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7 episodes with moveable type
In the three years since its return to power, the Taliban have excluded women and girls from almost every aspect of public life in Afghanistan, denying them access to education, employment, even speaking or showing their faces outside their homes. Published this August, My Dear Kabul: A Year in the Life of An Afghan Women's Writing Group (Coronet, August 2024) is the collective diary of 21 fiercely brilliant Afghan women writers, compiled using WhatsApp messages, offering courageous and intimate testimonies of the fall of Kabul in 2021 and its aftermath, of life under Taliban rule and far from home in exile. In August 2021 these women were in the process of publishing an anthology of short stories when their world was turned upside down. As they watched their cities fall, schools close, families and friends disperse and freedoms disappear, they stayed connected via WhatsApp messages, and established a space to keep their creativity alive, support each other and bear witness to the turmoil unfolding around them. My Dear Kabul is their story. My Dear Kabul is an Untold Narratives project, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and by The Bagri Foundation. Untold is a development programme for writers marginalised by community or conflict. It has been working with women writers in Afghanistan since 2020, where support for writers has been hampered by restrictions on freedom of expression and instability. Marie, among the 21 contributors to My Dear Kabul, was born in Afghanistan but her family lived in exile when she was a young child, returning home during the years of the Islamic republic. She studied for her first degree at Kabul University's Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences before completing a master's degree in India. In August 2021, Marie was in Afghanistan, working in the marketing department of a German aid agency while running her own women-led counselling service. In November 2021, she was evacuated from her family home to an apartment in Germany; she moved alone. Her story ‘The Café' was published in Moveable Type in 2023. Marie is also a contributor to My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2021) and Rising After the Fall (Scholastic, 2023). Parwana Fayyaz, a translator and editor of My Dear Kabul, is a scholar and teacher of Persian literature at the University of Cambridge. She is also a poet and translator working with multiple languages. Her poetry collection, Forty Names (Carcanet Press, 2021), was a New Statesman book of the year and a White Review book of the year. Her translations promote the writings and culture of Afghan people around the world. Sunila Galappatti, an editor of My Dear Kabul, has worked with other people's stories as a dramaturg, theatre director, editor and writer: at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Live Theatre (Newcastle), Galle Literary Festival, Raking Leaves, Suriya Women's Development Centre, Commonwealth Writers, Himal Southasian and Untold Narratives. She spent five years working with a long-term prisoner of war in the Sri Lankan conflict, to retell his story in A Long Watch (Hurst, 2016). I should add I've had the privilege of working with Sunila at Himal - so I'm thrilled to be speaking with her today.
In today's episode, we are pleased to share with you our very first radio play. The play we will be sharing with you today is called Gravity and it was written by Katie Caden. Caden is an alumnus of Soho Writers Lab and has had her work performed at Vault festival, the Bunker Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Theatre 503, Camden People's Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre. Her last show 'Paper Straws', produced by her theatre company PearShaped, won the Vault Origins award and her first play 'Are You Happy Now' was shortlisted for Lyric Hammersmith's Original Theatre Voices competition. Caden's writing explores contemporary issues, and interrogates the way we live our lives today, experimenting with form and often using humour as a way to communicate serious issues. She writes to understand other people, and herself, exploring why we behave in the way we do? Why do we make poor decisions and repeat our mistakes? And what drives us to hurt each other or conversely express our love? Writing 'Gravity' in response to Unfeeling, the theme for this year's issue, allowed Caden to consider these things and, in particular, how people can express their love through their actions whilst saying they don't care, and conversely how we can tell people we love them and then behave like we don't. All the characters battle with these impulses and the push and pull between feeling too much and feeling nothing at all. Alongside this, Caden has included technology almost as an extra character, interfering with these dynamics, pulling attention away from the situation at hand, and impacting the characters' ability to feel to the fullest extent. For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/moveable-type/gravity-radio-play-katie-caden Date of episode recording: 2022-09-27 Duration: 00:15:58 Language of episode: English Presenter: Sarah Edwards Guests: Eve Colyer, Regina Co, Sophie Edwards, ELiot Taylor, Sarah Chambre, Miriam Helmers, Oliver Toloza Chacon, Damian Walsh Producer: Sarah Edwards (producer), Katie Caden (playwright)
What could be better than two typography podcasts for the price of one‽ Josh and Kyle team up with Micah Rich and Olivia Kane from The League of Moveable Type's Weekly Typographic and have a rollicking conversation through the Olympics, Italian fashion, and, what else, Future Fonts. Our Interro-couple has finally become an Interrogang, and if anyone out there can figure out how to make an ampersand with their fingers, please let us know... Font releases highlighted in this episode:NaN Tresor from NaNRaskal Oner Write from Swiss TypefacesArticles discussed in this episode:Ferragamo Identity Refresh on DeZeen The Olympics Brand Evolution Click here to subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter to get all the latest type news and notes from your friends at Proof&Co!Please take a moment to rate and review us on your podcasting site of choice and if you like what you hear, tell your friends and family they should listen too!
In this episode, Merve Emre is interviewed by PhD candidate Sarah Edwards. The discussion focuses on Merve Emre's upcoming book, Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities. Music by Oscar Wilkins. For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/moveable-type/sites/moveable_type/files/merve_emre_moveable_type_full_episode_transcript.pdf Date of episode recording: 2022-06-01 Duration: 1:08:09 Language of episode: English Presenter:Sarah Edwards Guests: Merve Emre Producer: Oscar Wilkins; Sarah Edwards
What is environmental humanities? How are scholars reconsidering our approach to the natural world, and where can you go to learn more? In the second of a two-part episode on the environmental humanities, host Roxana talks to Kate Rigby, Christine Okoth and Peter Riley – three academics who approach environmental concepts from very different perspectives in their work. They discuss the difficulties of thinking about the future, postcolonial approaches to ecocriticism and the political problems of 'pure' nature. Kate Rigby is Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Environmental Humanities at University of Cologne, where she directs the centre for Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities. A well established figure in the environmental humanities, her most recent monograph, Reclaiming Romanticism: Towards an Ecopoetics of Decolonization (2020) reconsiders the ecopoetic legacies of British Romanticism through a decolonial lens. Christine Okoth is Lecturer in Literature and Cultures of the Black Atlantic at King's College London. Having recently completed a position as Research Fellow in the English Department at the University of Warwick, she is currently writing a book about ecology, extraction, and contemporary literature. Peter Riley is Associate Professor in Poetry and Poetics at Durham University. His recent book, Strandings: Confessions of a Whale Scavenger (2022), won the Ideas Prize for non-fiction. He is currently editing Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass for the Oxford World's Classics series (forthcoming 2022), and his academic research examines nineteenth through twentieth century poetry in relation to labour history, Marxism, and archival studies. Date of episode recording: 2022-04-18 Duration: 00:46:14 Language of episode: English Presenter: Roxana Toloza Chacon Guests: Kate Rigby, Christine Okoth, Peter Riley Producer: Damian Walsh; Assistant Producer: Anna De Vivo; Editor: Daniel Lewis
In the second of a two-part feature recorded for LGBTQ+ History Month, presenter Roxie talks to Juliet Jacques, writer, journalist and author of Trans: A Memoir about her 2021 short-story collection Variations and the politics of representing trans history. She also speaks to Ben Miller, historian, writer and co-host of the Bad Gays podcast about complicating conventional queer histories as well as his research into the colonial legacy of queer representation. For more information on UCL's recent decision to cut ties with Stonewall: https://thetab.com/uk/london/2022/01/21/vindictive-and-insensitive-students-and-staff-slam-ucl-decision-to-cut-ties-with-stonewall-44148 Petition calling for UCL to rejoin the scheme: https://www.change.org/p/ucl-ucl-staff-students-alumni-ask-ucl-to-rejoin-stonewall-schemes The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the official policies, views or positions of any institutions with which they are affiliated. To access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/moveable-type/moveable-type-podcast-lgbtq-history-month-transcript-episode-3-part-2 Date of episode recording: 2022-02-16 Duration: 01:10:50 Language of episode: English Presenter: Roxana Toloza Chacon Guests: Juliet Jacques; Ben Miller Producer: Anna De Vivo; Damian Walsh; Editor: Daniel Lewis
In the first of a two-part feature celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month, our presenter Roxana speaks to Dr Noreen Masud, BBC New Generation Thinker and Lecturer at the University of Bristol, about her work on flatness, negative affect, and the aphorism, and how each might help us resist heteronormativity. She also speaks to Talen Wright, PhD student at UCL Division of Psychiatry, about her research into trans mental health, microaggressions and microaffirmation. Both guests also discuss UCL's recent decision to cut ties with Stonewall, and the ramifications of this decision on trans safety and academic freedom within the university and society more broadly. For more information on UCL's recent decision to cut ties with Stonewall: https://thetab.com/uk/london/2022/01/21/vindictive-and-insensitive-students-and-staff-slam-ucl-decision-to-cut-ties-with-stonewall-44148 https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/dec/21/ucl-becomes-first-university-to-formally-cut-ties-with-stonewall Petition calling for UCL to re-join the scheme: https://www.change.org/p/ucl-ucl-staff-students-alumni-ask-ucl-to-rejoin-stonewall-schemes For more information on Talen Wright's study, and to take part, see Twitter @TransMMH and: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychiatry/research/epidemiology-and-applied-clinical-research-department/trans-microaggressions-mental-health The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the official policies, views or positions of any institutions with which they are affiliated. For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/moveable-type/moveable-type-podcast-lgbtq-history-month-part-1-episode-3 Date of episode recording: 2022-02-09 Duration: 01:00:23 Language of episode: English Presenter: Roxana Toloza Chacon Guests: Dr Noreen Masud; Talen Wright Producer: Anna De Vivo; Damian Walsh
Although there is no definitive evidence for this publication date, numerous independent secondary sources state 23 ...
In this first episode of 2022, host Roxana Toloza Chacon talks to Emma Cavell, Daniel Lewis, Joshua Lok, and Jake Wiseman, four PhD students from the UCL English Department, to discuss Muriel Spark's crusade against ‘received wisdom', the anxieties of Biblical translation, and going beyond ‘literature in English'. We'll also meet the team behind the Moveable Type podcast and hear from Editor-in-Chief Sarah Edwards about the journal's upcoming Call for Papers on the topic of ‘Unfeeling' (deadline 22nd February). For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/moveable-type/moveable-type-podcast-unfeeling-transcript-episode-2 Date of episode recording: 2022-01-14 Duration: 00:55:46 Language of episode: English Presenter: Roxana Toloza Chacon Guests: Will Burns, Emma Cavell, Anna De Vivo, Sarah Edwards, Daniel Lewis, Joshua Lok, Damian Walsh, Jake Wiseman Producer: Damian Walsh Sound Editor: Daniel Lewis
How do texts reflect their surrounding environment? How thin really is the boundary between word and the world, and what creative possibilities emerge when our 'eyes stray from the page'? Join us to discuss 'Ambience', our latest issue of Moveable Type, featuring interviews with our editors, Q&As with this issue's article writers, poetry readings and 30-Second Book Reviews. This podcast is presented by William Burns and Damian Walsh. It features Sarah Edwards, Will Fleming, Sarah Chambre, Miriam Helmers, Zoe Rucker, Elisa Sabbadin, David Prescott-Steed and K.V.K. Kvas, and was produced by Hugo Chambre. You can read our latest issue, 'Ambience' and access the transcript here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/moveable-type/ambience Date of episode recording: 2021-10-19T00:00:00Z Duration: 00:54:03 Language of episode: English Presenter: William Burns; Damian Walsh Guests: Sarah Edwards; Will Fleming; Sarah Chambre; Miriam Helmers; Zoe Rucker; Elisa Sabbadin; David Prescott-Steed; K.V.K. Kvas Producer: Hugo Chambre
Guest Django Skorupa Panelists Justin Flory | Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain Open Source Design! The podcast where we talk about sustaining open source with design. Learn how we, as designers, interface with open source in a sustainable way, how we integrate into different communities, and how we as coders, work with other designers. Our special guest today is Django Skorupa, who recently graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in Industrial Design and is now working as a UI/UX Designer for the internal team at Open@RIT Academic Open Source Program Office (OSPO). We find out more about what Django is doing at Open@RIT, he explains how bad design keeps your community stagnated, and why he thinks design is kept separate from developers in the open source space. He also explains some things he's struggling with and what he's trying to learn, he goes in depth with his assessment of design, and he shares some great resources and advice if you are a new designer wanting to get involved in the open source community that helped him on his journey. Go ahead and download this episode now to find out more! [00:01:50] Django tells us what kind of leap he took going from the industrial side into the much more collaborative, interactive way of working in the open source side of things. [00:08:13] Find out what Django is doing at Open@RIT. [00:14:04] Richard wonders what open source kitchens Django plays in and if he does open source on his own how has that informed his own experience of also working with the OSPO. [00:16:12] We learn how Django sees open source. [00:18:46] Why does Django see the developers and designers kept so separate from each other in the open source space? [00:22:20] Justin wonders what Django learned from his peers and other communities that he was working with while he was doing his teaching role and if anything surprised him when he went out and worked across these different communities and peers, and especially what he's learned from Rahul Tuli. [00:26:10] Django tells us about some things he's struggling with that he's trying to learn. He mentions using Roboto font. [00:30:14] We find out if Django has started teaching yet, what his future plans are, and his assessment of design. [00:34:27] If you are a designer and want to get involved in the open source community, Django shares some resources, and a hot tip that has helped him in his journey. He mentions Red Hat as a great resource and why. [00:36:40] Find out where you can follow Django on the internet. Quotes [00:17:21] “I've always seen open source as a subsection of open Asterisk.” [00:17:52] “I think that as we move forward in the whole world, open in general is a humanitarian choice, because it is a support for people who cannot or don't want to engage with the more closed forms of education, the more closed forms of thinking, the more closed forms of interaction.” [00:21:08] “I changed my title when I was hired on as a UI/UX person from strategic designer to UI/UX and it was like the world immediately got brighter and more friendly.” [00:28:48] “The biggest struggle is using open things, trying to make everything open when you are creative, and a lot of your tools are not open.” [00:31:46] “I think that design is firmly 50/50 between skill and theory.” [00:32:37] “Design and making, while extremely similar and both parts of a process, are not the same thing.” [00:32:45] “To design is to think about the broader scope of why something happens.” [00:32:50] “Design is so much theory and so much consideration on a massive scale.” [00:32:59] “It needs to be a proper balance between pragmatism and holistic view.” [00:36:13] “Try and find places that are really transparent, try and find places that are into talking about what they do, try and find places that go on podcasts and talk about what they do, and then find those people and pick their brains and steal as much information as you possibly can from a conversation with them and write all of it down.” Spotlight [00:37:15] Justin's spotlight is Fedora Badges. [00:38:15] Richard's spotlight is a Justin Flory. [00:39:45] Django's spotlights are two open source projects: The League of Moveable Type and Unsplash.com. Links Open Source Design Twitter (https://twitter.com/opensrcdesign) Open Source Design (https://opensourcedesign.net/) Sustain Design & UX working group (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/design-ux-working-group/348) Sustain Open Source Twitter (https://twitter.com/sustainoss?lang=en) SustainOSS Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainoss/) Richard Littauer Twitter (https://twitter.com/richlitt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) Justin Flory Twitter (https://twitter.com/jflory7?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) Django Skorupa Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/django-skorupa-2ab959108) Django Skorupa Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/djangoskorupadesign/?hl=en) Open@RIT (https://www.rit.edu/research/open) Beyond Code and Licenses: Co-developing Community Strategies Within Academia-Online Event with Mike Nolan (eventyay) (https://eventyay.com/e/e7dfbfc4/session/7276) Rahul Tuli Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rtuli/) Roboto (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roboto) Karen Sandler Twitter (https://twitter.com/o0karen0o) Design at Red Hat (https://design.redhat.com/) Fedora Badges (https://badges.fedoraproject.org/) Sustain Podcast-Episode 21-How Playing Minecraft Opened a Door to the Open Source World with Justin W. Flory (https://podcast.sustainoss.org/21) The League of Moveable Type (https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/) Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/) Credits Produced by [Richard Littauer] (https://www.burntfen.com/) (https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by Paul M. Bahr at [Peachtree Sound] (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by DeAnn Bahr [Peachtree Sound] (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guest: Django Skorupa.
After nearly a hundred years of fighting between petty states and half-baked dynasties, the Song Dynasty finally emerged as a unifying force in China. Under their leadership, China would make some impressive technological and cultural gains, forging a renaissance throughout East Asia in the 1000s.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/AHistoryOfJapan)
Skywalking Through Neverland: A Star Wars / Disney Fan Podcast
Welcome back, friends. It's Sarah's birth month, so she got to choose our topic: BOOKS! It's a good one! Question 1: Name 3 books throughout your life that have shaped who you are today? Birthday Sarah starts us off. SARAH'S FIRST BOOK: Grimm's Fairy Tales, the really old, darker, less happily-ever-after versions of so many stories we know and love. Did we say darker? How about WAY darker? Like, Snow White has a lot of hearts being cut out of animals. Some stories have people gouging out eyes. Sarah regales us with a retelling of a family favorite: “Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, Little Three Eyes,” a classic Cinderella-type story, where “Cinderella” is named for how many eyes she has (spoiler: It's two). Her stepmother and stepsisters have either fewer or more eyes than that, and they treat Little Two Eyes really badly. A wise woman tries to help out and somehow makes it worse. (You're gonna need this palate cleanser.) But then along comes a knight to make it all better. And then Sarah hits us with the coolest part of this story: Sarah might be a Grimm on her mom's side! BRYN'S FIRST BOOK: Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first book in a 9-book series of the author's experiences growing up as a little girl in the “big woods” of Wisconsin in 1871. Bryn read it as a child, and has come back to it throughout her life. She has a favorite memory of her mother reading it to her and her brother by firelight one night during a power outage. Favorite chapters: Christmas, the Sugar Snow, Dance at Grandpa's. Favorite thing about the book: the writing, thanks in large part to Wilder's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who made the books into what they became: New Yorker article from August 2009. Resource: Racism and Cultural insensitivity in the Little House books Excellent article by Liz Fields in the American Masters section of PBS.org: Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page, What should be done about racist depictions in the “Little House” books? SARAH'S SECOND BOOK: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. An 1813 novel that follows Elizabeth Bennett and her sister Jane, who are of marriageable age, and must navigate suitors, social engagements, family and societal pressures. The novel delves into manners and etiquette of English society, the importance of marrying for love rather than money or social prestige, and overall has such delightful depictions of characters that captured Sarah's teenage imagination. P&P Watch List: Take your pick Or go straight to Sarah's fave, the BBC's excellent 1995 6-part miniseries starring Colin Firth in his breakout role, and Jennifer Ehle. Bonus reading: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Bonus Watching: Bridget Jones' Diary BRYN'S SECOND BOOK: The Passion, by Jeannette Winterson, a fairy tale set in an historical place and time. It's the fantastical, magical, often dark story of Henri (a French soldier and Napoleon's chef during the Napoleonic Wars) and Villanelle, the heart-broken red-haired daughter of a Venetian boatman, who has webbed feet and is a free thinker who lives in the moment. What's a villanelle? The book started to mirror the poetic form in some ways, like unlocking a secret This was Bryn's first introduction to gender fluidity SARAH'S THIRD BOOK: Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn. After seeing the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time in 1991, Sarah this newly published first book of the Thrawn trilogy at her local library and FREAKED out. It's set 5 years after Return of the Jedi and features Leia and Han as a married couple, starting a family (twins are coming!), working for the Republic and Luke is planning a Jedi Training Academy, while what's left of the Imperials are slowly amassing under Grand Admiral Thrawn. He uses his knowledge of Leia, Luke and the leaders of the New Republic against them in an epic struggle for power. A book that continued the story of a movie blew Sarah's mind. It unlocked her imagination in a new way. And her knowledge of all those stories and love of those books has connected her with many Star Wars friends with the rise of social media. Check out Sarah's recap of her chat with the author himself, Timothy Zahn, at a party at Star Wars Celebration Orlando on Skywalking Through Neverland episode 165! BRYN'S THIRD BOOK: Still Life with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins, in which an exiled princess and a libertarian anarchist, who are both redheads, meet and sort of fall in love. Bryn didn't want to choose this book as her third pick, but she did anyway because of her husband's wisdom. Bryn read it while temping at offices in Orange County (she also read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams during that time, but didn't love it.) Felt sort of dangerous and bold and funny and true at the time to naive 21-year-old Bryn WISDOM FROM BRYN'S HUSBAND, ELON: Books or art or music sometimes show you something you've never seen or known or understood before, and they allow you to imagine something that's possible that you hadn't ever imagined before You don't know how a book is impacting you while you're reading it Bryn's learning from this: This book is one of those for me. It's OK to move on from a book that affected you deeply. Extra homework: Ralph Nader Bryn cheated and included an HONORABLE MENTION book: The Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katsen Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive? Sarah asked, “How did the printing press change history?” Real talk: Johannes Gutenberg was NOT the inventor of the printing press! 1st-9th century in China with woodblock printing Metal type printing in Korea began in the 1300s and the first book printed this way is “Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests' Zen Teachings” in 1377. One of these printings is preserved today in the National Library of France. But he did make some improvements Moveable Type changed everything. Check out this story and this one. Global news network created thanks to quicker, cheaper printing that was accessible to middle class New information technology adopted by previously silenced voices, those willing to take risks Revolution! Martin Luther becomes the first religious leader to use printing to his advantage.He's the world's first best-selling author! 1518-1525 his writings accounted for ⅓ of all books sold in Germany. Scientific Revolution: With printed formulas and mathematical tables in hand, scientists could trust the fidelity of existing data and devote more energy to breaking new ground. Bryn looked a little into the future (and the present) of books, especially print books After watching the documentary, The Booksellers, a film about the rare book business, but also about the future of books, Bryn did a small amount of research to look into the state of print books. When e-book readers first became viable, she remembered hearing the media wonder if paper books were dead. Spoiler: They're not! Book statistics: U.S. book industry statistics and facts Print book sales figures have improved over the last five years and unit sales now amount to over 650 million per year. Print also remains the most popular book format among U.S. consumers, with more than 65 percent of adults having read a print book in the last twelve months. Publishers Weekly: Print Book Sales Rose 8.2% in 2020 E-books statistics Audiobooks: 2019 more than $1 Billion in audiobook sales Question 3: What are you excited about regarding books? Sarah is all about audiobooks! Whispersync She also put a call out for Star Trek or Marvel books suggestions. And hipped us to the fantastic International Printing Museum Wayward English major Bryn is excited to become a reader of books again. She might start with Loki, Where Mischief Lies, by Mackenzi Lee, thanks to Sarah's recommendation. Final Thoughts Sarah brings us home: When creating our show notes, both Bryn and I were writing so much more about the books that shaped us, rather than the history of books. When we were discussing our focus for this episode, Bryn texted something profound: “Books are so personal.” So I think that is the perfect way to think of it. Any other two people in the world could have a completely different discussion than we did. So we want to know: what are your top 1-3 books that have shaped you? Please write us and we will share in our NEW segment, Totally Talk To Us. Thanks to those of you who have written to us, either on Instagram or the Skywalking Through Neverland Facebook Group, with your feedback on our first two episodes: @iamstarwarstime, Peter Heitman and Cadien Clark. We love hearing your thoughts! About Totally Tell Me Everything Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything! How To Listen on the Go: Listen now and leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | RSS If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a podcast rating and review!! Social Media Instagram: http://instagram.com/totallytellmeeverything Sarah: http://instagram.com/jeditink Bryn: https://www.instagram.com/brynane/ Join the Skywalking Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/488002904732240/
Welcome back, friends. It's Sarah's birth month, so she got to choose our topic: BOOKS! It's a good one! Question 1: Name 3 books throughout your life that have shaped who you are today? Birthday Sarah starts us off. SARAH'S FIRST BOOK: Grimm's Fairy Tales, the really old, darker, less happily-ever-after versions of so many stories we know and love. Did we say darker? How about WAY darker? Like, Snow White has a lot of hearts being cut out of animals. Some stories have people gouging out eyes. Sarah regales us with a retelling of a family favorite: “Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, Little Three Eyes,” a classic Cinderella-type story, where “Cinderella” is named for how many eyes she has (spoiler: It's two). Her stepmother and stepsisters have either fewer or more eyes than that, and they treat Little Two Eyes really badly. A wise woman tries to help out and somehow makes it worse. (You're gonna need this palate cleanser.) But then along comes a knight to make it all better. And then Sarah hits us with the coolest part of this story: Sarah might be a Grimm on her mom's side! BRYN'S FIRST BOOK: Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first book in a 9-book series of the author's experiences growing up as a little girl in the “big woods” of Wisconsin in 1871. Bryn read it as a child, and has come back to it throughout her life. She has a favorite memory of her mother reading it to her and her brother by firelight one night during a power outage. Favorite chapters: Christmas, the Sugar Snow, Dance at Grandpa's. Favorite thing about the book: the writing, thanks in large part to Wilder's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who made the books into what they became: New Yorker article from August 2009. Resource: Racism and Cultural insensitivity in the Little House books Excellent article by Liz Fields in the American Masters section of PBS.org: Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page, What should be done about racist depictions in the “Little House” books? SARAH'S SECOND BOOK: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. An 1813 novel that follows Elizabeth Bennett and her sister Jane, who are of marriageable age, and must navigate suitors, social engagements, family and societal pressures. The novel delves into manners and etiquette of English society, the importance of marrying for love rather than money or social prestige, and overall has such delightful depictions of characters that captured Sarah's teenage imagination. P&P Watch List: Take your pick Or go straight to Sarah's fave, the BBC's excellent 1995 6-part miniseries starring Colin Firth in his breakout role, and Jennifer Ehle. Bonus reading: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Bonus Watching: Bridget Jones' Diary BRYN'S SECOND BOOK: The Passion, by Jeannette Winterson, a fairy tale set in an historical place and time. It's the fantastical, magical, often dark story of Henri (a French soldier and Napoleon's chef during the Napoleonic Wars) and Villanelle, the heart-broken red-haired daughter of a Venetian boatman, who has webbed feet and is a free thinker who lives in the moment. What's a villanelle? The book started to mirror the poetic form in some ways, like unlocking a secret This was Bryn's first introduction to gender fluidity SARAH'S THIRD BOOK: Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn. After seeing the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time in 1991, Sarah this newly published first book of the Thrawn trilogy at her local library and FREAKED out. It's set 5 years after Return of the Jedi and features Leia and Han as a married couple, starting a family (twins are coming!), working for the Republic and Luke is planning a Jedi Training Academy, while what's left of the Imperials are slowly amassing under Grand Admiral Thrawn. He uses his knowledge of Leia, Luke and the leaders of the New Republic against them in an epic struggle for power. A book that continued the story of a movie blew Sarah's mind. It unlocked her imagination in a new way. And her knowledge of all those stories and love of those books has connected her with many Star Wars friends with the rise of social media. Check out Sarah's recap of her chat with the author himself, Timothy Zahn, at a party at Star Wars Celebration Orlando on Skywalking Through Neverland episode 165! BRYN'S THIRD BOOK: Still Life with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins, in which an exiled princess and a libertarian anarchist, who are both redheads, meet and sort of fall in love. Bryn didn't want to choose this book as her third pick, but she did anyway because of her husband's wisdom. Bryn read it while temping at offices in Orange County (she also read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams during that time, but didn't love it.) Felt sort of dangerous and bold and funny and true at the time to naive 21-year-old Bryn WISDOM FROM BRYN'S HUSBAND, ELON: Books or art or music sometimes show you something you've never seen or known or understood before, and they allow you to imagine something that's possible that you hadn't ever imagined before You don't know how a book is impacting you while you're reading it Bryn's learning from this: This book is one of those for me. It's OK to move on from a book that affected you deeply. Extra homework: Ralph Nader Bryn cheated and included an HONORABLE MENTION book: The Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katsen Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive? Sarah asked, “How did the printing press change history?” Real talk: Johannes Gutenberg was NOT the inventor of the printing press! 1st-9th century in China with woodblock printing Metal type printing in Korea began in the 1300s and the first book printed this way is “Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests' Zen Teachings” in 1377. One of these printings is preserved today in the National Library of France. But he did make some improvements Moveable Type changed everything. Check out this story and this one. Global news network created thanks to quicker, cheaper printing that was accessible to middle class New information technology adopted by previously silenced voices, those willing to take risks Revolution! Martin Luther becomes the first religious leader to use printing to his advantage.He's the world's first best-selling author! 1518-1525 his writings accounted for ⅓ of all books sold in Germany. Scientific Revolution: With printed formulas and mathematical tables in hand, scientists could trust the fidelity of existing data and devote more energy to breaking new ground. Bryn looked a little into the future (and the present) of books, especially print books After watching the documentary, The Booksellers, a film about the rare book business, but also about the future of books, Bryn did a small amount of research to look into the state of print books. When e-book readers first became viable, she remembered hearing the media wonder if paper books were dead. Spoiler: They're not! Book statistics: U.S. book industry statistics and facts Print book sales figures have improved over the last five years and unit sales now amount to over 650 million per year. Print also remains the most popular book format among U.S. consumers, with more than 65 percent of adults having read a print book in the last twelve months. Publishers Weekly: Print Book Sales Rose 8.2% in 2020 E-books statistics Audiobooks: 2019 more than $1 Billion in audiobook sales Question 3: What are you excited about regarding books? Sarah is all about audiobooks! Whispersync She also put a call out for Star Trek or Marvel books suggestions. And hipped us to the fantastic International Printing Museum Wayward English major Bryn is excited to become a reader of books again. She might start with Loki, Where Mischief Lies, by Mackenzi Lee, thanks to Sarah's recommendation. Final Thoughts Sarah brings us home: When creating our show notes, both Bryn and I were writing so much more about the books that shaped us, rather than the history of books. When we were discussing our focus for this episode, Bryn texted something profound: “Books are so personal.” So I think that is the perfect way to think of it. Any other two people in the world could have a completely different discussion than we did. So we want to know: what are your top 1-3 books that have shaped you? Please write us and we will share in our NEW segment, Totally Talk To Us. Thanks to those of you who have written to us, either on Instagram or the Skywalking Through Neverland Facebook Group, with your feedback on our first two episodes: @iamstarwarstime, Peter Heitman and Cadien Clark. We love hearing your thoughts! About Totally Tell Me Everything Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything! How To Listen on the Go: Listen now and leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | RSS If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a podcast rating and review!! Social Media Instagram: http://instagram.com/totallytellmeeverything Sarah: http://instagram.com/jeditink Bryn: https://www.instagram.com/brynane/ Join the Skywalking Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/488002904732240/
Welcome back, friends. It's Sarah's birth month, so she got to choose our topic: BOOKS! It's a good one! Question 1: Name 3 books throughout your life that have shaped who you are today? Birthday Sarah starts us off. SARAH'S FIRST BOOK: Grimm's Fairy Tales, the really old, darker, less happily-ever-after versions of so many stories we know and love. Did we say darker? How about WAY darker? Like, Snow White has a lot of hearts being cut out of animals. Some stories have people gouging out eyes. Sarah regales us with a retelling of a family favorite: “Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, Little Three Eyes,” a classic Cinderella-type story, where “Cinderella” is named for how many eyes she has (spoiler: It's two). Her stepmother and stepsisters have either fewer or more eyes than that, and they treat Little Two Eyes really badly. A wise woman tries to help out and somehow makes it worse. (You're gonna need this palate cleanser.) But then along comes a knight to make it all better. And then Sarah hits us with the coolest part of this story: Sarah might be a Grimm on her mom's side! BRYN'S FIRST BOOK: Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first book in a 9-book series of the author's experiences growing up as a little girl in the “big woods” of Wisconsin in 1871. Bryn read it as a child, and has come back to it throughout her life. She has a favorite memory of her mother reading it to her and her brother by firelight one night during a power outage. Favorite chapters: Christmas, the Sugar Snow, Dance at Grandpa's. Favorite thing about the book: the writing, thanks in large part to Wilder's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who made the books into what they became: New Yorker article from August 2009. Resource: Racism and Cultural insensitivity in the Little House books Excellent article by Liz Fields in the American Masters section of PBS.org: Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page, What should be done about racist depictions in the “Little House” books? SARAH'S SECOND BOOK: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. An 1813 novel that follows Elizabeth Bennett and her sister Jane, who are of marriageable age, and must navigate suitors, social engagements, family and societal pressures. The novel delves into manners and etiquette of English society, the importance of marrying for love rather than money or social prestige, and overall has such delightful depictions of characters that captured Sarah's teenage imagination. P&P Watch List: Take your pick Or go straight to Sarah's fave, the BBC's excellent 1995 6-part miniseries starring Colin Firth in his breakout role, and Jennifer Ehle. Bonus reading: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Bonus Watching: Bridget Jones' Diary BRYN'S SECOND BOOK: The Passion, by Jeannette Winterson, a fairy tale set in an historical place and time. It's the fantastical, magical, often dark story of Henri (a French soldier and Napoleon's chef during the Napoleonic Wars) and Villanelle, the heart-broken red-haired daughter of a Venetian boatman, who has webbed feet and is a free thinker who lives in the moment. What's a villanelle? The book started to mirror the poetic form in some ways, like unlocking a secret This was Bryn's first introduction to gender fluidity SARAH'S THIRD BOOK: Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn. After seeing the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time in 1991, Sarah this newly published first book of the Thrawn trilogy at her local library and FREAKED out. It's set 5 years after Return of the Jedi and features Leia and Han as a married couple, starting a family (twins are coming!), working for the Republic and Luke is planning a Jedi Training Academy, while what's left of the Imperials are slowly amassing under Grand Admiral Thrawn. He uses his knowledge of Leia, Luke and the leaders of the New Republic against them in an epic struggle for power. A book that continued the story of a movie blew Sarah's mind. It unlocked her imagination in a new way. And her knowledge of all those stories and love of those books has connected her with many Star Wars friends with the rise of social media. Check out Sarah's recap of her chat with the author himself, Timothy Zahn, at a party at Star Wars Celebration Orlando on Skywalking Through Neverland episode 165! BRYN'S THIRD BOOK: Still Life with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins, in which an exiled princess and a libertarian anarchist, who are both redheads, meet and sort of fall in love. Bryn didn't want to choose this book as her third pick, but she did anyway because of her husband's wisdom. Bryn read it while temping at offices in Orange County (she also read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams during that time, but didn't love it.) Felt sort of dangerous and bold and funny and true at the time to naive 21-year-old Bryn WISDOM FROM BRYN'S HUSBAND, ELON: Books or art or music sometimes show you something you've never seen or known or understood before, and they allow you to imagine something that's possible that you hadn't ever imagined before You don't know how a book is impacting you while you're reading it Bryn's learning from this: This book is one of those for me. It's OK to move on from a book that affected you deeply. Extra homework: Ralph Nader Bryn cheated and included an HONORABLE MENTION book: The Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katsen Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive? Sarah asked, “How did the printing press change history?” Real talk: Johannes Gutenberg was NOT the inventor of the printing press! 1st-9th century in China with woodblock printing Metal type printing in Korea began in the 1300s and the first book printed this way is “Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests' Zen Teachings” in 1377. One of these printings is preserved today in the National Library of France. But he did make some improvements Moveable Type changed everything. Check out this story and this one. Global news network created thanks to quicker, cheaper printing that was accessible to middle class New information technology adopted by previously silenced voices, those willing to take risks Revolution! Martin Luther becomes the first religious leader to use printing to his advantage.He's the world's first best-selling author! 1518-1525 his writings accounted for ⅓ of all books sold in Germany. Scientific Revolution: With printed formulas and mathematical tables in hand, scientists could trust the fidelity of existing data and devote more energy to breaking new ground. Bryn looked a little into the future (and the present) of books, especially print books After watching the documentary, The Booksellers, a film about the rare book business, but also about the future of books, Bryn did a small amount of research to look into the state of print books. When e-book readers first became viable, she remembered hearing the media wonder if paper books were dead. Spoiler: They're not! Book statistics: U.S. book industry statistics and facts Print book sales figures have improved over the last five years and unit sales now amount to over 650 million per year. Print also remains the most popular book format among U.S. consumers, with more than 65 percent of adults having read a print book in the last twelve months. Publishers Weekly: Print Book Sales Rose 8.2% in 2020 E-books statistics Audiobooks: 2019 more than $1 Billion in audiobook sales Question 3: What are you excited about regarding books? Sarah is all about audiobooks! Whispersync She also put a call out for Star Trek or Marvel books suggestions. And hipped us to the fantastic International Printing Museum Wayward English major Bryn is excited to become a reader of books again. She might start with Loki, Where Mischief Lies, by Mackenzi Lee, thanks to Sarah's recommendation. Final Thoughts Sarah brings us home: When creating our show notes, both Bryn and I were writing so much more about the books that shaped us, rather than the history of books. When we were discussing our focus for this episode, Bryn texted something profound: “Books are so personal.” So I think that is the perfect way to think of it. Any other two people in the world could have a completely different discussion than we did. So we want to know: what are your top 1-3 books that have shaped you? Please write us and we will share in our NEW segment, Totally Talk To Us. Thanks to those of you who have written to us, either on Instagram or the Skywalking Through Neverland Facebook Group, with your feedback on our first two episodes: @iamstarwarstime, Peter Heitman and Cadien Clark. We love hearing your thoughts! About Totally Tell Me Everything Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything! How To Listen on the Go: Listen now and leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | RSS If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a podcast rating and review!! Social Media Instagram: http://instagram.com/totallytellmeeverything Sarah: http://instagram.com/jeditink Bryn: https://www.instagram.com/brynane/ Join the Skywalking Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/488002904732240/
QWERTY. It's a funny word. Or not a word. But also not an acronym per se. Those are the top six letters in a modern keyboard. Why? Because the frequency they're used allows for hammers on a traditional typewriter to travel to and fro and the effort allows us to be more efficient with our time while typing. The concept of the keyboard goes back almost as far back as moveable type - but it took hundreds of years to standardize where we are today. Johannes Gutenberg is credited for developing the printing press in the 1450s. Printing using wooden blocks was brought to the Western world from China, which led him to replace the wood or clay characters with metal, thus giving us what we now think of as Moveable Type. This meant we were now arranging blocks of characters to print words onto paper. From there it was only a matter of time that we would realize that pressing a key could stamp a character onto paper as we went rather than developing a full page and then pressing ink to paper. The first to get credit for pressing letters onto paper using a machine was Venetian Francesco Rampazzetto in 1575. But as with many innovations, this one needed to bounce around in the heads of inventors until the appropriate level of miniaturization and precision was ready. Henry Mill filed an English patent in 1714 for a machine that could type (or impress) letters progressively. By then, printed books were ubiquitous but we weren't generating pages of printed text on the fly just yet. Others would develop similar devices but from 1801 to 1810, Pellegrino Turri in Italy developed carbon paper. Here, he coated one side of paper with carbon and the other side with wax. Why did he invent that, other than to give us an excuse to say carbon copy later (and thus the cc in an email)? Either he or Agostino Fantoni da Fivizzano invented a mechanical machine for pressing characters to paper for Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano, a blind friend of his. She would go on to send him letters written on the device, some of which exist to this day. More inventors tinkered with the idea of mechanical writing devices, often working in isolation from one another. One was a surveyor, William Austin Burt. He found the handwritten documents of his field laborious and so gave us the typographer in 1829. Each letter was moved to where needed to print manually so it wasn't all that much faster than the handwritten document, but the name would be hyphenated later to form type-writer. And with precision increasing and a lot of invention going on at the time there were other devices. But his patent was signed by Andrew Jackson. James Pratt introduced his Pterotype in an article in the Scientific American in 1867. It was a device that more closely resembles the keyboard layout we know today, with 4 rows of keys and a split in the middle for hands. Others saw the article and continued their own innovative additions. Frank Hall had worked on the telegraph before the Civil War and used his knowledge there to develop a Braille writer, which functioned similarly to a keyboard. He would move to Wisconsin, where he came in contact with another team developing a keyboard. Christopher Latham Sholes saw the article in the Scientific American and along with Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soule out of Milwaukee developed the QWERTY keyboard we know of as the standard keyboard layout today from 1867 to 1868. Around the same time, Danish pastor Rasmus Malling-Hansen introduced the writing ball in 1870. It could also type letters onto paper but with a much more complicated keyboard layout. It was actually the first typewriter to go into mass production - but at this point new inventions were starting to follow the QWERTY layout. Because asdfjkl;. Both though were looking to increase typing speed with Malling-Mansen's layout putting constanents on the right side and vowels on the left - but Sholes and Glidden mixed keys up to help reduce the strain on hardware as it recoiled, thus splitting common characters in words between the sides. James Densmore encountered the Sholes work and jumped in to help. They had it relentlessly tested and iterated on the design, getting more and more productivity gains and making the device more and more hardy. When the others left the project, it was Densmore and Sholes carrying on. But Sholes was also a politician and editor of a newspaper, so had a lot going on. He sold his share of the patent for their layout for $12,000 and Densmore decided to go with royalties instead. By the 1880s, the invention had been floating around long enough and given a standardized keyboard it was finally ready to be mass produced. This began with the Sholes & Glidden Type Writer introduced in America in 1874. That was followed by the Caligraph. But it was Remington that would take the Sholes patent and create the Remington Typewriter, removing the hyphen from the word typewriter and going mainstream - netting Densmore a million and a half bucks in 1800s money for his royalties. And if you've seen anything typed on it, you'll note that it supported one font: the monospaced sans serif Grotesque style. Characters had always been upper case. Remington added a shift key to give us the ability to do both upper and lower case in 1878 with the Remington Model 2. This was also where we got the ampersand, parenthesis, percent symbol, and question mark as shift characters for numbers. Remington also added tab and margins in 1897. Mark Twain was the first author to turn a manuscript in from a typewriter using what else but the Remington Typewriter. By then, we were experimenting with the sizes and spaces between characters, or kerning, to make typed content easier to read. Some companies moved to slab serif or Pica fonts and typefaces. You could really tell a lot about a company by that Olivetti with it's modern, almost anti-Latin fonts. The Remington Typewriter Company would later merge with the Rand Kardex company to form Remington Rand, making typewriters, guns, and then in 1950, acquiring the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, who made ENIAC - arguably the first all-digital computer. Rand also acquired Engineering Research Associates (or ERA) and introduced the Univac. Electronics maker Sperry acquired them in 1955, and then merged with Burroughs to form Unisys in 1988, still a thriving company. But what's important is that they knew typewriters. And keyboards. But electronics had been improving in the same era that Remington took their typewriters mainstream, and before. Samuel Morse developed the recording telegraph in 1835 and David Hughes added the printed telegraph. Emile Baudot gave us a 5 bit code in the 1870s that enhanced that but those were still using keys similar to what you find on a piano. The typewriter hadn't yet merged with digital communications just yet. Thomas Edison patented the electric typewriter in 1872 but didn't produce a working model. And this was a great time of innovation. For example, Alexander Graham Bell was hard at work on patenting the telephone at the time. James Smathers then gave us the first electronic typewriter in 1920 and by the 1930s improved Baudot, or baud was combined with a QUERTY keyboard by Siemens and others to give us typing over the wire. The Teletype Corporation was founded in 1906 and would go from tape punch and readers to producing the teletypes that allowed users to dial into mainframes in the 1970s timesharing networks. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. How did we eventually end up plugging a keyboard into a computer? Herman Hollerith, the mind behind the original IBM punch cards for tabulating machines before his company got merged with others to form IBM, brought us text keypunches, which were later used to input data into early computers. The Binac computer used a similar representation with 8 keys and an electromechanical control was added to input data into the computer like a punch card might - for this think of a modern 10-key pad. Given that we had electronic typewriters for a couple of decades it was only a matter of time before a full keyboard worth of text was needed on a computer. That came in 1954 with the pioneering work done MIT. Here, Douglas Ross wanted to hookup a Flexowriter electric typewriter to a computer, which would be done the next year as yet another of the huge innovations coming out of the Whirlwind project at MIT. With the addition of core memory to computing that was the first time a real keyboard (and being able to write characters into a computer) was really useful. After nearly 400 years since the first attempts to build a moveable type machine and then and just shy of 100 years since the layout had been codified, the computer keyboard was born. The PLATO team in late 60s University of Illinois Champaign Urbana were one of many research teams that sought to develop cheaper input output mechanisms for their computer Illiac and prior to moving to standard keyboards they built custom devices with fewer keys to help students select multiple choice answers. But eventually they used teletype-esque systems. Those early keyboards were mechanical. They still made a heavy clanky sound when the keys were pressed. Not as much as when using a big mechanical typewriter, but not like the keyboards we use today. These used keys with springs inside them. Springs would be replaced with pressure pads in some machines, including the Sinclair ZX80 and ZX81. And the Timex Sinclair 1000. Given that there were less moving parts, they were cheap to make. They used conductive traces with a gate between two membranes. When a key was pressed electricity flowed through what amounted to a flip-flop. When the key was released the electricity stopped flowing. I never liked them because they just didn't have that feel. In fact, they're still used in devices like microwaves to provide for buttons under led lights that you can press. By the late 1970s, keyboards were becoming more and more common. The next advancement was in Chiclet keyboards, common on the TRS-80 and the IBM PCjr. These were were like membrane keyboards but used moulded rubber. Scissor switch keyboards became the standard for laptops - these involve a couple of pieces of plastic under each key, arranged like a scissor. And more and more keyboards were produced. With an explosion in the amount of time we spent on computers, we eventually got about as many designs of ergonomic keyboards as you can think of. Here, doctors or engineers or just random people would attempt to raise or lower hands or move hands apart or depress various keys or raise them. But as we moved from desktops to laptops or typing directly on screens as we do with tablets and phones, those sell less and less. I wonder what Sholes would say if you showed him and the inventors he worked with what the QWERTY keyboard looks like on an iPhone today? I wonder how many people know that at least two of the steps in the story of the keyboard had to do with helping the blind communicate through the written word? I wonder how many know about the work Alexander Graham Bell did with the deaf and the impact that had on his understanding of the vibrations of sound and the emergence of phonautograph to record sound and how that would become acoustic telegraphy and then the telephone, which could later stream baud? Well, we're out of time for today so that story will have to get tabled for a future episode. In the meantime, look around for places where there's no standard. Just like the keyboard layout took different inventors and iterations to find the right amount of productivity, any place where there's not yet a standard just needs that same level of deep thinking and sometimes generations to get it perfected. But we still use the QWERTY layout today and so sometimes once we find the right mix, we've set in motion an innovative that can become a true game changer. And if it's not ready, at least we've contributed to the evolutions that revolutionize the world. Even if we don't use those inventions. Bell famously never had a phone installed in his office. Because distractions. Luckily I disabled notifications on my phone before recording this or it would never get out…
We talk about the experience of board gaming and what actually is happening when you play a board game. This discussion is with former engineer and board game enthusiast John O'Donnell who is studying what it means to play a board game. Games we discuss in this episode: Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo, Castles of Burgundy, Fireball Island, Heaven and Ale, Moveable Type, The Mind, Wavelength, Gonz Schon Clever (That's so Clever), Quacks of Quedlinburg, Telestrations, The Crew, Agricola, Isle of Skye, Scythe, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Party, Blood Bowl, Blood Rage, and companies Games Workshop and Cheap Ass Games.
For most of us when we think of printing, we think no further than pressing, "print" on our computer or mobile device. In this digital age of point, click, shoot and send, it is hard to remember that is was not that long again that printing something was an analog function--something you had to get up or go out and manually do. Printing's roots were seeded in the ancient cuneiform clay tablets and today its branches are part of the electronic highway Listen in to a interview with Dan Mayer, Director of Pyracantha Press, ASU's production and research imprint. Its an incredible insightful discussion of the evolution of printings and the machines behind it. And how today's students and artists are returning to and reinventing letterpress (moveable type, relief carvings, and all of the other legacy craftsmanships) to make printing art from one-of-a-kind books to truly unique masterpieces of personal expression
Nearly 200 episodes in, we have seen plenty of our own transformations both at Virtual Not Distant and the 21st Century Work Life podcast - and today we explore how organisations are adapting and changing, as the digital landscape does the same. First, a quick follow up from previous episodes - we found this great article about one of our frequently-used collaboration hubs, so make sure you check this out: 30 incredibly useful things you didn’t know Slack could do. And Pilar has been tweeting a lot lately, which was how she connected with today’s guest Euan Semple via his book Organisations Don’t Tweet, People Do. Within this book she found many resonant quotes, including “where possible sharing as much as you can when you are able to do so means that people are more likely to respect you when you say you cannot share some information,” and “Blogging can help people to understand themselves and their work better and by doing so help them to change at a profound and fundamental level” - these words were written in 2013, but resonate so well with our visible teamwork approach in 2019! Do look out for our anniversary episode up next, where we celebrate 200 podcast episode by exploring celebrations in remote teams! And look out for a special offer just for our listeners then. 09.55 21st Century Work Life: Euan Semple, author and speaker on the impact of technology at work Euan has been blogging for 18 years, and shares his words on LinkedIn, Facebook and Medium. He started blogging as a ‘memo to himself’ about the impact of technology at work, but found it resonating with a wider audience. Back in the day you had to know how to use Moveable Type in order to blog, but much has changed in the blogging world, and Euan’s career has spanned most platforms in this fast-moving landscape’s history! He now writes and speaks globally on the impact of digital transformation in the workplace. As Euan says, "It's easier to digitise our dysfunctions than to deal with them." Sometimes we need to fix things at a more fundamental level, before trying to find the right app and fix the tech, and you can’t simply leave it to the IT department to sort out organisational issues. Consumer technology preferences are very personal but organisations make broader choices, and Euan talks about ‘shadow IT’ and how fragmented the work IT landscape has become, with individuals and teams going around official procedures to get things done, and the unforeseen consequences of change. Many users too are struggling to keep up, it’s not generational, it’s about individual transformation and development, and lots of organisations don’t help people enough - then limit the extent to which they can take initiative for themselves. Euan’s work at the BBC has exposed him to a wide range of platforms and apps and the way they are marketed and implemented, and finds it unsurprising that people sometimes buy overpriced and over-engineered systems and then try to fit the organisation to the platform instead of the other way around. An ecosystem approach empowers the user and the organisation, putting the tech in its proper place - and we usually get this right more often in personal tech than at work, where we don’t like to question the way things are done. Hierarchies are inevitable in organisations, but decentralisation is an important trend, and designing that ecosystem requires input from those actually using it, a group which may be forever in flux anyway. Euan likes the phrase ‘an ephemeral meritocracy’ - power and influence in organisations should be relevant and timely, rather than acquired for all time. Changemakers can come from anywhere, and any level. Embracing the advantages of remote work and digital collaboration can also be overlooked, such as the effectiveness of online communication in overcoming introversion and social anxiety. The online conversation can become very polarised, but, it can also be enlightening and amazing, representing the very best of human nature. And we’re all fully rounded human beings with more to us than our online personas… which is why Euan also drives trucks as a sideline (while listening to podcasts and generating creative ideas of course) - giving him a different perspective on roles and authority and collaboration for sure. Ever an optimist, Euan likes to leave people with a sense of infinite possibility - there are opportunities everywhere, so grasp them while we can! So do connect with euansemple.com, @euan on twitter (a handle that length is proof of an early adopter!) 42.49 What do you mean by that? Ethical Walls We spoke to Justin Morris, global strategy director of Modality Systems, to explain this idea: Sometimes in business there can be conflicts of interest when two parts of an organisation talk to one another, and this might apply particularly in highly regulated industries. This might have been managed physically in the past - such as by keycard access. Now this phenomenon is mirrored in the online workspace in Microsoft Teams, where information barriers called ‘ethical walls’ can be inserted, to stop specific teams and individuals communicating with each other. Pilar’s initial reaction to this update was instinctively negative - what about trust, integrity..? However as Justin points out in this conversation, there are very real compliance needs in many circumstances, to avoid possibilities of breaches like insider trading or client confidentiality, and organisations have to be able to demonstrate they have addressed the problem structurally to the best of reasonable ability. The flatter hierarchies that Euan talked about above can over-facilitate conversations which are not appropriate to specific kinds of highly regulated work. Creating a trustless environment actually protects the individuals as well, both from temptation and easy accusations - while such barriers can presumably be circumvented, this would have to be deliberate and overt. Look out for a bonus episode with Justin shortly for more on this subject, and meanwhile you can connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn, and his website Digitalteamwork.tv 49.33 Wellbeing: Beyond work-life balance Knowledge workers have so many tools and devices, it can be difficult to disconnect and unplug. It was easier when we could leave it all behind in the office, as we did a generation ago. But do we feed that always-on mentality, and risk becoming addicted to our continual conversation with and about work? Does it make us feel valued and connected? How easy do you find it to avoid checking your phone in the evenings or at the weekend? Are you the master of your alerts - or is it the other way around? Everyone finds their own preferred balance, but you need to decide for yourself and be intentional about it, instead of letting default notification settings or the expectations of collaborators dictate what you are thinking about and dealing with in your own time? We need to talk about how we feel as well as what we think, and be conscious about our boundaries. Don't forget to check out Virtual Not Distant, for our newsletter, blog and services, if you enjoyed this podcast.
What does it take to build a successful digital marketing agency from the ground up? On this week’s episode we are joined by Mickey Mellen, who is a veteran WP developer and co-founder of GreenMellen Media. We talk about choosing your niche, hiring, vetting clients, making sales easy, and much more. This episode is a must-listen for anyone who dreams of going from freelancing to running a successful digital agency. Tune in to this week’s episode of the WP Elevation Podcast to learn how Mickey made it happen! Introducing Mickey Mellen Mickey Mellen is the co-founder and technical director of GreenMellen Media, an Atlanta-based WordPress and digital marketing agency that has 6 employees and over 150 clients. GreenMellen began by offering web design services and has since grown into a one-stop-shop for all things digital marketing. In addition to website development with WordPress, Mickey’s company handles other strategy components for clients like branding, email marketing and SEM. Mickey is also an organizer of the Atlanta WordCamp conference and a local WordPress Meetup group. Mickey Mellen has been developing with WordPress for over 14 years. He has worked with several platforms like Cafelog and Moveable Type before committing himself fully to WordPress. As a freelance web designer, he began by offering clients the option of custom-built sites or WordPress designs. Over time, he found WordPress to be a more reliable platform, whether he was using a custom design or ready-made template. Building A Team Mickey met his business partner Ali Green while they were both working on the Communications team for a large church in Atlanta. Ali was working as a graphic design intern, and eventually left to start her own company. Mickey and Ali contracted each other for their freelance projects until it made more sense to join together and create GreenMellen Media. Mickey and Ali found their first clients through personal connections and referrals. As their clientele expanded, they began to slowly hire staff. Their hiring strategy is to first work with someone as a contractor until the workload builds to that of an employee. In Mickey’s experience, some contractors prefer to continue working as freelancers to maintain their independence. However, others want to become employees in order to focus solely on their technical craft while someone else manages business operations. Before hiring new staff, Mickey takes a step back to “look from above” and decide what role needs to be filled. This is much more effective than hiring with the mindset that “we are super busy and need another body.” He takes a “hire character and coach skill” approach to find people that are aligned with the company culture. Learning at Meetups Mickey found that his area needed more WordPress Meetups, so he started his own. For Mickey, Meetups have several benefits. They get people out of the office and away from their computers to network with people who can become valuable partners. Meetups are also a great opportunity for ongoing education. Mickey says he always learns something new, even when the topic is one he knows well or he is the one leading the Meetup. Finding the Right Clients and Providing Value Mickey finds clients that are a good fit by seeking out specific qualities in a company rather than focusing on a niche industry. He looks for companies who have heart, are connected to the community, and are doing the right thing. He also makes sure that potential clients have a designated marketing person they can work with. A two-person company won’t have time to collaborate with Mickey and his team. The clients they match with tend to have 10-50 employees. Working in several industries keeps things interesting and ensures GreenMellen Media is only working with clients they can truly provide value for. Mickey has found it helpful to hire someone to manage and maintain clients. The company also uses Help Scout to respond quickly to customer support inquiries. They have an average response time of 46 minutes and are proud to share that metric when pitching clients. Help Scout also allows them to track how often tickets are submitted. Then the company can invoice clients if they have exceeded their customer support quota. When working with clients, Mickey is upfront in early discovery meetings about retainer fees. Clients are given several options for ongoing maintenance and support after their platform has been created. Mickey finds that many clients think they will be able to create their own content. However, once they get going they need help. Mickey has a copywriter on staff to create content for clients and the agency. Mickey’s Opinion on Gutenberg Mickey acknowledges that there are accessibility concerns with the new Gutenberg. His Meetup had an accessibility presenter join them recently to grow their knowledge in this area. However, Mickey thinks many of the concerns about Gutenberg have been overblown. His agency will teach clients how to edit with the new tool. He thinks that any issues will come from lack of user knowledge rather than sites “blowing up.” From Technician to Business Owner Mickey’s motivation to begin documenting company procedures came from a WordCamp conference. Mickey’s team uses Google Docs and TeamWork to create templates, document processes, and assign tasks to team members. If Mickey could go back and tell his younger self anything, he would advise him to study more business in school. When Mickey became a business owner, he just started doing what needed to be done and learning as he went. One area of business strategy that Mickey and his company are still challenged by is the ever-present question of where their next client will come from. GreenMellen Media has been getting more recurring revenue. However, for years the agency lived from one website to the next, and they are still doing that to some degree. Gold Nugget Takeaway - Make Sales Easy Don’t miss Mickey’s straightforward strategy for making sales easy at 27:30! Have potential clients compare you to yourself rather than to other companies. Give options by packaging together services for low, medium, and high price tags. Develop a one-pager for each option. Work with clients to create a custom package that meets their needs based on the options presented. This is far more effective than presenting one cookie-cutter package with no room for customization. Manage and forecast sales with a tool like Pipedrive. Wrap-Up What’s Next for GreenMellen Media? Mickey and his co-founder Ali are still working on project management with the goal of getting “out of the weeds” to truly be business owners. This will take one or two more hires in the next year. Mickey and Ali hope this will free them up for business development and spending more time with family. Reach Out You can reach out and thank Mickey Mellen on Twitter (@MickMel). Links Visit the GreenMellen Media website to learn more about Mickey’s work. Connect with @GreenMellen on Twitter and Instagram. Read What the Heck is EOS? and Traction by Gino Wickman. Find a WordCamp conference near you. Track customer support to clients with Help Scout. Document business processes and create templates with TeamWork. Manage and project sales with Pipedrive.
In this show, Suzanne and Mandi talk about their recent trip to Essen. Second time in, how did we do? We also talk about games, like Bloxx!, Moveable Type, Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr, Mesozooic, Wreck Raiders, Patchwork Doodle, and more!
Hilary and Roger are in Chicago (together!) for the annual Joint Statistical Meetings, the largest gathering of statisticians in the world. They discuss the session that Hilary organized, byzantine ASA bureaucracy, data scientists interacting with the media, and other highlights from the meeting. Also, a surprise guest drops in! Show notes Joint Statistical Meetings (https://www.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2016/) The rOpenSci Project (https://ropensci.org) Moveable Type by Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen: Video (https://vimeo.com/1850342) Article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/arts/design/25vide.html)
Adam and Wynn caught up with Micah Rich from The League of Moveable type to talk about open source typography.
Adam and Wynn caught up with Micah Rich from The League of Moveable type to talk about open source typography.
For this Snippet, we read Your CMS Sucks, Here's Why That Matters by Joseph Miller. (http://www.pagebreakpodcast.com/snippets/your-cms-sucks)
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