The Erasable Podcast

Happy belated International Pencil Day! To celebrate, your fearless (new and improved) hosts are talking all about mechanical pencils — mass market clicky pencils, high-end metal ones, and even leadholders.

Have you ever wanted to know more about the old business you read about on an old piece of advertising? Just married this past fall, Jessica Letkemann and Chris Jones are exploring the history of the businesses featured on vintage advertising pencils. Their new blog is called Graphite Confidential, and we’ve got them both here in The Erasable Skyposphere for a casual grilling. Tune in, as we go back in time a bit...

What attracts the Pen Addict himself to pencils? What pencils does he recommend for pen lovers, and what should Inky Folks look for in graphite-friendly paper? Listen in and find answers to these questions and what everyone’s been wondering for nearly four years: What does Erasable sound like without Andy?

While it rhymes nicely with Erasable, we don’t often like the word irreplaceable. Sometimes pencils stop being made. Sometimes they were limited editions to begin with. We all miss the Blackwing 211. But sometimes there are perfectly good substitutes for the pencil items you miss, and we’re here to help you through it.Pre-show: Listen to a preview of Toffer Surovec's short story, "Crashing Bird," published in Issue 3 of Plumbago Magazine

Maybe you carry around pens because you’re secretly afraid of falling and stabbing yourself through the chest or neck with a sharp Ticonderoga. Maybe one of Erasable’s hosts has had this fear for over three decades. We’re here to help, as tonight, we dive into point protectors, which will protect not only your fragile body, but also your precious pencil tips. Plumbago Magazine, Issue 3 is now shipping! Order yours today.

We’re back from the holidays and are ready to chat about pencils and pencil-adjacent holiday gifts we received. Still reeling from the Bomb Cyclone, Andy, Johnny, and Tim present some picks to keep you writing all winter in the Great Outdoors.

It’s that time of year again: Winter release time! Tonight, on the live-streamed 87th episode of Erasable, Andy, Johnny, and Tim talk about the new goods from Field Notes, Blackwing, and Write Notepads and Co. Also, Tim talks about the 10 year-old digital writing machine buying spree he's been on. And finally, we give you the skinny on excellent pencilicious gifts for your loved ones this season. Ho ho ho!We’re now taking pre-orders for Plumbago Magazine, Issue 3! It'll be 60+ pages of poetry, fiction, comics, illustrations and more — all about stationery. Reserve your copy that ships in early January. 

On this episode, we diverge from pencils for a moment to look at another analog writing tool we all know and love — typewriters! In the second half of the show, we’re joined by filmmaker and Grammy Award-winner Doug Nichol, director of the recently released documentary California Typewriter, following the recent days of one of the last typewriter repair shops in the US, and celebrity typewriter enthusiasts, like Tom Hanks and John Mayer. We all chat about the film, about collecting typewriters, and their relevance and utility in today’s technological world.

Tonight it’s just Andy, Johnny, and Tim, talking about some new non-pencil stuff from Blackwing, some Baron Figs that just roll with it, the just-announced Field Notes, and the recent book The Secret Life of the Pencil. Your Terrific Triad also wrap about Plumbago, NaNoWriMo, and glitter-dipped pencils.

Tonight, we managed to pull our collective selves away from Stranger Things 2 and are excited to present another call-in episode — this time, with Caroline Weaver and Meredith Miotke from CW Pencil Enterprise! From erasers to could-have-been careers, our callers get the Pencil Ladies to open up. Speaking of opening up, we get the latest on their new amazing storefront, which includes a secret sticker store! Listen in. If you’d like to call into our show, you’ll need to be present for our live stream recordings. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook to learn when those take place.