Happy Hour with Friends Podcast

When you're with Natalia Valencia, you either go hard, or you go home — you talk hard, you travel hard, you love hard — or at least that's the first impression you might get.

I took a trip from New York City to Elizabeth, New Jersey, and met up with Naty at one of her local hangout spots, Dolce, on Broad St. And while we do indeed talk about all those things, I quickly realize there's more to her than meets the eye.

Deeply insightful, brutally witty, and daringly over-opinionated, my good friend Aman Grewal joins me for a drink at The Immigrant, a speakeasy-esk restaurant, bar, and lounge in New York City’s lower east side of Manhattan. Discussing everything from babies in bars, Indian identity, being a millennial, and mental health goals, this episode is a rollercoaster of thought and emotion. Grab a drink and join us.

Ambitious, and empowered, fiercely passionate and funny - Yaindhy (Yai) Vargas, founder of The Latinista. Yai is a slick-talking, j-walking, DR princess who is going to take over the world someday. In this episode we head over to Tommy Bahama, a retail store and restaurant in midtown NYC for happy hour.

What happens when a Mexican boy in Southern California with a filthy mouth wants to be a rapper, grows up to be a New York designer, marries one of the baddest babes from Poland, becomes a conspiracy theorist, but has two beautiful daughters? Absolute podcast magic with Frank Xavier Contreras.

In this episode, my friend Nicole Whelan discovers she may be the new voice of NPR masquerading as a stay-at-home mom, and also threatens to evict me, while my other friend Seaton Tsai thinks New York City is “Unremarkable,” but the food is great, and would much rather sleep on my futon than shell out for a hotel…#WhatLawyersLookLikeIn2017

We’ve come a long way since “Episode 1 | Drink Responsibly,” an episode that was spur of the moment and quite frankly recorded on an iPhone! So to kick off our 2017 lineup of guests we decided to bring back J. Aaron Boykin from the first episode to make it up to him. In this episode we meet up at Dinosaur BBQ in Newark, New Jersey. We stuff ourselves on some slow-roasted meats, soul food, throw back some really strong cocktails, talk about music, family, and race, while laughing the whole way through. Enjoy!

Happy Hour with Friends

with Rich & Mery Hackman

Episode 6 | Lick dem fiiingers

We’ve come a long way since “Episode 1 | Drink Responsibly,” an episode that was spur of the moment and quite frankly recorded on an iPhone!

So to kick off our 2017 lineup of guests we decided to bring back J. Aaron Boykin from the first episode to make it up to him.

In this episode we meet up at Dinosaur BBQ in Newark, New Jersey.

We stuff ourselves on some slow-roasted meats, soul food, throw back some really strong cocktails, talk about music, family, and race, while laughing the whole way through.

Enjoy!

Happy Hour with Friends

with Rich & Mery Hackman

Episode 4 | The adventures of an Ecuadorian baker

In this episode we meet up with one of Mery’s long time friends and former neighbor Suany Baca at Le Pain Quotidien in the Flatiron district in New York.

Suany hails from Ecuador and has spent many years of her life hustling in the restaurant industry in New York City. While she chases her dream of building her own culinary/pastry business, she’s been perfecting the art of the work-life balance. She’s talks about her travels to several countries: wedding crashing in India, getting lost in the Amazon jungle, and her never ending quest for true love both on and off the internet. Enjoy!

Happy Hour with Friends

with Rich & Mery Hackman

Episode 5 | Where does a Mexican girl go to meet a gringo?

In this episode we take a road trip to Reading, Pennsylvania where we have dinner and drinks with long time friends, professors, and creative collaborators John Pankratz and Cocol Bernal.

John is a history professor (among many other things), and Cocol is an artist (among many other things). They are married, and they both teach, mentor, and create at Albright College where we first met them. We catch up with them around Christmas time 2016, and they share their stories of meeting, and getting married, in Senegal, their impact on the college and Reading communities, and the loss of their child Julia to cystic fibrosis. Their story is light-hearted, courageous, and fun. Enjoy.

In this episode we meet up with our good friend Tiana Charmaine Jones in Harlem, New York at D’Amore Winebar and Caffe on 116th Street & Lexington. Tiana, a North Philly native is a fashionista, Zumba fitness instructor, and all round inspirational, and fun-loving person. We chat with her about what keeps her motivated and entrepreneurial, the upcoming Thanksgiving season and how to stay in shape, the 2016 elections, and gentrification in a new-age Harlem. Enjoy!