PHOTO | JAMEKA WHITTEN AND CHUCK HOLIDAY

Keith Cradle Ph.D., center,  launched Crafted With Cradle with No Grease Barbershops owners Damian and Jermaine Johnson.

Keith Cradle Ph.D. is no stranger to crafting conversations.

As the adolescent program manager for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office and member of the Bechtler Museum’s board of directors, Cradle’s daily life includes deep discussions. Enter his podcast, Crafted With Cradle, which dropped its inaugural episode in March, featuring No Grease Barbershops Inc. founders Damian and Jermain Johnson. Cradle produces the show with Jameka Whitten, Chuck Holiday and Andy Goh.

“Just watching how my normal activities were going, and having these great conversations from all walks of life—when you do the kind of work that I do, and you’re around people all the time, conversations can take their own spin,” Cradle said. “I was always at a bar, restaurant, dinner, anything, and there was always a cocktail there, and for me, it’s always a great time to have a great conversation.”

Cradle’s passion for discussion sparked the idea, which led to podcasting.

“Like a lot of people, you’re watching, and looking at where things are trending, and I thought about it really a lot last year, but I knew that with everything I was already doing, I just couldn’t commit time to it, but it just kept popping back up,” he said. “It’s one of those things that doesn’t ever leave your mind until you actually get started, and do it.”

It’s one thing to conceive the idea, and decide to move forward with it. It’s another thing to name it.

“We bounced a couple of different names for it, but I think right now with Charlotte being one of those places where craft beer is really coming up, that’s kind of the entendre in there,” Cradle said. “It’s drinking the craft, but also these curated conversations that we want to have with people at the table over drinks, and of course the last part is my last name. It just kind of flowed.”

Now it’s a matter of telling stories.

“No matter where the conversations go, it’s going to kind of dovetail into arts and culture in our community, because one of my passions is making sure cultural experiences are in our community,” Cradle said.

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