Postcardist

I got a Greetings from Karen Commins postcard in the mail. Here was a new take on postcards: a voiceover artist who uses postcards to market her services. And I was lucky enough to have a conversation about that. But it didn't end there. Karen, first and foremost, is a storyteller. And what great stories. You can hear about how she:

• Named a helicopter her class bought with S&H Green Stamps for the local police department
• Had her first stint in radio -- in 5th grade -- after writing a winning essay
• Contacted the biggest name in voiceover work when she was getting started...and Frank Muller wrote back with advice
• Used Barry Manilow's birthday as a postcard marketing event
• Recommends using a return address on postcards
• Answers the question if Nellie Bly sent postcards in her race around the world that started in 1889
• Offers a free audio book about Nellie Bly to the first five Postcardist listeners who write here at [email protected]
• Sent me down a rabbit hole for stereo viewer cards...yikes!

Postcardist has been out of the studio lately. In this episode, I interview my friend Jessica Mand -- writer, photographer, and itinerant traveler. We do this interview in two locations -- at a French brasserie to start, with all the clanking plates and music playing in the background; then we transition a couple days later to a bench outside a coffee shop. Both places had lots of noise, but Jess makes it worthwhile in her descriptions of Iceland, her discovery of the prettiest postcard in Hawaii, and she keeps us guessing about the best restaurant on Nantucket.

We all like getting postcards. And the Kimpton Hotel Palomar has made it easy for guests to write and send postcards from their hotel. In this episode, I interview Jessica Bishop, PR Director for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants in the Northeast, at the Palomar in Philadelphia. Jessica talks about the idea for the postcard writing station, how much the guests have enjoyed the human connection of writing a postcard, and tells about her own fascination with handwritten mail.

The creativity of the bistro culture worked in 1920s Paris, and it works in present day in Philadelphia. Postcardist host Frank Roche is joined at Parc bistro by filmmaker Justine Burt. They talk about the hand-drawn postcard Justine creates while they're eating dinner, how to send chain postcards, and offer observations about a guy who rides by on a bicycle with a ferret on his back.

Want to be on the Postcardist? Send a note to [email protected] or send a message on FB or IG.

Mark Routh joins me once again to conduct another postcard collecting master class where we cover the spectrum from the recent royal wedding to postcard design to QSL cards used in ham radio operations to the Titanic to postcard design to Doctor Who to postcards made by terrorist organizations. Yes, you heard me right…Mark gives us a lesson in the history of those cards and a perspective on collecting them.

You can find Mark work at Mark's Postcard Chat and his monthly column is in Picture Postcard Monthly.

Music transitions for this show are Japanese Prog by Rushus, from the album Stories. Stories by Rushus is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.

In this week's episode, I talk to the graphic artist and illustrator, Erick Sahler, whose art many of you recognize from postcards I've posted on the Postcardist Instagram page.

Erick creates large format serigraphs (you'll have to listen to the show to hear about the definition) in a very compelling style. And he creates postcards from his large-format art.

You can find Erick's work at ericksahler.com. And if you're looking to buy postcards, you can click here. But I'd say spend some time on his site. And send him a note if you enjoyed hearing him on Postcardist. It's really nice of an artist to take time of the day to talk about his creative process and how we were lucky enough to have his designs on postcards. Also, Erick is doing a one-man show the entire month of June at Candleberry Gallery in St. Michaels. Click here for details on a meet-the-artist day on June 9.

This is a special snapshot of who we were in the world for a very specific moment in time. --Frank Warren of PostSecret, talking about sending postcards and the connections they make

In this special episode of the Postcardist podcast, I interview Frank Warren of PostSecret, "an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard." We talk about Frank's early start with postcards, the million+ cards he's received and read, and the connections postcards make in the world.

You can see new PostSecrets every Sunday on the site. And you can see Frank's TED Talk here. The San Diego Museum of Man exhibit we talk about in the show is here. And Frank has written six best-selling books.

Imagine a serial killer who taunted his victims' families and the police with postcards he wrote. In this episode, I interview Vance McLaughlin PhD, who wrote the book The Postcard Serial Killer.

The podcast runs the gamut from describing the story of horrific murders that took place more than 100 years ago to the psychological manipulator who wrote postcards about the murders.

WARNING: There is some graphic content described in the show about the abuse and murder of young boys. I set a trigger warning in the show for those who may be disturbed by the material.

This week's episode is a look back at the first 13 episodes of Postcardist, including show stats and some thoughts about growing our audience. I also talk about a postcard tacker I created and an idea for a postcard club? Want in? Send an email to [email protected].

Postcards from Kate is a nonpartisan project that encourages people to write postcards to politicians, journalists, and influencers to encourage positive social change. In this episode, I interview the founders of Postcards from Kate, Amelia West and Melissa Smith, about how they got inspired to use postcards by their grandfather, how they find positive stories, and how they rally people to write postcards to people who have made a difference.

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Music in this episode:

Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin, licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License. Music sourced from Free Music Archive.