The Bodett Problem
We're all born makers, but a lot us fall out of practice along the way.
That’s a problem.
The Bodett Problem. A HatchSpace Audio Production.
Born in a woodshop in Vermont, The Bodett Problem is finding people around the world who are putting down their phones and picking up the tools and skills to make something. Something real.
Join celebrated writer and radio personality, Tom Bodett, who is also a lifelong carpenter and woodworker, for conversations about what the act of making can do for all of us. We’re talking to guest celebrities and experts in the trades, as well as hobbyists and fixers and anyone who's put their hands to work in the real world — which is just about all of us. Whether we mean to or not. We’ll hear how it feels when everything goes just right, and we’ll see just how far off the rails things can go much of the time. And why it’s worth it.
Not another how-to podcast. It’s a why-to. Exploring just exactly what keeps us from making is The Bodett Problem. And we’re solving it.
“If you take any kid and put them down in a pile of sand, they’ll start making something out of it. Toss some blocks to a toddler and you’ll get a tower.”
Listen to the Show.
Welcome to The Bodett Problem (Trailer)
Tom Bodett explores the human impulse to make, mend, and reconnect with the real.
Episode 1:
Costumes, Dictionaries, and Full Life, with Mo Rocca
Join us for our pilot episode with humorist, journalist and actor, Mo Rocca, for a conversation about trying new things. We’ll learn about Mo’s attempts at doing stuff and fixing things, from making custom hoodies and cooking other families' traditional recipes, to creating home-made Halloween costumes and the earliest memories of making. Together, Tom and Mo reflect on the core strength that trying new things cultivates, and the impact it has on making a satisfying life.
“With doing stuff, and fixing things and making things, it just feels like a part of being fully human, or being a grown up. ”
Meet the Team
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A lifelong carpenter and woodworker in addition to his successful 40-year career in publishing and broadcasting, Tom Bodett devotes himself to serving the rural communities where he has lived, and has always lived. With half of his adult life spent in Alaska and the other half in Vermont, Bodett has come to appreciate the beauty and the bounty of our natural landscape and the indomitable spirit of the communities that occupy it. Through hands-on effort and philanthropy, Tom and his wife Rita work to leave these places better than they found them, and have learned when to leave well enough alone.
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Eric Mennel is an award-winning journalist, editor and podcast producer. He has created, hosted, developed and run new podcasts for most of his career. Those shows include:
Magnificent Jerk (Best New Podcasts 2023, The New Yorker)
The 11th (National Magazine Award, 2022)
Stay Away from Matthew MaGill (Ambie, Best Documentary, 2021)
The Catch and Kill Podcast with Ronan Farrow (Murrow Award, 2020; Peabody nomination)
Embedded, from NPR
Mystery Show (Third Coast International Audio Award, 2016)
Criminal
His work has appeared on This American Life, NPR, 99% Invisible, Marketplace and lots of other shows. He won the 2015 Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting for his work at WUNC in North Carolina.
He’s a member of the WGAE. He is also a woodworker, when time permits. Learn more about Eric here.
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Shelton is the Executive Director of HatchSpace, and has spent two decades igniting and supporting change through the arts. Before joining HatchSpace, she served as a leader for arts-focused colleges and universities, as well as worked for a number of museums and cultural institutions. She loves creating new possibilities for extraordinary organizations like HatchSpace. Learn more about Shelton here.
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Ian Chillag is the host and creator of Everything is Alive. Previously he was a producer for NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and he co-created and hosted the NPR podcast How To Do Everything. He’s also worked on videos for The New York Times, contributed regularly to the literary magazine A Public Space, and has recorded four episodes of a podcast about a post-apocalyptic public radio pledge drive besieged by pestilence and death that he can’t quite figure out what to do with.
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Two-time Peabody Award-winning producer Doug Berman is responsible for NPR's most successful entertainment programs, the hit comedies Car Talk and Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Doug Berman is a comedy producer for NPR, something no other human has ever had written about them in a biography. After producing Car Talk, Doug launched Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, where he recruited Tom Bodett to be a panelist. Doug had always been a huge fan of Bodett’s work, and once said he would do anything for Tom. That was before Tom asked him to stay in a Motel 6. When Tom started working on his new podcast, Doug got heavily involved, up to the point of listening to it, and saying, “that’s great, Tom.”
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Richard Korson is the President of Smartless Media, the media venture from Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes. Korson is also an Emmy-nominated television producer and media executive. Korson got his start on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” then headed up Jon Stewart’s Busboy Productions. While at Busboy, he oversaw the production of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” the development and launch of “Important Things with Demetri Martin,” “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn,” and “The Colbert Report.” He was the executive producer and showrunner of the Emmy award-winning kids sketch show, “The Who Was? Show” for Netflix. He also develops and produces kids and family content for Penguin Workshop where he is a Producer at Large.
Want to Support our Podcast?
We’re looking for friends to partners to help us launch our podcast. If you’ve ideas, we would love to hear from you. Please reach out. Alternatively, direct donations are always welcome.
About HatchSpace
HatchSpace is a 501c3 nonprofit woodworking school and community workshop based in Brattleboro, V.T. Our vision is to inspire a national network of rural communities enlivened by the social and economic benefits gained through a return to making, and to doing it together. Participants across all ages are invited to make something real and build what you love. Learn more about HatchSpace here.