Todd Oppenheimer

Todd Oppenheimer, the founding Editor & Publisher of Craftsmanship, has been working as a journalist since 1978. The publications he has written for include The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Atlantic Monthly. He has won a variety of awards for his writing and reporting, including a National Magazine Award and a first prize from Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE). He is the author of “The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of Technology” (Random House, 2003, 2004), which was a finalist for IRE’s investigative book award. Todd has been writing about unusual artisans since 2008, when he profiled Bob Kramer, a master bladesmith, for The New Yorker. An expanded version of that story, entitled “The Kitchen Bladesmith,” is now in our pages. Todd lives in San Francisco with his wife and two boys, and is a long-time member of the now-fabled Writers Grotto.

Feature Stories by Todd

The Secret to Vintage Jeans (writer)
King Charles Redefines Originality (writer)
Homemade Artisan Bread Made Simple (writer)
The Apprenticeship Ambivalence (writer)
Paula Wolfert and the Clay Pot Mystique (writer)
The Vegetable Detective (writer)
The Vegetable Detective, Take Two (writer)
Printing with Love (writer)
Occupy Your Bathroom (writer & photographer/videographer)
The Kitchen Bladesmith (writer)
Can the U.S. Bring its Supply Chain Back Home? (writer)
The Play Gap (writer)
The Power of the Scribe (writer)
Is Digital Craftsmanship an Oxymoron? (writer)
A Brand New Idea for Commodity Exports (writer)
Introduction to “The Future Is Handmade” — A Craftsmanship Mini-Documentary Film (writer)
The Re-Bundled Worker (writer)
The Drought Fighter (writer)
Smart Farming (writer)
Your Salad’s Difficulty with Sustainable Farming (writer)
The Beauty of a Timeless Rowboat (writer)
Introduction to “A Perfect Note: Café Jacqueline and The Art of the Soufflé” (writer)
The Wootz Hunter (writer)
The Value of Time (writer)
Walmart’s Made-In-USA Shell Game (writer)
The Search For The Perfect Leather Bag (writer)
Colorado’s Marble Motherlode (photographer/videographer)

Sidebars by Todd

What do you do with a meteorite? Make a knife… (writer)
A Co-Op’s Victory over COVID’s Economic Disruption (writer)
Labor’s Realities (writer)
Soil Chemistry’s Invisible Dance (writer)
The Laws of Thermo-Culinary Dynamics (writer)
The Dreams of National Kale Day (writer)
The wide, rich, argumentative world of Internet shaving forums—and the experts and vendors who feed them (writer)
Marv Obenauf, former wilderness firefighter turned master of leather care (writer)
The best way to buy a Brooks bicycle seat (writer)
The Scribal Arts: a Resource Guide (writer)
Fountain Pen Resources (writer)
How To Start a Sourdough Starter (writer)
The Wider World of E.F. Schumacher’s Legacy (writer)
Interesting, and Lucrative, Apprenticeships: A Few Suggested Resources (writer)
Getting Serious about Play: A Resource Guide (writer)
How to shop for a bike: Our visit with American Cyclery’s Brad Woehl (writer)
How our cities got seduced by sewage pipes made of plastic (instead of clay) (writer)

Galleries by Todd

View “The Art of a Hand-Stitched Purse” (writer)
View “How a Japanese Factory Makes a Knife” (writer)

Podcasts by Todd

Listen to “The Vegetable Detective” (writer)
Listen to “The Value of Time” (writer)
Listen to “The Play Gap” (writer)
Listen to “Occupy Your Bathroom” (writer & narrator)
Listen to “Is Digital Craftsmanship an Oxymoron?” (writer)
Listen to “The Drought Fighter” (writer & narrator)
Listen to “Artisanal Homemade Bread Made Simple” (writer & narrator)
Listen to “Paul and Elizabeth Kaiser on Healing our Soil, and Going Beyond Organic,” A Craftsmanship Artisan Interview (narrator)
Listen to “The Art of the Joke” (narrator)
Listen to “James & Deborah Fallows on ‘Our Towns’: a Craftsmanship Artisan Interview” (narrator)

Field Notes by Todd

The Democratization of Craft (writer)
A Crucible for Tomorrow’s Trades (writer)
The Intelligent Hand (writer)