[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelley. Shelley is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And Danielle is a community mobilizer and changemaker. And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat. All right. Thank you. Happy Friday. And thank you all for joining me today. If we could start out just by introducing yourself. So just to say your name, pronouns, and a bit about who you are.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah, sure. I'm Tanya Howard, and my pronouns are she, her. I am many things. I'm one of the founders of West Medford Open Studios with a group of community members, and my husband, Earl, who's a potter. Um, I, when we started it, I was doing a lot of photography, work in photography. That was one of my majors in college. And, um, since then I've kind of moved on. I became a chef, personal chef, went to culinary school. And now I'm kind of focusing on the business side of my husband's pottery business. And I do website, social media. And I'm also still on the board of West Medford Open Studio.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you, Tanya.
[Laurel Siegel]: You're welcome.
[SPEAKER_08]: Ah, so my name is Stephanie Todd-Hunter, and my pronouns are she, her, and I'm an artist. And I live in West Medford, and I've lived here for about 23 years. And I've been on the board of West Medford Open Studios for about eight. And I also operate a small work studio space in West Medford called Jerome Street Studios. And I work super part time at the Cambridge Art Association. Thank you.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. Thanks for joining us. So before we get in, we're going to talk mostly I think about West Medford Open Studios today. But before we get into that, I'll start with the question that I ask everyone on the podcast, which is, what is your favorite place to eat in Medford? And what do you like to eat there?
[Laurel Siegel]: Oh, boy. My favorite topic, food. Well, we, I would say, you know, we have a bunch of favorites, but we love pikaichi ramen. That's one of our, you know, kind of every other week favorite. Emilino's is awesome and love Goldilocks bagels like those are our favorite kind of takeout take home so that's it for me.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you. Yeah so I was thinking about it and so our all-time favorite restaurant closed, which was Emiliana's, which we grew up taking. I mean, I took all my kids there. It was like, it's four blocks away. And we had all our birthdays there. And it was a family-owned and operated Mexican restaurant. But now we go mostly to Canote, which we love. So that's our new favorite.
[Danielle Balocca]: Weird picks, yeah. Those are some popular ones. I hadn't heard about that one that closed though, so thanks for sharing that. Um, okay. So I'm hoping we could talk more about West Medford Open Studios and Tanya, it sounds like you've, um, you've been around the West Medford Open Studios since the beginning. I'm hoping you could tell us a little bit about the history.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah. Sure. Um, so West Medford Open Studios was sort of, so my husband and I, um, prior to West Medford Open Studios had been, you know, he was doing pottery and I'm doing photography. And we had like a group of friends, most of them were from not from Medford. And we would just kind of do pop ups, where I don't think we call them pop ups. But that's what they were back in the day, prior to 1999. So quite a while ago. And then You know, as we kind of got to know some new neighbors that we realized were artists, we realized there were a lot of artists just right around us. And so over the fence, our neighbor Marilyn is a painter. We got to know her friend, Mary Lou, a photographer, and several West Medford artists that we knew, including Maureen Thawney. And she was one of the founders too. And we would just start chatting like over the fences, like gathering. But like, Hey, like we heard about this kind of newish thing, like an open studios event, you know, it'd be cool to have one here. Um, so that's really how it started. That was probably fall of 1999 or summer, fall of 1999. We're like, yeah, we should do it. This was cool. Let's. You know, talk to a few more friends that we know that we got a small group together, um, and just started meeting to talk about how we could do it. One of, you know, like one of the friends was Anita Tucker, and she lives in West Medford. And she kind of just wanted to help organize it, not as an artist, but just, you know, a neighbor, kind of that wanted to be helpful. So we just started having meetings at people's houses, you know, a little grassroots thing. And, and figured out how to organize it. It was all just volunteer, whoever wanted to do it, whatever jobs we were kind of good at. Um, we, someone did reach out to someone from Somerville Open Studios that had started maybe a year or two before us. And, and they were very helpful and shared information. So that's basically how we got started. And so in the winter of 2000, I guess we decided like, yeah, we're going to do this. Um, It was small. The first one we had, uh, I wrote it down. We had 13 sites. Oh, and the other thing is the, the structure of open studio, that's really like, uh, use your home studio, community spaces, and you have like a map and, and people from the community just walk around in wherever, or get, get to the different artists faces and view the art. So it's kind of like, a neighborhood community event that brings the community to artist spaces or we have artists host other artists, you know, and it wasn't, we weren't trying to make it exclusive to only West Medford artists, but we wanted to focus on a small enough area. So it seemed manageable as well. And so really, that's the beginning of what we did. And then, you know, it's, grown and grown and grown. But basically, the structure has stayed the same until COVID. But you know, that's a another topic. But you know, basically, we we've been in people's homes and studio spaces. And like we've used the West Medford Community Center since The very first year, I looked at the first year map and they were one of our spaces, which, you know, they've been a partner, great partner through the years. We've also used the Brooks School, I think most of the years, but maybe not the very beginning. And so, yeah, as I said, the first year we had 13 sites and 24 artists, and it has grown substantially since then.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I look forward to hearing what you have to say about the changes in COVID and that's interesting to know. I actually was like, I don't know what I was imagining open studios to be, but it's helpful to hear that it's kind of like seeing some artists maybe like in their own space. And then some, I was imagining more of like a, like a craft fair sort of farmers market setup, but it is sort of.
[SPEAKER_08]: So the Brook School, when it, there were sites at the Brook School and that had more of a craft fair feel, like there were, there are tables in one big like cafeteria space and all the artists would set up at their table. So there was still fine art, like, you know, woodturners and potters and things, but they, that was more like what you're thinking, like a traditional art fair. So it was right from the beginning, I guess it was like half open studios and half more traditional art fair.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah, yeah, I would say. we had, because we only had 13 sites. So they were just mostly all at people's homes. And then just the community center was like the one location that we were able to have a few more artists in one space. And yeah, but we just made it work, you know, because part of it is like, if you don't have enough of artists in the community, we have to ask for hosts, ask people to host their homes. And so that is something that grew as well through the years.
[SPEAKER_08]: But that was good too. It was a way for artists to get to know the people in the community. So non-artists would open their homes up and people would walk around and see who had art studios and meet their neighbors who were hosting artists. So I feel like it was a really good way to get to know your neighbors.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, totally. Yeah, I was gonna say, Tanya, the way you described it is kind of felt like, you know, you and your husband are artists, you kind of connected with other artists that you didn't even maybe know necessarily were in your neighborhood, and then kind of went from there. And I guess I wonder what your hope was, in starting something like this, like what you had maybe as a hope for the impact on the community and impact on the artists in West Medford.
[Laurel Siegel]: Um, it was definitely to, you know, kind of expose our neighbors and friends to the art. We realized there were so many artists in the community and you know, to like share it with people and share, you know, and let have opportunities for artists in the community. And as I said, not just from West Medford, but from all of Medford and even surrounding communities, like we always invite whoever, but just an opportunity for people to share their art and, you know, it's emerging artists and, you know, more experienced artists and just kind of create like, a nice cultural vibe and, you know, a sharing experience of art.
[Danielle Balocca]: Stephanie, would you add anything? I think coming on a few years later, would you add anything about sort of like your choice to be involved or kind of your hopes for being involved with the open studio?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I just love the idea of that. So we have been living here for probably eight or ten years before I got involved with maybe a little less than that before I got involved with open studios, but it was just so much fun to walk around the neighborhood and you might like see people going in and out of their houses like during the course of the year but you didn't talk to them or you didn't know them and and then you would go into their house and they'd be like oh yes well here's my like whole art studio in the backyard where I make these gorgeous oil paintings or this amazing pottery or you know oh by the way I'm a musician on the weekends and you had like no idea and there are so many of them in our in West Medford like in our little neighborhood so it was such a surprise and a treat to walk around and be like I had no idea you did this like you know you talk to them on and off on their porch or whatever but then you go into your house and you're like this is crazy like so many interesting people and so many cool artists and it's so much fun and when people move into the area and they go to open studios and then you talk to them they're like oh I'm a potter and then they show you a picture of their like basement which is like a full-on pottery studio like um so it's just It's such a great way to get to know people like that because we tend to all be, you know, like you don't, that's not like maybe the first thing you say to somebody when you meet them. So this is a good way. Do you know?
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah. I was also going to add that. So through the years, and I'm not sure what year. It might have been maybe the second or third year that we added one of our neighbors, David Shaw was a writer, and he wanted to organize, like having local writers doing readings as part of Open Studio. So like that piece got added on. We've also, I don't even know what year we started having musicians, but we have music as part of it. It's evolved in a way from just visual art, you know, to like all art, which is, I love about open studios as well.
[SPEAKER_08]: And we had moving screenings when we were at the Brooks Center. That's right. And this year we're going to have Monique and Clay's film, two showings at the community center. So we have a little film and everything.
[Laurel Siegel]: And every year it's been different. Um, you know, some years we have more performances. We've had the Irish Step Dance Company from West Medford perform, um, when, when we were, we used the church across the street, um, from the Brooks School a couple of years. And so we had tons of performances and they're all different types of performances. So it's really, it's been interesting, like every year it's really like a little bit different.
[Danielle Balocca]: Have you had a favorite moment in the open studios or sort of like highlights that you'd share?
[Laurel Siegel]: Hmm, let's see. So when we were able to know pre-COVID at our have it at our home like we so my husband will bring out the pottery wheel into the driveway and he on a couple of the day a couple of time slots he would do um just throwing in the driveway and people love to see that and it's just it's pretty cool you know because Even if there's a lot of people that love pottery, but they don't really get to see how it's made. And it's really like a beautiful process to see. And he makes it look pretty easy too, but it's great. And like occasionally he's like, let someone else try it and kind of give a little lesson. So I don't know over the years, I love, and we've had other demos. Like I, as a personal chef. I've done demos in the kitchen at Jerome Street Studio. So I do like kind of like half hour demos on some thing of cooking that I want to share. And so like those moments were great for me because I really got to interact with people coming through and asking questions and seeing what I do as well. Yeah, and celebrating big moments. In 2019, we had our 20th year. And that was also our last time when we had it at people's homes and studios. So the 20th year was pretty special. We had like over 100 artists, too. Wow. It was a lot.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, it sounds like a demonstration that sounds like a really powerful way to share something that you are so passionate about and really be able to see the process and have people witness that. And I can imagine for even people that maybe don't already have an interest in art, that being pretty captivating.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah. And it makes people happy. It's just like a happy weekend. People come around, they're like, oh, this is what you do. We always hosted. probably like four or five artists, because we had it in our barn garage. So we had a lot of space to host other people and just seeing people interact with the other artists that we host, that's really cool. And, you know, just, it really, it's a joyous weekend, I think, you know, people really, people from the community get very excited about it.
[Danielle Balocca]: What about you, Stephanie? Any highlights for you?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, so I was, I was thinking while Tanya was talking, but I think the most amazing thing that I experienced was, so we had the 2020 Open Studios was canceled because of COVID, we had it all online. And so then I guess 2021, we were able to have it down at Duggar Park. And so everybody had been in COVID for like a year. And it was like the brief window where everything kind of opened up again. And we weren't sure until the last minute if we were going to be able to pull it off. And it was all new, and it was outside, and there were like a whole bunch of artists involved. we had it and people so many people came so many people it was packed and everybody had this like kind of glazed happy look like they couldn't believe they were out and talking to people and seeing art and everyone was like this is the greatest thing I've ever that's like ever happened like people were so happy to be there and we had um What did we have a food tent? No, we had music though. We had live music. We had music and the readings. And the readings. And it was just, it was such an exciting, and people from the neighborhood were like, we've never come to this before. We had no idea this was happening. And people were like wandering in, like didn't even know what was going on. And it felt like it was an amazing experience. I think that's my favorite memory.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah. No, you're right. That's really good. That was pretty amazing. Yeah. It sounds like you've been... Sorry.
[Danielle Balocca]: No, go ahead.
[Laurel Siegel]: Oh, no. It just felt like such an accomplishment to be able to have it, to host it, you know, after having gone through COVID. And we had to really brainstorm, like, are we going to be able to do this? And a lot of it was waiting till the last minute almost because, you know, things were changing. We didn't know what the regulations and rules would be. And we had to also think about, like, making sure there was enough room between the tents. So it was like a little bit smaller event, but, you know, we, like, measured out between the tents, made sure the aisles were, you know, so it was like a lot of work on our part, but it was just, when it happened, it was really, it was really amazing, it was definitely so.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, it sounds like you had a couple of different ways of adapting to the various stages and phases of COVID. What is this year's event going to look like?
[Laurel Siegel]: So this year, we are having it down at Duggar Park. Every year since, like, for post-COVID, we've had to, like, in our meeting, planning meeting, we're like, OK, like, how can we do this? it doesn't seem like we can go back to the old way yet. And we're not quite sure. So we keep, this is now going to be our third time. Is that correct stuff? Our third time at Duggar Park. And also we use the community center, West Medford Community Center. And, you know, like, as I said, they're right across the street. So we do have some artists within the West Medford Community Center. But mostly it's it's on the field in at Duggar Park. And we have so all the artists are under 10. And I believe we have 71 artists this year. So it's less than last year, more than 2020. So it's sort of like a happy medium. And we will be having music performances. We have the writers as well. And this year we're having, well, I guess last year we also had like food trucks. We have Gouldy Lock Bagels doing a pop-up. We have the Medford Brewing Beer Tent. And what am I missing?
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, the... Bon Me food truck.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah, Bon Me. It's going to be down there. So it's, we're excited. Like, I think it's, we have a few. We also like to involve the high school, um, any art programs of the high school. So we have the, uh, ceramics club at the high school. We'll have a table.
[SPEAKER_08]: Um, also the, how do you fabrication metal welding and fabrication, the Vogue with, um, Curtis Jackson, right? Yeah. And he, he'll, they're going to have like some sort of installation of things they've worked on over the year.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah. And mass art. Uh, one of our board members, John and Tapa, is graduating from math art, but we're hosting a table for math art students through him. So I think, I don't know, I'm excited for this year. It's going to be a little bit different than last year and the year before.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I mean, when you talked about the first year, you said about 24 artists, and now you're saying over 70 down from more last year. But it sounds like when something starts at such a grassroots level, and then I know the hope, it sounds like, is to become bigger and more integrated in the community and getting more people there. What challenges have come with that?
[Laurel Siegel]: Let's see. Like, along the way, definitely, you know, as you grow, you have to find like, how to fund it, you know, that's always been a thing for the beginning part, I think it became more obvious. I forget which year, but we we did create like an official nonprofit for open for West Medford Open Studios. And then after that, it was easier to find sources of funding. So we get grants from The Medford Cultural Council or the Mass Cultural Council, we've applied. We've gotten other grants along the way. We've gotten some funding from Tufts over the years, and even from private donations. you know, like in the beginning, that was definitely like, okay, like we can all chip in, you know, but then at some point, you're like, well, we should maybe find other ways that we're not just chipping in. But so that's one thing in starting a grassroots. But it's worked itself out. Let's see, Steph, do you have?
[SPEAKER_08]: So the volunteer.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah volunteers.
[SPEAKER_08]: So we have a huge number of volunteers who work closely with Monique Doherty. She kind of is the volunteer wrangler and they're there all day long the day of the event and they help with setup and they help artists during the course of the day like if they need a bathroom break or they need water or just to check in because it can be hot in June. So there's like like water stations and we check in with the artists and They help with takedown and they're just like super and they're usually a mix of high school students and local adults from the area, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah. Like, I mean, we wouldn't be able to have an open studios without support from the community, you know, through volunteers, through you know, small donations, um, just friends of people telling their friends and neighbors about open studio. So it's a big, it's a big effort and we don't have a very big board. You know, we're all volunteer. We're all doing tons of other things too. So, um, I think like one challenge is just kind of having the energy for us to keep figuring things out, especially post COVID. And, you know, like, it's, there's definitely struggle, or not struggle, but, but challenges from having it at Duggar Park now, it's logistically, there's just wholly different issues than everyone just opening their own space, you know. So I think that's been a big challenge in the last few years, the logistics of having everybody going to one space. And then on the plus side, people love it, you know, like we've gotten tons of great feedback from people, you know, visitors and artists because everyone kind of gets an equal opportunity to experience open studio at the same time, you know, as opposed to, oh, I have my map, like, where am I going to go? I only have two hours and I have to make decisions about where to go. So. So there's definitely a plus side and a minus side to changing the way we've done it over the years.
[Danielle Balocca]: And so if folks want to get involved and volunteer, how would they do that?
[Laurel Siegel]: On our website, we have a link or a tab for volunteer. But OK, I'll share it. The website is wmos.org. We have an Instagram page, which anyone can message if they're interested in or have a question, can message through there. It's west.medford.open.studio. And there's also a Facebook page that I believe the same as the Instagram page. But basically on the website, There's definitely, I think, volunteer or question tabs that you can send messages. So yeah, and we're always looking for volunteers. Oh, go on.
[SPEAKER_08]: No, I was just gonna say, or reach out to anybody on the board. If you know somebody on the board, you can contact them and they'll direct you to the right person. And we are definitely always looking for volunteers.
[Laurel Siegel]: And it's fun. Like it's really, People volunteer, you know, like sometimes you can also choose how much you want to volunteer. So you don't have to do the whole day. But, um, I know a lot of people that, that get involved and they're like, Oh, that was so fun. And I got to meet some new people.
[SPEAKER_08]: Um, and you know, T-shirt that says, every year, right.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah. You get a free T-shirt and you know, it's just, it's nice to sort of, if you're new to the community or you just want to do something where you're meeting new people or learn about the arts, you know, it's definitely a good way to learn and get involved.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. I feel like I, I have a young kid. So that's kind of the way that I connect with the community, but also makes me unable to do a lot of these things that I hear about, like volunteering for, but it sounds like. I like thinking about all the different ways, any, any different type of persons or somebody without kids, somebody who's kids have, you know, have gotten older, like that they can engage with the community. And it makes me excited to think like one day I could do that.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah, totally. Yes. And it's nice. Like one thing that I've noticed over the years, like we have Some of some younger people that I've known as kids now participate either as artists, like two of our artists this year are kids that I knew as kids growing up. And now they're part, you know, they're signed up, they're registered, you know, they're adults, young adults. My son and his girlfriend are both on our board now. And he is an artist. He's a photographer. Marcus and his girlfriend, Mary, and they're part of the board now. Um, you know, we have a lot of volunteers that I've known since like, we've known since they were like little kids. And now they're like, Hey, I'm here to help. I'm a senior in high school or I'm a freshman in high school. You know, there's lots of different ways, you know, to, to help out or be involved. It's a great way to meet artists, whether you're a visitor or volunteer.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, well, thank you. And can we say you want to say when the event is happening?
[Laurel Siegel]: Sure. It's June 24. And at from 12 to 5pm. And it will be at Duggar Park. And also at the West Medford Community Center, which is on that's Mystic River Road in West Medford. It's such a nice location, too. I always like to add this because it's right by the river. If you have a kayak, you want to kayak from Medford Square, kayak on down. You can pull your kayak in. The tennis courts are there and the playground. It's just a beautiful area. You can bring some snacks. you know, we'll have restrooms and port-a-potties and there's food and, you know, you bring a blanket and just hang out, listen to the music, listen to the writers, walk around. So it's really, it's quite a nice place and event. to come to, and it's free. You know, just show up.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's free on street parking, and it's like six blocks from the commuter rail, and it's about a mile from the red line in Davis. And there's buses, so it's super easy to get to commuting.
[Laurel Siegel]: And the bike path, or the path, you could really walk, because the path goes all the way, I don't know how far it goes, but it at least goes to Medford Square, and it goes all the way up to Winchester, right? Well, like, say if you walked, if you walk, if you follow Duggar, the path that goes along the river, you could really walk to Winchester, right? I don't know. It's so far. It's a nice walk.
[Danielle Balocca]: Is there anything else that we forgot to mention that you want to share about the event or about anything else?
[SPEAKER_08]: We have a great website that actually, Tanya, I wanted to ask you how long the website, when did you guys first have a website?
[Laurel Siegel]: Hmm. I am not positive. I'm trying to think. So we've had a wonderful community member, Naomi Peer. Stringfield. Stringfield, right. That's why I paused because she's married. I've known her as Naomi Pierce for years, but she is Stringfield now. She designed the website many years ago, and I actually don't know what year, but she's been involved doing our graphic design and web stuff up until kind of the end of last year. And she's also kind of helping our new web graphics design person, Victoria, just kind of mentoring her in to take over. But she's a West Medford community member that has been doing it all these years. And I just, I don't off the top of my head know when we got the website, but that was a big change, you know? So like from the beginning, we just kind of had a very simple little pamphlet, like black and white. I mean, you can probably print a table and then, you know, over the years it's changed. And now we kind of have like a glossy, lots of beautiful color photos and, you know, like a little map of the river and everything. So it's definitely evolved and. You know, if you go on the website, you'll see listings of all the artists and the schedules of the music performances and the writers. So yeah, check out the website.
[SPEAKER_08]: Each artist has a page. So if you go to the main page, it lists all the artists. And if you click on the artist's photograph, like a piece of their work, It takes you to their page with links and a description of their artist statement and what works they'll, like an example of the works they'll be bringing. So it's a good way to, and that should be up about a month before the event. So you can go in and look and see who's going to be at the event.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's a great service for the artists too, getting them on the website and making all that so accessible. Do artists get involved in the same way as volunteers, like just sort of reaching out to the board or reaching out to the website?
[Laurel Siegel]: A lot of artists volunteer, you know, to help. But, you know, we try to have an event just for the participating artists about a month before kind of a kickoff event where people get to meet each other and, you know, sort of decide if they want to pick a job, if they want to help volunteer. We have signs, we have yard signs that will we'll put around the city and, you know, at artists' homes if they want to have one in their yard. Yeah, so there's different ways for the artists themselves to be involved.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, thank you. Anything else that we missed?
[Laurel Siegel]: I don't know. I don't think so. Come on down, though. It's going to be a great event this year. We're hoping the weather, you know, is very nice for us.
[SPEAKER_08]: The rain date. So the rain date is on Sunday. So the event is Saturday, the 24th. And if it looks bad on Saturday, we'll have the rain date on Sunday, the 25th.
[Danielle Balocca]: Last summer, it was incredibly hot, right? Was that?
[Unidentified]: That's still fun.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. Great. Well, thank you both so much for joining me. And it sounds like it's going to be an awesome event. And I hope everyone can make it.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah. Thank you so much for having us. I'm excited. I've been listening. to many of your episodes. And I was like, this would be perfect for Open Studios too. So thank you. I appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you. Thank you very much.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks for listening to our conversation about West Medford Open Studios. Keep listening to hear some clips from Medford's first PorchFest.
[Unidentified]: Music Music Music I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend. Look at the time on the line that you were living in. And if you did not want to see me again, I would understand. I would understand. I want to be in the backyard again. Yeah, me too. I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend. Look at the time on the line that you were living in. And if you did not want to see me again, I would understand. I would understand. I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend. Look at the time on the line that you were living in. And if you did not want to see me again, I would understand. I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend. Look at the time on the line that you were living in. And if you did not want to see me again, I would understand. I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend. Look at the time on the line that you were living in. It is our hour.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Casherman. Music is made by Hendrik Irenys. We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. You can reach out to us by email at medfordpod at gmail.com, or you can rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites!