Neighbors

Everyone had their own experience last year—this was mine. We like many planted a garden. It was brought about by stillness and helped us frame a year of both creativity and joy as well as sadness and grief.

Jakob gets an email from someone in Germany asking to be his penpal and says yes. What followed was a surprisingly deep connection and a trans-atlantic pokemon card trade between kids.

Today we present a new podcast from WKMS in Murray Kentucky called Middle Of Everywhere—Big stories from the small places we call home. What happens when an atheist stands up for free speech when the government favors Christianity? Many people in this country think that patriotism and Christianity go hand in hand, but can a person be a patriot and non-religious? In this episode, Ariel and Austi...

This episode I do something I have never done in the entire history of the show. I just interview someone. No story. I interview Michael McRay to shed some light and hope on our current political divide. He’s a Nashville-based author of the new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Am-Not-Your-Enemy-Transform/dp/1513805932" target="_blank">I Am Not Your Enemy: Stories to Transform a Divided Worl...

Coping with the pandemic, the election, really anything in 2020—it can come in waves. Sometimes after a big milestone happens, like getting married, the weight of it all can hit you like a semi truck. Need a good cry to honor the big things in your life that did or didn’t happen in 2020? Guest producer Michelle Dahlenburg brings us the story of Susan and Mark's shift to holding one of the most ...

Cynthia Capers used to be a nurse but she chose to get out of that life and teach herself how to be a farmer. This piece was originally produced as part of the Transom Traveling Workshop in Nashville, TN at WPLN by India Hunter (her very first radio piece ever). If you’d like to make pieces like this check out <a href="http://www.transom.org" target="_blank">www.transom.org</a>. You can join “...

Having heard stories about the country he only lived in for the first year of his life, producer Jakob Lewis goes back to Frankfurt to connect with the life his parent's once had. Story produced by Jakob Lewis, edited by Rosie Forrest, special thanks to Bill Gilcher for helping aid me in my quest to find my parent’s neighbor. Produced for the Goethe-Instituts “Big Pond” Project. You can join...

One woman searches for a serial panhandler and the answer to what to do when someone asks you for money. Story produced by Tasha A. F. Lemley, edited by Tony Gonzalez, sound designed and mixed by Jakob Lewis. You can join “The Neighborhood” along with these wonderful, thoughtful, generous people by becoming a patron at <a href="http://www.patreon.com/neighbors" target="_blank">www.pa...

In the historic city of Magdeburg, Germany, there is a “Johnny Cash”-themed country music festival called Nashville Days – complete with corn dogs and cowboy hats. This is one of the fruits of the sister city relationship between Nashville and Magdeburg. Host Jakob Lewis, a Nashville citizen, goes to Magdeburg to see where the rubber meets the road for Sister Cities' idealistic vision ...

According to a July study from the Pew Research Center, around 3% of Americans have moved because of COVID-19, many of them adults who moved back in with their parents. One of those people is Theo Greenly, a writer and radio producer in Los Angeles. When the pandemic hit, both he and his partner lost their jobs. Unsure about when they would start working again, they decided to move in ...

Meet Joann Jones. She's 79 years old, and she loves to dance. So, she helped start a line dancing class for senior citizens at the Hadley Park Community Center in North Nashville. For Joann, the group has become like a family. The community she's found there has helped her overcome loneliness, grief, and serious health issues. But this year, a tornado and a pandemic are testing the gro...

For this episode Neighbors is presenting an episode from the show <a href="http://vpm.org/resettled" target="_blank">Resettled</a> from VPM: Not a lot of teens are excited about being the “different” kid that stands out in high school. As a Muslim teen from Iraq, Fatimah is learning to navigate that typical experience: striking the balance between fitting in and being your own person....

Nashville, Tenn., aka Music City, has thrown a lot of money at its own tourism industry. But if you walk country music’s famed Broadway Street you will notice that these tourist spaces are overwhelmingly white. But just across the river every Sunday night you can reliably find an alternative to the country music scene in town via soul music acts put together by Jason Eskridge. You can ...

A list of resources to learn from this moment so it's not just a moment. We recommend this course, the <a href="https://antiracisteveryday.com/7-day-antiracism-challenge/" target="_blank">7 Day Anti Racism Challenge</a> that starts June 15th but possibly will repeat again: Podcast recommendations: You can find all of this on this Spotify playlist <a href="https://open.spotify.com/pl...

Today we’re giving you a break from all things Covid and we’re entering into the intriguing and competitive world of pigeon racing. From the pigeons released at the first Olympic Games to the heroic birds of WWI, homing pigeons have been helping humans deliver important messages for thousands of years. These days, however, homing pigeons are bred and sold not to deliver mail, but to co...

In August of 2017 Neighbors co-host Jakob and his wife Catherine got to witness a total solar eclipse from inside an orchard owned by a living saint—Hector Black. Hector is 95 and has lived a storied life, most notably he did the hard work of forgiving the man who murdered his adopted daughter Patricia. Through Hector’s ominous question “how long is the dark?” we explore our current ci...

"The Stuttering Paradox" is the story of a Nashville musician who saw stuttering as his greatest flaw. After trying to "fix" it his entire childhood, he was confronted with the "subway challenge”. By facing his fear JP Ruggieri learned to authentically accept himself just the way he was...and turns out that also dramatically helped his stutter. This story was produced by Cariad Harmon ...

This episode is an artful exploration of Neighbors' year of hiatus in which host Jakob Lewis had a son and put on a performance art piece about preparing for his birth. Utilizing old interview tapes from Neighbors over the years Jakob creates a meditative exploration of what it means to attend to the things that matter in life. If you would like to share the ways you’re staying sane a...

We put out a call last week to listeners and friends across the globe who are in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. We asked you to share the ways in which you’re managing to stay connected while we’re all so far apart. In this season of social distancing, solidarity and kindness flooded our voicemail, and we have put several of those calls together for a special episode to lift o...

Hi there! Neighbors Season 7 officially launches March 27th, but we thought everyone could use some connection today. We want to hear from you and give you an opportunity to share! Call into the Neighbors "reverse complaint" line. This voicemail box was created for a new segment in the upcoming season, but we've decided to use it right now. We are putting together a special episode th...

When Jakob signed off of his last episode he said he was taking a hiatus of an undetermined length. The open endedness of that declaration is now resolved! It took 1 year, but the show is back with an additional neighbor at the helm, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWQnASoP6LM" target="_blank">Cariad Harmon</a>. Look for new episodes coming at you more frequently soon! Speci...

The town of Harrenheim is mysteriously out of water, yet its reservoir is full. The Heroes’ Guild summons four of it’s bravest to investigate. These particular heroes are middle schoolers, playing a tabletop roll-playing game at a Nashville community center. The game master is Josh Unruh. He's also a barista and leather worker. A couple years ago, Josh was sinking into despair over our...

What happens when you want to learn more about your cultural heritage and find out that your grandma was a spy? 80-year-old Sara McCall grew up in Cuba. Now her family is learning just exactly how she came to America.

This is a story about a way of life put on trial. Jeffory Young was a beloved farmer and major landowner in scenic Short Mountain, Tennessee. But when police uncovered his major marijuana dealing operation, they seized much of his coveted property. Yet Young never became a pariah — instead, his community rallied to get his land conserved as a wildlife area. And 12 years later, the 60-year-old i...

Jakob is traveling for the next two weeks doing some work for the Goethe-Institut about two of Nashville’s Sister Cities—Belfast, Northern Ireland and Magdeburg, Germany.

The story of how Stephen Spinola got to Nashville is not a typical one. The stand-up comedian posted a tweet on the day of Trump’s inauguration that got him in a lot of trouble, so much that death threats started pouring in. Fearing for his life he uprooted from New York to settle in Tennessee, but that’s only a fraction of Stephen’s story.

A story of Jakob’s is turned into poetry courtesy of the podcast Versify. Fighting wildfires is dangerous work. But to a 20 year old Jakob Lewis the work was all fun and games—at first. Jakob tells his story about fighting fire in Redding California to poet Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay. She then turns his story into a poem and reads it back to him.

An immigrant restaurateur, Elizabeth Martinez, struggles to make it in America, when the person she came to the U.S. with betrays her. After contemplating suicide and being coaxed out of it by a snuggly pitbull, Elizabeth started   and earned the title Queen of the Kitchen.

Jakob breaks from his usual format to sit down with his editor Mack Linebaugh and answer your questions. You’ll find out why he started the podcast, his favorite episode, and what’s up with those windchimes. Also Jakob calls back one question asker which led to an epic check-in with the subject of the recent “Dog Trap” series—Joel Rice.

Joel Rice got the opportunity to ghost-write the memoir of one of his childhood heroes—skateboarding legend Christian Hosoi. But Joel’s experience was an unpleasant one that brought up an old childhood trauma at a skatepark. In this episode, I call Christian to hear his side of the story, and then both Joel and Christian hash out the past on the phone together. And much like the first episode, ...

What happens to someone when the thing they love most in the world — skateboarding— is also the source of their greatest wound? When Joel Rice, a naturally bookish kid was younger he wanted nothing more than to be a pro skater like his heroes, Christian Hosoi and Tony Hawk. That dream died the day he hit the “dog trap,” a hazard at a popular skating spot in San Francisco. Falling on his face in...

Jakob gets a rare chance to hear what his guests think of they're portrayed as Miso and Dejan, the subjects of “Miso’s Brother”, have a drink and reflect on hearing their story. Also we pull some tape off the cutting room, and a sad farewell to our favorite production assistant, Caleb Shiver.

Marlo Mack has a young transgender daughter. She met another woman named Debi Jackson who has a very similar parenting story to her own, the only difference is where they live. Marlo lives in a liberal community where she and her transgender daughter are supported. Debi grew up a Southern Baptist conservative in a Red State. This transition has cost her a lot more, than Marlo and her daughter.

Jakob issues himself a challenge to redo the first story he ever made, about Anglican priest Father Thomas McKenzie and his dad. The title of Father can come with some pretty weird and difficult territory—counseling people through tough times, performing weddings, visiting people on their deathbed. Most are routine to Thomas, but he was stopped in his tracks when he got a call saying that his o...

Miso and Dejan are Bosnian refugees who met as children when they were both resettled in the same apartment complex in Nashville, Tenn. After they each turned 30 they made a pilgrimage all the way back to Bosnia to visit the grave of Miso’s younger brother. In confronting generations of grief and the void left in his family, Miso finds the brother he actually does have.

Sam Tucker is a passionate baker who doesn’t like to compromise on the ingredients he used, but one of them contains a tiny little protein known as gluten, and it’s proven to be a tyrannical ruler of their lives. Hear how Sam and his family fight back and still make high quality food.

When Katie Cooley found out her brother needed a kidney transplant, she volunteered without hesitation—despite not being super close to him. Hear just how her gesture affected their relationship. Credits and Notes: The show is edited by Emily Siner, Mack Linebaugh and Anita Bugg with special help from Tony Gonzalez and production assistance from Caleb Shiver. Music in this episode by Podington...

In the final chapter of the Neighbors mini-series “Matt Got Shot,” we visit Jodi Hays,  the woman who’s security camera captured the footage of Matt’s terrifying assault. Jodi is an abstract artist—captivated by the image of the moment Matt was shot in front of her house, she made several works out of it. Then she showed it to Matt. What happens when trauma is re-interpreted and shared in a bro...

In Part 2 of the Neighbors mini-series “Matt Got Shot,” we explore the reality of the trauma of getting shot: first to Matt’s body, then his identity and finally to his mind. Matt says, “PTSD doesn’t show up with a name tag.” He was in the recording booth tracking a song called “Guide Your Light” when he had his first panic attack. Credits:Music in this episode by Matt Lovell and Podington Be...

It was inauguration day 2017 when Nashville singer-songwriter Matt Lovell was ambushed while sitting in his car — and then shot in the chest. A doorman at a nearby bar miraculously saved his life, setting in motion a series of life-changing events. In this first episode of a three-part Neighbors mini-series, we explore how the shooting forced Matt to come to terms with his identity and gave him...

Everyone seems inspired by fitness instructor Katherine Tisha Wilson. People describe going to her class as "going to church". Her fierceness comes at you instantly from the front of the class, but this high school drop out wasn't always confident in herself. After a long road of disappointment and embarrassment she found a fitness dance program and lost over 100 pounds, then used that momentum...

Hello. I’m Jakob Lewis and Neighbors….is back. January 16th. I’m on a quest to make sense of the human experience through the lives of my neighbors. There’s something magical about getting an intimate pass into someone’s world and hearing about the moments that transformed them. *In season 5 I go deeper into their stories than I ever have before. Stories of getting shot, getting kicked out of...

As Myanmar aka Burma is going through a humanitarian crisis Neighbors brings an update to the story of a man who fled the region to come to America with his family. We meet Gin Thawng. The 66-year old man lives in a Nashville apartment with his ailing wife, a baby grandson, his daughter-in-law and son. A graduate of an innovative ESL program-on-wheels, Thawng shows us something about the power ...

It's an odd scene: A man, playing a sousaphone, stands inside a tunnel on a busy Nashville road during rush hour. Is he crazy, divinely inspired or something else entirely? In this episode of Neighbors, we go inside the world of "tuba man" Joe Hunter and discover what brings him and his instrument to the tunnel. Some music by: Podington BearEditing help from: Emily Siner, and Mack LinebaughPro...

Whit Hill digs up items she finds with a metal detector — Civil War bullets, forgotten toys, old coins. Her treasures, and the songs she writes about them, remind her that there’s always the possibility of wonder in the ground beneath her feet. This story was reported by Tony Gonzalez. The shows editors are Emily Siner, Mack Linebaugh, and Anita Bugg. Neighbors is a member of the Heard, find o...

Robert Person Sr. — Percy, as he’s known — has been shining shoes for 70 years. He started around age 10 and now, at 80, continues to work at Percy’s Shoe Shine Service in Nashville. He’s worn out, stressed out, but this veteran shoe shiner just can’t stop.\ The shows editors are Emily Siner, Mack Linebaugh, and Anita Bugg. Neighbors is a member of the Heard, find out more at Theheardradio.com...

Prepare to be embedded into a gaggle of neighborhood kids, playing at the peak of summer. Producer Erica Heilman from the always-delightful podcast Rumblestrip brings us the story of children holding on to the last gasps of youth. The shows editors are Emily Siner, Mack Linebaugh, and Anita Bugg. Neighbors is a member of the Heard, find out more at Theheardradio.com. Music by Chris Zabriskie,...

Wayne cherishes his independence. And having had ALS for 33 years, he has to fight for it everyday. But his disease is only one of the seemingly insurmountable challenges he’s faced. Credits: Edited by Emily Siner, Mack Linebaugh and Anita Bugg. Production assistance by Caleb Shiver. Music by Kelly Latimore

When Denice Hicks has to step unexpectedly into the role of King Lear, in some ways, she’s doing what she’s always done: living life like it’s her last day. What happens when you do that everyday over the course of a life? Credits: Edited by Emily Siner, Mack Linebaugh and Anita Bugg. Production assistance by Caleb Shiver. Special thanks to speak-the-speech.org for use of their recordings of S...

Eddie and Mary Helen live in Chattanooga, Tenn. — a city, like many in the country, that still feels the effects of segregation. They started examining their hometown through the lens of race and ended up throwing a party. Credits: Edited by Emily Siner, Mack Linebaugh and Anita Bugg. Production assistance by Caleb Shiver. Music by Podington Bear, Chris Zabriskie, and Jason Goforth