Author: jennanddavevonebers

Married couple in the Chicago area in a mixed orientation relationship.
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Episode 65: The Big Easy

This week, we take a break from politics to talk about one of our favorite places in the world: New Orleans. Jennifer spent a few days there last week for work, and we’ve made two trips together — in 1994, not long after we started dating, and for our fifth wedding anniversary in 2000. We love everything about it. The food, the music, the culture, the diversity. In many ways, it’s the most unique city in America, and yet it’s quintessentially American in its own way. 

Prof. Longhair Bust, Tipitina’s, New Orleans. Photo credit: Nola.com.

And on a related note, we talk about a local venue, FitzGerald’s Nightclub in Berwyn, Illinois, which brought the New Orleans sound to the western suburbs of Chicago all the way back in the late 1980s.

Then, we turn to New Years resolutions. Jennifer suggests two: 

  • Cutting back on food waste. Home food waste accounts for 42% of all food waste in the US by weight! So it’s well worth the effort to reduce it.
  • Cutting back on online shopping, especially on Amazon. Which is somewhat ironic, given the discussion of Christmas shopping on our last episode (but the holidays are different). Anyway, from unnecessary impulse-buying to the environmental impact of constant deliveries, this is another good idea for the new year.  

So, we hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and we’ll talk again soon. 

And if you’re ever in New Orleans, be sure to stop by Tipitina’s.

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Episode 64: Come for the Christmas Shopping, Stay for the Polio

On this week’s episode, we talk about Christmas coming up fast, Black Friday, and transitioning from shopping in malls to shopping online.

And then we turn to America’s recurring nightmare, because we can’t help ourselves.

First up: The incoming president nominating Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. We used to point and laugh and crazy anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists. Now one is about to run the department that basically oversees healthcare in America.

We then have a very frank conversation about the threat RFK, Jr. poses to mental health treatment in America, which could, like his opposition to vaccines, have deadly consequences.

Finally, we talk at length about this week’s oral arguments before the US Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti, a case in which the federal government and a number of private plaintiffs are challenging Tennessee’s outright ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. While the outcome of the case is far from certain, the lawyers for the US and the private plaintiffs — US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and ACLU attorney Chase Strangio (the first transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court) — were just fantastic. Please listen to this extended discussion of a very important topic, and check out this excellent piece by Chris Geidner on the Skrmetti arguments. 

You can also listen to a recording or download a transcript of the oral arguments on the Supreme Court’s website.

We hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and we’ll talk again soon.

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Episode 63: ’Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

On this week’s episode, we begin with the story of how we met on November 23, 1993, the night before Thanksgiving. We did it the old fashioned way: In a bar, forced to have an awkward conversation by well-intentioned friends. And here we are, 31 years later!

We also talk about Rep. Nancy Mace’s Michael-Richards-style meltdown over Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, who will be the first transgender member of Congress, and the Republican Party’s obsession with other people’s genitals. As Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch pointed out last week, this is perhaps the first major moral crisis of Trump II. Long story short: we need more people, including more Democratic politicians, to speak up for Rep. McBride and the broader LGBTQIA community.

To hear more, you’ll have to listen in … but do yourself a favor and read Will Bunch’s column. It’s very good.

We hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and we’ll talk again soon.

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Episode 62: The Election, Part 2

This one actually required two takes because somebody had a hard time coping on our first attempt to record it …

Anyway, this episode focuses on the outcome of the election (as compared to last episode, recorded on election night, where we still felt some measure of hope). We talk about the consequences of the election, the impact on our mental health, and the need to vent a little. We also talk about making connections and staying connected to good people who are making the world a better place, which is more important now than ever.

And, respectfully, to all the politicians giving us their hot takes on what just happened: Please be quiet. You should be listening, not talking.

Other topics we cover include the future of education under the incoming administration, Trump’s political corruption, the (very!) slim margin of his victory, the value of immigration, and much, much more.

So stay connected, be you, be out, be loud, and don’t give up! 

We hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and we’ll talk again soon.

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Episode 61: The Election, Part 1

So we tried a kind of a thought experiment this week. We recorded this show on election night without knowing the outcome of the election. We’re going to record Part 2 now that we know the outcome, as a … contrast, we suppose.

But despite the fact that this episode is somewhat untimely, it’s still a good one. We talk about Joe Biden dropping out, Kamala Harris becoming the nominee, Tim Walz becoming the vice presidential nominee, and what’s happened since. We also talk about our hopes — now dashed — for the outcome of the election and why, no matter what happened, we have to keep fighting. And along the way, we share some words of wisdom from Tom Morello and an artist you may not be familiar with: Ian Robinson, who goes by the stage name Black Guy Fawkes.

There’s a lot more, of course — media failures, exit polling, early voting — but you’ll have to tune in to find out!

So, we hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and we’ll talk again soon.

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Episode 60: The Family Friendly(-ish) Episode

Well, except for the cursing.

This week, we leave the politics and social issues behind and and focus on the family. In a way.

We talk about planning a 30th anniversary trip (to Cornwall?), traveling for work, the challenges of having adult children, Halloween costumes past and present … and a certain somebody’s pet peeve about pop culture definition of “generations.” 

So, we hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and we’ll talk to you soon.

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Episode 59: More on Will & Harper

After talking about our Saturday morning walk (or hike, as Jennifer called it) and Illinois’ 21-7 victory over Michigan, we continue our conversation about the Netflix documentary, Will & Harper, featuring Will Ferrell and Harper Steele. We talk about the challenges of coming out late in life, the importance of having support from family and longtime friends, and dealing with the inevitable haters.

But you’ll have to listen in to find out more!

So, we hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and we’ll talk to you soon.

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Episode 58: Twitter Exit

On this week’s episode, we talk about the toxic hell-hole that is X, formerly known as Twitter, and why we left it. Or, more accurately, one of us left it.

In particular, we talk about how awful it’s gotten since Apartheid Baby took over, and how the site has virtually no meaningful content moderation. And it’s not because there are too many users or because X can’t effectively moderate the site for practical reasons. It’s because they don’t want to. They want the site to be as toxic as possible. And so it is.

We also talk about the recent spate of deadly hurricanes and the misinformation that followed. Nothing like politicizing tragedies when your party made them worse than they had to be.

Finally, we begin our discussion of the Netflix documentary, Will & Harper, which is great but challenging in some ways. More on that in our next episode, but you should definitely watch it and tune in for our conversation.

So, we hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and we’ll talk to you soon.

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Episode 57: The Live Fast, Die Old Generation

If you listened to our last show, we talked about either starting a new podcast or reformatting this one, and we settled on … reformatting this one. By which we just mean that we’re going to expand the topics we talk about.

With that in mind, this week’s episode focuses primarily on the music we’re listening to now. I Jennifer’s case, it’s Lollapalooza sensation Chappell Roan, and in David’s case its Jesse Malin, who suffered a rare spinal stroke in 2023 and is working his way back to the stage.

Along the way, we talk about an interesting phenomenon in music these days, namely: older artists reflecting back on their lives and contemplating where they’re headed now. We’re used to the live fast, die young mentality, but were we prepared for the live fast, die old generation?

You’ll have to listen in to find out more, but we have to give a shout out the the Jesse Malin benefit album, Silver Patron Saints, featuring 35 artists collaborating with him on 27 of his best songs, including Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello, Cait O’Riordan, Susanna Hoffs, Billie Joe Armstrong, Spoon, the Wallflowers, Graham Parker, and Alejandro Escovedo. Read more about it here, and please consider supporting Sweet Relief.

Side note: If you’re listening to this on Apple Podcasts or other podcasting platforms, check out our website (intheshadowoftheeveningtrees.com) links to the artists we talk about on this week’s show.

We hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and tune in to our next episode for a discussion of the great Netflix documentary, Will and Harper.

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Episode 56: Reformatting

On this episode, we talk about reformatting this podcast or possibly starting a new one to supplement this show. Either way, the emphasis would be on the three things we talk most about in our day-to-day life: Music, food, and politics. And we plan to let the expletives fly.

Kidding aside, all three topics are connected in many ways and all three provide more than enough to fill a lifetime of shows.

And on that note, this episode also delves into the relationship between politics and music, including several interesting music documentaries that either have been released or will be coming soon. In keeping with our usual focus on LGBTQIA+ issues, we also talk about Will and Harper, the documentary about Will Farrell’s longtime friend Harper who came out as trans. We’ll have much more to say about that in coming episodes.

Finally, related to the topic of food and “wellness,” as they say in corporate-speak, we talk about the fairly successful healthy eating and exercise routine we adopted — and more importantly, stuck to — over the past year.

We hope you enjoy the show, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). Until next time! 

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