Bar Crawl Radio

Hosting and producing Bar Crawl Radio podcasts over the last two and a half years has been a wonderful ride with my favorite person, best pal, lovely and loving wife and co-host -- Rebecca McKean. We have learned over the 75+ episodes of Bar Crawl Radio how to work together to develop conversations. Counting it up we have podcast --

• in 8 countries
• in 23 different bars
• conversations with 117 interesting people
• on 1 glacier

We've had the privilege to talk with politicians and bartenders, peace activists and gun proponents, novelists, journalists, and poets, podcasters, scientists, farmers, musicians, sculptors, photographers and artists, farmers and environmentalists, a Mexican taco shop owner, community leaders, beer brewers, mead makers and beer drinkers, bar owners and tenders, members of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 who are going to prison for trespassing on the US Trident Nuclear Missile Base in Georgia, and one man who builds houses in third world countries.

It has been quite a ride. This episode brings together some of our favorites from the BCR archives.

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You have emotional connections with non-living things--inanimate objects. Of course, you do. We all do. We cannot help ourselves.

For this BCR episode Becky and I share our "relationship" with some children's dolls that have been "living" with us for a long time: Meet Buddy and BJ -- and learn about the woman who married the Eiffel Tower and then cheated with the Berlin Wall -- and about the Shinto burial rituals for cherished objects. We also revealed our true feelings about Alexa and Hey Google. And Alexa reveals her true feelings about us.

In this season of giving, it seems reasonable to investigate our emotional connections with our things -- and how our things feel about us.

Contact BCR with your comments about our programming -- [email protected]

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Lincoln Mitchell is a New Yorker and San Franciscan, a political scholar and avid baseball fan. He loved the Yankees first. but, when his family moved to San Francisco, he adopted the Giants. His recently published book -- San Francisco Year Zero: Political Upheaval / Punk Rock / and a Third-Place Baseball Team -- weaves a most readable set of social, political and sporting threads about the tragedies and joys of living in 'the city by the Bay' in 1978. It was the year that Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor and gay rights leader, Harvey Milk, were murdered by a disgruntled nobody -- Dan White, who received a few years in prison for the double homIcide. Despite his limited time in government, Milk's legacy has grown; we explored how he and Moscone could have changed the fate of this city.

In that same year -- 1978 -- the murders in Jonestown devastated the city which had been the home of most of the 900 killed in Guyana.

And -- We talked about baseball with Yankee season ticket holder and fine actor David Bachrach.

BCR 73 ended with a most sobering prediction by Dr. Mitchell in which he laid out his most reasonable arguments for why Trump will never leave the presidency -- even if he loses the 2020 election. This is a must listen -- it comes at the end of another fascinating conversation at a neighborhood bar -- Gebhard's Beer Culture Bar.

Tell us what you think of our programming -- [email protected]

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We all know it -- a lot of life is spent on a queue. Think about all the lines you are on in a day, a week, a year -- it adds up to 5 years or more over a lifetime. But some lining up is not as bad as others and some queues have lasting memories. Becky and I reminisce about our queuing experiences at 5Napkin on Broadway and W. 84th Street at our reserved corner of the bar. [BTW - "QUEUE" is a great Scrabble word -- 4 vowels.] . Our favorite queue involved an overnight in and around Central Park with our family where we met Natalie Portman.

Tell us about your queuing experiences at [email protected]

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To complete our conversation on Urban Green Roofs BCR visited the Brooklyn Grange rooftop form in the Navy Yards on top of Building #3. Anastasia Cole Plakias -- a co-founder and Chief Operating Office of the Grange -- gave us a tour of the farm atop of the quite large warehouse building with magnificent views of the Manhattan skyline. It is an inspiring story of a possible future of our city as a concrete jungle that becomes vibrantly green.

And be sure to catch the conversation on BCR #70 with City Council member Rafael Espinal and two experts on Urban Green Roofs

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NYC roofs are dark and dirty, heat absorbing no-man's lands, but thanks to a new act by the City Council, tops of new buildings will become expansive urban gardens and farms – supplying fresh vegetables to our inner city and beyond. City roof-tops will be covered with great swaths of green that will purify our air – cool buildings in the summer and keep us warm in the winter. Green roofs have been the dream of Brooklyn City Council person Rafael Espinal -- and for this BCR episode we had a conversation with Rafael about his recently passed bill -- and with Inger Yancy of Brooklyn Greenroof and Dustin Partridge, director of Green Roof Researchers Alliance / NYC Audobon. We also took a walk around the Brooklyn Grange farm on the roof of Building 3 in the Navy Yards with Grange co-founder Anastasia Cole Plakias.

This episode was recorded on the Porch at Gebhards Beer Culture Bar. If you are getting some benefit from BCR programming, be sure to "like" us on social media and email us with your suggestions for future programming at [email protected]

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Recently, I, Alan Winson, lost my wallet. I was devastated for a few hours, but over the next few days I felt a freedom that came from a sense of being untethered from a thing that had controlled my days. 'Oh God! Where is my wallet -- all my pocessions? This is really not good!!!' TURNED INTO -- I feel lighter -- freer

When you lose a wallet or purse -- it is certainly inconvenient, but you learn quickly that a wallet can be replaced -- all of those cards and IDs can be duplicated and returned. Elizabeth Bishop writes in her poem on loss -- One Art -- "The art of losing isn't hard to master" but sometimes losing can be a "disaster."

For this Bar Crawl Radio conversation, Becky and I talked about losing stuff. It is a universal human experience. We asked what was the most important thing you lost -- and -- what would you not be able to lose, in any circumstances. At the end of the episode Becky spoke with Gracie, a social work student at Lehman College -- and wait staff at 5Napkin on Broadway and W. 84th Street.

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The Long Island History Project Podcast and Bar Crawl Radio got together in Patchogue, Long Island for duel -- sorry dual -- recording about Prohibition on Long Island. We talked with Jonathan Olly, curator at the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages and an expert on the 18th Amendment to the Constitution which 86ed all bars in the United States. While downing some wonderful local beer, we got into how drinking continued -- how the Mafia benefited and local governments did not -- the racist aspects of the Volstead Act -- and how law enforcement got really good and breaking open wooden kegs of whiskey and rum with legal axes.

AND -- Becky and I visited the owner of the Old Town Bar -- Gerry Meagher -- and sat in the booth where customers hid their booze during raids -- maybe.

We thank Chris Kretz, host of the LIHP, for joining us on our bar crawl through life. We must do this again -- may on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

We recorded at Daisy Dukes Country Club Bar in Patchogue.

Let us know what you think of our programming -- [email protected]

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Have you ever wondered how clean your motel room was? You kind of know -- right? Not really that spotless -- but you did not want to think about it because the bed was made and you didn't have to do it. Becky and I recorded a BCR episode on Prohibition in Long Island and NYC at Patchogue Long Island with Chris Kretz of the Long Island History Project and guest Jonathan lly a curator at the Long Island Museum of American Art -- which will post next -- BCR #68. We recorded in a bar formerly called Hoptron but the new owners did not want us to reveal the new name.

Anyway -- we stayed at a Ramada Inn which was under construction at the time. I was not happy about the situation and so investigated the general cleanliness of these away from home bedrooms,

Between you and me -- do not touch the TV remote -- disgusting!!! So this episode is about mold and hair follicles. Proceed at your own risk.

Becky and I recorded at 5 Napkin Burger on Broadway and W. 84th Street. Let us know what you think of BCR Podcast -- [email protected]

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The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 [KBP7] have been found guilty by a Federal Grand Jury in Brunswick, Georgia this month for trespassing and destroying property on the Trident Submarine Naval Base in St Marys. The conversation with defendants Martha Hennessy and Carmen Trotta took place in the library of the Catholic Worker's Maryhouse in the Bowery section of Manhattan. They were joined by Anthony Donovan, a member of Witness Against Torture, who attended the four day trial. In the end, the KBP7 defendants were not allowed to make their strong case against nuclear armament -- due to what Carmen described as a "controlled" courtroom by Judge Lisa Godbey Wood.

See more on what happened in the court room ...

Video of statements made after the verdict ...

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