Nerd Farmer Podcast

Jordan Harper is among the best working writers of our time.  Last year, Harper joined the podcast ahead of the release of the film adaptation of his novel She Rides Shotgun. This week he returned...

Grant Wahl’s untimely passing in 2022 left a gaping hole in the global soccer community, and particularly in US journalism when it comes to speaking truth about FIFA. Grant was a champion for human rights...

This week, for the first time, I’m sitting down for an episode with a current student. I’ll call her “T” since, as we all know, people on the internet can be strange. T is a...

This is our third special episode discussing the US war on Iran and the wider regional complications.  Here are the headlines from the episode: We are safe and well We have secured a “good for...

This is our second special episode discussing the US war on Iran and the wider regional complications.  On Friday, we departed Abu Dhabi for Thailand. We’ll be living out of our backpacks until it is...

In preparation for the upcoming Academy Awards on March 16, this is our annual Oscars conversation. We ranked the ten Best Picture nominees and some films we wish would have been nominated. Chase is a...

This is a special episode, a conversation with Hope, about the situation here in Abu Dhabi and the broader Middle East thanks to the US war on Iran. Here are the headlines from the discussion:...

Tom Rademacher is a prior Minnesota State teacher of the Year, author, and parent to a really rad kid. Recently his family made the decision for the safety of their family to move to Spain. ...

I had the chance to sit down with Douglas Sackman, a history professor at the University of Puget Sound, for a conversation that feels especially timely. Professor Sackman joined me to talk about the Gilded...

Ramadan began this week. Somewhere around 2 billion Muslims around the world will be engaging in a day time fast for the next month. Living in the Gulf, Ramadan contorts my life in so many...

In December, I came across a post on the r/Tacoma subreddit that stopped me in my tracks. It was titled “Black Deported Veterans film screening” and invited people to a screening of the documentary, Bring...

State Senator Marko Liias represents Washington’s 21st Legislative District in North Puget Sound, which includes parts of Edmonds, Everett, Lynnwood, and Mukilteo. He currently chairs the State Senate’s Transportation Committee and previously served on the...

Professor Nick Brody teaches Communications at the University of Puget Sound. His research focuses on digital communication, cyber bullying, and the social implications of technology.  He joined us to talk about the concept of Morally...

Leiter joined us to discuss the growing pressure nonprofits are facing amid escalating threats and enforcement signals from the federal government. We talked about how bluster from the Department of Justice can shape philanthropic behavior...

Guardian correspondent Jason Wilson joined us to discuss his reporting on Elon Musk’s new Grokipedia.  The service, an online encyclopedia and purported rival to Wikipedia, serves up white nationalist talking points, pseudoscientific racial theories, and...

Republicans in Washington DC control the Whitehouse.  They also control both houses of Congress, majorities on every Congressional committee, and they chair every Congressional committee. The federal government is shut down on their watch. Marilyn...

This episode is an audio voters’ guide featuring Evelyn and Joe Lopez from Crossing Division: Tacoma’s Talk Show. We covered the following races in this episode: Tacoma Mayor, Tacoma City Council, Tacoma Civil Service Board,...

This week we welcome back Azeri dissident journalist Sevinc Osmanqizi, joining us for her third appearance on the show. Sevinc is one of the most prominent independent voices covering Azerbaijan and has a massive Azeri...

In July, a flood ripped through Kerr County, Texas, killing at least 104 people and leaving the community devastated. Federal emergency assistance was nowhere to be seen and then feckless when it finally arrived, a...

We’re closing out the summer with another edition of the Tacoma Small Business Series. This episode features Chris Langston of Proof, a new-ish cocktail lounge in Old Town. Chris was previously the mind behind en...

Halley returned as our most frequent guest, joined by Trayton for his third book club appearance, to take on How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa. We started...

Lisa Keating is an advocate for student well-being and making sure schools in Tacoma are welcoming to all students. This fall she is running for re-election. In this conversation, we looked back on her first...

Jordan Harper is an award winning writer, born and raised in the Ozarks, now based in Los Angeles.  Most widely known for award-winning novel She Rides Shotgun and his other crime fiction, he previously worked...

Senator Jessica Bateman represents the 22nd District in the Washington State Legislature. She is the chamber’s most outspoken housing advocate. She joined us for a conversation about the wins, losses, and unfinished work on housing...

Bill Fitzgerald is a privacy activist and vociferous critic of the data protection practices of Big Tech. In this week’s episode Bill came on to talk about the data privacy implications of putting AI in...

After seventeen emails, dating back to December, we finally have the conversation I’ve been chasing with Diana Kuprych. Diana is a Ukrainian student doing her graduate studies at the London School of Economics. Her thesis...

Melissa Santos is a reporter for Axios covering Seattle and the State Legislature. We’ve been podding with Melissa since 2017. She is a regular on the show and one of our most requested and re-requested...

Tori is an anti-racist educator and writer. She grew up in a deeply conservative evangelical family and is now an out-spoken critic of racism and misogyny that lurks within in some Christian communities.   She joined...

This is a conversation about tariffs—with an economist who is an expert in making it plain. We’re starting with the basics: Tariffs are taxes on imports, and they’re usually passed on to consumers. So, in...

Marguerite Martin is a co-founder of Channel 253 and creator of Move to Tacoma. This is an update to her and my ongoing conversation about housing policy and real estate. You can find my previous...

Amanda Willams is a former teacher in Seattle Public Schools and is the creator of the Seattle Green Book, an online listing of Black Owned Businesses in the Seattle Area. She joined us to talk...

This week’s episode is a change of pace for the show.  Film critic Chase Hutchinson joined us for a conversation about the upcoming 97th Academy Awards. We talked through who we think will win each...

Following the inauguration of Donald Trump last month, reactions in the U.S. ranged from jubilation to alarm—depending on one’s political leanings and level of engagement. But how is the new admin being received beyond American...

In this episode, we discuss the US’ renewed expansionist ambitions with Zoltan Grossman, a professor of Geography and Indigenous Studies at Evergreen State College. Grossman helped me unpack some throughlines connecting 19th century Manifest Destiny...

One of the least discussed stories in US public education is our decision to walk away from what worked. School integration in the US peaked in 1987, coinciding with the achievement gap between Black and...

The war in Ukraine is a functional stalemate with the Russian death toll nearing 200k. Growth is down in the Russian economy and inflation and prices are up. Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia’s greatest...

Hundreds of fishermen laboring on U.S.-flagged ships in American waters face a harsh reality: wage theft, exploitative conditions, and little recourse. Cyrus Donato, one of over 140 inspectors for the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF),...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...