Answering questions on the Rob Burgess Show!
So, this past Tuesday, Rob Burgess had me as a guest on his podcast, the Rob Burgess Show. Here’s the link if you want to listen in. Please do! And check out his other podcasts here on Substack. I’ve known Rob ever since he became news editor at NUVO in 2018. I have to say, I’ve never met such a disciplined journalist with such an incredible sense of detail. His coverage of Marion County municipal elections for NUVO was something to behold. And his “Rob Burgess Show” podcast might be a side project, but he’s put out them out weekly since 2016.
During this podcast, Rob asked me why I’ve been out in San Diego for the past year and a half. I told him that my dad was having a hard time taking care of my mom, who has severe arthritis and other health problems, at home, which happens to be in San Diego, California. So that’s what I’ve been doing, more or less, fulltime. But in my off hours, I’ve had time to pursue my writing, in both journalism and poetic form. As I explain in the podcast, I’m currently working on a volume tentatively titled A Thing for Border Towns: A Memoir in Poetry, Journals, and Fiction. It’s centered on a trip I took in October 2023 along the US-Mexico border, from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas. During this time, I volunteered for three humanitarian organizations along the border. I talked to migrants, humanitarian volunteers, right wing podcasters, business owners, sheriffs, and whoever else I happened to run into. While in San Diego, I’ve had the opption facility on the border, managed by Border Patrol, called Whiskey 8. I spend the first part of the podcast talking to Rob about this facility. We also talk about numerous other topics including my previous volume of poetry Mindfucking Roundabouts of Carmel, Indiana, social media (especially Bluesky), and artificial intelligence! I hope you have a chance to listen in!
Images from Left to Right: Border Church at “Whiskey 8” at US-Mexico border fence in San Diego County; panoramic images from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas, along border; panoramic images taken around Whiskey 8; cover photograph for ‘Mindfucking Roundabouts of Carmel, Indiana: Poems and Short Prose.’
