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Make:cast

by Dale Dougherty

Make:Cast is a podcast from Make:Community (make.co), producers of Make: Magazine and Maker Faire, and hosted by Dale Dougherty. We are exploring ideas, tools and people behind the maker movement.

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Episodes

  1. Make:cast -- Makerspaces in Schools with Sarah H Chung

    Sarah H Chung is the manager of Maker Learning at Center City Public Charter Schools in Washington DC. Sarah shares her journey into maker education, starting with her diverse interests in hobbies and previous positions in teaching computer science and making at Lighthouse Charter Schools in...

  2. Unplugged Tots: Screen-free coding activities for children

    In this episode of Make:cast, host Dale Dougherty is joined by Hannah Hagon, author of "Unplugged Tots," and Brian Jepson, publisher at Raspberry Pi. The discussion centers on Hannah’s new book, which offers screen-free, play-based activities designed to introduce young children to computational...

  3. A Maker's Life - a generational perspective

    In this episode of Make:cast, Dale Dougherty from Make Magazine chats with Marilyn Nash and Amber Hudson, authors of 'A Maker's Life'. Both of them are former teachers - Marilyn is retired and Ambers works at 1st Makerspace in Indiana. They discuss the impact their book has had on readers…

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  4. Making Electronic Music with Kirk Pearson

    In this episode of Make:cast, host Dale Dougherty speaks with Kirk Pearson, author of 'Electronic Music from Scratch,' and Kevin Toyama, the book's editor. Kirk is a musical experimenter and he encourages others to do the same. Kirk shares his journey from a traditional music background to…

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  5. TCF: Fun with Technology

    This is the keynote talk I gave at the Trenton Computer Festival 2025 at the end of March. The theme of the festival was Fun with Technology and I talked about how Make and Maker Faire have been dedicated to people who have fun with technology. I slightly edited this talk to remove references to...

  6. The Creative Potential For AI in Education

    In this episode of Make:cast, Dale Dougherty is joined by Ken Kahn, author of 'The Learner's Apprentice: AI and the Amplification of Human Creativity,' and Sylvia Martinez, co-author of 'Invent to Learn.' Ken discusses his experience in AI from his high school days to MIT's AI Lab and his journey...

  7. Make: Turns Twenty and We're Still Going

    Dale Dougherty discusses the launch and evolution of Make: Magazine, a DIY technology publication, since its inception in February 2005. The conversation includes insights from original team members Mark Frauenfelder, Dave Albertson, Shawn Connolly, and Paul Spinrad, as well as current...

  8. I'm 3D Printing Chocolate: A Conversation with Ellie Weinstein of Cocoa Press

    In this episode of Make:Cast, Dale Dougherty interviews Ellie Weinstein, founder and CEO of Cocoa Press, a company that manufactures 3D printers that print chocolate. Ellie discusses her 10-year journey from a high school project to launching the second model of her Cocoa Press printer. The...

  9. Upskilling with Steph Piper

    In this episode of MakeCast, Dale Dougherty interviews Steph Piper, a creative technologist from Queensland, Australia. They discuss her Maker Queen website, her Skill Trees project, and her new book, Skill Seeker Maker Edition. Steph shares insights into her role at a university library...

  10. Talking about Tinkering with Ryan Jenkins

    "Tinkering is a fun way to learn about the world around you," says Ryan in his new book, 'The Tinkering Workshop,' which promotes creativity and playful experimentation with everyday materials for families, children, and educators. I've known Ryan for many years from when he worked at The...

  11. Moon Makers of Mexico

    Dale Dougherty interviews Camila and Diego Luna of Moonmakers at the Fab 24 conference in Puebla, Mexico. Moonmakers is an educational non-profit focused on promoting science, technology, STEAM education, and the maker movement. They share their journey from starting with robotics and…

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  12. A Safe Place to Use Tools

    Chad Orcutt created Community Shop Class in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento, California. What started out as the ADHD Inventor's Club in his garage grew into a new space, unlike any makerspace you've seen. He saw it as way to help people, particularly neurodivergent people like himself,...

  13. The Sneaky DIY of Cy Tymony

    My guest is Cy Tymony, author of "Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things" and "Sneaky Math." Cy has a wonderful DIY worldview that he shares through his many books. He reveals a secret world to you if you're willing to be a little sneaky. To Cy, sneaky means you learn about something that not everybody...

  14. Jenny Young and the story of Brooklyn Robot Foundry

    Jenny Young is a mechanical engineer who founded Brooklyn Robot Factory thirteen years ago and introduced it at World Maker Faire in NYC to bring hands-on learning experiences to kids in schools and afterschool programs. Her company has evolved into a franchise business where they train and equip...

  15. Making as a Creative Practice - Matt Zigler

    Matt Zigler is the author of a new book for educators titled "3 Modes of Making." He talks about imitation, modification and innovation as three different modes of student projects, which can develop different maker skills. Matt is an artist and educator who has been running the makerspace at...

  16. It's Time to Design for Repair - Jude Pullen

    Trying to repair almost anything can be a frustrating exercise. Repair is made more difficult by the way devices are designed and the ability to repair a device could be improved greatly if different design decisions were made. This moment in time demands a new generation of designers, engineers...

  17. AI Robots for Kids

    This episode features an interview with the authors of a new book titled "AI Robots." which includes Reade Richard, Andy Forest, Brenda Shivanandan and Denzel Edwards. The book is designed to teach kids how to build AI-powered projects using hands-on activities and coding. The authors discuss the...

  18. The Challenges of Running a Community Makerspace: Jim Sweeney - NoVA Labs

    My guest on this episode of Make:cast is Jim Sweeney, the treasurer of NoVA Labs, a community makerspace in northern Virginia. Jim talks honestly about the challenges of growing a makerspace. With 700 members and many programs for young makers in the community, NoVA Labs has a bold vision of what…

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  19. Tinkerer, Engineer, Mr. Mom, Maker, Teacher

    A conversation between Dale Dougherty, the founder of Make Magazine and Maker Faire, and Brian Wagner, an educator, coder, and maker. Brian Wagner talks about his life as a maker from his first encounter with computers to his current career in teaching and creating a how-to-code video course.…

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  20. Hack Club's Chris Walker and Castle Bravo

    Chris Walker dropped out of Dartmouth and became a Thiel Fellow in 2013. He had an idea for a math video game that was inspired by the TI 84 graphing calculator. He tried creating an educational video game studio but it didn't work out. He joined Hack Club, a student-led educational intiative…

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  21. Growing into the Future: The Makerspace at Moreno Valley College

    Donnell Layne and Jason Kennedy developed the iMAKE Innovation Center Makerspace at Moreno Valley College in Southern California, an Hispanic-serving community college. They talk about developing the space to meet the needs of students and faculty as well as the broader community. They also see…

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  22. Trig - the oldest practical math

    My guests on this episode are the authors of Make Trigonometry, Build Your Way from Triangles to Analytic Geometry, Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron. Make Trigonometry is the third math book that Joan and Rich have written with us, the previous books being Make Geometry and Make Calculus. Joan calls...

  23. Making Creative Space with Assemble's Nina Barbuto

    Assemble is a leading example of a community-oriented creative space focused on the needs of youth, providing summer and afterschool programming that is fun, expressive and personal. Nina Barbuto is the founder and director of Assemble, which serves youth and adults in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....

  24. Daniel Brateris on Experiential Learning at NJIT

    Daniel Brateris is Director of Experiential Learning at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey. We talk about the practice of hands on learning and its value to students in engineering. Daniel was responsible for building out the manufacturing and makerspace facilities at NJIT.…

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  25. Michael Stone: Authentic Learning and Making

    Dale Dougherty talks to Michael Stone of the Public Education Foundation of Hamilton County in southeast Tennessee. Michael is responsible to developing a network of 34 Fab Labs in K-12 schools with more to come next year. In this conversation, Michael talks about making as authentic learning,...

  26. "I knew nurses were making because I did it myself"

    Rose Hedges of UnityPoint Health in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Anna Young of Maker Health join me to talk about how a makerspace on the first floor of a hospital has created opportunities for nurses and other medical staff to prototype solutions to problems they encounter in their jobs. Rose is a…

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  27. Galen Powers - People Passionate about their Craft

    Galen Powers is a multi-faceted person: a maker and an inventor who has been successful in business. He credits his success to working with people who are passionate about their craft. In this conversation, Galen talks about growing up in rural California, learning about plastics and engineering...

  28. The Return of Robogames

    Organizer David Caulkins and Combat Robot Legend Ray Billings talk about the return of Robogames, which takes place at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton CA on April 6th through 9th, 2023. Robogames is the world's largest robot competition with over 54 different events -- everything…

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  29. The Story of Voron Design with Maks Zolin

    Maks Zolin wanted to build a better, faster printer that was also quieter. He set out building the Voron printer in his garage but he ended up deciding that he didn't want to run a 3D printer company. So, he open sourced his work and invited others to collaborate with him. That's how Maks came to...

  30. Obsessed with Colorful LED Orbs

    Maker and educator, Debra Ansell is my guest on this episode of Make:cast. She is obsessed with orbs -- colorful, LED orbs and she shows us how to build a brightly lit orb in the new issue of Make Magazine. Debra and I talk about the process of developing her orb project. She also talks about her...

  31. On Pulleys and Pirate Ships-Learning CAD

    A lot of makers struggle to learn CAD. Why is this keystone piece of software such a challenge to learn? This is what I talk about with Jake Sugden and Josh Manley, who are the teachers of CAD Class at cadclass.org. Jake and Josh met at Urban Workshop in Costa Mesa, California, a professional...

  32. Customizing Adaptive Devices for People with Disabilities

    Microsoft's Bryce Johnson and John Helmes Join Make: Editor Caleb Kraft to talk about creating adaptive devices that can be customized, hacked and modded easily by makers using 3D printers as well as the people with disabilities who use them. Bryce Johnson works at the Inclusive Tech Lab at...

  33. Santa Needs Maker Microfactories

    The world needs more maker microfactories and I wonder if Santa might be interested in learning more about them from Tim Keller, the head of Inventopia in Davis CA, my guest on this episode. A maker microfactory is a kind of makerspace that focuses on the needs of startups and individual...

  34. If Kids Really Knew STEM with Jasmine Florentine

    Jasmine Florentine's new book introduces making and STEM to middle-schoolers. The book, "Hex Allen and the Clanksmiths", creates a fantasy world where real problems are solved by hands-on skills. Jasmine is driven to help young people understand STEM, not just as a field of study, but as an...

  35. Dorothy Jones-Davis Moves to KID Museum

    Dorothy Jones-Davis has been Executive Director of Nation of Makers for six years. She recently announced that she is leaving to join the KID Museum in Bethesda Maryland as Chief Impact Officer. In this episode, we talk about how Nation of Makers got started, some of its accomplishments and where...

  36. Jason Pohl: From Designing Video Games to Orange County Choppers and Beyond

    Jason Pohl calls himself a "pretengineer" because he's self-taught. Trained as artist, his design work has taken him from creating video games to actually designing and fabricating parts for Orange County Choppers. Jason moved into CAD design and working with CNC machines. He has boundless energy...

  37. Winners of the Amazing Maker Awards 2022

    Meet the winners of this year's Amazing Maker Awards. Our top winners come from the US and Canada, Turkey, Japan, and Germany and they are as young as 14. Their projects represent social impact, art, technical achievement and education. This is an audio recording of our October 4 Live Showcase in...

  38. The Wherewithal to Change Things Through Making

    I'd like you to meet Amy Zell - mother, librarian, grief counselor, and maker. In this episode, she talks about the power of making to change things, to change people. She credits Casey Shea, a Sonoma County maker educator with telling her about "maker empowerment" at the Fab Institute in...

  39. A Better Way to Learn Calculus with Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron

    Authors of the new book, Make: Calculus, Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron talk about using Legos and 3D printed models to create visualizations that help anyone learn calculus. After we talk about the book, Joan and Rich show some of the models that demonstrate Lotka Volterra equations, for…

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  40. Finding Maker Town with Susie Frazier

    Susie Frazier created the Maker Town platform for makers and artists working in Cleveland and Northern Ohio so that more people can find them and learn about what they make. Susie is a maker, creator and artist. Her own journey led her to Cleveland, Ohio, where she began developing her own...

  41. Humanmade SF's Ryan Spurlock

    A refugee from TechShop in SF, Ryan Spurlock took what he learned there and applied it to a new makerspace called Humanmade located in the design district of San Francisco. Two things stand out about this makerspace. One is how it was funded: a local developer whom the City required to set aside...

  42. The Magic Never Died - Maker Faire Long Island

    Maker Faires are slowly coming back. After not happening for two years, Maker Faire Long Island took place in June at Port Jefferson Village's Explorium. Everybody was happy to come back. said co-producers of Maker Faire Long Island, Angeline Judex and Lisa C. Rodriguez. Angeline is the…

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  43. Wyoming's Maker Access Pass with Tyler Kerr

    Tyler Kerr runs the Innovation Wyrkshop, a makerspace at the University of Wyoming. During COVID, state officials saw the potential for makerspaces in vocational rehab and developing skills in local communities. And so they are funding the build out of a network of makerspaces throughout the…

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  44. Playification - The Makey Makey Story

    Makey Makey, a creative platform for children of all ages, turned 10 years old this month. In this episode, we talk with Jay Silver, the creative technologist behind the platform, and Jay Melican, formerly of Intel who runs the business. Jay Silver talks about creative play and learning, and the...

  45. Shop Talk and Tips with Gareth Branwyn

    DIY lifer Gareth Branwyn has compiled a new volume of his series, Tips and Tales of the Workshop, Volume 2. He joins Dale Dougherty to talk about how he collects tips — asking a person directly to share a tip is not very productive. He shares some of his favorite tips he has found. He talks about...

  46. Making is So Elementary

    Julie Darling, author/educator/librarian, talks her book "Social-Emotional Learning Using Makerspaces and Passion Projects: Step by Step Projects and Resources for Grades 3-6". She is a Media Specialist at A2 Steam in Ann Arbor, CA. We talk about getting fidgety kids engaged and excited. She...

  47. Mike on Make:

    Mike Senese has been the Executive Editor for Make: for almost nine years. He started on volume 36 and leaves now after wrapping up issue 81. Mike joins Dale Dougherty to talk about his experiences at Make: and Maker Faire, as well as working with the maker community. See ya soon, Mike Senese....

  48. Determination: Makers in Ukraine

    Determination seems like the best word to describe the collective response of Ukrainians as they fight for their country, for their home and their freedom. One month ago, I spoke with Yuri Vlasyuk and Svitlana Bovkun who live in Kyiv. That was the day Russia invaded Ukraine. I knew them because...

  49. Fearless CNC

    You might say that CNC is like a stepchild in the digital fabrication family, not the friendliest or easiest tool to get to know in the maker-space. Yet CNC is not something that most makers should be afraid of, especially as new software allows you to see in simulation what the CNC machine is...

  50. Share the Repair with Wayne Seltzer

    My guest on this episode is Wayne Seltzer who is lifelong fixer himself. He started the U-Fix-It Clinic in Boulder, Colorado to help others learn to fix things. Wayne helped put the "you" in Fixit Clinics, making sure they empowered people to learn to do the repairs themselves rather than having…

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Make:Cast is a podcast from Make:Community (make.co), producers of Make: Magazine and Maker Faire, and hosted by Dale Dougherty. We are exploring ideas, tools and people behind the maker movement.

HOSTED BY

Dale Dougherty

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Make:cast have?

Make:cast currently has 89 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Make:cast about?

Make:Cast is a podcast from Make:Community (make.co), producers of Make: Magazine and Maker Faire, and hosted by Dale Dougherty. We are exploring ideas, tools and people behind the maker movement.

How often does Make:cast release new episodes?

Make:cast has 89 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

Where can I listen to Make:cast?

You can listen to Make:cast 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 Make:cast?

Make:cast is created and hosted by Dale Dougherty.
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