On December 22, Channel 253 hosted the first Adult Civics Happy Hour since the start of the pando. This is the second of two panels from that evening.

Cast of Characters

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The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM 

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

On December 22, Channel 253 hosted the first Adult Civics Happy Hour since the start of the pando. This is the first of two panels from that evening.

Cast of Characters

Going Further

Prior podcast coverage of the Troyer case: here, here, and here.

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos!

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM 

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

As we did when then Mayor Strickland left her position, this week’s episode is an Exit Interview with Pierce County Council Chair, Derek Young. Young’s career in public service began in 1997, when he was elected to the Gig Harbor City Council, he will leave elected office in January for a gig TBD.

We spoke about the unfortunate Troyer verdict, the ways he feels he’s left the county better than when he entered office, his relationship with Executive Dammeier, what it was like to serve on the council with Pam Roach, and what’s next for him.

Cast of Characters

Going Further

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos!

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM 

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

Housing is a topic we return to with regularity. This is largely thanks to its roots and association with the Pod Auntie’s Move to Tacoma Podcast. With rising interest rates (and inflation) shrinking folks’ buying power, I thought it was time for another check-in on the housing and real estate markets. This episode has a national focus, with the intent to do a locally focused follow-up in the coming weeks.

This week’s show guest is Nikki Beauchamp. Nikki is a real estate advisor. She is based in New York City but has a reach across the country and the globe. She was dope! This is my favorite episode we’ve had in a minute and she’s agreed to come back on the pod for a Part 2 down the road.

Mentioned in the show intro: Here’s a link to my new weekly newsletter, Takes & Typos.

Cast of Characters

Nerd Farmer Housing & Real Estate Conversations

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM 

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

The midterm election results are still being tabulated. The widely predicted Red Wave did not materialize nationally, as the Democrats retained possession of the US Senate while losing a handful of seats in the House. As of this writing, control of the House is undecided, but it’s likely the GOP will emerge with a fragile, narrow majority. 

We reached out to perennial show guest Melissa Santos to talk through the results from the US Senate, District 3, and District 8 races. We also discussed the Secretary of State race and the questionable actions of State Democratic Chair, Tina Podlodowski.

Melissa was as ever informative and helpful in helping us understand the results in Washington.

Cast of Characters

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM 

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

Cameron Harwick is a professor of economics and SUNY Brockport. I stumbled across a video that he made explaining the causes of the current period of inflation as a result of monetary policy. Much of what he said jived with what he have heard prior on the show from Bill Dickens. But there was some daylight between the two economists. So we invited him on to help us square the differences. 

In addition, we talked about rising interest rates from the Federal Reserve and how those might impact the economy and complicate life for first-time home buyers. 

Cast of Characters

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM 

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

This week’s episode is our audio bookclub conversation about Michael Lewis’ The Premonition. The book is about the state-level & federal bureaucrats who foresaw the pandemic, as early as the George W. Bush administration. It lays out the pandemic response plans they built, how they were passed on to the Obama administration, and eventually discarded by the Trump administration in 2017, with disastrous consequences. 

Note: Our next #NerdFarmReads selection is Dopesick by Beth Macy. You can grab it from our friends at Libro FM (join using promo code “tacoma”).

Cast of Characters

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM 

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

In September, teachers in Seattle Schools went on a five-day strike. While the usual suspects in conservative media collectively pulled a hamstring faking umbrage, the community was widely supportive of the strike. Yet many people were caught off-guard by it and its seemingly rapid resolution.

We reached out to Dahlia Bazzaz and Monica Velez from the Seattle Times to get their takes on the strike and its connection to wider state-wide politics and events in Olympia.

Cast of Characters

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

After a series of episodes about mass incarceration and duplicitous, corrupt sheriffs, today’s episode is something different. We talked about Running with the Devil: the Wild World of John McAffee, a new Netflix documentary film and Untold: the Girlfriend that Didn’t Exist, a series about the catfishing of Manti Te’o, then linebacker at Notre Dame.

Our guests and Hope Teague Bowling and Megan Holyoke of the Interchanagle White Ladies Podcast.

Cast of Characters

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM 

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

In this episode, the second of a two-part series, we continue exploring the controversial term of Pierce County Sheriff, Ed Troyer. In this episode, we look and the public record including two official investigations into Troyer’s misconduct, first as the department’s Public Information Officer and eventually as Sheriff.  

Our guest today is Justin Camarata. He is a former member of the Tacoma City Council and a regular guest across the shows here on Channel 253. This conversation leans heavily on the reporting of local journalists, particularly Kari Plog from KNKX. Each document or report we refer to in the discussion is in the show notes below. 

Cast of Characters

Going Further

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM 

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member