Best Philjohnson Podcasts (2025)

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210 The Pyrate Round 33:28

Play Pause

6y ago33:28

33:28

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. The Pyrate Round is a Youtube Channel and a Facebook page that shares pyrate information for pirates. This page was created by the super delightful Thomas and Delaney Anderson. The page includes information like a daily post on "This day in pirate hist…

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209 Mike Tunez 35:10

6y ago35:10

35:10

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Mike Tunez is the lead game designer for Firelock Games. Firelock Games has created a number of table top games with titles like: Blood and Plunder, Oak and Iron, and Scurvy Dice, all of which focus on game play involving buccaneers or pirates. They al…

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208 Wayne Curtis 40:15

6y ago40:15

40:15

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Wayne Curtis is the author of And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in 10 Cocktails. Wayne is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and a columnist for the Daily Beast and Garden & Gun. His stories have also run in the New York Times, America…

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207 Ace Miles aka Jack Spareribs 48:36

6y ago48:36

48:36

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Ace Miles is a pirate performer that appears under the name: Jack Spareribs. He is a magician, juggler and ventriloquist. He has performed at venues all over the state of California. Over the years Ace has been seen in numerous television spots and com…

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206 Dan Franklin 33:57

6y ago33:57

33:57

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Dan Franklin is a member of the pirate band, The Skullduggers, as well as a member of The Bootstrappers, a group that plays at a popular theme park located in Anaheim, Ca. He has also played with Slash and Leann Rimes. He's also a filmmaker that has a …

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205 Melinda Long 40:28

6y ago40:28

40:28

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Melinda Long had written books before but when she discovered that at the time there were very few children's books about pirates, she decided to write one. About the same time her book was to come out, Disney released Pirates of the Caribbean. Talk ab…

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Under The Crossbones Important Update 1:19

6+ y ago1:19

1:19

A quick update on the status of the show. We've run into a few snags behind the scenes. We're getting everything worked out, but it will take a few weeks to prepare new episodes for you. So hang tight, make sure you're subscribed, and UTC will be back bigger, badder, and better than ever! In the meantime check out some of the back catalog episodes …

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204 Cutthroat Cortez of Pirates Plunder 29:28

6+ y ago29:28

29:28

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Lou Hernandez aka Cutthroat Cortez of Pirates Plunder is living an enviable life. He's a pirate because it's fun and because he wants to. And he's using his pirate character to put good things in the world and help others. And for my final show as host…

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203 "Last Pirate of New York" Author Rich Cohen 52:42

6+ y ago52:42

52:42

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Rich Cohen is the author of "The Last Pirate of New York" - A ghost ship, a killer, and the birth of a gangster nation. Along with a ton of other really interesting books. Rich and I cover a lot of ground in this talk and I think you'll really enjoy it…

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202 Musical Blades 51:17

6+ y ago51:17

51:17

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Musical Blades are legends of the pirate music scenes and I can't believe it took 200 episodes to get to them. But here they are! Everybody is on the mic today and it gets a little chaotic, but it's really fun talk. Co-host Marck Forget of Festival des…

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201 Guy Chet author of The Ocean is a Wilderness 47:41

6+ y ago47:41

47:41

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Guy Chet is the author of he Ocean is a Wilderness: Atlantic Piracy and the Limits of State Authority, 1688-1856. It's a really interesting scholarly work that digs down into the idea of how long piracy in the Atlantic actually lasted and what finally …

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200 Surprise Guest and Big News 53:45

6+ y ago53:45

53:45

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Happy episode 200! Whether you're new to the show or have been listening since the early days, thank you. I appreciate you spending your time with me and my guests very much. Listen in to find out who our secret guest is about some big changes coming t…

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199 Bounding Main 38:52

6+ y ago38:52

38:52

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Bounding Main is a fantastic shanty band from the American Midwest that tours internationally and has a fascinating vocal style that uses many different historical and modern harmonic styles. In this episode: How they got started touring internationall…

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198 Mike Hawthorne author of The Hungry Horizon 1:00:38

6+ y ago1:00:38

1:00:38

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Mike Hawthorne is a fantastic visual artist who came to writing later in life with his book The Hungry Horizon. It's historical fiction about the pirate Bartholomew Sharpe who sailed with Henry Morgan before going his own way. Born in Manchester in 195…

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197 Stephan Talty of Empire of Blue Waters 53:52

6+ y ago53:52

53:52

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. I discovered Stephan Talty through his book "The Black Hand" about the proto-Mafia crime organization that terrorized the Italian community of New York in the early 1900's. And I was super pleased to find out that he also wrote a book about Henry Morga…

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196 Dan Blevins Catalano of The Devil's Gauntlet 53:38

6+ y ago53:38

53:38

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Dan Blevins bought a pirate ship for $1 and has rebuilt it from the hull up. Now he's getting ready to sail the west coast helping military veterans overcome PTSD and addiction through maritime work as well has entertain and educate the public and work…

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195 Rachel Eldridge of Brethren of the North East Sea 41:14

6+ y ago41:14

41:14

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Talking with Rachel Eldridge of Brethren of the North East Sea aka B.O.N.E.S. This New England band has been making the rounds of the Ren Faire and Pirate Fest scenes since 2011 and we dig into some of the psyche of Ren players. In this episode: Introv…

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194 Haakon Vatle of Storm Weather Shanty Choir 40:10

6+ y ago40:10

40:10

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Haakon Vatle leads Norway's Storm Weather Shanty Choir. He's got some great tour stories and actually uses sea shanties on a ship he's the general manager for. In this episode: How his time on a Norwegian tall ship taught him about the real life useful…

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193 Eric Mueller of Pirates Press 50:00

6+ y ago50:00

50:00

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Eric Mueller is the owner of Pirates Press in Emeryville, CA They're the industry's largest vinyl pressing company working with all the big names on really unique vinyl releases and a lot more. In this episode: All about the modern vinyl record biz How…

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192 Rebekah Harris of Silverella 47:45

6+ y ago47:45

47:45

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Rebekah Harris is the owner of Silverella, a nautical themed jewelry company based in Montauk. I'm not even much of a jewelry guy and I want to get my hands on her works of art. Really unique stuff. And she's got great stories about her haphazard homet…

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191 Treva Etienne of Pirates of the Caribbean 1:10:13

6+ y ago1:10:13

1:10:13

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Treva Etienne played the pirate Koehler in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and can current be seen in Bosch on Amazon Prime. In this episode: Growing up and learning theater in London How he developed a backstory for Koehler Acting a…

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190 The Shipwreck Rats 47:32

6+ y ago47:32

47:32

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. The Shipwreck Rats from Berlin, Germany play "fast and evil" Scottish and Irish Pirate Folk music. In this episode: How three non-German folk musicians managed to find each other in Berlin Which member has a 20,000 jukebox in his brain The crazy unique…

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189 Randy Gnatowsky aka Constable Heartless of Blackbeard's Crew 42:46

6+ y ago42:46

42:46

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Randy Gnatowsky aka Constable Heartless is a retired police office and captain of Blackbeard's Crew, a 501(c)3 non-profit focused on 18th century historical reenactment and education. In this episode: All the new on this year's Hampton Blackbeard Festi…

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188 The Jolly Rogers 49:57

6+ y ago49:57

49:57

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. All five members of the Jolly Rogers are on the show today! We delve into the long running band's epic pirate music career. In this episode: The song that Disney stole from them The insanely cool gig in Krakow, Poland and the hidden history of sea chan…

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187 Steve Genett of A Pirate's Book of Days 46:03

6+ y ago46:03

46:03

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Steve Genett is the creator of A Pirate's Book of Days. Inside this really cool phone app you'll get a daily bit of pirate history, and location searchable database of pirate museums, festivals, and attractions around the world, and more. In this episo…

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186 Wolfbeard O'Brady of Dread Crew of Oddwood 51:34

6+ y ago51:34

51:34

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Reece Miller aka Wolfbeard O'Brady is the singer and accordionist for The Dread Crew of Oddwood, the pirate metal world's least electric band. I mean, they're still super exciting. They just don't plug things in. In this episode: How Reece gets his acc…

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185 Be More Pirate author Sam Conniff 1:05:11

6+ y ago1:05:11

1:05:11

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Sam Conniff is an entrepreneur and author of the book "Be More Pirate". It's an examination of how pirates rewrote the rules of their time and weaponized storytelling to change the world around them. And then, how we use those lessons in our own time t…

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184 Brad Lee Howard of Pyrates Royale 1:01:31

6+ y ago1:01:31

1:01:31

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Brad Lee Howard leads The Pyrates Royale, the longest running band in pirate fest history. In our talk we dig into Brad's formative years including classical music, 1970's standup comedy, Mad Magazine, rugby, and more. In this episode: The group's expe…

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183 Zachary Stocks on The Lady Washington 48:14

7y ago48:14

48:14

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Zachary Stocks is the Program Development Officer for Grays Harbor Historical Seaport, home to the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain. And my co-host this week, Cheryl Jones, spent a week volunteering on the Lady Washington 15 years ago. So we …

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182 Indie Wrestler Graeme Buckie aka The Buccaneer 41:58

7y ago41:58

41:58

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Graeme Bucky aka The Buccaneer is an indie wrestler from Australia. Nick Hoffman sits in with me today and Graeme teaches us about the unique storytelling vehicle that is wrestling. In this episode: Which countries have big wrestling cultures (a big su…

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181 Bradley Williamson of Treasure Expeditions 1:12:49

7y ago1:12:49

1:12:49

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Bradley Williamson is the CEO of Treasure Expeditions and we dig into his parallel interests in treasure hunting and genetic engineering. In this episode: Great stories about Mel Fisher, Carl Fizmer, and Louie Anderson(???) Bradley's plan to run off at…

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180 Capt James Hawk of the Krewe of the Scarlett Fortuna 53:47

7y ago53:47

53:47

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Capt James Hawk runs the Krewe of the Scarlett Fortuna, a nonprofit organization to promote reading among children. In this episode: Why reading is his pet cause The advice him mom gave him that has served him well his whole life Why switching from Med…

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179 Jess Dobie of Switch Sails and Jenai Marek 43:03

7y ago43:03

43:03

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Jess Dobie is co-owner of Switch Sails in Brisbane, Australia. They specialize in sails for yachts and racing ships. They've also made sails for some of your favorite pirate films. We'll find out about the cutting edge in modern sail-making and the gro…

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178 Marc Paquien - Treasure Island Board Game Creator 42:07

7y ago42:07

42:07

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Marc Paquien is the creator of the board game "Treasure Island". In the game, one player "hides" the treasure and the other players ask questions and make calculations to find it. Beyond that simple description, it's a game with all sorts of unique ang…

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177 Moonsun Kim of Whispers in the Wind 39:46

7y ago39:46

39:46

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Moonsun Kim is the creator of the pirate web comic "Whispers in the Wind". We travel to the outskirts of Paris to talk with Moonsun about her early art training, how she became obsessed with the pirate story in her head, her tools of choice, and her ti…

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176 Daniel Bjorkbacka aka Joe Blackheart of Pat Razket 47:51

7y ago47:51

47:51

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Daniel Bjorkbacka aka Joe Blackheart is the founder and banjo player of Sweden's Pat Razket. We dig into the band's background as a party and wedding band, the idea to become pirates, and the moment that convinced them to have a great show but also wor…

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175 Ray Arnoult of Pirate Guitar Effects 38:32

7y ago38:32

38:32

Comments or Questions? Email me at [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Ray Arnoult is the owner of Pirate Guitar Effects out of New Orleans/Wichita. Guitars AND pirates? Yeah! We talk about growing up in New Orleans and how that affects a child's musical experiences. We'll find out how Ray is making his company stand out …

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174 Dave Everitt of Red Rum 38:18

7y ago38:18

38:18

Throw up the horns! Time for some UK pirate metal with Dave Everitt of Red Rum. We dig into the band's beginnings and how they settled on being pirates instead of Vikings. Plus Dave's early childhood in South Africa and his early singing experiences in classical music. Under The Crossbones is a podcast all about pirate culture. Your host Phil Johns…

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173 Lydelle Joubert of StableSeas.org 45:41

7y ago45:41

45:41

Lydelle Joubert is from StableSeas.org, an organization that researches and tracks modern piracy around the world. They act as an information resource for the maritime industry and create programs to combat piracy. We'll find out the difference between piracy, terrorism, and robbery. And we'll dig into where the piracy hot spots are now. And it's n…

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172 Erik Andersson of Stormfrun 35:25

7y ago35:25

35:25

This week we trek out to Sweden to talk to Erik Andersson of Stormfrun about spreading pirate fandom in their home country, the decisions about which language to sing in, the Swedish Pirate Armada and more! Plus, I learn how to pronounce Stormfrun and then proceed to mispronounce it all over the place. Under The Crossbones is a podcast all about pi…

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171 Douglas Fairbanks in The Black Pirate (1926) 1:13:37

7y ago1:13:37

1:13:37

Happy 2019! For this first episode of the year I thought I'd try a little experimental episode. We're going to take a deep dive into 1926's The Black Pirate starring Douglas Fairbanks. It's a great movie all by itself. But digging into the film's background of breakthrough Technicolor use, inventive stunts, and movie magic makes the whole experienc…

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Dec 2018 Special with Anne Chambers on Grace O'Malley 55:13

7y ago55:13

55:13

Happy end of 2018! We made it through and I hope you're taking some time to relax and appreciate the people around you. I super appreciate you supporting the show all this year. To celebrate the end of the year, this is a replay of 2018's most popular episode with Anne Chambers telling us all about Grace O'Malley. And what a joy it was to talk with…

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170 Michael Melzer author of The Patriot Pirate 42:05

7y ago42:05

42:05

California has one good pirate story, that of Hipolito Bouchard. And Michael Melzer is here to ruin that for us. Just kidding! His book "The Patriot Pirate" makes the case that Bouchard was a privateer more than pirate and was in it for the revolution more than the booty. This is a really fun talk about a piece of history we don't know as much abou…

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169 Jasper Rouwhorst creator of Crooked Waters 37:42

7y ago37:42

37:42

Jasper Rouwhorst is one third of Craft Game Studio where he and his two partners have created Crooked Waters, a virtual reality pirate video game for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. We dig into the challenges of designing for virtual reality including dealing with motion sickness and how to keep to adapt to players doing things they didn't expect. And we…

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168 Charles Dean Beeker - Underwater Archaeologist and Shipwreck Conservationist 44:26

7y ago44:26

44:26

Charles Dean Beeker's official title is the Director of the Center of Underwater Science at the University of Indiana - Bloomington. But that word salad doesn't even begin to tell you about his real passion. Unlike other underwater archaeologists we've talked to, Charle's wants to leave the stuff down there and make these shipwreck sites into visit…

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167 Hurricane Robb and Krimson Kat of Pyrates of the Coast 49:13

7y ago49:13

49:13

Hurricane Robb and Krimson Kat of Pyrates of the Coast are on the show today! We'll get some insight into the long long history of pirate fandom in the Seattle area and how they came to form their own crew. There's also some great stuff about running a pirate crew as a business vs a volunteer model. And the story of how Robb and Kat met will have y…

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166 Eric Jay Dolin author of Black Flags Blue Waters 1:14:01

7y ago1:14:01

1:14:01

For Thanksgiving week here in the US, we've got a great talk about how American pirates affected the course of US history with Eric Jay Dolin, author of "Black Flags, Blue Waters". Some fascinating stuff here about American pirates taking down Muslim ships well before the Barbary wars and the combination of tactics that eventually eliminated the Go…

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165 PJ Dolan of Secret Spot Escape Rooms 45:20

7y ago45:20

45:20

PJ Dolan is the owner and designer of Secret Spot Escape Rooms in San Diego, CA. This pirate-themed escape room sounds like a must-visit if you're headed that way. We dig into how he learned the chops of designing escape rooms and other themed attractions even though he had no previous experience. And also how he watches the psychology of his custo…

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164 Ferdinando Menezes and Gareth Noble of Pirate's Grog Rum 47:52

7y ago47:52

47:52

Gareth Noble and Ferdinando Menezes run Pirate's Grog Rum. We'll find out how they got the deal to distribute a small rum company from Roatan and how they're making it bigger than ever. Always interesting to hear the methods behind a company's personal rum, even for teetotalers like me. :) Plus we dig into stories of failed brakes, driving to Mongo…

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163 Shawn Cowles of Treasure Quest and Mike and Dan of Swashbuckler's Ball 1:13:29

7y ago1:13:29

1:13:29

Shawn Cowles is a long time treasure hunter who started with Mel Fisher's organization diving the Atocha. Since then he's branched off on his own including hosting the Discover Channel show Treasure Quest. We'll dig into Shawn's origin story, find out the harrowing tale of one particular dive, and what he's had to learn in his new land-based treasu…