New Episode! Link in Piece Talks bio
LOU JACKETT!!!! 🇦🇺
The Speed Puzzling World Series exists because Lou Jackett, along with fellow Aussie Melissa Townsend, had an idea and decided to make it happen.
Lou has been doing that since she showed up to her first competition, found her tribe, and immediately started volunteering. Now she's the president of the Australian Jigsaw Puzzle Association and co-founder of the SPWS, and in this episode we follow her puzzling arc and dig into what the Speed Puzzling World Series is all about.
Trigger Alert! THIS EPISODE CONTAINS NEARLY NO STATS!
We wanted to explore a different way of talking about the upcoming US National Championships in Atlanta.
To help us out, we brought back some former guests, and a new one you might recognize.
NEW EPISODE!
link in Piece Talks bio
Thomas Kaeppeler has been at Ravensburger pretty much his entire working life. From working on the factory floor at Ravensburger headquarters in Germany, to becoming the President of Ravensburger North America.
In this episode, we get a whole DIFFERENT kind of nerdy.
NEW EPISODE
link in Piece Talks bio
Hannah Doyle really didn’t think about jigsaw puzzles much until a fateful night where she was looking for something to do. Suddenly she was obsessed, and within a year she was finishing second in the California state competition, live streaming puzzles on Twitch, and gearing up for US Nationals and Worlds.
And that was just the beginning!
NEW EPISODE!
LINK IN PIECE TALKS BIO
If you think that being a competition judge is primarily about taking down times, well…you’re right.
But international judges Daphne Harmsen and William Shandling show us that it’s also about innovation, empathy, and a deep sense of fairness.
NEW EPISODE!
LINK IN PIECE TALKS BIO
What happens when you combine the analytical mind of a physics educator with the precision of a world-class violinist? You get a partnership that shares a single competitive brain to deconstruct jigsaw puzzles at a cellular level. In this episode, Jim and Mari break down their unique roles: Mari provides the world-class "hands" while Jim serves as the analytical "eye in the sky," spotting patterns and pieces from a distance that you just can't see when your hands are on the board.
We dive into Mari’s "Type A Plus" competitive spirit and their shared pedagogical approach to mastering the table.
NEW EPISODE! See Piece Talks bio for links.
Lauren Kautz's first puzzle memory is also the story of her first cuss word. And honestly, that tells you everything you need to know about her. In this episode, we trace her journey from a kid doing puzzles upside down just to make them harder, to a three-time state champion and member of the legendary Betches. Along the way: an arch-rival turned best friend, an undefeated streak that had to end somewhere, tears at Nationals, and a hype man who just happens to be her husband.
