Bonsai Builders Podcast

In this episode, four-year bonsai hobbyist Dillon Clark joins the podcast to discuss the fascinating crossover between his day job as a video game community manager and community building in the bonsai world. How can hobbyists, clubs, and professionals elevate their digital presence—and is a strong online footprint even necessary? Plus, having recently made the leap to go 'all in' on bonsai himself, Dillon turns the tables to grill me about the early phases of my own journey.

Continuing the conversation with Jonas and Eric, we move on to discussing Water and Fertilizer from the lens of two veteran bonsai growers. We discuss what we got right and what we got wrong in previous water episodes of the Bonsai Builders Podcast and give a simple prescription for how to approach watering and fertilization.

In this episode, Addison, Eric Schrader, and Jonas Dupuich team up to discuss the recent Black Pondo episode that covered two new terms, "inside out" and "outside in" in the context of bonsai development approaches. What do these terms mean and are they useful for explaining how to make bonsai? We also take it a step further and investigate the origins of these practices in Japan.

In this episode, Josh Renaud comes on the podcast to talk about getting started making bonsai pottery in the US. We discuss his practice in Bonsai and Ceramics, as well as our responsibility to safeguard the future of US bonsai. If you ever were wondering about the cross section of Ceramics and Bonsai hobbyists, Josh is the one to hear from!

In this episode, we get back to the roots of the show, getting the hardcore hobbyists perspective on bonsai. Joel Jenkins joins us from Louisiana where he's caught the bonsai bug so hard he is even starting the city's first public bonsai collection! Hear about his journey, how he's developed his styling capabilities from 0, and also his frank take on what it takes to get good at bonsai.