Tag: Travel

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Episode 82: To-Do Lists, Travel Tales, & the Social Media Tightrope

In this week’s episode of In the Shadow of the Evening Trees, we cover a little bit of everything—because that’s how life goes!

Jenn shares stories from her recent work trip to San Francisco, while Dave takes a stroll down memory lane to his own high school visit to the Bay Area. With warmer days ahead, we’re opening the pool and prepping for summer—though Dave may not have realized that Jenn’s weekend to-do list was less of a one-off and more of a new tradition (surprise!).

We also dive into a thoughtful conversation about social media: when the people you follow post a lot, is it a harmless outlet or does it sometimes cross a line into stress-inducing territory? We get it—it’s complicated.

As always, thank you for listening (or watching!). You can catch the full episode on our YouTube channel and a 15 minute preview on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). We love hearing from you, so feel free to drop us your thoughts, questions, or weekend list ideas!

Until next time, stay kind, stay informed, and take care of yourselves.

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Episode 74: Yes, We’re Still Bitter

This week’s episode starts off nicely enough. We talk about gearing up for our upcoming 30th anniversary trip, the improving weather after a week of extreme cold, and getting together with some old friends.

And then it all goes down hill.

First, we address an inaccurate comment on one of our posts — no, a majority of Americans did not, in fact, vote for Donald Trump. He didn’t even win a majority of the votes cast, and a good 90 million eligible voters stayed home. 

Then, of course, we have to address Trump and Musk taking a wrecking ball to America, their illegal “budget cuts” — not really budget cuts; more like illegally diverting money our elected representatives allocated to government programs — and the downside of our decades long obsession with STEM. 

And we have a lot more to say about all that!

In addition to the audio podcast you can find here, you can watch a video version of this episode (and future episodes!) on our YouTube channel and on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave).

We hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to leave us a comment, and we’ll talk again soon. 

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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 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 49: Twenty-two Songs, Seven Encores and the Power of … Maybe?

In our first episode back from our vacation hiatus, we begin our recap of this year’s trip to Ireland, a country that is near and dear to us. We briefly talk about our visits to Dublin and Cork, using GPS to navigate, and the many (many) modes of transportation we used.

But we spend most of the episode talking about Bruce Springsteen’s fantastic show at Croke Park on May 19. Bruce’s 2023 show at Dublin’s RDS Arena was great and will always be a special experience, but this year’s show was really something. In front of 80,000 adoring fans from Ireland and around the globe, Bruce had a renewed energy, a strong voice, and a seemingly invincible spirit. The 2023 show, while uplifting and life-affirming as always, had somber, introspective moments that simultaneously made you feel glad to be alive but appreciate how fleeting it all is. This year’s show, on the other hand, convinced us that Bruce and the rest of us will live forever. 

Figuratively, at least.

Some highlights from his twenty-two song, seven-encore performance in Dublin:

  • Opening the show with “Lonesome Day” from The Rising, a pleasant surprise in its own right, and following it immediately with “Night” from Darkness on the Edge of Town, a diehard fan’s favorite.
  • Bringing back “Darlington County” from Born in the U.S.A., a song he might have left behind because of its comical (obviously pre-9/11) reference to the World Trade Center.
  • Giving Nebraska’s “Reason to Believe” a full E Street Band/ZZ Top-inspired treatment.
  • “Wrecking Ball,” the only song he played off of that album, which the crowd always goes crazy for.
  • “She’s the One.” Nothing else to add here, really. It’s simply one of the best songs ever recorded.
  • “Nightshift” from Only the Strong Survive, Bruce’s 2022 album of soul covers. This song lets the E Street Band’s great backup singers step into the spotlight.
  • A rousing, emotional “My City of Ruins,” a song he originally wrote for Freehold, NJ, that became a New York City anthem after 9/11.
  • An incredible set of encores featuring “Land of Hope and Dreams/People Get Ready,” “Born to Run,” and a cover of the Isely Brothers’ “Twist and Shout” (Dublin did not cut the power half-way through, unlike London when Bruce and Paul McCartney sang it at Hyde Park).
  • And the emotional crescendo of the evening: closing the show with a cover of the Pogues’ “A Rainy Night in SoHo” as a tribute to the late Shane MacGowan. We knew it was coming, but that did not lessen the impact.

We then talk (half-jokingly and half-seriously) about the power of saying “maybe” instead of “yes” or “no.” You know, we really might be onto something here!

And finally, we think we found the place where we will ultimately retire (God willing). But you’ll have to tune in to our next episode to find out where that is.

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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