With this edition of the podcast, just two days out from Christmas, we’re starting a run back through a little high-quality road listening with Overdrive's podcast coproduction with PRX’s Radiotopia network. The Over the Road podcast ran originally between February and June 2020, and the principal eight-episode series was hosted by our own "Long Haul Paul" Marhoefer. Therein, we hoped to give mainstream, general-public listeners an intimate portrait of the wide array of voices and issues emanating out of and hotly debated within the owner-operator community, also with clear portraits of the men and women doing the work of trucking.

And while Over the Road was broadcast for a general listening audience, we did the best we could to accommodate the perspectives and needs of those who, like you, are on the inside of trucking. What emerged was an uncommon sort of end result -– less an explainer of trucking to the outsider than an exploration of the present through stories of the past, in a lot of different ways. Mistakes made, redeemed, careers launched and ruined and relaunched, and so much more. Herein, find a replay of Episode 1 from the 2019 Mid-America Trucking Show, when so many were hopeful for hours of service change (which has since occurred) and the stainless was polished, the camaraderie had. Think of it as a trip down memory lane, to a time when four people could talk for hours within the stagnant air of a tractor’s cab in lieu of a recording studio, without much worry of just who was infecting who, and with just what. We hope you enjoy.

Also in the podcast: A taste of an interview I did with owner-operator Germann Soeth out of Frederick, Maryland, with mostly dump work and principally in a 1998 Kenworth W900 that was featured in past at OverdriveOnline.com When we caught back up with owner-operator Soeth in October, though, he was showing a 1976 vintage Kenworth cabover. He was, interestingly enough, getting ready to put it into service hauling loads after a long retirement, given a significant breakdown with his 1990s conventional. Find out how he took the rig from scrap yard to working order over the course of a few years here.

Find more podcasts in Radiotopia's podcast network, including "Over the Road," via http://radiotopia.fm

See Germann Soeth's 1998 Kenworth W900B conventional via https://www.overdriveonline.com/the-trucking-history-of-independent-germann-soeth-and-his-long-running-1998-kenworth-w900b/

Subscribe to Overdrive's daily newsletter for trucking news, views and analysis geared toward current and prospective owner-operators: OverdriveOnline.com/newsletter-signup