Six Feet Of Separation

It's been less than 3 months and a total of 25 episodes here at Six Feet of Separation, and for the first time your hosts bring their high-wire act to you without any guests, and wrap up this first season of the podcast. They touch on BLM, COVID, love and pain, and we learn what separates Joel Jackson from Joe Jackson. We're going on a planned hiatus for a little while, but until we get back… remember to stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

Prior to the COVID lockdown, Agnese Daverio could contentedly focus on her day job - producing the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival. But the lonely, slow pace of the lockdown in the UK left her re-evaluating everything going on around her, making new observations that are even more poignant in light of the race-related protests in the US and around the world. She joins us for a wide-ranging conversation about what's going on right before our eyes. Meanwhile, Joel is optimistic that changes in policing have already begun, while Andrew laments the piecemeal application of civil rights from one jurisdiction to another. Remember to stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

Ben Sandmel has literally written the book on iconic portions of Louisiana's unique music culture, from Zydeco to his opus on Ernie K-Doe. But we asked him to come on in his capacity as an admirer of the culture to discuss his feelings about life here during COVID and whether there's any reason to be optimistic. Ben also gets into his experience as a member and producer of the legendary Hackberry Ramblers. Meanwhile, post-George Floyd America is on fire and Joel and Andrew dig into their feelings about where we are as a society and what might come next. Remember - wherever you are - to stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

Every country has taken a different approach to how it's managing COVID-19, but Sweden has stood out for eschewing mandatory lockdowns and keeping schools, restaurants and bars open. Or has it? Old friend Richard Sandenskog, who lives outside Stockholm, joins us to give us a view from the ground, correct our misconceptions, and give us an idea of how Sweden views the rest of the world. Meanwhile, Joel regresses to watching cartoons and Andrew takes up a cliché hobby. Remember to stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

Dwayne Breashears spent 18 years as Program Director of beloved New Orleans radio station WWOZ, during the course of which his roots tapped in to ever wing and facet of the local culture. Dwayne drops by the show (virtually, of course) for a wide-ranging discussion about how the culture will survive, how he’s dealing personally with the crisis, and the post-George Floyd/Christian Cooper state of race and racism in our country. Meanwhile, Joel learns a new 25-cent word and Andrew makes his first venture out into the Phase One reopening. Remember to stay safe, y’all, and keep ya distance.

New Orleans entrepreneur Blake Haney built cherished local brand Dirty Coast from scratch and continues today to explore and build new and exciting projects. Blake joins the show today to talk about how he's had to make changes on the fly, how the crisis has given him some space to explore new opportunities, and about the outstanding time recent joyriders had in his car. Meanwhile Joel wonders why anti-maskers don't want to be superheroes anymore, and wants to go back to the jungle for Round 2 of the Rumble. Stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

The Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans (MaCCNO) has been on the front lines of the war to preserve the music, art, and street culture of New Orleans for years. MaCCNO Director Ethan Ellestad drops by to let us know how the organization has pivoted to help musicians and others hurt by the COVID downturn, and talks about what will need to change as things go back to a new normal. Meanwhile, Joel hangs out at Bayou St John while Andrew dreams of fried pickle chips while driving by the RIvershack Tavern. And the hosts go meta: it's an all-podcast Crisis Diversions. Remember to stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

We last talked to Molly McGee around Easter, just as the COVID crisis was reaching its first crest in the New Orleans area, and learned of the enormous stress the crisis was putting on our health care system. Now, as things start to cautiously open up around the country, Molly updates us on how things have changed, what we can look forward to, and most importantly, how local cat Luna Tuna Fish Bone is adapting. Joel sees hope for local musicians on the porches and neutral grounds of New Orleans, while Andrew engages in some very (un)necessary retail therapy. And we all find out the importance of learning how to Quarantine & Chill. Remember to stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

Many of us take our connectivity for granted, but could you imagine what the COVID-19 lockdown would be like if we didn't have the internet? The reality is that only about half the world's population has reliable, affordable connectivity - and Facebook is actively working to change that. Facebook exec Francisco Varela is on the front lines of their connectivity initiatives, working with partners in emerging markets to get people connected to critical information in the time of social and physical distancing. Meanwhile, Joel belatedly embraces emojis and Andrew wonders whether the piecemeal global reopening will just land us back in the same place. And we learn how used car shopping can be a long-lasting crisis diversion. Stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

Michelle Ingram is the top dog (arf!) of Zeus Rescues, a New Orleans organization focused on saving and re-homing abandoned and abused cats and dogs. She drops by to tell us how the lockdown has impacted pet rescue, fostering, and placement. We learn about the Underground Railroad for rescue pets, the nationwide spay/neuter moratorium, and the mysterious-sounding Black Dog Syndrome. Joel and Andrew fess up to their own COVIDiot hypocrisy moment, while everyone agrees the post-millennial generation should be called 'Generation Zero.' And we try something new: Lil' Homie's Seven Silver Linings of COVID. Remember to stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

Marina Orchestra is a New Orleans "world beat" band who describe themselves humbly as "if the B-52s and the Talking Heads had a love child." They join the pod on the day they would have been performing at Jazzfest to discuss a raft of items from getting the band together remotely to practice when they can't come together in person, to getting musicians access to benefits, to the Camel Toe Lady Steppers. Joel throws out Six Feet of Judgement, while Andrew bemoans the bitter irony of his favorite restaurants re-opening right after he started a diet. Plus a lively Crisis Diversions segment that somehow takes us on a journey from "Workaholics" to "A Goofy Movie." Remember to stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

We hate COVID, but we love, love, love the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. So we invited a bunch of Jazzfest lifers on to talk about how they're coping during what would have been Jazzfest. In a very long (sorry!) but wide-ranging discussion, we meander from festival chairs and porch hangs to volunteering and golfing (with balls, not discs). Meanwhile, Andrew wonders about the magical invincibility powers of COVID masks, while Joel hopes we've put FOMO and selfies to bed once and for all. Remember to stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

Just when missing Jazzfest was starting to bite, Preservation Hall’s Ben Jaffe mixes his way into the conversation and reminds us that leaning in to art, love, and music can keep our hearts full during the lockdown. Griper and Ben talk about the affinities between Detroit and New Orleans. Andrew talks about his excruciating introduction to the gout, while Joel and Andrew debate the ethics of burdening an overtaxed health care system with a transient issue. And six degrees of crisis diversions connect the dots between a Fania t-shirt and the Rumble In The Jungle. Stay safe, y’all, and keep ya distance.

Joel and Andrew mark their annual calendars by Jazzfest, which under normal times would have started today. So they asked "Matty G" - Matthew Goldman, a long-time member of the Jazzfest braintrust - to come on and share his emotions on the cancellation and what he's missing.

Philip Jaspers is a good, close friend and general bon vivant - another honorary New Orleanian in exile due to the crisis. We check in with AP to learn the secret of how to survive a 40 kilometer walk in a world where people aren't so psyched about sharing bathrooms. Joel asks about Andrew's professional background, and Andrew's deep pull is about his not-so-chance encounter with David Foster Wallace in 1996. Andrew's dad even makes a brief cameo. Stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

Outside Lands is one of America's favorite music festivals, and fans are dying to know if it's going to happen this year as we keep our COVID-19 social distance. Superfly's co-founder Rick Farman joins the pod to talk about what they have to consider as the festival's promoters when about making the decision to cancel or go forward. With this week's announcement that Jazzfest was cancelled, we get into a chat about what festivals might look back when they come back. Joel's diverting to Fyre Fest documentaries, while Andrew loses his day job, and we learn that the crisis is a watershed moment for cannabis edibles. Stay safe, y'all, and keep ya distance.

Culinary curator and hospitality entrepreneur Barrie Schwartz of My House Events joins us to talk about what it’s like when your slate of 40 weddings get cancelled or postponed because of a surprise global pandemic. My House Events is a locally-grown New Orleans business made for a town whose number one industry is hospitality, founded on solid principles of equal opportunity and social equality, with a page borrowed from the lapsed anarchist’s playbook. We chat with Barrie about how she started the business, how she’s pivoting during these COVID times, planning for the future when you’re living day-to-day, and how her company is helping an ecosystem of chefs and other contributors stay connected to support resources while work is hard to come by. Joel and Andrew have a shitty day, Mayor Cantrell makes it shittier, and Joel remembers where he left his razor. All that and some Crisis Diversions at 33⅓ rpm. Stay safe, y’all, and keep ya distance.

We hear so many anecdotes from the front lines of the battle against COVID-19 that it’s hard to tell truth from fiction. So we asked Molly McGee, a floor nurse at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, and Annemarie van Dalen, the CEO of a group of healthcare facilities in the Netherlands, to join us and let us know what the real deal is. Molly and Annemarie share their personal experiences from the crisis, from fear of contracting COVID to making life-or-death triage decisions on COVID patients. Joel’s encounter with a plastic bag makes him reconsider the worth of erstwhile Best Picture winner “American Beauty,” and Andrew makes a pledge to figure out what ward he’s living in. All that plus Van Morrison, SNL, long walks, and yoga. Stay safe, y’all, and keep ya distance.

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Classrooms are empty during the COVID-19 crisis, but class is still in session through e-learning. We triumph over some pesky technical difficulties and check in with our friends David Lindberg and Liam Popper, who are high school teachers in New Orleans and New York City, respectively. Being a teacher ain’t easy on a good day, so we chat about about whether and how students are staying engaged when they’re at an arm’s length. We hear a bit from Liam about avoiding feeling couped up in a Stuyvesant Town apartment in New York and Joel calls out the underrated Generation X before we close out with our most spirited “Crisis Diversions” segment to date. Stay safe, y’all, and keep ya distance.

Renowned chef, local restaurateur, and hardest-working-woman-in-town Sue Zemanick stops by to sip some rosé and chat about how COVID-19 has crept into and changed her world. We talk about Zasu’s brief experiment with pivoting to take-out, why they decided to shut down, the difficulty of having to furlough staff while trying your best to do right by them, what’s left in the restaurant’s walk-in, and what she’s cooking at home. Hint: you want to be eating at Sue’s home. We also try to figure out whether someone with so much to do needs a diversion at all during this crisis, all in a conversation that name checked both Sylvia Plath and Julia Child. Keep your distance, y’all, and stay safe.

Some insiders have known about it for a while, but Keith Spera’s article on Tuesday confirmed it: beloved Frenchmen Street bar and music venue d.b.a. is up for sale. Owner Tom Thayer drops by to chat about the decision to sell, how he got there, how the COVID-19 crisis is impacting him, and what he might have in mind for the future. Also, Producer Griper shares his experiences with d.b.a. and the Marigny vibe of yore, and special guest Traci Birch has some thoughts she wants to share with Tom. As always, keep your distance and stay safe, folks!

Lloyd Shepherd, author and co-host of the Curiously Specific Book Club podcast, joins us to talk about his wife’s positive test for COVID-19, how quarantine is wearing on him, and how Londoners are coping with the lockdown. The National Health Service (free healthcare!) comes up, as does Boris Johnson and the British government. Try and figure out where Walter White fits into the equation. Thanks, y’all, for tuning in. Keep your distance and stay safe!!!

Rome Julian of Laketilly Acres urban farm in New Orleans joins the show and talks homeschooling, and shifting from his shutdown film and television work to making his side hustle the primary hustle during the Coronavirus lockdown. Microgreens. Collards, Kale, Sprouts… and pretty much anything green and leafy. Plus we learn about chickens and eggs. Amidst a global pandemic, gardening and urban farming is ever more super dope than it ever was. Thanks for listening and sharing. Be well, take care, do good.

Introducing a new podcast for the times of Coronavirus and a global lockdown nation. This pilot episode is just that- we are finding our sea legs and introducing the show. This inaugural episode takes a little time for the set up, and then picks up steam with our first guest, Ivan ‘Lil Homie’ Solomon, which begins at the 31 minute mark. We will clean up audio issues, add polish, and have many awesome guests coming up from New Orleans, around the US, and the globe. Thanks for listening and sharing. Be well, take care, and do good.