22 Sides
22 Sides is a podcast that will let you get to know some fascinating people and keep up with many things that are happening in and around the Houston area.
22 Sides
Faces Behind the Voices: A Journey Through Our Podcast's Guest Gallery
Ever wonder what happens when podcast hosts dish about their favorite guests? Alexis and Robin take you behind the scenes of their nearly 20-episode journey, revealing the moments that made them laugh, learn, and occasionally gasp in surprise.
From Amber's hunting adventures in Texas (where everything's done at long range and requires "a really big gun") to Mel's horror media enthusiasm that kicks off the conversation about spooky season, the hosts reminisce about the diverse voices that have shaped their podcast. They celebrate Amore's nail artistry that inspired Alexis's two-toned manicure, John Rosenthal's insights into Texas redistricting, and Amanda Edwards' campaign for the historically significant District 18 seat.
The conversation flows through Houston's flourishing poetry scene with Kathy Crawford, where "what skill you have will be celebrated," to Jovan Taylor's political aspirations while maintaining his day job. Listeners get intimate glimpses of memorable moments like when Falcon and Sushi reunited on air to discuss LGBT bar history in Houston, including the mysterious disappeared disco ball that once hung at the Montrose and Westheimer intersection.
The hosts highlight Dr. Maria Gonzalez's efforts to maintain inclusivity in education, Jennifer Marie's boundary-setting "honey badger" style, Sharon Franti's documentary filmmaking journey, and Francine's work with Nova Ukraine. They touch on conversations about artificial intelligence with Jacob, trauma healing through poetry, and Frost Murphy's diverse fitness approaches from home saunas to jiu-jitsu.
This retrospective episode captures the essence of meaningful conversations that extend beyond headlines and social media snippets. Want to suggest a topic or be a guest? Reach out through the website or email – Alexis and Robin are eager to continue building their podcast community with your help.
We hope you will listen often.
For more information, visit our website 22sides.com
What are you sucking on?
Alwxis:I wasn't, I was just turning on recording.
Robin:What's in your mouth.
Alwxis:Oh, what am I sucking on? Oh, that could be a very seductive question. It's a cough drop. It's Hall's cough drop Lots of menthol. Yeah, it's soothing my sinuses as we speak. That's good. It's caressing the insides of my sinuses and calming them down and making them feel like they're really wanted and needed, that they're in terribly, terribly, terribly good shape and they should just relax and be themselves and not cause me pain and problems.
Robin:Yes, good, good, bringing you ease and keeping you really open.
Alwxis:And then it goes on down and caresses my throat. It makes that feel totally comfortable. It's a very seductive soft drop, you know.
Robin:Who makes this Halt? Well, we don't want the Recoli people to find out, because next thing you know, they'll add so many more herbs and try to outblast people.
Alwxis:Well, recoli is different. It attacks your entire body and soothes it. I mean, I think it goes all the way to your toes, I'm not sure.
Robin:I'm pretty sure we're going to get cough drop sponsorship. I'm just kidding, okay, so I'm going to put this here for a time reminder.
Alwxis:You can't put it there for a time reminder why? Because we need a reminder of what episodes we're talking about.
Robin:Hmm. A reminder of what episodes we're talking about. Yeah, we're just going to talk about the people. Oh, because we don't really have episode one, two or three listed like that. We just have names.
Alwxis:Well, but we have lists, but we can talk about people if you'd rather. I like talking about people.
Robin:I think it's better if we name names, name names.
Alwxis:But if we talk about people, I want all the dirt.
Robin:All right, all right.
Alwxis:You know, I know you do these connections. No, I want the dirt.
Robin:You want the dirt yeah.
Alwxis:I want to know what their. You know, hidden secrets are Dirt.
Robin:Yeah, I want to know what their you know hidden secrets are. Okay, Well, start off this podcast. Podcast Are you going to introduce us?
Alwxis:I'll introduce us. I'm Alexis and I'm here with Robin, and Robin felt like that they needed to talk about all the people that we've had on the podcast and sort of look at how we've interacted with them and the positives and negatives, probably, of the whole thing. So that's what we're going to do.
Robin:Well, we've been doing this for a couple episodes now. We're just short of 20. And I think it's good to recap some good takeaways and maybe where we're going to grow from here.
Alwxis:Oh, we're going to grow.
Robin:I mean possibly, oh good, yeah, I think so. We appreciate the sponsorship as it's coming in and the likes and the shares and the comments, and we're getting some people that are excited to hear the next episodes.
Alwxis:And we've had some very interesting people on.
Robin:We have.
Alwxis:What are some of your things that float up to the top of your mind from some of the interviews that we've had some very interesting people on we have? What are some of your things that float up to the top of your mind from some of the interviews that we've done? I think you know? One of the ones that is stuck in my memory is Amber's hunting part.
Robin:Ooh, yes, behold the hunter.
Alwxis:Exactly, I think you know that was a surprise. How so?
Robin:I didn't know we were going to do hunting. I thought maybe we would talk about it because she was just coming off a trip, but you never know where the conversation is going to go and I had no idea I'd get so into creating the whole scene of hunting. So if you're just curious, or if you do like that, check out Amber's episode towards the end, or actually I think we made it. Maybe its own little thing, it's a separate episode. Okay, yeah, its own little thing.
Alwxis:There was a whole lot of stuff that day.
Robin:It made it such a nice little topic by itself.
Alwxis:I thought it was a pretty nice big topic by itself.
Robin:That was really good, and you used to hunt so I mean you'd have a. I thought it was great just because I got to hear about it and I don't have to go do it. But you used to hunt, so you even think it's great.
Alwxis:Yeah.
Robin:Yeah, so it talks a little bit about hunting in Texas, right.
Alwxis:Which is like hunting a lot of other places. Okay, you essentially go, you wait forever and hope you get a chance to do whatever it was you were going to do and then pretty good chance you're going to miss.
Robin:Yeah, you get to use all your toys.
Alwxis:Especially in Texas, because everything's done at long range.
Robin:Oh, definitely.
Alwxis:And in Texas you have to have a really big gun, which is interesting because Amber's done at long range, oh, definitely.
Robin:And in Texas you have to have a really big gun, which is interesting because Amber's not the largest person I know.
Alwxis:Right, she might be the smallest person that we know. I don't know.
Robin:Pretty close 5'3"-ish.
Alwxis:Yeah, but Mel's pretty small too.
Robin:That's true, we do have small friends Mel Alani. Mel Alani was a great episode. I think we kicked it off with Mel Alani, peters, peters or Peterson, I don't know. We'll have to check the podcast Well she. Peterson yeah, I just I loved where her conversation went because it it brings us right into spooky season.
Robin:Honestly, like when I think of Mel, I think of Halloween, cause that's her birthday and she loves horror, she loves media, and the conversation just got me to know her a little bit more. So, instead of just the things she likes, the way she thinks, the way she has, conversations that made a difference for me to get to know her.
Alwxis:We should do a special Halloween podcast.
Robin:I think that would be great. We could talk about ghosts and UFOs and all the things with Mel.
Alwxis:Not just with Mel, yeah, okay.
Robin:We'll bring a couple people in.
Alwxis:There's a lot of people in our circles that like Halloween a lot.
Robin:Yeah, the spookier the better. Yeah, Ha ha ha ha. Also, the creative, the better.
Alwxis:Exactly, and we could do it any time, because the trans community says okay, halloween's any time, absolutely After July 4th and before Thanksgiving.
Robin:Game on. We can celebrate it whenever we want. And Amore.
Alwxis:No, it's supposed to be the entire time.
Robin:Yes, yeah, oh yeah, right, yeah, exactly. Excuse me, I don't want to be kicked out already, but Amore talked a little bit about that how to get your costume ready, get some inspo on your hair, and you two really hit it off with your nails. She inspired you to get two different colored nails, so you got different nail colors a little ASMR per hand. That way you don't have to choose.
Alwxis:So how would you describe the left?
Robin:hand. Black, solid, no gloss, long claws, ready for spook season.
Alwxis:And the right hand.
Robin:Silver Reflective Glossy, glossy, sassy, sassy, ready for divine memory making.
Alwxis:So which one are longer, right or left hand?
Robin:I feel like the black ones are more pointy. I don't know if they're longer. Are they the same shape? Yes, they're the same shape, okay.
Alwxis:It's just the fact that one's reflective and the other one doesn't reflect anything.
Robin:Yeah, super fun. So she talked to us about Beyonce when Beyonce's crew called to see if she could do the Beyonce bowl.
Alwxis:And she said no.
Robin:She said no, and then she had to go back and be like okay, I talked to my family, they're like fine with it, even though it's during Christmas.
Alwxis:And then and we suspect that the family said are you crazy?
Robin:What? Call her back, call her back. Call her back so you might get that phone call of a and and it's not on a good date. You have to consult some things. Sometimes it's a trade-off, but she talks us through that and she actually just won, uh a makeup makeup artist award and she she's been in a few things that she's that she's uh still going and creating with, and this is her season where she picks up and Amore is about to open up her own hair salon.
Alwxis:And what's the name of that?
Robin:I don't know if she launched the name yet, but she's thinking the grand opening will be more towards November, so maybe we'll have her back on.
Alwxis:So check out that episode. I don't want to say her name, huh.
Robin:I actually don't know it. Do you know it? Yes, oh, what is it? Do I remember it? No, oh well, see, now we're just teasing people Well of course yeah. And then we had John Rosenthal before the special sessions.
Alwxis:Well, yeah, because after the special session, right after the legislation yeah, they've been spending their entire life in Austin since then.
Robin:Yeah, and he was just talking as the person, isn't he on the redistricting committee?
Alwxis:Yes, yeah, he's one of the people.
Robin:So he knew that that would get called on and that they'd have to go through that a little bit, and I think they're probably still going through it.
Alwxis:Or did they come up with a fine line? Well, they came up with it, passed it, governor signed it. So now it's going to court because the lawsuits are being filed or have been filed.
Robin:It'll keep going right and we really appreciated having John on here to sort of talk a little bit about the process. And it's really great to just hear politicians beyond media spin, because then you start to hear some of the reasons why they actually do the daily grind and make the efforts to make the bills and policies that they want to pitch. He's doing really great work, so he'll continue to do that. And then that reminds me of Amanda Edwards when we talk about redistricting, because she spoke about that a lot in her podcast.
Robin:She's on one of the most. Uh, I don't know. What do you want to say, like picked upon districts, yeah?
Alwxis:district 18, which was um sylvester turners before that sheila, um before that um barbara barbara jordan before that, or around in there, mickey, leland. I mean this is a very well-known district shall we say Serious, serious seat. For the representatives, and they've had nobody in it for about a year.
Robin:Yes, and then she was saying on the podcast that they had up to like 30 people in the race, so we'll see what happens. Yes, but they're also going to do the redistricting after they vote on someone to be in that seat.
Alwxis:Well, no, the redistricting will apply after that. They've done the redistricting, but it doesn't go into effect.
Robin:Until after they vote.
Alwxis:Yeah, but then they might have to vote again very quickly. I mean, who knows?
Robin:It's great to have these episodes to just point to people and their work, because everything changes so fast. The episodes are a nice placeholder. It gets you to know who they are, but then you can go to their websites and kind of see more about their life and how to find them. Like, Kathy Crawford came in and talked about her poetry pieces that were accepted to be published and I think the book is out now and she's excited to start working on her second book. So if you're looking for poetry enthusiasts and supportive groups, check out the Kathy Crawford episode and she'll tip you off to some places around Houston you off to some places around Houston.
Alwxis:Yeah, you know, one of the things I find interesting is not just here in the podcast, but on other things that we've done. I'm being exposed to drastically more poetry local poetry than I ever have before.
Alwxis:You have like a shocked look on your face, Like whoa, the amount of poetry just like excelled I mean, this started a few years ago and you know, I don't know whether it's just because I've changed, where I allow myself to be exposed you can take that any way you want or whether it's something where we're getting more and more people and you know, I sort of think we're getting more and more people who are doing poetry and being out about reading their poetry or letting it be known after the pandemic, because, you know, they were basically sitting in a room by themselves in a lot of cases.
Robin:Yeah, and I think poetry was something you could do virtually and maybe not have to put a lot of money into it and be expressed, which is great. And the city of Houston has a poet laureate and I think that more representation just reminds people that they too could give it a go or listen. And I went to one of the open mics after Kathy was on the podcast and just like she was saying, it was just like such a warm welcoming. It was a very diverse group, age, race, gender, identity, topics that they talked about and it didn't even matter if you didn't make it through your poem. Like people were very kind and supportive.
Robin:So it's, it's a, it's a craft. That I don't want to say. You don't have to have skill, but what skill you have will be celebrated. That's probably a better way of saying that. So, yeah, that's if you're interested in that. Houston seems to be a really nice place for that. Just skill set shares, friendly support systems if you go to any of the nights, and some of them are virtual, so that makes it a little bit more accessible for people who are not leaving their house that much, maybe don't want a lot of overhead in their art craft. And then we talked to Jovan Taylor. I mean, he's doing the politician route now. Who is that? Jovan Taylor?
Alwxis:Jovan. Let's see, I think I know Jovan.
Robin:Taylor. I mean he's doing the politician route now. Who is that? Jovan Taylor.
Alwxis:Jovan. Let's see, I think I know Jovan. You know Jovan. You know Jovan, you're playing. I've known Jovan for a long time.
Robin:Yeah, you're playing, I was going to say someone doing the politic route and also still keeping his job. He is really committed to making sure people have their final plans, your funeral arrangements, your final goodbyes in Houston, and he believes that Houston deserves better representation and, coming from the family that he does, I mean that's a bold statement.
Alwxis:Well, yeah, but he backs it up and he also works with the mayor's office right now.
Robin:Yeah, what is he doing right now that you know of?
Alwxis:One of the assistance areas. Oh okay, I don't know exactly what it is.
Robin:And we got him at just like a really funny time when he came in for his episode because a niece, parker, his mom, had just announced that she was going to run again. So that was a perfect timing and I don't know it was a coincidence for us, but it was nice to talk about both of them.
Alwxis:Oh, no, no, no, we planned that forever, right, so much planning. We put him off until Anise said she was running.
Robin:Yeah, we're shoulder to shoulder with both of them and they tipped us off. No, just kidding, we didn't. That's not what happened.
Alwxis:Actually Jovan would have tipped us off.
Robin:Yeah, hey, we're good buds and I really respect him and his work and what he does for Houston. He did a lot of great work with the LGBT political caucus and he continues to do a lot of work around Houston and has volunteered just so much. So thank you, jovan. If you want to look up that episode, just check it out. It really gives you a different perspective about how Houston could do better, you know.
Alwxis:Yeah, and Jovan's running for the other well-populated race.
Robin:Mm-hmm, mm-hmm At large Four.
Alwxis:At least it was at large four, he might have changed.
Robin:Like I said, keep an eye on them.
Alwxis:You can change your mind all over the place.
Robin:Yeah, keep an eye on them, right. Well, I think one of the podcast episodes that I still go back and listen to is Falcon and Sushi, because they're lifelong friends and we had no idea where the conversation none of us, we had like no idea where the conversation would go and we went from everything from. It happened to be the day the Pope got picked.
Alwxis:That they came in, but we also hadn't or they hadn't seen each other for quite some time.
Robin:Right, it was a reunion for them which I didn't know about and then. So we got like a little catch up with them and then they talked about LGBT bar history in Houston and pride history.
Alwxis:I'm not sure how we got on the bar history, but that's where we went.
Robin:Well, I think, because Chris worked in a bar and they perform a lot, but they didn't think we were going to talk about that necessarily. So it was great. It was like a reunion for me too and I just really am thankful for them in my life. And Falcon is continuing to support the local First Family of Montrose offerings with him and his husband, scott, and they have a non-binary title that has a show coming up in October. If somebody wanted to perform and have a service agreement around performance, you pick a bar and you pick a charity and you perform and everybody shows up and supports it and raise money for it. And they've been really generous in supporting the Transgender Foundation of America and promoting education towards what does it mean to be non-binary and like why is it a relative space and what do we do next and how do we all like support each other and having fun and an inclusive nature.
Alwxis:So I don't think we're going to get the explanation of what it means to be non-binary from the Trump administration people.
Robin:Absolutely not.
Alwxis:I think we'll have to get it all locally.
Robin:Oh, totally, which brings me to Maria's episode.
Alwxis:Oh, now we're doing.
Robin:Maria Maria Gonzalez. Right, she's, or should I say Dr Maria Gonzalez.
Alwxis:Reverend Doctor, reverend Doctor, right, she keeps adding titles.
Robin:Yeah, we did talk about how she officiates weddings and how she grew up around Catholic nuns in Texas and then she is a professor at U of H and currently working a lot with the Democratic Party and probably going to get more pushback from the administration on being as inclusive as she is like teaching the classes that she does.
Alwxis:Well, her thing is that, as the Texas governor and his minions push back on diversity and inclusiveness, she's starting groups to just do what they used to be able to do at University of Houston. Keep going, yeah, come together I will just say Maria is tenured and has been for a long time. That gives you a lot of freedom, sure.
Robin:Sure Using that privilege.
Alwxis:Yep, and she's also very good friends with the president of University of Houston and so you know it's interesting that she's decided to push back. Currently, Harris County Democratic Party she is the resolution chair, so any resolution they want to do goes through her and her committee. So you know I keep talking about every time there's something the Democrats do that I don't like, I keep blaming her for it and I'm like look you work for the party now, Right, you know, Right. At which point she's giving up arguing because I'm like are you or are you not? Resolution is fair, Right, you know?
Robin:And she says, well, yes, Well, and we can't bring up Maria without bringing up Jack. Like that was a great interview and I think I don't know about you because you're closer to Jack than I am, but having a radio specialist in on a podcast. He spent his whole life in radio and talked about the efforts it took to get Pride started in Houston, which we've heard a little bit about. But just to see him come alive, about the disco ball being hung and Montrose and Westheimer intersection or something around there, it was just really neat for me going into Pride, that was awesome.
Alwxis:I'm just still trying to figure out where the disco ball went.
Robin:I mean, aren't we all? I mean, Joe Vaughn came in and was asking that we're going to get to the bottom of this, or you know who knows.
Alwxis:We're going to have to get you know some private investigators to go out and find the disco ball.
Robin:Exactly, it's probably in somebody's garage. Yeah, yeah, we'll have to send someone out there. I know a son, jennifer Marie. She was very kind to talk about her challenges in making friends after a divorce and gave herself something like a 52-week challenge on meeting new friends and the power of theater, but I think what she left out is she's quite the honey badger. I feel like Jennifer Marie can go find anything.
Alwxis:When you say honey badger, what do you mean?
Robin:I mean very protective, very like has a lot of sass. You know she's not afraid to set a boundary and whenever I need a boundary set I'll call Jennifer Marie and say, like what's the wiggle room here? She's like no wiggle room, here's the boundary. Like that's it, like just big honey, badger style.
Alwxis:There's a boundary Like that's it? Like just big Honey Badger style. She also she thinks somebody that she's working with or a group she's working with has perhaps been treated poorly. You just don't want to be on the other side of the conversation.
Robin:Right, yeah, she's like such a good protector and you know that reminds me of Sharon Franti coming in, a local lesbian filmmaker that has made the rounds with some of her films and she was talking about doing a documentary recently with the Normal Anomaly and relooking at how she could be a new protector of the narrative with them and supporting community in a whole new way now at this point in her life, and that a lot of that really, you know, comes from her participation in the sober community.
Robin:She finds a lot of family and support there and then she takes it and brings it out through her arts and her volunteering, which I think is amazing. So if you're looking for a filmmaker's perspective, she talks a little bit about that and what it's like to be on scene, and then she talks a little bit about her growth through the AIDS epidemic and now what she's doing to continue to work with nonprofits and and nonprofits. I mean I was blown away with Francine coming in and talking about Ukraine. I didn't know that we could make such a difference locally with our actions if we just knew what to do. Nova Ukraine that she works with is making direct gives for medical support and bomb shelters and she's looking for basically anything.
Alwxis:If you want to be creative, she'll work with you and just think about the situation where there are people here in Houston who are raising money to build bomb shelters in Ukraine.
Robin:I mean, that's really generous.
Alwxis:We still care. Yeah, absolutely, we still care.
Robin:Yeah, I mean we still care. Yeah, absolutely we still care. And talking about how to navigate things near and afar with technology, I appreciate a job coming in and introducing like what the heck do we do with AI? And you know what is chat, gpt and how can we just even get started and you knew a lot about computers. But the thing I learned about is like it's really a daily learning process because it keeps changing all the time.
Alwxis:Right, and that's the new world we're in. Anyway, everything changes all the time. I wish some of the things didn't change quite as frequently, like our federal policies, but that's a different thing and that would be a much longer discussion.
Robin:And Jacob's still out there working with the power of the narrative and talking about lifting up voices that need to be heard or re-understood or supported, including his own. He's doing what he can to take back his voice and his healing after being misled, under-supported. Whatever he wants to say, he can say it himself. Of course that working with the Mankind Project it was just sort of re-traumatizing for him. So he's looking at what healing looks like now and he wants to take poetry and different writing exercises into schools to help kids with their trauma.
Robin:And starting a nonprofit after being a lab tech I think it was during the pandemic is quite the overhaul. So I mean I wish him well and I'm glad he was able to come in and talk at like the very start of it and maybe we'll have him back and now that the weather is getting a little bit more decent in Houston, you might want to check out Frost Murphy's episode on all the different ways that you can sneak in fitness or be intentional about it in your life. So everything from creating your own hot sauna to getting out there and doing jiu-jitsu on the mat with him and his pals, his fellow mates and he also has his own podcast, so we'll list that in the show notes.
Alwxis:And I think one of the things is that you can go from just doing it with yourself to doing it very formally and being totally odd with what some of these people can actually do.
Robin:Seriously, yeah, and even though they are a big deal, they don't carry the chip on their shoulder like that. They don't have to. They're very welcoming.
Alwxis:They don't want to kill off the potential customers, I'm sure.
Robin:Well, I think they understand the power of keeping people on the mat and growing community Right. Take a look at the episodes, explore for yourself. Push, play, share, turn it off, whatever.
Alwxis:We just want to keep it going and what we'd love, too, is if you sent us notes. Yeah, if there's something you think would be interesting or you want to be on, let us know, let us know. I mean, we did one today where the person was really anxious to be on.
Robin:Yeah, she wanted to be on and we look forward to putting that episode out. And you can text us through the website, you can email us and you know we're pretty out there, so find us and we thank you for listening and, most importantly, take care.
Alwxis:And have a really great year yes because we're coming up onto the great part of the year, but then it can turn to really bad. Right? Just keep halloween all the way to the end of the year. It's the easiest way to go just lean into the halloween creativity and fun decorations no keep it up.
Robin:Keep it fun. Pumpkins are just fine through December. Yeah, the bats, the spooky, the fun, Like lean into it and be creative. We have bats up all the time. Exactly All right, thanks, bye.
