The Distiller Podcast Archive

What is Direct Primary Care? Doctors Amy Mechley and Eleanor Glass are the owners of Integrative Family Care, a “Direct Primary Care” family clinic in Cincinnati. If you’re not familiar with the concept of Direct…

Lauren Worley is “all-in” on everything she does. Lauren Worley has perhaps the most immediately impressive resume of anyone we’ve had on the show so far. Press Secretary for NASA. Global Talent Lead for Bono’s…

Colin Nourie designs environments that make work happen. Colin designs systems furniture – furniture for large offices and industrial installations. On the surface it might seem straightforward: design furniture for professional settings with a few…

Polly Campbell is more than just a restaurant critic. As the food & dining writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer, Polly Campbell covers anything and everything going on in Cincinnati that has to do with restaurants…

Brandon Irvin meets mental illness with compassion every day. In order to understand the work Brandon Irvin does, it’s important to first understand how the patient population he treats is different from other environments. It’s…

Tommy Rueff didn’t set out to run a community non-profit. Four years after Tommy Rueff to Cincinnati from Chicago to start an advertising agency, a chance event changed his life and pointed him in the…

Lew Weeks and Tony Moore have great taste. Okay, pardon the pun, but it’s true. First, they know flavor in a way that is an entire vocabulary. But as a part of their work in…

Jason Snell Wants You To Feel It. Bob Dylan once sang “The country I come from, is called the Midwest.” For a creative professional, sometimes working in the Midwest really does feel like another country….

Luna Malbroux is America. In fact, that’s even the URL of her website, LunaIsAmerica.com. And she should know, because she’s seen a lot of it. Luna Malbroux grew up in Louisiana, attended college in New…

Allison Lester believes in the power of technology to educate. After all, she’s seen it work. As a career STEM/STEAM educator, Allison believes the interaction of technology and space is key to facilitating learning. For…

Carrie Farler Sees A Lot Of Resumes As the “Head of People” for Paperless Post, Carrie Farler oversees all aspects of recruiting, hiring, compensation planning, and a lot of things people in the HR industry…

Dani McClain believes motherhood is inherently political for black women. As a journalist and author Dani McClain writes and reports on race and reproductive health policy and issues. She is a columnist for the progressive…

John Faherty knows he has the perfect job. After previous careers in television and print journalism, four years ago John Faherty took a bit of a left turn. Today he is the Executive Director of…

Cole Imperi wants to talk about death. Perhaps more importantly, she wants you to talk about death. As a thanatologist Cole Imperi studies, teaches, lectures, and writes about death, dying, and grief. Cole’s work comes…

Myra Ballentine is familiar with discrimination. VECTRE Co-Founder Myra Ballentine Born and raised in Pakistan, Myra Ballentine knows first-hand the thousands of micro-aggressions a woman or a person of color experiences every day. But through…

Mandy Nagel has done a lot of things. And maybe that’s why we love her at The Distiller, because she’s got the only resume that rivals ours for sheer meandering goodness. She worked at Apple…

Darren Blase didn’t set out to be a music historian. But that’s essentially what he’s become. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who knows more about Cincinnati’s musical history than Darren and his brother…

Julia Petiprin’s ready for the next adventure. When she moved to Cincinnati in 2014 to open the iconic bar Sundry & Vice, she thought she’d be here a year. Open the bar, get it running,…

Allison Rogers knew she wanted to be a meteorologist when she was twelve years old. When Hurricane Katrina blew through her hometown, Allison relied on the TV weather to let her know if things were…

Jeremiah Griswold wears his art on his sleeve. Spend any amount of time with tattoo artist Jeremiah Griswold, and two things become immediately apparent. First, he’s a deep thinker, who does nothing without considering the…

Design Impact Was Built To Make A Difference It sounds simple when you hear it, but the idea of involving those most affected by social problems in the development of solutions is somewhat revolutionary. It’s…

Yemi Oyediran is full of surprises. We might have expected Yemi Oyediran to immediately jump into promoting his new film, “Queen City Kings,” about the legendary Cincinnati studio and record label King Records. But to…

Kim Taylor knows how to be vulnerable. After all, as a songwriter with five full length albums and two EPs under her belt, she’s practiced and cultivated vulnerability for years. She’s honed the craft of…

The Distiller Podcast is one year old. Our first episode aired on December 16, 2017, and featured Danny Korman of green general store Park & Vine, interviewed at The Anchor OTR in Cincinnati. Since that…

Kelly Dolan knows business can do good and make a profit at the same time. Kelly, along with her business partner Michael Kroeger, are the co-founders of two companies, Ingage Partners, and Thrive Impact Sourcing,…

There’s a lot of talk about immigration right now. In fact it’s become one of the central hot-button issues in our political discourse. But studies have shown that cultivating relationships with people from other cultures…

Django Kroner lives in the trees. Working as an arborist and tree house builder with his company, The Canopy Crew, everything Django does “professionally” involves trees. And it’s a pretty magical life, by all accounts….

Nevin Essex doesn’t play the piano. At least he wouldn’t call himself a pianist. But he’s directly responsible for thousands of pianos, and tens of thousands of performances. Through his art, Nevin makes the art…

Ruya Coffee is the realization of a lifelong dream. That’s not surprising, since Ruya means “dream” in Turkish. Melis Aydogan, the founder of Ruya Coffee, never saw herself as an entrepreneur, or a small-business person….

Tasha and Justin Golden have been married a long time by any standard. Just about twenty years, in fact. And you don’t stay married that long without learning some pretty good lessons about relationships. During…

When Bart Campolo lost his faith, he didn’t lose his desire to minister. After all, the word “minister” was a verb before it became a noun. The fact that Bart no longer believed in a…

Mark Bowles Is Not Afraid to Fail, He’s Done It Many Times Before. Talk with Mark about his experience in technology startups and venture-based entrepreneurship, and you’re just as likely to hear the stories of…

Theatre House owner Marty Boyer is a high-character individual. Marty is a unique individual in that his ego has (apparently) almost no bearing on what he does for a living. Marty is the most pragmatic…

Christie Goodfellow and Beth Graves Are Two Very Different Kinds of Sculptors. The similarities and differences between Christie and Beth’s work creates an interesting give and take between the two of them. Still, they share…

Libby Hunter Believes Storytelling Is the Key to Overcoming Poverty When you talk with Libby Hunter about literacy, you’d better buckle your seat belt. Libby talks quickly, and with purpose. Aside from a brief stint…

It took a while for Mark Dejong to call himself an artist. Mark Dejong was born in The Netherlands, but his family moved to Cincinnati when he was a child. In his 20’s he took…

Liz McEwan is not your typical homeschool mom. Or perhaps she is. Maybe the “typical” homeschooling parent doesn’t actually exist. Most of The Distiller‘s guests have some professional ambition or goal they’re pursuing. The majority…

Chef Derek Dos Anjos’ Secret Weapon May Surprise You Ask a chef or restaurateur what skill is most important to running a restaurant, and you’re likely to get a lot of different answers. Maybe it’s…

Corben Bone’s Work Is Play On the field or off, Corben radiates energy. Watch him play in his midfield role for the F.C. Cincinnati soccer team, and you’ll see the way he sparks the team…

Meredith Shockley-Smith just took a big leap. (Updated 6/9/17 – we forgot to include the link to the podcast Brandon mentioned in the episode; it’s Shankar Vedantam’s NPR podcast “Hidden Brain.”  The episode, originally aired…

Michael Wilson Is More Than Just A Photographer. He’s a Master. A storyteller. A record-keeper. A history maker. Michael Wilson has been making pictures* for nearly 40 years, and in that time he’s developed a…

Julius Jenkins Wants to Bring Street Culture Back to Life. You may already know of Julius Jenkins, or his work, and not even know it. You may have seen his choreography as part of the…

Megan Trischler Helps Make Dreams Come True. And we’re not just talking about her current position as Program Director for People’s Liberty. Megan brings design thinking and a desire to “make the ordinary extraordinary” to…

Tamaya Dennard is the future of local politics. As one of the newest members of the Cincinnati City Council, Tamaya Dennard represents everything happening right now in political discussions across the US. This is Tamaya’s…

Matt Hart Is Not Afraid to Go Deep. When discussing motivation, or empathy, or the pure punk rock power of a kick-ass poem, Matt is not afraid to get involved, to shed a tear, to…

Stephen JohnsonGrove is a professional do-gooder, the Deputy Director for Policy at the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, a non-profit law and advocacy office in Cincinnati. OJPC offers pro-bono legal services to incarcerated people, along…

Matt Gunderman saves lives for a living. Some people do work that seems sexy…exciting…but when you dig a little it’s just another job. Other people make a difference in the lives of individual humans every…

Ric Hordinski and David Wilcox have known each other for over 20 years. They’re craftsmen in the truest sense, and two guys who bring a great deal of intention to everything they do. David is…

People talk a lot about “work-life balance” these days. But what if your work is your life, and vice-versa? What if your work life is also your marriage? And what if the combination of the…

Danny Korman has been a fixture in Cincinnati for the past decade, but things change. In the inaugural episode of The Distiller, Danny talks about moving from Chicago back home to start his “green general…

  The Distiller is a podcast about the soul of work. In this short preview clip, host Brandon Dawson talks about what you can expect from The Distiller in coming weeks. Listen in to this…