[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. Welcome to our end of the year wrap up podcast. It's me, Danielle. Hey, guys, it's Chelly. And we're welcoming Chelly back. Before we get into it, we're just going to start with our usual introduction. So we'll share our name, pronouns. And then instead of like maybe our favorite restaurant, maybe we can reflect on any new restaurants we tried this year in Medford.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Okay. All right. You might have to go first on this. It's always my hardest question.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. I don't think it's going to be a shocking one. So yeah. My name is Danielle. She and her pronouns. Um, I did try El Tacuba. I think everyone was like really, really excited anticipating the opening of this restaurant for years. Um, and I thought it was great. I thought it was a great margarita. Um, we went for like appetizers. We had like one of each of the tacos that didn't have meat in them. Um delicious. I think we got some advice before going that it's not a place to bring your kids because of like you know what's on the menu and definitely our kids are very picky so they enjoyed, well one of them enjoyed the tortilla chips but I think it's a good date night spot or like pre-theater outing. Um yeah what about you?
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah I'm gonna have to ditto that. I also tried to Cuba um I agree that it's a perfect date night spot, although I went and hyped up the miss a tough moms and we did a couple of glasses of wine and we did some apps and it was the perfect blend of. like close to home, relaxing. It was a great ambience, great atmosphere. So I think we're lucky to have them.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I mean, I feel like they've gotten a lot of mention on the podcast and yeah, exciting.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah, I think Medford is ready for Tacuba-esque spaces. Bring it on.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, and ready for their coffee shop to open too.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yes, coffee first, wine later.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great, so we are hoping to kind of recap the year, both personally and for the podcast. So I think people have noticed, we've been hearing a little bit less from Chelly this year. So Chelly, you want to talk about why?
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah, you may have noticed that I have been less present than last year. Is it already, is it a year and a half ago at this point? In May, I started a master's program at Tufts in the urban policy department. And so I have been both tied up, but also happily engaged at Tufts. I'm pursuing a master's in public policy. And so while I have wanted to be here, it has not been, there are only so many hours. So yeah, I'm very much looking forward to next semester. I'm about halfway through and looking to wrap up in August so yeah we'll see we'll see how the next couple months go.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah well and congratulations and um you know we've missed you but also very happy for you yeah it's a big thing graduation yeah graduation maybe it doesn't feel like it but right around the corner yeah yeah any other sort of highlights of the year for you?
[Chelli Keshavan]: I mean I still I also gave time I'm still a coalition coalition member at the Center for Translational Research at Harvard. We're essentially an equity committee, and we review methodology. And researchers come to us with their thinking around research design, and we chew on it and offer feedback. And we also invite folks to come back for further discussion. So that has been an excellent networking opportunity. And also I'm a person who has PhD hopes in the mix and research design hopes. And so it's been a good opportunity for me to think about design that has worked well for others and pieces that I could or should adopt. So yeah. So also school is probably not going, or hopefully not going anywhere for me.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. So then there's one thing that you have been involved in that maybe we can look out for more about in January. Do you want to talk about that?
[Chelli Keshavan]: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm happy to rep Dr. Ravi Shankar. He and I met over the summer. He is the author of a memoir of his own memoir called Correctional. I was supposed to be shopping for like econ books and quant books, but those are not as interesting as Correctional for me. And I saw his book in the Tufts bookstore. He is a professor at the English department. I was sort of immediately drawn to it. with my Indian Medford, West Medford hats on, I saw in him another South Indian discussing racism and anti-blackness in the Indian community. And I was like, oh my god, I need to meet him right now. And lo and behold, our very own Reverend Wendy was like, well, he's going to be here next week. I'll introduce you. And I was like, get out. And she was, no, I'm dead serious. He's going to be here next week. And so Wendy made the connection. kind of have been connected by way of two different Tufts departments, the English department, kind of surrounding journalism stuff, which makes Medford Bites even more relevant in that space. But also, he is part of the Tuppet department. Tufts is involved in sort of education and bachelor avenues for formerly incarcerated. And so, yeah, I've been learning a lot. look out in early January. We are planning to launch a series of conversations around the book correctional. So I imagine Medford Bites will post details as soon as they're available. But yeah, come see me, come meet Dr. Shankar. I think it'll be a good time.
[Danielle Balocca]: Definitely exciting stuff.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: I think for me the highlights, there's a lot of highlights of the year that are about the podcast. I think like personally, So it's been like a lot of ups and downs this year. I think, you know, I think working with the Charter Study Committee has been really fun, learning a lot about our city and kind of how it runs. And just, I think, getting to know different people in the city through the podcast and also through that work has been really cool. Um, we did, we were at the farmer's market this summer, which was like, it's not something that I ever expected to do, but it was really fun. Like kind of just interacting with people. It's really cool to like be out in the community and have people who I've never met, like talk to me about the podcast. Like I love it. Um, so that was really fun. Um, I think too, just prioritizing self care this year in a different way. For me, for my family, that's been a work in progress as always.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah, I think you make a great point. I think maybe this is the first year I've seen where folks who you and I don't know personally know about the podcast. And one piece that's been on my mind just kind of globally is like, is your community folks you know because you already knew them? Or is your community people at large who you can Create opportunities to get to know so I imagine the charter work functions in that way for you. Yeah, certainly being at school. having access to a plethora of sort of perspectives has done that for me this year.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I think it's been really interesting sometimes how Medford can, for me at least, through all this stuff, can feel like a small town. So small. You know, like going into the square, seeing people you know, or like people that you newly know, and I just realized one person on the Charter Study Committee is like almost my neighbor, and I wouldn't have known that. We went around the neighborhood like hand delivering some of our Christmas cards and we like ran into him and I was like, oh wow. So yeah, I think it's, you know, I think the podcast started in COVID when we were sort of like forced to be hyper local all the time, you know, maybe like confined to our own homes, our own like small parts of Medford. And there's definitely some
[Chelli Keshavan]: Like nice outcomes meeting you, you know, just be at being able to just really connect with the folks that were like physically close to so yeah, I think it's also interesting in the years that the podcast has been around Medford has seen kind of an influx of just new folks here in Medford people are choosing
[Danielle Balocca]: the space yeah definitely good numbers yeah once i'm so some highlights for the podcast this year we surpassed our 100th episode i sort of stopped keeping counts i'm not sure which one it was but um we definitely surpassed the 100 mark We did have this was like our second year of covering the municipal election so we got to talk to a lot of the candidates running for city council school committee mayor. I think those are some of our most engaging and popular episodes. And, you know, I think it's really exciting to see some new faces on the school committee and in the city council. and you know we are keeping our current mayor which uh you know seems like a hopeful thing um yeah and then so also we were there was a story about us in the globe this year that featured that talked about the podcast but um highlighted a class that I was having that the library was hosting for me to kind of teach kids about podcasting, which was really fun. And then so that was like, I think, in the winter. And then this fall, we did a class for adults, which was equally as cool, though. I think my tech skills, the gaps show with the adults more. We did also raise money for the GSA again, which is why we're at the farmers market selling some hats. So That's always really fun, like a nice way to engage with the community. And I think a really fun part of that that I didn't anticipate, it didn't sound fun when I thought about doing it initially, but I drove around delivering some of the hats that were shipped to me. And so it was like really cool to sort of like take a little tour of the city and see, you know, who was like kind of supporting the GSA. Absolutely. Yeah. And so as people know, one of the platforms the podcast is on is Spotify. And so Spotify does their famous wrapped thing at the end of the year. So it shared some fun statistics with us, which was that in 2023, 73% of our listeners found us. So that feels like a big increase for this calendar year. They also let us know that we were being streamed in six countries, the US being the most popular one, obviously. And that our listenership increased by 42%. I don't know. I'm not a great math person. These don't add up to me totally. And that we were the top 10 podcast for 121 of our fans, top 5 for 92. And for 45 of our followers, we were the number one podcast that they streamed.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Shout out to all 45, that is amazing.
[Danielle Balocca]: So yeah, thank you. And this is like only our podcast, or I mean, sorry, our Spotify stats. So we always appreciate like a review or a rating on Apple podcasts as well. As I, I don't know, this might surprise people, but people that know me probably won't. I don't really know how to use, like how to like find some of these things through those apps. But so it's nice that Spotify just gives them to us. Yeah. Hey.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Um, I mean, I think we're looking forward to some great episodes in the new year. Maybe like all of you just trying to move with compassion, be our best selves, love our kids. Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, and we're always looking for new ways.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, looking for new ways to engage with the community, get feedback, kind of keep this show something that is influenced by the community for the community.
[Chelli Keshavan]: So, yep, as always, reach out, stay connected. We want to hear your thoughts and ideas. We'd love to host as many folks as possible.
[Danielle Balocca]: What I always tell people is that's the way we get new people to talk to on the show. We'll talk to one person and then they'll say, oh you should really talk to this person and that person and this person is doing something really cool. So yeah, if you're interested in being on the podcast or know somebody that you think we should talk to, send them our way. Yeah, one thing, so at dinnertime we started this thing with our kids where we talk about like the best part of their day, the worst part of their day, and then something that they would change about their day if they could.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I'm used to a Rose and Thorn, but I like the change piece.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, actually I think it was Cole's first grade teacher that introduced that idea to us. But I don't know, do you have anything that you would change about the year?
[Chelli Keshavan]: That I would change about the year. That's a really good question. I think I'm just trying to be reflective and understand my own patterns and what my behavior means for others positively or negatively and just get more in charge of emotions and just cause and effect. Just putting on my grown woman pants.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I don't know if I have control of much more.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I know what we can control, what we can't control. Yeah, no, I like that. I think I would choose that too. I think that like self-reflection is always important. some concrete things like, I don't know, I started reading at night before I go to bed.
[Chelli Keshavan]: There might have been too much graduate school reading for me. Reading, yes, if my kids could exercise at school that would be dope.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, reading for pleasure as a way to kind of relax, maybe some more mindfulness, being present. I think I'm getting too much into my professional voice here, but yeah. Well, thank you and thank you all for listening and for following the podcast. We can't wait to kind of make some more content for you for next year. Yeah. All right. Thank you. 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 Idenisse. 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. Never Bites. Good job.