Osiris Podcast Profile: No Simple Road

Jay Rose co-hosts the Osiris network’s Fear Of A Craft Beer Planet that focuses on the brewing industry. Below, Jay profiles fellow Osiris podcast, No Simple Road.

On July 4, 2017 on a quiet porch in Portland, Oregon, Aaron Schaffer cracked the mic he was given for Father’s Day for the first time and asked his listeners, “How did you get turned on? What brought you there? What experiences did you go through to get yourself on the bus or ‘turned on?’”

For Aaron, a punk rock kid from Las Vegas, it was a Grateful Dead show at the Los Angeles Forum on February 10, 1989. The band kicked off with “Feels Like A Stranger” and Aaron wondered, “How did this band get in my head?!” By the time the band hit “Drums” and “Space” in the second set, Aaron could feel himself surrendering to his surroundings. Through the vibrations of the drums, he felt a shift in his consciousness that would help define the rest of his life. The encore that night was “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and Aaron was convinced he had just watched a play where he was the main character. The bus came by and he got on, he was headed to Never Ever Land.

In the 30 years since that show, Aaron has gone from a passenger on the bus, to driving his own bus known as the No Simple Road podcast. What started as a Grateful Dead themed podcast with Aaron on his porch, has blossomed in two short years to include his wife Melanie, his best friend Apple, his nephew Ryder, Darwin the dog and loads of amazing guests.

When you turn on a No Simple Road episode, you instantly become part of the family, it’s part of the magic they’ve managed to create on their front porch. You’ll find yourself tuning in weekly to see how everyone is doing and how their week went. They hold nothing back. From psychedelic experiences, to work, to plain old daily life, they bring listeners into their lives to illustrate the fact that even though we are all spread far and wide, we’re all still very much connected.

The list of guests they’ve welcomed to the porch either in person or on the phone is crazy! They’ve talked with Duncan Trussell, John Medeski, Oteil Burbridge, John Kadlecik, Marco Benevento, author Jason Louv, Dennis McNally, Neal Casal, Tommy Hamilton, comedian Shane Mauss — the list goes on and on. You can catch the NSR family on the road this summer, they are the official podcast of both the Northwest String Summit and Summer Meltdown 2019. There’s also a chance they will be at Dick’s for Phish later in the summer.

As for what happened to Aaron and the family in the 30 years between his first Dead show and starting the podcast, my advice is to start at Episode 1 of the podcast and work your way up. For a crash course, Episode 16, “The Whole Story” does a pretty good job of telling their amazing story. Tune in and become part of the No Simple Road family. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re already related and don’t realize it yet.