Speaker 1: Pushkin. What it takes to feed the soul. What it
Speaker 1: takes to feed the soul takes a lot. We feed
Speaker 1: the soul by feeding the spirit. When the spirit do
Speaker 1: things that we ask them to do, we have to
Speaker 1: pay them back. So there are certain things that the
Speaker 1: spirit can't do. Can't eat, can't drink, can't have sex,
Speaker 1: can't sing, and can't dance. So you do those things
Speaker 1: in honor when spirit does things for you. So let's begin.
Speaker 1: This is not Lost. I'm Brendan Francis Nunham. Each episode,
Speaker 1: a friend and night travel somewhere, see the sun and
Speaker 1: try to get a local to invite us to dinner.
Speaker 1: I'm at Louis Armstrong International Airport picking up my buddy
Speaker 1: TV writer Daniel Henderson. She's just arrived from La resplendent
Speaker 1: with new purple braids. Looks amazing. This episode New Orleans.
Speaker 1: I was on it for three days before I wanted
Speaker 1: to lose. I was losing my mind. As we drive
Speaker 1: into the city in our rental car, Daniel catches me
Speaker 1: up in her personal life. After years of being single,
Speaker 1: she recently joined a dating app. I've never seen more
Speaker 1: chumps back to back in my life. No I've done
Speaker 1: some dating apps, and you really do start to get
Speaker 1: sad about humanity. It's like being at the mall too
Speaker 1: long or something. It's leg and then the other half
Speaker 1: of the dudes on there are like fucking paragliding from
Speaker 1: a helicopter while wearing water skin and there. Yeah, it's like,
Speaker 1: it's un like, can you calm down? How the hell
Speaker 1: are we gonna make out? If you're always at the gym?
Speaker 1: We're jumping out of let's play that game. So New Orleans,
Speaker 1: what do you think they music New Orleans? I think swamps,
Speaker 1: you know, like the trees and trays of peach tree
Speaker 1: and live music. I'm the jazz is what I'm sign
Speaker 1: the jazz z. We're gonna learn how to make some gumbo,
Speaker 1: which awesome. Yes right here. And also due to our
Speaker 1: success in Montreal, we have to do another dinner party.
Speaker 1: Do not ask, literally, any black people at all in
Speaker 1: the city lave connotation. Oh my god, god, hey't even
Speaker 1: think of that. I'm a white guy who just dropped
Speaker 1: in the town. Have you made miss a dinner? All? Right?
Speaker 1: But there was a wedding, a wedding second line walking
Speaker 1: down the street with a brass band behind him. That's
Speaker 1: natural New New Orleans. And I still got here only
Speaker 1: like thirty seconds late, so I feel good about it.
Speaker 1: That's Maurice Carlos Ruffin, native New Orleanians and author of
Speaker 1: the novel We Cast a Shadow, the satire of racism
Speaker 1: in the South. I'm so happy to meet you both
Speaker 1: and share a drink. We're having lunch at the Carousel Bar.
Speaker 1: It's known for being a past haunt of writers like
Speaker 1: Tennessee Williams and Hemingway, and also for having a bar
Speaker 1: like an actual carousel. That's right. Customers slowly rotate around
Speaker 1: like horses on poles, sipping sasarex fun. But if you
Speaker 1: drink too much, it means double the spins. A lot
Speaker 1: of tourists come here and it's like rink and what's
Speaker 1: just for the sake of drinking toon much now? Because
Speaker 1: it's gonna feel good where the nation's release valves. I've
Speaker 1: heard repeatedly that mardi grav comes from this ancient French
Speaker 1: tradition of sort of France during the sort of surf
Speaker 1: and peasant era, when the king would say, you know,
Speaker 1: we've been really oppressing these people really hard. Let let
Speaker 1: them party for a few days and that way they
Speaker 1: won't like Roboult and try and kill me. Maybe when
Speaker 1: they stopped, don't ask when they cut his head off.
Speaker 1: I don't know. We want to do this all the time.
Speaker 1: New Orleans. I know this city is contains multitudes. Can
Speaker 1: he kind of try to summarize it? Well, that is
Speaker 1: a tall older, but I mean I would say that
Speaker 1: New Orleans is a town that never forgets his past,
Speaker 1: and that we have this great history of a culture
Speaker 1: that is built atop African culture, and it's all mixed
Speaker 1: with French culture, Spanish culture and other cultures from around
Speaker 1: the world. Couldn't be the means as well as a
Speaker 1: huge vie themes population here as well. And um, we're
Speaker 1: good at storytelling, whether the truth songs or through poetry,
Speaker 1: and a Fields can write fiction as well, like myself.
Speaker 1: We're sitting next to this this case that has pictures
Speaker 1: of Falkner and Tennessee Williams, these old dead white men
Speaker 1: who who found Burgess here. We mentioned Faulkner, Truman, Capode. No,
Speaker 1: they all came through here, and there's a reason for that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, if you're in mid twenties century
Speaker 1: of America and everything is so structured and rigid, and
Speaker 1: you want to break out and have a chance to
Speaker 1: be your best version of yourself as an artist. Come
Speaker 1: down to this bohemian sort of paradise where almost anything goes.
Speaker 1: And so if the Truman Capodi come down here, we're
Speaker 1: not gonna mess with you because you like men or
Speaker 1: you know, whatever the issue is. And so those things
Speaker 1: are a part of by backstory. There was a TV
Speaker 1: show a few years ago called Tremaine, and Hermit Roughlins
Speaker 1: was in it, and there's this famous scene where this
Speaker 1: like producer or somebody's like, you know, you wanted the
Speaker 1: players of the trumpet in the entire country. Don't you
Speaker 1: want to go international? One day? He says, Nah, man,
Speaker 1: I was gonna play my backyard. That's the New Orleans ethos.
Speaker 1: It's not beating your competitors. It's encouraging an atmosphere of creativity.
Speaker 1: All right, appreciative season. I'm kind of nervous good talk
Speaker 1: to people about Katrina here. You know, it's it's hard
Speaker 1: to bring out the worst event of somebody's life, but
Speaker 1: then it's also too important to ignore. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I was gonna be twenty six or twenty seven, my
Speaker 1: Katrina happened, and I probably had a lot of growing
Speaker 1: to do, and I can tell you that that experience
Speaker 1: matured me. We lost our house, we lost our cars,
Speaker 1: and then as the days and weeks passed, I look
Speaker 1: back and recognize, you know, it been in your city's
Speaker 1: on the water right now it's all gone. You think
Speaker 1: what's really important. You think it's the people that you love,
Speaker 1: and it's what you want to do with your life.
Speaker 1: And so I doubled down on being a writer. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna turn by trade, but I said, you know, Maurice,
Speaker 1: you you're gonna make a book one day. Dude. It
Speaker 1: took some time, but I got it done. You know interesting,
Speaker 1: n Orleans has been destroyed like five times. The quarter
Speaker 1: burned down like twice. We had yellow Favorite pandemics, multiple floods.
Speaker 1: Look around. We were not destroyed. Our culture is still here.
Speaker 1: Maurice clearly has a huge appetite for his hometown, figuratively
Speaker 1: and literally. Can we have some nuts? After flagging down
Speaker 1: the waiter for Cajun bar nuts, he jokes that food
Speaker 1: is his spirit animal. Luckily, dinner parties are mine. I'm
Speaker 1: about to inquire as to whether Maurice could host us
Speaker 1: for one on Sunday, but Daniel's warning pops in my head,
Speaker 1: so instead he invite him to our place on Sunday,
Speaker 1: and we'll be doing the cooking. We're learning how to
Speaker 1: make make gumbo. Our gumbo is at least one of
Speaker 1: the most complex meals you can possibly make. The crabs
Speaker 1: and the filet and the sauces, and I can't make gumbo.
Speaker 1: Really what it's a saint. I mean, there's a literal
Speaker 1: saying it's you don't eat everybody's gumble. Thanks for your honesty,
Speaker 1: So um, you're gonna join us? Of course, excellent. With
Speaker 1: our first inner party guests secured, Danielle and I hop
Speaker 1: back in the car and follow the Mississippi River into
Speaker 1: the swamp lands and cotton fields northwest of the city.
Speaker 1: If we were going to take advantage of all the
Speaker 1: New Orleans had to offer, we first need to face
Speaker 1: the uncomfortable truth of where it all came from. I've
Speaker 1: never been less excited to go somewhere. So much of
Speaker 1: this area is possible, or it's here, or the history
Speaker 1: of it is slavery. Yeah, and so on the one hand,
Speaker 1: you can't deny that, but on the other hand, how
Speaker 1: do you why, how and why are you celebrating it?
Speaker 1: You know, Well, that's what's crazy. I didn't realize that
Speaker 1: weddings like sority reunions and picnics happen on most of
Speaker 1: these plantations. I think every plantation there should be some
Speaker 1: regulations there where they have to have a certain amount
Speaker 1: of realistic history applied. So if you want to have
Speaker 1: your sorority reunion there, you're gonna have to know that
Speaker 1: you're standing on the bones of black people. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: might be a little bit of downer, it might be
Speaker 1: a bummer while you're drinking your Hurricanes. But what's your
Speaker 1: family's relationship in but all of slavery my so, my
Speaker 1: great great great grandparents were slaves in the Dutch West Indies. Oh,
Speaker 1: then they did come to the States. They came to
Speaker 1: America and lived in Virginia, and so there was still slavery.
Speaker 1: Were they slaves in Virginia or were they throughout your life?
Speaker 1: Have you It's like, I feel like that there's a
Speaker 1: way you have to I'm guessing as a black person America,
Speaker 1: you have to pull your punches and conversations about race
Speaker 1: with white people. In this sense, because they couldn't not
Speaker 1: handle the truth, but you can't fully process it been yours.
Speaker 1: We've never had a conversation about what it's like for
Speaker 1: me to people treated like we talk about privilege and
Speaker 1: joke about stuff, but like I have it better than
Speaker 1: a lot of people in a lot of ways. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's you know, I'm light skinned, and like you know,
Speaker 1: it's I can't pass. But like I definitely white. People
Speaker 1: have told me that I'm less threatening to them for
Speaker 1: these reasons, which is fucking absurd soon but um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that it's it is hard to have that conversation.
Speaker 1: It's not really like a pulling punches. It's just kind
Speaker 1: of like like nobody asks me and nobody wants to
Speaker 1: hear about it. I mean, I want to talk about something,
Speaker 1: but I think it's kind of like you get one
Speaker 1: get scared to be like if I bring it up,
Speaker 1: am I Like? Am I bringing it up wrong? Am
Speaker 1: I stating the obvious? Like there's just this charge I said,
Speaker 1: there's impulse so avoided and I know I can talk
Speaker 1: to about anything, but I'm also like I feel like
Speaker 1: it's part it's not your responsible. Why why should be
Speaker 1: every thoughtful. You know, black person's job to educate people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not. And if you have any questions about white people,
Speaker 1: I mean, and I'm here for you and us about
Speaker 1: white ree well that that we're here doing this together,
Speaker 1: and me too. I really am plantation entrance. We're here.
Speaker 1: There's a little pond at the end of a dirt
Speaker 1: road lies the Whitney, an old sugar plantation that's now
Speaker 1: a rather unique open air museum. Joy, nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: We're meeting up with director of Communications, doctor Joy Banner.
Speaker 1: Joy was born and raised a stone's throw from here,
Speaker 1: but left to get her PhD and teach African American
Speaker 1: studies in Texas for a few years before deciding to
Speaker 1: come back. Much sure Friend's surprise when I told him
Speaker 1: that I was moving back to work at a plantation,
Speaker 1: they were like, Joy, what's wrong? You need help? And
Speaker 1: I said, but no, this plantation is different because it
Speaker 1: focuses on the lives of the enslaved people. And they
Speaker 1: were like, Joy, that that's even worse. Would sets us
Speaker 1: apart from different plantations? Is this is a place of memory, right,
Speaker 1: this is a place of reverence. Notice that we don't
Speaker 1: start at the big house where the owning family live
Speaker 1: a right, because it's not about the big house, is
Speaker 1: about slavery. So this wall, though, has the names that
Speaker 1: we've collected so far of all the people that were
Speaker 1: enslaved in West African culture. Person's name tells us a
Speaker 1: little bit something about who they are. It's a connection
Speaker 1: to their history. So Samba, for example, is it means
Speaker 1: a second born son Musa. That's a Muslim name for Moses,
Speaker 1: so we know that Musa was probably Muslim. So once
Speaker 1: a person is enslaved, many of them are baptized and
Speaker 1: they get Christian names. Yesterday you were free. Today you
Speaker 1: belong today right right, right, property right. Today your property
Speaker 1: you belong to someone else. But names are not recorded
Speaker 1: for the purpose of descendants going back and being able
Speaker 1: to know something about their ancestor. Right. So we can't
Speaker 1: hop on ancestry dot Com the way other people can.
Speaker 1: It does not work that way for us. Right, and
Speaker 1: I we're kind of crossing over this small land bridge
Speaker 1: over a stream. When I give the tours here, I
Speaker 1: like stopping people over these spots because it reminds me
Speaker 1: of the swamps of Louisiana. So the swamps rest behind
Speaker 1: the sugarcane fields. That water is very important because when
Speaker 1: it would send me quote unquote Negro dogs after you
Speaker 1: after you escape, jump in the water, and then they
Speaker 1: can't track your scent. So this church was built eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight. Oh yeah, ares a white one as a
Speaker 1: blue one and hang out and there could be a
Speaker 1: gator or two. Is warm enough that they might come
Speaker 1: out today? All right, I don't like this interview. I can't.
Speaker 1: So as we're walking in, we're seeing the pews. On
Speaker 1: other side, we're also seeing these gorgeous statues of children.
Speaker 1: These are called the Children of Whitney. Um. The artist
Speaker 1: is Woodrow Nash. Why did he have an interest in
Speaker 1: having children rendered? People are sensitive to children and children
Speaker 1: are innocence. So if you can enslave a child, and
Speaker 1: you know, again it evokes the brutality of the system. Right,
Speaker 1: it seems like they're you know, they're oxidizing in such
Speaker 1: a way that costs also show not just the age
Speaker 1: of the statue itself, but the wear and tear on
Speaker 1: the children growing up in this system. These are these
Speaker 1: are made out of clay. But like you said, you know,
Speaker 1: these break sometimes, so you see a little chip here.
Speaker 1: It is you know, reflective of what a human body
Speaker 1: would have been, you know, the type of trauma that
Speaker 1: it would have been sustaining. Boy like, they look like
Speaker 1: structural art peatures on the front pature. They were sugar kettles.
Speaker 1: So yes, this is where you would process. The sugar
Speaker 1: cane stalks were brought to the sugar mill and ground
Speaker 1: down into a pulp. Think about it. They're stirring thick
Speaker 1: sugar mixture, hot sugar mixtures. The lifespan of someone that
Speaker 1: comes to a Louisiana plantation and works in those fields
Speaker 1: is seven to ten years. Seven to ten years. They
Speaker 1: are working people from can't see. They can't see even
Speaker 1: chopping down the sugar cane they're having to go through
Speaker 1: very quickly with very sharp machette knives. So there are accidental,
Speaker 1: you know, amputations that happen. There are amputations that happened
Speaker 1: as they're feeding the sugar cane stalked through the grinder.
Speaker 1: In the sugar house, the crattiest thing is caving to me.
Speaker 1: It is the square that is cut out in the
Speaker 1: wall right over the bed um. Can any of you
Speaker 1: guess why that's there? For the masters of rivers in
Speaker 1: the house to wash them having sex or no, No,
Speaker 1: I'm growth that, Danielle. It was my fault for bringing
Speaker 1: you there. So she was there already. Oh that was
Speaker 1: super curious. Yes, So there was a family living here
Speaker 1: until the nineteen eighties, so this is where they would
Speaker 1: have wired electricity and put in a switch. They lived
Speaker 1: here into the eighties. So we talk about the plantation
Speaker 1: system and how slavery will end, but the system doesn't.
Speaker 1: After slavery, where do you go? You've been, you know,
Speaker 1: forced to work in the in the sugarcane fields. That's
Speaker 1: all your skill is going to be sugar, sugar, sugar
Speaker 1: until but now you're getting charged for the for renting
Speaker 1: the cabin. It's it's wage work till they're getting paid
Speaker 1: for it. But you're not serving to right, You're not
Speaker 1: getting enough to really move off of this plantation. But
Speaker 1: can you imagine like having a body that's a riddlewood
Speaker 1: pain and injury and scars for someone else's benefit and privilege.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine like looking in the mirror and seeing
Speaker 1: the wrinkles in your face and all and knowing that
Speaker 1: has been for somebody else, you know, Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: talk about rinkles, not yet and brought me there. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get a rinkle for somebody else. No, I've not
Speaker 1: a man, y'all. Do people come here thinking that this
Speaker 1: is maybe like a place where you look at furniture
Speaker 1: and have a mental have you encountered like like people
Speaker 1: who don't know what they're coming to? So we we
Speaker 1: get we get a range. Right. There are people that
Speaker 1: have like these private luxury tours and they're looking for more, look,
Speaker 1: curious experience. I have an inclination to say, yes, we
Speaker 1: can give you a special tour. And I bring them
Speaker 1: out into the hurricane fields with those machetes and make
Speaker 1: them chop, you know, all the way back to the swamps, Like,
Speaker 1: here's your special luxury tour. Isn't it great? What's up? Oh?
Speaker 1: So throughout the plantation we have bells to ring in
Speaker 1: honor of the people that live, died, and labored here.
Speaker 1: In their time, they would wake up at the tolling
Speaker 1: of that bell, knock off for lunch with that bell,
Speaker 1: and then come in from the fields at that bell,
Speaker 1: And so we use it as a way of remembering them.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Danielle and I are mostly silent on our
Speaker 1: drive back to New Orleans. We watch as the setting
Speaker 1: sun turns u swamp and sky incandescent shades of orange
Speaker 1: and purple. Gradually, the fields and Spanish moss are replaced
Speaker 1: by concrete and billboards as the highway turns to city streets. Dude,
Speaker 1: do it? Whoa Jesus? Hello? Kill somebody think it's like
Speaker 1: a bottle Jesus. This hole is so deep you can
Speaker 1: only see the top of the Oh my god that
Speaker 1: you just drop the Hello Hello. We're in the French
Speaker 1: Quarter again. Meeting up with Daniel's old friend Becca Havens.
Speaker 1: Becca's originally from New York City, but has lived in
Speaker 1: New Orleans for over a decade. She's also the daughter
Speaker 1: of the late great musician Richie Havens, a fixture of
Speaker 1: the local jazz fest But I'm too shy to ever
Speaker 1: bring that up. It's beautifully disordered. It's funky, it's rundown,
Speaker 1: it's old, it's adorable, and it's weird and people walk
Speaker 1: around and don't wear pants and stuff, and it's just
Speaker 1: like I just it's awesome. Let's get off This is
Speaker 1: a major beaten paths. Let's just get off it. Since
Speaker 1: Bourbon Street is starting to pile up with drunk tourists,
Speaker 1: we decided to check out some of the quieter side streets.
Speaker 1: I'm like loving this raw iron now. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm in a movie set right now. It doesn't feel real.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at it, this is pretty dreamy. The
Speaker 1: foggy neighborhood has lit up with gas lanterns, and the
Speaker 1: houses with their iron balconies are painted peach, white and blue.
Speaker 1: A New New Orleans is singular. But have there been
Speaker 1: any Southern trades that you've taken you some time to
Speaker 1: adjust to or just that use them? Tell me more.
Speaker 1: That's Danielle crashing into a steel wall. Words people are
Speaker 1: comfortable using in my presence. I mean, it's just if
Speaker 1: you look it up, like every major avenue here is
Speaker 1: named after someone terrible. What are we gonna do? Rename everything? Yes,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what you're supposed to do, is rename it all.
Speaker 1: And people just really don't want to do that. The
Speaker 1: racism and guns, people just carry them like I got
Speaker 1: my gun just in case. Now, tell me, what is
Speaker 1: the smell that we're smelling? Isn't that something? Yeah? You
Speaker 1: can be the powerful funk is the podcasting smellow vision,
Speaker 1: because that's that's a funk. We just passed a train.
Speaker 1: What is the Nicks fucking bar? Two eggnog dacheries in
Speaker 1: a hurricane? Cheers, cheers up, I was I've been single
Speaker 1: for five years, almost six years. I refuse to engage
Speaker 1: with this culture men have in their bio. I brushed
Speaker 1: my teeth and I take a shower every day, as
Speaker 1: like the things you need to know about that that's
Speaker 1: a very low bar. You feel better that you're married now. Yes,
Speaker 1: straight men are in crisis and it's a tread easy
Speaker 1: to be us. If you've been taking a shower, is
Speaker 1: a beautiful thing to behold. You don't get laid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm down with that plan. I mean, I don't have
Speaker 1: a horse in this race anymore. I will withhold sex
Speaker 1: from every man in America to improve a feminist point.
Speaker 1: It's it's bleak. It's bleak. We talk about the woes
Speaker 1: and modern love for a little while longer, and then
Speaker 1: decide to call tonight out, but not before I ask
Speaker 1: Becca if she'll join us for our gathering on Sunday?
Speaker 1: Will there be food? We're making gumbo? That is no
Speaker 1: small undertaking. This is okay? Oh yeah, I'm going Yes,
Speaker 1: the sounds of a home that went somewhere else, eggnog, Dachris,
Speaker 1: carousel bars hard, reality is of slavery. One day into
Speaker 1: our trip in the Big Easy, and this place is
Speaker 1: already proving to be more rich and complex than we'd
Speaker 1: ever imagined. And I'm starting to wonder if I've also
Speaker 1: underestimated the rich complexity of its signature dish. Drifting off
Speaker 1: to sleep, I'm haunted by the image of a pothole
Speaker 1: the size of a kick drum, and it's filled with gumbo.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and license candles. Voodoo is like going
Speaker 1: to your grandmother's house. I'm going to the cemetery, talking
Speaker 1: to your dear relatives. You believe with your ancestors, teach you.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a little bit different than in Haiti,
Speaker 1: you know, which is by man. But New Orleans food
Speaker 1: is ruled by women. So if there's any guys out
Speaker 1: there listening, welcome to our world. Welcome. While I'm making
Speaker 1: my way across town to explore the city's Tremay neighborhood,
Speaker 1: Danielle's at the Historical Voodoo Museum about to get a
Speaker 1: tarot reading from Priestess Madam Cinnamon Black Tell me, what
Speaker 1: makes you want to have a reading. Let's see what
Speaker 1: the nature of your calling is. I've been blocked from love.
Speaker 1: I've kind of blocked myself from love because I got
Speaker 1: divorced a few years ago, and i feel very guilty
Speaker 1: about that. And I'm curious to know if, because I've
Speaker 1: been kind of regenerating myself and taking a few years
Speaker 1: to care for myself, if I'm in a space now
Speaker 1: to let more love into my life. I always want
Speaker 1: to warn you if these cars are not like what
Speaker 1: you wanted to be, I can't change they are what
Speaker 1: they are. Okay, Please choose one card for me, stad
Speaker 1: call for what cards you choose, and remember, if you
Speaker 1: study long, you'll study wrong. You should always follow your
Speaker 1: first mind because that's when your answerstors. So speaking to you,
Speaker 1: thank you. You have three cards on the table, which
Speaker 1: we call pass, Present, Future. What store would you like
Speaker 1: to open? First? Past? My grandma used to say, going
Speaker 1: into the past, it's like looking at the old DVD movie.
Speaker 1: You always see something different within the end. It's always
Speaker 1: ends up the same. It's lovely. I'm going to pick
Speaker 1: up the car. Well. Danielle is exploring her past with
Speaker 1: Madam sinnemon singing calls out to me from the windows
Speaker 1: of Saint Augustine Catholic Church, for I go inside and
Speaker 1: meet someone who has their own way of talking to
Speaker 1: the spirits. Way of the Law. Cathy Lewis has been
Speaker 1: in the church's choir for over forty years. My mother
Speaker 1: always sank to us when she would be when it
Speaker 1: was time for our nap. She would rock us like
Speaker 1: that and she would start off singing the blues, you know,
Speaker 1: BB King or somebody, and the next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: guide me all my gree hold, and the rest of
Speaker 1: it would wind up being church music. You don't know
Speaker 1: how the Holy Spirit is going to work in you.
Speaker 1: You could feel a gusha wyn come in. You get chills.
Speaker 1: It's an experience that you really really can't describe, but
Speaker 1: it's a beautiful feeling and you don't want to come
Speaker 1: down from it. Prepare you the way of the Law,
Speaker 1: repegging the way, passing, glazing over the cart, slowly getting
Speaker 1: over the hot candle, calling up the present is the
Speaker 1: emperor card. The emperor is one who's in charge, who
Speaker 1: knows what he wants, He's been through the struggle. He
Speaker 1: is one who is said to be the ruler in
Speaker 1: charge of his own destiny. Honestly, I don't go to
Speaker 1: church much anymore, but it's somebody who listens to music.
Speaker 1: I know. I'm sorry you slapped me, but but music
Speaker 1: to me provides some side of spirituality. Like I feel
Speaker 1: when I listen to it, it feels like it articulates
Speaker 1: emotions I wouldn't. I don't have just walking through the
Speaker 1: world normally. If you listen to Rachel's it came from
Speaker 1: the church, from his church bringing, and and it accused
Speaker 1: him of blasphemy. I got a woman w over town.
Speaker 1: That's from the old gospel song I Gotta save you,
Speaker 1: I Gotta save you. You know, do you think that's
Speaker 1: how God communicates with music? He communicating all kind of ways.
Speaker 1: One time I was working at the common and I
Speaker 1: saw this little piece of paper. Something was on my mind,
Speaker 1: you know, bothering me, and this little peace scrap of
Speaker 1: paper fell out the trash basket and said, be not afraid.
Speaker 1: If you're open and paying attention, He's gonna communicate with
Speaker 1: you some kind of way. There's only one card enough future.
Speaker 1: Some people want to know what's on the other side
Speaker 1: of the mounain. Other to say whatever it is, leave
Speaker 1: it over there today, My dear you get to find
Speaker 1: out now. You know I told you once before, I
Speaker 1: warn you, I would warn you again if these cards
Speaker 1: are not like what you want them to be, I
Speaker 1: can't change on account. Two. We're gonna turn the cards
Speaker 1: over together at the same time. My heart is beating.
Speaker 1: Is a security? Are you ready? One? And two? Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. The Six of Cups show us a picture
Speaker 1: of a couple sitting compassionately close sleep. The love in
Speaker 1: your life not being like it's supposed to be is
Speaker 1: if you look at this picture here is I'm looking
Speaker 1: at it. You're not even just looking at it. Your
Speaker 1: mind is elsewhere on what you're doing. There is a
Speaker 1: man out there for you. He sees you, but you're
Speaker 1: just not looking at him. What do you think New
Speaker 1: Orleans can teach us how we interact with one another?
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just like one big neighborhood. Hey darling, how
Speaker 1: you doing? You know, like one big family, one big community,
Speaker 1: from the heart to the low. I might just look
Speaker 1: at you, say why don't you come by my house
Speaker 1: and get some gumble and hoping you do, say that
Speaker 1: you're reading my mind. You're reading my mind. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take in a class. When I made my first gumble
Speaker 1: is a pure wreck, pure wreck? What because Gumbo's a
Speaker 1: dish that you build on. If you burn it, you
Speaker 1: gotta drove out the way and start a little again,
Speaker 1: you know, So would you try my gumbo? The duality
Speaker 1: of New Orleans is, you know, you part of your
Speaker 1: brains out on Saturday, but you get up and go
Speaker 1: to church on Sunday morning. So you know, it's that
Speaker 1: pleasure and pain that you know, good and evil and
Speaker 1: music is a soundtrack for both of those, you know,
Speaker 1: for both sides of that coin. Well destrolls the quarter
Speaker 1: processing or voodoo reading. I'm nearby on the corner of
Speaker 1: Frenchman and Esplanade, hang out with music journalists Keith Sparrow, Jay,
Speaker 1: Why Yeah, Why, James Andrews Great Trumpet, Blara Chriss. Keith
Speaker 1: is the church key that unlocks all of the music
Speaker 1: in this town. He used to be on a first
Speaker 1: named basis with Fats Domino, which is fun if you
Speaker 1: think about it. Is music confused like in the education system,
Speaker 1: or is it just really coming from the ground up
Speaker 1: in this town? Or well, you know, New Orleans is
Speaker 1: one of those rare places where it's still cool to
Speaker 1: play a trumboe you know, like so, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: so kids come up here and you know, the marching
Speaker 1: bands are considered cool. So you're out there with your
Speaker 1: kids and you hear these brass bands that have this
Speaker 1: kind of beat. So all that music is kind of
Speaker 1: imprinted on your brain from an early age. There's a sense,
Speaker 1: I think of authenticity, you know, of being a New
Speaker 1: Orleans musician. The music just has a different feel. You know,
Speaker 1: you have to be here, you have to drink the
Speaker 1: questionable water and you know, soaking the humidity over the summers.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is a there is an intangible quality
Speaker 1: that you get from playing here. All right. So here
Speaker 1: we are at the Blue Nile Carbon. He's got guys
Speaker 1: are here doing up podcast. Everyone said, if we had
Speaker 1: to stop by and see you, Oh yep, that's the
Speaker 1: Kermit Ruffins, the trumpet player. Maurice told us about who's
Speaker 1: happy to play in his own backyard tonight. His backyard
Speaker 1: is the famous Blue Nile Club. Real quick, where are
Speaker 1: you gonna play tonight? For we never know what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do. Well, we always thought it was some New
Speaker 1: Orleans flavor and then may do a little bit of
Speaker 1: hip hop and be bop in between, ending with some
Speaker 1: good old second laf. We already got our wristbands. We're
Speaker 1: gonna got in the wood. You guys coming in. It
Speaker 1: doesn't take long for Kermit to cast a spell over
Speaker 1: the crowd. I started swaying along to the music, and
Speaker 1: before we know it, he's played two full sets and
Speaker 1: it's one am. It doesn't feel like one hand though.
Speaker 1: New Orleans is like a big casino, no clocks and
Speaker 1: no windows. Time escapes you, and that's how it works here.
Speaker 1: But I, on the other hand, I am well aware
Speaker 1: of the time because I know what time my kids
Speaker 1: are going to be growing up. Tomorrow morning, I will,
Speaker 1: I think, call it a night here on Frenchman Street.
Speaker 1: All right, so tomorrow we're gonna throw a dinner party.
Speaker 1: Would you think about joining us. We're learning how to
Speaker 1: make gumbo. You know, I am a little bit uneasy
Speaker 1: with the idea of first time gumbo makers, and I
Speaker 1: think I have a family commitment. Very diplomatic. Off, you're
Speaker 1: very diplomatic. Well, good luck with it, thank you. As
Speaker 1: I head off into the early morning hours. My confidence
Speaker 1: in our gumbo enterprise Is that an all time low?
Speaker 1: Why was I so sure my cooking abilities were a
Speaker 1: match for a regional specialty because I'd once cooked spaghetti
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn? Who was I to think I could parachute
Speaker 1: into this legendary city and nail at signature dish? Was
Speaker 1: I know better than a sorit having a reunion and
Speaker 1: a plantation. I'm about to google and Dewey sausage when
Speaker 1: I hear a familiar voice from the balcony of an
Speaker 1: upstairs bar. I head up and find Danielle with a
Speaker 1: couple of kids in their twenties. Daniel Danielle, what has
Speaker 1: happened over here? Um? I saw this beautiful couple across
Speaker 1: the street, and I encourage them to kiss my shouting
Speaker 1: at them like literally forced us. And then for some reason,
Speaker 1: the entire bar forced us too. I want to make
Speaker 1: sure that the youth of the America. No, they should
Speaker 1: be making out as much as possible. You're having fun.
Speaker 1: I'm having a fucking blast. I'm shouting people for a
Speaker 1: balcony Roman Coakes and tequila. I was the one who
Speaker 1: was gonna get drunk this episode. Oh wait, you're the drummer.
Speaker 1: You're so cute You're like a cute little wares of
Speaker 1: wall though. He thanks the guy walking away with the tuba.
Speaker 1: The guy just ran out with the tuba. Look at you.
Speaker 1: You're like a beautiful lion. Get in there and have
Speaker 1: some fucking fun. Look at this lion. Whereas some people
Speaker 1: get aggressive when they drink tonight, Danielle just seems aggressively loving,
Speaker 1: angel faith live, gorgeous, beautiful people. You are gornil. All
Speaker 1: I'm here is to make sure that you're making out tonight.
Speaker 1: What's your type? How can I help you? I can't
Speaker 1: help you have fun and wear condom? Alright, you do
Speaker 1: not need more, baby you. I'm signing up. I'm signing off.
Speaker 1: Don't sign off. Come here hand. Cannot believe you're not
Speaker 1: walking down the street with someone. My girlfriend's out, Call
Speaker 1: her and take her out for a drink. You're tiredness
Speaker 1: to work, you're too young to be bucking wired up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I gotta go sleep. Oh it's be so bad.
Speaker 1: What are you looking at? You want to go? It's Sunday,
Speaker 1: our last day in town. Danielle feels like death warmed over.
Speaker 1: So it's fitting that we're visiting one of the city's
Speaker 1: famous cemeteries. This is Saint Louis number two. You go
Speaker 1: that way to gate lock on that side, I keep
Speaker 1: them gatelock. Could it dying to get in here? You
Speaker 1: said that before you got that right, y'all be capped,
Speaker 1: see you later. The crypts are above ground here because
Speaker 1: we're below sea level summer, as high as twelve feet tall,
Speaker 1: and have grass growing on top waving in the wind.
Speaker 1: Sounds from the nearby highway. Ricochets are the gravestones. I
Speaker 1: like this one because it says widow Marie MiG Lean.
Speaker 1: I just like that they have widow in there and
Speaker 1: she died at a hundred years old. And at the
Speaker 1: bottom it says regret, regret, just regret. I'm going to
Speaker 1: have regret, but it's gonna have an s no matter
Speaker 1: what happens in my love life. I'm one hundred percent
Speaker 1: having widow. Danielle Henderson put on years ago an X
Speaker 1: of mine. She had just broken up with a person
Speaker 1: she was going to be married to, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm really sorry that happened. She's like, oh, it's just natural.
Speaker 1: She's like, men are afraid of death, so they're afraid
Speaker 1: to commit. Like if you settle that's one step closer
Speaker 1: to death. Went to you like, this is where I live,
Speaker 1: this is my family than the next couple stops down
Speaker 1: the road death. As someone who is not committed and
Speaker 1: as a certain age, that phrase has stuck with me.
Speaker 1: I feel like New Orleans in some way makes the
Speaker 1: fundamentals of life more vivid, which are like pleasure and
Speaker 1: then the ultimate sadness. I think it's a good way
Speaker 1: to put it. What is this the three x's that's
Speaker 1: a marker of a voodoo grave? O the voodoo reading.
Speaker 1: Do you think that is affecting your cemetery experience here now? Like? Actually,
Speaker 1: if anything, it's making me a little bit more calm.
Speaker 1: Madam Cinnamon made it a point to tell me before
Speaker 1: she turned over a couple of the cards that you know,
Speaker 1: she can't control what the card says, but if it's
Speaker 1: something that I see that I don't like, that it's
Speaker 1: up to me to change it. That's interesting. The first
Speaker 1: part sounds anxiety producing, like I'm gonna flip this and
Speaker 1: it's going to say something that could be really eerie,
Speaker 1: but it also she then affirms you by saying you
Speaker 1: have agency. Yeah, it was really it was a very
Speaker 1: intense reading. I mean, I keep saying that, but I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously it was an intense reading because I love you
Speaker 1: and I've party with you, and I've never seen you
Speaker 1: party like you partied last night. That was a little
Speaker 1: bit off off the rails. He I made so many friends,
Speaker 1: you did. You made this world better. You might have
Speaker 1: even made children like there made people who may have
Speaker 1: gone home. I never want to be responsible for that.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to anyone who might per create as a
Speaker 1: result of my asking them to make out a little
Speaker 1: little Mary statue to be around somewhere. Our time in
Speaker 1: the city's nearly over, but of course there's one last
Speaker 1: thing we have to do. Locals here might not eat
Speaker 1: everybody's gumbo, but they definitely eat this guy's. I think
Speaker 1: I think about it, maybe like as soon as I
Speaker 1: wake up. Maybe the last thing, you know, think about
Speaker 1: this is waking up at a minute night, like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, gumbo. You know. Jordan Ruins owns the famous
Speaker 1: Munch Factory restaurant. It's where Beyonce and her husband come
Speaker 1: when they want a bowl of the regional specialty. And
Speaker 1: now he's gonna try to teach the Beyonce and mister
Speaker 1: Beyonce of travel Podcasting. How to make it? You need crabs,
Speaker 1: you need shrimp. What I do for my gumbo? I
Speaker 1: make a dark room. No, you need at least three
Speaker 1: or four hours for all the ingredients to actually come together. Look,
Speaker 1: I had a hard night last night. I was drinking fiercely.
Speaker 1: Oh you got the New Orleans experience. Huh four hour
Speaker 1: dish man. Can we just buy some gumbo from you
Speaker 1: and pass it off as ours? That's fine, do what
Speaker 1: you want, do what you want. Look, ye, thank you
Speaker 1: so much. I'm gonna get your gumbo one. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. This is Becca. Be very nice to
Speaker 1: meet you. Thanks for joining us. Do you can partake
Speaker 1: of the gumbo we made today? Oh? I'm very excited
Speaker 1: we made ar The moment of truth finally arrives. I
Speaker 1: mean you can tell gumb about looking at it. I saw,
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, dark, nice, dark rue, sizeable
Speaker 1: amount of sausage. That's how I like it. The meadheads,
Speaker 1: that's sort of that coating on it. So it's perfect.
Speaker 1: Thank you. It seemed like our dinner party guests. We're
Speaker 1: falling for our little ruse. Until did you ride us out? Daniel? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh man. But it was such a cute story. How
Speaker 1: I mean, you might asp want to like make like
Speaker 1: blowfish soup. It's good. This is a word gumbo. So
Speaker 1: we gotta get some world lead us together over gumbo
Speaker 1: that was solved out of problems, you think, So, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we might not have learned how to make dark rue,
Speaker 1: but our trip to New Orleans did give us a
Speaker 1: new take on a perfect travel recipe. It goes like this,
Speaker 1: so like choice local ingredients, combine with curiosity and mirth,
Speaker 1: add a little voodoo and vodka hurricanes to taste. Stood
Speaker 1: for forty eight hours alongside good companionship and voila. So
Speaker 1: my my EndNote is that you know, one day, hundreds
Speaker 1: of years from now, somebody in a submarine is gonna
Speaker 1: be floating around in the Gulf Mexico and they're gonna
Speaker 1: they're gonna see like the turrets of Saint Louis Cathedral
Speaker 1: and no good, what is this? What was this place?
Speaker 1: And then somebody will figure out that was New Orleans.
Speaker 1: But there's no sadness in that because we created jazz,
Speaker 1: we created a lot of other stuff that spread throughout
Speaker 1: the entire world, so it can never really die. And
Speaker 1: that's us. The lead producer on this episode of Not
Speaker 1: Lost was Crystal du Haim. The show was also produced
Speaker 1: and written by me Brendan Francis Newnham. Our associate producer
Speaker 1: was Jackson Musker. Our story editor for this episode was
Speaker 1: Mira Bert. When Tonic note, I mispronounced her name the
Speaker 1: first couple episodes. That's the importance of an editor right there,
Speaker 1: I apologize, Mira. The show was sound designed and mixed
Speaker 1: by Crystal du Haim and mastered by Hannas Brown. A
Speaker 1: big thanks to my friend and this episode's travel partner,
Speaker 1: Daniel Henderson. Not Lost is a co production of Pushkin Industries,
Speaker 1: Topic Studios, and iHeartMedia. It was developed at Topic Studios.
Speaker 1: The show's executive producers are me Christy Gressman, Maria Zuckerman,
Speaker 1: Lisa Gang, and La Tom Mulade. Production assistants on this
Speaker 1: episode also came from Jacob Smith, Amy Gaines and Julia Barton.
Speaker 1: Our theme song was created by Alexis Georgiopolis aka ARP
Speaker 1: and a big thank you to everyone who welcomed us
Speaker 1: in New Orleans. Doctor Joey Banner and Whitney Plantation, Becca Havens,
Speaker 1: Kathy Lewis at Saint Augustine Church, Keith Sparra, Kermit Ruffins
Speaker 1: and the Blue Nile Club, Priestess Madam Cinnamon Black and
Speaker 1: the Historical Voodoo Museum, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin. I recommend
Speaker 1: you grab yourself a copy of Maurice's books, The Ones
Speaker 1: Who Don't Say They Love You and We Cast the Shadow.
Speaker 1: He's pretty darn good at what he does. And speaking
Speaker 1: of great major thanks are in order to Jordan Ruez
Speaker 1: and Munch Factory Restaurant for the truly delicious gumbo. Thanks
Speaker 1: for saving me for myself. Guys, if you want to
Speaker 1: see pictures of where we went or learn about any
Speaker 1: of our guests, head to not lasshow dot com. And
Speaker 1: if you are still listening to this show, you are
Speaker 1: fantastic and you might probably have extra moment to head
Speaker 1: to Apple Podcasts and rate and review us. It really
Speaker 1: does us a lot of good. Such a small thing
Speaker 1: and it means a lot. Learn more about Topic Studios
Speaker 1: at topic studios dot com. To find more pushkin podcasts,
Speaker 1: listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcast. I'm Brendan Francis, Newnham. Until next time,
Speaker 1: voyage