100th Episode Recap: Bunny & Johanna

Episode Transcript

Bunny : (00:00)
Wow. It’s crazy to think about it, but we are recording the 100th episode of the I Love New Mexico podcast. And so Johanna and I are doing it together, and we decided that the best way to do it would be to go through all of the podcast and choose. I, I mean, I, I feel like the boundaries were kind of loose, like choose the things that surprised us or inspired us or made us want to go to the places that the people, the guests talked about or read the book. And this was kind of a hard assignment for me, Johanna, because there’s, the truth is every single one of the episodes has some little gem of wisdom or information about something in New Mexico, or, or an inspiring moment where the, where the guest talked about how being in New Mexico or from New Mexico changed their lives. So I’m, I’m curious if that’s how it was for you too.

Johanna : (01:01)
Yeah, it was definitely hard to pick. I think I kind of, I had some in mind that I remembered because I mean, I don’t record them all, but I edit them all. So I’ve definitely listened to ’em a few times and, um, you know, there’s things that have always stuck out in my mind about certain episodes. And, but I mean, we have been recording, I just double checked that August 2nd, 2022 was when the first episode of I Love New Mexico came out. So we’re right about two years of recording, which adds of Right. A hundred episodes. And we’ve had a couple of here and there, but not many. Um, we’ve really never taken off for holidays or had breaks. So, um, we have a lot of episodes to look back on and just so many different types of stories. We have had business owners and, um, authors and artists and, um, people from small towns, people from the big cities. And so I think it’s just really cool to look back on the variety of episodes we’ve recorded.

Bunny : (02:05)
Well and I wanna say, I would invite everybody who’s listening to stay until the end, because we will talk about the things we recorded that, were the most important to us at the very end. But this has been a huge gift in my life. And when we first talked about creating the podcast, it was a, a successor to the, um, lifesaving Gratitude podcast, which was based on my book, the book that I wrote about my cancer journey and how gratitude was one of the pieces that saved my life. And, and I know that when we were doing that podcast, we were both, like, after a while, we were like, oh, every conversation we’re having is so similar. I mean, yes, we believe in gratitude, but how many times can we talk about mindfulness and keeping a gratitude journal and doing, um, the things that people do to keep gratitude alive in their lives?

Bunny : (03:00)
And so, I gotta say, while all those conversations were really similar, we haven’t had a conversation with anybody on this podcast that was like another conversation that we had. So I, it’s been such a gift and so much fun, and I’ve gotten to know people that I never would’ve gotten to know. And we’ve got to hear stories from all corners of the state. And I, this, I mean, I don’t ever wanna stop doing this. I can’t wait to do the 200th episode because this is really fun. And I hear from people, you know, I had a client come into the office last week who wanted to buy a house, and she said, I’ve been following you for two years. And I thought, have we been doing this for two years?

Johanna : (03:43)
?

Bunny : (03:44)
So people, people seem to like it. I think it’s so fun and I, it’s so informative. I mean, whether, like you say every episode, whether you’ve lived here your whole life, or you’re new to New Mexico, or you’re planning a visit, um, there’s just a wealth of information.

Bunny : (04:03)
One of the things that I didn’t know that I learned after doing these recordings were, was, um, I, my, well, this is hard for me. Um, why don’t you start with yours, .

Johanna : (04:17)
Okay. Okay. Um, well, uh, I also wanna say like, I’ve, uh, part of it too, I, I know this isn’t really what we planned, but I, I’ve seen a lot, especially as the producer and editor, like, I’ve seen you grow a lot, like as a interviewer, as, um, as a podcast host, and kind of like as a storyteller in a, as a listener, I guess is what I was gonna say too. Like, the way that you’re listening to the stories and taking them in, I, I remember in the beginning, you know, you beat, I mean, you’re, you’re never nervous or anxious about anything, but being a little bit unsure about what kind of questions to ask or how to go about it, um, that’s really, uh, changed a lot in the last two years where you’re just like really present and listening to people when they’re, when they’re sharing their stories.

Johanna : (05:07)
And I think that that’s cool to see, because I think like you’ve grown too, you know, and I, I’m sure, you know, when we listen to other people’s stories and we learn about other people, it teaches us a lot about ourselves too. So it gives us that time to reflect and just to be exposed to other people’s lives and, um, other experiences. You know, you, you would never have enough time in a life to experience all the things that our guests have experienced. So it’s really cool to get to do that and little 30 minute chunks and, um, you know, we have people that come back or they’ll email us months later like, Hey, this is what’s going on now. Or, you know, um, just kind of wanna give you an update. And sometimes we’ll have them on and, you know, sometimes, but it’s just really cool to have had made those connections. Well,

Bunny : (05:55)
I appreciate you saying that because I think I would say to anybody who’s out there listening that, um, if podcasting feels daunting or a little bit intimidating, it, I, it sort of is in the beginning, you know, neither one of us had any experience doing this before, and other than listening to podcasts, and so there, there were all these technical issues to learn, but also, like you say, you have to learn to relax and listen, which is, I think is important in any phase of life. And, um, so one of, one of the best examples of how I was surprised at this. So, so for people who don’t know how this works, we very frequently will put out a call on Instagram or on Facebook and say, you know, we’re interested in hearing your story. We’re interested in knowing what’s going on. And one of the funnest, um, episodes that I did this past year that really surprised me and was like working with a comedy team was when I, we interviewed Carlos and Paul Meyer, who are the brothers whose mother grew up in Anton Chico.

Bunny : (07:12)
And they grew up in the South, south Valley, I think in Santa Mm-Hmm. In Albuquerque. And, um, one of them still lives in Albuquerque and one lives in la but they wrote a graphic novel for young adults called Under the Cottonwood Tree. And they were, um, you know, ahead of time, people will get in touch with Johanna or I, and they’ll say, oh, we have this book, and we’ll, and I’ll think, okay, great, you know, I’m gonna get to, you know, it’s almost like a duty. And these guys were so much fun, and they were so bound and determined to tell stories from about their mother. But I, um, one of the best pieces of that episode was when they talked about, um, and, and I’m gonna get the the terminology wrong, but there’s a, uh, Spanish word for, um, messy, um, and they talked about how their, their mother was, had a bunch of brothers, and when she would get up in the morning with messy hair, they would call her by that name. Oh, yeah.

Johanna : (08:14)
Graduna, I think.

Bunny : (08:15)
Yeah. Mm-Hmm. , yeah. What was it?

Johanna : (08:18)
Granuda? It’s

Bunny : (08:19)
Granuda. Yes. Yes. And, um,

Johanna : (08:21)
I’m probably saying it wrong too, and I have the right accent book. Yeah.

Bunny : (08:25)
They took, and, and, and, um, they, they took that story and created this graphic novel where the, where the Garda, which is a, a female who looks messy and doesn’t look like everybody else, actually, uh, that’s her superpower being different from other people. And I love, I love

Johanna : (08:45)
That .

Bunny : (08:46)
That was fun. And it was so funny. And then soon after that, Carlos came by the office and left a copy with me, and I’ve given one of them to somebody who has, um, young grandchildren. But I thought, who in the world would’ve known we’d get to meet those guys and be entertained by them? And I’m telling you, go and find their book under the Cottonwood Tree. We’ll provide a link. But that was one of the, one of the funnest and most unexpected podcasts that we had. So I’m curious to hear what your next one might be, Johanna.

Johanna : (09:17)
Well, I was just gonna say, since we’re on that, they were on my list too. Um, we both, we both kind of picked a top five, I mean, not in any kind of order, but the top five that stuck out, um, for time, for time sake, . Um, but Carlos and Paul Meyer were on mine too, because I loved their story. I loved how Yeah, I think they were, they were some guests that kind of came, like, fell into our laps, or were suggested through Instagram. And, um, their story was so interesting. And I, um, part of this episode is, well, I’ll put clips of, of our favorite parts of those in here, so I’ll just let them tell it. But I, I just really, I hope that their story can, can reach more people because I think it’s really, really important the message and the cultural aspect to it that they’re trying to share with a bigger audience. So yeah, I really loved that episode a lot

Carlos Meyer : (10:11)
On Sunday morning. Her mom would especially make sure her hair was all combed and get ready for church. ’cause she, her mom would tell her, I don’t want you to look all like the girls from Uncle Chico. And that, I thought, well, that’s my mom , so what? So it, it generated into a, a, an origin of, of a, a little girl superhero. So that’s . So

Paul Meyer : (10:38)
You, so when, Carlos was telling me that, that story, and I thought, oh my gosh. Well, that’s our mom from the ranch Antonchico . And we we’re, we’re trying to say is oftentimes you hear that word and it, it implies it, it says, it’s literally, it’s, it’s messy hair, but it also implies poor and Yeah. And, and unsophisticated. So Carlos and I thought, what if we based a little, um, Chicana superhero that is, is really embracing her difference? Yes. She’s from the ranch. Yes. She only has friends that are animals that she talks to. But what if she’s actually, you know, that’s, let’s embrace the, the specialist, the difference.

Bunny : (11:28)
Well, tell me a different one of yours. .

Johanna : (11:31)
Okay. Um, the other one I put, um, again, not in any particular order, but, um, I really, the one that when we started thinking about it, uh, I went back to was the episode about Corgan’s Lodge. Mm-Hmm. because, um, for me, I didn’t realize that that’s somewhere that you had been when you were a child and you’d gone with granny and pop there, um, with your parents. And, um, that it’s still around offense, but still around today, . Um, and it’s still very popular. And, um, and the history of it is so interesting and, and that it’s, you maybe changed and, and had a little renovation or different iterations here and there, but like, I, that’s one place that I was very interested to hear not only the backstory of the lodge, but your experience with it, and then also adding it to my list of places that I have to go to .

Bunny : (12:27)
It’s on my bucket list. I started thinking about it this morning. I thought, man, we’ve got to get up there in the fall. So we’ll have a link to Corkins Lodge, because that was, um, that was one of my favorites too.

Maresa Thompson: (12:41)
It’s really fun to go as a group, but if you, it’s also very romantic. If you just want a, a tiny cabin vacation for a romantic getaway and just to kind of connect with your loved one up there, it’s, it’s perfect for that as well.

Bunny : (12:55)
Well, so I haven’t been since I was a child, but my parents who celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in May used to sneak away and go there, um, even as recently as maybe eight or 10 years ago. And so Corkin holds a really special place for me because of that. My dad just passed away like three weeks ago. And so when I think about it, I think about them like leaping in the car when, when whatever business they were, they were entrepreneurs. So whatever business they had going at the moment, they would say, uh, we’re going away for three or four days. And in fact, one time they came to see us in Santa Fe and said, uh, we’re gonna be gone for a while. And they drove right up to Corkins. And I don’t, and now I would never recommend this to somebody now, but I, you know, I think in the last, you know, 25, 30 years, they sometimes just drove up hoping that they could get a place to stay.

Bunny : (13:58)
And almost always at that point in time, they were able to spend a couple of nights. And it’s so sweet to think of them doing that. It was really special to them. This was really hard for me. Like I said, it was hard for me to pick something. I know that I’m hopeful that everybody’s listened to the recent episodes with John Mulhouse about abandoned New Mexico, because that’s an amazing book. Um, I want everybody to know about that. But we had Anne Hillerman on the show to talk about, um, her new book Lost Birds, and she shared something that I didn’t know anything about, which was about, um, that Lost Birds is a term for children who were, um, adopted off of the reservation by non-natives and then raised as non-natives. And I thought that was a really important, um, thing for people to learn about. Plus the book was so fabulous.

Anne Hillerman : (15:05)
Yeah. I’m really so happy that Lost Birds is almost, almost here, as you said, it comes out on April 23rd, and I feel like a new mom.

Bunny : (15:15)
I gotta tell your publicist sent me a digital copy of the book, and this has been a crazy week because as you know, I’m gonna be traveling next week, and yesterday while I was getting my hair cut, I said, oh, I, I have a book to read before morning. And so I want you to know that between three 15 yesterday and eight 15 this morning, I read the entire book. And partially I got it read because I couldn’t put it down. So once again, you created, um, a world that, um, I got completely sucked into and talk about Lost Birds. It what I’d like for the, for our listeners to know what the term lost birds means to people in the Navajo culture.

Anne Hillerman : (16:03)
Well, thank you for asking that question lot. Oh, A lost bird is the term, and it’s not only used by the Navajo culture, but really by most indigenous cultures. Okay. And it refers to a child who was removed from the, the culture of birth and adopted by, uh, a family out outside of that, outside of that cultural background.

Bunny : (16:26)
We love Anne Hillerman. Anyway, she’s easy to love. She’s a great writer. Um, I was a fan of Tony, who, her dad, who kept me sane when I lived away from New Mexico, but I, that’s a good episode to go back and listen to. It’s a great book. Tell me about yours. Did, are yours, yours? I think that your, your choices are as much about places as about personalities, right?

Johanna : (16:48)
So the other episode that I wanted to revisit because just the place seems so interesting was episode 66 with Timothy Welch talking about the lodge at Cloudcroft. That’s just another place that I really wanna go. I, you know, I need to explore a lot more of Southern New Mexico. I, I am a real northern and eastern New Mexico girl. That’s where I’ve grown up and where I’ve lived and where I’ve experienced most of, I mean, I’ve been to Las Cruces a few times. I’ve, um, been like to hatch really on the way to other places, but I have to admit, I’m a little ashamed that there’s a lot of places in Southern New Mexico that I haven’t been to. And so I’m excited to go check out the Lodge a Cloudcroft, and I think it’ll be really beautiful and a fun place to go. And hopefully I’ll run into Tim down there.

Bunny : (17:40)
So, talk about the lodge. What’s what I, because it’s very historic, right?

Timothey Welch: (17:47)
Incredibly historic.

Timothy Welch : (17:48)
So the lodge as an institution, has been around since 1901. So when they first established Cloudcroft as a resort, they needed a place for all the people to stay. Um, they first established the Pavilion, which was more of a community center with some lodging, and then they decided to build this much larger, um, lodge in 1901, made out of pine trees. Uh, I think it had about a hundred rooms at the time.

Johanna : (18:25)
Okay. One that I could not leave out because it was part of our Haunted New Mexico series, which was the last time I got my voice on the podcast. Um, in October, we did a series about, uh, haunted places in New Mexico and, uh, New Mexico towns or hotels that were again, haunted or have claims of being haunted. So you could go back and listen to those. It would be awesome to go back during like, spooky season and check those out. Um, but, but the one that I really loved hearing about was when you talked about the Double Eagle in Macia. Again, a place I’ve never been Southern New Mexico, I have to admit. I haven’t been to Macia, but I knew okay, for two reasons. I, I really wanna go to Macia because I’ve heard your stories about that going there all the time when you were in college, um, in Las Cruces and living in Macia or near Macia and going there and how it’s really just a cute town.

Johanna : (19:28)
It’s a small southern New Mexico village almost. I might have to double check on the size of it, but I know it’s small. Um, so one checking off the bucket list of visiting Macia and a Southern New Mexico town, but also going to the Double Eagle, um, because it’s one of those haunted places and it has a lot of lore and history to it. So that was episode 63, um, and you bunny covered it, but, um, I’m sure I would love to get somebody who works there or knows more about, uh, the Double Eagle on as a guest. So here’s a little bit more about the Double Eagle.

Bunny : (20:08)
The Double Eagle is on the National Registry of Historic Buildings. It was constructed in the late 1840s. One, um, account has it constructed in 1849. And it was, um, it’s, it, you know, one of the notes I read said, it’s witnessed many colorful and historical events from the Mexican American War of 1846 to the confirmation of the Gadsden purchase on the Plaza in 1853. If you’ve ever been to Macia, which is in Southern New Mexico, just about three miles west of Las Cruces, then you, um, then you know exactly what we’re talking about. So there, it was a private residence for a long time. And then in 1872, um, Robert O. Anderson, who is a colorful, um, rather wealthy businessman in the history of New Mexico, purchased it. And then in 1984, um, buddy Ritter, who is a fifth generation Macia descendant, bought the building and restored it. So, um, the Double Eagle became a restaurant and Subpoint, but people who work at the restaurant have many stories about ghosts in the restaurant, especially in the Carlotta room.

Bunny : (21:30)
And so I thought, I’m gonna, I’m gonna figure this out. I’m going to read everything I can about the Double Eagle, and then I’m going to share what I’ve read with you. And so, a couple of my other favorite episodes out of the, um, 100 EPIs, I’m sorry, 99 episodes that we’ve done for the I Love New Mexico podcast, or the ones that surprised me and, um, that I found, um, to be a little bit emotional, but also where my guest made pronouncements that, um, surprised me. One of them was when we interviewed Dakota Wise, who I think is a young genius. Uh, she’s a chef in Santa Fe who has been on Top Chef, but she’s also a cancer survivor. And she and I were talking about food and we were talking about life choices. And then she said, you know, one of the things that I know, and I’m, I’m not saying this verbatim, I’m gonna put a clip in here as well, but one of the things that she said was that, um, after all, um, having cancer and surviving cancer was one of the best things that ever happened to her.

Dakota Weiss: (22:39)
A hundred percent get it. I made that statement about a, a year ago to a friend, and she’s like, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. And it’s true. . Oh, it’s honestly like, I would like, like, like you, I would not be where I am right now had it not been for cancer diagnosis. Yeah. That, that was, that was the ultimate change of everything, .

Bunny : (23:01)
And yet we lose a, we, we lose a million people. We love to it. It’s so ous. Yeah. It’s so awful in some ways. And so, and, and, and I, I mean, I hate to use this term, but to me it was a gift in a lot of ways. Yeah. It made me wake up.

Dakota Weiss: (23:17)
Absolutely. Well, it, it brought me back to New Mexico. Yes. Which, you know, I think is, is pretty cool

Bunny : (23:23)
For those of you who are in the middle of a cancer journey or have lost somebody. I know that’s probably not how you feel, but I agree with Dakota. In fact, I wouldn’t be here doing this podcast, I don’t think, if I hadn’t had this very dire cancer diagnosis that I then survived. And everything in my life since that time has been informed by that disease. So I think it’s really interesting that somebody as young as Dakota who had to have a double mastectomy and who lost her mom to breast cancer would still say cancer was having cancer was one of the best things that ever happened to me. And that was reflected in another one of my favorite episodes where I interviewed artist Kiki Martinez and her best friend Suzanne Re, both of whom are becoming great friends of mine, which never would’ve happened if I hadn’t been doing the podcast.

Bunny : (24:20)
And they talked about Suzanne being diagnosed with stage four cancer, and how their friendship of 20 years was one of the things that had sustained the two of them over years and years. And especially during Suzanne’s diagnosis. You know, I talked to them because they were, Kiki was doing a piece of art for the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico’s sweetheart auction, and Suzanne was her subject. And the resulting piece of work was beautiful, but more beautiful than the artwork was. The story of them talking about how they both interpreted this crisis in their life and how it changed both of them for the better, much like Dakota said. And it made their friendships stronger than ever.

Suzanne Sakelaris: (25:20)
Actually, Kiki is the one that brought me to the Cancer Foundation. Um, and I’ve been going to the sweetheart auction as a guest of Kiki’s through, through the years. Um, but then this summer, uh, she brought me to a little event, and that’s where, um, I met some fantastic board members. And, um, they heard about my story, my, my cancer story, um, and asked me if I would be interested in supporting the, uh, sweetheart auction, um, and being on the committee. And I jumped at it. I said, absolutely. Um, I was diagnosed with cancer in 2018, five months after I had just married, gotten gotten married, um, for the second time. And, um, so it was kind of a shock, um, to my husband and, and me. I, um, was fortunate enough I was, I was diagnosed with, um, a lipos sarcoma in my thigh, which is a very, um, well, it’s, it’s a, the type of cancer that if it progresses, it’s very hard to, um, uh, heal from.

Bunny : (26:38)
So two of my final favorites, other than the last one that Johanna and I wanna talk about together is the Dakota Weiss piece. Um, she’s brilliant. Get to one of her restaurants and have dinner today, and Kiki Martinez and Suzanne Re what a gift those were. So the final piece, the final thing that we want to, um, celebrate in this hundredth recording where we’ve talked about what a gift it was to meet so many different people and to, um, cover so many topics that were either new to us or that we wanted to be better informed on. The coolest thing that happened, obviously, to me, and I think that Johanna agrees, is that in October of 2022, I thought it would be fun to sit down with my parents, Betty and Kenneth Harry, and talk to them about their New Mexico stories. And little did we know that in 2023, we would lose both of them. So it’s amazing that we have these recordings, um, not just one, but two episodes where they tell stories that are really personal to them. I don’t know if you feel the same way, Johanna. I

Johanna : (27:54)
Yeah, of course. I I am so grateful that you did that. It’s, it’s hard to even talk about it. Um,

Bunny : (28:02)
Much less listened to it. Yeah.

Johanna : (28:03)
I really, I haven’t listened to it. I really can’t re-listen to it either. But I think no matter, um, if our regular listeners care about those episodes at all, it doesn’t matter because it’s, it’s really special that we have those and that we can share it with our family as well, and that we’ve just preserved those stories. And it just comes back to kind of the point of this podcast and why you started it was to get New Mexico stories and get people’s real experiences. And, um, and, and they were the first New Mexico story. You know, they’re the New Mexico story of your life too. So, um, it all just kind of came full circle with that. And then again, the fact that we have those, we have their voices that are so unique and, and wonderful to listen to. Um, we have those forever.

Bunny : (28:54)
And, and we have the stories, you know, I mean, dad told stories about driving a, a i, I can’t remember now, the year, like a 1948 Ford pickup from, um, Sanon New Mexico to, um, Los Lunas. They told the story of how they were married, and when they got married, dad had to borrow $5 from his new mother-in-Law. And of course, they were babies 15 and 17, and then they were married for 73 years. Um, it’s almost, yeah, no, they were married for 73 years, weren’t they? Mm-Hmm. . But those are amazing New Mexico stories told by the people who lived them, people who were born in the thirties. Um, you, my family came to New Mexico in the teens, the Terry’s, I think in 1912, and my mom’s family in, um, 1914. So those are stories that they’re are worth going back to listen to, whether you know, the people that we love or not. Mm-Hmm. .

Johanna : (29:56)
Yeah. And they’re, I, it, they’re stories that I’d never heard from them before either. So it’s, it was exciting the first time I listened to it. And I know someday I’ll go back and, and listen again. Um, even just, even just to hear them. But the stories were so funny and inter they’re, they’re both such funny people. So I love those episodes.

Bunny : (30:18)
So that’s the gift that this podcast has given us. Um, new stories and old stories and um, new acquaintances and people that will remain our friends forever. And, um, most importantly, the gift of talking to our parents before they passed away in 2023, both of them, which within 80 days of each other. So I would say, um, if you get a chance to listen to, um, a story told by somebody you love today, I take it.

Johanna : (30:55)
Yes. . Yep.

Bunny : (30:56)
That’s it. We gotta stop now or we’re gonna be crying. . Thank you for listening. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to listen to the I Love New Mexico podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please feel free to share it with your friends on social media or by texting or messaging or emailing them a copy of the podcast. If you have a New Mexico story that you’d like to share with us, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our email address is I love New Mexico blog@gmail.com, and we are always, always looking for interesting stories about New Mexico. Subscribe, share, and write a review so that we can continue to bring you these stories about the Land of Enchantment. Thank you so much.