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 than being a gatekeeper, he was an advocate for the less fortunate and less politically connected in our community. He made his column a forum for voices across the city, rather than a stale rotation of the usual suspects.

He also was a frequent guest on the show, so in tribute to Matt today we are re-releasing an episode of the podcast from 2018 where Matt joined me and Representative Laurie Jinkins in my classroom, for a conversation about evictions and housing solutions for our region and beyond. I think you get a real sense of the kind of man Matt was from this conversation.

 His unexpected passing leaves a massive hole in the paper and in our civic culture. 

A Go Fund Me has been set up to support Matt’s family.

More of Matt’s appearances on pod:

Covering Moral Panics – January 2024

Nerd Farmer Live – Summer 2023

Evicted #NerdFarmReads Bookclub – April 2018

Housing, Homelessness, and Political Protest – October 2017

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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 IP or sequels. So we’re mostly discussing smaller films — a mix of wide release, some available via video on demand (VOD), and others on various streaming platforms.

You will find trailers for each of the films we discussed below:

I Saw the TV Glow

Janet Planet

Fancy Dance

Evil Does Not Exist

The Beast

Good One

In a Violent Nature

Do Not Expect to Much from the End of the World

The Feeling That The Time for Doing Something Has Passed

Bring Him to Me

Longlegs

Malignant

Barbarian

X / Pearl / Maxxxine

Furiosa

Going Further

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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 Channel 253 Podcast Crossing Division.

BBC Reporting on the Shooting

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 asked them to join me for conversation about the state of the football club and its changing relationship with their fanbase.

This is a two-part discussion:

In segment one, we talked about our beloved Seattle Sounders and the troubles they seem to be experiencing off-the-field and in the stands with some of their core supporters and long-time fans. 

In segment two, we talked about the recent run of success the Sounders have had on the field, and potential moves they can make in the summer transfer window.

Going Further

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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 this episode was to help listeners better understand the various economic data and indicators that we encounter on a daily basis. There’s often a gap between the story these indicators tell us about the economy and the popular sentiment among the public. 

This discrepancy has significant implications for the upcoming elections and beyond.

Cast of Characters

Going Further

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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 the impact this is having on communities.

Cast of Characters

Going Further

Going Even Further: Prior Nerd Farmer Episodes about Housing

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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 mainstreaming. I don’t have many answers but I have a ton of concerns. At the same time Randy and I are both regularly using AI programs despite our shared reservations about the technology, its creators, and the place it may come to occupy in our society.

Cast of Characters

Going Further

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In this episode, we dove into recent shifts in real estate with Jasmyn Jefferson, Designated Broker and co-Owner of Windermere Abode Lakewood. Jasmyn gave us her take on the Tacoma Housing market and the low-down on the recent NAR settlement. She talked about its impact on commission structures and what’s to come in the industry as a whole. 

Jasmyn is a realtor but she sees the field through a different lens than most folks in the biz and I think that comes across in this conversation.

Cast of Characters

Going Further

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This month observant Muslims around the world are fasting in observance of Ramadan.

Jasmine El Shear is an Egyptian-American school counselor in the Gulf, advising Emirati students in navigating an American school system. She joined us for a wide-ranging conversation about the holy month of Ramadan, life for Muslim students in US schools, and her recent Umrah trip to Mecca. 

Cast of Characters

Going Further

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Nathan Perl-Rosenthal is an historian of the eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Atlantic world. He focuses on the political and cultural history of Europe and the Americas in the age of revolution, with a emphasis on the transnational influences that shaped modern national politics.

He’s the author of the recent article Revolutions Take Generations in the Atlantic and the book The Age of Revolutions. He joined us to talk about the lessons we can learn from the series of revolutions that took place in the 18th century and the lessons we can learn from them today.

Cast of Characters

Nathan Perl-Rosenthal – USC

Going Further

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