Tonight on The Pipes Magazine Radio Show, we welcome longtime pipe smoker and collector Mark Berman. Mark began smoking a pipe in the late 1960s while studying engineering at Kansas State University, starting—as many did—with aromatic tobaccos before moving on to Virginias, VaPers, and classic English blends. His first brand-name pipe was a Savinelli, followed by a Dunhill, and by 1999–2000 he attended his first pipe show. Today, Mark owns an extraordinary collection of roughly 1,500 pipes, focusing primarily on American makers. His collection is so impressive that he has exhibited pipes at shows simply to share them, not sell them. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.

Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. Jon David is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. Brian and Jon David will talk about their favorite customer interactions, and after 55 years, The Country Squire is moving to a new location that will include a full cocktail lounge. This is a colossal undertaking that is quite interesting to hear about. They will be expanding their shipping, blending, and smoking lounge. They are moving into a standalone building which will ensure against complaints of smoking from neighbors. The soft opening is expected in February 2026.

Our featured guest tonight is longstanding pipe collector Tom Pfaeffle. Tom is a long-time member of the pipe collecting community and enthusiast whose experience spans decades of engagement with briar pipes, tobacco culture, and pipe show attendance. His great-grandfather smoked a corncob pipe, and he started smoking and collecting pipes in the 1970s. Pipe shows were quite different then with few to no pipe makers, and lots of hobbyist showing their collections that weren't for sale. At the top of the show in Pipe Parts, Brian will discuss what are referred to as "magic pipes". This is in response to a question sent in by one of our listeners.

Our featured guest tonight is Austrian pipe maker Chris Ruetz. He is an artisan pipe maker from Tyrol, Austria, who discovered his love for pipes at 16 and later crafted his first one from cherrywood on his living room table, sparking a lifelong dedication to the craft. Since 2021 he has been a full-time maker under the name Ruetz Pipes. His work is known for its organic forms, and creative surface combinations, making each piece a unique smoking experience and artistic expression. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA, and one of the only pipe tobacco producers making product in the US.

On tonight’s Pipes Magazine Radio Show Rick Newcombe reminisces about Danish pipe making legend Jess Chonowitsch. Jess passed away on November 28, 2025. The impact he had on artisan pipe making is immeasurable. Rick is likely one of the first American pipe collectors to meet Jess going back to the year 1995. He has also been one of the biggest promoters of Jess’s work over several decades and has tons of great stories to celebrate the life of this “Great Dane” pipe artisan. Chuck Stanion does a great job of telling Jess Chonowitsch’s story: https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/monumental-loss-jess-chonowitsch-passes At the top of the show in Pipe Parts, Brian will discuss the pipes he acquired this past year.

Our featured guest on tonight’s show is artisan pipe maker JD Wolf. JD just started smoking pipes a little over a year ago, and he started making them at about the same time. His impetus for becoming a pipe maker came from the problem that his preferences in artistic handmade pipes were out the reach of his budget. He strives to make precise smoking instruments that are also a handcrafted piece of art that the "average workingman" can afford. At the top of the show in Pipe Parts, Brian will have a holiday gift giving guide for pipe smokers.

Our featured guest on tonight’s show is artisan pipe maker Patrick Kehler from Marchand, Manitoba Canada. He grew up in a strict religious environment where his behavior was restricted and smoking (and drinking) were frowned upon. One day, when he was older and in the process of providing himself more freedoms, a co-worker showed him a pipe. He was captivated. Hear the whole story on tonight's show. At the top of the show in Pipe Parts, Brian will have a review of four different brands of pipe cleaners.

Our featured guest on tonight’s show is Texas-based artisan pipe maker Ryan McCawley from Smokin' Barrels Briars. Like many of us, Ryan was attracted to the scent of aromatic tobaccos. Also, like many new pipe smokers, he burned the heck out of his tongue. That was a long time ago. Now he is a regular pipe smoker and he has been making his own pipes for five years now. He started with classic shapes, but now he is more interested in Danish-style freehands. At the top of the show Brian will discuss cake. Not the cake that you eat, but the cake that builds up in your pipe bowl. This is based on a question sent in by a listener.

Our featured guest on tonight’s show is Canadian pipe maker Evan Wiseman. Evan has been making pipes for ten years (minus a two year break) and is quite well-known and respected in the field. His path started with cigars in college, but they became too expensive, so he switched to smoking pipes, and then decided to make them. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.

Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the founder of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Mike started his podcast in 2018 and turned over the show to new co-hosts Bo Parker and Jay Furman in January 2025. Now that Mike hasn't been doing the podcast, he has even more time for pipe smoking, collecting and going to pipe shows. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the Las Vegas International Pipe Show that just occurred the last weekend in October.

Our featured interview tonight is with pipe maker Garret Woo. He has an undergraduate degree in Classics from UC Santa Barbara. He was a teacher for a while, and then a private investigator working with his dad that is a former FBI agent. Now he is a durometer technician and pipemaker living in West LA. He started smoking pipes when he was 18 years old. At the top of the show in Pipe Parts, Brian answers a listener's question on how to smooth down a blend.

Our featured interview tonight is with Skeet Stribling from The Story Teller's Pipe online pipe and tobacco shop. Skeet first took up pipe smoking in college. In later years, his friend Sean blended tobaccos for him, and he was the original owner of The Story Teller's Pipe. When Sean decided to retire, Skeet, also in retirement took over the online store which he runs with his wife Cindi. He is continuing Sean's blends and has added some new ones. Check out their store if you're looking for some new unique tobaccos to try. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.

Our featured interview tonight is with Eugene Falco from The Uncanny! Material and the Greywoodie Podcast. Eugene is super creative in the world of pipes, art, and podcasting. His creative output spans beyond pipes, including his tobacco tin art and his role as co-host of the Greywoodie podcast alongside Nathan Davis of Kaywoodie. In addition, he helps organize the Capitaland Pipe Show. His pipe making style is characterized by a balance of traditional forms and his own quirky twist—often through bold, colorful stems and unconventional rustication techniques. At the top of the show in Pipe Parts, Brian will answer two listener's questions by taking a deep dive into the size of the pipe bowl and what it means for your smoking experience.

We have a tobacco packed show for you tonight. First, Brian will go deep on aging and cellaring tobaccos. Then instead of the usual shorter recurring segment of "Ask the Blender" with Jeremy Reeves of Cornell & Diehl, we will have Q&A with him for the longer main segment of the show. We asked you to send questions about tobacco and we got enough for an extended segment. We also found some old ones that fell through the cracks. After the music and mailbag segments, Brian has a tobacco related rant as well.

Our featured interview tonight is with pipe maker Jerry Nelson. His brand of pipes is Nelson Pipes by Jerry. Jerry was originally influenced to try pipe smoking by last week's guest, Jay Furman. They met in an online forum where Jay was posting some pipes, but it wasn't a pipe forum. The next step, with Jerry being a carpenter, was to make pipes. He has been making them for five years now. At the top of the show, in our Pipe Parts segment, Brian will have a tobacco review of Cornell & Diehl's Happy Hour.

Our featured interview tonight is with Jay Furman. Jay is the co-host of the Pipe and Tamper podcast. He is a long-time member of the pipe community. He started smoking pipes in the 1980s, and owns hundreds of pipes and hundreds of pounds of pipe tobacco. His first pipe shopping experience was at Wally Frank, a famous New York chain of shops, also nationally known for their large mail order catalog business. Jay loves artisan pipes as well as health and fitness. The guys talk about how they do their respective podcasts, YouTube pipe channels, what Jay sees for the future of pipe smoking and more. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.

Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. The Country Squire store is moving to a new third location to expand their shipping, blending, and smoking lounge. They are moving into a standalone building which will ensure against complaints of smoking. Jon David will talk about this and more. At the top of the show in Pipe Parts, Brian will talk about a pipe that he has added to his collection and why.

Our featured interview tonight is with Pipe Artisan Jeff Gracik. Our regular listeners will know Jeff from our ongoing series, "Ask the Pipemaker". Jeff makes J. Alan Pipes and is an expert, artisan pipe maker for over 20-years. Jeff will talk about what it is like to attend the Shanghai pipe show. The inaugural show was last year, and the most recent one was August 8 - 10, 2025. Jeff attended both shows, which is held at the China Tobacco Museum. In Pipe Parts, Brian will talk about pipe shows including why you should go to a pipe show, how to prepare to attend a show, and what it's like to organize a show.

Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Nathanael Hummel. Nathanael is a renaissance man of the arts. He is an experienced and published digital filmmaker, video editor, videographer, writer, actor, and model. His debut novel, "Treasure Is My Trade - A Nate Colt Adventure" came out this past May. His youth was filled with dreams of swashbuckling adventure, danger to be caught up in, swords to swing, people to save, villains to vanquish - and it still is today in his creations. He is, of course, a pipe smoker. At the top of the show in Pipe Parts, Brian will answer a listener question regarding the billiard pipe shape.

Our featured interview tonight is with Per George Jensen. Per is like an executive chef of tobacco. He never runs out of new tasty concoctions. He also always seems to land on his feet. In case you don't know, he spent many years at Mac Baren and later created blends for Sutliff as well. With the buyouts by STG, which have already been discussed at length, Sutliff is gone, and Mac Baren as we knew it, will soon be too. The good news is that the new Per Jensen Legacy Collection by Cornell & Diehl comes out next week - September 2. The four blends are tributes to Per’s father, Per Georg Jensen, a man who once wore the proud uniform of the Danish Navy. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.