Postcardist has been out of the studio lately. In this episode, I interview my friend Jessica Mand — writer, photographer, and itinerant traveler. We do this interview in two locations — at a French brasserie to start, with all the clanking plates and music playing in the background; then we transition a couple days later to a bench outside a coffee shop. Both places had lots of noise, but Jess makes it worthwhile in her descriptions of Iceland, her discovery of the prettiest postcard in Hawaii, and  she keeps us guessing about the best restaurant on Nantucket.

This show is once again in the style of two friends chatting about postcards. Here is a photo of the postcard from Hawaii that Jess talks about in the show:

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We all like getting postcards. And the Kimpton Hotel Palomar has made it easy for guests to write and send postcards from their hotel. In this episode, I interview Jessica Bishop, PR Director for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants in the Northeast, at the Palomar in Philadelphia. Jessica talks about the idea for the postcard writing station, how much the guests have enjoyed the human connection of writing a postcard, and tells about her own fascination with handwritten mail.

Check out these really great custom postcards Jessica talks about in the podcast. (And for those of you who listened to the show, there’s a little prize inside. Kinda like Cracker Jack…only better.)

At the end of the show, I ask for a little help with an idea I have about postcards and how we could help people. I’d really like to hear from you. And if you’d like to be part of our working group, please let me know.

The creativity of the bistro culture worked in 1920s Paris, and it works in present day in Philadelphia. Postcardist host Frank Roche is joined at Parc Bistro by filmmaker Justine Burt. They talk about the hand-drawn postcard Justine creates while they’re eating dinner, how to send chain postcards, and offer observations about a guy who rides by on a bicycle with a ferret on his back.

Justine talks about this doodle postcard in the episode.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the graphic artist Erick Sahler, whose art many of you recognize from postcards I’ve posted on the Postcardist Instagram page.

Erick creates large format serigraphs (you’ll have to listen to the show to hear about the definition) in a very compelling style. That “We Build Ships” postcard is hanging in Position #1 right now.

You can find Erick’s work at ericksahler.com. And if you’re looking to buy postcards, you can click here. But I’d say spend some time on his site. And send him a note if you enjoyed hearing him on Postcardist. It’s really nice of an artist to take time of the day to talk about his creative process; and I told him we are lucky enough to have his designs on postcards. Also, Erick is doing a one-man show the entire month of June at Candleberry Gallery in St. Michaels. Click here for details on a meet-the-artist day on June 9.

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Imagine a serial killer who taunted his victims’ families and the police with postcards he wrote. In this episode, I interview Vance McLaughlin PhD, who wrote the book The Postcard Serial Killer.

The podcast runs the gamut from describing the story of horrific murders that took place more than 100 years ago to the psychological manipulator who wrote postcards about the murders.

WARNING: There is some graphic content described in the show about the abuse and murder of young boys. I set a trigger warning in the show for those who may be disturbed by the material.

Postcards from Kate is a nonpartisan project that encourages people to write postcards to politicians, journalists, and influencers to encourage positive social change. In this episode, interview the founders of Postcards from Kate, Amelia West and Melissa Smith, about how they got inspired to use postcards by their grandfather, how they find positive stories, and how they rally people to write postcards to people who have made a difference.

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Music in this episode:

Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin, licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License. Music sourced from Free Music Archive.

Here’s a Postcardist Master Class.

I was lucky enough to interview Mark Routh, who is a well-known postcard collector in the UK. Mark collects cards and studies the history of postcards. Plus, he’s written a monthly column for more than 25 years in the very highly regarded Picture Postcard Monthly.

You can find Mark’s website here.

Here’s a sequence of what Mark covered in this Postcardist Master Class:

• Victorian era of postcards….very early start of postcard history
• Anything that happened in 1890s on were photographed..photographer would take a photo and less than 24 hours images were printed on postcards
• How often were postcards delivered in early 1900s; it was our mobile phones the time
• Where people bought postcards back in the day
• WWI battle photograph postcards; printing postcards in Germany
• Most common postcards coming from France to England in WWI were of bombed out towns
• The Great War postcards
• Cachets on cards…censor cachets in WWI
• Titanic postcards
• Postcard fairs
• More on the Titanic
• Display boards
• Dr. Who postcards
• Collecting postcards around television
• Even more on Titanic
• Do people insure postcards?
• First and last postcard Mark collected
• Falklands War…Mark wrote a book
• The very first postcard
• How to archive postcards

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Music in this episode:

Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin, licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License. Music sourced from Free Music Archive.