Podcasts about vanagon

In 2017 Volkswagen announced the electrified ID. Buzz at the Detroit Auto Show. Now, seven years later, we've driven the real thing. In this episode, we share our first impressions of the 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz, diving into its iconic retro-styling, driving dynamics, electric drivetrain, utility, and infotainment system. Plus, we also answer audience questions, including how to make the most of local mechanics when a dealership isn't nearby and how to find the perfect manual transmission convertible for under $10k.   Exclusive CR discount for Talking Cars viewers at: https://www.consumerreports.org/jointalkingcars?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   More info on the 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz Hybrid here: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/volkswagen/id-buzz/2025/overview/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT     SHOW NOTES ----------------------------------- 00:00 - Introduction 00:15 - Overview: 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz 02:41 - Every Day Usability 05:31 - Electric Range 09:04 - Driving Dynamics 10:44 - Brakes 13:30 - Controls 18:20 - Accessibility 21:08 - Window Controls 22:52 - Driving Position 25:19 - Small Item Storage 26:50 - Cabin Room 27:19 - Would You Buy It? 30:14 - Advanced Driver Assistance System 32:58 - Question #1: Is it safe to rely on local mechanics for vehicle repairs? 39:08 - Question #2: What is a perfect manual transmission convertible for under $10K?     ----------------------------------   First Drive: Volkswagen ID. Buzz Is Practical Nostalgia at a High Price https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/volkswagen-id-buzz-minivan-review-a4884016168/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/volkswagen/id-buzz/2025/overview/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   Secrets to Electric Car Charging Revealed https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/secrets-to-electric-car-charging-a1611903912/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   Most and Least Satisfying Luxury Hybrids, Plug-In Hybrids, and Electric Vehicles https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/most-and-least-satisfying-luxury-hybrids-evs-phevs-a8977712677/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   EVs Are Getting More Reliable, but They Still Lag Behind Hybrids and Gas-Only Cars https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/electric-vehicles-are-less-reliable-than-conventional-cars-a1047214174/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT     ----------------------------------- Join CR at https://CR.org/joinviaYT to access our comprehensive ratings for items you use every day. CR is a mission-driven, independent, nonprofit organization.

In 2017 Volkswagen announced the electrified ID. Buzz at the Detroit Auto Show. Now, seven years later, we've driven the real thing. In this episode, we share our first impressions of the 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz, diving into its iconic retro-styling, driving dynamics, electric drivetrain, utility, and infotainment system. Plus, we also answer audience questions, including how to make the most of local mechanics when a dealership isn't nearby and how to find the perfect manual transmission convertible for under $10k.   Exclusive CR discount for Talking Cars viewers at: https://www.consumerreports.org/jointalkingcars?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   More info on the 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz Hybrid here: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/volkswagen/id-buzz/2025/overview/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT     SHOW NOTES ----------------------------------- 00:00 - Introduction 00:15 - Overview: 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz 02:41 - Every Day Usability 05:31 - Electric Range 09:04 - Driving Dynamics 10:44 - Brakes 13:30 - Controls 18:20 - Accessibility 21:08 - Window Controls 22:52 - Driving Position 25:19 - Small Item Storage 26:50 - Cabin Room 27:19 - Would You Buy It? 30:14 - Advanced Driver Assistance System 32:58 - Question #1: Is it safe to rely on local mechanics for vehicle repairs? 39:08 - Question #2: What is a perfect manual transmission convertible for under $10K?     ----------------------------------   First Drive: Volkswagen ID. Buzz Is Practical Nostalgia at a High Price https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/volkswagen-id-buzz-minivan-review-a4884016168/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/volkswagen/id-buzz/2025/overview/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   Secrets to Electric Car Charging Revealed https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/secrets-to-electric-car-charging-a1611903912/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   Most and Least Satisfying Luxury Hybrids, Plug-In Hybrids, and Electric Vehicles https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/most-and-least-satisfying-luxury-hybrids-evs-phevs-a8977712677/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   EVs Are Getting More Reliable, but They Still Lag Behind Hybrids and Gas-Only Cars https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/electric-vehicles-are-less-reliable-than-conventional-cars-a1047214174/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT     ----------------------------------- Join CR at https://CR.org/joinviaYT to access our comprehensive ratings for items you use every day. CR is a mission-driven, independent, nonprofit organization.

In 2017 Volkswagen announced the electrified ID. Buzz at the Detroit Auto Show. Now, seven years later, we've driven the real thing. In this episode, we share our first impressions of the 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz, diving into its iconic retro-styling, driving dynamics, electric drivetrain, utility, and infotainment system. Plus, we also answer audience questions, including how to make the most of local mechanics when a dealership isn't nearby and how to find the perfect manual transmission convertible for under $10k.   Exclusive CR discount for Talking Cars viewers at: https://www.consumerreports.org/jointalkingcars?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   More info on the 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz Hybrid here: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/volkswagen/id-buzz/2025/overview/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT     SHOW NOTES ----------------------------------- 00:00 - Introduction 00:15 - Overview: 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz 02:41 - Every Day Usability 05:31 - Electric Range 09:04 - Driving Dynamics 10:44 - Brakes 13:30 - Controls 18:20 - Accessibility 21:08 - Window Controls 22:52 - Driving Position 25:19 - Small Item Storage 26:50 - Cabin Room 27:19 - Would You Buy It? 30:14 - Advanced Driver Assistance System 32:58 - Question #1: Is it safe to rely on local mechanics for vehicle repairs? 39:08 - Question #2: What is a perfect manual transmission convertible for under $10K?     ----------------------------------   First Drive: Volkswagen ID. Buzz Is Practical Nostalgia at a High Price https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/volkswagen-id-buzz-minivan-review-a4884016168/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/volkswagen/id-buzz/2025/overview/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   Secrets to Electric Car Charging Revealed https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/secrets-to-electric-car-charging-a1611903912/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   Most and Least Satisfying Luxury Hybrids, Plug-In Hybrids, and Electric Vehicles https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/most-and-least-satisfying-luxury-hybrids-evs-phevs-a8977712677/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT   EVs Are Getting More Reliable, but They Still Lag Behind Hybrids and Gas-Only Cars https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/electric-vehicles-are-less-reliable-than-conventional-cars-a1047214174/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT     ----------------------------------- Join CR at https://CR.org/joinviaYT to access our comprehensive ratings for items you use every day. CR is a mission-driven, independent, nonprofit organization.

If you liked today's episode, don't forget to subscribe! Follow us on Instagram and YouTube @Westyboys_ On today's sode, new co-host Joe and myself chat about our Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia's, discuss past trips, and catch everyone up to speed with how our trip has been so far. Living the vanlife isn't always easy but it always feels worth it(when you get home) Safe travels. Buy. Cool. Car(d)s 

Allein in Deutschland wurden in der ersten Jahreshälfte 2023 rund 1.300 neue Startups gegründet und gleichzeitig wird Nachhaltigkeit im Gründungskontext immer wichtiger. Axel Roitzsch hat genau das im Blick und ein großes Ziel: Er will mit seinem 2022 gegründeten VC Vanagon Ventures genau die Gründer*innen unterstützen, die mit ihren Startups positiven Impact auf das Klima und den Planeten haben, und somit die digitale grüne Innovation vorantreiben. In Folge #239 eures Digitalisierungspodcasts von Vodafone Business teilt Axel mit Host Christoph Burseg nicht nur seine Vision und Motivation hinter Vanagon Ventures, sondern auch, woher eigentlich der Name kommt. Mit welchen Herausforderungen sieht er sich aktuell konfrontiert? In welche Startups ist er investiert und wie zahlen sie auf seine Vision ein? Was macht für ihn ein überzeugendes Startup oder eine Idee aus? Und: wie hat er um den Need nach Wissenstransfer und Weiterbildung in seiner Branche ein Education-Programm gebaut?

In der Mittagsfolge sprechen wir heute mit Axel Roitzsch, Co-Founder und General Partner von Vanagon Ventures, über das First Closing für den ersten Fonds mit einem Zielvolumen von 30 Millionen Euro.Vanagon Ventures ist ein Climate Software und FinTech Seed Fonds, der Founder dabei unterstützt, die globale Notwendigkeit zur Dekarbonisierung der Wirtschaft zu beschleunigen. Durch die Nutzung seiner eigenen Netzwerke hat der VC bereits in zukunftsweisende Softwareunternehmen investiert und ihnen geholfen, globale Kundenunternehmen zu gewinnen und bedeutende Finanzierungsrunden zu sichern. Der Climate Fintech VC wurde im Jahr 2022 von Susanne Fromm, Sandro Stark und Axel Roitzsch in München gegründet. Das GP-Team verfügt über eine kollektive Erfahrung von mehr als 35 Jahren als Top-Management-Consultants, Führungskräfte in Unternehmen, Innovatoren bei z.B. Microsoft und Allianz sowie Tech-Investierenden. So möchte der VC als Brückenbauer zwischen der Pioniertechnologie und der traditionellen Wirtschaft fungieren und sich auf Kapitalbeteiligungen an Startups konzentrieren, die positive Auswirkungen auf die reale Welt haben. Darüber hinaus hat er sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, globale Plattformen aufzubauen, die Innovatoren, Unternehmen und Investierende zusammenbringen, um mit Hilfe von Pioniertechnologien Lösungen für eine regenerative Wirtschaft zu entwickeln. Aus diesem Grund initiiert der Kapitalgeber in Zusammenarbeit mit der Frankfurt School of Finance das sogenannte ReFi Talents, ein kostenloses 18-wöchiges Online-Programm, das Founder, Investierende, Unternehmen, Regulierungsbehörden und Einflussnehmende mit dem notwendigen Wissen ausstattet, um Changemaker zu werden. Vanagon Ventures erhielt mehr als 600 Bewerbungen aus der ganzen Welt und startete im September 2023 eine erste ReFi-Talents-Kohorte mit 160 Teilnehmenden.Der Frühphaseninvestor hat nun das First Closing für den ersten Fonds mit einem Zielvolumen von 30 Millionen Euro bekannt gegeben. Die Risikokapitalgesellschaft wird von Matias Collan und seinem Team von ACE Alternatives begleitet. Bei der rechtlichen Strukturierung des Fonds wurde das Team umfassend von Dr. Philip Mostertz von der Rechtsanwaltskanzlei Orbit beraten. Das Portfolio des Fonds besteht bereits aus 10 innovativen Startups wie der weltweit größte Marktplatz für digitalisierte Umweltgüter namens Senken oder The Landbanking Group, die Natur als Anlageklasse skalierbar und zugänglich macht.

Heute u.A. mit diesen Themen:Mistral AI vor 450-Millionen-Euro-DealKlarna: Einstellungsstopp wegen KISteyr Automotive: Hoffnung nach Volta-PleiteBitkom: Weichenstellung für KI in EuropaEntlassungen bei ContentfulGoogle kündigt Gemini-Vorschau anRunway: KI-Videos für Getty ImagesFrühphase: VC-Finanzierung verlangsamt sichGM eröffnet EV-LadestationenVanagon Ventures legt 30-Millionen-Euro-Fonds aufForetellix erhält 85 Millionen US-DollarMillioneninvestition für Busfinder

In der Mittagsfolge begrüßen wir heute Prof. Dr. Martin Stuchtey, Co-Founder von The Landbanking Group, und sprechen mit ihm über die erfolgreich abgeschlossene Seed-Finanzierungsrunde in Höhe von 11 Millionen US-Dollar.The Landbanking Group hat eine Plattform namens Landler.io entwickelt, die es Landbewirtschaftenden ermöglicht, Einkommen aus anfallenden natürlichen Ressourcen zu erzielen. Sie ist somit eine Verwaltungs- und Investitionsplattform für Naturkapital wie biologische Vielfalt, Kohlenstoff, Boden und Wasser. Sie soll mit den neuesten wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen und Rechnungslegungspraktiken eine kohärente und transparente Möglichkeit schaffen, in Naturkapital zu investieren. Die Plattform verbindet Erdbeobachtung, digitale In-situ-Daten, maschinelles Lernen und dezentralisierte Ledger-Technologie, um jedes Naturkapital des Planeten zu bewerten. The Landbanking Group wurde im Jahr 2022 von Prof. Dr. Martin Stuchtey und Dr. Sonja Stuchtey in München gegründet. Seit seiner Gründung ist das Unternehmen auf ein internationales Team aus 40 Expertinnen und Experten für Ökologie, Ökosystemmodellierung und Datenwissenschaft, KI, Technik, Finanz-Engineering sowie Unternehmensaufbau angewachsen. Es konnte bereits zahlreiche Partnerschaften mit u.a. Capitals Coalition, Nature Finance, Cool Farm Alliance oder ETH Zürich Seed/Crowther Lab eingehen.Nun hat das Münchner Öko-FinTech in einer Seed-Runde 11 Millionen US-Dollar eingesammelt. Zu den Kapitalgebern zählen BonVenture, Fonds 4P Capital, Vanagon und Planet A. Darüber hinaus beteiligen sich das SUN-Institut der Deutschen Post Stiftung und Business Angels wie André Hoffmann, Prinz Maximilian von Liechtenstein, Alexa Firmenich, Jan-Hendrik Goldbeck und Fabian Strüngmann an der Runde. Das frische Kapital ermöglicht der Landbanking Group, seinen Kundenstamm in der Agrar- und Lebensmittelindustrie zu erweitern und neue Märkte in den Bereichen Infrastruktur, Energie und Finanzen zu erschließen. Außerdem soll die Palette der Überwachungsmodelle der Plattform um mehr Biome und Ökosystemdienstleistungskategorien erweitert werden.

Hippies remember their Volkswagen vans fondly as a low-cost, tiny home on wheels. What they've forgotten is what a mechanical nightmare they were. On this episode we start the show with Sandra's 'flamethrower edition' of the Vanagon and end with Frank's 'brake failure' Eurovan. What a long strange trip it's gonna be on this episode of the Best of Car Talk. And if you want to listen to more Car Talk, sign up for Car Talk+! Car Talk+ is the easiest way for fans to access more than 800 Car Talk episodes, wherever you listen to podcasts. Find out more at plus.npr.org/cartalk or find the Car Talk channel in Apple Podcasts.

Warren takes the Vanagon camping and contemplates taking the M3 wine tasting, Art has tire issues and Nic is in the studio to keep them in line. All that and more on this week's episode of the DWA! Podcast. Join our Patreon to hear more Patreon Only podcasts. Please rate and review the show. Thanks for listening!

Jesse "VW" Marshall is back for a third episode. We chewed the fat and then Jesse boiled it down into and put it into his Vanagon. He has his own method for making biofuel and walks us through his process. 

George is a young guy with enough stories to fill a lifetime thanks to his Vanagon… and his Subaru. Even though he lives and works in Homer, his adventures have taken him south to Mexico and everywhere in between. We caught him on his break at Buttwhackers just long enough to catch a few of his stories. 

Zach Wallace has just about the coolest fleet of vehicles in all of Alaska—a squad of Vangons, including a Syncro. Luckily for those who travel north to Anchorage, he rents them out. Last Frontier Westys has been in business for only a couple years, but his love for VWs has been around for, well, generations. 

John Hammond is a professional podcaster whose bus doubles as his studio. He took the time to sit down with us to talk about podcasting, bus life in California, and, of course, the history of his Vanagon, Guapo. 

The Vanagon podcast 3 or 4 of you have been clamoring for is finally here. This week we take a listener's email about Matt's van. Does their advice hold up better than a 30+ year old hose clamp?  This podcast is supported by Big Matt, thanks for all the help. This podcast is supported by the generous and amazing donors to the Wide Angle Podium Network. You still have time to pick yourself up the first EVER official SRP merch at wideanglepodium.com/srp300 Find us, and other fantastic cycling podcasts on the Wide Angle Podium Network, at wideanglepodium.com! Check out the brand new WAP app available in the Apple and Android app stores! You can listen to us in a variety of ways: Find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or anywhere great podcasts are found. Give us a review and rating! We'd appreciate it! You can email us at theslowridepodcast@gmail.com Find us on Twitter: The show (@theslowridepod) Matt (@Matt46292097) Spencer (@spencerhaugh)  

We have ants, talk a bit more about smores, Warren's Vanagon is back in action, and much, much more on this edition of the CWA! Podcast. Listen to our sister podcast 'Driving While Awesome' everywhere that podcasts can be found.

We talk about animals getting into our stuff, more cooler talk, Warren's Vanagon, and much more on this episode of the CWA! Podcast. Listen to our sister podcast Driving While Awesome, available on most podcast platforms.

We were cruising around Moab, Utah, when I spied a stretch Vanagon parked on a side street. The side of it read Coyote Shuttle. A google search and a couple phone calls later and we were sitting down with Jesse Marshall (his wife calls him Jesse “VW” Marshall), the owner and operator of Coyote Shuttle. Even though I had called to get the story about the Vanagons, he had lots more stories…

Buckle up, folks! This is a good ride. As we crisscrossed California, we stopped by the GoWesty campus in Los Osos to interview the founder and president, Lucas Valdes. It's hard to imagine, but at one point in time, Lucas' VW operation was considerably smaller. Lucas talks about how he started in the VW world, what it is like to grow a business, and some of the adventures he's had along the way. 

A guy with so many stories we had to make a second episode! You already know Jesse from the first episode of this season where he talked about leaving his job as a mortgage banker to start the world's first mountain bike shuttle service called Coyote Shuttle. When we arrived at Coyote Shuttle, a gentleman was talking with Jesse about a welding job. Jesse is Moab's go-to guy for fixes and emergencies. In fact, during this interview, he worked on our bus… 

We were passing through Escalante, Utah, and met a young couple, Ian and Kaitlyn. Even though they had a sweet home in the heart of this mountain town, they had previously lived in their 1986 Syncro. We got to hear all about how they managed living in the bus—through turbulent weather and life circumstances. 

Josiah Roe is the co-creator of The Journal of Lost Time, a digital publication that shares stories of timeless immediacy. After acquiring a painters-tape green Vanagon, which he lovingly calls Barb, Roe set out for an extended Christmas vacation in Baja. An epic adventure ensued, and he vowed never to miss a winter exploring Baja Sur again. Upon his return, he left his tech job and his comfy apartment in San Francisco and embarked on being a part-time van lifer. Combining his passion for travel and photography, he began creating stories for destination marketing organizations. The Journal of Lost Time was born, and on a road trip to Baja Sur, he dreamt up Escapar a La Baja, a Vanlife and Overlander meet-up in La Paz. The first Escapar a La Baja in 2019 had sixty vehicles, and this year's event has grown to 250! The Lost Places event series, "a celebration of gathering in beautiful places," followed and now hosts meet-ups in six locations. Follow Josiah Q. Roe on Instagram Learn more about The Journal of Lost Time here. Follow The Journal of Lost Time on Instagram Learn more about Escapar a La Baja here. Read Baja Like Nowhere Else here.

When most people outside of Europe think of diesel performance, Cummins, Chev, or Ford probably come to mind. As this week's Tuned In podcast guest tells us, however, there's a lot more to the performance diesel world than the big 6BTs and 6.0 Powerstrokes.Use ‘PODCAST75' for $75 off your first HPA course here: https://hpcdmy.co/hpa-tuned-inOriginally hailing from France and now based in Nashville, Tennesse, Grégoire Blachon has built his business, Boxeer, off the back of Volkswagen Audi Group's impressive family of TDi four-cylinder diesel engines. Boxeer's journey began with TDi conversion packages for VW's Vanagon overland vehicles, and having always had an interest in motorsport, Grégoire always felt the urge to start pushing these stout engines in a motorsport environment — specifically hill climbing. Podcast host Andre Simon and Grégoire get stuck into exactly what makes these little TDis so good, and how he gets the absolute most out of them utilising obscure standalone ECUs, triple compound turbo induction, in-cylinder combustion pressure monitoring, and more. Grégoire goes on to break down the TDi-powered build he's best known for — his tube-frame Beetle hillclimber — which he's used in the last few years to come tantalisingly close to clinching the diesel win at Pikes Peak. After breaking the Bug down, Grégoire talks Andre through his new build, which he hopes will absolutely smash the diesel record at this month's 100th running of the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb. Based on a Radical chassis, the new car runs the same triple turbo TDi setup (with some extra added spice) and the same Porsche PDK gearbox, but with a considerable drop in weight and aerodynamic drag, as well as far superior handling and braking.The European diesel world isn't one that we've discussed much — if at all — on this podcast, so this conversation with Grégoire is a really interesting look at what makes these platforms tick, and how builders like Boxeer are getting serious performance out of them. As mentioned in this episode, you can find Skynam, the ECU Grégoire uses here: www.skynam.com And if you want to follow Grégoire's progress, check out the Boxeer social channels below:IG: @Boxeer_FB: Boxeer - Diesel Motorsports and OverlandingYT: Gregoire S. BlachonWWW: boxeer.comLearn more about performance diesel engine tuning. Start instantly with 4 free lessons: hpcdmy.co/dieselb

I took a trip out west to pick up a 31 year old vehicle at the height of gas prices. Worth it? Listen to this special episode to find out!  

What do you do when your bus breaks down at a gas station in Sopchoppy, Florida and it's dark and getting colder by the minute and you know no one in the area? You go home with a stranger named Brian Blackwell (nicknamed Blacky). Well… that's what we did anyway. We met Blacky when he picked us up on the side of the road, but learned a lot more about him when he offered to let us stay in his house for an entire week. Turns out, Blacky is an avid VW collector, runs a wakeboard ministry, and a successful hunting business. Listen to hear all about Blacky's super-sweet VW collection, but also what would drive him to offer refuge to two total strangers.

We met Jennifer and Alice in Austin, Texas, and they were both eager to tell us about their VW buses and what the VW bus community means to them, but the real story was how these two became fast friends over their mutual love for Vanagons. 

The bassist from the band Slaughter. A bona fide New Orleans chef who lost everything in Katrina. A Canadian whose bus shares the same name as our dog. The CEO of the Dollywood Foundation. The Itinerant Air-cooled guy and his friend who runs McIntyre's Home for Wayward Buses and Wandering Souls. A pastor who owns a wakeboarding ministry and took us in for a week. Two friends who met through their VW club. One of the guys who runs OldVolksTV and saw the new ID Buzz when it premiered. Season five is jammed packed with stories and drops on April 18, 2022.Oh, and remember Ben from last season—the guy who road tripped with four of his buddies? Well, we caught up with Tom, the ringleader, and got his perspective on the adventure. Check out the entire season as we relay tales from (mostly) the south. 

We traveled across New England and into Canada, into Michigan and the upper Great Lakes States to bring you stories from folks who have had an adventure or two in a VW Bus. This season we've met collectors, mechanics, businesswomen, and more than a few roadtrippers. 

While in Quebec, Canada, we met a woman named Nellie Surprenant who owns a pale blue Vanagon. While life, relationships, and even the van's name have changed over time, her love for the VW has remained steady. 

We were traveling through Canada when we were able to catch up with Susan and her husband, Brad, as well as their dinner guest, Linda, at their cottage on the shores of Lake Pemichangan in Quebec. We spent the day doing a little work on their Eurovan and ended the day sitting around the table eating fish that Brad caught himself and drinking some wonderful red wine. Outside it was cold and rainy, but there in the lakeside home everything was cozy. 

We caught up with Andrea Bowker and Peter Kraiker—a couple of soft-spoken hardcore adventurers in their Old North Toronto backyard. They own a magnificent 1982 matador orange diesel Vanagon Westfalia named Babe. Babe has been Peter's mobile office and a makeshift ambulance. 

We were a dozen states into our 49 state tour when our exhaust system developed a crack. I jumped on VanAlert and found a place called the VW Garage in Portland Maine. The shop owner, Cory Sterling, hooked us up with a metal fabricator and welder named William Bruce. William is a fellow VW owner and after he patched our exhaust system, we decided to do an interview right there in the parking lot along their very busy Main Street.

We were returning to Ohio from our shakedown trip to Michigan this past July so we used VanAlert to find a place to stay and we found Nate's driveway. It turns out Nate's driveway was a bit more posh than we expected. He asked us to drive around back where he had an honest to god full campsite set up, complete with a roaring fire. A huge pine forest towered over us and the sky was completely clear. And if you listen closely enough you can hear the hoots of owls and the yipping of coyotes in the distance. 

We heard about John's Car Corner from folks all the way from Connecticut through Rhode Island and up through Massachusetts. Everyone said you need to stop at John's Car Corner and talk to John. They were right. Soon we were standing in the shop itself, just outside of Westminster Vermont—it a mix of parts store, workshop and museum. And John is your parts guy, the lead mechanic and curator. Traffic whooshes by outside and a couple regulars stop by to sit at the counter and chew the fat. 

We sat down with Eric Caron, organizer of West River Westies, in his home in southern Vermont after a weekend of hanging out with him and his friends whom you met in the previous episode. He's had a lifetime of bus adventures and the wisdom to go with it. 

EP274 - Warby Parker and AllBirds IPOs  Warby Parker and AllBirds filed their S-1 registrations with the SEC in preparation of making an initial public offering. In this episode we deep dive into all the information revealed in the fillings. Surprising Learnings From Warby Parker And AllBirds IPO Filings (forbes.com) Episode 274 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Wednesday September 1st, 2021. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 274 being recorded on Wednesday September first 2021 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scott Wingo. Scot: [0:40] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scot show listeners Jason we have a lot of favorite things on this podcast but you know it's even cooler than some fresh Amazon quarterly results hot new Gadget. Even some exciting Star Wars news. Jason: [0:55] No what's God. Scot: [0:57] A fresh delicious hot out of the oven S1 and you know it's better than S1. Jason: [1:02] I'm guessing to S ones. Scot: [1:04] You are right that is right we have we're very excited this week because not only do we have one s one but we have two s ones so I don't know if that's an S 1 squared or S2 or how we talked about that I guess 2's ones, and what's really exciting is one of our favorite topics on the show is digitally native vertical brands also called dnv B's and we have two of them that filed within a week of each other so that's pretty exciting so the two are Warby Parker and allbirds and before we do a deep dive into those S ones and highlight some of the things that we found that were interesting for listeners I wanted to give everyone just kind of a reminder of a great way to read an s-1, so an s-1 is. [1:52] Haven't haven't done a gone public before it's kind of like a sandwich so you have three parts you have this kind of first part where there's all this introductory stuff and you're kind of like CIA in that part and then you get into the delicious sandwich part of the the meat and potatoes of this one which is commonly called management discussion and Analysis they called em DNA and that's the best part because really management actually writes that now they have a lot of guidance from lawyers and investment bankers and PR firm in all this Jazz but it's really most of the times it is the founders you know putting pen to paper and describing the business and their words then after that you have the lawyers kick in and then you have a pretty good chunk of risk factors and then the accountants kick in and you've got your your your Gap financials and all that stuff and all that's interesting but if you're going to I always start a nest one from the middle out so I like to read that mdna first because it's the best way to hear about the company from the founders. [2:54] Now Warren Buffett and his Charlie Munger they always kind of famously start at the back of this one and they like to start at the audited financials and that's kind of how they look at a business and that's important but especially for these I think it's pretty interesting because you know it tells us why the founders do this dnv be thing how's it going how do they think about their business what are the key metrics they're looking at inside of there and I think that's particularly relevant for listeners of this show because you can learn a lot you know these businesses may be there ahead of you or behind you and your scale but it I always learned a ton about. [3:34] You know what other operators are doing and thinking about their business and you pick up a lot of interesting new tidbits there may be things you like and don't like that you can add to your repertoire. Jason how do you how do you peel into a delicious yummy new S1. Jason: [3:49] Yeah well I mostly take your advice that I guess to two alternative views is just skip the s-1 entirely and wait for the retail Roadshow and so you can kind of watch a movie instead of have to do all this math and read. Scot: [4:02] Yeah I like the retail Roadshow too but sadly it comes weeks after this one so this one is like an appetizer before you get to the movie. Jason: [4:10] Yeah and II may be uniquely odd in this regard but I do find it amusing and humorous to read the risk factors. I know they have nothing to do with the business and weren't written by anyone that has anything to do with the business but I feel like. They're increasingly more creative in the voluminous wig west of apocalypses that could. Could strike the Earth and I want to say like of the hundred seventy one page Warby Parker S1 about a hundred pages of it is the risk factors. Scot: [4:42] Yeah, yeah and I mean it is fun to read but you're taking the right approach at it what drives me crazy is actually went through and looked at a bunch of the headlines for both these companies and I would say about 1/3 to 25 percent of the. Press that covers you things you know to be and I don't know if this is just lack of understanding or clickbait or some combination of those things but they always pull out the risk factors so you'll see you know allbirds is worried about Nike as a competitor and you know and then you're like what did they read about that and they've just pulled out a the competitor list of the risk factors well the lawyers are saying you know if anyone has ever sold a shoe put them in the risk factors you know it's not like it's not like the founders in their own words are staying up late at night worried about Nike but maybe they are but. Most of that stuff is not the founders words it's lawyers kind of saying you know here's a checklist list everyone that you've ever think you thought you've competed with now that's their guidance. Jason: [5:42] Yeah I mean the list of competitors isn't remotely shocking it's more of the zombie apocalypse that makes me chuckle. Scot: [5:48] Yeah and now there's all these, yes every time new legislation comes out you have to add a risk factors know it's like you know GDP our cyber security we use cloud computing that could go down we it's kind of like you have to think of everything that's ever happened and you want to cover it so that if you do get sued you can say well it was a risk factor you should have known we warned you. Cool so we flipped a coin and you are going to kick us off with a deep dive into or be. Jason: [6:21] Yeah yeah so we'll jump right into it and we'll start with some of the financial metrics per your point is pretty interesting because these are. Private companies they don't necessarily disclose a lot of this and so you kind of go from like a pretty vague view of these companies to a pretty detailed View and if you're some other DMV be that still private like there's great benchmarking data in here so Warby Parker. [6:48] 20/20 in this is all complicated because of course 2020 was an anomalous year 2020 revenue for Warby Parker was just under 400 million in sales so 393 million and kind of to give you a progression they were 272 million in 2018 then they jumped up, 370 million in 2019 and then you know a much smaller jump up to three hundred and ninety-three million in 2020. The more eye-popping number is they have six months of data from 20 21 and they're already at 270 million in 2021 so if you kind of compare first six months of this year to first six months of last year. Last year there were 176 million this year there are 270 so they're definitely seeing a nice clip of growth. And obviously as you grow bigger you would hope that that scale would help you with profitability when you're you know small and still you know in growth mode it's sometimes hard to make a profit, and in this case. It doesn't appear like they've achieved that escape velocity where they're starting to turn a profit yet like the gross margins are. [8:00] Are in a reasonable ballpark they're pretty consistent in the kind of 658 to 60% range and so they are generating. Net positive ebit has but they basically have had a net loss every year except 2019 when they broke even. So what's a little worrisome about that is. [8:26] You know you like if you look at 2018 you said hey they sold 270 million and they lost 22 million on it in 2019 they sold 370 million and they broke even. Like that's looking like a pretty good Trend that scale starting to help them with their profitability but then in 2020 where they had a lot of extra costs from covid and as we'll talk about in a bit they're somewhat store. They were even bigger 393 and they had their biggest loss ever 55 million, and they're doing better this year but they're not on a path to profitability this year either so they're the on the 270 million they've sold this year they've lost 7.3 million. Um before I jump further does any of that financial news sort of surprise you at all Scott or does that. Scot: [9:17] Now I have a different opinion but well we're going to do a little kind of analysis again. Jason: [9:22] I like it cliffhanger. Scot: [9:23] Yeah yeah. Jason: [9:24] So one of the interesting things well a all these digital native Brands you start off by like generating some buzz and selling some stuff to people that are already friendly to you and it's super easy sales and and cost to get those sales is very low but then pretty quickly all these companies go into digital advertising mode and they buy ads on Google and buy ads on. [9:47] To grow quickly and the first ads they buy a relatively cheap because, that they can you know Target a very specific audience and there aren't a lot of other people buying that exact same audience so the, the cost per ad is low and so the the customer acquisition cost can be pretty reasonable but as you get bigger. [10:06] You have to buy a bigger chunk of audience from Facebook and more people are competing for that same audience and it's a reverse auction so you have to pay the most to get the ad and so growing purely on this digital ad business. Pretty challenging particularly when Google and Facebook are so good at optimizing the the the maximum cost per ad and so. For almost every DMV be we've ever talked about they they have trouble scaling and they almost always Implement some new tactics later in their evolution to kind of scale beyond the digital ad phase and so in war Beast Partners case they were one of the first retailers to say, the MVPs to say hey we need to open a bunch of stores and stores can be really profitable billboard to help dramatically improve our customer acquisition costs so by 2018 they already had 88 stores, and right now they have a hundred and twenty-six or a hundred forty five stores so so they have a reasonable Fleet of stores that has grown pretty pretty quickly. Obviously there's a lot of extra costs for running those stores and obviously those stores didn't do particularly well in covid. [11:21] So some of the interesting things about the stores is that like in 2018 sixty percent of the revenue came from e-commerce forty percent of the revenue came from retail about the same in 2019 but as they jumped up there store counts and 2020 that. So in 2020 sixty percent of the revenue came from these retail stores 40 percent came from ecom's so the store is really are becoming the primary acquisition Channel. It's super interesting to look at the. [11:54] The unit economics of a customer how expensive it is to acquire a customer how much money they make on each customer has sticky each customer is and different s ones you know give, different granularity in case of Ori Parker they reported a customer acquisition cost so they said that in 2018 they spent $26 per customer to acquire customers. In 2019 they said they spent $27 to acquire customers and in 2020 and the pandemic influenced year they had to spend more they spent $40 per customer to acquire customers now put a big Asterix on that there's some controversy will get to in a minute but. If you take those numbers on face value those are pretty darn good customer acquisition cost for this kind of business other. [12:42] Kind of did you a native vertical brands that have have done it s one have disclosed some kind of eye-watering Lee expensive customer acquisition costs and so famously like Blue Apron was paying $400 a customer to acquire customers so so even $40 a customer it's pretty reasonable to kind of put that in perspective in 2020 they were getting about 218 dollars in sales per customer which is a little over two orders, um so the the the unit economics are potentially viable. Except for that sgna line and all the expensive advertising that they're having to do which is ultimately driving that those those net losses. So those were kind of my big. [13:31] Takeaways and I alluded to a controversy friend of the show and former guests Dan McCarthy who's a assistant professor Emery and one of the true gurus and in clv um he looked at this as one and at first he was like wow that's a really good customer acquisition cost they should be commended and then he like started reading the fine print and they've used a novel definition of customer acquisition costs they've divided all of their expenses by all of their customers and. About sixty percent of their customers are returning customers so in theory. You shouldn't be dividing all of your digital marketing by your total number of active customers you should be dividing it by the new active customers and that's kind of the traditional definition that Dan and most of the rest of the world use we don't know what that number is for Warby but it's probably a lot higher than the. Forty dollars that would be disclosed based on this kind of unique definition of customer acquisition costs. Scot: [14:39] They did they kind of elaborate on that or. Jason: [14:44] No they didn't at all. Scot: [14:45] And easier he just kind of picked it apart and like there was no. Jason: [14:48] Yeah like they like there's not enough data in the s-1 to try to estimate a. Revised customer acquisition cost now what Dan has done in the past is he's gone a hold of credit card panel data. And kind of backed into like customer acquisition cost by looking at the the. The spend from you know the from customers I haven't you know I don't know that he's done that analysis yet for these guys are the even has access to the data to try but. Yeah so at the moment we don't know what their khakis I have to be honest you like even if. You you kind of like double it because you say like oh they should have only been chart you know counting all these costs against the 40% new customers and not against the hundred percent active customers. You're still at like 80 dollars which is expensive you you can't make money spending $80 for a customer that you only sell $180 to. It's still better than a lot of these other companies that we've looked at. Scot: [15:58] The worse is Casper were the cactus a good couple hundred dollars higher than the mattress. Jason: [16:04] Yeah and I would say. Like these guys have about the most mature store model of any of these companies like Casper's up there too but the next company will talk about allbirds has a lot less stores so, you know if the opening your own stores is the way to lower kak then you would expect to see it in Warby Parker's S1. And my my takeaway from this is. Either you have to get to a much bigger and you're going to say something in a minute that potentially disagrees but either where we Partners hypothesis is you have to get to a much bigger number to get profitable. And so maybe you know instead of one or million run rate I need a billion dollar run rate. Or you need an alternative customer acquisition strategy beyond your own stores and digital ads which are the two tools warble uses and I would also argue where B is. About as good as it gets at sort of organic demand generation and they do they do great like social they do gritty like they do all the other guerrilla marketing tactics so like. [17:15] Um I would you know if they're not profitable on 390 million with their type of product it seems hard to imagine that someone else with the same type of product. Is going to do much better because they seem like a externally they seem like a darn good execute. Scot: [17:37] Yeah isn't in the die where category is dominated by the luxacore Oslo Exotica and they own like everything right so they do they have you know they have a licensed almost every frame like. Jason: [17:50] Yeah almost every designer brand you've ever heard of is a is actually like license to Exotica. Scot: [17:58] Yeah then they own the. Jason: [18:00] And they own a bunch of the chains of retail stores. But they also do wholesale so Exotica like both sell all those license frames to the third parties. And they sell through their own stores, and they sell at a way higher price point than Warby Parker so they have way more margin like you know part of the premise of Warby Parker is the eyewear should be affordable so their average per glasses is $95 whereas. Like that the aov firm exotic is going to be much higher. Scot: [18:33] Yeah I do I'm not a customer but I knew I do know people that are and they do tend to buy more I've heard him say is anecdotal but I've heard him say especially women they'll say you know the prices are low enough I can buy a two or three different pairs that kind of they almost become accessories at that just kind of interesting. Jason: [18:48] So that's what I was hoping to see right like you go man I've been part of a frame cost $500 I can't own that many frames but if they cost a hundred dollars I might have different ones for different outfits right or. Right and so yeah like. Could their average order value be much higher but on average they're only selling 2.14 pair of frames per customer. So they're like again frame is $95 their average revenue per orders $184. Um so they're not necessarily like seeing a huge kit I'm sure their customers like you describe but they're not there are apparently are not enough of those customers that that's. [19:28] Change dramatically changing the economics also where we park our his kind of expanded to be a vision care company rather than just eyeglasses so they launched contacts they have optometrist services in all the stores and you might go oh wow I wonder how those things are contributing and at the moment / this one they're not, like the the all the non glasses products cumulatively are about one percent of Revenue and all the Professional Services are one percent of Revenue so these the the eyeglasses are 98% of their business now maybe that means there's a lot more growth there. [20:05] But like my so my overall take away. These numbers did not surprise me in terms of Revenue it was about exactly where I would have expected I wasn't sure they would be profitable by now it wouldn't have surprised me if they were so it's a little concerning to me. That they're that they're not. Again if a ton of this loss in 2020 is because of the pandemic and they really did break even on 370 and if they find a way to end up profitable in 2021. Um I'm their biggest Revenue year ever then you know that that probably looks pretty good but I can tell you a ton of people were shocked by these numbers a ton of people thought Warby Parker was much bigger a lot of people were speculating that they were near or over a billion dollars in annual sales which I did not view is very likely and so I think this is kind of a. [21:01] Glass of cold water in the face of a lot of the DMV be Fanboys and d2c Fanboys that like these guys are, are basically the poster child for that whole segment and they're better than most of the other ones and you know even they do not have. Home run financials and so you know frankly like this this bodes poorly for the financials of a lot of other like apparel DMV bees that we haven't seen yet. Scot: [21:33] Well I guess my seemingly controversial take is when. You know when you talk to these investment bankers there's all of this data that indicates that you should really focus on growth and not profitability if you're if you're if you're in a category like this which you know the pitch is there's this new way to build a brand it's direct-to-consumer it's digitally native yeah we're having some stores so by focusing on ibadah you're essentially saying we were making profit and we, need this we don't have anything to spend it in essentially because it's just going to kind of move over to your balance sheet especially when do an IPO you're in a load of the balance sheet with presumably at least a hundred million maybe more so. When you when you look at the data especially at this scale it's much better to lose money or to not get profitable for years because. You want to pump all that into growth so every dollar you can drive into growth gets a much bigger multiple than a dollar that goes to the bottom line. [22:42] So yeah so that's that's why and then the other challenges once you're profitable. It's kind of hard to undo it the classic example is Amazon in our retail world you know how many times have you and I heard retailers complained that Amazon is a profitable this is when they weren't profitable today they are only say they're not profitable, eventually Amazon got to the point where they just couldn't not be profitable so but you know for a good kind of like, I don't know 20-year run their they weren't profitable so they were the extreme example of this and it gave them much more leverage over like a Walmart who had been printing ibadah never got used to it and got valued off eBay doc then you can't go in and say, there's a new disruptor and hey everyone we're going to we're going to stop being ibadah positive and growing even on we're going to focus on the top line to you know our spend. 500 billion on some fulfillment centers so it yeah I think it's appropriate and I'm sure you know the risk factors that's going to be probably one of the first ones is we. I don't plan to make money and we may never make money so yeah so I think it's actually. I would almost expecting to be losing more you know if I look at kind of 21 so a lot of these. [24:04] S ones they do a six-month view because they don't want to update it every quarter its kind of pain wdesk one while you're in process so they'll do it like a six-month you and I believe their six-month view was 270 million Revenue so that put them in a 540 anyone's is that what it was the okay. Yeah and then loss is 20 that's even a lost that loss of seven so losing 14 on that that's. Jason: [24:31] The well the even has our positive by the way the it's only the net loss that like so like they have they made 20 20 million ibadah on 270 million in sales in the first six months of this year so that's. Scot: [24:43] That must be the way you're some accounting the other thing that's really frustrating is a. Jason: [24:48] They have all sgna below that you badal line which is weird to me at least I don't like. Scot: [24:54] Yeah that is weird. Jason: [24:56] That's that's why you got from this yeah that's why you got get from this positive ebitda to this negative net loss. Scot: [25:06] Yeah this is one of the ways Amazon lost money for so long is they would capitalize the leases on now it's become an SEC rule I think this gets kind of the edge of my accounting knowledge. Jason: [25:16] Yeah and they didn't there was not like detailed disclosure about the real estate so I that is an interesting question how they finance these stores and do they own them and all that stuff but. Scot: [25:25] So I would almost say. As in a potential investor I'd rather get to a billion dollars faster and have a negative ebitda a light you know at a 500 million they had like a hundred million ebitda law side. I actually kind of think that's okay especially if they could grow faster. Jason: [25:44] Yeah and so I'll just say I generally agree with you and I certainly get the argument about profitability the the bigger concern for me is there an 11 year old company that's executed about as well as you can execute done all the things that the talking headset are smart to do and they only got two with a super compelling value proposition and very high MPS scores and they still only got to 390 million so I like my biggest cautionary take away from this whole thing is it's way harder to get to a billion dollars then people realize and none of these companies have done it not one have them have gotten to a billion dollars in run rate unless you call like white cloth digitally native vertical brand. So I do think scaling is hard and if it's hard for these guys it's going to be a heck of a lot harder for these why you know companies that want to be super Capital light and not have stores and and all of those things and I well I. Don't over worry about the profitability I will tell you the unit economics are mildly concerning their making a custom product like they have to you know make those lenses for each customer and if they're having to spend $80 to acquire a customer that only half their customers are buying a second time they're only getting a hundred and or 218 dollars in revenue from each customer and they have to make a custom product in that it just like. [27:13] I'm not saying they can't get to profitability at a billion dollars but it's. It doesn't look like a home run business I could it still could be a good investment right and I mean as long as there's someone that's willing to pay more for your stock after you own it not saying the stock won't do well at all but it doesn't look like. A company that's likely to just you know generate like obscene free cash flow like Amazon does. Scot: [27:40] Yeah I bet if you looked at a kind of store cohort you'd be happier with the profitability and maybe that was something. Jason: [27:49] Yeah I would have loved to see that in this one and obviously they didn't put it in there. Scot: [27:53] Yeah you know and and yes so they must have been advised that the institutional investors aren't going to be that concerned that I think. I think they're actually close enough with the lines are the lines are converging so you know you can kind of see if you just kind of. Plot them out you can see they'll cross no get profitable because they're already been up positive So eventually they'll get to that net loss off when the lines are diverging like Lyft and Uber when they went public they had to spend a lot of time in there s one talking about well we know our lines are diverging but it's because we're if you take our cities that are over a year old they're very profitable and the reason our losses are growing faster than revenue is because we're opening city so fast and that's how investors got comfort in that example. Jason: [28:37] Yeah and their lines are diverging from 19 to 20 now they're going to say well but that's covid-19. Scot: [28:43] Yeah yeah that's project I could see that. Jason: [28:44] No I'm sure does yeah and especially again because stores. So Scott what did you learn from the allbirds S1. Scot: [28:56] Yeah allbirds was it was a good read I enjoyed it it was different you know so I kind of appreciate that having read a lot of these it was less dry of any S1 especially the mdna section was felt like the founders had definitely put their heart and soul into it I don't know if you do you listen to the podcast how I built this they. A really good episode on there and you know the thing another thing I appreciate about allbirds is there's consistency there every time you every time I hear one of the founders I go in a store have an online experience Packaging. They're very purposeful and brand message is very very tight in and until you try to do that it's hard to appreciate how hard it is to execute on that so, so I just really felt like that was interesting that even this one kind of landed on me as if you know the same vibe that I got from the store and the product and everything so that was really cool and kudos to them on that probably the most interesting thing about the allbirds S1 is they try to kind of tilt it and they say look we're not going to do an IPO we're going to do an S peo and what they're essentially doing is saying we want to elevate the discussion and talk a lot about sustainability and so they call it a sustainable public Equity offering and spe now I'll get into more of that but I wanted to go into some of the numbers first. [30:26] So on the number side there 2019 Revenue was a hundred ninety-three million and then in 2020 they did 219 million so so that's 13 percent year-over-year growth. [30:38] So that was interesting to me and then they it has accelerated from 20 22 21 looking at the six month period to 27 percent, they unfortunately there they've got a fair amount of international business you've got this kind of no Financial impact of currency conversion the FX is what they call it so do their 25 or 27 depend on depending on the currency situation but let's call it mid-20s and. So that's interesting so they've got accelerating Revenue growth which Wall Street loves to call that ARG ARG and then they broke out digital and said that it was 89 percent of their business and in 2020 that was a hundred ninety-four did you see that going down because part of their use of proceeds is opening a lot more stores they have 27 stores as of the IPO so June. [31:33] June 20 and then I've been 21 and then they have the pretty much say you know one of the we're going to open a lot more stores and it's gonna be a big push for us they also are losing money they're losing about 40 million a year so kind of twenty percent of Revenue is being lost which kind of feels you're going to lose money you might as well lose you know twenty Thirty forty percent of of Revenue to accelerate so that felt more in line with kind of what I've seen is public-private kind of vc-backed company coming into the public markets couple highlights on the other metrics they talk a lot about how their nudging gross margins up they in 2018 gross margins were at 47% and then moving up to 51% and a good expansion there on the margin side that's pretty typical as you scale and you start to nail down with any kind of manufactured product there's definitely margin benefits of scale right because you're buying more pallets of wool I don't know what we'll comes in sheep's of wool and you're getting more you know your. Paying off your fulfillment centers and you're taking a lot of these fixed costs you just putting more stuff through them so on a unit basis it drives in Crete drives down your unit cost just driving up your gross margins. [33:00] They were they were much more silent on cackle TV than what you saw with Laura B and so some of the data they had was they try to repeat customers and that number has gone up and. 2019 it was 46 percent of their revenues from repeat customers and then that was up in twenty twenty two fifty three percent they last raised a hundred million on 1.7 billion and I'll come back to that and then let's see the biggest thing about their IPO I hinted at the top with this spe oh is there all about sustainability and it's pretty interesting because some people they just kind of throw that in there in the hopes that there's the public markets there are increasingly large number of either, purposely built vehicles for investors that want to focus on this area or. [33:55] There's a big investors that are moving this way one of the biggest public investors is called Black Rock and they run out, huge massive amount of capital most of it in mutual funds but I think they have some hedge funds and whatnot and their CEO is basically put a Line in the Sand and said by can't remember the year but let's call it 20 30 or something like that they are going to shed any investment it doesn't really have kind of a framework around sustainability and you know. What people uses This Acronym ESG so environmental social and governance in essentially everyone wants companies to to self report what they want to do across those three dimensions and even the SEC is started kind of hinting and recommending that companies that they're going to start doing some things here and requiring them in things like us ones and then, the thing that's really interesting in a public company that I didn't learn until I was kind of deep inside of one a lot of these mutual funds so you go public and you have this new set of shareholders that are largely got mutual funds you've got index funds and you've got hedge funds and then retail which would be individual people like buying to their Charles Schwab well the mutual funds in the index funds when you. [35:17] When every year you put out these different things that you want your shareholders to vote on well they they don't like to vote on those things they like to defer that to a third party and there's several of these third parties once called ISS and the other ones called, glass Lewis or something like that and these third parties therefore become very powerful because they aggregate a lot of the, you know because these decisions are referred to them they thus aggregate a lot of power from your shareholders and they are really starting to get where they are they're saying you know even that's going to be kind of the first Domino to fall I think where they're going to say hey the recommendations we make on your board and comp and all these things that they have to opine on to the, to to the shareholders that have Outsource that to them they're going to really focus in on ESG so so it's a big movement and there's a lot of even CNBC runs like a every other day segment on this topic because it's become such a big big deal and you know I actually think it's good I think you know you would as a as you know. [36:24] Public means transparency and I think companies should be transparent about this stuff and if if they say you know I don't know where we're a liquor company and we're not really focused on this that's fine or if they say we're all birds and this is going to be a huge differentiator for us that's fine too it just you know at least let potential shareholders know where you are on the spectrum of things okay so that's the background the. [36:51] So these guys say look we we think this is so important we want to put a stake in the ground and we've come up with 19 criteria that we hope we're going to be the first we're going to kind of self rate ourselves against these criteria and they fall against, cross effectively two categories for each of the es and the D environmental societal and governance so it's things like you know they want to be carbon neutral they're going to like an environmental they're going to favor vendors that that kind of have a similar carbon neutrality and sustainability mindset to them and on the governance side they're going to have more diversity on their board and those kinds of things. [37:31] One of the interesting things they do explicitly State and this caused a lot of noise on Wall Street is they when you go public you get all these people there's kind of this this literal they call it the book so let's say you're going to sell a hundred million worth of shares you do your Roadshow and then you typically end up with maybe a more orders than you have shares she'll get 300 million so one way to you have an allocation problem so one thing you can do is you can just cut everyone back to a third and you can say well you want to 10 million now we're give you three that's how you could Jam 300 million of demand into a hundred million dollar opportunity well these guys have said is we're actually going to your allocation is going to depend on where you are as an investor as it relates to ESG so essentially they're saying if you're like one of these companies like BlackRock that that is really kind of pushing the foundation there we may give you your full allocation but if you're this kind of hedge fund that doesn't really even have a website and no statement on this then you may get no allocation or a smaller size allocation so that was pretty interesting that's the first time that's been done and that that was kind of. [38:37] Pretty interesting on that so encountered an actually mentioned sustainability in the s-1 over 200 times which is it just shows how important it is to them and you know a lot of companies. Tried this out but allbirds was founded with this right the whole idea of allbirds was could you find sustainable products to make a shoe with and they started with the wool even the soul is made from a plant-based material, if it was obvious like she shows her something to remember what it is. Jason: [39:07] I Scot: [39:09] But it's not rubber it you know it's not a you know there's two types of rubber there is a plant-based rubber from a rubber tree but most rubber is obviously from a petroleum-based so the other thing I thought was interesting is the essentially layout they have five pillars essentially and they basically say hey here's our five pillars we're going to be product Innovative platform Purpose Driven brand with an inspired voice. [39:38] Connections with our repeat customers around the globe so so Global and repeat customers are important to them vertical retail distribution strategy robust infrastructure creating a platform for scale the sequence of those is pretty interesting because again the first one is product Innovation and then second one is purpose-driven and that's where they capture a lot of the ESG stuff. [40:00] The I thought for listeners this would be the most interesting one is vertical retail distribution strategies I just wanted to add one will highlight here are digitally LED vertical retail distribution strategy combines our digital offerings with our stores so we can meet customers where they are delivering value and convenience with our store serving as brand begins our company was born online from the outset we developed a direct convenient digital platform for our customers we opened our first store and 2017 have since been expanding yada yada so and then they wrap up and say in 20 as of June 30 we 20:21 we had the ability to reach up to 2.5 billion consumers in 35 countries across our digital and Retail platforms so I thought that was pretty interesting where they're basically saying this D and B, be thing even though we're at a relatively small scale we think it's still important part of our future and stores are really more of a brand, front face to the digital back and so I thought that was interesting, let's see that some data on repeat analysis but you know the. [41:10] Those are the highlights they that is really confusing table where people bought more than their repeat purchase rate went up. [41:19] I kind of get wrapped up in a chicken and egg thing there because like just by buying more haven't you already made your repeat purchase go up like I couldn't unpack that in my head but I need and up figure that one out for me look at a secret credit card data my analysis on this one so that those are the kind of highlights my analysis was this one was shockingly smaller than I would have thought you know I. I kind of backed in this because I had heard that valuation of 1.6 on their last they're kind of in this unicorn status here 1.6 billion in your like okay a lot of these Brands you look at kind of public comps you get 325 x as an e-commerce company so let's give them a generous valuation of 5x so they must be three or four hundred million and then. Turns out they're kind of in this lower 200 or 300 million scale so that was like well they must be growing at a crazy Pace because if you're going at a hundred percent then you can still get a really nice vault. A super-sized multiple like they must be that makes them hopefully even higher right so there like a times multiple but they're really not they were going 25% so it's kind of a bit of a head-scratcher for me and I'm really curious to see how the IPO does because I kind of assumed I'm not smarter than than all these investors have looked at this and put this price tag on it so I must be missing something so you know the things I think I may be missing. [42:43] You know there's there's a lot of talk they've partnered with Adidas and they're definitely going after the running category and so taking on Nike if you can build anything that's, no one 20th of a Nike that's a big brand so that could be people could be looking at this and seeing the optionality of that is this could be you know counter to Nike this ESG piece it could be that there is an supply-demand imbalance I think. [43:15] I think this is definitely the case where there's a lot more ESG aware dollars looking for places to invest than there are places to put them, so that could be a factor maybe there's some bullish bullishness on the store business where people have done models they say well if they're at, 25 stores and they go to 250 that's going to the growth is going to accelerate a tremendous base so you know I kind of swirl all those around and you know it is interesting so I then I kind of put myself and say well if I was going to be with Nike how would you go about them and Nike doesn't have a lot of weaknesses and yeah they're ten years ago you and I would have said while their weaknesses are not going direct to Consumers but they've largely fixed that right and you've got a lot of you've got a whole deck on that that's excellent so that's not a weakness anymore and but you know Nikes weakness is could be there is a, you know and I don't know any facts on this it's just there's a lot of noise out there right that there's these Chinese labor camps that their products are made in and these sweatshops and children making the shoes and then certainly so there's there's kind of that that they're kind of unclean sourcing if you will. [44:32] People claiming it I have no idea what's going on there and then you know there is an argument to be made that Nike to my knowledge hasn't done a lot to say wow our products are sustainable in these ways is just really isn't their thing so so it is a clever way to attack Nike and maybe it's actually a combination of all these things that investors see and they say we think this is a pretty clever way to attack Nike they're going to get some market share because we think it's important to Consumers it's important to us and they kind of scroll all that together and that's why it gets the bigger multiple so I may be curious to see how the IPO does to see if, that multiple holds up or in a there's definitely something going on there or maybe it was just an anomaly in the private Market. Jason: [45:20] Yeah and in both cases like the. The economics of the IPO aren't really revealed yet right like we're a ways away from from like Target prices and like understanding what the valuation is going to be for the IPO. Scot: [45:37] Yeah yeah you know these guys that could have effectively a Down Round where they essentially say hey we want. Jason: [45:42] Both have raised a lot of money at some like reasonably High valuations. Scot: [45:48] Yeah and you know they probably wouldn't be going public if the bankers weren't telling them they're going to get. Yeah I really nice mark up unless there was some desperation reason and I just don't they're not burning enough Capital that I don't think the existing investors couldn't sustain them for years so so mi bat is the bankers think that they're going to do really well and we'll see a big pop so it will say. Jason: [46:18] Yeah well if you think so a I would say like one of the things that encouraging so a one thing a few things to remember that are different between these two companies is allbirds is much younger than Warby Parker so I want to say Orbeez like 11 years old allbirds is like 5 years old so there earlier in their evolution that 27 stores versus a hundred forty five stores and that's a. A huge difference because a big expense in having stores is advertising to get people to your stores and you know. Beyond the digital advertising which is very expensive per customer like traditional advertising is much less expensive but you have to buy traditional advertising. Based on a metro area and when you only have 27 stores it means basically you're buying an ad to that getting amortized for a single store whereas when you have a hundred and forty-five stores you can have six stores in a a big Metro and that same ad is driving customers to six doors so my first thing I would say is. It seems like they're committed to a store strategy but they're early in the face like they could get an ice pop as they open more stores because all of the marketing and advertising that they're already doing spending money on, will work much harder when they get to a little bigger feet of stores and the. There are economies and scale of running a fleet of stores versus at 27 stores they're probably pretty inefficient. Scot: [47:48] Yeah they talked about how they've had they've invested in some distribution centers into the store so they're probably over distribution Centered for you know 25 stores. Jason: [47:58] So I do think the stores thing is encouraging, um I always am uncomfortable on the whole Purpose Driven thing so because I guess I'm going to mines and you didn't mention it but I think one of the novel things about them is they're one of the first companies to go public that's a certified B Corporation. Scot: [48:16] There's several others so there's that brand for girls nothing to you. Jason: [48:28] Okay well it's I mean regardless a hundred percent think as a marketing tactic that you're a hundred percent right like there is a cohort of customers that really care about a variety of these different missions and Nike doesn't particularly appeal to a lot of them right and so. Kind of providing a viable alternative you know is certainly a way to win a segment I do think. They're very credible like they've been talking about this this sustainability purpose since the very beginning they've invested in it the shoe is more expensive to make because of some of the sustainability choices that they've made so it's not just kind of. [49:12] Ecology washing on top of a you know a greedy brand and like I think their claim in their in their last one is that the the shoe has a like 30% less. Less ecological footprint than a traditional shoe and I think traditional she was code named for Nike by the way. So so I do think they are they are credible in their Purpose Driven thing and there's a. At the moment there are all these surveys of consumers that o gen Z is way more purpose-driven and and way more so than older cohorts they say that you know they really care about a brand that aligns with their goals and they care about the ecological issues and ethical issues in all of these different things and it feels like Auburn's is well positioned to cater to those customers so superficially you go oh nice it's a. It's a growing favorable Trend in there a strong executor at it and I think some of that is legitimate. [50:16] But in the back of my head there's this this famous academic paper from like 8 years ago called the myth of the ethical consumer and basically all young consumers have always said in surveys that they care about these various missions but when you look at their spending habits, there their convictions are a lot less strong than their stated preferences are and so I do I worry. [50:43] About completely hanging my hat on consumers doing the right thing when they're there. [50:50] Happily buying a lot of Nikes obviously I did also think it's interesting. Obviously the unit economics are wildly different than Warby Parker because of the nature of the product but they have 3.3 million us consumers worry Parker has two million consumers despite the fact where we Partners got this way bigger Fleet of stores and has been marketing for six more years so, so they are getting decent reach, both companies disclose their MPS scores their net promoter score and and they're both astronomically high and allbirds is even higher than Warby Parker so they. They're making their customers happy. They're doing well the one thing that jumped out at me as a opportunity is for allbirds that would be harder for worry Parker is. Okay you start out purely online and you're growing through digital ads and then you start opening stores and you invest a bunch in opening your own stores what other levers could you pull if you need to get your customer acquisition cost down. And it's not obvious to me what the big ones are for for Warby Parker, a play that some similar companies to allbirds have run is expanding in a wholesale once once they sort of reach a plateau and allbirds absolutely could do that as well and so it again my takeaway from both of these companies is. [52:17] Scaling is way harder than the the Twitter DTC Universe realizes they all want to imagine these companies are much bigger than they are because they've raised a bunch of money. It turns out raising a bunch of money doesn't equal winning a bunch of customers not saying these two companies can't be wildly successful in win a bunch of customers, I'm just saying it's really hard it's a huge competitive advantage to be a big company that already has a bunch of customers. And it's hard to start a new brand from scratch and catch up and these both of these are examples of that and it's going to be really interesting as they keep trying to grow to see what. What new things they try to accelerate that growth. Scot: [52:59] Yeah absolutely and I was curious I just looked it up allbirds is an 86 net promoter score and War B's latest measure is 83. Jason: [53:08] And those are both astronomical and side note there's some controversy about how people measure it in the inventors of the metric. Our kind of annoyed with how everyone's misusing it so it's not guaranteed that that's perfectly Apples to Apples but. That those numbers kind of fit with the consumer sentiment that I've experienced for both brands. Scot: [53:32] Yeah yeah we do a whole show on the purity of net promoter score. Jason: [53:37] That would be awesome. Scot: [53:40] But that in with some attribution man that's a party right there. Go well it wouldn't be a Jason and Scot show if we didn't have a little bit of. Jason: [53:52] Amazon news new your margin is there opportunity. Scot: [54:04] That's right we got a couple in lausanne news items the one I wanted to chat with you Jason is, Amazon announced they are partnering with buy now pay later firm a firm so that was an interesting one did that take you by surprise. Jason: [54:21] It did it totally did not it didn't surprise me at all that they're getting into buy now pay later it's a huge trend. In a way like I knew they didn't have one but it kind of when I heard it read it and I said it to myself out loud I was cut it's kind of shocking. That they're just now adding it now they have dabbled in the past. With with much earlier iterations of these sort of installment plans but what totally took me by surprise is that they chose a firm like a a firm is working with a lot of. Direct Amazon competitors that aren't going to be happy about this I'm thinking of for example Walmart. And so I'll be curious to see how that flushes out and have a firm can successfully keep both of those clients happy that would be impressive and frankly there's just so much money to be made in this space and an Amazon scale I'm somewhat surprised that they didn't do it themselves. Scot: [55:14] Yeah that shocked me to the thing is I've been digging into these being the combi and pills and it's really interesting so if you look at a firm karna and a bunch of these, you know what they're finding is the under 30 year old consumer, doesn't like the way credit card debt Works where you have this pool of you know that you can pull down and then it accumulates they much prefer to match it with a purchase and pay off the purchase and it's really interesting to read about that and then the the both the firms in there s ones they have a lot of data around us and increasingly even after they've gone public there's more data coming out about this trend so I was I was thinking. You know why Amazon has they if you're a seller though and you money you know they've got their own credit card there's got to be like. What is the larger Banks kind of effectively inside of Amazon that doesn't really Market itself as a bank because it doesn't want to be regulated like a bank maybe that's part of what. Triggers them not doing it. Jason: [56:16] Dress fear about yeah Fair. Scot: [56:18] Yeah there's any trust thing but it is funny you know we've been at this long enough I remember. I'm old enough to remember there was this startup called bill me later and they came on the scene and Amazon used it and you know loved it and was actually giving them quotes that conversions were up 20 percent and then eBay bot eBay / PayPal but Bill Me Later and Amazon ripped them off the site the next night it was controversial and we're all like holy cow I can't you know I think we're all shocked how quickly Amazon turned that off after seeing his praises so it is kind of funny to watch now Amazon jump back into it you know probably been 15 years at this point back into it and partner up with the firm so I almost kind of wondered if. Maybe there was an investment phase but also doesn't Shopify own a chunk of a firm like there's an alliance there too which is another it's unlike Amazon to lay down you kind of have connections into. Competitors even one degree away with a firm in the Middle With both Walmart and Shopify it all. Jason: [57:22] And there is Juicy data at play in this service so it is it is interesting. Scot: [57:28] Yeah days was famously he wouldn't ever he really didn't want to buy any Google ads because he didn't want them to see what they're up to. Jason: [57:36] No I mean part of me would almost suspect that Amazon is like trying to learn on a firm and that it wouldn't be a long-term deal but I entirely speculation. Scot: [57:46] I think both of our Spidey senses are tingling on this one and we'll keep an eye on it then there was a battle of press releases where Amazon Walmart said we're hiring 20,000 people and then Amazon du ha ha we're hiring 50,000 so that was that was the other Amazon news I saw. Jason: [58:02] Yeah I saw that too I got to be honest to me those were nothing Burgers it's super complicated both of those companies hire a ton of seasonal Labour way more than that right and. Sidenote like targets hiring a hundred and thirty thousand people for Christmas so those numbers just didn't seem that impressive and if I was if I was Walmart my press release would have said hey we've hired 500,000 people since covid-19 like that seems that's true and that seems a lot more impressive than than the 20,000 I guess what is interesting in both cases is, this is not seasonal labor these are full-time jobs just dedicated to fulfilling e-commerce orders so that's kind of interesting. [58:42] And two other tiny pieces of Walmart news in the the time that we don't have left Walmart did announce. An enhancement to their advertising echo system so they have a thing called the Amazon or Walmart connect and they launched a DSP for that. Demand-side platform it's a way to use Walmart data to Target segments and by ads both. On Walmart so walmart.com and in Walmart stores but also um across the the interweb using Walmart's first-party data and as we talked about in our privacy show as it's harder to use Google and Facebook targeting because of all these privacy concerns. It makes sense that that retailers are trying to maximize The Leverage they have with their 1p data Walmart has the most customers so they have the most wimpy data and so that that's kind of an interesting evolution of their ad platform and a potential competitive Advantage for Walmart. [59:47] And then another one that's just kind of interesting that I didn't necessarily expect Walmart launched a new delivery platform. Which is delivering goods for other retailers. So they call it Walmart Go Local and essentially you can be independent owner operator you know, in a town and sell stuff for home delivery and Walmart will use their network of owned delivery. People in vehicles to pick stuff up from your bakery and drive them to a customer for a fee. Scot: [1:00:19] Yeah we'll see how that goes I don't know if I want my bakery to be delivered by Walmart. Jason: [1:00:27] Yeah I mean there's a number of issues it just to me it's interesting because obviously Walmart used to be a pure retailer you know you're seeing them lean into a lot of services they it was a few weeks ago but they announced this deal with. With Adobe whether they're they're selling software to Adobe and now they're selling delivery services to you know Main Street when you know used to be the narrative was that Walmart was putting Main Street out of business so it just it's interesting to see the evolution of Walmart. Scot: [1:00:57] I've whenever Walmart talks about some of the services they show kind of a low WalMart delivery vehicle that looks a lot like an Amazon Prime van. Jason: [1:01:06] Yeah they have a lot of different they have kind of a patchwork Fleet of delivery services and some of them use different vehicles but you you maybe more expert in the Walmart delivery Fleet than I am. Scot: [1:01:20] I just see this picture and it I think a lot about Vans everyday and it resonates with me. [1:01:32] I appreciate it thanks for looking out for me well we are out of time and one of the topics we wanted to cover but what with all the juicy IPO news didn't get to this time but will dedicate neck so to it is there is a lot coming up we're kind of coming in to wear it the past the halfway point of Q3 and all eyes will turn to Q4 with the holiday season it's going to be really unique this year because we cut the covid thing we've got the Delta variant we've got all kinds of crazy weather going on with hurricanes so as a retailer it's a really wacky time and one of the things we want to talk about next show is ship again so we coined that here on the show last year and turned out to be probably bigger than even we anticipated what's going on with that and 2021 I see a lot of time thinking about Vanagon there's also chip again so which which caused Vanagon so with want to talk about all the geddens that we're seeing out there. And then also you know there's a lot of interesting things going on the supply chain we've been you know the team here at the Jason Scott show and our many analysts have been listening in to the quarterly results and and talking to retailers about this and we have a lot of information to share on that kind of T up what we think the holiday is going to look like from from those angles. Jason: [1:02:55] Wow that sounds like an awesome show I can't wait to hear it. Scot: [1:02:58] I know I cannot wait for us to make it. Jason: [1:03:01] Will Scott it's happen again we've totally used up our allotted time as always if this was valuable we sure would appreciate that five star review on iTunes and only takes a second it's easier than ever before to leave it jump over there give us a review and make sure you're subscribed to get that next podcast Scot teas. Scot: [1:03:21] Absolutely thanks everyone and until next time… Jason: [1:03:24] Happy commercing.

This season we have expanded our horizons—interviewing folks from Michigan to the Finger Lakes in New York. We are serving up ten new episodes that include entrepreneurs, artists, champions of the community, and bold adventurers. 

The first Vienna Cars + Coffee live spotlight features a conversation with Tim Miller, car enthusiast and proud owner of a 1987 VW Vanagon Synchro. Tim purchased his curbside classic four years ago in Wisconsin in the dead of winter and it was on his trip back to Virginia with his son that they experienced together that this is what it's all about. Tim shares stories from his travels in the Synchro throughout the region, the maintenance and upgrades he has made to keep it performing, and how Cars + Coffee events provide valuable opportunities to connect, share, and learn from other enthusiasts in the community.

大众的Vanagon，属于class BDan Lin一家

大众的Vanagon，属于class BDan Lin一家

If you've owned a Vw Bus for any length of time, you've probably got a tale of roadside breakdown woes. We met a woman, Lynda Hardman, who had more than her fair share. In fact, she swears her bus had a curse. She's seen everything from flaming stoves to the crunchy demise of her not-so-beloved ASI Riviera. 

Warren went camping in the Vanagon, Lane, and Art shared a Kia for a week and we are all annoyed by bad drivers.

Chris's interview covers the two topics everyone wants to talk about—love and money. We interviewed Chris just south of Springfield, Ohio, at a barn sale where he's selling all manner of leather goods—suitcases and coats, furs and hats. People come and go from the barn where the sale is taking place—the same barn where he is temporarily staying. Farther back on the lot is his 1985 weekender edition vanagon. It's one shade of brown and he calls it The Groundhog. 

Every owner of a bus knows what it is like to break down on the side of the road. That moment of panic. The frustration. How their partner immediately gets stressed…Well, we met a woman, Jen Hunter who uses her moments of stasis to keep moving forward. Jen is an artist and we met up at her studio, Vagabond, at Front Street Galleries in Dayton Ohio, in the old warehouse district. Across the street is an active warehouse where trucks come and go. Down the hall, some musicians were jamming. It is definitely not the ideal recording location, but it is the right place to conduct this interview. 

When I bought my VW Bus I was told I was a lucky man because I lived in Dayton, where a very talented VW mechanic lived. His name is Norm Vocke and he owns Oak Grove Import Auto Service. 

Nerd out on the most interesting Rad ForSale, Cars on Cars and Bids, and Bring a Trailer with the Bid Nerds. Hosts John Polnik and Michael Deeb take a closer look at the their top five picks of the day on Cars & Bids and Bring a Trailer. 2007 BMW M5 1977 Oldsmobile Starfire 1989 BMW 325iS 2008 Saab 9-3 Turbo X 1986 VW Doka Syncro T3

This is The Digital Story Podcast #782, March 16, 2021. Today's theme is "Do I Really Need All Those Photo Subscriptions?" I'm Derrick Story. Opening Monologue A reminder for my upcoming SmugMug subscription renewal arrived yesterday saying that I could lock-in the low rate of $85 if I pay for an entire year. Since the pandemic, I haven't used SmugMug once because I'm not doing client shoots. And it got me thinking about the rest of my annual charges. I think it's time to take stock of all my photo sharing subscriptions. And that's the focus of today's TDS Photography Podcast. I hope you enjoy the show. Digital Photography Podcast 782 Tune-In Via Your Favorite Podcast App! Apple Podcasts -- Spotify Podcasts -- Stitcher Podbean Podcasts -- Podbay FM -- Tune In Do I Really Need All Those Photo Subscriptions? I think part of what I had to deal with concerning this project was acknowledging that I'm not the same photographer I was at the beginning of 2020. Most of my assignments are created by me for my blog posts, LinkedIn Learning trainings, Medium articles, and workshops. I really don't need models anymore because I still can't interact with them, and I don't need sites to manage online galleries for those models and clients. Things have really changed. And the SmugMug renewal notice brought all of this home. So here's what I've been working on. The subscriptions I've decided to discontinue, I've been downloading all of my content off them in preparation to end the service. I had to start this ahead of time to allow the days required to ensure I got everything. Looking back over the last 10 years of work, I was amazed at how much content I had online. With SmugMug, for example, it was gallery after gallery that I downloaded. But I did so one at a time so I could organize the work on my backup hard drive. I just chip away at it while working on other projects. So, what did I keep, and what did I let go? Let's take a look. SmugMug - Let Go $85 a year - I really like SmugMug, and it was my go-to service for client password-protected galleries. Their organization, features list, and rendering are terrific. But I just don't do that work anymore, and it doesn't make sense to pay them $85 a year to archive that content. I've moved it all offline on to my backup hard drives. Flicker Pro - Keep $59 a year - Fortunately, SmugMug bought Flickr, so they still get some of my money. I'm keeping Flickr because it's cheaper, more versatile, and I have a deeper history of images there. Plus, we have the TDS Online Community on Flickr that I love, and draw images from for the TDS Member Photo of the Day. Flickr stays. (You might want to check out The Digital Story Public Group on Flickr where we have more than 80,000 images by TDS members. It's great!) Adobe Photography Plan (20GB) - Keep $9.99 a month - I like Lightroom and love having access to the latest Adobe photography features with this plan. I don't keep it for the storage, rather for the apps. And I appreciate them keeping the price stable over the years. Model Mayhem - Let Go $35 every 6 months - I have met many terrific people via Model Mayhem and hundreds of wonderful photographs have resulted. But again, my life is different now. I ended my subscription. Dropbox Plus 2TB - Keep $119 a year - Even though Dropbox is more than a photography plan, I use it mainly for that. And because of its versatility and popularity, it has keep its relevance even in this new chapter of my career. My online clients use it, and I need it as much as ever. iCloud 2TB - Keep $9.99 a month - If I had to keep just one cloud storage service, it would be iCloud. Since I'm in the Apple ecosystem, this services manages all the work I do on my Mac, including my photos. I wish they had a level in-between 200 GB (which isn't enough) and 2 TB (which gives me lots of head room). Regardless, it's a keeper for me. So, I've managed to trip 1/3 of my services in 2021. I'll review everything again in 2022 and go from there. Who knows what my world will be like by then? The Vanagon is Gone! I know this is a story near and dear to many hearts in our community, but I've sold the Vanagon that I used for workshops over the years, a vehicle filled with 20 years of fond memories. I've been working on it since that one miserable hot summer day a few years back when I had to have it towed from SF to Santa Rosa. I had feared that she died that day. But like a Phoenix from the ashes, she came back to full functionality. Of course, this included hours of my sweat equity combined with a few trips to Hans in Sebastopol. And on the day that I handed over the pink slip to a young German pre-med student and his girlfriend, she was running like a top. I honestly had a lump in my throat watching her drive away. Fortunately, Vanagons retain an excellent resale value on the used market, and the cash payment for my 1990 will be a sizable part of the downpayment for my new all-electric VW ID.4 5 passenger SUV. This begins a new chapter in my road trip adventures. I'll be using the ID.4 for upcoming workshops and my ongoing exploration of the world. I placed my reservation back in February, and was able to place the order just last week. So the new car is currently being built, and I should be behind the wheel by late April. I'll keep you posted! Adobe Photoshop's 'Super Resolution' Made My Jaw Hit the Floor You can read the entire article on Petapixel. Adobe just dropped its latest software updates via the Creative Cloud and among those updates is a new feature in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) called "Super Resolution." You can mark this day down as a major shift in the photo industry. I have seen a bit of reporting out there on this topic from the likes of PetaPixel and Fstoppers, but other than that the ramifications of this new feature in ACR have not been widely promoted from what I can see. The new Super Resolution feature in ACR essentially upsizes the image by a factor of four using machine learning, i.e. Artificial Intelligence (AI). What does this mean practically? Well, I immediately tested this out and was pretty shocked by the results. Though it might be hard to make out in the screenshot below, I took the surfing image shown below, which was captured a decade ago with a Nikon D700 -- a 12MP camera -- and ran the Super Resolution tool on it and the end result is a 48.2MP image that looks to be every bit as sharp (if not sharper) than the original image file. This means that I can now print that old 12MP image at significantly larger sizes than I ever could before. What this also means is that anyone with a lower resolution camera, i.e. the current crop of 24MP cameras, can now output huge image files for prints or any other usage that requires a higher resolution image file. In the three or four images I have run through this new feature in Photoshop I have found the results to be astoundingly good. The New Donation Kit for Carefree Shipping of Found Film Cameras We have more time around the house than ever. And you finally dove into that bedroom closet that's been begging for some organization. If you found a film camera that you're no longer using, our new Donation Kit makes it easy to pack and ship. Just visit the Contact Form on

"It looks like someone was finally fed up with the money changers profiting on every trade and the dove sellers exploiting the poor. About time someone did something! A riot is the voice of the unheard, right?"Who is exploiting the poor in our world today? And who do you see doing something about it?//John 2:13-22The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.//This episode was written, recorded, and produced by Rev. Jim Keat, the Digital Minister at The Riverside Church. Background tracks include Button Mushrooms, Easy, In My Head, and Vanagon by Podington BearVisit www.trcnyc.org/BeStillAndGo to listen to more episodes from all five seasons of Be Still and Go.Visit www.trcnyc.org/Donate to support this podcast and other digital resources from The Riverside Church that integrate spirituality and social justice.Visit www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/ to find out more about the Poor People's Campaign and what you can do to get involved.

Chap and Brian have the pleasure of sitting down with Chris McCaffrey (Instagram: @Chrisgoesoutdoorsing) from Alaska Mountain Guides and the International Wilderness Leadership School. They chat with Chris about Ski Mountaineering, and his experience living up in Alaska in a Bus, and some of his adventures in his Vanagon. He also shares with us some stories about his favorite climbing rope! Chris wanted to make sure everyone had the opportunity to check out the following people on Instagram as well! @sacredstoke - One of the best resources to learn more about indigenous perspectives in adventure sports @nyikacampbell - Nyika Campbell, his partner on his favorite Vanagon trip @kikamack - Kika Macfarlane, one of his favorite artists, and good friend

Come explore the elusive and amazing VW vanagonlife culture with our Vanagon guru @vanagonj. The guys explore the depth of the community and the iconic place that Vanagons and VW buses hold in our culture! Buckle up and enjoy the ride! This episode was recorded and shot at Old Man’s surf beach inside J's sweet 1990 Vanagon!   Brought to you by:   Kenda Tire Hagerty Freespirit Recreation   Connect with New Legend 4x4: Visit us on the web Follow on Instagram Like us on Facebook   Listen on all major streaming platforms: iTunes Google Play Music Spotify   Produced by BrandKast

Regular Car Reviews has rapidly established itself as one of the few standout voices in automotive reviews. In this episode we talk to Mr. Regular, Brian, about the show and the exciting next step their show is taking; the first step being a BEAUTIFUL VW Vanagon Westfalia camper van review. They threw the absolute book at this thing, it looks amazing, and you should absolutely head on over to their YouTube channel so that you can watch it with your whole face.

William Woodward (@wheretowillie on Instagram) is a climber, skier, and professional travel photographer. We talked about the beginnings of ‘Where to Willie’, balancing work and passion, finding meaningful stories and doing work that matters, Will’s daily routines, rules for life, photo advice, and three things he is grateful for.  Support on Patreon:patreon.com/thenuggetclimbing  Show Notes:  thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/william-woodward  Nuggets:  1:33 – Ruby the Vanagon  4:48 – Will’s defining moment, early travels, blogging, and the start of Where to Willie  8:50 – Will’s career transition and taking the leap as a freelance photographer  19:06 – Finding meaningful work and Will’s three-year plan  25:25 – Capturing experiences vs. being present  27:11 – Will’s daily meditation practice  29:51 – Will’s five coffee making methods  31:05 – Running and stolen bicycles  31:51 – Will’s process for finding freelance work and choosing brands to work for  33:06 – Pitching trips and photo projects  34:42 – The business of selling photography and his book recommendation  38:50 – Balancing work and passion and getting out of a rut  41:34 – “Rule number one: always swim”, flowered shirts, and other rules for life  45:10 – Hiking in Patagonia and a world record in Iceland  55:00 – Advice for traveling photographers and capturing the in-between moments  59:55 – Will’s writing, gear reviews, and tutorials  1:03:17 – Being part of the activity vs. keeping up on the latest gear  1:05:23 – One of Will’s personal mottos–“Get closer.”  1:05:52 – Will’s climbing progression and his relationship to climbing  1:08:36 – Alpine technical leadership training, sport climbing at Smith  1:10:46 – Will’s first trip to the Bugaboos, recent climbs, and plans for Mt. Stuart  1:13:29 – Promoting the outdoors vs. seeking solitude  1:14:06 – Why Will bought a new film camera and shooting film vs. digital  1:15:57 – “It’s ok to ask for help.”  1:17:15 – Will’s advice for himself at age 20  1:18:27 – Coolant, blown head gaskets, and why it’s always worth taking the time  1:19:43 – Will’s upcoming trip to NZ and giving yourself time to let things happen  1:20:57 – Will’s three gratitudes  1:22:34 – Journaling, writing as a habit, and why it has fallen off recently  1:23:55 – What’s next for Where to Willie  1:25:31 – Social media plugs  1:26:13 – Chasing great light  

I believe everything happens for a reason and let me tell you my van breaking down was confirmation of this. I broke down at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park and ended up getting towed to Carls house. What started off as a shitty experience, ended up being a blessing in disguise. As I arrived at Carls house I was quickly welcomed into his home by him and his beautiful wife.  Carl has started his own Vanagon renting business that allows you the opportunity to check out vanlife before committing to buying your own van. Each of his vans are fully equipped and ready to be taken wherever you soul desires. I highly recommend Teton Van Works for any of your travels also you wanna meet Carl in your lifetime! So check out the website below and message Carl to inquire about renting one of his vans. Love and gratitude,  Nikky http://www.tetonvanworks.com/ Carl insta: @tetonvanworks Nikkys insta: @veeweethevanagon

There's no freakin' way to do justice to this episode in a description. This is THE FIRST TALK EVER between The Spaniard and Frank Luna (@frankaluna), introduced to him by the legendary Jackie DellaTorre (@chapstickeater) of Episode 215 and The Spaniard's memoir "Driven." The guys just hit go and recorded. Frank shares his unique story: South Jersey boy experiencing the Parkway and having porches and foyers turned into bedrooms … contributing to political efforts from his early teens … working for four losing campaigns in a row before helping Chris Christie become governor and later becoming burned out on his staff … then entering and exiting political consulting, not to mention a serious relationship. Frank brings us up to today, when he is living a mostly-happy life in and out of a 1985 Vanagon and is soon to start National Guard boot camp after snagging an age waiver. Whew. What a first ride together these two shared. P.S. You'll hear that Frank made up the VERY SAME WORD as Spanny! It's an act of Luna-cy as well as a Spaniardism! For more w/ The Spaniard:   Support The Spaniard Show - https://patreon.com/charliespaniard Website/Bookings/Reading List: https://charliespaniard.com Book: https://amzn.to/2QPcf1P Facebook: https://facebook.com/charliespaniard Twitter: https://twitter.com/charliespaniard Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charliespaniard Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/charliespaniard   Subscribe to The Spaniard Show: iTunes - https://apple.co/2kxob7j Google Play - https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Irpy2px7edqbwiwpil2ab2jq4me Stitcher - https://bit.ly/2qUBRPb OR search "Spaniard Show" on any podcast app

“Vanagon Life w/ J” - Come explore the elusive and amazing VW vanagonlife culture with our Vanagon guru @vanagonj. The guys explore the depth of the community and the iconic place that Vanagon's and VW buses hold in our culture! Buckle up and enjoy the ride! This episode was recorded and shot at Old Man’s surf beach inside J’s sweet 1990 Vanagon!   Get 20% off at https://midlandusa.com/ with discount code: NEWLEGEND20   Brought to you by: Kenda Tire Midland USA    Equipped by: Treaty Oak Offroad FreeSpirit Recreation Front Runner   Brand Partners: Iron and Resin Freenote Cloth Dometic Yukon Gear HiTents   Connect with New Legend 4x4: Visit us on the web Follow on Instagram Like us on Facebook   Listen on all major streaming platforms: iTunes Google Play Music Spotify

We sit down and talk to author and Vanagon owner Melissa Stephenson about her new book, "Driven", available at https://www.factandfictionbooks.com/book/9781328768292 .  Also, you can check out our archive of episodes at www.jamieandtravispresent.com 

Episode 44 Jennifer Nielsen talks about feeling connected for the first time in her life. Her story about ignoring her call and finally succumbing to it's power, changed  her life. She shares about the gifts that come when you follow what you're meant to do. I won't tell you anything more, it is so juicy and good, full of her love of life and her joy in where she is now. Jennifer Jane Nielsen is a bi-cultural communication specialist and SpanishEnglish translator and interpreter with over eight years of experience with certification from the American Translator’s Association. She lived in Guadalajara, Mexico for six years where she earned her master’s degree in translation and interpreting from the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara and served for two years as the president of the Organización Mexicana de Traductores (Mexican Translators Association). She is currently living in Denver, Colorado with her husband and twin four-year-olds awaiting the day they will jump into their 1985 Vanagon and return to her soul’s home in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This fall she is working on launching her latest project, Xolo Translations, a boutique translation and cultural exchange agency. You can find Jennifer on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Life on the road for Ashley and Lamar began with an 11 week road trip to visit all 48 contiguous states in their Honda Civic. At the end of the trip, it became clear that they both wanted to make traveling a full-time deal. Eventually, they found themselves purchasing a Ford Transit van and being featured on the HGTV show Tiny House, Big Living. The show actually encouraged them to speed up their build timeline and led to an awesome pullout deck in the back of their van along with a loft bed and some of the coolest lighting I’ve ever seen in a van! Now they travel full-time with their 4-year-old daughter and pup Beirut while working as tour managers for various brands. What’s a tour manager? You’ll just have to listen to the episode to get the complete explanation from Ashley and Lamar…   Visit Lamar and Ashley on their website: fitetravels.com Find them on Instagram: @fitetravels     Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

Liz is a former NBC news reporter who quit her job to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. After her hike, she went back to work only to realize this wasn’t the life she truly wanted. That began the late nights of scrolling through #vanlife on Instagram. Flash forward, Liz has been on the road for a year in her converted Sprinter van. Plus, she’s doing the work she cares about by sharing inspiring and important stories.    This is a fun episode where we talk about finding routine and schedule on the road, the joys of emptying a toilet holding tank, misconceptions about truckers, Liz's checklist for finding safe campsites if you’re traveling alone, and even Tempur-pedic mattress toppers!   Follow Liz on Instagram: @wildbythemile Find Liz on YouTube: Wild by the Mile     Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

Michael Fuehrer lives full-time in a 35 foot converted school bus. Although he lives by himself, Michael is rarely alone due to the fact that his bus sleeps six people and has the capacity to seat 8 people for dinner! Social interaction and community was Michael’s main intention when he renovated his bus allowing him to bring along his friends and the new acquaintances he meets on the road. After college, Michael discovered that he actually preferred living in a smaller space. He enjoyed the challenge of designing every area to be practical and useful. This eventually led him to Craigslist where he bought the first bus he found, a 2004 Thomas Freightliner for $3600. After 9 months of renovating, his bus was complete with a full shower and toilet, 2 beds, an office, and much much more. Today Michael spends his time traveling around to festivals and events helping folks with their bus renovations.  Michael is such a friendly and helpful guy. In this episode we talk about how to choose the right bus for you, things to look out for when shopping for a bus, what a composting toilet is, what sucks about living on the road, and a lot about Walmart parking lots.   Follow Michael on Instagram: @navigationnowhere Find Michael on YouTube: Navigation Nowhere Visit Michael’s website: NavigationNowhere.com     Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

Danielle and Tommy live full-time in their renovated 1991 Toyota Odyssey Class C RV. They are also the owners of Low Tide Skateboards, making and selling longboards from their RV. After living in Denver for 2 years and traveling a bit in their conversion van, Tommy and Danielle decided they wanted to travel full-time. In this episode we talk about why they chose their particular model Toyota RV. We discuss their renovation of their RV which went from 2 months and $2,000 to 8 months and $7,000. Plus we talk about their skateboard business and how they remodeled their RV to include all of the power tools and equipment they needed. Listen in to hear all that plus we talk about why Danielle drives barefoot, The Wild Thornberries, their solar setup, how they balance travel and work on the road, what it’s like traveling with dogs, how they find free campsites, and tune in to hear the story of the missing flip flop.   Follow Slow Car Fast Home on Instagram: @slowcarfasthome Visit the Slow Car Fast Home website: slowcarfasthome.com Follow Low Tide Longboards on Instagram: @lowtidelongboards Visit the Low Tide Longboards website: lowtidelongboards.com     Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

Warren went camping in the Vanagon, Art drove a car that people love and we attempt to answer what might be our worst trivia question to date.Thanks for listening!Please rate and review the show on iTunes.

Guest: Dr. Jordan Weisman, clinical manager at Michael's House Today’s guest is Dr. Jordan Weisman, who serves as clinical manager with the Michael’s House treatment program in Palm Springs, California. He sat down with me at the Innovations in Recovery conference in San Diego to talk about how they take a deep dive into their outcomes data to look for trends that are hiding in the details and adjust accordingly. Also, he shares how Michael’s House integrates nicotine cessation resources right alongside addiction treatment and explains what the statistics say about how smoking and quitting can affect recovery from other substances.  If you’d like to talk with an admissions coordinator about the treatment options at Michael’s House and other Foundations programs, please call anytime at 855-823-2141 or email Admissions@frnmail.com. They can answer your questions and help you get started. For more about Recovery Unscripted, visit http://recoveryunscripted.org For more about Michael's House, visit http://michaelshouse.com   Music from this episode: "I Should Be Lost Without You" by David Condos - URL: http://davidcondos.com - "Bountiful" by Podington Bear - URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Melodic_Ambient/Bountiful - "Don't Go" by Podington Bear - URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Carefree/Dont_Go_1853 -  "Vanagon" by Podington Bear - URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Brooding/Vanagon - "Ronny" by Alex Fitch - URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Alex_Fitch/Eola/Ronny_1253

Adam and Vanessa live full-time in their self converted 2008 Dodge Sprinter 170” Wheelbase. They are also the creative minds behind Create Wondr. Vanessa and Adam started Create Wondr to document and share their life and VanLife experiences. Their goal is to help folks live authentically by focusing their energy on what’s important to gain more time, money, and happiness. In this episode we talk about how it’s possible to create an income by sharing your VanLife experiences in conjunction with making videos on YouTube, affiliate marketing, and selling an ebook. Specifically, we discuss their struggles and preferences for choosing a website platform, important things to consider when naming your new company or brand, and the importance of making a resource or ebook that is something you wish existed when building your rig. Plus we discuss their thoughts and comparisons between the longer 170” and shorter 144” Sprinter vans along with their super simple, yet highly effective, foot water pump to save on plumbing costs, water, and electricity.    Follow Adam and Vanessa on Instagram: @createwondr Visit their website: creatwondr.com And find them on YouTube at: Create Wondr     Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

John and Jayme found they got caught up in the trap of having a 9-5 job, buying a house, and settling down in suburbia - something they had promised themselves they would never do. So after a year of struggling to downsize their possessions and let go of their 3 bedroom house, they’ve finally made the complete shift to vanlife and travel full-time with their 3 dogs!   Jayme and John have also created an incredible resource to help you build your van that's completely free! You can check that out on their website at https://gnomadhome.com/build-your-van/   This episode is awesome and full of practical advice and fun stories. We talk about why a jigsaw is the number one tool you need for you van build, what it’s like to travel with 3 dogs and tips for managing that, how to use a signal booster to get wifi almost anywhere, how to make money online using affiliate marketing, why John and Jayme have a poop shovel, plus they share some of the crazy and fun stories they have from their vanlife experience!   Follow John and Jayme on Instagram: @gnomad_home Visit their website: gnomadhome.com Follow them on Facebook: @gnomadhome   Special thanks to Go-Van.com for supporting and sharing this podcast! And don't forget to submit your stories or own podcast ideas to them as well!   Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

On their first date, Matt laid it all out and explained to Megan that he wanted to travel the country in his van. Nine months later, they were on the road together!   Megan and Matt started their journey with the goal of visiting all 50 states in 6 months. Along the way, they realized their trip had become a checklist. Instead of crossing things off a list and rushing ahead, they decided to slow down and enjoy the journey.   This episode was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed talking to The Dirty Darlings. In this episode we talk about how they were able to transition to remote work, why Matt bought a van that was already converted, why Kansas sucks, how much VanLife costs (as told by an accountant), and how to get a truly unlimited LTE wifi hotspot.   Follow The Dirty Darlings on Instagram: @thedirtydarlings Visit their website: thedirtydarlings.com Follow them on Facebook: @thedirtydarlings     Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

What can we know about the future? And where do we look? We plan ahead by speculating. We can’t imagine not imagining the next hour, the next day, the next email. In this show we look at the nature of guessing, of predicting, and what that can tell us about the future. And the past. Host: Yue Li Producers: Chris Leboa, Cameron Tenner, Yue Li, Claudia Heymach, Noelle Chow, Sam Kargilis, Risa Cromer, Sam Greenspan Featuring: Corrie Dekkar, Julie Parsonnet, Julie Fogarty, Jeff Lindner, Jim Blackburn, Mark Beauregard, Kyla Schuller Story 1: Miner Threat Meet the last Bitcoin miners of Stanford. Producer: Sam Kargilis Music (from Free Music Archive): Curves, Jhhhzzr Story 2: Vanquishing Vaccines During the 2017-2018 flu season over 60 million Americans were infected with influenza and an estimated 50,000 died. Why has there been so much sickness when a vaccine does exist? Producer Chris LeBoa investigates the process and guesswork that goes into creating the flu shot each year and what is being done to take guesswork out of future vaccines. Producer: Chris LeBoa Featuring: Corrie Dekkar, Julie Parsonnet, Julie Fogarty Story 3: The Coming Storm In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Houstonians Yue and Claudia wonder how future storms can be predicted. And if they can be predicted, whose responsibility is it to protect Houston? Producers: Yue Li, Claudia Heymach, Noelle Chow Featuring: Jeff Lindner, Jim Blackburn Music (from freesound.org): vision- ambient gamelan by that jeff carter, Ambient Drone Solfeggio by Headphaze, Cosmos by pointpark cinema, cyclone hurricane hugo by solostud Story 4: My Dear Melville Herman Melville’s “great American novel,” Moby Dick, has fascinated, entertained, bored, and horrified audiences for the past 150 years, but … is Moby Dick gay? Was Herman Melville caught up in a same-sex-love affair? Producer Cameron Tenner searches for answers and learns about exploring queerness in the past. Producer: Cameron Tenner Featuring: Mark Beauregard, Kyla Schuller Music: Cylinder Five by Chris Zabriskie, Gentle Chase by Podington Bear, Skeptic by Podington Bear, Vanagon by Podington Bear, Little Black Cloud by Podington Bear, Waltz for an Imaginary Piano by Johnny Ripper, Lonesome by Podington Bear, Lucky Stars by Podington Bear, In My Head by Podington Bear, Sensitive by Podington Bear, Whaling Song by Paul Clayton

Christianna started her business, Mes Amies Soaps, while she was still on active duty in the Navy. Now, she lives in her van and is equipped to make her all-natural soaps on the road!    She’s managed to build and prosper a business with physical products on the road. She actually creates her soap in micro batches from her van! Something most digital entrepreneurs don’t think much about. Her products have been featured in over 17 subscription boxes and are currently in 5 stores but that continues to grow every week.   In this episode we talk about why Christianna prefers a hammock over a bed in her van, how to be safe and smart as a solo female traveler, how to save money by planning your meals, and much, much more!   Follow Mes Amies Soaps on Instagram: @mesamiessoaps Visit the Mes Amies Soaps website: MesAmiesSoaps.com Follow Mes Amies Soaps on Facebook: Mes Amies Soaps Follow Christianna on Instagram: @ahippieinavan     Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

This episode is all about how to work remotely and make money on the road - That’s exactly what Lexi and Cody help folks do! On top of that, they also own their own agency creating videos for outdoor and adventure brands.   Cody and Lexi live full-time in their converted Sprinter van. They converted it themselves with little to no knowledge of how to even do that. We talk about how Google and YouTube was their best resource to find help and tutorials for everything they needed to learn.   They are truly digital nomads with their video and branding agency, Dynamo Ultima. They’ve taken what they’ve learned as traveling entrepreneurs and use that knowledge to help other folks do the same thing. In this episode we talk about how they got started, how to discover the best business for you, how to help others, budgeting, plus much much more!   Follow Lexi and Cody on Instagram: @dynamoultima Visit their website for more Work from Wherever info: DynamoUltima.com Email them at: hello@dynamoultima.com Check them out on YouTube at: Dynamo Ultima     Special thanks to @vanlife.journal for helping to promote and share this show!     Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

Wesley and Savana own Tiny Watts Solar, a company devoted to helping design and install solar systems for all things tiny. They might be the most qualified people in the world to do this: Savana grew up living tiny on a sailboat, Wes has a Renewable Energy Engineering degree, they live full-time in their decked out Sprinter van and to top it off, Wesley’s last name is Watts!    Savana and Wes have an incredible Sprinter van conversion - They have a recirculating shower! That means 15 minute long showers that consume only a few gallons of water! In this episode we dive into how that works and where you can get your hands on one! They have a 1000 watt solar roof deck to power their induction cooktop and toaster oven. Plus a diesel-powered heater, radiant heated floors, and on-demand hot water! This van build is incredible!   This is a very practical and actionable episode full of specific advice. We really dig into the numbers on solar, batteries, and more. They explain how they were able to use their rent money to buy a van and then make $12,000 on it later. Plus, we talk about the specifics of Wes and Savana’s sprinter van and how they can hook you up with something similar that meets your needs!   Follow Wesley and Savana on Instagram: @our_landyacht Visit their website for more solar info: TinyWattsSolar.com Email them at: watts@tinywattssolar.com Also check out @vanlifetech and Sprinter-Tech.com   Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

Will describes himself as a fun-loving West Virginia hillbilly hippie. He has converted 2 buses and is in the process of converting a third. His bus is the #1 Airbnb in the state of West Virginia. Plus, his bus build has been featured in Popular Mechanics. Now, he is working on a comprehensive skoolie conversion book.   This is a very practical and actionable episode full of specific advice. We talk about why Will decided to convert school buses as opposed to vans or RV's. Why the hardest part of a bus conversion is the demolition. Things to think about before buying a bus. A step-by-step to converting a school bus.   Follow Will on Instagram: @willbillys or on Facebook: @wvwillbillys   Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

Adam Sauerwein joins us for this episode of Campers In Vans Getting Coffee.   We discuss the importance of finding something that you love to do and how to get out and do it. Plus, how to make yourself valuable to sponsors and how to get an amazing deal when buying a bus.     Follow Adam on Instagram: @mradamx or on Facebook: @mradamx     Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

In this episode of Campers In Vans, Katie and Evan join me to discuss their vanlife experience.   Learn why they decided to purchase a new Sprinter van and the benefits that go along with that. Plus we'll talk about some of their favorite apps to use on the road and how they find spots to camp every night.   Connect with Katie and Evan on their website at http://www.soweboughtavan.com/  or on Instagram: @soweboughtavan     Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans Email: hello@campersinvansgettingcoffee.com

On this episode I have Aubry and Christian of @mnmlmillennials join me. Both Aubry and Christian are extremely honest and open about their vanlife experience. Remarkably, they also both hold down full-time jobs working remotely in coffee shops and such.  We discuss their working philosophy, the importance of choosing the right vehicle, and how to sustain friendships when traveling full-time.   Follow Aubry and Christian on Instagram: @mnmlmillennials   Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans

For the very first episode of Campers In Vans Getting Coffee, Patrick of @d_bus_life was kind enough to join me.  Patrick and his partner Catherine bought and converted a GMC short bus. They live and travel in it full time.  Patrick and I discuss his bus, the build process, finding camping spots, traveling on a budget, and the most important things to have in your camper. Follow Pat & Cat on Instagram: @d_bus_life   Connect with Campers In Vans: Instagram: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Website: CampersInVansGettingCoffee.com Facebook: @campersinvansgettingcoffee Twitter: @campersinvans Email: hello@campersinvansgettingcoffee.com

In this pilot episode of 20/20, host Alec Cowan dives into a topic affecting the university community both now and in the past. This episode's topic? Charlottesville, which has spurred a national conversation about the meaning of memorials and the right to rally. This episode features Sararosa Davies, the Senior Arts and Culture Editor and a reporter that covered the solidarity rally on August 14th, and Billy Manggala, who wrote a column in April concerning the presence of two white nationalists on the university campus. Each brings a perspective into the community's reaction to symbols of history, racism and a lasting political climate that struggles to find a balance in the freedom of speech. Recommended reading from this episode: Sararosa Davies' news article titled Eugene community gathers in response to Charlottesville. Billy Manggala's column from April titled UO needs to address that white nationalists were on campus. Andy Field’s June story titled Dunn Hall is now renamed Unthank Hall. Troy Shinn’s story from August 2016 titled Minorities still feel Eugene’s historical link to the Ku Klux Klan. These articles can be found on dailyemerald.com. Music in this episode is Vanagon, Trailways A and A1 Rogue by Podington Bear. This episode was produced by Alec Cowan.

Keith talks about his Vanagon and the summer tour he and Jenn are about to embark upon, and Andy talks about his upcoming travel plans, including GenCon, the eclipse, and Burning Man. Keith talks about getting his hands on his first real copy of his Scott Pilgrim game, and about the status of Action Cats! Andy talks about a totally new card game he just invented, which uses just 23 cards and which he's really excited about. They drop some Rick & Morty references, including the meaning of Getting Schwifty, and Keith mentions the most recent Game of Thrones. Andy talks about his aversion to depicts of violence, and how animation somehow makes it more tolerable. Keith goes off on a bit of a rant about Clerics, which includes stories from an Over the Edge campaign in which Kristin played a particularly fascinating character. This leads to a discussion about how to deal with “Alpha gamers,” in RPGs as well as regular tabletop games. Lastly, they discuss the most recent episode of Rick & Morty at length.

  This Episode of the DWA! Podcast is brought to you by 'Heel & Toe Apparel'. Get your Dads and Grads some killer shirts, and recieve 20% off your purchase by going to www.heelandtoeapparel.com/dwa.  Warren went a family trip in the Vanagon, Art couldn't cut it camping, so he rented a cottage, and we all have project updates.  Thanks for listening!  Please rate and review the show on iTunes.

PHILADELPHIA — Viva, 25, grew up in a treehouse in Santa Cruz, Calif., writes raps (as Yamz), travelogues, and aspires to revolutionize urban composting when not bike-(or skateboard-)couriering. He first read Food of the Gods circa 2014, while living full-time out of a Vanagon. Terence McKenna (1946–2000) first encountered psilocybin mushrooms – & fields of them – at 25, in the Colombian Amazon, on a trip initially in search of DMT. He died of a rare form of brain cancer. Viva's travelogue archive: polarsteps.com/viva

Inspired by the idea of red tape, Radio Totally Normal Toronto brings you an episode about money and mental health. Living with a mental illness sometimes means having a reliable and sufficient income can be challenging. In this episode, we'll be talking about social assistance, health, poverty and stigma. It's an eye opener. Our guests are: (4:28) John Stapleton, a writer and instructor who worked in the areas of social assistance policy and operations. (23.20) Songs in the Key of Social Assistance: A Parody written by Gaetan Genesse, with additional voice work by Belke Fray (25.03) Rick Miller, a photographer and filmmaker who speaks to us about his experiences with mental illness, social assistance and advocacy (37.45) Bobby Giles and Joel Klassen from Yonge Street Mission's Friends Helping People End poverty, who speak to us about the Basic Income Pilot Project Music in this episode: Scott Holmes: we used Big Apple and Inspiring Corporate Podington Bear: Little Black Cloud, Vanagon, Trundle, Ideas, Sunbeam, Skeptic, Down and Around, We Make A Good Time Jason Shaw: Acoustic Meditation David Szesztay: Waiting Dave Depper: Acoustic 1, Marimba Motivation Gaetan Genesse: Acoustic Composition

This week Tim paints a room, Littleguy finds a t shirt and Spencer saw a miracle. We talk some cx, discuss those little lines and once again praise the Vanagon. Don’t forget to head over to healthiq.com/slowride and see what they can do for your insurance costs. Get us them clicks! You can listen to us in a variety of ways: Find us on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and anywhere great podcasts are found. Give us a review and rating! We’d appreciate it! You can email us at theslowridepodcast@gmail.com Find us on Twitter: Matt (@littleguymatt) Spencer (@spencerhaugh) Tim (@thesuperrookie)

We are joined By Brad and Jason of The Cammed and Tubbed podcast, and Manual from Internet Brands. We recorded this one "live" from Warren's Vanagon across the street from Canepa cars and coffee. We talk about cars.Thanks for listening!Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast on iTunes

Purple Hot Dogs, Cape Cod, Gavin, Party In The Woods, Hammocks, Poop Can, Vanagon, Butcher Baker, Matanuska, Stuffed Musk Ox, Ate Reindeer, Creepy Guy No Wife, Anchorage, ChilKootCharlies, Bird House, Girdwood, Crow Creek A Frame, Bears On Bears, Hope Seaview, Cole Gillespie, NEXT ADVENTURE

Warren is back from his trip to Yosemite, where he got married and did a little adventure driving in the Vanagon. Bryan fails to fix his Mercedes, and Lane isn't sick anymore.  Thanks for listening!Please subscribe and review our little podcast on Itunes, Stitcher or where ever you listen.

Connor joins Warren, Lane and Bryan again for a chat about cars and life.more Vanagon talkkeeping up with the Jones's1948 Plymouth coupelouversclutch job and old man partsConnor's storyLeMons vids917 lifebuying a $500 944...on weedLand Rovers, 90's Land CruisersConnors $58k challengeM5's or bustho-mol-o-ga-tionto boost or not to boostHellcat, Corvette, Mustang, Chevy SSnew Corvette impressionsearly adoptersHUD's and self driving carsteleportationblack boxesTony Stewart incidentTRIVIA TIMELane says please

Our first guest, DWA founding member @connorwelles, joins Lane, Warren, and Bryan to chat about cars. Warren picks up a new Vanagon with sights set on the southwest in 2015, Lane reports on the pre-historics at Laguna as Monterey Car Week warmed up, and much more car BS!!(*no palindromes were harmed in the making of this title)new DWA car: Vanagon!Connormore Vanagon talk, we love vansLaguna Seca and the Pre-Historic RacesFerrari 250 GTOCanepa- Porsche 917/10McLaren P1, need for speedcurrent crop of hypercarsmake your S-Class sound like a Paganidouche bag awardsAlfasmicro hondaperfect Mini Cooper for sale in Santa Cruzinterior options, Pashasport seats are nice2CV driving in the hillsTRIVIA TIMEGullwinglong legged + highest build quality

New socks every day, Michelin Pilot Super Sports, and a top shelf full of Lacroix. Warren, Lane and Bryan chat about cars. Talking Mercedes, Porsche and Ferrari museumsSilver Arrow Mercedes grand prix car and FangioMacan, BaconBMW E30 updateE12 v E30 impressionsBryan in an E30 Convertible or BMW 2002? Let me move that 2002 for you..."I've never owned a convertible...I once owned a convertible"Auction buy: Vanagon and CabrioletBoth driving 80's VW's- stoked!Super squirelly until you loop it backwards, of course.Sunroof Vanagon or the walkthrough? YESBryan in a Willy's Jeep re-enacting WWIIFirst car purchase after hitting it big?GMC Sierra, Sprinter, Audi S4. Wait, what?We love Porsche 993 Turbos, a tender ageTIRES, TIRES and more tires.New socks and drinks on the top shelf. BMW 320is is goneCorvette C3 bizzaro momentCan't do a podcast without mentioning the Mighty MaxXCAR buggy video, home built specials and autocross weaponsMercedes W126Smoking Tire movie reviewAlaska to Santa CruzMiata dirt car or RWD Volvo manualsMendocino rally inspiring hillclimb ideasCherry Lake road storiesWhat is up with deer whistles? Mythbusters neededThe Mercedes Benz CL is grandCaterham, CaytorhumJay Leno's garageOrigin of the Lotus 7TRIVIA TIMEBugatti Royale, Blitzen Benz

Click play to listen or grab the direct download. On May 20th, 2013, a massively destructive EF5 tornado, with winds of an estimated 210 mph, blew through Moore, Oklahoma which is a suburb of Oklahoma City.  In less than an hour, the tornado completely destroyed a path over a mile wide and 17 miles long. … Continue reading »

INT. DINGY POLICE CAPTAIN’S OFFICE IN THE 80’s - NIGHT The chair behind the captain’s desk is empty. Two men sit, smoking, in folding chairs facing the desk. CABINTIRE (Adam Lisagor) relaxes in one chair; FLEECE (Emmanuel Lewis) fidgets in the other. FLEECE Cabintire, I told you, man! Captain wasn’t gonna be cool with this! CABINTIRE Put your panties back on. (Cabintire hands Fleece a pair of frilly panties.) FLEECE First of all, no, man, that’s nasty. And they ain’t even my size! The door swings open, then slams shut. CAPT RIFFLES (Dennis Franz) stands looking down at the two detectives, shaking his head, chuckling. RIFFLES Detective Cabintire. CABINTIRE (Sneering) Yes … sir. RIFFLES Would you mind telling me what this is? (Riffles holds up a bloodied yoga mat.) CABINTIRE I believe they call that “evidence” in the police business, sir. RIFFLES They might have called it that. Before you took it home and wiped your Downward-facing Dogs all over it for a few weeks. What were you thinking? FLEECE Goddammit, man! You’re crazy! I did NOT leave Langley for this bullshit! CABINTIRE Why let a perfectly good yoga mat go to waste? Keep your panties on, Captain. (Cabintire hands Riffles a pair of lace panties.) FLEECE Where you get all these panties from, man? CABINTIRE Oh, these? They’re a gift from my aunt. My Aunt YOUR MOM. (The phone rings.) RIFFLES Yeah? Oh Jesus. (Hangs up phone.) We got another guy on the roof, over on 72nd & Waldorf. FLEECE Who? A jumper? CABINTIRE No. A fiddler. RIFFLES How’d you know that, Cabintire? CABINTIRE NO TIME. Get in my Vanagon, I’ll explain on the way. ONE MORE THING: In the episode Adam briefly mentions Birdhouse, his new iPhone app. Although YLNT officially endorses BirdBath Pro Lite™ as our Twitter app of choice, we must admit that we greatly prefer Birdhouse. Learn more, watch the video, and buy the thing already: http://birdhouseapp.com/ If you love him you will buy it. Do you hate him? Is that why you’re still reading this? Wow, I’ll let him know. I’ll let him know you made your point, loud and clear, pal. But don’t be surprised if, late tonight, you get a call from Detective Cabintire, wondering where his whiskey money is. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.