The Northern Nerd

Rebecca and I grew up together and when I found she completed this incredible journey of hiking the Appalachian Trail, I knew that I just had to sit down with her to hear her story. Enjoy recounting this adventure with Rebecca as she tells her story and the lessons she learned along the way. Perhaps you'll be inspired to venture out on your own as well.

I met Ryan and Amy Sportel last year when I had their daughter in my classroom and I knew something was special about these people. They are an avid outdoors family, but are also very community minded as well. They moved to the Hayward area back in June of 2019 and I wanted to know why they left the big city behind to come live in the northwoods of Wisconsin. Enjoy our fireside conversation and kn...

We close out 2020 with sitting by the fire at The Whistle Punk with some cold beers and snow falling from the sky. It was a time for reflection on the holidays, the albums that got us through the year, fake ads, beer recommendations, and another "Santa's Dead" rant to end the show. Enjoy!

This isn't a podcast episode where we "Uncle Rico" ourselves and talk about our high school stats and different ways we could've won state. This is the episode dedicated to growing up in a small northern Wisconsin town and all that it implies. I had my good high school buddies (Ed, Mitch, and David) over for some pizza and Angry Minnow brews and we hit record. Enjoy!

We were on location at Beau Petersen's house (which is also a highly ranked VRBO) to sit around the fire and record our latest podcast. Bourbon from 45th Parallel in New Richmond was in our cups and it was a nice addition to the show. Beau has shot photography for thousands of weddings through "Beau Petersen Photography" as well as helped people travel the world with "Superior Travel Planning." He...

In this week's episode, I recorded solo as I wanted to extend a message to young creatives. Whether you're just starting out as a writer, photographer, videographer or artist, I really hope you gain inspiration through this podcast episode. As always, thanks for listening.

It's October and it's officially "spooky season." Hear our latest pitch for a scary movie, a discussion on board games we hate the most, a dive into our latest music and show recommendations, and whatever else we came up with down at The Whistle Punk. Enjoy!

In our latest episode, we give you all of the entertainment recommendations you can handle while bouncing around from topic to topic like a drunken squirrel. Enjoy!

I had the pleasure of having Minnesota rapper, Pharaoh, over to The Northern Nerd HQ to talk about his music and the highly anticipated Aki Festival happening at the end of August. Hear some wonderful insight from Pharaoh about what it means to pursue your passions and to hear his story. Enjoy! Be sure to check out akifest.com for more information on the festival and to purchase your tickets which...

After some time away from each other, we were finally able to meet up once again for another After Hours podcast session. We were posted up outside of The Whistle Punk for this one. You'll hear traffic occasionally, but we'd like to think it makes us more genuine to the northwoods. We hope you enjoy our Stone Lake traffic report as well. (Yes, we are expecting some of you to send us that "Wagon Wh...

Ian Malcolm has once again joined our podcast and I'd like to think that he's pretty much a co-host at this point. He came over to "the studio" (my living room) and we talked about his latest book "Waking Spero" as well as the writing process and zombie geese taking place in the distant future at the haunted McCormick House. Enjoy!

Quarantine has been tough, okay? The crew was able to get together via Zoom to record this latest podcast episode. We give you some great shows to watch, some hot takes and focus on moving hears and not asses. We're not sure what it means either, but it's provocative and gets the people going. Enjoy!

James Tumminia is a producer/actor/director and received a 2019 EMMY nomination for producing the feature documentary "Love, Gilda" that opened the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. I met James through a contest from the NBC show "This Is Us" and we've been friends ever since. It was great to chat with James to discuss what it's like to be a producer/actor/director and I even got him to tell me about hi...

Katie Krall was hired by the Cincinnati Reds as a Baseball Operations Analyst in January 2020. In her role she develops and integrates new tools and technology to improve Baseball Operations decision making processes, provides comprehensive scouting coverage, and statistical request support to the front office. I had the opportunity to talk with Katie about her role with the Reds, what she enjoys...

JT and I have been friends since the days we spent together at Grandma's Too in Hayward. It was great to have him on the phone to talk about what it's like to work for NASA, reminisce on our glory days of working at the go kart track and our favorite Coach Heinrich memories. Enjoy our latest episode!

On most nights, you can probably catch James working at The Lakely in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. CO-VID 19 has gotten in the way of that, but that didn't stop me from bending the ear of my favorite bartender and good friend, James. I'm not going to lie, we covered a lot of topics in this episode, but we hope you learn something along the way and if not, enjoy two friends catching up!

If you know what day of the week it is during quarantine, I'd say you're doing just fine. With all of this free time, I figured I'd call up my college friends from the Murray Hall days at UWEC to catch up for a bit. In this episode, you'll learn about what it takes to be a pilot, what living in a new state during quarantine is like and much more. Enjoy!

Linsi Osland and I went to college together at UWEC, but now she is teaching in Hawaii. In this episode, we discuss her leap of faith to teach in Hawaii, what her first year of teaching has been like, and how to spot a tourist in Hawaii. Enjoy!

Erik Van Vleet is one of my college friends and it's been a while since we've talked, so I figured now more than ever was a great time to catch up. During our conversation, we discussed things we are doing to stay active during quarantine, our UWEC days, things that annoy bartenders and what it was like to sit through "Step Brothers" with his grandma. Enjoy! Unlikely Sports Heroes Video Link: http...

Quarantine has provided a unique opportunity for friends to reconnect. It's been a while since I've been able to talk with one of my best friends, Kyle Naber. He lives down in Milwaukee and I got to pick his brain a bit involving the lack of sports, our college days, and what he's doing to stay busy during this time. Enjoy!

After Hours: Episode 5: The Gang Gets Quarantined Hello Nerds, We recorded this episode from our own apartments/houses and we hope you enjoy it. During this time of uncertainty in society, we wanted to bring you some laughter at our own expense. Thanks for listening to the show, be kind to one another and wash ya hands! James' Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2xjN2rq Ian's Sexy Music Video Recommendatio...

After Hours: Episode 4: Post Birkie Buzz with Stu Birkie week was a whirlwind, but we lived to tell the tale. In this episode, we had a great friend, Stu Neville, join us as a co-host and show guest. We talked about everything from the Birkie to dried mango misfortunes. Enjoy! 80s Birkie Documentary Link: https://bit.ly/2PBcjmX

After Hours: Episode 3 with Chris Mahoney In this episode, we were joined by our friend, Chris, to talk about beer, life in the northwoods, what the heck "Goldberg" from the Mighty Ducks has been up to, give you our hot takes and our fake ads. Enjoy! Link to Andy Reid Video as promised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J43shDi3XU

Episode 23: Stories with my Sister Last week, I got a chance to sit down with my brother, so it only seemed fitting to sit down with my sister, Alli Parr, for our latest episode. In this episode, we shared A LOT of laughs, but also talked about the life of a small town youth pastor/substitute teacher/waitress and were able to share stories from our childhood. Enjoy! Intro/Outro Music by Beak Nasty

Episode 22: Brothers I was able to find time to sit down with my brother while he was home on break from Madison. We were able to talk about what college life is like down in Madison, but this conversation also provided an avenue to talk about our favorite vacations as children. We also "roasted" our parents towards the end of the podcast. It was a fun episode to record and I hope you enjoy it! Ep...