People Interacting with People
A podcast about People Interacting with People. In April 2015, I became homeless. I decided to embrace this homelessness and what followed was five years of nomadic life, over 250 moves in Canada and the United States, on an average budget of roughly $22 a day.
While sitting in a 24 hour diner in Toronto on my first two homeless nights, a young man sat beside me and when I told him about my experience - spending 9 hours each night at the diner, getting a free coffee and a brownie on my second night - he turned to me and asked:
"Do you think you'd be having the same experience if you were Black?"
Over those next five years, I had a series of "chance" encounters with Black people and had some very interesting conversations. I documented some of them in writing but when I compiled them into a 300 page script during the pandemic, I realized that - in writing it myself - I had lost the authenticity of the other person's voice.
And so, I decided to hit the road and reconnect with some of these wonderful people while also leaving myself open to meeting new ones. These are our conversations.
People Interacting with People
S2 EP7: Growing up in the Bronx, Living in a Psych Ward, Traveling the World, Having Run-ins with the Police & Making it Happen with Jerry in Albany, NY
In this episode, I sit down with my very special friend, Jerry aka Swervo.
Jerry and I met six years ago and spent all night talking on an overnight bus from Toronto to New York.
In this episode, Jerry elaborates on that first conversation about growing up in the Bronx, having parents who were drug addicts, being abused by his stepmother, spending his teenage years in a psych ward, reuniting with his father, and what he's been doing since we met - including having run ins with the police, traveling the world, and having a beautiful son in the UK.
We hope you enjoy our episode.
To see photos of Jerry, follow us at
https://www.instagram.com/peopleinteractingwithpeople/