Cliff's Notes
Born and raised in Madisonville, Kentucky, Cliff Nance grew up in the tungsten trade — learning the business from the plant floor up to the CEO’s chair. As a second-generation “scrapie” with a global perspective, Cliff brings curiosity, candor, and decades of experience in tungsten reclamation and recycling to every conversation. On Cliff’s Notes, Cliff sits down with innovators, industry leaders, and thinkers from around the world to talk about the forces shaping manufacturing, metals, and modern business. From technology and sustainability to leadership and legacy, every episode explores what it means to build something that lasts. Whether it’s a deep dive into the recycling industry or a story about grit, family, and the future — Cliff’s Notes is where real conversations happen with the people moving the world forward. Theme song written and performed by Adam Howell.
Episodes
October 21, 2026 • 17 mins
Tungco CEO Cliff Nance sits down with Dr. Hady Seyeda, CEO of HC Starck — one of the world's leading tungsten processors — recorded live at the ITIA conference in Berlin.
Dr. Hady Seyeda has a PhD in solid state chemistry, joined HC Starck in R&D in 1998, and has worked his way to the top of one of the most technically demanding businesses in the tungsten supply chain. In this episode they cover HC Starck's ...
Dr. Hady Seyeda has a PhD in solid state chemistry, joined HC Starck in R&D in 1998, and has worked his way to the top of one of the most technically demanding businesses in the tungsten supply chain. In this episode they cover HC Starck's ...
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October 14, 2026 • 9 mins
Recorded live at Churchill Downs during Scrap Expo in Louisville, Cliff sits down with Jerilyn Bristow, executive director of MI2 — the Metals Industry Innovation Initiative of Kentucky.
Here's a number that should stop you in your tracks: Kentucky's metals industry is three times the size of its bourbon industry. Three times. And almost nobody outside the industry knows it. Jerilyn breaks down what MI2 is doing to cha...
Here's a number that should stop you in your tracks: Kentucky's metals industry is three times the size of its bourbon industry. Three times. And almost nobody outside the industry knows it. Jerilyn breaks down what MI2 is doing to cha...
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October 7, 2026 • 17 mins
Tungco CEO Cliff Nance turns the mic on his son Evan Nance, recorded live at the ITIA conference in Berlin — Evan's first.
Fresh out of Belmont University with a finance degree, he’s moved out fo the house, owns his own place with two roommates paying rent, and now working full time at Tungco.
In this episode they cover what it actually feels like to go from the classroom to the real world, why Mike Rowe's...
Fresh out of Belmont University with a finance degree, he’s moved out fo the house, owns his own place with two roommates paying rent, and now working full time at Tungco.
In this episode they cover what it actually feels like to go from the classroom to the real world, why Mike Rowe's...
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September 30, 2026 • 22 mins
Season 4 opens in Berlin, recorded live at the ITIA conference — which sold out for the first time in its history, turning people away at the door.
Cliff sits down with Ioannis Kallinikos, a Greek-born metals veteran now based in Dubai, who heads tungsten trading at Traxys — one of the world's largest tungsten concentrate traders. Ioannis Kallinikos has 20 years in the metals industry and over 12 in tungsten spec...
Cliff sits down with Ioannis Kallinikos, a Greek-born metals veteran now based in Dubai, who heads tungsten trading at Traxys — one of the world's largest tungsten concentrate traders. Ioannis Kallinikos has 20 years in the metals industry and over 12 in tungsten spec...
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July 29, 2026 • 24 mins
Cliff sits down with the man who started it all — his father, Steve Nance, founder of Tungco. It's one of the most personal and wide-ranging conversations on the podcast: the story of how Steve met his wife Nan at Tungco's trade show booth in 2005 (a wine glass full of tungsten pellets, a borrowed business card, and a fished-out entry), the early days of building Tungco from nothing, and a frank look at what decades of experi...
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July 22, 2026 • 22 mins
Cliff sits down with Phil Rafle of 21st Century Programming — makers of ROM, the Recycling Operations Manager software that Tungco has relied on for over 20 years. Phil has been with the company for 22 of its 26 years, and this episode is equal parts software deep-dive and long-term partnership retrospective.
They cover how Tungco went from running on Excel to a full ROM implementation signed nervously at an ISRI conve...
They cover how Tungco went from running on Excel to a full ROM implementation signed nervously at an ISRI conve...
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July 15, 2026 • 15 mins
Cliff sits down with Niki Spies of Stainless Steel Midwest — a longtime industry friend and 19-year veteran of the stainless and nickel alloys space — for a conversation that puts two very different metals businesses side by side.
SSM moves about 16,000 tons of bulk steel a month. The entire global tungsten industry produces about 140,000 to 150,000 tons a year. Niki breaks down how stainless grades work, why nic...
SSM moves about 16,000 tons of bulk steel a month. The entire global tungsten industry produces about 140,000 to 150,000 tons a year. Niki breaks down how stainless grades work, why nic...
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July 8, 2026 • 19 mins
Cliff sits down with Tungco's COO Debbie West for an inside look at what it means to step into one of the most demanding seats in a nearly 60-year-old business.
Debbie has almost three decades in the tungsten industry and she breaks down the difference between being a director of operations and being a COO, why Project 74 has gone from concept to reality, what the zinc reclaim process actually looks like, and why standing up...
Debbie has almost three decades in the tungsten industry and she breaks down the difference between being a director of operations and being a COO, why Project 74 has gone from concept to reality, what the zinc reclaim process actually looks like, and why standing up...
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July 1, 2026 • 21 mins
Cliff sits down with a longtime friend and one of the most respected names in the scrap recycling industry — Phil Rosenberg, Senior Executive and commercial director of the metals and alloy division at ICD Group.
Phil is fifth generation in a family scrap business that traces back to the late 1800s, when his great-great-grandfather arrived in Chicago with nothing and started a rags business that grew into one of the ci...
Phil is fifth generation in a family scrap business that traces back to the late 1800s, when his great-great-grandfather arrived in Chicago with nothing and started a rags business that grew into one of the ci...
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June 17, 2026 • 15 mins
Cliff sits down with Cody Mecham, cutting edge product manager at Vermeer Corporation, for a deep look at what it means to engineer tungsten into ground-engaging tools when the price of that tungsten is hitting levels nobody planned for. Cody oversees all of Vermeer's cutting and digging tooling across HDD, surface mining, wood waste recycling, and vacuum excavation — and he's frank about the tension between using more tungst...
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June 10, 2026 • 22 mins
Cliff sits down with Andrew Patterson, milling department manager for Villager Asphalt, to get into the weeds — literally — on how tungsten carbide performs in one of its most demanding real-world applications: asphalt milling.
Andrew runs a massive milling operation across the Southeast, consuming boxes of tungsten-tipped teeth every single day, and he breaks down the full picture: how the drum works, why rotat...
Andrew runs a massive milling operation across the Southeast, consuming boxes of tungsten-tipped teeth every single day, and he breaks down the full picture: how the drum works, why rotat...
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June 3, 2026 • 19 mins
Cliff turns the mic on one of his own — Josh McKnight (Lineage Metallurgical and Cuda Grit). They've shoveled gravel together, worked every corner of the Tungco operation, and now Josh is navigating what might be the strangest sales environment in the company's history: tungsten prices going straight to the stratosphere, quotes that expire in three days, customers starting to explore alternatives, and a thermal spray and grit...
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May 27, 2026 • 22 mins
Cliff sits down with Bryan Mills of CP Carbide — a California-based, three-generation family business that has been privately sourcing and supplying tungsten carbide wear parts since 1995.
Bryan breaks down how his dad's 1988 trip to China started it all, why CP Carbide's private-label model means their name almost never appears on the product, and what it's like to watch tungsten prices hit levels that haven't been s...
Bryan breaks down how his dad's 1988 trip to China started it all, why CP Carbide's private-label model means their name almost never appears on the product, and what it's like to watch tungsten prices hit levels that haven't been s...
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May 20, 2026 • 15 mins
Cliff sits down with Matt Keske, commodity manager for Wear Tools at Vermeer Corporation — one of the most diversified heavy equipment manufacturers in the world — to talk tungsten, supply chain strategy, and what 30 years inside a company that's a mile long actually looks like.
Matt breaks down how AI infrastructure and data center build-outs are quietly driving underground drilling demand, why strategic partne...
Matt breaks down how AI infrastructure and data center build-outs are quietly driving underground drilling demand, why strategic partne...
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May 13, 2026 • 24 mins
Cliff sits down with Ashley Hunsaker, co-founder and CEO of HTS Coatings, for one of the most candid conversations about building a business from scratch — eight months pregnant, living in an 800-square-foot house, and saying yes when everyone else was saying no.
Ashley breaks down what thermal spray coatings actually do (hint: they're inside the landing gear on the plane you flew here on), how HTS developed a proprie...
Ashley breaks down what thermal spray coatings actually do (hint: they're inside the landing gear on the plane you flew here on), how HTS developed a proprie...
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May 6, 2026 • 21 mins
Cliff sits down with one of Tungco's own — procurement specialist Chris Capps — to talk tungsten markets, trust in volatile times, and what 16-plus years inside a carbide recycling operation actually teaches you.
From sorting bits to strategic buying, Chris breaks down why the current tungsten pricing environment is unlike anything the industry has ever seen, and why trust might be the most valuable commodity of ...
From sorting bits to strategic buying, Chris breaks down why the current tungsten pricing environment is unlike anything the industry has ever seen, and why trust might be the most valuable commodity of ...
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April 29, 2026 • 32 mins
Cliff sits down with Austin Hargett of weld.com to swap stories, talk high-pressure pipe welding for power plants and refineries, and revisit a legendary night on the Sunset Strip that ended at Whisky a Go Go.
Austin breaks down what makes weld.com a go-to resource for welders working in the most demanding industrial environments.
Equal parts industry insight and "great friend hands you the last drink" energy.
Austin breaks down what makes weld.com a go-to resource for welders working in the most demanding industrial environments.
Equal parts industry insight and "great friend hands you the last drink" energy.
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April 21, 2026 • 30 mins
Recorded live on the floor at ReMA 2026 in Las Vegas, this special edition of Cliff's Notes officially announces Project 74 — Tungco's Urban Mining Initiative and a landmark partnership with Victor Fox of the Chem-Met Company and Furkhat Faizulla of Syram Corporation, built on one powerful premise: converting domestic tungsten scrap into sodium tungstate, the critical intermediate chemical that nearly 100% of all tungsten pro...
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January 7, 2026 • 32 mins
(00:00:00) Introduction from Helsinki
(00:01:58) Discussing paternity leave and supporting new parents
(00:04:51) Navigating misinformation and building confidence
(00:08:00) Brice's career journey: From Florida State to Tungco
(00:17:00) NCAA regulations and intentional touchpoints
(00:25:02) Starting recruitment early (age 12-13!)
(00:27:03) Comparing Tungco's recruitment to Florida State
(00:28:39) Pr...
(00:01:58) Discussing paternity leave and supporting new parents
(00:04:51) Navigating misinformation and building confidence
(00:08:00) Brice's career journey: From Florida State to Tungco
(00:17:00) NCAA regulations and intentional touchpoints
(00:25:02) Starting recruitment early (age 12-13!)
(00:27:03) Comparing Tungco's recruitment to Florida State
(00:28:39) Pr...
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December 17, 2025 • 13 mins
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:03:05) Misfit Social Podcast & Evan's Respect
(00:03:31) Basic Carbide: 44 Years of Excellence
(00:05:49) The February 2024 Acquisition Story
(00:07:53) Sintering Process: From Chalk to Diamond-Hard
(00:09:09) Quality Control & Microscopy
(00:10:07) Mirror Polish & Complex Geometries
(00:12:15) Mutual Respect & Friendship
In this heartfelt episode of C...
(00:03:05) Misfit Social Podcast & Evan's Respect
(00:03:31) Basic Carbide: 44 Years of Excellence
(00:05:49) The February 2024 Acquisition Story
(00:07:53) Sintering Process: From Chalk to Diamond-Hard
(00:09:09) Quality Control & Microscopy
(00:10:07) Mirror Polish & Complex Geometries
(00:12:15) Mutual Respect & Friendship
In this heartfelt episode of C...
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