First Crack Podcast with Garrick Van Buren

I bought Tony Thomas from Minneapoliscast, Andrea Meyers from HowWasTheShow.com, and Justin Grammens from LocalTone.com, and Brian McDonough from MinnieIndie.com lunch to talk about the Minneapolis music scene.

We cover the goal of each of their sites, the challenges of finding good independent music, and Brian makes some band recommendations.

Listen to Lunch with Minneapoliscast, How Was The Show, LocalTone, and MinnieIndie.com [35 min].

Tyler Patterson just finished up a Masters Thesis project investigating adding all the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ campus energy sources into the Chicago Climate Exchange.

In this numbers and stats intensive conversation, we discuss:

• The methodology of the measuring the campus’ carbon footprint
• The economics of the carbon trading and energy efficiency
• The trade-offs in determining energy sources (fuel oil vs. coal vs. oat hulls vs. natural gas)

Listen to Measuring Carbon Footprints with Tyler Patterson [41 min].

Matt Thompson (Snarkmarket, vita.mn) and I discuss one of Matt’s most compelling memes - telling stories over time. via:

• The rise and fall of monoculture
• Newspaper circulation - 1967 to 1991
• Future of journalism and the power of hyperlinks
• Joshua Micah Marshall vs. Trent Lott
• Google Finance

Listen to Time Traveling Journalism with Matt Thompson [28 min].

Joyent ps pipe grep #16 starts out discussing home coffee roasting. Then they dig into the regular übergeek stuff.

If they keep this up, I’ll just do an .htaccess redirect from the First Crack podcast to Joyeur. ;)

Another great quote from the podcast:

“Ruby is Java for people that hate Java.”

I’m working on some upcoming theme shows and I need your help. I’m looking for stories along the lines of Unincorporated series. If you have one or two - hit record and either email the mp3 or point me to it.

Themes include:

1. Cocktail Swords
2. Divorce
3. Mail Order
4. Insatiable Appetites
5. Working on a Farm
6. Bad Camping Trips
7. Unexpected Experiences with Licensed Characters
8. Trust

“One thing I’ve noticed about talking to certain types of press, particularly mainstream, is that they have a pattern in mind before they write about something, and the better you conform to the pattern the more coverage you get.” - Matt Mullenweg, Automattic.com

I did a little writing for my college paper. At the time I was there, the editors had a handful of stories they thought should be covered. The local movie theater using high-fat buttery oil on popcorn, for example. I didn’t. That’s not interesting, it’s annoying. Matt’s comments make it sound like quite a few people haven’t grown out of it.

Often when I too get calls from the press, it feels less like they’re reporting and more like they’re covering their ass on some fiction they just wrote.

Or just plain missing the interesting story.

When I turn the mic on someone for this podcast, I don’t know where the conversation will lead. I trust the conversation will be good, that they’ll share something interesting. Whether or not they do is up to your ears.

We catch up with Twin Cities coffee legend Jeremy Raths and talk about:

1. Moving The Roastery from a coffee shop in the middle of St. Paul to delivering coffee from an abandon convent.
2. The history of the speciality coffee market - nationally and locally.
3. How the coffee market is changing to benefit the small, local, coffee farmer.
4. The flexibility to choose just the coffees he finds interesting.

Listen to Jeremy Raths and the Search for Extraordinary Coffee [28 min].

Jeremy Raths, from The Roastery, teaches us how to cup - the traditional process for tasting and choosing coffee. He walks through:

• The cupping process
• How he teaches others how to cup
• The need to be emotionally self-aware when cupping
• How to get the cupping experience at home
• The responsibility and integrity of a good cup of coffee

Listen to How to Cup Coffee with Jeremy Raths [14 min].