The Juice with Jeff’s Podcast

The Juice with Jeff #56

On this episode of the podcast, Micole Van Walbeek conducts and co-produces a fantastic audio interview with me. There are several topics that Micole asks me questions about during the interview: More about the series about these "The Juice with Jeff"/"Jeff's Friends Interview Him" podcasts, the things that I do to help keep me positive and to keep my mental health in check in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing guidelines that go with it, what things I am going to take away from the COVID-19 pandemic, if there are any people I've been able to see in person where I really value their time, have I been able to support any local businesses or local restaurants (for take out or delivery) during COVID-19, what kind of music I enjoy, my plans for Memorial Day Weekend, and how I feel in terms of using social media during COVID-19. This interview was recorded on the afternoon of Friday May 22, 2020 and it runs around 28 minutes. As is the case with all of the "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!!

The Juice with Jeff #55

On this episode of the podcast, Jami Bassman Ahart and Tom Ahart conduct and co-produce a fantastic and super fun audio interview with me. There are several topics that are brought up during the interview: What I've been up to during the week this podcast was recorded, I do my voice impersonations of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and Dr. Anthony Fauci with a couple bits of US President Trump thrown in, I also do my voice impersonation of the announcer (Jen Spyra) for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, how I learned to do those 100+ voice impersonations, I perform an original abridged version of Mister Rogers Neighborhood called "A Taste of Mister Rogers" with me doing the voices of Fred Rogers and several of the show's puppets with Jami and Tom joining in at times, my feelings on how we should carry on with life in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing guidelines, and we end the interview with me talking about several things that I do to stay positive and to keep my mental health in check during the COVID-19 pandemic and all that goes with it. A good chunk of this podcast is quite hilarious and full of laughter. This interview was recorded on the night of Monday May 18, 2020 and it runs around 38 minutes. As is the case with all of the "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!!

The Juice with Jeff #54

On this episode of the podcast, Jesse Schwartzman conducts and co-produces the audio interview with me. There are several topics brought up during this interview: How I made the decision to try my best to follow the practices of Judaism 24/7, my years at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin and memories I have from my summers at Ramah, how I handle cooking and my love of local restaurants, how I originally wanted to go into radio broadcasting or behind the scenes TV production work for a career and how I ended up doing behind the scenes office work instead, a couple things I'm looking forward to doing once the COVID-19 pandemic has been resolved and social distancing guidelines have been loosened, and my love of music. This interview was recorded thru the internet using Zoom on Sunday May 17, 2020 and runs for around 51 minutes. As is always the case with all of "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!!

The Juice with Jeff #53

On this episode of the podcast, Shelly Boley conducts and co-produces a fantastic and really fun audio interview with me. There are several topics that Shelly and I talked about during the interview: dogs, cooking and food, memories from our Valley High School days and VHS class reunions, and toward the end I did around 20 or so of my voice impersonations for Shelly. And during the voice impersonations part of the interview, this is the very first time that I have publicly added Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and Dr. Anthony Fauci to my repertoire of 100+ voice impersonations!! Shelly ends the interview with a message of positivity followed by my talking briefly about the several things that help me stay positive and keep my mental health in check during the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing guidelines. This interview was recorded on May 15, 2020 and it runs 1 hour and 2 minutes (62 minutes). As is the case with all of the "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!!

The Juice with Jeff #6

On this vintage episode of the podcast, Genna Stowe and Erica Blumberg conduct and co-produce this audio interview with me. The interview is about 15 minutes long and we bring up subjects such as: Our Camp Ramah in Wisconsin days; my really strong interest in music, singing, and karaoke; I do a few of my voice impersonations (One of the voices I did during this segment was Rabbi David Soloff from Ramah Wisconsin); and thoughts on our friendship. This interview was recorded back on Friday November 24, 2017 and 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!!

The Juice with Jeff #52

On this episode of the podcast, Stacey Gruss McDaniel conducts and co-produces a really good audio interview with me. Topics that are brought up during this interview include: My two dogs, my love of doing karaoke for fun from time to time, how I have helped planned mini-reunions involving the Des Moines classmates from my VHS days, how I'm handling things in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing guidelines that go with it and a couple of the things that help me stay positive and keep my mental health in check, more about the "The Juice with Jeff" podcast series in general, how I have been enjoying going with friends to the Valley Junction Farmer's Market a couple times on average per summer, how I'm dealing with religious worship with the local synagogues being physically closed and all synagogue activities being done thru Zoom these days with the COVID-19 situation, how I love spending time with friends one on one or in a small group whenever the opportunities come, what I have done for my birthdays and my favorite birthday cakes, the Valley High School class reunions for both Stacey's class and my class, how I enjoyed being on Valley High School's radio station KWDM during my junior and senior years at VHS, a couple out of town travel opportunities I've had thru the summers I spent at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin as a camper between 1989-1992 and as a staff member between 1994-1997 (along with spending 6 weeks in Israel during the summer of 1993) and how those summers have played a major role in how I take Judaism seriously and try my best to be a practicing Jew daily all year round, and I also do some of my voice impersonations for Stacey.

Stacey ends the interview with a message of positivity. This interview was recorded on Saturday May 10, 2020 and it's another feature length interview that runs 1 hour and 26 minutes (86 minutes). As is the case with all of the "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!!

The Juice with Jeff #51

On this episode of the podcast, Jill Brimeyer conducts and co-produces an awesome audio interview with me. Topics that are brought up during this interview include: The cooking that I do for Shabbat (the weekly Jewish Sabbath) and Jewish holy days/festivals, a couple other things about Shabbat, the things that make me laugh, the things I do that help me stay positive and keep my mental health in check, how I am handling things with the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing guidelines that go with it, more about the audio interviews on these podcasts, my two dogs, how I have done and still occasionally do video production as a hobby, and how I love spending time with friends one on one or in a small group whenever the opportunities come. I also do some of my voice impersonations for Jill, and Jill ends the interview with a message of positivity. This interview was recorded on Sunday May 3, 2020 and it runs 1 hour and 14  minutes (74 minutes). As is the case with all of the "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!!

The Juice with Jeff #50

On this episode of the podcast, Shana Thielman Kelly conducts and co-produces an excellent and super fun audio interview with me. There are numerous topics that are brought up during the interview such as:  How and why I made the decision to have friends conduct these audio interviews with me, how I came up with the name for these podcasts, what things put a smile on my face and the things that help to keep me staying positive, my love of music, my intense interest in Fat Albert and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and the voice impersonations that I can do from both of those TV shows, Shana talks about how there are many ways that I am similar to Fred Rogers o.b.m., both Shana and I share a couple of our favorite memories from our days at Valley High School during the early to mid 1990's, I do many more of my voice impersonations for Shana, both Shana and I talk about the things that make both of us laugh, both of us offer some jokes and we both perform a one minute version of "Wayne's World" (from Saturday Night Live). and Shana ends the interview with a message of positivity. This interview was recorded on Saturday May 2, 2020 and it definitely is a FEATURE LENGTH podcast as it run 1 hour and 40 minutes (100 minutes). As is the case with all of the "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!

The Juice with Jeff #49

On this episode of the podcast, Krissy Hiatt Annexstad conducts and co-produces an excellent audio interview with me. There are a bunch of topics that are brought up during the interview including:  How this podcast is the very first time in 27 years that Krissy and I have been able to have a conversation in real time where we get to hear each other's voices, how spending time with friends on a one-on-one or small group basis whenever the opportunities are available means quite a lot to me and how I'm usually extremely uncomfortable being in large groups or going to large group events, the cooking that I do for Shabbat (the weekly Jewish Sabbath from Friday nights at sunset thru Saturday nights at dusk) and for Jewish holy days/festivals, the basics of how I keep Kashrut/Kosher (the Jewish dietary laws), and how I handle eating out in terms of keeping the minimum basics of kosher in restaurants that are not fully kosher/not under Kashrut supervision and at the Iowa State Fair, how I enjoy going to broadway musicals at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines and occasional concerts and any plans I have for those in the near future, how music is essential and extremely important for me, and I also do about 20 of my voice impersonations for Krissy. The interview ends with Krissy giving us a message of positivity. This interview was recorded on Thursday April 30, 2020 and it runs 1 hour and 2 minutes (62 minutes). As is the case with all of the "Jeff's Friends Interview Him" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!

The Juice with Jeff #47

On this episode of the podcast, Katey Sharpe Hartzell conducts/co-produces a wonderful and pretty deep audio interview with me. A whole bunch of topics are brought up such as: Memories both Katey and I have from our Indian Hills Junior High and Valley High School years, how I was pretty shy for much of my life and how a decade or so ago I decided to became more and more of an outgoing person, how I joined Facebook in 2007, the time I got to meet a new friend named Stephanie Toms and talking about the fantastic audio interview she conducted/co-produced with me back in January 2020, my close friendship with Katey since 1983, our thoughts on the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing guidelines along with what I do to stay positive and to keep my mental health in check during this time, and my intense interest and love for Fred Rogers o.b.m. and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. This is definitely a feature-length interview that lasts 1 hour and 10 minutes (70 minutes) and this was recorded on the night of Saturday April 25, 2020. As is the case with all of the "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!!