Episode 20! That sort of number feels sort of monumental, so we opted for a super-sized episode to truly reward your patience and attention! Ah, but there are goodies along the way, fear not. What do we talk about this episode? Let's see -- certain PW & Shelf Awareness op-eds currently being discussed at length, the ongoing toxicity of Ingram, Liz references Captain Bligh again, Brad finds special joy in marking up the price of magazines. All this would normally be enough for a proper episode, but this is no proper episode! Stick with us for forty+ minutes, and then our calling card invitation to chat with Hannah Oliver Depp (Loyalty Books) again is accepted and things get really good & going. It's a great episode. We hope you enjoy. 

Brad & Liz explain what they've been up for three months (not much), discuss their feelings about Zombie Winter Institute (aka Snow Days), and talk with Matt Keliher from Subtext Books (Saint Paul, Minnesota) about  the NAIBA "Basic Bookselling" course. 

A Faced Out Podcast tradition has been born, a New Years special!This episode was very quickly put together, and it sort of snowballs. If you think it starts of kind of meek and mild ... eh ... stick with it, I guess we'll say. There are thoughts expressed, even an Open Letter read. We discuss the year that was, with its friends & enemies, and what we anticipate about the year to come. Onward, 2022 ... it'll happen with or without us! 

Liz & Brad talk to the one & only (maybe there's more, but the only one near & dear to them as booksellers), Gary Lovely. Gary is currently at Prologue Bookshop in Columbus, Ohio. Gary schools them about Midwestern university town bookselling -- and dives into some of the challenges of distribution and mayhem that was 2020. Brad reminisces about Kentucky. Liz gives critical insight into the art of day drinking at the bookstore. It's all like a cacophonous musical suite that somehow works! We hope you enjoy and/or reach the aesthetico-spiritual 12-tone heights.  

Brad & Liz are back from their vacations, they're rested (more or less), and they're still keen to talk about bookselling! Today's episode includes a discussion of the ABA tomfoolery, supply chain hijinks, and sideline shenanigans. 

Brad & Liz dig into the various ways "normal" is said to be nearly upon us, whether we like it or not. Unsurprisingly, they have thoughts about how all normalcy is taking shape. They take special issue with new developments in corporate distribution, and risk some hope (or maybe just wishes!) for a different way forward. 

In this episode, Brad & Liz are in a commemorative mood. Of their vaccinations, of Brad's birthday, (no mention of Liz's mop, alas) ... and, like a regular digestive system, Simon & Schuster's sh*tty ways. As it turns out, the episode becomes an extension of the previous two, with Independent Bookstore Day looming days away, and things gets a bit punchy! 

Brad & Liz chat with Julia Callahan from Rare Bird Books and Cristina Rodriguez from A Public Space (recently of Deep Vellum Books) to talk all things "indie." And what a conversation it is! The weeds get high, and they're whacked mightily low!

Hey there! It's been a while. Two months, in fact. We're making up for lost time with the first installment of a two-parter! (Hang on to your seats for the cliffhanger ending!)In this issue we talk about what we've been up to since our last episode in early January, an assortment of labor issues, laugh at the expense of megapublishers, and just keep circling around this question: "What the hell does 'indie' really mean?"

It's only been a week since Brad & Liz last recorded, but history is determined to cram as much as possible into our weeks these days. The riotous white supremacist free for all in D.C.  is the backdrop of a conversation with bookseller pal, Josh Cook (@InOrderOfImport on Twitter).Topics include the difference between curation and censorship; conflict aversion; and the value of the struggle.