Neighbors

Hi there! Neighbors Season 7 officially launches March 27th, but we thought everyone could use some connection today. We want to hear from you and give you an opportunity to share! Call into the Neighbors "reverse complaint" line. This voicemail box was created for a new segment in the upcoming season, but we've decided to use it right now. We are putting together a special episode this week, and we want to hear how you are connecting safely with your neighbors during the Covid-19 pandemic and this time of social distancing and isolation. Call in now to 615-601-1411 and share the creative ways you are seeing humanity be kind around you. Then look for a special episode later this week. Stay connected AND safe everyone! The Neighbors “Reverse Complaint” Line: 615-601-1411 Special thanks to our Patrons: Allison Sebastian, Ben Lehman, Caroline Martin, Clark Buckner, Cody Spriggs, Dan Burns, Em Vo, Eric Detweiler, Gina, Griffin Bonham, Heather Price, John Kesling, Landon Rives, Marc Kochamba, Patrick Black, Patric

When Jakob signed off of his last episode he said he was taking a hiatus of an undetermined length. The open endedness of that declaration is now resolved! It took 1 year, but the show is back with an additional neighbor at the helm, Cariad Harmon. Look for new episodes coming at you more frequently soon! Special thanks to our new Patrons: Cody Spriggs, Eric Detweiler, Griffin Bonham, Landon Rives, Patrick Black, Ray Ware, Samuel Adams Join the Neighborhood by supporting the show on Patreon and receiving special access and perks.

The town of Harrenheim is mysteriously out of water, yet its reservoir is full. The Heroes’ Guild summons four of its bravest to investigate. These particular heroes are middle schoolers, playing a tabletop roll-playing game at a Nashville community center. The game master is Josh Unruh. He's also a barista and leather worker. A couple years ago, Josh was sinking into despair over our polarizing political climate. Rather than give into the hostility, he decided he would “follow his bliss”. As a lifelong enjoyer of role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, Josh decided to share the benefits of those games with kids and founded an afterschool program to teach them a new game he and his friend Keith created for that purpose: The Heroes’ Guild RPG. It incentivizes peacemaking and cooperation over fighting, and you get a front row seat at how four kids embody the game. Thanks for listening all these years! You’re the best! To find out about Jakob’s new venture visit www.voxfamilia.net

What happens when you want to learn more about your cultural heritage and find out that your grandma was a spy? 80-year-old Sara McCall grew up in Cuba. Now her family is learning just exactly how she came to America. Learn more about how you can tell your family’s story at www.VoxFamilia.net

This is a story about a way of life put on trial. Jeffory Young was a beloved farmer and major landowner in scenic Short Mountain, Tennessee. But when police uncovered his major marijuana dealing operation, they seized much of his coveted property. Yet Young never became a pariah — instead, his community rallied to get his land conserved as a wildlife area. And 12 years later, the 60-year-old is home from prison and finding that the people and the land that shaped him are now providing what he needs to get his life going again.

Jakob is traveling for the next two weeks doing some work for the Goethe-Institut about two of Nashville’s Sister Cities—Belfast, Northern Ireland and Magdeburg, Germany.

The story of how Stephen Spinola got to Nashville is not a typical one. The stand-up comedian posted a tweet on the day of Trump’s inauguration that got him in a lot of trouble, so much that death threats started pouring in. Fearing for his life he uprooted from New York to settle in Tennessee, but that’s only a fraction of Stephen’s story.

A story of Jakob’s is turned into poetry courtesy of the podcast Versify. Fighting wildfires is dangerous work. But to a 20 year old Jakob Lewis the work was all fun and games—at first. Jakob tells his story about fighting fire in Redding California to poet Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay. She then turns his story into a poem and reads it back to him. 

An immigrant restaurateur, Elizabeth Martinez, struggles to make it in America, when the person she came to the U.S. with betrays her. After contemplating suicide and being coaxed out of it by a snuggly pitbull, Elizabeth started her own Honduran restaurant and earned the title Queen of the Kitchen.

Jakob breaks from his usual format to sit down with his editor Mack Linebaugh and answer your questions. You’ll find out why he started the podcast, his favorite episode, and what’s up with those windchimes. Also Jakob calls back one question asker which led to an epic check-in with the subject of the recent “Dog Trap” series—Joel Rice. 

Joel Rice got the opportunity to ghost-write the memoir of one of his childhood heroes—skateboarding legend Christian Hosoi. But Joel’s experience was an unpleasant one that brought up an old childhood trauma at a skatepark. In this episode, I call Christian to hear his side of the story, and then both Joel and Christian hash out the past on the phone together. And much like the first episode, Joel’s experience with Christian did not go how he hoped it would. Want to ask Jakob a question and have it answered in next week’s episode? Visit www.neighborspodcast.com/ask to submit your question! Music by Podington Bear and Tony Gage, editing by Mack Linebaugh, Anita Bugg, and Galen Bebe. Production assistance from Caleb Shiver.

What happens to someone when the thing they love most in the world — skateboarding— is also the source of their greatest wound? When Joel Rice, a naturally bookish kid was younger he wanted nothing more than to be a pro skater like his heroes, Christian Hosoi and Tony Hawk. That dream died the day he hit the “dog trap,” a hazard at a popular skating spot in San Francisco. Falling on his face in front of everyone that afternoon was a major trauma that haunted Joel as he became a prominent skateboarding journalist for ESPN and McSweeney’s. Years later, he got the opportunity to ghostwrite the memoir of his idol, Hosoi. It was a second chance to join the ranks of professional skaters, but it did not go how he hoped. ESPN’s X-games just wound down, the world is gearing up for skateboarding in the Olympics in 2020 for the first time, and Jonah Hill just released his trailer for his new movie “The Mid 90’s” following a young boy steeped in skateboarding culture. A nostalgic reflection on skate culture is in the zei

Jakob gets a rare chance to hear what his guests think of how they're portrayed as Miso and Dejan, the subjects of “Miso’s Brother”, have a drink and reflect on hearing their story. Also we pull some tape off the cutting room, and a sad farewell to our favorite production assistant, Caleb Shiver.

Marlo Mack has a young transgender daughter. She met another woman named Debi Jackson who has a very similar parenting story to her own, the only difference is where they live. Marlo lives in a liberal community where she and her transgender daughter are supported. Debi grew up a Southern Baptist conservative in a Red State. This transition has cost her a lot more, than Marlo and her daughter.

Jakob issues himself a challenge to redo the first story he ever made, about Anglican priest Father Thomas McKenzie and his dad. The title of Father can come with some pretty weird and difficult territory—counseling people through tough times, performing weddings, visiting people on their deathbed. Most are routine to Thomas, but he was stopped in his tracks when he got a call saying that his own father was dying.

Miso and Dejan are Bosnian refugees who met as children when they were both resettled in the same apartment complex in Nashville, Tenn. After they each turned 30 they made a pilgrimage all the way back to Bosnia to visit the grave of Miso’s younger brother. In confronting generations of grief and the void left in his family, Miso finds the brother he actually does have.

Sam Tucker is a passionate baker who doesn’t like to compromise on ingredients, but one of them contains a tiny little protein known as gluten, and it’s proven to be a tyrannical ruler of their lives. Hear how Sam and his family fight back and still make high quality food.

When Katie Cooley found out her brother needed a kidney transplant, she volunteered without hesitation—despite not being super close to him. Hear just how her gesture affected their relationship. Credits and Notes: The show is edited by Emily Siner, Mack Linebaugh and Anita Bugg with special help from Tony Gonzalez and production assistance from Caleb Shiver. Music in this episode by Podington Bear.

In the final chapter of the Neighbors mini-series “Matt Got Shot,” we visit Jodi Hays,  the woman whose security camera captured the footage of Matt’s terrifying assault. Jodi is an abstract artist—captivated by the image of the moment Matt was shot in front of her house, she made several works out of it. Then she showed it to Matt. What happens when trauma is re-interpreted and shared in a broader context?

In Part 2 of the Neighbors mini-series “Matt Got Shot,” we explore the reality of the trauma of getting shot: first to Matt’s body, then his identity and finally to his mind. Matt says, “PTSD doesn’t show up with a name tag.” He was in the recording booth tracking a song called “Guide Your Light” when he had his first panic attack. Credits: Music in this episode by Matt Lovell and Podington Bear. This story was edited by Emily Siner, Mack Linebaugh and Anita Bugg with production assistance from Caleb Shiver.