Opposable Thumbs

Episode 40: Oceanic

September 13th, 2018  |  55 mins 1 sec

60-40, 80-20, aluminum, art, challenge, cherry switches, chicago, cnc, creativity, design, drexciya, foucault, los angeles, lps, making, microwaves, mind mapping, motor controller, plywood, records, repairs, t-slots

No guest this episode! Just Rob and Taylor making it to Episode 40!!!
Oceanic is our challenge this episode! Thank you to previous guest Matthew Shenoda for the challenge!

Also, every 10 episodes we ask our previous guests to call in and let us know what they're up to. We're so excited by the calls! Many thanks to Andy Birkey, Charlene McBride, Cedric Tai, Kelly Marie Martin, Molly Allis, Ranjit Bhatnagar, and Tim Sway!

Rob makes a map from (and for?) the mind. And it spins at 33RPM. Taylor goes wild and knocks down so many problems! It's pretty oceanically epic.

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Props to Blondihacks, Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke, Mike and Tim! They're our top Patreon supporters! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 39: Overkill

August 27th, 2018  |  1 hr 9 mins

african, art, challenge, chemex, chicago, coffee, creativity, egypt, figure, iron, korn, los angeles, making, materials, nevada, poet, poetry, polycarbonate, popcorn, poseable, road trip, straightening, tactical, utah

Matthew Shenoda is our guest this episode! Providence, Rhode Island in tha house!

We finally have a poet on the podcast! Huzzah! We speak with Matthew about the craft of poetry and also hear from him about the African Poetry Book Fund, a really cool organization he cofounded that publishes 3 to 4 books a year and works with Akashic books to publish an African poetry box set!

Ask Taylor about the Big Bang. Matthew is born again hard-boiled. Rob goes the distance to get a pose-able figure.

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Props to Blondihacks, Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke, Mike and Tim! They're our top Patreon supporters! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 38: Eavesdropping

August 14th, 2018  |  1 hr 4 mins

argentina, art, art books, artist books, bank card, blaster, buenos aires, challenge, charcoal rubbing, chicago, cooking, creativity, ear hustle, fat man, grandfather's axe, han solo, immersion blenders, immigrant, improvisation, john coster mullen, language, little boy, los angeles, making, mapping, mcmaster-carr, military facility, mystery, nigel poor, overkill, patton oswalt, popeyes, seven eleven, shop, signage, star wars, streets, taiwan, the oatmeal, theseus's paradox, true crime, turning, urn, utilities, ventra, wood, zodiac killer

Kate Conlon is our guest this episode! Chicago in tha house!

Rob rubs Buenos Aires the right way.
Kate takes all of us on a nefarious and wild ride (or is it a drive?) across Chicago. Taylor yearns to put the urn in turn.

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Props to Blondihacks, Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke, Mike and Tim! They're our top Patreon supporters! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 37: Not My Style

July 31st, 2018  |  1 hr 9 mins

am radio, anger, art, artmaking, challenge, change, chicago, collaboration, color, creativity, design, ear hustle, hope, los angeles, making, photography, prison, radio, solitude, time, trucks, web design

Nigel Poor is our guest this episode! San Francisco in tha house!

We speak with Nigel about her teaching, photography and her artmaking projects at San Quentin State Prison. Nigel also co-hosts the podcast Ear Hustle with Earlonne Woods who co-founded the podcast with fellow inmate Antwan Williams.

Taylor cops Nigel's style. Nigel leaves listening to chance and gets earfuls of anger. Rob goes from rock crawler to kissyface.

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Props to Blondihacks, Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke, Mike and Tim! They're our top Patreon supporters! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 36: Resistance

July 19th, 2018  |  1 hr 5 mins

3d printing, abolish ice, adobe illustrator, andy birkey, blitz city diy, breyer, broforce, cardboard, coachella, defense distributed, drawing, drugs, freedom of speech, ghost gunner, gitbook, global inheritance, glowforge, guns, hitmen, illustration, ipad pro, jenkem, laser cutting, leds, machining, more practice, practice, shaper origin, steamrollers, style, uv resin, wacom

Jarrett Quon is our guest this episode! Los Angeles in tha house!

We talk about the fallacy of "talent" and the hard-workin fun-work of practice and learning and practicing some more.

Rob wears his arm out drilling holes. Jarrett asks what a swimming pool, BBQ grill, and water bottle have in common. Taylor hones his routing and printing skillz! Oh, and ABOLISH ICE.

We also talk to Jarrett about his experiences with the Glowforge laser cutter.

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Props to Blondihacks, Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke, Mike and Tim! They're our top Patreon supporters! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 35: Macro

July 4th, 2018  |  1 hr 3 mins

3d printing, adobe illustrator, against me, arduino, art, autosaw, challenge, chicago, clip art, cnc, creativity, education, electronics, empowerment, fixing, green day, hotmail, illustration, jobs, keyboard, los angeles, macro, maker, making, micropython, national archives, neopixels, onshape, plywood, printing, quarter-life crisis, raven rock mountain complex, reddadsteve, right to repair, shields, steamroller, the interruptors, thingaverse, youtube

Liz Clark of Blitz City DIY is our guest this week! Massachusetts in tha house!

Rob and Taylor talk to Liz about quarter-life crises, YouTube Lyfe, and strategies for encouraging people to dive into something new. We also talk about some new music we're diggin, thingaverse, neopixel variants and Liz's upcoming Tinkerboard book!

Taylor's CNC printmaking work goes to 11. Liz turns micropython into macro-awesomeness. Rob mails a letter of bad feelings.

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Props to Blondihacks, Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke, Mike and Tim! They're our top Patreon supporters! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 34: Opposable Thumbs (yep, that's the challenge!)

June 19th, 2018  |  1 hr 10 mins

acrylic, aliexpress, art, attiny85, autodesk, bobby duke arts, buddhism, catholicism, challenge, chicago, circuit diagrams, cool tools podcast, creativity, eagle, electronics, framing, gothic architecture, izzy swan, jimmy diresta, los angeles, making, podcast, ray wylie hubbard, reclaimed audio, religion, seeedstudios, shaper origin, tablesaw, thumbs, todbot, woodworking

Andy Birkey is our guest this week! Central Illinois in tha house! We learn a lot from Andy about gothic woodworking, church furniture design and working with clients. We also hear from Andy about buddhism and working to get rid of anger.

Thanks to Nik Kantar for giving us our listener-contributed challenge! Rob goes for a semi-murdered-out... something... and then gets in a pickle. Andy shines some light on Opposable Thumbs. We're dying to know the tales Andy's compound miter saw could tell... Taylor let's the Eaaaagle's sooooooar.... Like they've never soared... before.... from rocky coast...

We also couldn't help but ask Andy about his experiences with the Shaper Origin handheld CNC router.
You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Props to Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke, Mike and Tim! They're our top Patreon supporters! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 33: Bending Time

June 4th, 2018  |  1 hr 55 secs

3d printing, ambergris, art, challenge, chicago, cnc, community, creativity, fever ray, ghosts, los angeles, making, nine inch nails, nose, papa loves mambo, perfume, political art, sister sledge, survival research labs, tv art, weezer

No guest this week! Just Taylor and Rob talking about cigarette butt-flavored gummi bears, ambergris, the power of community, and how we first got into technology and art.

We also discuss being rigorous about our creative practice. It's hard!

Taylor creates some very surreal and spooky environments! Trent Reznor eat your heart out!
Rob is a tape loop. Rob is a tape loop. Rob is a tape loop. Rob is a tape loop. Rob is a tape loop.

We crossed the 20,000 downloads mark!!!!! YEEEAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Props to Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke, Mike and Tim! They're our top Patreon supporters! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 32: Mechanical Breakfast

May 23rd, 2018  |  1 hr 7 mins

art, axidraw, brain waves, challenge, chicago, crafting, creativity, cricut, deflated currency, dura lar, evil mad scientists, fraud, high flow acrylic paint, hyperlapse, la croix, los angeles, making, owls, patterns, photography, radio shack, the silver bullet

Charlene McBride is our guest this week! Seattle in tha house! YESSSSS!!!

We talk about La Croix, crafting, patterns, deflated currency, fraud, and illegal owl bartering and machine assisted creativity!

Taylor's juicy photography makes everything look like candy. Mmmmm... rosin core...
Charlene channels the alpha, beta and gamma. Rob reflects upon his poor drawing skills. Reflects... get it? Get it?

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Props to Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke, Mike and Tim! They're our top Patreon supporters! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 31: Lateral Motion

May 10th, 2018  |  1 hr 3 mins

art, beard grooming, beer making, challenge, chicago, creativity, fostering, fusion 360, geographic coordinate conversion, gonzo journalism, green screens, leather, los angeles, making, paint, photoshop, quadrants, sextants, the attiny 85 microprocessor

No guest this week! Just Taylor and Rob going big and then going home and then maybe taking a nap or making a nice egg n' the hole.

A big thanks to Nhung Walsh for giving us our next challenge! You'll have to listen to find out what it is! Send us your challenge ideas to us at opposablepodcast@gmail.com or hit us up on Instagram at opposable_podcast. But they need to be a secret. Hrm. That seems like a problem. Hrm... Well... We're excited to see how you tackle that problem.

Johnny Depp shot Hunter S Thompson's ashes from cannon. Rob is sick again. We chat about green screens, beard grooming, beer making, Fusion 360, the ATtiny 85 microprocessor, and Generation X. Rob feels like the punk rock influence on culture is overestimated and also misguided. Taylor makes him feel better about it.

Taylor went full junk drawer this episode and made a surprisingly accurate instrument! Geographic coordinate conversion can be kinda off-putting at first but it gets quite interesting once you give it a chance!

Rob didn't read the directions and paid the price by spending hours doing a single task for very little result. But at least he got to put non-food items in the oven.

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Props to Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke and Mike! They're our top Patreon supporters! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 30: Prove Yourself Wrong

April 23rd, 2018  |  1 hr 14 mins

dovetails, electricity, flask, google, joinery, making, raspberry pi, sewing, totebags, walnut, woodworking

Tim Sway is our guest this week! Connecticut in tha house!

We get the juicy details from Tim about how he ended up making "The SqWAYre," his super cool measuring and marking tool. We also talk about the mighty power of high school art teachers (Thank you art teachers!).

It took Rob only four months to go from swearing he would never do something to doing it twice in one week. Don't look to Rob for guidance about self-control.

Tim lets fly but in a peaceful way. Except for those birds he's flipping. Those are pretty angsty.

Taylor dives into the Internet of Energy Wasting Things.

This is our 30th episode! Every 10 episodes we invite all of our previous guests to call in and let us know what they're up to so we're excited to share some of those with you! So be listening for those around the 55 minute mark.

Episode 29: 10x Bigger

April 10th, 2018  |  1 hr 17 mins

bullets, cryo-electron microscopy, forks, haeckel, headphones, hepatitis, how-to, nutraloaf, science, skateboards, sun ra, supermax, t4, tamms, virus, youtube, zika

Rita Blaik is our guest this week! Los Angeles in tha house!

We kick things off with some discussion on design vs art and gender diversity in science. Then we dive into the projects!

Taylor the Chef cooked up some supermax treats to get your mouth watering on some nutraloaf! And he gets dinged in the cheek by a bullet fragment that can't be stopped.

Rita Blaik drops the cryo-electron microscopy science on us! And she shares the wonderful curiosities of Ernst Haeckel and Robert Hooke.

Rob tries to up the fidelity and weirdness on the video he made last week. And he talks about skateboarding... again...

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Apologies for a few audio quality nuances. It took some psychic surgery to get around some of Rob's microphone problems.

Props to Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke and Mike! They're our top Patreon supporters! And Mike is great too! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 28: Stranger Skill Share

March 26th, 2018  |  1 hr 1 min

accents, adobe illustrator, drills, duchamp, youtube

No guest this week! Just Taylor and Rob making big dreams... happen? Chicago, Los Angeles and worldwide! We talk about the professionalization of YouTube, the words we say with an accent. Rob pronounces the word pencil as PEENcyll.

You can check out our projects at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com

Taylor casts forth his knowledge of Adobe llustrator like those little whirlybird samara seed pods that fall from Maple trees. Those seed pods are awesome. And so is Taylor's Illustrator aptitude!

Marcel Duchamp would just scribble stuff on paper and use it as money. WUT... Check your privilege, Marcel. But it would be kinda rad to be able to do that.

Rob tries to figure out how to navigate his feelings about "professional YouTube." Maybe lightning bolts will help. (Shout out to D. Boon.)

Rob coughed approximately 567 times during the recording of this podcast but he edited out all of them but two. Sorry about that!

Props to Nik, Walter, Federico, Kelly, Luke and Mike! They're our top Patreon supporters! And Mike is great too! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 27: Nudity

March 13th, 2018  |  1 hr 7 mins

anvil, aquatint, bench pin, braille, chicago, copper, eggs, ferric chloride, flour, fusion 360, giving, gnudi, harleys, homelessness, intaglio, jewelry, liver sulfer, metalworking, nakedness, nickel, nudity, parmesean, pasadena, printmaking, ricotta, v block, wallet

Megan Sterling and Meghann Sotille are our guests this week! Chicago in tha house!

Nudity is our challenge this week! Artists work a lot of jobs. Motorcycle jewelry is a lot of skulls. Intaglio is pronounced "intalio." Huh!

Rob makes a thing to make it rain. Megan Sterling (aka Sterling) and Meghann Sotille (aka Mego) joined forces for a really great printmaking meets metalworking collab! You gotta see their process photos over on http://projects.opposablepodcast.com. The photos really help descibe all the cool techniques they used and notes they took. They used intaglio, press n' peel, anvils, ferric chloride and all sorts of other cool stuff!

Ask Taylor about his erotic carbs.

Props to Nik, Federico, Kelly, Luke and Mike! They're our top Patreon supporters! And Mike is is great too! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Episode 26: Fermentation (and our 1 year birthday!)

February 28th, 2018  |  1 hr 38 mins

3d printing, cooking, doubt, fermentation, ginger beer, jodorowsky, learning, making, sketchup

Cedric Tai is our guest this week! Los Angeles in tha house!

Fermentation is our challenge this week (and none of us brewed beer.) and it's our 1 year anniversary!!!! WOOP! WOOP!

We talk about the power and energy of learning, cooking, Alejandro Jodorowsky and getting unstuck!

Taylor creates CDC-JNCO!
Cedric ummm... he ummm.... well... we're not sure. But Taylor and I are overwhelmed and stoked by it. Rob had a great conversation with Adam Rothstein of Transistor Beverages in Portland! And he fought the 3D printer for 3 days.

Thanks to Nik, Adam, Luke and Kelly (http://kellymariemartin.com)! They're our top Patreon supporters! And props to Mike and Jen as well! Ya'll are great too! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs

Ursula K. Le Guin

February 14th, 2018  |  1 hr 10 mins

black holes, fermentation, garage band, gary panter, harmonograph, heaven, jiro dreams of sushi, lathe, retrosnickers, samples, sneakers, song, spirograph, tales from earthsea, turning, ursula k. le guin, walnut, wooden bowls

Molly Allis is our guest this week! Los Angeles in tha house!

Ursula K. Le Guin is our challenge this week.

We talk about style and the awesome power of Pee Wee's Playhouse, black holes and sneaker style. We also talked about Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which Rob has not yet seen.

Rob read Le Guin's "Lathe of Heaven" and got a janky string drawing machine built. Molly read "Tales from Earthsea" and wrote an amazing song! Taylor also read "Lathe of Heaven" and got heaven on the lathe!

Thanks to Nik, Adam, Luke and Kelly (http://kellymariemartin.com)! They're our top Patreon supporters! And props to Mike and Jen as well! Ya'll are great too! Join 'em at: https://www.patreon.com/opposablethumbs