Author: jennanddavevonebers

Married couple in the Chicago area in a mixed orientation relationship.
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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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Episode 55: Olympics Recap

Welcome to Episode 55. The Sammy Hagar episode. IYKYK, as the kids say.

This week, we talk about Bruce Springsteen returning to Europe next year (not Ireland, sadly) and the PBS Passport show “Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska: A Celebration in Words and Music” (not, as we say on the podcast, the upcoming feature film based on Warren Zanes’ book, Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska) (oops).

And we talk about planning an epic 30th anniversary trip somewhere warm (also not Ireland, and we probably won’t be dropping in on Sammy Hagar in Cabo either).

But mostly, we talk about the Olympics. Specifically, we talk about the events we watched the most (swimming, gymnastics, diving, track and field, cycling, and … competitive walking?!), the controversy over Olympic breaking, and the things we enjoyed the most — Snoop Dogg being everywhere, and Flava Flav saving the US Women’s Water Polo team … which leads to a conversation about the remarkable love Black athletes and fans showed for America, a country that does not often return that love.

We also talk a bit about the 2028 games in Los Angeles, and then we turn to the dark side of the Olympics, including: 

  • The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique’s (FIG’s) bogus decision to strip US gymnast Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal (and the equally bogus ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport upholding FIG’s decision); and 
  • The ginned up, transphobic and likely defamatory attacks on Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. 

We hope you enjoy the show, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). You can also follow us on the site formerly known as Twitter, where our joint account is @JennandDave1 and the podcast account is @itsotetPodcast. Until next time!

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Episode 54: Revenge of the Normals

Well, the weirdos finally did it. They made us talk about politics for real, and we’re not too happy about it. 

We start our conversation with Donald Trump’s train-wreck interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago last week, and … let’s just say he certainly hasn’t modified his behavior since the incident in Butler, PA, in July. 

As Shakespeare would say, he’s full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Except, of course, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and toxic paranoia.

We also talk about the other major story in politics: Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race and the ascension of Kamala Harris (note: we recorded this before the Vice President chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate). Though the President probably did the right thing — and it probably won’t have the disastrous results many of us worried about — that doesn’t get journalists, pundits, movie stars, and other assorted scoundrels off the hook for the ageism and ableism they displayed over the past month or so. 

Finally, we touch on the Democrats weaponizing the Trump/Vance team’s weirdness against them and why it’s such an effective strategy. After all, every campaign needs a little Dennis Rodman from time to time. You’ll just have to listen in to find out how the Worm fits into all this.  

We hope you enjoy the show, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). You can also follow us on the site formerly known as Twitter, where our joint account is @JennandDave1 and the podcast account is @itsotetPodcast. Until next time! 

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Episode 53: There’s Always Time

On this week’s episode, after discussing certain issues we have with Jeopardy! that are best left to another imaginary podcast, we turn our focus to passion projects like playing instruments, writing, making art, and creating content on blogs and social media. Inspired by a colleague who cowrote Empire: The Musical, a show that is now running at the New World Stages in New York, we contemplate how it is that some people are able to maintain their creative passions despite working full-time jobs, raising kids, and dealing with all the other stresses of everyday life.

Spoiler alter: One of us has had considerably greater success in maintaining their side interests than the other … but you’ll have to listen to find out who that is and what insights she has in to making it work.

We hope you enjoy the show, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). You can also follow us on the site formerly known as Twitter, where our joint account is @JennandDave1 and the podcast account is @itsotetPodcast. Until next time! 

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