Episode 252: Ed Templeton - Work Works

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Skateboarder, photographer, artist, Toy Machine company owner - Ed Templeton is one of skateboarding’s most influential and beloved influences. For my generation, Ed is a huge figure.

And as a 14 year-old who obsessively wore out their copy of 1281 back in the day, he was a real and important influence on me personally when it came to working out how I might want to express myself as a creative person.

What, you could be into this stuff - and also art, culture and literature? This was revelatory stuff.

All of which is why I’ve been hoping to interview Ed since I began Looking Sideways back in 2017. We finally made it happen in October 2025. And, as ever with somebody of such notoriety, who at this point has been interviewed countless times, the challenge is a perennial one: how can I make this person comfortable, and get them to open up?

As is often the case on Looking Sideways, a shared curiosity about art and creativity opened the door, and the result was the type of chat I was hopeful we’d have.

Yes, we spoke about skateboarding, Toy Machine, Welcome to Hell, art and photography, as you might expect.

But we did so through an unexpectedly wistful and nostalgic lens as Ed, now in his 50s; and with the wit, candour and humility that have always been his hallmarks; grapples with the topics that come for us all in the end: aging, impermanence, the value of possessions, the influence of our forebears, and the legacy we want to leave behind.

Special thanks to Don Brown and Thomas Campbell for their help with this one. Link in bio to listen, or find it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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