# STL250: Catching up with Ed Pirnik

- Show: [Shop Talk Live](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live)
- Published: 2021-09-24
- Length: 1h 00m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2021-09-24-stl250-catching-up-with-ed-pirnik
- Listen: https://shoptalklive.podcast.static.taunton.com/stl250-catching-up-with-ed-pirnik

## Summary

Ed Pirnik, the former senior web producer and creator of Shop Talk Live, joins host Ben Strainer to discuss the podcast's origins, including its early live-streaming experiments and the organic development of the host dynamic with Mike Pekovich and Matt Kenney. Mike Pekovich also appears to promote his new book and online course, 'Foundations of Woodworking,' which focuses on core joinery skills like mortise and tenon, dovetails, and dados. Pirnik reflects on his career transition from international photojournalism to woodworking media, his current projects including building a cherry cabinet and a custom Telecaster guitar, and the technical evolution of the show from manual RSS coding to third-party distribution.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2021-09-24-stl250-catching-up-with-ed-pirnik#t=0) Introduction and Mike Pekovich's New Course
- [10:10](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2021-09-24-stl250-catching-up-with-ed-pirnik#t=610) Ed Pirnik's Career and Shop History
- [14:04](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2021-09-24-stl250-catching-up-with-ed-pirnik#t=844) Tributes to Phil Lowe and Garrett Hack
- [21:49](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2021-09-24-stl250-catching-up-with-ed-pirnik#t=1309) The Early Days and Live Streaming of Shop Talk Live
- [32:46](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2021-09-24-stl250-catching-up-with-ed-pirnik#t=1966) Pirnik's Transition from Photojournalism to Taunton
- [45:02](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2021-09-24-stl250-catching-up-with-ed-pirnik#t=2702) Learning HTML and Podcast Distribution Evolution
- [49:42](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2021-09-24-stl250-catching-up-with-ed-pirnik#t=2982) Current Projects: Cherry Cabinet and Custom Telecaster

## Topics

- [Industrial & consumer product design](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/industrial-design)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)
- [Prototyping & iteration](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/prototyping)
- [Materials & manufacturing processes](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/materials-and-processes)
- [Direct-to-consumer & e-commerce](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/direct-to-consumer)

## Most relevant to

established companies

## Mentioned

- Foundations of Woodworking (product)
- Shop Talk Live (product)
- Taunton (company)
- Fine Woodworking (company)
- Grizzly Industrial (company)
- Kai Rizdal (other)
- Marketplace (product)
- Fender Telecaster (product)
- John Tetro (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [503: It’s Made Me a More Fearless Maker](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/making-it/2025-10-31-503-its-made-me-a-more-fearless-maker) (Making It)
- [Episode 039: Emergency Penguin](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/making-it/2015-10-02-episode-039-emergency-penguin) (Making It)
- [Episode 075: Interviewing each other](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/making-it/2016-06-17-episode-075-interviewing-each-other) (Making It)
- [Episode 176: Pretend you’re talking to a martian or a 3 year old.](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/making-it/2018-07-20-episode-176-pretend-youre-talking-to-a-martian-or-a-3-year-old) (Making It)
- [436: In Case I Saw A Witch Fly By](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/making-it/2024-03-29-436-in-case-i-saw-a-witch-fly-by) (Making It)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2021-09-24-stl250-catching-up-with-ed-pirnik. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Shop Talk Live.