After what started out to be a brief hiatus turned into a couple months of radio silence. But your host, Frank Roche, is back with a new show with three stories: one about a hand cancellation experience at a post office in Minnesota; a second story about a man who listened to short-wave radio during WWII and sent postcards to families if he hear their solider was alive; and a third about meth-laced postcards being sent to prisons. Yep. Welcome back.
Some stories just have to be told. This is one of those stories. I have the world’s largest collection of Bigfoot postcards. Here’s why.
Jim Lynch is a collector. He collected baseball cards. Football cards. basketball cards. Bottle caps. And postcards.
And he collects information. Jim is an active Postcrosser and participant in the currency tracking project, Where’s George?
He and I got together to talk (what else?)postcards. And a lot of other interesting topics. Now Jim has me searching through my collection looking for baseball park postcards.
Additional items in this episode:
Snail Mail Superstar’s one-year YouTube anniversary
Official Podcast Nerd sticker from Sara McNally at Constellation & Co.
Postcards for People Who Love Postcards. That’s the tagline of Jess Davis’s new online postcard store, The Snail’s Mail.
And in this show, it’s proof — once again — of the idea that postcards connect people. I connected with Jess in Episode 51, where we talked about the imminent launch of her online postcard store. Well…that moment came…and so as I mentioned on that initial show, I invited Jess back to talk about how the launch has gone and how she sees the postcard business in the near future.
But even before Episode 51, I connected to Jess last August through Postcards from the Edge, when I interviewed Kitty on Episodes 28 and 29. It’s all a big network of postcard enthusiasts, and I was fascinated to connect with someone all the way in New Zealand.
And I continue my fascination. Here we are in 2019…and Jess decided to spin up an online store to sell postcards. And that, my friends, gives me hope for postcards. The connections we make through postcards last…and the art on them can last a long time.
You know, part of the connection with postcards is that we get to know people. And if they have pets, we get to know them, too. This conversation starts in the middle of something I love about her Instagram site…photos of her Black Lab – Betty. I commented about how much I liked a picture she posted of Betty wearing a flower garland.
Connect with Jess by liking The Snail’s Mail on FB
And here’s Jess’s personal site on Instagram
I recently bought a couple lots from a postcard auction in Ireland. And that got me wondering about The World’s Most Expensive Postcard. And that led to another thing, and then another. Plus, I had a chat with Russ Romano of Postcards for Good, so I got that in there too.
Here are all the topics I cover in this show:
Guinness Book of World Records Most Expensive Postcard
Peep Machine Pinups (yes, this is about postcards)
Bozo’s Circus Postcard Delivered After 41 Years
The Postcard in Transit for 53 Years
The clack of a typewriter. The flow of a pen across paper. The fact someone thought about you while they wrote you a real piece of mail. That’s what Sissy Cross and I talked about one Saturday morning recently. Sissy is the founder and creator of the Lone Star Letter Writers group, which meets once a month in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas to create written correspondence.
In this episode, Sissy tells us about how she created Lone Star Letter Writers, how she views written communication, what kind of pen she uses when she writes, and how she tracks her writing data (you have to listen to that part!). And we talk about neuroscience. Yep, Sissy is a neuroscientist by day and a Lone Star Letter Writer by night. Sounds like the makings of a comic book hero to me.
Here’s a list of topics we cover on in the show:
Cool ideas and Clubs: Lone Star Letter Writers; Austin Typewriter, Ink; ATI: The Podcast; Egg Press — Write On
Writing Instruments: Standard Issue Supplies Pens; Blackwing Pencils; Olympia SM-9 typewriter
Books: Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec; Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Oh…and neuroscience
This jam-packed show features Heidi Belinksy, the owner and proprietor of Max & Co Post. We cover the gamut in this show — from antique postcards to writing postcards to the business of selling modern postcards. 
Russ Romano and I did a live radio show from Love Hearts Project‘s love letter writing event. Love was in the air.
This was the second annual event put on by Alex Krohn, the creator of Love Hearts Project. We sat down with Alex, and a number of people who were at the event writing postcard love letters. Hundreds upon hundreds of love letter postcards were written and sent. Want to feel the love? Here you go.
Alex Krohn, Frank Roche and Russ Romano record Episode 55 of The Postcardist Podcast at the Love Hearts Project’s love letter writing day.
Follow @loveheartsproject on Instagram
Some of the Love Hearts Project postcards
Frank Roche, Alex Krohn and Russ Romano by the hand-crafted sign for The Postcardist Podcast at the Love Hearts Project
What’s the first fairy tale you remember hearing as a child? And do you know fairy tales are told to you throughout your life?
In this episode, we hear from the world’s preeminent scholar on fairy tales — the author and postcard collector Jack Zipes, who wrote the fabulous coffee table book Tales of Wonder: Retelling Fairy Tales Through Picture Postcards. Jack is the author numerous books, including the definitive translations of two version of the Brothers Grimm tales.
In this episode, Jack Zipes talks about how he started his postcard collection by wandering into a paper and ephemera show in Paris; how he pursued his fairy tale postcard collection; and the discussion that led him to donate his unique collection to the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota. His extensive collection of 3000+ postcards can be seen at the Weisman Art Museum in an exhibition until July 7, 2019.
I sent 147 postcards in the first two weeks of January. The same postcard titled 1967: A Memoir. I had written a short story that was 3,534 words long and 147 paragraphs. So, what would any writer do? Sit down one night with a list of recipients and a random number generator…and get writing.
This show is my observations about what happened. Peoples’ reactions about everything from my handwriting to the stamps to the story. It’s about how much ambiguity people can handle. And it’s about engaging in a story in a deep way. A special shoutout goes to Diane C., who watched the story unfold over the weeks of January and assembled it in order from its misbegotten roots.
And after the results, you’ll hear me narrate Frankie Got Shot. Just another little experiment on The Postcardist Podcast.
Coming up in February are Jack Zipes, the author of Tales of Wonder: Retelling Fairy Tales Through PicturePostcards; Heidi Belinsky from Max & Co Post; and Sissy Cross from Lone Star Letter Writers. Plus…I might just have a little bonus episode coming up for you midweek this week.
Thanks a bunch for listening to the show.
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