The return of the Portland podcast

I feel like this is worth some orchestral cinema-type music.

(If you want to skip all my blathering and listen to the latest edition of Ink & Pine, click here. If you want to hear why Ink & Pine disappeared for so long and a little bit more about the show moving forward, please, by all means, keep reading…)

Anyway, the other day, one of my Twitter followers Tweeted at me: “So whatever happened to Ink & Pine? I miss having a regular podcast connection to my home state.”

His timing was perfect. As it so happened, Ink & Pine was being resurrected that very day.

Perhaps some backstory is due.

You see, the last thing I remember is waking up in a tub of fluid, with thick needles drilled into my bones and protruding painfully from all sides of my body…

No, wait, wrong backstory. That was Wolverine.

The Ink & Pine explanation is this: After years under the leadership of founder Dan Bodoff, Maine Digital Press — with whom the BDN partners on I&P — found itself temporarily leader-less.

Dan moved away to pursue a new professional opportunity, and that was exciting and we all wished him luck. But it took a few months for Dan to transition MDP to a new leadership team and let that team settle in.

Now, thanks to Dan’s vision, I dare say Maine Digital Press and Ink & Pine are as strong as ever. Dan handed the reins over to longtime co-collaborator Trent Gay, and now he’s one of the new voices you’ll hear on Ink & Pine every week.

The other is MDP producer Cat Smith. I’m thrilled to be working with both Trent and Cat, and I think in just the two episodes we’ve recorded since the Ink & Pine reboot, we’ve built great chemistry and tackled really fascinating topics with really interesting Portland area people.

That’s only going to continue.

Plans for the show moving forward, at this point, include ultimately giving Ink & Pine its own landing page blog on the website for the Bangor Daily News, the most-read daily newspaper in the state of Maine.

That’ll be a nice change and offer the podcast it’s own launching spot from the BDN site in addition to inkandpine.com.

The first edition under the reboot, which we posted yesterday, features an interview with slam poet Beau Williams, the Grand Slam Champion of Port Veritas. It was a great interview. If you’ve never heard this type of performance poetry, want to learn more about that scene or simply want to hear a really interesting person tell his story, this episode is worth a listen.

Yesterday, we recorded another episode with the Bangor Daily News’ newest business and economics writer, Darren Fishell, who took us behind the scenes of his centerpiece story about the continued expansion of Maine’s craft beer industry.

That podcast will be posted next week. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, it’s Memorial Day Weekend. You’re going to have some time to put your feet up and relax, and you’re going to have time to open up inkandpine.com and listen to our interview with Beau Williams.

Listen on your car ride up to camp, while you’re preparing meat for the grill or put it on your mobile device to listen while working out. If you’re completely new to the show, jump into iTunes and download any number of our previous episodes, about everything from President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act to legalization of marijuana in Portland to the return of the Nova Scotia ferry.

We’ve talked to a range of interesting people in Greater Portland, including Maine College of Art President Donald Tuski and David Levi, founder of gourmet locally sourced restaurant Vinland. So there’s plenty of Ink & Pine to catch up on if you’re new to us.

With our recent reboot, now’s a good time to get on board.

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.