Podcast Episode 1: 

Rhea Burdick and Brightwood Projects (Jesse Kenas Collins)

July 15, 2026

Rhea Burdick and Brightwood Projects (Jesse Kenas Collins)

To their pages:

Thoughts and Reflections:

Welcome to the FIRST video podcast episode. I hope to do more of these, perhaps at least 1 a month.

Why a Podcast...

The genesis of this podcast came from a variety of factors and collaborations coming together. It really started a year ago when I visited the workshop of Brightwood Projects (Jesse) and asked Rhea to join as a guest. I personally knew Rhea and Rhea kinda knew Jesse. Filming the episode was great because Rhea and Jesse really vibed, especially because of shared interests (music and, of course, instrument making). Musically, we had a jam on some Turkish instruments that was filmed for the episode, but during the episode editing process the jam itself sat uneasy for us. So we hopped onto a video call together to process this uneasiness. You can read about it here. We talked for quite a long time, because the conversation flowed naturally and I can feel the excitement from both Rhea and Jesse of being able to just hit it off with a fellow instrument maker. I expressed my excitement as well, and Jesse mentioned that he wished there were more relevant podcasts he can listen to while he worked besides the few incredibly dense and nerdy ones about guitars and violins. That sparked the podcast idea in my head. 

It felt like a natural progression of the series, especially because I have now met enough instrument makers in my adventures that I now understood the craft, artform, and the type of people behind these incredible instruments; and thus, in a place that I could now bring people in and bring people together.

Some other practical factors that pushed me to this podcast are:

• Realistically, the workload of visiting instrument makers and attempting to release two episodes was becoming too much. This is only a passion project that nets negative money, which is unsustainable financially and timewise. Podcasts are so much easier to record and edit in comparison. So I might transition my release schedule to one video and one podcast per month. We'll see how it goes. 

• While I have tentatively committed to releasing an episode the 1st and 15th of every month, currently due to travelling, I didn't have an video episode ready in time, so hence a podcast. 

My Idea for the Podcasts

Firstly, I can't visit every instrument makers in all corners of the globe, so I hope I can reach out to those I find interesting that I can't get to (yet). And hopefully, I can connect instrument makers with each other as well. 

Secondly, once you get two instrument makers in the same room, they will be able to talk for hours. My role as host is to let them talk, steer the conversations with a topic, and clarify if conversations become dense. 

The general structure, and we'll play around with it is:

• Introducing the guests and have them share their current projects

• Deep dive conversation into a topic of their choice

• Answer questions from the audience.

Podcast Reflection