Manufacturing Talks

Send us Fan Mail Episode 88 is another must-listen. Energy economist, entrepreneur, commodities trader, and author Dr. Lars Schernikau joins us to talk about his latest book, *The Unpopular Truth about Electricity and the Future of Energy,* which he co-wrote with Professor William Hayden Smith. Lars dives into just why our current path of rapid additions of variable renewables is wrong and why bat...

Send us Fan Mail It's been a while since we covered 3D printing here. Who better to chat with about it than Blake Teipel, who joined us for our Episode 87? He co-founded Essentium, maker of high-speed extrusion 3D printers and materials, and they were just acquired by Nexa3D. Now Blake is Chief Strategy Officer for the combined company, and he'll be there at the helm taking Nexa3D into t...

Send us Fan Mail Montana isn't just one of America's fastest-growing states in population. It's also rapidly expanding its manufacturing base, growing it by 14% last year alone! Why? Not because of giant dollops of taxpayer-funded subsidies. Governor Greg Gianforte, a serial entrepreneur and former small businessman himself, and the Montana legislature have focused on improving the...

Send us Fan Mail For our Episode 85, we're joined by Jeffrey Korzenik, chief economist at one of our major American banks and author of the very important book, Untapped Talent: How Second Chance Hiring Works for Your Business and the Community . He tells us all the critical reason we should all be taking a look at hiring those who've previously been incarcerated or have criminal records...

Send us Fan Mail If you're doing any kind of show about manufacturing, then you want to be just like Damon Pistulka and Curt Anderson, creators and hosts at Manufacturing eCommerce Success! These two wrote the book on how to make engaging content focused on industry. Plus they were some of the originators at LinkedIn Live, showing the rest of us how to do it right! They joined us for Episode...

Send us Fan Mail The funniest polymath around joins us once again, this time to do a deep dive into his latest book. Mark P. Mills, now Distinguished Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Contributing Editor at City Journal, waxes poetic about his predictions for a whale of a decade in *The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and...

Send us Fan Mail Guru on all things power generation Meredith Angwin comes back to the show, this time to focus entirely on the big points of her superb book, *Shorting the Grid: The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid.* (https://www.amazon.com/Shorting-Grid-Hidden-Fragility-Electric/dp/1735358002/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1702947902&sr=8-1) Tune in to learn all about the c...

Send us Fan Mail Eric joins us once again for Episode 81! We chat about the recent news of the $10 billion share buyback at GM, the continuing news of the huge scaling back of the pork-laden Ford battery plant in Michigan, and general discussion of how those companies seem to be going off the rails. Eric also offers his take on the recent clean energy legislation that Michigan Democrats have foist...

Send us Fan Mail With a background as an engineer on the production front lines for GM and Tesla, Ryan Kuhlenbeck set out to found a tech company focused on helping the floor operators solve their biggest problems. He's co-founder and CEO of Pico MES (https://www.picomes.com/), which facilitates solutions such as visual task instructions on screens right on front of the worker, ready communic...

Send us Fan Mail If you're a manufacturer almost anywhere in the world, you're having some challenges hiring the people you need. That's been Magda Dexter's specialty at Saint-Gobain North America, where she's Sr. VP of Communication and Human Resources. She joins us to tell all about their excellent efforts to attract the talent they need, with initiatives like formal men...

Send us Fan Mail For Episode 78, we're joined by Adam Beckerman and Simeon Wallace at Aprio, a CPA-led Advisory Firm with over 700 clients in their Manufacturing and Distribution Practice. Their quarterly "Manufacturing and Distribution Insights" report is a great look into the state of business for American industry. Simeon is Chief Investment Officer and leader of Aprio’s Wealth M...

Send us Fan Mail Mark Stemmy joins us for our Episode 77 to talk about all things cycling. He's the founder of Optimized Cycling Solutions (https://optimizedcycling.com/), "a bicycle studio focused on bespoke products and services, offering custom frames and complete bikes, built in the U.S.A. and Italy." Plus he's spent decades in the business, and he talks about that history...

Send us Fan Mail Manufacturers uniquely rely on affordable, reliable energy for their business models. Unfortunately, legislators in Michigan's House of Representatives just last week passed a bill that will make our electricity a lot more expensive and a lot less reliable. Here are the basics:  Even before last week's bill, Michigan was already on a path to big problems, with plans to s...

Send us Fan Mail I can't believe I got to Episode 75 before doing anything on bicycles! But we went big - Tony Karklins, CEO of Time Bicycles and Cardinal Cycling Group, joined us for a great discussion of my favorite sport! Tony digs into: - His own background and how he got to be where he is - including owning his own bike shop as a teenager! - Why pretty much all bike making went to Asia b...

Send us Fan Mail I learned about the Great Lakes Boat Building School while on a sailing adventure with the Boy Scouts several years ago, when we spent the night docked in Hessel, just a few miles away from Cedarville, where the school is located. For Episode 74, we have Nikki Storey, the school's president, here to tell us all about the history of the GLBBS, what ultra-cool programs they hav...

Send us Fan Mail Finally! The end of our broadcasting day came at Huntington Place in Detroit on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023, where we did all-day interviews at the Motion + Power Technology Expo put on by the American Gear Manufacturers Association. We finished strong! Forest City Gear's Kika Young, CEO, and Jared Lyford, Director of Operations, joined us to talk about their gearmaking shop in Ro...

Send us Fan Mail Matt Croson, President of the AGMA, joins us once again for our Episode 65, recorded live from the floor of the Expo at Huntington Place in downtown Detroit! Matt kicked off a whole day of livestreamed interviews, telling us what the show is all about and what the AGMA does for its membership. Plus there's a little talk about heavy metal music! Tune in and check out the whole...

Send us Fan Mail Lori Brown and Cindy Hall join us for our Episode 66, recorded live from the floor of the Motion + Power Technology Expo at Huntington Place in downtown Detroit! Lori and Cindy tell us all about their company, Clifford-Jacobs Forging in Champaign, Illinois. We put them in as our first company interview because forging is the earliest step in gearmaking that was represented at the...

Send us Fan Mail Nicole Wolter, CEO of HM Manufacturing (who does LOTS of other stuff too!), joins us for our Episode 67, recorded live from the floor of the Motion + Power Technology Expo at Huntington Place in downtown Detroit. Nicole tells us all about her family-owned machine shop that makes gears and more. Plus she tells us all the fabulous work she does to support manufacturing in her commun...

Send us Fan Mail Joe Goral keeps our big day of livestreaming moving, joining us for our Episode 68, recorded live from the floor of the Motion + Power Technology Expo at Huntington Place in downtown Detroit. Joe shares the ins and outs of his company, Bourn & Koch, a machine tool outfit. They make parts for a bunch of machines made by companies that are now out of business, having bought the...

Send us Fan Mail Our big day at the American Gear Manufacturers Association's Motion + Power Technology Expo was rolling right along as we progressed through the afternoon! Beau Hallavant sat down with us for Episode 69 and told us all about his company, WD Bearing Group. Now, you may think ball bearings are an industry that's pretty locked down and disruption-proof, but think again. By...

Send us Fan Mail Ruthie Johnston from Croix Gear & Machining in Hudson, Wisconsin, kept our afternoon of livestreaming from the American Gear Manufacturers Association's Motion + Power Technology Expo at Huntington Place in Detroit moving right along! She joined us for our Episode 70, and told us how she quite unexpectedly took the CEO role at her company when her husband passed away unex...

Send us Fan Mail John Perrotti is CEO of Gleason Corporation in Rochester, New York. He sat down to chat with us for Episode 71, in the middle of the afternoon during our full day of livestreaming from the American Gear Manufacturers Association's Motion + Power Technology Expo at Huntington Place in Detroit. John's company makes machines like grinders and cutters. They make tools for th...

Send us Fan Mail We were getting close to the end of our livestreaming day at the MPT Expo in Detroit when Michael Cinquemani joined us for our Episode 72. Michael brings us full circle on what's represented at this show put on by the American Gear Manufacturers Association. We started with forging and heard from machine makers, toolmakers, and the people who make both gears and bearings. Mic...

Send us Fan Mail In case you missed it when it was actually live... For our second-ever live broadcast, Eric joined us once again to talk about the hot manufacturing topics of today. Tune in and hear him discuss the UAW strike and the missteps of automakers like GM and Ford. (CEO pay and recalls, anyone?) He covers some of the positives and negatives of Stellantis too. He also gives us some lowdow...