The Juice with Jeff #123

On this episode of the podcast, Sandy Henry conducts/co-produces a fantastic, superb, and outstanding interview with me in person. This is Sandy's second time on the podcast since the whole series began in June 2017.

 

The last time I saw Sandy in person was way back when I graduated from Drake University in December 1998, so the podcast recording session on 6/24/2022 is the first time in 23.5 years that I've had the opportunity to get together, catch up, and have a real time conversation with Sandy in person!!

 

There were several topics that Sandy asked me to talk during the podcast including:

 

1. The history of the podcast, the entire process on how each of these podcasts are put together, and my goals for the podcast.

 

2. How I am a really strong advocate for Autism Acceptance, Neurodiversity, and the importance of us accepting, embracing, and loving people as they are for who they are.

 

3. Sandy and I share some more memories from our years in the J-School at Drake and especially in the basement of Meredith Hall and our thoughts on being part of the Basement Dwellers culture.  Meredith's basement is where the TV studio and audio/video production facilities are that are operated as part of the Radio/TV, multimedia, and Broadcast News programs at Drake. I also talked with Sandy during this segment about what my favorite classes were at Drake both within the J School and also the several music and drama courses that I took for my Fine Arts Area of Concentration; as well as my love for music and public radio.

 

During the second half of the podcast recording session, we did several fun and really entertaining things.

 

a. For the first time ever on these The Juice with Jeff podcasts, we did a mixture of both an in person interview and a Zoom based connection at the same time. Thru Zoom, Todd Evans joined Sandy and I for a portion of the podcast recording session and the three of us did a segment in "The Newlywed Game" style where I played the role of Bob Eubanks (and yes, I did my Bob Eubanks voice impersonation during the entire segment!!) asking Sandy and Todd five really fun and hilarious "Would you rather" type questions!!

 

b. After our Newlywed Game style segment and Todd's Zoom guest appearance ended, I gave a really powerful performance for Sandy of my following voice impersonations: Fat Albert, Mushmouth, Rudy, Russell, Michael Buffer/the "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" announcer, the speaking version of singer/songwriter Barry White o.b.m., Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Dr. Fauci, Senator Mitch McConnell, Senator Chuck Schumer, Jim Morrison singing the Toys R' Us jingle in The Doors' Style (i.e. a mix of a "When the Music's Over and "The End" kind of sound), and the Fred Rogers Medley (Mister Rogers, X the Owl, King Friday, Henrietta Pussycat, Daniel Tiger, and Lady Elaine Fairchilde).

 

c. Since Sandy and I both love to sing and since Sandy has been in some musical theatre productions at our local community theatre venue called The Playhouse, we ended the podcast with Sandy and I performing an excerpt from a favorite musical. I performed "Feed Me Seymour" in my Audrey II/Levi Stubb's voice from Little Shop of Horrors, and Sandy performed "I Got Rhythm" from the Gershwin musical Crazy For You.

 

We recorded our podcast at a photography studio and small group event venue that a very close friend of mine owns called The Studio in Windsor Heights. It was a perfectly quiet place to record our podcast with just Sandy and me there and no one else around. This episode of the podcast was recorded on Friday June 24, 2022 and it's FEATURE LENGTH running at 1 hour 27 minutes long. As is the case with all of "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!!!