PODCAST · business
Lumber Slingers
by Chelsea Zuccato & Natalie Heacock
Lumber Slingers is the podcast for everyone in the wood products world, from the trading floor to the mill floor. We bring the industry intel you usually only get behind closed doors, and we make it a good time.
Episodes
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153. Newswire Update: Puppy Yoga, Flying Cars, and Duties on the Wire
Trent’s adding life coach to the résumé, starting with some hard-won advice about puppy yoga and black pants. Natalie and Chelsea report from a team build that had more “blessings” than yoga. The crew also takes on Elon’s flying roadster and the great FedEx vs. UPS feud, then gets into the…
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152. Fight Fire with Forestry: Rick Sohn on Fixing the Federal Forest
Roseburg native Rick Sohn grew up in the family sawmill his German-baker father built from scratch, one of the first computerized sawmills anywhere, and later ran Lone Rock Timber. He joins Natalie and Chelsea to talk about Forest Bridges, the group he co-founded that puts timber people and...
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151. Newswire Update: The Great Loop Mill Closures, Menards Not That One, and Gas Pump Pain
Lumber Slingers is back after an unplanned two weeks off, and Trent has a score to settle with FedEx. Before we get to the news, we cover a haircut gone very wrong, Natalie’s diesel habit, and a tour of Trent’s china cabinet. Then we get into it: a sawmill is shutting down and going out with…
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150. Newswire Update: The Kids Are Not Alright About Trees
Allison DeFord of the North American Forest Foundation (NAFF) joins Natalie and Chelsea to talk about what the next generation actually believes about trees, and what it takes to change that one classroom at a time. Trent is out this week but sent his homework, so we still get into a Fed decision...
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149. Newswire Update: Guess Who's Back, Back Again
Lumber Slingers is back after a long summer break, and Natalie, Chelsea, and Trent waste no time getting the band back together, sound effects and all. Between Italian ER visits, Scottish forestry trips, and a fight over who gets to press the air horn button, the crew digs into the trade war…
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148. Newswire Update: Flat Lumber, Fat Gas Bill, Send Help
This week's Newswire hits different. The crew opens with a heartfelt tribute to Robbins Lumber and the community rallying around them after a devastating fire — a reminder of what really matters in this industry. Then Trent steers the ship (loosely) through lumber pricing that's about as exciting...
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147. Newswire Update: Holding Pattern
This week Natalie and Trent are back with your Friday fix — and honestly, the market is giving them very little to work with. Lumber prices? Barely moved. Mortgage rates? Blinked down a hair. Applications? A polite nudge upward. But don't let the flatline fool you — there's plenty to dig into…
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146. Newswire Update: Nothing Burger? The Market's Holding Steady
The crew is back from back-to-back trips and running on fumes and good intel. Chelsea just got home from the NAWLA Regional in Vancouver, BC, where 210 industry insiders gathered to talk about the very real pressure Canadian producers are under - and spoiler: it wasn't a warm and fuzzy room....
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145. Newswire Update: Billions, Brows, and Brad Jacobs Takes a Nice Sunday
The Newswire crew is back and they've got a lot of ground to cover — lumber prices on the move, mortgage rates hitting their lowest point in three spring seasons, and Brad Jacobs casually dropping a $17 billion acquisition on a Sunday afternoon with a "have a nice Sunday" energy that the rest of…
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144. 55 Traders, One Sweater Vest, and a Donut Eating Champion
Ken Timmins, commodity trader at American International Forest Products and host of the Component Connection podcast, stops by to explain what actually happens on a 55-person lumber trading floor -and how he got hired by eating donuts in a sweater vest on zero hours of sleep. Ken breaks down the...
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143. Newswire Update: It's Giving Standard Friday in Lumber
Lumber prices are holding at $5.23 but don't get too comfortable — 2x4 #2 is getting scarce and construction input costs are up nearly 5% year over year, with crude petroleum doing the most damage (Natalie's paying $148 to fill her diesel tank, which is its own kind of tragedy). The Montreal Wood...
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142. Newswire Update: AR7 Drops, Bed Bath & Beyond Buys Everything, and Trent has a TomTom
AR7 preliminary results are in — and we've got thoughts. Or at least, we have the numbers and a strong commitment to neutrality. From there, consolidation nation delivers: UFP Industries' Decorators brand scoops up MoistureShield assets, Bed Bath & Beyond apparently didn't get the memo that they...
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141. She Built a Tiny Home at 16. We Can Barely Pack a Suitcase.
Year two at the Mass Timber Conference for their 10 year anniversary and we're practically locals. We're recording live from the Union Ironworkers booth — on the second floor of a structure they built inside the Oregon Convention Center — talking show stats, Shark Tank-style investor pitches, and...
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140. Newswire Update: Claude Phased Trent Out (and Other Good Friday News)
It's Good Friday, lumber prices are up, and Claude personally removed Trent from the podcast for being a non-believer. (He's fine. Probably.) This week: WS Building Materials makes its debut, Mead Lumber keeps stacking locations, QXO finally closes on Kodiak, Rainier gets a new logo (the panel…
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139. Newswire Update: Natalie's On Mute, But the Market Isn't
Natalie has laryngitis. Chelsea has opinions about the Brawny Man. Trent has mortgage rate news that nobody asked for but everybody needed. This week's episode is equal parts industry intel and chaos — the good kind. We're tracking rising lumber prices, freight rates that are giving Chelsea…
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138. Newswire Update: T-100, Donna Whitaker Makes History, Lumber Prices Going Up
33.33% of us are back from the NAWLA T-100 conference in Dana Point. This week's episode covers what made T-100 different from Traders Market, why smaller and more intimate sometimes means bigger picture, and what Chelsea brought back to her company from being in a room with some of the top…
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137. Newswire Update: Don't Let Freight Rates Blow You Away!
This week Trent Johnson and Chelsea Zuccato cover: Windy city weather and atmospheric river in Oregon. Flatbed spot rates hit their highest point since October 2022, If you're buying or selling lumber on delivered pricing, this matters right now. The mood at the LMC show in Chicago was positive...
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136. Mass Timber's Biggest Year Yet — And We've Got the Inside Scoop
The International Mass Timber Conference is three weeks out and this year it's doing something we've never seen before. We sat down with Shelby Cherry, Show Director for the International Mass Timber Conference, to get the inside track on what's coming — and let's just say the 10th anniversary is...
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135. Newswire Update: Trent's Back, Rates are Down, and the Midwest is Popping
Trent's back from his cruise, slightly sunburned and somehow more productive than ever. This week all three amigos are reunited — and there's a lot to catch up on. We're talking a brand new industry column making its debut, a wave of M&A activity putting the Midwest on the map, some notable...
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134. Tribal Wisdom Meets the Lumber Industry | Steve Rigdon
In this episode, Natalie and Chelsea sit down with Steve Rigdon — enrolled Yakama Nation member, former general manager of Yakama Forest Products, and current Tribal Partnership & Resource Stewardship Manager at Sustainable Northwest. Steve shares his remarkable journey from wildland firefighter…
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133. BREAKING: Supreme Court Just Struck Down Trump's Tariffs - Here's What It Actually Means for Lumber
Trent's on vacation, which means Natalie and Chelsea are flying solo - and things get wonderfully unfiltered. The episode kicks off with breaking news: the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling against Trump's sweeping tariffs. Spoiler: it's mostly a nothing burger for lumber, since softwood falls under...
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132. Newswire Update: Why We're Done Being Cautious
Big week for Patrick Lumber as Chelsea Zuccato moves into VP of Sales & Marketing, plus leadership updates from Lena Jacobson and John Quast. The industry's buzzing over QXO's $2.25 billion acquisition of Kodiak Building Partners. Trent breaks down Q4 earnings from West Fraser and Interfor, and…
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31. Newswire Update: An Opalite Market, and Super Bowl Predictions
In this episode of Lumber Slingers, Chelsea and Trent kick things off with a little pop-culture fun before diving into what’s happening across the lumber and housing markets. The conversation covers several major industry updates, including the official close of the Rainier–PotlatchDeltic merger,...
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130. Newswire Update: Hawkish, Bearish or Bullish
Black Pink fandom, music video nostalgia, and why hawkish is apparently the Fed’s favorite bird. This week on Lumber Slingers, we cover a packed news cycle-starting with pop culture and ending deep in the lumber markets. We break down the surprise nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chair,...
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129. Newswire Update: Time to Buy, Baby!
Real Housewives of Boring, Oregon: confirmed by a 65-year-old waitress at brunch. Also: Trent just admitted he listens to MP3s. Yes, in 2026 Lumber news hits: a couple M&A items, production curtailments vs. closures, a James Hardie footprint optimization , and a positive expansion announcement....
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128. Newswire Update: From Holiday Whiplash to Market Moves in 2026
Chelsea and Trent ease into the new year catching up on holiday travel mishaps and family time to a fast-moving start to the year in forest products, this episode captures exactly how January feels: full speed, no warm-up. Inside this episode: A look at how the holidays actually went (blizzards,...
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127. Newswire Update: Gobble Gobble… Ho Ho Ho… Acquisition Season
It’s a full-on hat day as Natalie, Chelsea, and Trent kick off with swag talk.. Then they run through a rapid-fire lumber news roundup: major acquisitions, mill curtailments and closures, leadership changes, mortgage data, and Madison’s Lumber Price Index—before signing off for a Christmas break...
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126. Getting Real with Rick Dancer: The Truth About Timber & Lumber Slingers
In this special crossover episode, we’re rebroadcasting our recent appearance on Get Real with Rick Dancer. Rick flips the script and interviews us about how Lumber Slingers started, why we’re so passionate about changing the narrative around timber, and what it looks like to build a people-first...
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125. Newswire Update: Travel Anxiety, Lumber Reality
Natalie, Trent, and Chelsea kick things off with some classic airport chaos. They circle through Kansas City’s new airport (featuring Patrick Lumber hemlock), detour to South Dakota’s Corn Palace, and then get into the actual news: Stella-Jones closing on Brooks Manufacturing, BlueLinx expanding…
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124. Traders Market LIVE!
Live from NAWLA Traders Market, we trade booth noise for breaking news: BlueLinx buys Disdero, Chinook strikes a deal to acquire South Coast, West Fraser announces permanent closures, and Trex expands distribution in Michigan. Plus: travel chaos watch, swag report, and a lightning round on…
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123. Newswire Update: Trick-or-Treat - Mortgages Rise From the Grave
Happy Halloween from the Lumber Slingers crew! 🎃 We open with costumes (yes, Trent’s a giant hot dog), glass vs. plastic vs. “just use your hands” for coffee, and then roll into the numbers: a fresh quarter-point rate cut, Freddie Mac’s 30-year hovering just above that magic “5-handle,” and a…
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122. Newswire Update: Twinsies, Traders Market, and that Commercial!
122. Newswire Update: Twinsies, Traders Market, and that Commercial! by Chelsea Zuccato & Natalie Heacock
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121. Newswire Update From Taylor to Tariffs - What’s Moving Wood This Week
The crew returns from “fall break” to catch up on… everything. We talk Taylor’s record-smashing release, then pivot to the serious stuff: ongoing tariff turbulence, why uncertainty -not any single policy - keeps us up at night, and a trio of headline moves (Potlatch-Deltic + Rayonier rumors,...
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120. Newswire Update: "Are we Livestreaming?" and Other Lumber News
Natalie, Chelsea, and Trent kick off by debating a YouTube livestream for Lumber Slingers after iShowSpeed’s Portland stop sparks chatter about nonstop streaming culture. They pivot to real industry moves: Western Forest Products curtailment and Roseburg will cease hardwood plywood production....
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119. Newswire Update: Big M&A Hits the West Coast
Trent breaks down the big news: Specialty Building Products signing an agreement to acquire OrePac Building Products and National Lumber picking up Fisher Lumber - what it means for consolidation, brands, and the West Coast footprint. We shout out Alpinewest Resources’ new VP of Finance, and plug...
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118. Newswire Update: From Back-to-School Chaos to Lumber Market Moves
The Lumber Slingers crew is back, kicking off with back-to-school chaos, kids’ activities, and the rise of full-blown “football mom” energy (cheetah print bleacher chairs included). From there, the conversation shifts to big industry moves, including Home Depot’s acquisition and Whitecap’s latest...
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116. Newswire Update: Softwood Disputes, Mergers & Price Trends
Natalie, Chelsea, and Trent dive back into Lumber Slingers with summer tales - Natalie’s new car woes, Chelsea’s paid-off ride, and Trent’s NYC concert spree! They unpack the U.S.-Canada softwood lumber dispute, with Canada’s subsidy and looming tariffs from the Section 232 review. Big moves…
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116. Newswire Update: Legends Lumber & Losing our Childhood Heroes
This week’s episode kicks off with heartfelt tributes to icons of the past -Trent reflects on the cultural impact of Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan, and we all take a moment to mourn the childhood legends we’ve lost. The mood lifts as we cover everything from squirrel traps and pedometers to a…
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115. Newswire Update: Summer Leadership Shakeups, Lumber Prices & a Coldplay Scandal
Natalie, Trent & Chelsea are back midsummer with a blast! From concert tales and cheating memes gone wild! Then we pivot to lumber‑industry heavy hitters: major promotions and the inside scoop on mortgage rates, applications dipping, plus lumber pricing jumping week‑over‑week. Tune in for HR...
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114. Joanna Foat, LumberJills: Britain's Forgotten Army
In this episode of Lumber Slingers, Chelsea and Natalie Heacock interview Joanna Foat, an author and researcher who has uncovered the hidden history of the Lumberjills, women who worked in forestry during World War II. Joanna shares her journey of discovering these remarkable women, their...
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113. Newswire Update: Lumber Deals and Leadership Shifts
Natalie, Chelsea, and Trent drop this week's scoop on Lumber Slingers, buzzing with sunny weekend plans! The NAWLA regional meeting at Amaterra winery rocked, with high end custom builder Mike Riddle discussing the market. Collins Pine unloads Klamath Falls plant, while BlueLinx and LP rev up...
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112. Newswire Update: Timber Boom & Plywood Smackdown
Natalie, Chelsea, and Trent are back together on Lumber Slingers, kicking off Summer Fridays with industry heat! The USDA’s dropping $200M to hit 4 billion board feet of U.S. timber by 2028, with a nod to mass timber. Hardwood plywood faces anti-dumping petitions. CertainTeed unveils fortified...
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111. Newswire Update: Mill Deals & AI Thrills
Kick off Memorial Day with Lumber Slingers! Natalie and Trent bring the sunshine and industry buzz, unpacking Weyerhaeuser’s $120M sale of its Princeton, BC mill to Gorman Group, a 75-year-old player with 900 employees. They geek out over Harvey Industries’ game-changing AI bandsaw, boasting…
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110. Newswire Update: Parenting in May Is a Dumpster Fire, but Lumber Women Are Thriving
In this episode, the hosts discuss the challenges of parenting during busy months like May, the importance of empowering women in the lumber industry through events like the Oregon Women in Lumber summit, and the recent changes in retail dynamics, particularly regarding Weber's distribution...
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109. Newswire Update! 5-9-25; Mortgages, Mill Closures, and the Boston Accent!
In weeks episode, Lumber Slingers + Trent share personal highlights from their week, including experiences with music, travel, and fitness challenges. They discuss the Oregon Forest to Homes Act, exploring its implications for the lumber industry and the certification process for lumber graders....
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108. Newswire Update! 5-2-25 Don't Run your Dishwasher at Night - Leaks, Lumber & Leading Indicators
Trent and Natalie discuss fresh expansions that signal real growth in the building‑materials space. The duo then zoom out to the big picture. They unpack the latest consumer‑spending data, compare media headlines with hard‑number economic indicators, and spotlight the outsized role consumer...
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107. Newswire Update! 4-25-25: You Get What You Pay For (and Other Real-Life Lessons)
In this episode of Lumber Slingers, Chelsea is joined by friend-of-the-show Trent while Natalie sips margaritas in Mexico. From exclusive Wood Is Good t-shirt giveaways (email us!) to tales of bootleg cologne and outlet mall scores, this episode kicks off with laughs and life lessons. They dive...
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106. The Mass Timber Shift: Skanska Unpacks the Why
In our final Lumber Slingers episode from the International Mass Timber Conference, we sit down with Dean Lewis, Skanska’s Director of Mass Timber & Prefabrication, to unpack the buzz around mass timber. Dean shares how to decide if mass timber’s right for your project, from cost to carbon wins,...
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105: Numb to Lumber’s Economic Noise?
Joined by Trent Johnson of The Lumber Newswire today we discuss, yet again, the complexities of tariffs and their implications on the industry, drawing from Natalie's recent political experiences. The conversation wraps with insights into current market trends and economic outlooks, particularly…
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104: Revolutionizing Home Design: The Future of Mass Timber with Judith Sheine
In this episode of Lumber Slingers, Chelsea and Natalie are live from the International Mass Timber Conference, joined by Judith Sheine—Professor of Architecture at the University of Oregon, Director of Design for the TallWood Design Institute, and an accomplished architect and researcher with...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Lumber Slingers is the podcast for everyone in the wood products world, from the trading floor to the mill floor. We bring the industry intel you usually only get behind closed doors, and we make it a good time.
HOSTED BY
Chelsea Zuccato & Natalie Heacock
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Lumber Slingers have?
Lumber Slingers currently has 151 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Lumber Slingers about?
Lumber Slingers is the podcast for everyone in the wood products world, from the trading floor to the mill floor. We bring the industry intel you usually only get behind closed doors, and we make it a good time.
How often does Lumber Slingers release new episodes?
Lumber Slingers publishes regularly with 151 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Lumber Slingers?
You can listen to Lumber Slingers on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Lumber Slingers?
Lumber Slingers is created and hosted by Chelsea Zuccato & Natalie Heacock.
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