The Shakes Wiki

Where wisdom comes at the bottom of the next glass.
Though less than a year old, the idea that is the heart of The Shakes has been around for quite some time.

From 2008-2012, Jeremy Fuksa hosted The Cocktail Napkin, which began as a video diary, a virtual “cocktail napkin” where thoughts could be jotted down and pushed around until something useful formed. These episodes dealt a lot with working through self-doubt and creative blockades people tend to construct for themselves.

Along the way, The Cocktail Napkin featured friends and co-workers Pat Piper and Quinn Katherman. The topics, respectively, were keeping ideas simple and getting hired as a copywriter solely based on quality of Tweets.

Around the time Pat’s episode was published, Jeremy felt the show was missing lasting rapport, so he began talking to Pat about co-hosting a new show. As Pat and Jeremy began brainstorming what their new podcast was going to be, the notion of creative failure and self-doubt still came up frequently. Pat said that, in some ways, that feeling is kind of like having “the shakes,” and that the best way to get rid of them is to have a drink with friends and talk through your problems. Thus, The Shakes was born.

To further reinforce the feeling of friends gathering for a drink to talk through “the shakes,” Pat and Jeremy wanted a third person. And, really, there was only one real choice. Quinn’s Twitter portfolio was what cause Pat to hire her as a copywriter. And it was Jeremy’s reassurance to Pat that he wasn’t insane for wanting to hire someone solely based on Tweets that set the wheels in motion. You might say that Twitter formed this ka-tet for the sole purpose of bringing The Shakes to the world. And, you would be a dork for saying that.

Jeremy decided during planning that he wanted to pitch the show to Mike Monteiro’s newly formed Mule Radio Syndicate. A quick email pitch and phone call later, The Shakes was a proud member of Mule Radio Syndicate. The pilot episode debuted July 11, 2012 alongside Timothy Buckwalter’s The Mixtape. Sometimes spot on, sometimes a glorious trainwreck, The Shakes continues to try to be the place “where wisdom comes at the bottom of the next glass.”