First Crack 16. Interview with a Roastmaster: Greg Beale

Greg Beale, a Dunn Bros. Coffee roastmaster, and I roast 8 pounds of Colombian beans, discuss holiday brewing tips, and the local flavors of the Dunn Bros shops. Intro: PodCat from PodCat’s Daily Best of Podcasting. Listen to Interview with a Roastmaster: Greg Beale [38 min] Got questions about coffee or comments about the show? …

First Crack 15. Minneapolis Bicycle Culture with Gene Oberpiller

Gene Oberpriller, who runs the 1-on-1 Bike Studio, gives us the skinny on his shop/gallery/cafe, the 15 year-old bicycle junkyard in the basement, and the history of Minneapolis’ bombastic bicycle culture. Links Mentioned: 1-on-1 Bike Studio Intro: Bill Boulger from IndieTickets.com Listen to Minneapolis Bicycle Culture [28 min] Leave your audio comments at: 206-20-BEAN-1

First Crack 14. RIAARadar.com Creator Ben Tesch

A conversation with Ben Tesch, the creator of RIAARadar – a website that suggests non-RIAA artists and MixMatcher.com – a media-player-independent song playlist sharing site. Links Mentioned: RIAARadar Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture MixMatcher.com MagnetBox (cowboy motif) BuyBlue.org I Love Music Apple iTunes Downhill Battle Blogger Minnesota Public Radio (MPR’s Feeds) Future Tense Intro: PodCat from …

First Crack 13. Twin Cities Borders Unionized, Garrick Goes Off

Had some technical difficulties publishing this episode – all should be better now. My tea kettle attacks me. Then, I go off on the news of the Uptown Borders going union – until I get that first cup of the morning. Then, peace and harmony. Links mentioned: Chemex Coffee Pot, Chemex History BikeLights.com: I use …

How to Stifle Teamwork – Part 3

The news reports that US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfled had an opportunity to inspire, motivate the US troops during a recent question and answer session in Kuwait. Based on this exchange, I can’t say he succeeded in addressing the troops concerns let alone inspire them to go back into battle. That is unfortunate. “Why do …

The White Collar Revolt, Part 1

Related to my earlier post about saying ‘No’ (Some of the Passengers, Some of the Time) fed up computer programmers at Electronic Arts are suing their employer over “extreme job stress and health problems”. NPR had the story this past weekend on Weekend Edition. Employees are gaining more control over their work conditions with each …

Some of the Passengers, Some of the Time

“Go back in history. One of the first decisions an airline had to make was, Should we carry passengers or cargo? Whenever an airline came to that fork in the sky, they took both forks…” – Doc Searles Doc makes an excellent point. Very few companies can successfully be all things to all customers. The …

First Crack 12. The Winter Blanket at Marysburg Books

Special Guest: The Winter Blanket. We talk about the last 4 miles of the Hiawatha LRT opening today – from downtown to the airport to the Mall of America, winter striking Minnesota this week, and the band’s upcoming Polar Bear tour. We close with a live premiere of their new song – Neil Young Blues. …