In this episode, host Frank Roche is joined by Postcrossing execs Paulo Magalhães and Ana Campos to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the launch of the global postcard phenomenon.
We talk about the origin story of Postcrossing, the challenges of scaling up so rapidly, the dance that Paulo and Ana do for every million cards sent, and how the Postcrossing community organized and developed over the past 15 years.
This week I’m joined by the talented mother-daughter team of Jess Davis and Charlie Davis. Jess is the proprietor of The Snail’s Mail, a New Zealand-based postcard shop. And Charlie is a postcard designer. Did I mention she’s 10 years old?
In this show we talk about Charlie’s new postcard design that’s available on The Snail’s Mail store now. Jess talks about the new designs she has available, the challenges of postcarding in the Age of Covid, and lets us in on another creative project she has in development.
In this episode, I’m joined by postcard entrepreneur Kate Wiggins of Sugar and Kiki. We talk about her postcard store, postcard designing, the joy of writing postcards, and Julia Sugarbaker (Sugar of Sugar & Kiki).
Who would guess that a postcard connection would result in a discussion of a Tarantula Hawk Wasp? Not me. But in this episode, I talk with Blaize Sun, who is a writer and postcard designer based in Taos, New Mexico. Blaize and I cover topics as varied as where to find postcards in thrift stores, what people expect to get when they get a postcard, what it’s like to not have rural mail delivery….and tarantula hawk wasps.
Postcards connect people. And now, more than ever, postcards connect us to each other and to an enduring story during the Covid-19 pandemic. I’m joined in this episode by postcard collector extraordinaire, Mark Routh, who takes us through the early days of collecting postcards and stamps and ephemera about the novel coronavirus pandemic that has dominated our world in 2020.
Mark has assembled a very large collection of Covid-related materials. And he talks about the countries and territories that were first to publish stamps and postcards related to the pandemic. Have any guesses what country was first? Or second? Or sixth? Mark tells us.
This is a look at how a world-class collector assembles a collection. It goes beyond postcards — and is part of an historical narrative. This is a defining moment of our time — and Mark takes us through many considerations for looking at the pandemic through a collector’s lens. Plus, he treats us to an uplifting poem at the conclusion.
You can find Mark at Mark’s Postcard Chat. (He also has a Facebook account that’s great to keep up with daily. He scans four or more cards every day and gives a discussion of the card and source.)
Iran issued the first worldwide coronavirus stamp on March 17, 2020Swiss Post solidarity stampIsle of Man Covid-19 postcardIreland’s An Post free postcards
“I just couldn’t find cards I liked, so I decided to design my own.” That’s what postcard designer (and professional photographer) Magda Wojcicka of Travel Trinkets Canada said when I asked her what started her creative process to make top flight postcards.
I interviewed Sara McNally about her new book, The Year I Became Snail Mail Superstar. Sara started writing the book when she was gifted a large postcard collection from her great-grandfather. But what started out being a book about a postcard collection grew into what she says “chronicles a year in which she walked with grief, took a deep dive into her family history, and got to know her great-grandfather through his postcard collection.“
In this episode, I talk with Postmarked New Orleans author Jason Smith from his home in The Big Easy and we talked about where he got the idea for the book, about New Orleans history, and about a famous postcard featuring Oysters Rockefeller at Antoine’s.
In this episode I’m delighted to welcome back Ashli Ahrens of Mailbox Memories to talk about a First Day of Issue event she attended to celebrate the issue of the Post Office Mural stamp set. In the show Ashli refers to to a special giveaway she created. You can find her @mailboxmemories on IG.
A set of links to items mentioned during the show:
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