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The Textile Nerd Podcast
The Textile Nerd Podcast
Author: Dan McGowan and Lori Atone
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The Textile Nerd Podcast: Exploring textile curiosities without wasting your time. Featuring industry insights, intriguing backstories, innovations, history, interesting interviews, and more. If fabric is the focus, Lori Atone, Dan McGowan, and our cast of subject matter experts will nerd out about it.
42 Episodes
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What is a gray back fabric in the print media world? The answer lies in the intersection between printability and sustainability, and the result is a European-borne innovation. Lori and Dan sit down with Georg+Otto Friedrich Digital Printing Business Unit Director Hendrik Igler to discuss the market demands and the development story of these fabrics that are crisply-printable and recyclable after their first life.
The pantheon of memorable holiday commercials is extensive, and one car company's ad campaign still stands out year-after-year: Lexus bows. But what's the story behind the elegant accoutrement? Turns out, an innovative print services provider in Los Angeles has been bringing the bows to life for years. Lori and Dan will take you behind the scenes with A3 Visual Director of Operations Mario Soto.
In a companion to our "Why Do Trade Shows Matter?" episode, we welcome Erica Roudabush and Blake Theademan to Podcast Row of Advanced Textiles Expo 2025 to talk about their impressions based on their varying years of attendence at the industrial fabrics industry's flagship show. Blake and Erica are colleagues of Lori and Dan, and they'll also relay their textile industry origin stories.
What better place to answer the question "why do trade shows matter" than the floor of one of the most well-known textile trade shows around? Lori and Dan talk with Robert Hinsch from podcast row at Advanced Textiles Expo 2025 in Indianapolis. Robert is an esteemed colleague and vice president of business development at TVF with more than 40 years of industry experience and he weighs in on the evolution of attending and showcasing fabrics at tradeshows.
Sometimes a job or project doesn't quite go as we drew it up, and we escape to tell the tale. Fashion professor and influencer Zoe Hong (of ZoeHong.com fame) and two veterans of the TVF Print Media Sales Team, Danny Jimenez and Leif Kristensen, join Lori and Dan on the Textile Nerd Podcast to discuss their fabric horror stories. Join in the conversation and let us know about your own hair-raising tales.
Some 5 million tons of medical fabric waste is created globally every year. That number sounds daunting, but brilliant minds in health care and textiles are focusing every day on solutions. Lori and Dan will welcome back Dr. Holly Morris to the Textile Nerd Podcast, a surgeon, educator, and medical textile waste researcher who will discuss the helpers, the hinderers, and the hope to curb this growing issue.
Some people have a knack for building industry connections, and in textiles, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone working harder to bring the community together more than Devin Steele. On this edition of the Textile Nerd Podcast, Lori and Dan talk with Devin, whose eTextileCommunications.com publication is billed as "The Voice of the U.S. Textile Industry."
Fabric is all around us in both the physical sense and in pop culture and the entertainment we consume. This edition of the Textile Nerd Podcast will go off the beaten path and cover a few of Lori and Dan's favorite moments in TV and movies (Seinfeld, anyone?) where fabric is the focus. Did we miss any of your favorites?
Tradeshow season is whipping into a frenzy, and we're in the middle of all the action. On this edition of the Textile Nerd Podcast, Lori and Dan will talk with two stars of the TVF Print Media Sales Team, Danny Jimenez and Leif Kristensen, about what they're looking forward to on the show floors and what's hot among the printshops and manufacturers making booths sparkle. Join us for a live broadcast of the podcast from the show floor of the Advanced Textiles Association Expo 2025 in Indianapolis.
The cutting-edge combination of modern medicine and modern textiles includes technology like bioscaffolds, which require researchers with an almost unheard of medical, medicinal, and technical knowledge base. On this edition of the Textile Nerd Podcast, Lori and Dan will introduce you to Dr. Holly Morris, a pediatric hand surgeon who possesses a textile and engineering background shared by few, if anyone else.
The world of medical textiles is vast and exacting. From the safety and efficacy demands to the evolving needs and technologies, opportunities for advancements are ripe for the picking with the right knowledge. On this edition of the Textile Nerd Podcast, Lori and Dan will explore the myriad of medical textile uses -- some seen, some unseen -- with TVF colleague Travis Conlon, a voracious learner with experience in the medical device, healthcare, and textile fields.
Two of the biggest issues facing the textile industry are the wave of upcoming retirements and the need for next-generation education. Young professionals and students sit at this important intersection, and Lori and Dan wanted to talk with a student who plans to blend textile expertise in with his dental career ambitions. North Carolina State University Wilson College of Textiles undergraduate Bryson Proctor joins the Textile Nerd Podcast to discuss his journey.
We adore natural fiber fabrics for their imperfect perfection. The factors that get them from field to finished product are numerous. Lori and Dan wanted to hear more, so they brought TVF Apparel & Home Décor Program Director Brian Vieweg on to the Textile Nerd Podcast to give us a taste of what he's learned about cottons, lines, and more in his over 30-year career that includes dyeing, finishing, product development, and executive leadership experience.
There's more at stake for textile designers, makers, and manufacturers to execute the right fit than meets the eye. So much is on the line, an experienced and innovative pattern maven, Julia Watts of PatternRoom.com, has developed an entire business around perfecting the fit and helping others nail it the first time. Lori and Dan discuss the often overlooked world of pattern making on this edition of the Textile Nerd Podcast.
The spectre of so-called "forever chemicals," or PFAS, looms over a significant portion of the textile industry. Lori and Dan will take a closer look with our colleague, TVF Global Trade & Logistics Manager Laura Martin, who joins us for an overview of some challenges and considerations for everyone from mills to manufacturers.
Rachal McCarthy is a new-age leader in an old-school industry. On this edition of the Textile Nerd Podcast, the second-generation president of NTI Global in New York talks with Lori and Dan about the key place communications play in leadership in a world where the lines between on-site vs. off-site, high-tech vs. low-tech, and confidence vs. training are increasingly blurry.
Guest after guest on the Textile Nerd Podcast brings up sustainability as a primary industry concern and opportunity. It's such a pervasive topic of discussion, Lori and Dan captured three expert perspectives on this vast subject: pediatric hand surgeon and medical sustainability scholar Dr. Holly Morris, Gaston College Textile Technology Center Executive Director Jasmine Cox, and PatternRoom.com founder and CEO Julia Watts.
Let's face it, the textile printing process can be pretty bland. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, the cofounder of an innovative print studio believes more creativity could be injected into every facet of textile printing. Lori and Dan welcome back Western Sensibility CEO Kathryn Sanders to explore why and how creativity can be baked in every step of the way to elevate projects.
Access is everything for print media professionals. Third-generation textile printer Kathryn Sanders, founder and CEO of print studio Western Sensibility, hips us to a philosophy she calls the "Democratization of Design." This concept, as Lori and Dan find out, involves access by creatives to printers and technology to move thier designs from drawing board to substrate.




