Tripping with Tripp

THANK YOU for all the listens, likes, subscribes and reviews for the podcast. Much appreciated. This episode is our Season Finale for Tripping with Tripp​ + New Beginnings at Habitable Spaces​ with our new remote interview technology. A recap of the MANY major events that occurred from March 2020 to today and how it weaves throughout our interviews. Stay tuned for a totally different Season 2 with TrippnLarry and the Catskill region of New York State.

Queer Nomadic Ceramist, Artist and Writer Sweeney Brown shares how they came to Habitable Spaces, their art and their sobriety journey. Also, Sweeney will describe their stay at Habitable Spaces during quarantine and what they love most about the farm.

In this episode, we talk about imagination, dream spaces, and utopia schools. Our guest is Jamie “Idea” Iglehart. Jamie is a multimedia artist, teacher, professor of visual narrative at the City University of New York. We explore Jamie's work, the dream spaces, and the line between imagination transitioning to building concrete worlds. We also talk about her social and experimental projects involving play. We also discuss her works in a variety of disciplines and Jamie’s educational platforms that democratize learning such as free schools. Stay tuned to learn more about utopian fantasy, dream interpretation, personal iconography and utopian concept.

Beto Rincón is a farmer, artist, teacher, and dancer working at Teatro in Seguin, TX. While teaching in Pittsburgh, PA, he met a student who would eventually be a volunteer farmer at Habitable Spaces farm and artist residency. Beto’s involvement with Teatro dates back to when he started dancing folkloric dance at the age of four. His mother also played Mariachi guitar while he was in the womb, the reason he was born with the rhythm that made him a drummer. Since then, Beto has been a member of some of Teatro’s award-winning groups, a dance intern, instructor, and now works as Ballet Folklorico (folkloric dance) Artistic Director with Teatro, a nonprofit whose mission is to provide a better understanding of the Mexican-American people through the promotion and practice of arts. He has also participated in Teatro’s Agroecology and Artist in Education programs where he has taught Mexican-American culture through performing Ballet Folklorico and lectures. Beto also shares his culinary and food passion, a skill he mastered since he was 15, passed down to him from his grandmother who taught boys how to cook because she didn’t have any girls. Meet Beto Rincón, Ballet Folklorico Artistic Director!

How much do you know about mushrooms? Some of us only know mushrooms from a plate and have little to no knowledge about them. In this episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing local mycologist, farmer and teacher, Ali Stone. Ali and I will be talking about all things mushies and mycelium. Ali will tell us how the pandemic has changed the world, her utopia, and post-pan travel goals. Ali has a passion for mycology. Also, she loves teaching farming and mycology to other people.

Art has many facets, and we have multi-faceted artists. In this episode, I interview two talented Brooklyn-based artists Cat Glennon and Ken Madore. Cat and Ken were resident artists at Habitable Spaces working on a fabulous stained glass mosaic wall they will be telling us about. Cat and Ken will be sharing their art journey, how they dealt with the early days of Corona living with housemates in an old hotel, their history with the farm, their projects, and visions for their art. Also, the artists will be sharing words of wisdom for people who want to take a similar journey to theirs. Listen in and learn!

Two volunteer farmers from the Netherlands, Jerry and Sanne, share the experiences they had traveling to to Cuba before arriving in New Orleans, then the farm. They'll tell us what their first impressions were and give us highlights from their stay. When Covid-19 restrictions started, the two farmers were here in the United States. Their home country (Netherlands) restricted all flights. Jerry and Sanne got locked out of their country. After consulting with their family and friends in the Netherlands, they decided to continue exploring the US in a mobile home. One thing they knew for sure was the fact that they could always come back to Habitable Spaces and be welcome.

Christina Lee Shane was one of the first volunteer farmers and is an operations consultant and project manager working in diverse fields from software and social media to farm to table businesses. Christina has volunteered as an Outreach Coordinator at Habitable Spaces since 2012 and at WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities On Organic Farms). In early 2020, she represented the “Yang Gang” and volunteered on the trail for Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign, where she met many friends and acquaintances she has stayed in touch with since. In this episode, we chat about our chance meetings under disco balls, her journey and political experiences, working as a volunteer, how the pandemic has revealed our system's vulnerabilities and so much more.

THIS is Magic Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, a FIRECRACKER born to Puerto Rican immigrant parents near the Bronx River Projects and Yankee Stadium. Growing up she was known as a bookworm outsider, "artsy," "the new wave chick," "wanna-be white," and "from the 'hood" until graduating from the arts-target high school that the show FAME was based on. That intersectionality grew to be reflected in the concepts she works with in her artwork, shown all over the world. With her drawing skills, she had early success in NYC showing at some of the top galleries with her graphic mural drawings and performance installation pieces. Most recently she performed at the National Portrait Gallery. Wanda left NYC for a calling to teach young minds as she was offered professorship opportunity in Florida. She’s on the tenured track at Central Florida University as Associate Professor, which many artists aspire to, but never succeed.  This Artist in Residence was one of the first characters I met on my arrival at the farm in March of 2020, just as lockdown began. Wanda did such a superb follow up on social media after leaving the farm, I decided to interview her again to talk about all the crazy shit we've seen in the period of a year, plus how our experiences living at the farm have affected us. We had a BALL together during these interviews! CREDITS | Producer - Caitlin Pierce | Editor - Ben Montoya | Train Town Band Members: Seth Armstrong - Song Writer, Vocals, Guitar | Jerry McNulty - Steel Guitar | Dru Bengsston - Bass | Music Producer - David Beck | SPECIAL THANKS: 2020 Audio Podcast Fellows at Stony Brook University-Manhattan​ [PodcastFellows.com] INFO AT TRIPPINGWITHTRIPP.COM.

This is Jeff, the head farmer and gardener and Habitable Spaces. A.K.A. Jefe, which means CHIEF in Spanish. A.K.A. the Shirtless Farmer. His constant sense of humor makes it so much fun. Jeff is the social vortex of the space and takes new volunteers under his wings and shows them the ropes. If you're city folk visiting for the first time, trips to the river and rope swings are inevitable. He's also a wealth of information on stars and constellations. Long card games, bonfires and walks through the woods with the gang of dogs are always part of her Jefe's mix. We talk a lot about volunteer farming organizations. He is of a new generation of people unconcerned with money and owning things, but plays a mad ukulele. It's a hoot 'n holler watching him and Becks Love the Content Clown dueling their songs. In the kitchen, he's known as the Bread Master. He creates loaves in so many amazing flavors. Soft on the inside and crunchy on the exterior. Meet Jefe, the Head Farmer!

Mayor Shirley Nolen was my first quarantine interview at the local downtown farmer's market inspired by the pandemic and lockdown. The first time I met the Mayor of this newly incorporated train town was at a farm to table dinner and pop up art show in postcard perfect downtown Kingsbury, TX. The theme was Texas Germanic Immigrant Heritage and apparently a Brit with the last name of Kingsbury. The town's namesake went to Germany, passed out fliers in certain towns encouraging settlement, and Kingsbury, which he described as the "Land of Milk and Honey".. That's when Shirley's family emigrated here. Turns out Kingsbury was a bit of a shyster, and when the German immigrants got here, they arrived in the middle of a godforsaken, snake infested, barren desert because the area had been experiencing about a 5 year drought. But they stayed anyway. Many of them not by choice, but because they didn't have the resources to get back. Many of the newbies didn't speak English and in fact, there involved an entire Germanic dialect, distinct only to Texas. Not even the Germans could understand it. We talk about her family's history here and is she is full of central Texas trivia. We discuss the history of Kingsbury, and its history as a train town as well, which is fascinating. 

Thanks for joining our journey to a farm and artist residency in Kingsbury called Habitable Spaces. In the premiere episode you were introduced to me and my back story. This episode was recorded on New Year's Eve 2019 going into 2020. It was intended to be archived for a project in the very distant future. I was living in New York preparing to sell my business and enrolled in a podcasting class in NYC. It was beginning to look like the start of a new, exciting chapter. After a family visit to Dallas for the holidays, I drove to a farm near Austin to celebrate New Year's Eve with friends and founders of the farm. We were firming up plans for a camper rental park collaboration. Thankfully, on a whim, I decided to document our progress with an interview just to have for possible future content. Join the experience as we land on the farm that has taken a sleepy rural railroad town and grown a community. Habitable Spaces!

Interview of me by former co-host. The podcast was called TrippnLarry, and my co-host's name was Larie Pidgeon of Instagram's Hudson Valley Happenings. She had such a hand on the pulse of the Hudson Valley. And after our interview, I turned off the recorder and she said, You know what? I've been wanting to get into podcasting for a long time. And I know through what you've done in the Hudson Valley what I've done, we could really pull in a lot of very unique, interesting, fascinating people. And would you be interested in the possibility of co hosting a podcast with me? And of course, I jumped on the opportunity, which is just so fun. Fabulous. We had a great chemistry and the few interviews we did do were so much fun. And everyone involved said, gosh, that was just the greatest time of us has and the finest chemistry and we just can't wait to see what's going to happen. So unfortunately, that had to come to an end as I came to Texas in quarantine and transition to my podcast from the East Coast to Texas. 

My fun and frivolous NY podcast took a turn to LOCKDOWN on a farm in deeply rural TX. Join my life-changing adventure and transition from 20 years in NYC and the Hudson Valley to residing in Austin during our horrendous coronavirus pandemic. A visit for a concert and SXSW evolved into embedding on friends'sustainable farm & artist residency Habitable Spaces in rural Kingsbury. I'm learning LOTS and will Immerse you in a multitude of experiences and personalities on the farm over the past year. CREDITS: Producer - Caitlin Pierce Editor - Ben Montoya MUSIC: Train Town Band Members: Seth Armstrong - Song Writer, Vocals, Guitar Jerry McNulty - Steel Guitar Dru Bengsston - Bass Producer - David Beck SPECIAL THANKS to 2020 Podcast Fellows, Stonybrook University