Nerd Farmer Podcast

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

My newsletter Takes & Typos is now brought to you by Buttondown. Subscribe here!

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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.

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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 

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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.

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS