The Juice with Jeff #283

The Juice with Jeff

On this episode Leslie McCleary conducts and co-produces a fantastic and conversational interview with me thru Zoom. This is Leslie's debut/first time on the podcast and I want to thank Julie Bixby for recruiting Leslie to join our Juice with Jeff Family of Interviewers and Co-Producers.

We started out the interview with my talking about how Dana Mintzer Leman recruited Julie to join our podcast family last year and my briefly talking about how I've known Dana my entire life, along with mentioning how Dana has been a cheerleader and huge supporter of the multiple things I've done over the years including this entire podcast series.

Then Leslie asks me to talk about growing up in the Midwest and now I feel about living in Iowa, both the pros and cons. As part of answering this question, I mention how living in a community that is smaller than the bigger cities makes it much easier for me to connect with people in person.

Next, Leslie asks me to talk about my thoughts on food in the Midwest. I explain that because of my keeping the basic requirements of Kosher all year round, my options for eating out from restaurants in DSM are either Maccabee's Deli (the only completely Kosher restaurant in central Iowa) or vegan and certain vegetarian items from other restaurants, as well as enjoying sweet treats from bakeries and ice cream places.

We end this episode with both of us talking about things we remember from the Iowa State Fair, and how during the years I was active at the Fair (summers of 2013 to 2019) I would enjoy eating a variety of vegan and vegetarian items at the Fair.

This episode of the podcast was recorded on Friday April 25, 2025 and it runs 38 minutes long. Our opening and closing theme music is provided by Oleg Kyrylkovv courtesy of Pixabay. Funding for this podcast is provided by RandomKid, Lisa Krain, and Wendi Roush. Enjoy!!