Link

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How to Resist Amazon and Why — Danny Caine, Author & Bookseller — #171 Aug 01, 2022

Danny Caine is the co-owner and proprietor of the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas. He is also the author of How to Resist Amazon and Why a zine/audiobook about the business practices of Amazon and how they harm society. We discussed his book and the monopolistic, predatory market behavior that Amazon engages in: data mining, exploiting marketplace sellers & sub-contractors, union busting, etc.

In the second segment, we talked about some alternatives to Amazon products that we utilize, like our friends at LibroFM (remember to use promo code “Tacoma”), rather than Audible and the recent choice to move Channel 253 to Libsyn, rather than hosting our shows on Amazon Web Services.

Cast of Characters

Danny Caine – Twitter

Going Further

How to Resist Amazon and Why (Audiobook – LibroFM)
The Raven – Danny’s Bookstore
Direct Download Link

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Understanding the Worst Inflation in 40 Years — Bill Dickens, BJNJ – #170 Jul 25, 2022

On July 13, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a year over year price rise of 9.1%. Driven by rising food and energy costs, the United States is experiencing the worst inflationary period since 1980. We wanted to get to the bottom of the causes of this inflationary cycle (nope, it’s not stimulus checks), how people can protect themselves from inflation (congrats, vegans), and how long this inflationary cycle might last (shorter than you think).

Our guest is our favorite economist, Bill Dickens. Bill is a utilities economist and chief economist and president of BJNJ. His work typically focuses on hydro, natural gas, and smart grid technologies. But he’s always up for a conversation about macroeconomics.

Special thanks to Rep. Strickland for introducing Bill to us last summer.

Cast of Characters

Bill – LinkedIn

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Police Unions and Enabling Politicians – Aaron Brickman, Labor Relations Specialist – #169 Jul 19, 2022

This week, we are discussing police unions and how they protect bad actors. But it is also a conversation about the elected officials who don’t hold law enforcement accountable. This conversation is in part a response to the decision by the Pierce County Prosecutor to not charge Officer Phan for his vehicle attack in January 2021. It is also partly in response to the ongoing “slow-strike” Tacoma Police are engaging in. Lastly, it is inspired by the ongoing controversy around Ed Troyer, the disgraced Pierce County Sherriff, who is facing criminal charges.

Our guest, Aaron Brickman, is a Labor Relations Specialist who has worked with several major national unions. He joined us to discuss police unions, their contracts, and why so often police officers get to keep their jobs after committing gross misconduct.

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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On the Rightward Lurch of the US Supreme Court and the Threat to Our Rights – Summer Stinson, Economic Opportunity Institute – #168 Jul 04, 2022

Over the month of June, the US Supreme Court released a series of rulings that upended established precedent (accepted legal patterns) in American society. They weakened the first amendment’s establishment clause, the fifth amendment’s Miranda protections, the ability of states to regulate gun ownership, the EPA’s ability to issue regulations regarding climate change, and most notably gave states the green light to ban all abortions within their borders.

Other rights appear on the chopping block with the court’s belligerent 6-3 DGAF Conservative majority and their peculiar reading of the US Constitution.

So we put up the Bat-Signal and were able to connect with legal nerd and policy activist Summer Stinson. Summer has a JD from the University of Oregon, was a law clerk on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and currently leads the Economic Opportunity Institute.

She appears today on the show in a personal capacity.

Cast of Characters

Summer Stinson – Twitter

Going Further

The courts as an instrument of American decline – Don Moynihan, referenced in the show intro
Economic Opportunity Institute – Summer’s Main Gig
Washington Paramount Duty – Summer’s Side Project
The Supreme Court Went Off the Rails Long Before Dobbs – Ezra Klein Show

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The January 6 Hearings, Christian Nationalism, and the Campaign Against the LGBTQ Community – Professor Will Horne, Activist History Review – #167 Jun 25, 2022

The founding thesis of this podcast back in 2017 was that national politics in the US is largely broken, possibly irreparably, and that it’s essential to put our collective energy into state/local activism, issues, and elections. My life choices have taken me overseas since then but that ethos remains at the heart of this show and the Channel 253 Podcast Network.

The rightward momentum that in many ways inspired this podcast is arguably stronger than ever. In this week’s conversation with Will Horne we talked about three legs of the current Christian theocratic movement: white rage politics, the rejection of democracy, and anti-LGBTQ+ gender traditionalism.

Cast of Characters

Will Horne – Twitter

Going Further

Activist History Review

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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A Mid-Season Sounders and Defiance Check-in — Dave Clark, Sounder at Heart — #166 Jun 06, 2022

Dave Clark is the founder of Seattle Sounders blog, Sounder at Heart and a former color commentator for Tacoma Defiance. He came on the show to offer a mid-season check-in on the state of the season for both teams.

We also discussed the Emerald City Supporters’ decision to retire Take ’em All, a choice we both support.

Cast of Characters

Dave – Twitter

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Reflecting on the Crypto Crash and Looking for Use Cases for Digital Assets — Jonas, Defire Podcast — #165 May 31, 2022

The host of this show is not a crypto true-believer but I do dabble in the digital asset market. I remain unconvinced about the long-term value of current cryptocurrencies, but I think there is potential utility in the underlying technology. This is a conversation about both that doubt and that technological potential.

Jonas is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and is the host of Defire. His show is about cryptocurrencies, DeFi (decentralized finance), and NFTs. In the aftermath of the collapse of the Terra Luna Ecosphere and the crash of the crypto market in May, we brought him on to talk about lessons he’s learned and the real-life use cases for the technology behind cryptocurrency.

Only ⅓ of the world’s cryptocurrency assets are held by Americans. I think Jonas is an important voice in this conversation because he’s not one of the usual suspects–he’s not a right-wing “cryptobro” spouting Austrian economics and anarchocapitalist platitudes.

Cast of Characters

Jonas – Twitter

Going Further

In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism – referenced in the show
Defire – Jonas’ Podcast

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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How to Run Your Own Social — Darius Kazemi, Creator and Moderator of Friend.Camp — #164 May 23, 2022

You know how we say “Black Twitter,” “Legal Twitter,” “Academic Twitter,” or “Soccer Twitter”? What if those were real and distinct communities? What if there was a smaller “[Whatever You’re Into] Twitter” free of ads, SPAM, and corporate ownership by Meta and Elon Musk? That’s Darius Kazemi’s vision.

Darius is a computer programmer and digital artist. He is also an outspoken critic of corporate social media companies and the creator of Friend.Camp, a decentralized social media network he built and moderates. He’s an evangelist for these kinds of communities, networks run by groups with shared interests, shared values, and diligently moderated by members of the community. He joined us to talk about how people can build these sort of communities. He’s even written a guide on how to do so. Give this a listen and see how you can Run Your Own Social.

Cast of Characters

Darius Kazemi – Twitter

Going Further

Darius’ Website – Tiny Subversions
Run Your Own Social
Done with Facebook and Twitter? Try building your own private social network – Fast Company
Mastodon – the Open Source Twitter Alternative
Scholar.Social – the Mastodon Server for academics and educators, discussed in the episode

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Reclaiming the Education Policy Narrative from the Grifters & Moral Panickers — Jose Vilson, Co-Founder – the EduColor Movement — #163 May 02, 2022

Vilson is a veteran of the classroom, a math teacher from the Bronx, and the author of This is Not a Test, Jose is currently away from the classroom pursuing a Ph.D. from Columbia.

He and Nate discussed lessons they’ve learned from their past education advocacy, finding your voice as an advocate, and how we can reclaim the narrative from the moral panickers and conservative race hustlers on issues of race and gender in schools.

Cast of Characters

Jose Vilson – Twitter

Going Further

This is Not a Test

EduColor Movement

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Black Conservatism and the Peril for the Democratic Party — Tori Douglass, Host – White Homework — #162 Apr 18, 2022

Tori Douglass is an ex-evangelical, ex-conservative anti-racist educator. She was born and raised in the Portland Area and since 2015 has been an outspoken critic of American evangelicalism and the racism present in many evangelical communities. We brought her on for a conversation about Black conservatism. We tried to categorize the varieties of Black conservative activism we are seeing in US politics. In segment two, Tori addressed the electoral peril the Democratic Party faces if it can’t better address the needs of Black communities across the country.

Cast of Characters

Tori Douglass – Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Protecting Your Online Privacy — Bill Fitzgerald, Privacy Activist — #161 Apr 04, 2022

Big tech companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google are swimming in an absolute ocean of our private data. In any ways, we have been worn down and lulled into a sense of helplessness about it. They track our searches, to sell us ads; they track our movement, to aggregate our location data; they track our purchases, sharing them with God knows who. But it’s more than that. Many tech companies share info about us with us with law enforcement agencies and other questionable actors, oftentimes without a warrant or our explicit consent. We tacitly agree to all this, when we accept the Terms of Service for online platforms, but who ever actually reads those? Is that really informed consent?

This is something I have been thinking a lot about lately, so I hollered at Bill Fitzgerald. Bill is a a former teacher an online privacy activist. We welcomed him on the show to help us all think about how to reduce our digital data footprint.

Cast of Characters

Bill Fitzgerald – Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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What Everyone (Especially Teachers) Should Know About Ramadan — Amy Daraiseh — #160 Mar 29, 2022

Ramadan begins April 3. Millions of Americans and millions of students in the US will be fasting during daylight hours for a month.

We invited on Amy Daraiseh, a teacher and life coach from Chicago, as a Jordanian-American and observant Muslim, she’s offering her perspective on how we can do our best to support people in our lives who are fasting during Ramadan.

Cast of Characters

Amy – Twitter

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Wrapping the 2022 State Legislative Session – Melissa Santos, Crosscut – #159 Mar 21, 2022

Melissa Santos is a political reporter for Crosscut and a regular guest on the show. She joined us this week to talk about what passed and what didn’t in the 2022 Washington State Legislative Session.

Cast of Characters

Melissa Santos – Twitter

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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The State of Teaching, Burnout, and His Latest Book, Raising Ollie – Tom Rademacher – #158 Mar 07, 2022

Tom Rademacher is the 2014 Minnesota Teacher of the Year and the author of two books: It Won’t Be Easy, An Exceedingly Honest (and slightly unprofessional) Love Letter to Teaching and Raising Ollie. The last time we spoke to him was in the early days of the pandemic for a conversation about anti-racist teaching.

He returned to the show to talk about the state of the teaching profession, burnout, and his most recent book.

Cast of Characters

Tom Radamacher – Twitter

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

An Expert’s Read on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Jeff Hawn, London School of Economics – #157 Feb 27, 2022

Jeff Hawn is a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics with an area of expertise in US/Russia relations. He previously joined us in October on episode 143 to talk about democratic erosion in Russia in the post-Soviet era. In light of events, we invited him back on the show to discuss the rapidly evolving situation in Ukraine.

Note: During the show, Jeff accidentally mixed up the cities of Kursk and Kharkiv, one of which is in Ukraine, the other is located in Russia

Cast of Characters

Jeff Hawn – Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Bigger than a Rivalry: the Abuse Scandals in Portland Football – Sheba Rawson, 107IST – #156 Feb 21, 2022

The Portland Timbers are a men’s professional soccer team playing in Major League Soccer (MLS). The Portland Thorns are literally their sister club, a women’s team, playing in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). Both teams are owned by millionaire Merritt Paulson, son of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and both teams have recently been rocked by scandals. In each incident, women were harmed by people employed by the team and in each the team was less than forthright with supporters and the public, arguably engaging in a cover-up.

The teams’ most passionate fans are members of two supporters groups: the Timbers Army and Rose City Riveters. We brought on one of the leaders of those groups, Sheba Rawson, to talk about the scandals, the lack of transparency from team management, and how the club’s actions are souring the relationship with their most committed fans.

Recommended Reading:

Paul Riley’s pattern of abuse – The Athletic
An Open Letter from team owner Merritt Paulson
Domestic abuse allegations against Andy Polo – ESPN

Cast of Characters

Sheba Rawson – Twitter

Libro.fm Book Recs: Join using promo code “Tacoma”

This episode is brought to you by the generous support of Microsoft and their campaign to support civic conversations in Washington, Pacific Lutheran University, and Libro FM

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**Let’s Talk about Safe Seattle and their New Offspring Tacoma Safe – #155** Feb 06, 2022
Tacoma Safe is a new group spearheaded by Angela Connoly. Connoly is a wealthy, socially conservative, activist, who previously led and funded an anti-LGBT effort called the Just Want Privacy Campaign. That campaign sought to restrict access to public bathrooms for transgender people, forcing them to use the restrooms of their sex at birth.

She is now targeting our local homeless population, leading Tacoma Safe, an apparent copycat of Safe Seattle. Both groups think we can “cop homelessness away” and see increased law enforcement budgets and patrols as the only solutions to current public safety issues.

Safe Seattle was established in 2015, but came to prominence in 2017. **Safe Seattle is an anti-homeless, rather than an anti-homelessness organization**. It has been criticized by many in the Seattle community as an anti-homeless hate group and has encouraged increased sweeps and the harassment of homeless people, rather than addressing the causes of homelessness.

Below are Tacoma Safe’s policy recommendations, they largely mirror Safe Seattle’s, and center mainly around policing, offering nothing to address the escalating housing issues in our region. In this episode, we discussed why this is all wrong-headed and ultimately dangerous.

Cast of Characters

Alicya Ramirez – Twitter

Evelyn Lopez – Twitter

This episode is brought to you by the generous support of Microsoft and their campaign to support civic conversations in Washington, Pacific Lutheran University, and Libro FM

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Why We Need Regional Housing Solutions – Rep. Jessica Bateman, Washington State Legislature, 22nd District – #154 Jan 25, 2022

Jessica Bateman is a former planning commissioner and former member of the Olympia City Council. She currently represents the cities of Olympia, Tumwater, and Lacey in the Washington State Legislature.

She joined us on the pod as a follow-up to our conversation last episode with Joe Tovar about “middle housing”. She talked in-depth about why we need regional solutions and why cities fighting against HB 1782 are being counter-productive.

She also makes a convincing plea to self-styled conservatives and libertarians about how the status-quo actually violates their property rights.

Housing is a deeply important issue to our community and one we’ve returned and returned to repeatedly on this show:

Joe Tovar – Middle Housing – 153
Will James – on the Merkle Hotel – #150
The Pod Auntie – Fighting displacement in gentrifying markets – #117
Rebecca Parson – Ending Homelessness in Tacoma – #113
Jasmyn Jefferson – the Housing Market in Tacoma – #107

The Socials

Rep. Jessica Bateman – Twitter

Going Further

This episode is brought to you by the generous support of Microsoft and their campaign to support civic conversations in Washington, Pacific Lutheran University, and Libro FM

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The Missing Middle in Housing – Joseph Tovar, American Planning Association – #153 Jan 17, 2022

Joseph Tovar helped draft Washington State’s growth management act and has served as lead planner for cities across Western Washington. He has a theory: we’ve gotten good at building condos, we’ve always been good at building detached single-family housing, but to meet the coming population growth in the region we need to build what he calls “middle housing.” Middle housing includes duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. These homes put more people on a smaller footprint and will help us increase density, reduce road miles, and help create more housing in cities across Puget Sound.

Housing is a deeply important issue and one we’ve returned and returned to repeatedly on this show:

Will James – on the Merkle Hotel – #150
The Pod Auntie – Fighting displacement in gentrifying markets – #117
Jasmyn Jefferson – the Housing Market in Tacoma – #107
Rebecca Parson – Ending Homelessness in Tacoma – #113

This episode is brought to you by the generous support of Microsoft and their campaign to support civic conversations in Washington and Libro FM.

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

The Congressional Agenda in 2022 — Rep. Derek Kilmer, 6th Congressional District — #152 Jan 10, 2022

The current Congress is our country’s 117th. They were elected in 2020 and will face voters in the midterms later this year. Today they are returning after their winter break to take up the many, many remaining unfinished items on the Biden Agenda.

If we’re being honest, a lot of people are really pissed at Congress right now. But in this conversation, Congressman Kilmer makes the case that the House has been rather busy. We talked through his impression of the 117th Congress so far, what the House has passed and is now languishing in the Senate, and the details of the massive Build Back Better Act.

We also discussed the Book of Boba Fett and listener questions from you.

Cast of Characters

Rep Kilmer – Twitter

Episode Sponsors

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Previewing the 2022 Washington State Legislative Session — State Senator Yasmin Trudeau, 27th Legislative District — #151 Jan 03, 2022

A founding premise of the show is that political engagement in state and local politics is essential. It is because of this that each year we preview the upcoming state legislative session.

This week we are joined by newly appointed State Senator Yasmin Trudeau. We discussed the upcoming session, legislation she plans to introduce and support, some of the unfinished business around police accountability, some of the ways the state can nudge local governments on policy matters (like zoning), and her thoughts on the governor’s use of his emergency authority.

Cast of Characters

Yasmin – Twitter
Senator Trudeau – Twitter

Going Further

Trudeau on Crossing Division

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

The Bottom End of the Housing Market Has Been Destroyed — Will James, Special Projects Reporter, KNKX FM — #150 Dec 27, 2021

In arguably the most important piece of local journalism of 2021, Will James did a three part story on the displaced residents of the Merkle Hotel in Downtown Tacoma.

The Merkle was the last of its type: a residential hotel that provided no strings attached housing to very low income and disabled Tacomans. The conditions in the hotel were deplorable, a failure of municipal code enforcement, but it was a home with a door that locked. In 2018, a local developer seeking to renovate the Merkle Hotel pushed out the last remaining occupants.

Three years later, Will followed up on the people who were displaced and found nearly half were now dead. We brought him on to talk about this story, what it says about overall housing trends in our region, and his reporting on people experiencing homelessness in Washington.

Cast of Characters

Will James – Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

White Backlash Politics and Imagining a Post-Democratic Future — Dr. Will Horne, Editor of The Activist History Review — #149 Dec 20, 2021

Dr. Will Horne is a history professor at Villanova University. He is also the founder and editor of The Activist History Review, an online journal created in 2017 to contextualize US history in light of ongoing threats to our multiracial democracy.

Horn jumped on to talk about recent counter-majoritarian trends in US society and the threat to democracy in the US. I have deep respect for academics who do their thinking in public, rather than in academic journals that no one can access. Will is great and you should read his work.

From the TAHR website:

“The Review is intended to allow us and others like us the opportunity to use our knowledge of the past to help inform our decisions in the present. Our struggle is not optional. Failing to understand the forces that shape our world is a luxury of the powerful.

We launched this online journal on Inauguration Day, 2017, in the United States, a moment poised on the precipice of a forbidding uncertainty. As a nation, the United States cannot chart the way forward without reference to where it has already been. As a people, its citizens cannot make informed decisions without understanding a shared national past and the ways it has shaped the present. The events of the 2016 election remind us that forces often thought lost in the mists of a past best left forgotten are as present and as powerful as ever. The continued existence and success of those forces is the direct result of a pervasive and systemic refusal to come to terms with that past and its connections to this present.”

In other words, the authoritarian turn we are seeing in the US is a regression to the historical mean. Multiracial, pluralist democracy has really only been the norm in the US since 1965. We have to understand this history to navigate the present and build a better future.

Cast of Characters

Will Horne – Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

Understanding and Confronting Antisemitism Online and Off — Miri Cypers — Anti-Defamation League, NW Regional Director — #148 Dec 06, 2021

Our guest this week is Miri Cypers. She is the Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League in the Northwest. The ADL’s is a legacy civil rights organization whose mission is to “stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.”

Miri was also a prior guest at 2018’s Adult Civics Happy Hour, a conversation on local white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations operating in the Tacoma area.

This episode is timely. Over the weekend, members of Patriot Front, a fascist organization, held a demonstration in Washington DC. They marched on the National Mall, with an escort from local police. Patriot Front was created in 2017, in the aftermath of the Charlottesville Riots. They are a rebranded version of Vanguard America, a neo-Nazi organization.

Patriot Front have a local branch and are one of the plethora of local purveyors of antisemitism, online and offline.

Cast of Characters

Miri Cypers – Twitter

Going Further

Seattle ADL – Website
ADL Northwest – Twitter
Couple targeted by accused Washington neo-Nazi leader speaks out – KING TV

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

Congressional and Legislative Redistricting Across Washington State – Kamau Chege, WA Community Alliance – #147 Nov 22, 2021

Over on Crossing Division, Evelyn has covered redistricting in Tacoma, in particular the 27th legislative district. In this conversation, we were planning to look at the whole state, including a conversation about the Congressional District maps. At least that’s the conversation we were intending to have. Then, the State Redistricting Commission failed to deliver their proposed maps on time, throwing everything into chaos, and this conversation shifted.

Into this void steps Kamau Chege of the WA Community Alliance to help us sort through the fallout and what the State Supreme Court may do, now that drawing the maps is in their hands.

This conversation also includes a discussion of State Senator Doug Eriksen’s authoritarian side hustle in El Salvador.

Cast of Characters

Kamau Chege – Twitter

Going Further

“Final Maps” for the Redistricting Commission
Redistricting: Court orders WA panel chair to detail work – AP
WA Community Alliance

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

We Are Drowning in Disinformation — Michael Klein, Director of Analysis Alethea Group — #146 Nov 08, 2021

From QAnon to Anti-vaxx nonsense, from Stop the Steal to the CRT moral panic, the US is awash in disinformation. It comes to us via Facebook, in barbershops, from group chats, and sermons from the pulpit. It drives acts of violence and fuels political polarization.

This week we were joined by Michael Klein. He works as a Director of Analysis at Alethea Group. We discussed the history of disinformation, vectors for its spread, and how you should respond when people in your circles start going down disinformation rabbit holes.

Cast of Characters

Michael Klein – Twitter

Going Further

Recommended Reading: True Or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

Tacoma Mayoral Race and #BoatGate – Allison Needles, The Tacoma News Tribune – #145 Oct 30, 2021

Victoria Woodards is the incumbent mayor of Tacoma and running for re-election. Her opponent Steve Haverly is a small business owner. He is a newcomer to the political scene and a relative unknown.

Haverly is running on a campaign with the slogan “It’s Time for Unity” and talking about ending division in Tacoma. But among the most divisive issues in Tacoma is the conduct of Tacoma Police, including the murder of Manuel Ellis. One of Haverly’s largest donors is Josh Harris’ Integrity Construction Group. Harris is the contractor who bailed out the Tacoma Police officers charged with murdering Manuel Ellis.

Allison Needles is a reporter for the Trib. She recently did some reporting on the race, the background of both candidates, and the major contributors to their campaigns. We invited her to dump out her reporter’s notebook on mic.

Cast of Characters

Allison Needles – The News Tribune

Going Further

Allison on the Candidates
Allison on the Campaign Finance
An Audio Voters’ Guide for the 2021 Election

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An Audio Voters’ Guide for Tacoma — Evelyn Lopez, Crossing Division — #144 Oct 27, 2021

Back when Washington State first started voting by mail in the 2010s, I started hosting Bring Your Ballot Parties. These were gatherings where we would discuss the merits of various candidates and ballot measures in my living room with friends and eventually a larger audience at King’s Books. They were kind of a proto-Adult Civics Happy Hour.

This episode is that meetup, for all you late voters, but in audio format, featuring Evelyn Lopez, host of Channel 253 show Crossing Division and avid peruser of PDC Reports.

Cast of Characters

Evelyn Lopez – Twitter

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

On Democratic Erosion in Russia and Elsewhere: Nerd Farmer Academy — Jeff Hawn, London School of Economics — #143 Oct 25, 2021

Democratic erosion is the process by which democratic states drift, inch by inch, into authoritarianism. On paper, Russia has among the best democratic systems out there. In reality, like in the US, things are a bit more complicated. On the show, we’ve twice visited the book “How Democracies Die,” a self-explanatory title about eroding democracies, including ours in the US. We wanted to have a conversation about how the democratic system put in place after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s became the Russia of today under Vladimir Putin.

Our guest is Jeff Hawn, a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics. He’s a contributing author at Newslines Institute.

Cast of Characters

Jeff Hawn – Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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The Right Wing War on History and Speech in Schools — Anne Lutz Fernandez, author of “Schooled” — #142 Oct 11, 2021

Anne Lutz Fernandez is a former marketer, investment banker, and recently retired English teacher. Her 2015 book Schooled, is a collection of stories from teachers across the US about their experiences and challenges in US classrooms.

In July, Anne and Nate both appeared on the EdTrust’s podcast and discussed the Critical Race Theory moral panic. In some ways, this episode is a continuation of that conversation.

This episode begins with a brief host commentary about the vacant senate seat in the 27th legislative district and why Nate has withdrawn from consideration for the seat. The conversation with Anne begins at 8min 17sec.

Cast of Characters

Anne – Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Pacific Luthern University

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How Seattle Public Schools Managed to Lose 2000 Students — Claudia Rowe, Crosscut — #141 Sep 20, 2021

Claudia Rowe is a long-time journalist, currently writing opinion pieces for our friends at Crosscut. She recently published a piece detailing how Seattle Public Schools has shed 2000 students during the pandemic to private schools, homeschooling, and neighboring districts. As a reminder, schools in Washington are funded annually on a per-pupil basis, so this could have an eventual impact of upwards of $30 million. She joined us to discuss this and her upcoming book about how we completely fail children in foster care.

This conversation was brought to you by our friends at LibroFM (use promo code “TACOMA”).

Cast of Characters

Claudia – Twitter

Going Further

Seattle Public Schools’ delta dysfunction

Claudia’s prior show appearances

What we owe students in juvenile detention

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Back-to-School Perspectives — Hearing from a Student and a Parent: Silong and Harlem Chhun — #140 Sep 06, 2021

This conversation is the final of a series of episodes we will be releasing along with the ladies from IWL in preparation for what will likely be another very weird school year. This time we’re hearing from a student and a parent.

Silong Chhun is an activist in Tacoma’s Cambodian community and an advocate for refugees everywhere. He is making his third appearance on the show, this time joined by his son, Harlem. Harlem is a rising ninth grader at Lincoln High School in Tacoma and came on to give a student perspective on back-to-school.

In addition, this episode contains the first ever Nerd Farmer game show called Is it Older than my Dad?, which Harlem absolutely dominated–much to my surprise.

This conversation was brought to you by our friends at Pacific Lutheran University.

Cast of Characters

Silong – Twitter
Harlem

Going Further

Proud Boys disrupt opening days of school in Vancouver, WA

Silong’s prior show appearances

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Back-to-School Perspectives — Robin Lake, Center on Reinventing Public Education — #139 Aug 23, 2021

This conversation is part of a series of episodes we will be releasing along with the ladies from IWL in preparation for what will likely be another very weird school year.

Robin Lake is the director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. CRPE is a non-partisan research and policy organization based at the University of Washington. Robin is a researcher; her work focuses on scaling policy initiatives to improve academic outcomes across districts and states.

In the spring of 2020, she was an early voice calling for schools to close and was an even louder advocate for reopening in the spring of 2021. She joined us to talk about that fall ahead and how school systems are and should be preparing for the year ahead.

Cast of Characters

Robin Lake – Twitter

Going Further

CRPE Website
Covid Preacaustions for K-12 in Abu Dhabi (mentioned in the show)

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Back-to-School Perspectives — Bill Hanawalt, Degrees of Change and Candidate for Tacoma School Board — #138 Aug 16, 2021

This conversation is part of a series of episodes we will be releasing along with the ladies from IWL in preparation for what will likely be another very weird school year.

Bill Hanawalt is the former director of education programs at Peace Community Center on Hilltop and the current development director for Degrees of Change, the organization behind the Act Six Scholarship program. Act Six provides scholarships and ongoing support for Puget Sound students to attend Gonzaga, Northwest University, Pacific Lutheran University, Saint Martin’s, and Whitworth.

Bill is also a candidate for the Tacoma School Board this November. He came on to offer a perspective as a community partner.

Cast of Characters

Bill Hanawalt

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Getting to the Root of and Fixing Low Voter Turnout — Sharlett Mena and Darryl Crews, Voter TurnUP — #137 Aug 09, 2021

Last week Pierce County held its August primary. Turnout was weak and progressive candidates struggled locally and across the state. This is a familiar pattern in odd-year elections in Washington: turnout is low, but the olds vote in droves, and we all collectively lament our options in the November general election. This week we brought on two guests who are fighting to change this dynamic in the community.

Sharlett Mena is a recent (and hopefully future Democratic) candidate in the 29th legislative district. Darryl Crews is up to his neck in the local music scene and is the curator of “the New Pacific Northwest” playlist on Apple Music.

They’re the organizers behind Voter Turn-UP, an upcoming event and ongoing campaign around voter engagement in the South Sound. We brought them on to debrief the primary and discuss their upcoming kick-off event on August 28.

Cast of Characters

Sharlett Mena – Twitter
Darryl Crews – Twitter

Going Further

The New Pacific Northwest on Apple Music
Voter Turn-UP

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Getting to Know Modern Monetary Theory (MMT): Nerd Farmer Academy — Dr. Fadhel Kaboub, Denison University — #136 Aug 02, 2021

In my Government & Politics classes, I have taught students about debt and deficits in a doctrinal way for nearly a decade. But recently I have started to question what I (and likely you) learned from the zeitgeist, media, college, and US politics about debts and deficits.

Today’s #NerdFarmerAcademy episode is a conversation with economist Dr. Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of economics at Denison University and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. He is a noted expert in Modern Monetary Theory, heretofore MMT. MMT is an economic theory that posits our approach to debts and deficits is just wrong. MMT economists believe that the concerns frequently expressed about the US debt are basically economic concern-trolling. They note that because the US government, unlike you and I, is a currency issuer, rather than a currency user, the limits on government debt are much higher than most of us have been led to believe. They call on the government to use debt to do great things. MMT-ers believe we can afford a much more generous government that can make a meaningful difference in the lives of working people.

Cast of Characters

Fadhel Kaboub – Twitter

Going Further

To Read: The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy by Stephanie Kelton
To Read: MMT and the Green New Deal in the US Context by Fadhel
To Read: The remainder of the poem we shared in the second segment
Direct Download Link

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Understanding Inflation and Lessons from the 70s Oil Shocks — Bill Dickens, BJNJ — #135 Jul 19, 2021

Everywhere you look, there is an endless parade of stories warning us about the dangers of inflation. This is a familiar song, for most of my adult life, in particular online, inflation hawks have been sounding the alarm. The latest round of worry (panic) has been in response to the rounds of stimulus caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. So we invited an economist to help us understand inflation, what causes it, how we measure it, and why both wealthy and not so wealthy people worry about it.

Bill Dickens is a utilities economist and chief economist and president of BJNJ. His work typically focuses on hydro, natural gas, and smart grid technologies. But this week he joined us for a conversation about macroeconomics and inflation. Thanks to Rep. Strickland for recommending Bill to us.

Cast of Characters

Bill – LinkedIn

Going Further

Stagflation Explained – Investopedia
Former Fed Chair Paul Volker Obituary – New York Times
Direct Download Link

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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On the Critical Race Theory Moral Panic — Andrew Ujifusa, Ed Week — #134 Jul 12, 2021

Andrew Ujifusa is an assistant editor at Ed Week. He recently reported on the Critical Race Theory (CRT) moral panic sweeping much of the country and the teacher censorship bills that are being proposed in response. In particular, in a recent piece he compared the CRT controversy to the conservative backlash over the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) last decade, which was similarly fueled by online and cable news disinformation and misinformation.

He came on the show to do a “notebook dump” about what he has learned from reporting on CRT and to help us unpack the freakout that is currently happening.

Cast of Characters

Andrew – Twitter

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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Understanding Conservative Rhetoric: Nerd Farmer Academy — Amy Young, Pacific Lutheran University — #133 Jul 05, 2021

Dr. Amy Young is a professor of media studies at Pacific Lutheran University. She specializes in rhetoric and is working on a forthcoming book examining the evolution of conservative rhetoric. Her manuscript takes us back to the birth of the modern conservative movement with Barry Goldwater, through the rise of AM talk radio and Rush Limbaugh, to the modern (in particular online) right. This is Amy’s third appearance on the show, making her the newest member of the Smoking Jacket Society.

This is a part of our #NerdFarmerAcademy Series. These episodes are made in part with teachers in mind. This particular conversation is designed for people teaching about rhetoric, argumentation, or ideology and media within a US Government course.

Cast of Characters

Amy Young – Twitter

Going Further

Baldwin/Buckley Cambridge Debate
How Goldwater Brought the Far Right to Center Stage – History
Amy on Rejecting Calls for Civility – NF #5
Amy on Education Tech – NF #75

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

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On the Power and Potential of Blockchain — Reggie Middleton, Founder Veritaseum — #132 Jul 02, 2021

Reggie Middleton is an investor and expert in the fields of DeFi (decentralized finance) and cryptocurrency. He made his name by investing in the real estate market in the early 2000s and then shorting much of Wall Street prior to the 2008 crash. In early 2013, he filed several patents for the technology and infrastructure of what has become known as decentralized finance.

We invited Reggie on the show to talk about blockchain, cryptocurrency, smart contracts, and the future of decentralized finance. He laid out a worldview and use case for blockchain technology far more ambitious than anything we expected going into the interview.

We originally planned to release this later this month, but it’s too good to hold onto.

Cast of Characters

Reggie Middleton – Twitter
Veritaseum – Twitter

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

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