I'm Back!

Posted on Monday, Jun 22, 2026
It’s been almost 6 years since I posted the last episode. I think it’s time for the show to make a comeback. This is a recap of the crazy stuff I’ve been up to since the last episode.

Show Notes

Hi there! It’s been a while. In fact, it’s been nearly six whole years since the last episode of this podcast was posted. And wow… a lot has happened since then, both in my life and in the world overall.

In this episode, I talk about why I think that now is the right time for this podcast to come back. We’re in a place in the world now where it’s not just that open source tools are met with resistance, but the very notion of human creativity feels like it’s under attack. Seriously, I think that, perhaps more than ever before, now is the time to talk about the benefits of using open source tools. It’s all about having the freedom to create. That’s the reason why I think it’s important to have a place (like this show) to talk about these tools, workflows, and approaches.

Of course, since I’ve haven’t been around, I took the opportunity in this episode to share a bit of what I’ve been up to. By and large, most of this is on my personal website at monsterjavaguns.com, but because I like ordered list, here’s a brief chronology of what’s up:

  1. My family and I started traveling full time in a motorhome. We’ve been on the road now for over four years.
  2. Two new editions of Blender For Dummies have come out.
  3. I published a work of serialized fiction called Fulcrum.
  4. I started creating wooden jewelry under the brand Bentwood Forge.
  5. I served as Director of Marketing for Autotroph.
  6. I built, launched, promoted, maintained and ultimately shut down a webapp called Tablescraps.
  7. I became irrationally obsessed with puns and wordplay, ultimately resulting in Pun in the Sun.
  8. I’ve started offering Blender coaching and consulting services for individuals, organizations, and creators.

Whew… so, that’s how I am. And yeah, I’ve been busy.

More importantly, I’ve missed doing this show. I’ve missed you. So let’s make this thing awesome. In order to do that, I’m going to need feedback from you. What do you want me to talk about? Are there guests that I should invite to be interviewed? What should I avoid talking about?

Let me know! You can put your thoughts in the comments on this episode (I got Isso commenting working again) or, give me a shout on any of the various places you can find me online and tell me there.

Let’s do this thing!

Hosts

Jason van Gumster

Jason van Gumster

“I make stuff. I make stuff up. On occasion, I stuff-up what I make. I don’t do much stuff with make-up… though I’m not above trying. I work in all kinds of media: words, animation, ink, coffee, wood, video. And, of course, I’m really passionate about open source and open content, so that’s what I talk about in this show. Books I’ve written and other creative experiments I’ve made can be seen on monsterjavaguns.com.”