Remember When 14th Street Was Sketchy?

A candid rideshare conversation explores resilience and impact in international family planning. A former USAID professional, now at the Gates Foundation, shares insights on advancing reproductive health rights during political upheaval. 

The discussion spans strategies across Africa, Latin America, and Asia, emphasizing the power of staying engaged in challenging situations. Along the way, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. are compared, highlighting authenticity, community bonds, and the contrasts between unvarnished local life and polished urban culture.

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About: Foundation Digital Media | Kuna Video

Transcript

Welcome & Introduction

Speaker 1 0:11

Welcome to another episode of Rideshare Road Talk Conversations in Motion, a podcast where we create unfiltered talk space that examines the meaningful lives of my passengers while engaging in personal and topical discussions. I'm your host and driver,J ohn Foundas, and we're cruising the streets of Washington DC. Buckle up, let's drive. Come on in. How are you?

Speaker 2 0:35

Such a big car.

Speaker 1 0:37

Thank you. I'm your unlikely ride share driver. Are you visiting? What's your story?

Speaker 2 0:44

I live in Baltimore, so I'm here. I was here for work. I've been here for a few days.

Speaker 1 0:50

So you're local-ish.

Speaker 2 0:52

Yeah, yeah, normally I wouldn't get a hotel when coming here for work, but we had the budget for it and we had to be there early every day, so we were able to do it.

Speaker 1 1:05

It's a no-brainer you get a good meal somewhere and hopefully, you know, makes it all come together.

Speaker 2 1:11

Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:12

What kind of work do you do?

Speaker 2 1:14

I do international family planning, reproductive health.

Speaker 1 1:19

Okay.

Speaker 2 1:20

So we are part of the sector that's being completely dismantled and destroyed before your eyes.

Speaker 1 1:27

You're in good company. So, I've had many people in this vehicle, from DOJ attorneys to USAID.

Speaker 2 1:34

Yeah, yeah, I used to work in the USAID world, but now I got my hotel paid for, and all that because I worked for Gates Foundation funded.

Speaker 1 1:46

He was just at Nobu having sushi.

Speaker 2 1:49

Where.

Speaker 1 1:50

At Nobu having sushi Nobu.

Speaker 2 1:52

Last week, oh, last week yeah.

Speaker 1 1:55

Somebody got in and was like, oh my God, bill Gates was just having sushi with next to me. I'm like did you ask him to pay?

Speaker 2 2:01

Well, we did invite him to our convening, but he said he couldn't come.

Speaker 1 2:05

You missed him by a few days.

Fighting for Causes Worth Staying For

Speaker 2 2:06

I mean, it's like you gave us the money for it, so whatever, I think Melinda cares more about the issues that I care about right now, in this moment. But yeah, we just had a great convening great convening with there's lots of people that we flew in from africa, latin america, asia, to be part of this convening to talk about. What are we gonna do now? You know what. The shit has hit the fan, but we're not going away, so what can we do?

Speaker 1 2:40

there, there's always a fight to be had, right yeah exactly. You know, I think anyone can kind of thump your chest and go, I'm just gonna leave. Well, okay, what does that really do?

Speaker 2 2:52

Exactly.

Speaker 1 2:53

There is, in my opinion, a perfect example of this is when the insanity at the Kennedy Center, with the board there, when the Trump administration took over the board and inserted themselves and everyone that's been there kind of resigned, including, like these are creatives and artists, and you know, ben Foles was on the committee there and he resigned. And I'm like, no, that's precisely the time when you're not supposed to resign, you're supposed to stay and stick your foot in the door and say this is going to be very difficult for you because this is what we believe in, or did you never really care to begin with?

Speaker 1 3:31

Right, or is it just not worth your headache now?

Speaker 2 3:34

I don't know.

The Baltimore vs. DC Debate

Speaker 1 3:35

So who ultimately knows? But that was just my first perceived thought. Anyways, how's Baltimore?

Speaker 2 3:43

I love Baltimore. I've lived in DC before. I see how people might say it's the better one, but I think I prefer Baltimore.

Speaker 1 3:55

It has its moments. I mean it's certainly uh, it's gotten the black eye the past couple of years post COVID, you know, with the Harbor kind of rolling up a bit and already had it, yeah, but you know what I mean. Like I grew up here, so I get it. Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 2 4:13

I love Baltimore, you know it's. I think it's it's more approachable, it's it's friendly, it's got its own culture. I feel personally like dc maybe, since you've been here a long time, you feel, I feel like it's gotten so generic, it's so like I say this with a very broad plants.

Speaker 1 4:29

I say with a very broad brush. Dc by nature is transient. Therefore, there's a lot of people pretending there's a lot of pretense here. Yeah, baltimore, for all its bumps and scars and you know afflictions, it's. It's real.

Speaker 2 4:44

Yeah, there's real people very real it's, there's a friendliness.

Speaker 2 4:47

It's a little rough around the edges, but but it's real and the people who are there want to stay there, unless, you know, we have some transient Johns Hopkins people who are there a couple years and never want to go back, and that's fine, they can leave. But it's also I heard someone says, oh, you don't like Baltimore, it doesn't like you either. It's like it doesn't care, it's not trying to be anything else. I think DC is trying to catch up to New York and LA and like Chicago, like they want to be seen as like a premier US city, and it is like they're succeeding. This has become like a big destination and the food scene is great.

Speaker 1 5:26

It's gotten much better.

Speaker 2 5:29

But yeah, I just for a, it's baltimore for me yeah, yeah.

Little Italy & Baltimore Memories

Speaker 1 5:34

Well, I get up there a few times a year. I go to little italy every you know, christmas time, okay, and we've got this routine. I used to go there with my grandfather, oh. And so there's a you know, chiparelli's is like my go-to little italian place and after that we walk around the corner and get cannoli and espresso, nice, and there's just like a nice throwback. There's like a little bocce court in the alley, like a legit old school bocce court, and the old guys would be out there playing and they used to do this thing there with the movies on the side of the row house. I don't know if you ever remember that A movie Between Ciparelli's and Vac and vacaros is the name of the pastry shop. There's this old brown suit in a little parking lot. In the summertime, someone in a row house across the street would project movies onto the brick wall and everybody would bring their lounge chairs and just kind of hang out in the parking lot and watch movies. It was the coolest thing yeah, that sounds very baltimore.

Speaker 2 6:31

Yeah and um, I think something happened with the woman who was doing it. I don't and watch movies. It was the coolest thing.

Speaker 1 6:32

Yeah, that sounds very Baltimore, yeah, and I think something happened with the woman who was doing it. I don't know if she passed away or not, but they don't do it anymore, just little things like that, yeah there's a community Like all the neighborhoods are like communities, yeah.

Speaker 2 6:46

Like even my block, like we all look out for each other. I mean, I'm sure you get that here too.

Speaker 1 6:53

For sure We'll do like what's the Miracle on 34th with all the lights and stuff.

Speaker 2 6:58

Oh yeah, so much fun. Yeah, that's fun.

Speaker 1 7:00

My kids love doing that stuff.

Speaker 2 7:02

Oh nice, yeah, that's good. Take them to Baltimore.

Restaurant Drop-off & Closing

Speaker 1 7:06

Yup, I still have my crab cake joint. It's not in the city, but you know, it's just which one? I'm always I'm a sucker for G&M over by the airport.

Speaker 2 7:15

Oh yeah, I haven't been there yet.

Speaker 1 7:17

Yeah, oh, I know Jimmy's is supposed to be really really good.

Speaker 2 7:20

I like pop poppers okay p-a-p-p-a. Pop us. I'm not sure this place is phenomenal yes, the dip that place is phenomenal yeah, when I lived here, I used to work in this area. This area has changed so much um makes me feel old. I used to work on 14th, and you know when it was still a little sketchy oh yeah, for sure now, when I came here and it was like there's a, there's a trader joe's here wait, where did the prostitutes go?

Speaker 1 7:56

they all went, legit. And they're getting benefits at trader joe's. Yeah, okay, it looks like we're going to be on the right hand side. Is this restaurant good, have you heard of it? And they're getting benefits at Trader Joe's? Yeah, okay, it looks like we're gonna be on the right-hand side Is this restaurant good, have you heard of it. Where are we going?

Speaker 2 8:09

Doi Moi.

Speaker 1 8:10

Doi Moi? I don't know. It's fun to say, but I've never been there. Doi, moi, doi, moi. Well, I don't know, oh, the black hat?

Speaker 2 8:21

Yeah, I think I heard that. Where is this place?

Speaker 1 8:24

It should be just right on the right-hand side, I think, or is it across the street? Oh, there it is.

Speaker 2 8:30

Yeah, right to your left.

Speaker 1 8:31

Okay, excellent, enjoy your evening.

Speaker 2 8:33

You too.

Speaker 1 8:34

Good luck. Thanks for the chat. Thank you for listening to this episode of Rideshare Road Talk. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, we'd love for you to review the podcast on your favorite listening platform, like Apple or Spotify. Your support helps us so much, and don't forget to reach out on Instagram with your feedback or topic suggestions. Until next time, let's drive you.