New Orleans: Anybody’s Gumbo

Brendan and Danielle Henderson head to the Big Easy and discover that it’s anything but. Carousel bars, gospel choirs, voodoo readings, and a visit to a slavery memorial plunge the duo into conversations about race, art, god, and the good life. They mingle with local luminaries like jazz-great Kermit Ruffins, voodoo priestess Madame Cinnamon Black, and a chef who dreams about gumbo. 

Not Lost is a co-production of Pushkin Industries, Topic Studios and iHeartMedia. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. What it takes to feed the soul. What it
takes to feed the soul takes a lot. We feed
the soul by feeding the spirit. When the spirit do

(00:36):
things that we ask them to do, we have to
pay them back. So there are certain things that the
spirit can't do. Can't eat, can't drink, can't have sex,
can't sing, and can't dance. So you do those things
in honor when spirit does things for you. So let's begin.

(01:01):
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

(01:24):
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

(01:44):
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

(02:07):
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,

(02:32):
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.

(02:57):
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?

(03:29):
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.

(03:52):
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

(04:14):
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

(04:34):
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

(04:55):
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,

(05:16):
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

(05:39):
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

(06:03):
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

(06:40):
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,

(07:03):
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

(07:23):
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.

(07:44):
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,

(08:08):
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.

(08:29):
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

(08:50):
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

(09:13):
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?

(09:34):
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

(09:55):
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,

(10:16):
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,

(10:40):
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,

(11:00):
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

(11:21):
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,

(11:41):
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,

(12:06):
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.

(12:29):
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

(12:50):
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

(13:12):
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

(13:32):
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

(13:56):
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

(14:17):
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

(14:38):
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.

(15:06):
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

(15:27):
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.

(15:51):
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.

(16:16):
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

(16:38):
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.

(17:05):
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

(17:28):
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,

(17:54):
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

(18:15):
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

(18:35):
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

(18:57):
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

(19:18):
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.

(19:40):
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

(20:04):
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,

(20:25):
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

(20:52):
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

(21:14):
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

(21:35):
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

(21:59):
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

(22:21):
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

(22:43):
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

(23:04):
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

(23:27):
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

(23:51):
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

(24:11):
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.

(24:45):
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

(25:06):
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.

(25:34):
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

(25:57):
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,

(26:22):
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

(26:44):
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

(27:07):
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,

(27:28):
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.

(27:52):
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

(28:16):
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

(28:37):
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

(28:59):
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.

(29:20):
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,

(29:41):
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.

(30:05):
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

(30:26):
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

(30:54):
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

(31:15):
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

(31:35):
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

(31:57):
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

(32:18):
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

(32:40):
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

(33:00):
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,

(33:21):
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,

(33:48):
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

(34:09):
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

(34:30):
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

(34:54):
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

(35:15):
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

(35:38):
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

(36:01):
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

(36:22):
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.

(36:43):
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

(37:03):
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

(37:29):
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

(37:51):
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,

(38:31):
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,

(38:52):
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

(39:13):
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

(39:37):
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

(39:59):
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.

(40:24):
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

(40:46):
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

(41:07):
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

(41:33):
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

(41:56):
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,

(42:19):
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

(42:51):
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

(43:12):
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?

(43:33):
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,

(43:57):
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

(44:20):
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,

(44:41):
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

(45:26):
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

(45:47):
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,

(46:08):
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,

(46:30):
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

(46:52):
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

(47:15):
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,

(47:36):
voyage