New Orleans: Anybody’s Gumbo

This is not Lost. I'm Brendan Francis Nunham. Each episode, a friend and night travel somewhere, see the sun and try to get a local to invite us to dinner. I'm at Louis Armstrong International Airport picking up my buddy TV writer Daniel Henderson. She's just arrived from La resplendent with new purple braids. Looks amazing. This episode New Orleans. I was on it for three days before I wanted to lose. I was losing my mind. As we drive into the city in our rental car, Daniel catches me

up in her personal life. After years of being single, she recently joined a dating app. I've never seen more chumps back to back in my life. No I've done some dating apps, and you really do start to get sad about humanity. It's like being at the mall too long or something. It's leg and then the other half of the dudes on there are like fucking paragliding from a helicopter while wearing water skin and there. Yeah, it's like, it's un like, can you calm down? How the hell

are we gonna make out? If you're always at the gym? We're jumping out of let's play that game. So New Orleans, what do you think they music New Orleans? I think swamps, you know, like the trees and trays of peach tree and live music. I'm the jazz is what I'm sign the jazz z. We're gonna learn how to make some gumbo, which awesome. Yes right here. And also due to our success in Montreal, we have to do another dinner party. Do not ask, literally, any black people at all in

the city lave connotation. Oh my god, god, hey't even think of that. I'm a white guy who just dropped in the town. Have you made miss a dinner? All? Right? But there was a wedding, a wedding second line walking down the street with a brass band behind him. That's natural New New Orleans. And I still got here only like thirty seconds late, so I feel good about it. That's Maurice Carlos Ruffin, native New Orleanians and author of the novel We Cast a Shadow, the satire of racism

in the South. I'm so happy to meet you both and share a drink. We're having lunch at the Carousel Bar. It's known for being a past haunt of writers like Tennessee Williams and Hemingway, and also for having a bar like an actual carousel. That's right. Customers slowly rotate around like horses on poles, sipping sasarex fun. But if you drink too much, it means double the spins. A lot of tourists come here and it's like rink and what's just for the sake of drinking toon much now? Because

it's gonna feel good where the nation's release valves. I've heard repeatedly that mardi grav comes from this ancient French tradition of sort of France during the sort of surf and peasant era, when the king would say, you know, we've been really oppressing these people really hard. Let let them party for a few days and that way they won't like Roboult and try and kill me. Maybe when they stopped, don't ask when they cut his head off. I don't know. We want to do this all the time.

New Orleans. I know this city is contains multitudes. Can he kind of try to summarize it? Well, that is a tall older, but I mean I would say that New Orleans is a town that never forgets his past, and that we have this great history of a culture that is built atop African culture, and it's all mixed with French culture, Spanish culture and other cultures from around the world. Couldn't be the means as well as a

huge vie themes population here as well. And um, we're good at storytelling, whether the truth songs or through poetry, and a Fields can write fiction as well, like myself. We're sitting next to this this case that has pictures of Falkner and Tennessee Williams, these old dead white men who who found Burgess here. We mentioned Faulkner, Truman, Capode. No, they all came through here, and there's a reason for that.

I mean, you know, if you're in mid twenties century of America and everything is so structured and rigid, and you want to break out and have a chance to be your best version of yourself as an artist. Come down to this bohemian sort of paradise where almost anything goes. And so if the Truman Capodi come down here, we're not gonna mess with you because you like men or you know, whatever the issue is. And so those things

are a part of by backstory. There was a TV show a few years ago called Tremaine, and Hermit Roughlins was in it, and there's this famous scene where this like producer or somebody's like, you know, you wanted the players of the trumpet in the entire country. Don't you want to go international? One day? He says, Nah, man, I was gonna play my backyard. That's the New Orleans ethos. It's not beating your competitors. It's encouraging an atmosphere of creativity.

All right, appreciative season. I'm kind of nervous good talk to people about Katrina here. You know, it's it's hard to bring out the worst event of somebody's life, but then it's also too important to ignore. Well, you know, I was gonna be twenty six or twenty seven, my Katrina happened, and I probably had a lot of growing to do, and I can tell you that that experience

matured me. We lost our house, we lost our cars, and then as the days and weeks passed, I look back and recognize, you know, it been in your city's on the water right now it's all gone. You think what's really important. You think it's the people that you love, and it's what you want to do with your life. And so I doubled down on being a writer. You know, I'm gonna turn by trade, but I said, you know, Maurice, you you're gonna make a book one day. Dude. It

took some time, but I got it done. You know interesting, n Orleans has been destroyed like five times. The quarter burned down like twice. We had yellow Favorite pandemics, multiple floods. Look around. We were not destroyed. Our culture is still here. Maurice clearly has a huge appetite for his hometown, figuratively and literally. Can we have some nuts? After flagging down the waiter for Cajun bar nuts, he jokes that food

is his spirit animal. Luckily, dinner parties are mine. I'm about to inquire as to whether Maurice could host us for one on Sunday, but Daniel's warning pops in my head, so instead he invite him to our place on Sunday, and we'll be doing the cooking. We're learning how to make make gumbo. Our gumbo is at least one of the most complex meals you can possibly make. The crabs and the filet and the sauces, and I can't make gumbo. Really what it's a saint. I mean, there's a literal

saying it's you don't eat everybody's gumble. Thanks for your honesty, So um, you're gonna join us? Of course, excellent. With our first inner party guests secured, Danielle and I hop back in the car and follow the Mississippi River into the swamp lands and cotton fields northwest of the city. If we were going to take advantage of all the New Orleans had to offer, we first need to face the uncomfortable truth of where it all came from. I've

never been less excited to go somewhere. So much of this area is possible, or it's here, or the history of it is slavery. Yeah, and so on the one hand, you can't deny that, but on the other hand, how do you why, how and why are you celebrating it? You know, Well, that's what's crazy. I didn't realize that weddings like sority reunions and picnics happen on most of these plantations. I think every plantation there should be some regulations there where they have to have a certain amount

of realistic history applied. So if you want to have your sorority reunion there, you're gonna have to know that you're standing on the bones of black people. Yeah, it might be a little bit of downer, it might be a bummer while you're drinking your Hurricanes. But what's your family's relationship in but all of slavery my so, my great great great grandparents were slaves in the Dutch West Indies. Oh,

then they did come to the States. They came to America and lived in Virginia, and so there was still slavery. Were they slaves in Virginia or were they throughout your life? Have you It's like, I feel like that there's a way you have to I'm guessing as a black person America, you have to pull your punches and conversations about race with white people. In this sense, because they couldn't not handle the truth, but you can't fully process it been yours.

We've never had a conversation about what it's like for me to people treated like we talk about privilege and joke about stuff, but like I have it better than a lot of people in a lot of ways. You know, it's it's you know, I'm light skinned, and like you know, it's I can't pass. But like I definitely white. People have told me that I'm less threatening to them for these reasons, which is fucking absurd soon but um, but yeah, I think that it's it is hard to have that conversation.

It's not really like a pulling punches. It's just kind of like like nobody asks me and nobody wants to hear about it. I mean, I want to talk about something, but I think it's kind of like you get one get scared to be like if I bring it up, am I Like? Am I bringing it up wrong? Am I stating the obvious? Like there's just this charge I said, there's impulse so avoided and I know I can talk to about anything, but I'm also like I feel like it's part it's not your responsible. Why why should be

every thoughtful. You know, black person's job to educate people. Yeah, it's not. And if you have any questions about white people, I mean, and I'm here for you and us about white ree well that that we're here doing this together, and me too. I really am plantation entrance. We're here. There's a little pond at the end of a dirt road lies the Whitney, an old sugar plantation that's now a rather unique open air museum. Joy, nice to meet you.

We're meeting up with director of Communications, doctor Joy Banner. Joy was born and raised a stone's throw from here, but left to get her PhD and teach African American studies in Texas for a few years before deciding to come back. Much sure Friend's surprise when I told him that I was moving back to work at a plantation, they were like, Joy, what's wrong? You need help? And I said, but no, this plantation is different because it focuses on the lives of the enslaved people. And they

were like, Joy, that that's even worse. Would sets us apart from different plantations? Is this is a place of memory, right, this is a place of reverence. Notice that we don't start at the big house where the owning family live a right, because it's not about the big house, is about slavery. So this wall, though, has the names that we've collected so far of all the people that were enslaved in West African culture. Person's name tells us a

little bit something about who they are. It's a connection to their history. So Samba, for example, is it means a second born son Musa. That's a Muslim name for Moses, so we know that Musa was probably Muslim. So once a person is enslaved, many of them are baptized and they get Christian names. Yesterday you were free. Today you belong today right right, right, property right. Today your property

you belong to someone else. But names are not recorded for the purpose of descendants going back and being able to know something about their ancestor. Right. So we can't hop on ancestry dot Com the way other people can. It does not work that way for us. Right, and I we're kind of crossing over this small land bridge over a stream. When I give the tours here, I like stopping people over these spots because it reminds me of the swamps of Louisiana. So the swamps rest behind

the sugarcane fields. That water is very important because when it would send me quote unquote Negro dogs after you after you escape, jump in the water, and then they can't track your scent. So this church was built eighteen sixty eight. Oh yeah, ares a white one as a blue one and hang out and there could be a gator or two. Is warm enough that they might come out today? All right, I don't like this interview. I can't.

So as we're walking in, we're seeing the pews. On other side, we're also seeing these gorgeous statues of children. These are called the Children of Whitney. Um. The artist is Woodrow Nash. Why did he have an interest in having children rendered? People are sensitive to children and children are innocence. So if you can enslave a child, and

you know, again it evokes the brutality of the system. Right, it seems like they're you know, they're oxidizing in such a way that costs also show not just the age of the statue itself, but the wear and tear on the children growing up in this system. These are these are made out of clay. But like you said, you know, these break sometimes, so you see a little chip here. It is you know, reflective of what a human body would have been, you know, the type of trauma that

it would have been sustaining. Boy like, they look like structural art peatures on the front pature. They were sugar kettles. So yes, this is where you would process. The sugar cane stalks were brought to the sugar mill and ground down into a pulp. Think about it. They're stirring thick sugar mixture, hot sugar mixtures. The lifespan of someone that comes to a Louisiana plantation and works in those fields is seven to ten years. Seven to ten years. They

are working people from can't see. They can't see even chopping down the sugar cane they're having to go through very quickly with very sharp machette knives. So there are accidental, you know, amputations that happen. There are amputations that happened as they're feeding the sugar cane stalked through the grinder. In the sugar house, the crattiest thing is caving to me. It is the square that is cut out in the wall right over the bed um. Can any of you

guess why that's there? For the masters of rivers in the house to wash them having sex or no, No, I'm growth that, Danielle. It was my fault for bringing you there. So she was there already. Oh that was super curious. Yes, So there was a family living here until the nineteen eighties, so this is where they would have wired electricity and put in a switch. They lived here into the eighties. So we talk about the plantation system and how slavery will end, but the system doesn't.

After slavery, where do you go? You've been, you know, forced to work in the in the sugarcane fields. That's all your skill is going to be sugar, sugar, sugar until but now you're getting charged for the for renting the cabin. It's it's wage work till they're getting paid for it. But you're not serving to right, You're not

getting enough to really move off of this plantation. But can you imagine like having a body that's a riddlewood pain and injury and scars for someone else's benefit and privilege. Can you imagine like looking in the mirror and seeing the wrinkles in your face and all and knowing that has been for somebody else, you know, Yeah, I don't talk about rinkles, not yet and brought me there. I'm gonna get a rinkle for somebody else. No, I've not

a man, y'all. Do people come here thinking that this is maybe like a place where you look at furniture and have a mental have you encountered like like people who don't know what they're coming to? So we we get we get a range. Right. There are people that have like these private luxury tours and they're looking for more, look, curious experience. I have an inclination to say, yes, we

can give you a special tour. And I bring them out into the hurricane fields with those machetes and make them chop, you know, all the way back to the swamps, Like, here's your special luxury tour. Isn't it great? What's up? Oh? So throughout the plantation we have bells to ring in honor of the people that live, died, and labored here.

In their time, they would wake up at the tolling of that bell, knock off for lunch with that bell, and then come in from the fields at that bell, And so we use it as a way of remembering them. Thank you. Danielle and I are mostly silent on our drive back to New Orleans. We watch as the setting sun turns u swamp and sky incandescent shades of orange and purple. Gradually, the fields and Spanish moss are replaced by concrete and billboards as the highway turns to city streets. Dude,

do it? Whoa Jesus? Hello? Kill somebody think it's like a bottle Jesus. This hole is so deep you can only see the top of the Oh my god that you just drop the Hello Hello. We're in the French Quarter again. Meeting up with Daniel's old friend Becca Havens. Becca's originally from New York City, but has lived in New Orleans for over a decade. She's also the daughter of the late great musician Richie Havens, a fixture of the local jazz fest But I'm too shy to ever

bring that up. It's beautifully disordered. It's funky, it's rundown, it's old, it's adorable, and it's weird and people walk around and don't wear pants and stuff, and it's just like I just it's awesome. Let's get off This is a major beaten paths. Let's just get off it. Since Bourbon Street is starting to pile up with drunk tourists, we decided to check out some of the quieter side streets. I'm like loving this raw iron now. I feel like I'm in a movie set right now. It doesn't feel real.

I mean, look at it, this is pretty dreamy. The foggy neighborhood has lit up with gas lanterns, and the houses with their iron balconies are painted peach, white and blue. A New New Orleans is singular. But have there been any Southern trades that you've taken you some time to adjust to or just that use them? Tell me more. That's Danielle crashing into a steel wall. Words people are comfortable using in my presence. I mean, it's just if you look it up, like every major avenue here is

named after someone terrible. What are we gonna do? Rename everything? Yes, that's exactly what you're supposed to do, is rename it all. And people just really don't want to do that. The racism and guns, people just carry them like I got my gun just in case. Now, tell me, what is the smell that we're smelling? Isn't that something? Yeah? You can be the powerful funk is the podcasting smellow vision, because that's that's a funk. We just passed a train.

What is the Nicks fucking bar? Two eggnog dacheries in a hurricane? Cheers, cheers up, I was I've been single for five years, almost six years. I refuse to engage with this culture men have in their bio. I brushed my teeth and I take a shower every day, as like the things you need to know about that that's a very low bar. You feel better that you're married now. Yes, straight men are in crisis and it's a tread easy to be us. If you've been taking a shower, is

a beautiful thing to behold. You don't get laid. Yeah, I'm down with that plan. I mean, I don't have a horse in this race anymore. I will withhold sex from every man in America to improve a feminist point. It's it's bleak. It's bleak. We talk about the woes and modern love for a little while longer, and then decide to call tonight out, but not before I ask Becca if she'll join us for our gathering on Sunday? Will there be food? We're making gumbo? That is no

small undertaking. This is okay? Oh yeah, I'm going Yes, the sounds of a home that went somewhere else, eggnog, Dachris, carousel bars hard, reality is of slavery. One day into our trip in the Big Easy, and this place is already proving to be more rich and complex than we'd ever imagined. And I'm starting to wonder if I've also

underestimated the rich complexity of its signature dish. Drifting off to sleep, I'm haunted by the image of a pothole the size of a kick drum, and it's filled with gumbo. Let's go ahead and license candles. Voodoo is like going to your grandmother's house. I'm going to the cemetery, talking to your dear relatives. You believe with your ancestors, teach you. You know, it's a little bit different than in Haiti, you know, which is by man. But New Orleans food

is ruled by women. So if there's any guys out there listening, welcome to our world. Welcome. While I'm making my way across town to explore the city's Tremay neighborhood, Danielle's at the Historical Voodoo Museum about to get a tarot reading from Priestess Madam Cinnamon Black Tell me, what makes you want to have a reading. Let's see what the nature of your calling is. I've been blocked from love.

I've kind of blocked myself from love because I got divorced a few years ago, and i feel very guilty about that. And I'm curious to know if, because I've been kind of regenerating myself and taking a few years to care for myself, if I'm in a space now to let more love into my life. I always want to warn you if these cars are not like what you wanted to be, I can't change they are what they are. Okay, Please choose one card for me, stad call for what cards you choose, and remember, if you

study long, you'll study wrong. You should always follow your first mind because that's when your answerstors. So speaking to you, thank you. You have three cards on the table, which we call pass, Present, Future. What store would you like to open? First? Past? My grandma used to say, going into the past, it's like looking at the old DVD movie. You always see something different within the end. It's always ends up the same. It's lovely. I'm going to pick

up the car. Well. Danielle is exploring her past with Madam sinnemon singing calls out to me from the windows of Saint Augustine Catholic Church, for I go inside and meet someone who has their own way of talking to the spirits. Way of the Law. Cathy Lewis has been in the church's choir for over forty years. My mother always sank to us when she would be when it

was time for our nap. She would rock us like that and she would start off singing the blues, you know, BB King or somebody, and the next thing, you know, guide me all my gree hold, and the rest of it would wind up being church music. You don't know how the Holy Spirit is going to work in you. You could feel a gusha wyn come in. You get chills. It's an experience that you really really can't describe, but it's a beautiful feeling and you don't want to come

down from it. Prepare you the way of the Law, repegging the way, passing, glazing over the cart, slowly getting over the hot candle, calling up the present is the emperor card. The emperor is one who's in charge, who knows what he wants, He's been through the struggle. He is one who is said to be the ruler in charge of his own destiny. Honestly, I don't go to church much anymore, but it's somebody who listens to music. I know. I'm sorry you slapped me, but but music

to me provides some side of spirituality. Like I feel when I listen to it, it feels like it articulates emotions I wouldn't. I don't have just walking through the world normally. If you listen to Rachel's it came from the church, from his church bringing, and and it accused him of blasphemy. I got a woman w over town. That's from the old gospel song I Gotta save you, I Gotta save you. You know, do you think that's how God communicates with music? He communicating all kind of ways.

One time I was working at the common and I saw this little piece of paper. Something was on my mind, you know, bothering me, and this little peace scrap of paper fell out the trash basket and said, be not afraid. If you're open and paying attention, He's gonna communicate with you some kind of way. There's only one card enough future. Some people want to know what's on the other side of the mounain. Other to say whatever it is, leave it over there today, My dear you get to find

out now. You know I told you once before, I warn you, I would warn you again if these cards are not like what you want them to be, I can't change on account. Two. We're gonna turn the cards over together at the same time. My heart is beating. Is a security? Are you ready? One? And two? Oh my gosh. The Six of Cups show us a picture of a couple sitting compassionately close sleep. The love in your life not being like it's supposed to be is if you look at this picture here is I'm looking

at it. You're not even just looking at it. Your mind is elsewhere on what you're doing. There is a man out there for you. He sees you, but you're just not looking at him. What do you think New Orleans can teach us how we interact with one another? Sometimes it's just like one big neighborhood. Hey darling, how you doing? You know, like one big family, one big community,

from the heart to the low. I might just look at you, say why don't you come by my house and get some gumble and hoping you do, say that you're reading my mind. You're reading my mind. I'm gonna take in a class. When I made my first gumble is a pure wreck, pure wreck? What because Gumbo's a dish that you build on. If you burn it, you gotta drove out the way and start a little again,

you know, So would you try my gumbo? The duality of New Orleans is, you know, you part of your brains out on Saturday, but you get up and go to church on Sunday morning. So you know, it's that pleasure and pain that you know, good and evil and music is a soundtrack for both of those, you know, for both sides of that coin. Well destrolls the quarter processing or voodoo reading. I'm nearby on the corner of Frenchman and Esplanade, hang out with music journalists Keith Sparrow, Jay,

Why Yeah, Why, James Andrews Great Trumpet, Blara Chriss. Keith is the church key that unlocks all of the music in this town. He used to be on a first named basis with Fats Domino, which is fun if you think about it. Is music confused like in the education system, or is it just really coming from the ground up

in this town? Or well, you know, New Orleans is one of those rare places where it's still cool to play a trumboe you know, like so, I mean, yeah, so kids come up here and you know, the marching bands are considered cool. So you're out there with your kids and you hear these brass bands that have this kind of beat. So all that music is kind of imprinted on your brain from an early age. There's a sense, I think of authenticity, you know, of being a New

Orleans musician. The music just has a different feel. You know, you have to be here, you have to drink the questionable water and you know, soaking the humidity over the summers. I mean, there is a there is an intangible quality that you get from playing here. All right. So here we are at the Blue Nile Carbon. He's got guys are here doing up podcast. Everyone said, if we had to stop by and see you, Oh yep, that's the Kermit Ruffins, the trumpet player. Maurice told us about who's

happy to play in his own backyard tonight. His backyard is the famous Blue Nile Club. Real quick, where are you gonna play tonight? For we never know what we're gonna do. Well, we always thought it was some New Orleans flavor and then may do a little bit of hip hop and be bop in between, ending with some good old second laf. We already got our wristbands. We're gonna got in the wood. You guys coming in. It doesn't take long for Kermit to cast a spell over

the crowd. I started swaying along to the music, and before we know it, he's played two full sets and it's one am. It doesn't feel like one hand though. New Orleans is like a big casino, no clocks and no windows. Time escapes you, and that's how it works here. But I, on the other hand, I am well aware of the time because I know what time my kids are going to be growing up. Tomorrow morning, I will, I think, call it a night here on Frenchman Street.

All right, so tomorrow we're gonna throw a dinner party. Would you think about joining us. We're learning how to make gumbo. You know, I am a little bit uneasy with the idea of first time gumbo makers, and I think I have a family commitment. Very diplomatic. Off, you're very diplomatic. Well, good luck with it, thank you. As I head off into the early morning hours. My confidence in our gumbo enterprise Is that an all time low?

Why was I so sure my cooking abilities were a match for a regional specialty because I'd once cooked spaghetti in Brooklyn? Who was I to think I could parachute into this legendary city and nail at signature dish? Was I know better than a sorit having a reunion and a plantation. I'm about to google and Dewey sausage when I hear a familiar voice from the balcony of an upstairs bar. I head up and find Danielle with a couple of kids in their twenties. Daniel Danielle, what has

happened over here? Um? I saw this beautiful couple across the street, and I encourage them to kiss my shouting at them like literally forced us. And then for some reason, the entire bar forced us too. I want to make sure that the youth of the America. No, they should be making out as much as possible. You're having fun. I'm having a fucking blast. I'm shouting people for a balcony Roman Coakes and tequila. I was the one who was gonna get drunk this episode. Oh wait, you're the drummer.

You're so cute You're like a cute little wares of wall though. He thanks the guy walking away with the tuba. The guy just ran out with the tuba. Look at you. You're like a beautiful lion. Get in there and have some fucking fun. Look at this lion. Whereas some people get aggressive when they drink tonight, Danielle just seems aggressively loving, angel faith live, gorgeous, beautiful people. You are gornil. All I'm here is to make sure that you're making out tonight.

What's your type? How can I help you? I can't help you have fun and wear condom? Alright, you do not need more, baby you. I'm signing up. I'm signing off. Don't sign off. Come here hand. Cannot believe you're not walking down the street with someone. My girlfriend's out, Call her and take her out for a drink. You're tiredness to work, you're too young to be bucking wired up. Yeah, I think I gotta go sleep. Oh it's be so bad. What are you looking at? You want to go? It's Sunday,

our last day in town. Danielle feels like death warmed over. So it's fitting that we're visiting one of the city's famous cemeteries. This is Saint Louis number two. You go that way to gate lock on that side, I keep them gatelock. Could it dying to get in here? You said that before you got that right, y'all be capped, see you later. The crypts are above ground here because we're below sea level summer, as high as twelve feet tall, and have grass growing on top waving in the wind.

Sounds from the nearby highway. Ricochets are the gravestones. I like this one because it says widow Marie MiG Lean. I just like that they have widow in there and she died at a hundred years old. And at the bottom it says regret, regret, just regret. I'm going to have regret, but it's gonna have an s no matter what happens in my love life. I'm one hundred percent having widow. Danielle Henderson put on years ago an X

of mine. She had just broken up with a person she was going to be married to, and I was like, I'm really sorry that happened. She's like, oh, it's just natural. She's like, men are afraid of death, so they're afraid to commit. Like if you settle that's one step closer to death. Went to you like, this is where I live, this is my family than the next couple stops down the road death. As someone who is not committed and as a certain age, that phrase has stuck with me.

I feel like New Orleans in some way makes the fundamentals of life more vivid, which are like pleasure and then the ultimate sadness. I think it's a good way to put it. What is this the three x's that's a marker of a voodoo grave? O the voodoo reading. Do you think that is affecting your cemetery experience here now? Like? Actually, if anything, it's making me a little bit more calm.

Madam Cinnamon made it a point to tell me before she turned over a couple of the cards that you know, she can't control what the card says, but if it's something that I see that I don't like, that it's up to me to change it. That's interesting. The first part sounds anxiety producing, like I'm gonna flip this and it's going to say something that could be really eerie, but it also she then affirms you by saying you have agency. Yeah, it was really it was a very

intense reading. I mean, I keep saying that, but I mean, obviously it was an intense reading because I love you and I've party with you, and I've never seen you party like you partied last night. That was a little bit off off the rails. He I made so many friends, you did. You made this world better. You might have even made children like there made people who may have gone home. I never want to be responsible for that.

I'm sorry to anyone who might per create as a result of my asking them to make out a little little Mary statue to be around somewhere. Our time in the city's nearly over, but of course there's one last thing we have to do. Locals here might not eat everybody's gumbo, but they definitely eat this guy's. I think I think about it, maybe like as soon as I wake up. Maybe the last thing, you know, think about this is waking up at a minute night, like, oh

my god, gumbo. You know. Jordan Ruins owns the famous Munch Factory restaurant. It's where Beyonce and her husband come when they want a bowl of the regional specialty. And now he's gonna try to teach the Beyonce and mister Beyonce of travel Podcasting. How to make it? You need crabs, you need shrimp. What I do for my gumbo? I make a dark room. No, you need at least three or four hours for all the ingredients to actually come together. Look,

I had a hard night last night. I was drinking fiercely. Oh you got the New Orleans experience. Huh four hour dish man. Can we just buy some gumbo from you and pass it off as ours? That's fine, do what you want, do what you want. Look, ye, thank you so much. I'm gonna get your gumbo one. Thank you for having me. This is Becca. Be very nice to meet you. Thanks for joining us. Do you can partake of the gumbo we made today? Oh? I'm very excited we made ar The moment of truth finally arrives. I

mean you can tell gumb about looking at it. I saw, I was like, all right, dark, nice, dark rue, sizeable amount of sausage. That's how I like it. The meadheads, that's sort of that coating on it. So it's perfect. Thank you. It seemed like our dinner party guests. We're falling for our little ruse. Until did you ride us out? Daniel? Yeah? Oh man. But it was such a cute story. How I mean, you might asp want to like make like

blowfish soup. It's good. This is a word gumbo. So we gotta get some world lead us together over gumbo that was solved out of problems, you think, So, oh yeah, we might not have learned how to make dark rue, but our trip to New Orleans did give us a new take on a perfect travel recipe. It goes like this, so like choice local ingredients, combine with curiosity and mirth, add a little voodoo and vodka hurricanes to taste. Stood

for forty eight hours alongside good companionship and voila. So my my EndNote is that you know, one day, hundreds of years from now, somebody in a submarine is gonna be floating around in the Gulf Mexico and they're gonna they're gonna see like the turrets of Saint Louis Cathedral and no good, what is this? What was this place? And then somebody will figure out that was New Orleans. But there's no sadness in that because we created jazz, we created a lot of other stuff that spread throughout

the entire world, so it can never really die. And that's us. The lead producer on this episode of Not Lost was Crystal du Haim. The show was also produced and written by me Brendan Francis Newnham. Our associate producer was Jackson Musker. Our story editor for this episode was Mira Bert. When Tonic note, I mispronounced her name the first couple episodes. That's the importance of an editor right there, I apologize, Mira. The show was sound designed and mixed

by Crystal du Haim and mastered by Hannas Brown. A big thanks to my friend and this episode's travel partner, Daniel Henderson. Not Lost is a co production of Pushkin Industries, Topic Studios, and iHeartMedia. It was developed at Topic Studios. The show's executive producers are me Christy Gressman, Maria Zuckerman, Lisa Gang, and La Tom Mulade. Production assistants on this episode also came from Jacob Smith, Amy Gaines and Julia Barton.

Our theme song was created by Alexis Georgiopolis aka ARP and a big thank you to everyone who welcomed us in New Orleans. Doctor Joey Banner and Whitney Plantation, Becca Havens, Kathy Lewis at Saint Augustine Church, Keith Sparra, Kermit Ruffins and the Blue Nile Club, Priestess Madam Cinnamon Black and the Historical Voodoo Museum, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin. I recommend you grab yourself a copy of Maurice's books, The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You and We Cast the Shadow.

He's pretty darn good at what he does. And speaking of great major thanks are in order to Jordan Ruez and Munch Factory Restaurant for the truly delicious gumbo. Thanks for saving me for myself. Guys, if you want to see pictures of where we went or learn about any of our guests, head to not lasshow dot com. And if you are still listening to this show, you are fantastic and you might probably have extra moment to head to Apple Podcasts and rate and review us. It really

does us a lot of good. Such a small thing and it means a lot. Learn more about Topic Studios at topic studios dot com. To find more pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcast. I'm Brendan Francis, Newnham. Until next time, voyage