THIS ONE IS IN DUTCH – Hoewel er pas nog een verhaaltje van de scheepsjongens op CLUB JEROEN stond was die van een tijdje geleden alweer. Ik was gewoon vergeten dat dingetje online te ztten. En wat krijg je dan? Ja, alweer een gesprekje met die jongens op de boot. Jongen, enkelvoud! Wat blijkt? Ze zitten hier helaas nog wel even. Ze kunnen even niet weg. De grenzen zitten dicht en het slecht weer jaargetijde komt eraan. Dus is Daniel even vakantie gaan houden, hij had tenslotte nog bijna niks van Australie gezien en zit Jordy in zijn eentje op dat grote schip… Nou ja, in zijn eentje… Terwijl hij 5 dagen per week drankjes mixt achter leuke barretjes in Port Douglas, neemt hij nog steeds backpackers mee voor gezellige zeil tochtjes. Laat kapitein Jordy maar schuiven!

THIS ONE IS IN DUTCH – 1000’s of Aussies are stranded overseas. They can’t return home because the AU federal government has placed a cap, or upper limit on the number of citizens and permanent residents that can arrive back in Australia. This is, so they claim, to not overwhelm the COVID19 quarantine facilities (travelers arriving in Australia have to go into quarantine for 14 days). However, the responsibility of making sure this upper limit is actually adhered to is placed largely with the airlines. As you can imagine this leads to utter chaos. Travelers often don’t know until they arrive at the airport whether their flight will indeed take off or if they will get a seat (which is booked and paid for). Since only a few 1000 people can arrive each week, planes fly to Australia mostly empty. The ticket prices are sky-rocketing! If you don’t book business class you basically, or so it seems, don’t stand a chance of getting on a flight. One man (himself a stranded traveler) trying to highlight the problem is Dutch-born, Pieter. He created the web site REMOVETHECAP.COM. Thousands of people registered with his site and dropped a pin on the map to show where they are stranded. Pieter is one of the faces of an Amnesty International campaign that tries to get Aussies back home, and he spoke at a Senate Select Committee hearing via video-link. This interview aired on both SBS and 4EB in Brisbane  

The stories from the Tulsa Police Department (TPD for friends) keep getting grittier… Officer Jay relays a story of a guy waving a gun around, drunk, on a balcony… That’s a recipe for disaster! Our record-keeping wasn’t the best back then, but we do think it was first released on April 16, 2007 – This is real life, in the fast lane of one midwestern American city.

This episode originally “aired” on the 5th of July of 2005. You’d think it would be all about Independence Day, since that is kind of a big deal in the place I used to refer to as the Hickory Smoked Heartland. However, I had just come down from a tornado-high. So the first 10 or so minutes are me rambling on about the weather… I was recording my shit-scared self throughout one of the nights that the tornado sirens had gone off… That is really not something you “really” ever get used to! Enjoy a slightly (no really, severely) spooked Skinny White Boy. 

THIS ONE IS IN DUTCH – Ik was het bijna vergeten… Onze hollandse mannen op die zeilboot. Dit is alweer een tijdje geleden op SBS uitgezonden. Ze zitten nog steeds in Australie, want ook als je niet vliegt dan zitten toch op een heleboel plekken de grensen dicht. Dus zeilen ze een beetje rond met andere backpackers. En daar kunnen ze leuk over vertellen! Hij was 15 Augustus al op de radio (zoals ik al zei, ik was het bijna vergeten) en toen kwam het bij SBS zo op de web site te staan:

SBS Dutch verslaggever Jeroen Schouten in Queensland ging even poolshoogte nemen bij de Scheepsjongens van Samara, de twee rugzaktoeristen die in februari al een schip hebben gekocht om daarmee corona te ontlopen en naar Nederland te varen. Een geweldig romantisch en avontuurlijk plan, maar er waren eerst wat dringende reparaties nodig voordat het schip de zee opkon. Ook moesten de co-kapiteins Jordy en Daniel eerst nog even leren zeilen. Waar zijn ze nu?

THIS ONE IS IN DUTCH – Jopie Witzand, host and executive producer for SBS Dutch interviews yours truly. Previously aired on SBS2 and on 4EB. 

Even though you may think this is a joke, considering this was originally publish on April 1, 2007, when your assailant is coming at you swinging, wielding a barbecue fork, your best defense is to keep it food related and in the kitchen. What does every cop pretty much all over the world carry around all day? Pepper spray! You season your steaks and make people cry all from one simple can!  Your favorite friendly mid-western police officers have the deetz!

Most people do not know that before 9/11 (way way way back in 1945) a plane crashed in NYC. Right into the Empire State Building!. I have the audio of that in this episode of the Kastpod (number 5) which originally publish on June 27 2005. There is some other useless stuff (a 3 year old riding go-kart over the foot of his 9-month old cousing) and some reasonably decent music. THIS IS HISTORICAL GOODNESS! 

THIS ONE IS IN DUTCH – Hoe ervaren de in Queensland wonende Nederlanders  de Corona crisis en beperkingen? Ik ben het even gaan vragen aan de mensen die ik op Facebook tegenkom. Het blijkt wel mee te vallen! Nederlanders zijn redelijk nuchter en redelijk opti… Had je eigenlijk iets anders verwacht? We maken ons best zorgen om de economie, maar we moeten ook eigenlijk wel lachen om dat WC papier gedoe!

Beer and cars is never a good combo. It gets even worse when it snows! Really, don’t do it. But if you were in Tulsa some time around 21 March 2007 (the original publication date for this podcast) you could easily have gotten yourself chased by officer Jay. It turns into a foot pursuit, the driver running into the front and out the back of an apartment building and a confession of the passenger in this ice cold adventure that earlier they crashed the car into a wall. Grandma’s car no less, who now has no way of getting to work!