The Type Pod

An emergency podcast. Ripped straight from the headlines of a couple weeks ago.When Calibri was unceremoniously replaced by Times New Roman under the Trump administration, we chose to process our feelings—potential travel ban be damned.Yes, this episode is about fonts. And no, it’s really not.In a looser, more unscripted conversation than usual, we turn rage into humour while exposing how typography has always been political: shaping authority, enforcing norms, and quietly excluding people. Typefaces, it turns out, have never been neutral.

This episode we talk about Transport, which is not a typeface. We know this for sure because designer Margaret Calvert said so in an email to us. If you have ever driven anywhere you will know the (not a) typeface Transport, as it was purposefully designed for roads. What you may not know is that the typeface is just one part of an extensive information system designed to help us all get where we want to go. Hopefully without hitting deers or pedestrians along the way.In this episode Anitra gets way too excited about the DIN system, and wasn't embarrassed at all when Jason schooled her on what vulgar fractions are. See examples of Transport by driving down the road OR at our website thetypepod.orgYou can buy our book on Amazon (rated 5 stars!)

Originally Anitra thought this typeface was designed by a woman, and because she is the only person authorized to speak about typefaces designed by a woman Anitra did the research for this episode. Sure, Jason is in touch with his feminine side, but not enough to be brave enough to speak (and he is too young and pretty to be canceled). Turns out Anitra was almost completely wrong, this typeface was created by a bunch of women — maybe. Although kind of no one designed this typeface too? Anyway, it wasn’t what we expected, but Anitra claims she is still right about who designed it, but in an unexpected way, and Jason is not contesting this.We are sorry it took so long for Season 2 to drop listeners, but get ready for more Type Pod. Now Anitra has figured out how to use Descript again there's more episodes coming!Find the show notes and a transcript set in Akzidenz Grotesk at Typepod.org. And because we might finally be getting the hang of this self promotion thing, you can see pictures of our book Back to Font on there too! Which you can buy everywhere, including Amazon. Check out our intro episode where you can get a discount code to buy the book directly from Laurenceking.com if you are in the UK.It's good to be back :)

Our book Back to Font is finally out! You can buy it in bookstores and everything! If you are in the UK you can get a 20% discount by going to laurenceking.com and entering the code TYPEPOD20.In the grand tradition of this podcast we messed up the original "producer produced" version of this into, so we did it again using finger puppets and bits of string, without the ThesisWhisperer. (She would want us to say the sound quality is not her fault, which is true it isn't.)Tune in to learn about why type is emotional, who is responsible for the jokes on the front cover, and the importance of cats to publishing deals. ** Editors note: We misnamed our wonderful editor Gaynor throughout this episode – which makes it even more obvious how very important she was to the project. There's no way she would have let us make that mistake, we are very sorry Gaynor!

Inger gathered the team for an emergency pod about Balto the 2013 typeface chosen for the Harris Waltz campaign. After one failed attempt – which tested Inger’s patience about kerning — we nailed it (although we may inadvertently start some new political conspiracy theories by talking about the adventures of a plucky Disney dog also named Balto, not to mention the problematic choice of Perpetua for Obama’s first campaign). Anitra talks too much about columns and typeface rubbings and Jason tries to take the higher ground, while Inger briskly moves us along. We then revisit past presidential campaign typeface choices, and argue about Optima. Finally we add to Trump’s growing list of indictments by pointing out he has also committed type crimes. Season two is coming up soon! In the meantime, you can go back and review season one so you get all our jokes about kerning.Stuff we mentionedMaking BaltoThe new Trump Logo and the MAGA cap storyMcCain's Optima typeface story