Sponsor Shout-Out: Steven Smith Teamaker

You can almost always find a box of Smith Tea on the bike.

I first met Steven Smith in 2003. He was the head of Tazo Tea back then and I was doing a segment about the company for On the Cusp, my then weekly late night talk show on NYU-TV. Eight years later as I was getting ready to launch this project I got in touch again and miraculously he remembered me. I had a great meeting with Steve and Kim (Steve's wife and co-founder of this newest venture), they liked the idea and generously signed on to be a supporting sponsor.

Also, I guess this is as good a time as any to out myself as one of the few Portlanders who's not a regular coffee drinker. I might drink a cup of coffee once a month but I start every day with a cup of tea (and I generally punctuate my day with a few more cups of tea). My tea shelf - yes, I've got a whole shelf in my kitchen devoted to the stuff - is packed with teas from companies that Steve has created over the past few decades. Naturally, the shelf is now primarily dominated with Steven Smith Teamaker tea. And in case you were curious, my current favorites are Brahmin and Fez.

You can check out our official interview with Steve here:

Did you see us in the paper?

There was an awesome piece about PPTS in The Oregonian over the weekend. They interviewed a lot of the folks responsible for the show and even some past guests! You can read it here.

They also mentioned our upcoming live event. Do you have your ticket yet?

See the show live!

Since early January we've been posting a new episode every Tuesday. Well, this Tuesday we don't have a new episode but we do have exciting news:

It's true! We're filming episodes with a real live audience! And we've got some awesome guests confirmed including author Jon Raymond, artists/authors Paul Guinan & Anina Bennett, and more cool folks (who will be announced soon)!

Here are the details:

WHEN: Sunday, March 11th from 3 - 5PM

WHERE: Bagdad Theater
3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214

COST: $10 (And it all goes to the Portland Hawthorne Hostel)

You can buy tickets here.

Stay tuned for more updates and I'll see you on March 11th!

Episode 6: Craig Thompson at the Keen Factory!

I was pretty excited about filming an episode at Keen's Swan Island factory - even if there are a few challenges related to filming in a working production plant. One of those challenges is trying to record good audio when there are half a dozen machines operating loudly all around you. So yes, you will hear a lot of background machinery in this episode but that's just one of the charms of The Pedal Powered Talk Show. When you film in a shoe factory it's going to sound like a shoe factory.

It was pretty inspiring to see all those Keens being assembled in my very own hometown. And I think it brought back memories for graphic novelist Craig Thompson, who grew up in a Wisconsin town where the main employer was a cheese factory. I chatted with Craig about growing up as a farm kid, his autobio-graphic novel Blankets, and his most recent book, Habibi. Naturally, we also challenged him to a high stakes drawing challenge. Check it out:

And here's that finished sketch:

Check out some behind the scenes photos here.

Blitzen Trapper Cover The Rolling Stones

We had to cut Blitzen Trapper's musical performance short in episode four, but we wanted to share the entire song with you. So here they are, Blitzen Trapper performing The Rolling Stones' Dead Flowers:

Check out the full episode here.