BackPocketLifeStories: Recent Episodes
Joe Brin & Julia Meyer Gross
Everyone has a special story tucked in their backpocket, like a handy swiss army knife to get through a tough spot in life or a beautiful gem, rarely shared. We feature genuine people with genuine, uplifting stories. Your own life stories are like origami in reverse. Paper creased into exquisite, geometric form unfolds into unified terrain, a map of your journey...
Maggie Rousis, PharmD and author, talks to us about the making of and story behind her recently published book that revolves around her angel baby, Benji.
Music credits:
1) "Inspiring story" by REDproductions (Pixabay)
2) "The first star" by HarumachiMusic (Pixabay)
Learn More:
https://benjisblessings.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Benji-Meets-Mr-Eagle-Friends/dp/B09R3DHRLN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RKXU179HZQ2J&keywords=benji+meets+mr+eagle&qid=1690155652&sprefix=benji+meets+m%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/backpocket2
Meet Gloris Dunnous, Philadelphia resident since 1989 and a professional interior designer. She shares her childhood story of escaping Basra, Iraq, during the time of the Farhud, the violent anti-Jewish pogroms in 1941. The Farhud persecution of Iraqi Jews has often been compared to the Nazi “Kristallnacht” destruction of Jewish lives and businesses in Germany.
Formerly an idyllic life for young Gloris, Iraq was once a country of harmonious cultural and religious diversity where Jews and Arabs flourished in peace for centuries. Rising Arab nationalism, infected by Nazi fascist ideology, obliterated the once thriving Iraqi Jewish community.
Gloris journeys back to the time when, as a nine-year-old child fleeing her home, she was sent by her parents to India and Egypt, living on her own in convents as a Jewish girl, not knowing what the future would bring.
CreditsSound Editors: Joe Brin, Julia Meyer Gross | Sound: (Freesound.org) – 129340_Le Abbaye Noirlac_crickets | Music: (Free Music Archive) – Chill Hop Arabic Main_Menachim Engel_Kabbalistic Village_Soundcloud; TheGreatestHonorMain_Menachem Engel_Kabbalistic Village_Soundcloud | Photo: (Wikicommons) Iraq_Kifl_Native_Muslim Village_Jewish_shrine_Ezekiel's_tomb_w/ rabbi_caretakers
Christa Barfield of FarmerJawn, healthcare administrator turned urban farmer, shares her extraordinary journey to food sovereignty. Sarah Lewis, teacher and artist, also seeking new avenues, joins the conversation, bringing her own enthusiastic enquiry to Christa's mission.
We start with basic definitions, "Jawn?" "CSA?" then launch into Christa's multifaceted embrace of what it means to be a modern urban farmer.
Music: "Happy African Village" by John Bartmann (Free Music Archive); "Motivated" by Alexmakemusic (Pixabay)
Benjamin B. Olshin is a researcher, Fulbright scholar, author, teacher, artist, musician and consultant. His areas of expertise include the sociology of science and technology, design, Eastern /Western philosophy, and cross-cultural management. He has published and presented work internationally, including studies in history, philosophy, and cartography. Dr. Olshin is a deep thinker with a wide-ranging, accessible style, born from his international career in academia where he urged his students to think critically and challenge cultural assumptions.
David Austin, author and retired educator, has recently published his first work, a unique collaboration with Charles Middleberg, Holocaust survivor.
Co-hosts Joe Brin, filmmaker (A STRING OF PEARLS: The Small Miracles of Charles Middleberg) and Julia Meyer Gross, linguist and oral historian, learn from Austin how his friendship with Charles Middleberg came to be and how Holocaust education and the craft of oral histories are conveyed to young students.
When Andy Warhol meets the "Black Picasso," where cactuses become a metaphor for African Americans, and when guests walk out of a gallery, you are in James Dupree's Philadelphia.
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Photo | James Dupree; Music | USaiditv13, Carefree by WatR on Pixabay.com
James Dupree, pathbreaking artist, and Philadelphia, historic city of firsts, are a good match.
Dupree invents his own pigments, forges new art styles and always creates outside societal boundaries, unwilling to play politics to get ahead in the art world. His rebellious life and work, protest and laughter, has been rewarded with several fellowships as well as the Living Legend Award of the Black Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dupree is committed to fostering the next generation of black artists, supporting them in ways he did not, necessarily, experience himself. Tune in to hear more about his colorful life and choice between "fame or fortune."
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Photo by James Dupree | Music by JuliusH and Lobo on pixabay.com
Happy travel stories shared by co-hosts Joe Brin and Julia Meyer Gross as they try to determine whether the nicest people live in Europe or America. They also wonder if the social safety net, or lack of one, prompts people's willingness to help those in need.
Growing up in a maelstrom of family mental illness, Glasser emerged to a hard won dream life. Across shifting sands of misfortune, the foster system and teenage rebellion she, ultimately, transcended all to find a mate, career and family, a happy home of her own making.
She maintains a cheerful disposition not based on self-delusion but a clear-eyed view with realistic expectations of her own limitations and as well as those of others. She has no pretensions. In short, an inspiration to anyone with the good fortune to meet her, as you will in this illuminating BackpocketLifeStories interview.
Credit:
Sound Editor: Joe Brin
Sound: (Freesound.org) – 406546_Kyles_Midde East_distant traffic_gaza_2016; Background ambient corproate_Winkingfox 2244
Music: (Free Music Archive) – Epical cinematic; Rockytop 48000; Tennessee Hayride
Meet Joe Brin, Architect/Filmmaker/Photographer/Writer and Julia Meyer Gross, Historian/Author, as they meet each other on air. With only a brief, prior introduction, they discovered their interests clicked and decided to launch a storytelling podcast.
Why not?!
Their backgrounds, though entirely different, allow for a great, creative collaboration on stories, oral histories, sound editing and a desire to share their curiosity with you!
CreditsSound Editors: Joe Brin, Julia Meyer Gross | Sound: (Freesound.org) – 35342_blimp66_crows | Music: (Free Music Archive) – Jackson F. Smith_Cantina Rag; John Bartmann_African Bliss | Photo: Joe Brin
Meet Robert Amar, seafood wholesaler to restaurants in Philadelphia, who pivoted in the Pandemic with weekly, neighborhood truck deliveries of fresh seafood. He spreads the good word with helpful recipes and news of seasonal fish offerings to some 6, 000 online newsletter contacts and some 3, 000 regular customers.
Amar has a pragmatic, ethical approach to his work rooted in a simple yet profound sense of what community means to him and his loyal, individual customers.
CreditsSound Editor -- Joe Brin | Sound: (Free Sound.org) – 129340_Kyles_Applause_cheer; 506155_Klankbeeld_Seaport_Vissingen; 98479_just kiddink_Flock of Seagulls | Music: (Free Music Archive) – Jason Shaw_Travel Light | Photo: Joe Brin
Meet Gloris Dunnous, Philadelphia resident since 1989 and a professional interior designer. She shares her childhood story of escaping Basra, Iraq, during the time of the Farhud, the violent anti-Jewish pogroms in 1941. The Farhud persecution of Iraqi Jews has often been compared to the Nazi “Kristallnacht” destruction of Jewish lives and businesses in Germany.
Formerly an idyllic life for young Gloris, Iraq was once a country of harmonious cultural and religious diversity where Jews and Arabs flourished in peace for centuries. Rising Arab nationalism, infected by Nazi fascist ideology, obliterated the once thriving Iraqi Jewish community.
Gloris journeys back to the time when, as a nine-year-old child fleeing her home, she was sent by her parents to India and Egypt, living on her own in convents as a Jewish girl, not knowing what the future would bring.
CreditsSound Editors: Joe Brin, Julia Meyer Gross | Sound: (Freesound.org) – 129340_Le Abbaye Noirlac_crickets | Music: (Free Music Archive) – Chill Hop Arabic Main_Menachim Engel_Kabbalistic Village_Soundcloud; TheGreatestHonorMain_Menachem Engel_Kabbalistic Village_Soundcloud | Photo: (Wikicommons) Iraq_Kifl_Native_Muslim Village_Jewish_shrine_Ezekiel's_tomb_w/ rabbi_caretakers