CarStories

Julia LaPalme got her start in the automotive industry as a photographer for Road & Track magazine where she stayed for almost 10 years. She shot cars all over the world and took part in some fairly insane adventures including driving a Suzuki Kizashi the long way from Japan to LA. She is currently the photo editor for the newly redesigned Motorcyclist magazine where she also does bike reviews. She's a super talented lady and a fantastic person to chat with, we had a ton of fun with her. Enjoy!

Jenny Smith is the real deal. Not only did she ride a ridiculously powerful motorcycle in the rain from her home to the Petersen to record this episode, she rode it in the rain to her office Ventura County after we were done. She pretty much taught herself how to ride bikes and has since forged her way through the industry to get to where she is now, Managing Editor at Rider Magazine. She's a fantastic storyteller and we were thrilled to have her on the podcast.

Donut Media is one of the hottest new content companies in the automotive space right now. They've built a reputation for creating outrageous and dynamic content for a variety of brands including Nissan, Gumout, Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo and more. Two of the principals behind Donut are Jacob Agajanian and James Kirkham, long time friends with tons of industry experience who wanted to do things differently. James and Jacob stopped by the podcast to talk about the history behind Donut Media as well as some of their favorite pieces of content that they've created and lots more.

David Steele is the director of the American Hot Rod Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving the history of early hot rodding through interviewing the hot rodders themselves as well as restoring and archiving all of their ephemera. David is also a professional musician who has toured with artists such as Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch. It was during his time touring with acts like these that he began his quest to document the stories of unsung local hot rodders all over America and it was this quest that would eventually lead him to the AHRF. David sat down with Kyle recently to talk about the organization as well as some of the unifying threads that bring together car enthusiasts of all kinds.

Stacie B London is best known as one of the founders of the amazing East Side Moto Babes motorcycle club in LA. She's an avid road racer on her incredible "Triple Nickel 555" Honda race bike and she's getting into land speed racing. All this and she's only been riding for 8 years. She sat down with Kyle to talk about being a woman who not only rides motorcycles in LA but someone who is making huge strides towards increasing female ridership in general. She's an incredible lady and we're psyched she stopped by the podcast to talk

Rick Love is the executive vice president of Vintage Air whom you may recognize as being the premier supplier of air conditioning systems for hot rods, street rods, classics and customs. Rick is a huge hot rod fan and a generally affable guy so it was Kyle and James' good fortune to run into him while he was in town for the Grand National Roadster Show. This was a fun interview and we think you guys will enjoy it.

Aaron Severson is the mind behind one of the most interesting and in-depth collections of automotive history available online, the exceptional AteUpWithMotor.com. His ability to research and describe the often esoteric and arcane technical knowledge as well as the convoluted histories behind the world's great cars is second to none. Kyle and James have been fans of his work for a long time and they were thrilled that he agreed to do the show.

Bryan Thompson is a talented designer and long time veteran of the automotive industry. He got his start with Nissan working on vehicles like the NV-series of vans. He has also worked with non-automotive clients such as Airstream and Katy Perry. He's got his hands in just about every kind of design imaginable and as such has more than a few interesting stories to tell. He was a pleasure to talk to, and we hope you enjoy his conversation with Kyle and James.

John Roderick is a podcaster, a musician, a world traveler, raconteur, futurist, ethnobotanist, autodidact, almost civil servant, motorcyclist, ice racer and comic book character. Also, more of those are true than you'd believe. Anyway, John is an incredible guy and a big car lover but hasn't really had the opportunity to talk about this passion in his other podcasts before, so we're thrilled that he sat down in the basement at the Petersen to get really weird and granular with Kyle.

Dana Williamson is one of those guys that kind of does - or has done - everything. He designed boat hulls at MIT, restored British cars and then Corvettes for a living, daily drives a vintage Land Rover. He's a bit of a renaissance man and he's one of the most interesting people at the Petersen. Kyle finally cornered him and bribed him with African currency featuring an engraving of a Land Rover and he agreed to sit down and tell us his story. Enjoy!

Richard Varner is fanatic about motorcycles. He's the proud benefactor of the motorcycle gallery on the second floor of the Petersen as well as a member of the Petersen's board. He's one of the principles behind MotoAmerica, an organization which has brought about the rebirth of American motorcycle road racing. He's a die-hard gearhead and likes to say that he'd buy a ticket to two moving parts. James and Kyle traveled to his offices in Orange County, CA which were positively littered with amazing motorcycles. Richard was a blast to talk to, and we hope you enjoy the conversation!

Sam Yang is a lucky guy. He's the proud owner of BTWNWVS, one of the hottest Rauh-Welt Begriff cars yet, based on a Porsche 964 C4 cabriolet and enhanced with a seriously built motor. He's also the guy behind Vast. Vast makes some seriously awesome surf-inspired lifestyle clothing and is based on Sam's love of the water. He is a seriously interesting guy and Kyle and James really enjoyed sitting down with him at the museum to talk.

John Pangilinan is a busy guy. He's built a career out of doing PR for Formula Drift and before that he was involved deeply in the import car scene here in Southern California. He's a photographer as well as a builder of amazing project cars and now he's a father. Kyle and James were super excited to sit down with John and talk about his path through the automotive industry as well as what he has coming up next. Enjoy!

Carby Tuckwell is the creative mind behind the visual aesthetic of Deus Ex Machina. Deus is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to brands as they seem to have their hands in everything including motorcycles, surfing, cycling, snowboarding, clothing, and coffee. They have been broadcasting their message of cool from their headquarters in Camperdown, Sydney, Australia and have set up satellite locations in Venice, CA as well as Milan, Bali, Japan and coming soon Bangkok. Kyle and James talked about the origins of Deus, Carby's interest in Porsche and Mercedes and more. Enjoy!

Mazda has always done things a little differently than its competition, whether that be rotary engines, bold design, or a focus on driving pleasure that extends even to their most humble vehicles. Kyle and James decided to leverage their podcasting power to infiltrate the US headquarters of Mazda and learn what makes it tick by speaking to one of their leading designers, Jacques Flynn and one of their powertrain engineers, Jay Chen. This is a great peek behind the curtain of a major auto manufacturer and we hope you enjoy it!