🔴 Meet Nerdette’s Greta Johnsen, in celebration of the show’s 10th anniversary

• Dave has been residing in Tokyo, Japan since the mid-1980s, creating prints using traditional techniques. 

• Over wholesome and meditative streams, Dave shares the art of Japanese woodblock printmaking with his viewers. 

• Each stream typically lasts about 90 minutes. Dave is currently streaming in the evenings according to the American Eastern Standard Time (EST). Here’s his complete schedule.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. The complete interview will be shared next week on the Audio Currents podcast. Stay tuned!

Shreya Sharma (SS): How did your journey in the world of audio start? 

Greta Johnsen (GJ): In high school, I listened to This American Life. I loved it; it captured my imagination. One day, in honors English class, we were introduced to an extracurricular journalism class. I realized that journalism is how I could do all the things. All that I was interested in can be encompassed under this umbrella. In college, they had an NPR affiliate on campus and that was my campus job. That was my first entry into working in audio and it was at a classical music station. I was a board op; I wasn’t even allowed to talk on the radio. They would give me tracks of the host introducing the next classical piece and I would dig up that classical music CD and play the right track. I just did that repeatedly for a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon. I loved it. And the rest, as they say, is history.

SS: Tell us about the evolution of your listeners' interests and preferences. Plus, how did this evolution play a role in the show?

GJ: Nerdette has always been a celebration of curiosity. That means pretty much any topic is on the table. It's always been much more about enthusiasm than expertise. We even used to use it as a tagline – it's not about what you love, it's about how much you love it. So that means we could talk to somebody about ping pong, we could talk to somebody about crossword puzzles.

It's not all just Marvel or Star Wars. Of course, those can play a big role, but it's about branching out and celebrating enthusiasm of all types. I think that has remained consistent. It's changed over the years in terms of specific topics, but we're always game to talk about anything. For instance, a couple of weeks ago, we had a conversation with a woman who recently wrote a book about ice.

I never think about cubed ice, but I use it all the time. So to talk to people who have deep-dived into topics like those has always been super interesting.

SS: It's been like a decade-long journey for Nerdette and you. What were the challenges you faced and how have you navigated them to keep creating content?

GJ: While it’s such a privilege to host a show that is so based on my personality and interests, there have been days when I just felt like I couldn't quite show up the way I might have wanted to.

Part of that has been that we've changed formats several times, even over any given year. Also, the fact that we cover so many different topics is helpful because it means that I can stay engaged and interested.

I would say the hardest thing probably, and this is something I haven't talked about except with friends, is the challenge of consistently creating a joyful show. While I'm so grateful that this is such a joyful show, sometimes it’s really hard to muster that enthusiasm and joy. Especially during the pandemic. There were days I was living alone in my apartment. To climb into my closet and pretend to be excited about something when I wasn't necessarily feeling it was hard. It took like an extra level of energy to be able to pull that off sometimes.