Nerd Farmer Podcast

Housing is a frequent topic of conversation on this show. We’ve talked to realtors about the market for first-time homebuyers; we’ve discussed Matthew Desmond’s Evicted; we’ve talked about combatting displacement; we’ve discussed efforts to combat homelessness with...

After a nearly four month trial, last week leaders of the Proud Boys were convicted in federal court of seditious conspiracy. The Proud Boys are a right-wing paramilitary group that relishes street fights and violence...

In one twenty-four period in March, over 42 billion dollars was withdrawn from Silicon Valley Bank in California. This led to the second largest bank collapse in US history and SVB went into FDIC receivership....

This week, I sat down with Israel Calera. Iz is an artist and designer from Rio Grande Valley on the US/Texas border, the setting of much of Blood Meridian. He currently resides here in Abu...

Long time listeners will know that the topic of regressive taxation in Washington  has been a repeated talking point on the show. In 2019, we hosted an Adult Civics Hour called the Case for Progressive...

The show’s roots are local but it wanders wherever my interests happen to lead.  Since moving to Abu Dhabi, I have had the opportunity to visit several countries I never would have considered visiting prior....

This is our long awaited conversation about Dopesick by Beth Macy. Dopesick is the story of the orign and rise of the opioid crisis and the actions of pharmaceutical companies in flooding our communities with...

Eli Cranor is an Arkansas based writer. His debut novel, Don’t Know Tough, is about a troubled young man named Billy Lowe, who is taken under his wing by the new football coach, Trent Powers, newly...

Tacoma Against Nazis (TAN) was founded in 2017 to warn the community about the presence of a violent neo-Nazi cell operating in the city of Tacoma. A member of that cell, Jason “Gravy” DeSimas, was...

Last night (Gulf Time), as Auckland City and Egypt’s Al Ahly were kicking off in Morocco, we jumped on with Dave Clark, founder and writer at Sounder at Heart. Dave knows more about football in...

This week we are joined by the founder and proprietor of Move to Tacoma, Marguerite Martin, to talk about what’s happening in the housing market in Pierce County. This conversation is a continuation of the...

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 Rep Elect Sharlett Mena...

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 Kari Plog – KNKX...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

In this episode, the first of a two-part series, we dig into the turbulent term of the elected Pierce County Sheriff, Ed Troyer. In this episode, we look at Troyer’s influence on the investigation into...

The United States imprisons twice as many people per capita as Vladimir Putin’s Russia and four times the number of communist China. The Prison Within is a documentary about mass incarceration and the harm it...

Danny Caine is the co-owner and proprietor of the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas. He is also the author of How to Resist Amazon and Why a zine/audiobook about the business practices of Amazon and...

On July 13, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a year over year price rise of 9.1%. Driven by rising food and energy costs, the United States is experiencing the worst inflationary period since 1980....