By Joel Mills
For Inland 360
While a glut of podcasts have flooded the digital universe over the last decade, perhaps only one celebrates the best “people, things and events” in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley like the Old Spiral Podcast.
Friends and co-hosts Drew Evans and Brian Grimm have a lot in common. They’re both 28. They attended Lewiston High School together, although they were mere acquaintances back then. They both have degrees from Lewis-Clark State College, Evans in anthropology and Grimm in chemistry.
But the commonality that brought them together for this phase of their lives – and for their new podcast – was a mutual change of heart about their hometown.
“Everyone goes through that cycle, generally, thinking that the place they grew up isn’t so great and they leave,” Grimm said, noting that both he and Evans moved away from the area after high school.
“I desperately wanted to leave,” Evans said before describing his current attitude about the valley. “It’s not a bad place to stay.”
They are both musicians, and Grimm has the recording equipment needed to make a quality podcast at his Clarkston home. So, once they noticed that they were listening to more podcasts than music, they thought it was time to take a stab at making their own.
“This is an excuse to break it out and use it,” Evans said of firing up the basement studio.
The goals of the Old Spiral Podcast are twofold. Evans and Grimm said they get to learn more about their hometown through their guest interviews and explorations of topics of interest in the area. But they also want to build a community and a sense of pride about the deep heritage they share.
An example was their first episode, which explores the history of the old Casey’s Twist-N-Rock concert hall on Lewiston’s Main Street. Evans said he first heard of the venue while doing research for a history class. The students were working with Beautiful Downtown Lewiston to design the interpretive wrappers that have been popping up on traffic signal control boxes around downtown for the last couple of years. His box was by a Norco store across the street from the hall which still bears the name Casey’s.
“I saw the sign, so I dug into it and learned about the bands that played this sleepy little town,” he said.
Since then, the duo has posted episodes on Riverport Brewing and homebrewing beer, fly fishing, local artist Jaymee Laws and the Smash the Skate skateboarding and punk rock music event Evans started four years ago with his friend Gregory Raye.
There’s been more than 500 downloads since the podcast debuted in January. Future episodes will continue the format of interviewing notable locals, exposing area history and delving into their own interests. New releases are expected weekly at https://oldspiralpodcast.podbean.com/