Austin Typewriter, Ink. - Podcast

Join David and Everitto in Episode 85, Part 1 of 2, as they sit down with Antony Valoppi and Mark Naylor of The Type Space in Portland, Oregon. They share how their passion for typewriters grew into a thriving shop, repair center, and gathering place for writers and enthusiasts. From restoring vintage machines and hosting type-ins to a memorable visit from Tom Hanks, this episode celebrates the people, stories, and community that keep typewriters alive. 

In this episode, David, John TheShy, and Everitto dive into the fascinating world of typewriter myths, collector lore, and restoration wisdom. From maintenance practices and repair techniques to ribbons, spools, electric machines, and storage methods, the conversation explores where conventional wisdom gets it right and where experience tells a different story.  Packed with stories, opinions, practical advice, and plenty of typewriter banter, this episode is a fun look at the truths, half-truths, and legends that continue to circulate throughout the typewriter community.

Episode 83 of the Austin Typewriter, Ink. podcast features Part 2 of David and Everitto’s conversation with Scott Connors of Stephentown Typewriter Company in New York, diving deep into the emotional, mechanical, and cultural world of vintage typewriters. Scott shares unforgettable restoration stories, including repairing a battered Royal Model O for a woman rebuilding her life after divorce and helping connect another collector to the legacy of poet T. S. Eliot through one of his favorite machines. The episode explores repair philosophy, rare machines, collecting, the growing resurgence of typewriters among younger generations, and how the hobby creates unexpected friendships and artistic connections. Scott also discusses his experiences with legendary shops like Gramercy Typewriter, typewriter art exhibits, online communities, and the enduring magic of analog creativity in a digital world. 

 Episode 82 of the Austin Typewriter, Ink. podcast with David and Everitto features a lively and story-filled conversation with Scott Connors of the Stephentown Typewriter Company (New York), diving into his journey from writer and Hemingway fan to passionate collector and repair expert. Scott shares how his love of writing led him to restore machines, collaborate on a novel written entirely on a typewriter, and build a unique business out of his home. The episode blends typewriter history, blues music influences, and unforgettable stories—from rare machine finds to bizarre collection pickups—highlighting the deep creativity, craftsmanship, and community that keep the typewriter world alive. 

David and Everitto welcome Jonathan Swanberg—a typewriter repairman, musician, and mathematician—whose life doesn’t fit into neat categories. Instead of juggling separate passions, Jonathan has blended all three into one way of living and thinking. In this episode, he shares how that mix shapes everything he does and how growing up in Kansas gave him the space to build a life that’s truly his own—unconventional, creative, and uniquely connected.

Join David and Everitto as they chat it up with Chicago-area collector Joel Berger who went from repairing his first LC Smith as a Christmas gift to amassing 60 typewriters in just one year. In this episode, he shares his journey into mechanical tinkering, his YouTube channel "Dynamically Typed," and his deep-dive research into the Chicago Typewriter Company—including discovering the original factory building still standing in Galesburg, Illinois. Joel's collection philosophy is simple: only acquire machines that tell different stories and justify their place. Whether he's talking about stumbling upon 20 boxes of vintage typewriter parts or encouraging new collectors to invest in proper tools and just start tinkering, his infectious enthusiasm proves you don't need decades of experience to make meaningful contributions to the typewriter community.

In Part 2 of the Austin Typewriter, Ink. conversation, Dr. Richard Polt, The Typewriter Revolution, the talk moves past theory and into how typewriters actually shape the way people think, write, and connect. Starting with a story from one of David’s pop-up type-ins, Polt reflects on the quiet power of shared, analog experiences, then explores the Classic Typewriter Page, the thrill of collecting, teaching with typewriters, and why no single machine or website should ever define the whole community. The conversation naturally drifts into craftsmanship, art, AI, and the future of writing, with Polt making the case that typewriters matter not as nostalgia, but as human-scale tools that slow us down, sharpen attention, and create moments you truly “had to be there” to experience.

And another podcast, this time with Dr. Richard Polt, author of Typewriter Revolution, a philosopher by training, and one of the most thoughtful voices in the modern typewriter revival. He doesn’t just collect or restore machines. He asks harder questions about why they still matter, what they do to our attention, and how the tools we choose shape the way we think and write.  This conversation goes beyond nostalgia. We talk about discipline, creativity, resistance to distraction, and the quiet power of putting words on paper one keystroke at a time. Whether you type daily or haven’t touched a ribbon in years, this episode will make you think differently about the act of writing itself.

Join David and Everitto as they join Tony Casillo in the second part of the podcast.  In this episode, we go deeper into Tony’s world — the passion, the history, and the machines that shaped his journey. After exploring how he built his collection and documented the hobby in his book, we shift the conversation to the heart of it all: the typewriters themselves. 

 Join David and Everitto as they sit down with the legendary Tony Casillo to talk about his path into the typewriter world back when collecting was still a wild frontier. Before cell phones, before the internet, before online auctions, Tony was out there tracking down incredible machines the hard way. His stories from those early days are sharp, funny, and full of the kind of passion that built this hobby from the ground up.