It’s been a few weeks since you heard our voices, but we’re back for a fun new year of pencil podcasting! We go through some fresh points, like Johnny’s bookbinding supplies, Andy’s new desk, and Tim’s Try-Rex. Thanks for all of your support through 2021!
Read MoreEpisode 174: Anything but the Chipmunks! (with special guest Less Harper)
Tonight, our good friend (and RSVP co-host) Less Harper joins us for a chat about bookbinding, the craft that she and Johnny practice to produce unique creations to hold our thoughts and sketches. We also talk about the new Field Notes, several new releases from Blackwing, and So Much More™.
Read MoreEpisode 173: Unconvincing Wigs
This week, we’re looking back on 2021 and talking about what we’re most thankful for — both within the stationery community, and beyond. Plus, we take a look at some of the newest Blackwing X collabs, a few of the new Musgrave stuff, and a discussion around Wes Anderson’s new movie, which might be peak Wes Andserson.
Read MoreEpisode 172: National Zine Writing Month (with special guest Jemellia Hilfiger)
It’s the annual EraNaNoWriMoSHOW! Join Andy, Johnny, Tim and special guest Jemellia for a discussion of NaNo’s past, present, and future.
Read MoreEpisode 171: We Fired Tim
Okay, not really! But for tonight it’s just Johnny and Andy, talking about just the Fresh Points. We have some new Field Notes, new Blackwings, a new Squire, and other cool things, including one (or two) last orders from our friends at CW Pencil Enterprise.
Read MoreEpisode 170: Store-Bought Pencils
This week, Tim throws us a curveball. Last week, he asked us what our least favorite pencils are, and then he told us that we should only use that pencil for a couple weeks. In this episode, we discuss our experiences. Plus: a set of bummer fresh points, from a friend who lost his stash in a flood, to our favorite pencil store closing.
Read MoreEpisode 169: Bust Out the Bone Folder
Paper is paper, right? Well, only if you think that pencils are pencils. In this week’s episode, your hosts talk about Unicorn Paper — that special formulation that works well with both pencils and fountain pens. Plus: we discuss our LEAST favorite pencil, and Tim makes us write with them all week to discuss in our next episode.
Read MoreEpisode 168: Bring Us Your Weird
This week, we are down one pencil podcaster and up one pen superpodcaster. Brad Dowdy of the Pen Addict joins us to tie up our trio while Andy is away for the week. ZINES! Ever since Ed Kemp launched Pencil of the Week a few years ago and, especially, since he was a guest on this podcast’s Episode 150, zines have been blowing up among stationery content creators and consumers. In this episode, Brad, Tim and Johnny chat about the connection between zines and stationery and the role that these self-published gems play in the larger stationery community.
Read MoreEpisode 167: Sadsplaining to Johnny
Join us for a chat about the pencils that we each used during elementary school. With a 9 year age gap between our hosts, coming during the crucial years of a trade agreement with China and the onset of the shrinking of the American pencil industry, we’re sure to have a variety of pencils to talk about! Plus: Olympics, new Field Notes, and many, many green ink samples.
Read MoreEpisode 166: Vacu-Sharp (Patent Pending)
Well, we inadvertently took a summer break so after a month off, we’re back to talk through our collected Fresh Points: from the new Blackwing 64 to an update from Tim about how it’s going with his new electric sharpener.
Read MoreEpisode 165: Someone to Squeal At (with special guest Caitlin Elgin)
Do you write in your books? Tonight, our special guest Caitlin Elgin joins us to talk about marginalia — why you might want to write them, and how you might want to write them. In fact, one of use does not write in his books, and maybe we can convince him to start. Or not.
Read MoreEpisode 164: They Had to Math That
Tonight, we’re celebrating Field Notes’s fiftieth Colors edition — uh, Fifty — with a pocket notebook retrospective: How did we first encounter Field Notes? What’s our favorite editions for aesthetics? Color? Writing experience? Plus: an amazing new sampler pack from Musgrave.
Read MoreEpisode 163: Fresh Points of Guinness
Today we’re keeping it simple with just a Fresh Points episode, covering everything from Blackwing’s rerelease of a pencil they’re still selling, Bob Dylan’s pocket notebooks, pencil t-shirts, and a bevy of recommendations for what Andy should pick up after he finishes his current notebook.
Read MoreEpisode 162: I'm Just a Person with a Website (with special guest Tiffany Babb)
Today we talk about vintage notebooks, yet another new Blackwing, and mechanical keyboards. But also much to our delight, our friend and creative polymath Tiffany Babb joins the show to talk comics, literary criticism and creativity.
Read MoreEpisode 161: Ecstatic Høvel Talk
Andy and Tim have wrested control of the show back away from the devious (yet iconic) duo of Johnny and Charlotte, and we’re talking once again to Noah Bier from Makers Cabinet about their brand new Kickstarter project, a pencil extender called The Ferrule.
Read MoreEpisode 160: Pencil Ain't Forever
You might notice something…strange about this week’s podcast. Do not adjust your podcatcher. What you are hearing is happening in Real Life and in Real Time.
YOUR PODCAST HAS BEEN USURPED.
Read MoreEpisode 159: Blackwing 100!
Since our recording schedule and the Blackwing and Field Notes quarterly release schedule didn’t line up, we’re keeping it short today to talk about fresh points: zines, old city street guides, and an exciting announcement about the 8th issue of Plumbago Magazine.
Read MoreEpisode 158: You Gotta Have Torque
Let’s get to the point: what good are pencils that aren’t sharp? Tonight, we take another look at sharpeners, the ones we love, the ones we recommend, the ones you might want to avoid.
Read MoreEpisode 157: Correct Me if You're Wrong
Sometimes there are pencils that you almost love. Almost. Something holds you back, and you just can’t get these pencils to work out for you. Tonight, we examine the pencils that almost make it to our best-of lists but which we nonetheless loathe.
Read MoreEpisode 156: Freestyle Swearing (with special guest Luke Sinclair)
Tonight’s guest is someone we’ve wanted to have on the podcast since the beginning. Working from home has made the impossible (because of time zones) possible! Luke Sinclair joins us all the way from Australia to talk about his wonderful art and a little about sharpening pencils with a knife.
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