The Big Shut-In

Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday… but how fat will it be, in this extremely lean year? We check in with Andrew, a resident of New Orleans and a true believer in that city’s power to rise and overcome, to learn about how to party in a time of plague (and why).

Rae was over the moon when she found her dream Ph.D. program in Tokyo Japan. Unfortunately, as the pandemic unfolded she found herself isolated in a tiny apartment in a strange city and unable to communicate with those around her for months on end.

Janet is a Korean-American mother of two navigating the expatriate life in Hong Kong, a not-quite-exactly-Chinese city struggling with the upheaval of massive political protests on top of COVID lockdowns. Stuck for more than a year in a tiny apartment with two small kids in a destabilized city where she doesn't speak the language while she watches her native Los Angeles suffer from afar, is it any wonder she feels torn and crazed and disconnected?

Naz had already taken on a huge responsibility when she moved in with her very elderly mother and became her caregiver. Then COVID hit, and the merely challenging became almost overwhelming. She dug deep, though, into her faith and her own strength, and found ways to not only push through but even see the blessings in the time they had together.

Mosaic NYC is a small neighborhood church that decided to open a food pantry last April, with the idea that it might help a few hundred neighbors who were suffering in the economic wake of COVID-19. Now, 9 months later, they are serving 2,000 families every week and the need continues to grow. We talk to Sofia, who has dedicated to herself to the project despite her own financial struggles.

Carletha knows how to work, there's no question about that, and she's been working very hard this year. Her job at an assisted living facility has been overfull of challenges and loss, her family is busting the seams of their apartment as they struggle with health challenges, and somehow she finds time to volunteer with the Red Cross and donate food, money, and time to neighbors whose struggles are even greater than her own.

So, we just had an election. Maybe you noticed? Post-game analysis and other topical musings with the always-astute Daniel J. White.

Nicole is a person of rare drive and resourcefulness… but with her small business on the rocks and children in open revolt, even she is finding that 2020 is a lot to take.

Checking in back in September with Paul Boschi, event producer extraordinaire (but with very little now to produce), and also an American abroad, to get his perspective on life in Europe and also on the sidelines. Also – there’s an election coming up. Maybe you heard?

Like so many of us, Prof. Catherine M. Christopher, JD is dueling for internet time with her three children and husband as they all try to make online school make some kind of sense. Also, your host gets an education on view of the world from Lubbock, TX.

We’re back with new episodes after a short hiatus, starting with the conversation from July, where we checked in with Candace, our correspondent in Raleigh, North Carolina. After several months of forced unemployment, she found returning to restaurant business to be dangerous, exhausting, and ultimately untenable.

Yes, Georgia is a mess right now… and so is the criminal justice system. Courts are closed, people are sitting in jails waiting for trial, and no one knows how to move forward. All this and more in my conversation with Joshua Schiffer, Esq. of ChancoSchiffer, P.C., a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer in Atlanta.

School is out for summer here in NYC (whatever that means), and so we checked in again with 4th grade teacher Lindsey, who has a lot to say about remote learning past and future.

With the country a crazy patchwork of inconsistent policies and ever-shifting amounts of fear and concern, photographer Michael is doing something most of are still far from attempting – traveling for work. What’s it like to fly in coronaland? Stay in hotels? Visit offices? Let’s find out.

During a very strange and confusing week, where things seem to be improving here in New York and also going to heck just about everywhere else, we check in again with our very first guest, Angie – a graphic designer and mother of two who isn’t much more sure of where she stands at three months in than she was on day one.

Solidarity, surrealism, solace, and the betting odds on a second American Civil War, as we check in again with Wisconsin college professor Naomi, who has been finding a new way through the COVID crisis by attending Black Lives Matter protests.

Collin Lyle Howard is a singer and actor here in New York, and the explosion of the Black Lives Matter movement have inspired him to find himself in another way - as an activist.

Over the course of a weekend, everything changed again. Tragic violence brought simmering anger to a rolling boil, and many who had been self-quarantined were now hitting the streets to march and protest. I turn to one of my one of my closest friends to try to work it all through.

There's been a lot of support for doctors and nurses as they care for those who are entering the hospital with COVID-19... but far fewer are talking about those who care the worst cases as they leave. Let's hear from Kaliq, a technician at the office of the New York City Medical Examiner, one of the unsung heroes who process the dead.

Even for a supermom like Megan Harper (of Red Tricycle, Tiny Beans, and the instagram feed @GirlGoneChildinNYC) being on lockdown with a husband and three kids in a one-bedroom apartment is a lot. Really a lot. An awful lot. A lot.

Ann and her family all had COVID-19, and even though the cases were mild, it was still a scary, frustrating experience... and one that held on for weeks and weeks.

Joe Apfelbaum of Ajax Union is entering the second month of lockdown with in a fighting stance - he's going to save his family, save his business, and if you let him, maybe even save you.

Today I spoke to Patrick Sasso of Loop 7, who, despite the hit his business has taken, is finding real causes for optimism in all this - in the way we care for each other, and in the resiliency of our fellow New Yorkers.

Dan London and I have made podcasts together before - there's a bunch of them over under "London's New York" on this same network... tonight we talked about changing plans, modified expectations, and the nature of national identity in the time of COVID.

Lindsay Heather Pearce is a fiercely talented singer and actress who worked for years before getting her big break - the lead part in one of the biggest shows on Broadway. Unfortunately, the world had other plans.

Despite all the politics and abstract philosophy that's creeping in to how most of the rest of the country is still talking about COVID-19, there's an actual disease at work here, and it's nasty business. Phil is my neighbor. He's a doctor. He got very sick with this damned virus and lived to tell the tale.

Michael Shaw Fisher, a celebrated playwright in Los Angeles, is spending this lockdown clinging to his job with a moving company as he watches his entire creative community go into a tailspin.

Candace, a rock and roller who was making a good living working in restaurants, moved from New York to North Carolina in search of a lower cost of living and reconnection with her family. Now she and her whole band are locked up together with no income. Difficulties abound, but optimism holds.

Have a story to share? Contact TheBigShutIn@RacecarRadio.com

You can find Candace's band, Fall of Another Year on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Fall-Of-Another-Year-567682636587705) and Bandcamp (https://fallofanotheryear1.bandcamp.com/)

For many of us, the only thing more frustrating than the constraints of quarantine have been the difficulties of accessing real help from the government. The severely overtaxed unemployment system is a dysfunctional mess, and other assistance is thin on the ground. I talked to my friend and colleague Matt - a successful freelance videographer here in New York - about the challenges of keeping himself afloat when he's not allowed to work.

With medical resources stretched beyond the breaking point, and hospitals barely able to keep up, what is it like to need medical care for some other reason? What in the world is it like for a New Yorker to have a BABY right now? I speak with expert NYC doula Megan Davidson about the unique challenges and hardships of giving birth in Covidville.

Two friends, 2,700 miles, a cardboard box, and a house plant. Not all quarantines are created equal.

It's been a full week now, and emotions are running high. I speak to Naomi, a college professor in the Midwest whose concern for her family in lockdown is becoming anger at larger problems that she sees as its roots.

The first week of whatever this is going to be is behind us... and however confused parents are about how to proceed, teachers are not much better off. I speak to Lindsey, a 4th Grade teacher in Brooklyn.

Day two of family lockdown, and life is rapidly descending in to the surreal. I speak to Quinn, a carpenter and production manager who is also a neighbor in Queens.

It's the first day of family quarantine, and emotions are running high. I speak to Angie, a graphic designer and mother of two who lives around the corner from me in Queens.