Episode 34: Sarah Simon

This, the first in a family series of podcast episodes, is a conversation I had recently with my lovely cousin Sarah Simon.  Sarah is currently a PhD student in clinical psychology, lives in New York City, and is a member of the Darkwave Goth duo MIDNIGHTCHOIR.  

I invited her to be my first guest in this series because I was curious as to how she used music to heal herself from a traumatic event when she was 18.  We go into detail about the event and then end up having a wonderful conversation about ambient music, Bob Dylan, John Cage, The Disintegration Loops, and more.

We also reminisce about a younger version of myself who visited Sarah, her brother Nick, and their mom (my aunt) Barb in New York City in 2005, a VERY difficult year for me.  I was there for Thanksgiving and brought a whole frozen turkey on a train from Chicago.  The kids (at the time they were 10 and 8), Aunt Barb, and I saw Stranger Than Fiction (with Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson) when I was on that trip and it was exactly what I needed at the time.

I had a wild idea to invite many of my family members onto my podcast to discuss where our proclivity for music comes from.  Particularly on the Heaney side there are a lot of now adults who have pursued creative work, as well as caring professions (psychology, social work, education, nursing, etc.), so I'm curious to gather stories of why so many of us have devoted our lives to these pursuits.  Our grandma Heaney was a psychiatrist and would see patients in the old family home on Burt Street in Omaha, Nebraska, and Sarah and I get into discussing some of the legends to come out of that house and our grandmother's practice.

I hope you enjoy the conversation I have here with my cousin!