Neighbors

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, Joel’s experience with Christian did not go how he hoped it would.

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Music by Podington Bear and Tony Gage, editing by Mack Linebaugh, Anita Bugg, and Galen Bebe. Production assistance from Caleb Shiver.

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 front of everyone that afternoon was a major trauma that haunted Joel as he became a prominent skateboarding journalist for ESPN and McSweeney’s. Years later, he got the opportunity to ghostwrite the memoir of his idol, Hosoi. It was a second chance to join the ranks of professional skaters, but it did not go how he hoped.

ESPN’s X-games just wound down, the world is gearing up for skateboarding in the Olympics in 2020 for the first time, and Jonah Hill just released his trailer for his new movie “The Mid 90’s” following a young boy steeped in skateboarding culture. A nostalgic reflection on skate culture is in the zeitgeist.

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Music by Podington Bear and Tony Gage. Editing by Anita Bugg, Mack Linebaugh and Galen Beebe. Production assistance from Caleb Shiver.

Jakob gets a rare chance to hear what his guests think of how 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 own father was dying.

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 ingredients, 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.

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In the final chapter of the Neighbors mini-series “Matt Got Shot,” we visit Jodi Hays,  the woman whose 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 broader context?

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.

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