Episodes

  • Reynold Mackey: “When you pick up the globe, you feel time.”

    Reynold Mackey: “When you pick up the globe, you feel time.”
    Feb 5 2025

    Colorado Springs artist and arborist Reynold Mackey on his decade of hand-carving accurate physiographic globes out of solid wood, how to translate a 2D topobathymetric map onto a sphere, art as family business, casting globes in bronze, chainsaw-carving to Hendrix and dental pick-carving to Debussy, why hard work is an ally to meaning, learning welding, leatherwork and paper lacquering to make globe enclosures, the acrobatic stillness of trees, and how, unsurprisingly, he “could never take any shortcuts.” See his work at globesculptor.com and @globesculptor on IG

    • Art Castings of Colorado
    • Vincenzo Coronelli
    • Manitou Art Center


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    44 mins
  • Neil Allen: “Making a map in isolation is never a good idea.”

    Neil Allen: “Making a map in isolation is never a good idea.”
    Oct 24 2024

    Oregon lead cartographer and product manager Neil Allen talks atlas production with East View Geospatial’s Benchmark Maps, the years of mapmaking and months of ground-truthing required to create a Texas atlas, adventures in custom cartography (clients include the U.S. Coast Guard, The Cascadia Institute and an eccentric millionaire’s treasure hunt), the importance of asking the locals, using declassified naval data to map Monterey Canyon, and why sales and marketing is essential to a map business. See his work at benchmarkmaps.com

    • ⁠East View Geospatial⁠
    • Baja California Road & Recreation Atlas
    • Texas Road & Recreation Atlas
    • Raven Maps
    • Butler Maps
    • North American Cartographic Information Society
    • Chaney Swiney’s NACIS talk on field checking
    • Map for Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Hunt
    • Cascadia Bioregion map with David McCloskey
    • Thad Lenker
    • Port Angeles, WA Coast Guard Station map

    Need maps for your org’s reports, decks, walls and events? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Map Consultancy makes real nice maps, real fast.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ See what good maps can do for you at themapconsultancy.com

    I have three words for you: Big. Glowing. Maps. Depending on how that makes you feel, you might like two more words: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Radiant Maps⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. See ultra-detailed backlit maps at radiantmaps.co

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    54 mins
  • Hap Wilson: “If there’s no risk then there’s no adventure, right?”

    Hap Wilson: “If there’s no risk then there’s no adventure, right?”
    May 13 2024

    Ontario explorer, mapmaker, and conservationist Hap Wilson on drawing 400 guide maps across 50 years, traveling more than 40,000 miles of Canadian wilderness by canoe, the one digital tool he likes (it’s Google Earth), saving lives by creating a map that, unlike the one it replaced, did not send tourists over a waterfall, retracing thousand-year-old trails to prevent their effacement by dams and clearcuts, what you discover after 200 trips down the same river, learning from the mapmakers of 1700 and the indigenous of 700, and why if a portage on his map doesn’t match the territory it’s likely a force majeure situation (“I don’t control the beavers.”) See his work at hapwilson.com

    • Temagami Wilderness Guide
    • Lake Superior To Manitoba By Canoe
    • Stay at Hap’s eco-lodge: Cabin Falls
    • Original illustrations by Hap
    • David Thompson


    Need maps for your org’s reports, decks, walls and events? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Map Consultancy makes real nice maps, real fast.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ See what good maps can do for you at themapconsultancy.com

    I have three words for you: Big. Glowing. Maps. Depending on how that makes you feel, you might like two more words: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Radiant Maps⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. See ultra-detailed backlit maps at radiantmaps.co

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    46 mins
  • Erick Ingraham: “I guess I gravitate towards difficulty.”

    Erick Ingraham: “I guess I gravitate towards difficulty.”
    Apr 30 2024

    Colorado painter, illustrator and mapmaker Erick Ingraham on solving art directors’ problems, making it interesting for himself (“I’m known to make things more complicated than they might need to be”), spending eight years painting the Rockies’ western slope, working from his own photographs, taking inspiration from the past, getting into the culture of what he’s mapping, drawing coastlines, and some advice for developing artists: “Be a good draftsman.” See Erick’s work at erickingraham.com

    • Landscape paintings
    • Children’s books
    • Maps
    • Vermont’s Kingdom Heritage Lands
    • Winter 1888: Record Snowfall
    • Where Do Forest Birds Go in Winter?
    • Green Witnesses
    • Western Watershed Map
    • Dugald Stermer
    • James Gurney
    • John Singer Sargent
    • Maxfield Parrish
    • NC Wyeth
    • Arthur Rackham
    • Gustave Baumann
    • Richard Estes
    • Tom Blackwell

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    I have three words for you: Big. Glowing. Maps. Depending on how that makes you feel, you might like two more words: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Radiant Maps⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. See ultra-detailed backlit maps at radiantmaps.co

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    30 mins
  • Stephen Walter: “Maps are inherently political if they’re interesting.”

    Stephen Walter: “Maps are inherently political if they’re interesting.”
    Feb 20 2024
    London artist and mapmaker Stephen Walter on two decades of drawing and painting “the semiotic residues of humankind,” an invitation to map an Ivorian national park (and why you should wait for the dry season before attempting this), approaching six years of work on an NYC map, interpreting Michael Drayton’s 17th c. topographical poem Poly-Olbion into a 6x5 ft. folkloric tour of England and Wales, walking the territory, the origins of “north up,” the souls of places, a half-day's research to place a single label, and his vision of Utopia. See his work at stephenwalter.org In-progress map of ManhattanLondon Subterranea, 2012Nova Utopia, 2013Albion, 2016Brexitland, 2019Map of Comoé (La carte de la Comoé), 2019Henry Dreyfuss’s Symbol SourcebookJerry BrottonGerardus MercatorJacopo de' Barbari’s 1500 View of VeniceAbrahram Ortelius’s 1595 map of UtopiaThe 1648 Klencke Atlas of England (5x5 ft.!), presented by Joannes Klencke to Charles II on his 1660 restoration to the throneJohn Rocque’s 1746 map of LondonGreenwood’s 1830 map of LondonEgbert L. Viele’s 1865 Manhattan mapBodleian Library map collectionPaul NobleLayla CurtisKatie PattersonAlighiero BoettiGrayson PerryEd FairburnEwan David EasonEmilio IsgòJustine SmithPaula ScherOther Fabrications Need maps for your org’s reports, decks, walls and events? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Map Consultancy makes real nice maps, real fast.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ See what good maps can do for you at themapconsultancy.com I have three words for you: Big. Glowing. Maps. Depending on how that makes you feel, you might like two more words: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Radiant Maps⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. See ultra-detailed backlit maps at radiantmaps.co Time for some map gifts: get 15% off woven map blankets and backlit map decor with code 15OFF, everything ships free – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.etsy.com/shop/RadiantMaps?coupon=15OFF
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    43 mins
  • John Tauranac: “I seldom think macroscopically; I think microscopically.”

    John Tauranac: “I seldom think macroscopically; I think microscopically.”
    Dec 26 2023

    Manhattan writer and cartographer John Tauranac on his first maps of Midtown’s pedestrian passages, a public debate with Massimo Vignelli (“His geography was egregious”), working at a very different MTA (they used to have an aesthetics committee?), the “no improvements” made to the subway map since he chaired the 1979 MTA map committee, guiding Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s helicopter photo surveys of Manhattan, walking every block and learning Illustrator to create his acclaimed 176-page Manhattan tourist guide, how to make a usable bus map, New York’s vanished map stores, and a longitudinal view of the business: “plus ça change, plus c'est la même bull████.” See his work at johntauranac.com

    • Tauranac Maps
    • Manhattan Block By Block: A Street Atlas
    • Bauhaus vs. Beaux-Arts
    • Vignelli’s 1972 NYC subway map
    • Tauranac’s 1979 NYC subway map
    • The 2023 NYC subway map
    • Nobu Siraisi
    • John explains his subway map design choices
    • Yann Arthus-Bertrand
    • DeLorme Maps
    • Alex McPhee’s giant maps of Canada
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    36 mins
  • Andrew Middleton: “There’s something poetic about running a map store.”

    Andrew Middleton: “There’s something poetic about running a map store.”
    Dec 12 2023
    In early 2023 GIS analyst and cartographer Andrew Middleton saw a tweet about Andy Nosal’s search for someone to take over The Map Center, Nosal's map shop in Pawtucket, RI; six months later Middleton left California to move into one of the last map retail stores in the U.S. We discuss his goal of turning the shop into an inviting retail space and field trip destination, inciting new maps of New England with cartographic challenges, making space for local and expressive maps, and summing it all up with “This is a thing I get to do with my life; how amazing is that?” Bonus: former owner Andy Nosal joins us to drop pearls of retail wisdom and confirm that Andrew has the “irrational drive in the right direction” needed for this biz. Next time you're in Pawtucket drop by mapcenter.com @themapcenter on IGAnne Hall Antique Prints Muncie Map Company Schein & Schein The Map Shop City Maps coloring book by Gretchen Peterson Landforms of the United States by Erwin Raisz Maps by Great Swamp Press Lay O’ The Land Rhode Island map by Legend Bicycles RI map embroidery kit by Savory Stitch All Mapped Out coastersAll Over the Map by Betsy Mason & Greg MillerHugg-A-Planet Globe Pillows Need maps for your org’s reports, decks, walls and events? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Map Consultancy makes real nice maps, real fast.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ See what good maps can do for you at themapconsultancy.com I have three words for you: Big. Glowing. Maps. Depending on how that makes you feel, you might like two more words: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Radiant Maps⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. See ultra-detailed backlit maps at radiantmaps.co Time for some map gifts: get 15% off woven map blankets and backlit map decor with code 15OFF, everything ships free – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.etsy.com/shop/RadiantMaps?coupon=15OFF
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    50 mins
  • Lionel Portier: “What I'm trying to convey with my maps is the pleasure of seeing beautiful things.”

    Lionel Portier: “What I'm trying to convey with my maps is the pleasure of seeing beautiful things.”
    Dec 4 2023

    Lyonnais illustrator and designer Lionel Portier on a mapmaking career that spans 30 years and five continents, accepting any map challenge an art director might conceive, a travel magazine gig that led to an Australian passport, painting 100 birds for a wetland park, his favorite territory to illustrate, spending three months on a 3x4-ft. map of Bruges, why he never carries a sketchbook on a walk, and conveying with his maps the “pleasure of seeing beautiful things.” See his work at lionelportier.com

    • A Bird’s Eye View of Bruges
    • The Travels of Nicolas Baudin (the map that induced Lionel to move to Australia)
    • France’s "Iron Belt" of Vauban Forts
    • Bird illustrations for the Hong Kong Wetland Park and Museum
    • MC Escher’s Day and Night

    Need maps for your org’s reports, decks, walls and events? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Map Consultancy makes real nice maps, real fast.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ See what good maps can do for you at themapconsultancy.com

    I have three words for you: Big. Glowing. Maps. Depending on how that makes you feel, you might like two more words: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Radiant Maps⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. See ultra-detailed backlit maps at radiantmaps.co

    Time for some map gifts: get 15% off woven map blankets and backlit map decor with code 15OFF, everything ships free – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.etsy.com/shop/RadiantMaps?coupon=15OFF
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    29 mins