Why Make? Podcast: What Inspires Woodworkers, Sculptors, Painters & More

Why Make?Podcast encapsulates all that is wonderful, exciting, and creative about indie podcasting. Why? First, the show is a collaborative project between Erik Wolken and Robb Helmkamp, both furniture makers and sculptors, seeking to create a narrative and oral history through their podcast and, most recently, documentary filmmaking. 

Second, by having in-depth conversations with artists and makers, often in their studios, Robb and Erik hope to accomplish this by asking: What motivates artists? What are their individual artistic origins? And where do they find their inspiration to create?

 Erik Wolken tells us: "The podcast is almost six years old, and 73 episodes have been released."
Like many indie podcasters, things change, often with a key personnel shift.

Erik explains: "Robb and I started this podcast together, but he left after year four to put all his focus on being a studio artist."

Episode guests have included artists such as metalworker Boris Bally, data sculptor Adrien Segal, and musician/physics student Jonathan Byrd. The podcast comes out roughly once a month and is available on all major platforms, including Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and the why-make.com website."

You may wonder how all praise transitions into an actual description of the show. Let me start by describing one of my favorite episodes. On June 6, 2025, the episode "Seating Assignment" was released. It's the story of how a seed of an idea sown years ago becomes a groundbreaking exhibition of women chairmakers.

The exhibition titled Seating Assignment took place in March 2024 at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art in Winston-Salem, NC. Its chief instigator was the then artist in residence at Sawtooth, Rebecca Juilette-Duex. 

Erik narrates: "In this Mind of Maker episode, we look at the inspiration for creating this exhibition, learn about the Chair Library at Winston Salem College, and talk with Elsa Hoffman, one of the artists in the show." Now, I thought libraries only contained books. But a library of chairs! I have to sit down to let this concept sink in. Does anybody have a chair I can use?

Erik explains: "The idea behind the Mind of a Maker series, which is a new element inside the regular the Why Make?Podcast is to talk to artists about the genesis and creation of a specific work, or body of work, in a sense, peeling back the onion yet one more layer to further expose that messy thing that is the creative process."

In another of my favorite shows, the Mind of a Maker miniseries features an interview with furniture maker and sculptor Ellie Richards.

Get ready because this story gets wild. This story starts with an idea that had been brewing for years before Ellie began making the piece we talk about in this episode: a fascination with the fantasy coffin practice in Ghana. Fantasy coffins, as the word implies, are fantastical, large, hollow, sculptural forms built almost entirely with hand tools that can be just about anything from a jet plane to a tomato… basically trying to capture a person's passions as they pass on, and they are, quite simply, then buried in it, a practice far different from our western views on death and burial. 

Ellie Richards was encouraged to pursue her exploration of fantasy coffins by the artist Eric Adjetey Anang, a descendant of the original Ghanaian coffin makers. Eventually, Ellie started to consider how to use these skills to create an object of her own design, and in this edition of Mind of a Maker, Ellie walks us through the process from inspiration to the final construction of her piece titled Basket Casket.

To see Ellie at work on the Basket Casket… Check out the short film on the video page of why-make.com, or find it on YouTube. 

Erik Wolken has been a professional woodworker, furniture designer, and sculptor for over 35 years. His work has been featured in American Craft magazine and other books and publications, as well as in numerous national collections, including the Gregg Museum of Art and Design. His work - from furniture to sculpture to mixed media - is driven by a love of storytelling.

Erik and Robb Helmkamp attended the same university as undergrads and attended the same woodworking school. 

Since Robb left, Erik has written, recorded, and produced the podcast on his own, with generous editing assistance from his sister Johanna Zorn, who is a longtime producer at WBEZ and the founder of the Third Coast International Audio Festival. 

The nuts and bolts of the show are solid. Strong sound design and a knack for absorbing narration are coupled with Erik's deep voice and slow, steady cadence. The music on the show is as creatively vibrant as the show's theme.

Erik explains: "The opening music for the first four plus years of the podcast was a piece of royalty-free music that was given to us, and we used it because we had it and it worked. As I began changing the podcast's format after Robb left and adopting a more documentary approach, music became a much larger part of the podcast, and I have experimented with giving each piece its own feel by using different opening music. I haven't found that perfect piece of music that just feels like it belongs as the opener."

Some indie podcasters find a piece of royalty-free music and place it in the podcast without much thought beyond whether it sounds good. For Erik, who's a craftsman, the music is an essential building block of the show. Erik also has a sponsor, 

Fractured Atlas. That generous sponsorship enables the show to access a wide range of funding options, including funding for non-profits. Like most indie podcasts, donations are a large part of their budget, so check out the donation page. 

Erik says: "Our goal is to help foster and create connectivity within the arts community and to inspire others to make. Simultaneously, we are building an oral history of exceptional makers of the 20th and
21st century. We hope that by recording these conversations, we capture the indelible spirit each artist puts into their work."

Erik explains his strategy: "We’re setting our sights on producing both an audio and a film documentary about the history and reach of the Emma Collaboration, which has never been done before. We traveled 2,000 miles to document the remarkable Emma Collaboration in northern Canada, a one-of-a-kind collaborative artists' retreat. We presented our first Mind of a Maker episodes, matching podcast artist interviews about one specific piece of work with short films -- I Want to Paint the Moon with Steve Fishman and High Caliber Art with Boris Bally."

Check out Why Make?Podcast. The show talks with makers of all kinds, including woodworkers, sculptors, painters, musicians, and educators, about why they create and what inspires them.

Too many see art in museums as divorced from real life. What I admire so much about the Why Make? Erik Wolken reminds us in the podcast that art can be as utilitarian as a chest of drawers, a bookshelf, or a backyard fountain.