It’s time to get to know your podcast host a little better! On this episode of the Western Wayne News podcast, WWN publisher Chris Hardie turns the tables and sits down with Kate Jetmore to talk about her history in Wayne County, her years performing on tour and in New York City, and how her professional life has developed since moving to Spain in 2002. Enjoy!
This episode of the Western Wayne News podcast is sponsored by 3Rivers.
Transcript
Kate Jetmore: I’m Kate Jetmore and I’m the host of the Western Wayne News Podcast.
Chris Hardie: From Civic Spark Media and the Western Wayne News in Wayne County, Indiana, I’m Chris Hardie. You’re listening to the Western Wayne News Podcast. And normally you’d be hearing our host Kate Jetmore’s voice right about now, but we’re doing something a little bit different today. We’re turning the tables and sitting down with Kate herself as our guest. I’d like to hear about Kate’s history with Wayne County, her journey that took her to being a podcast host and how she approaches interviewing people from Wayne County about their stories and what makes this community so special. Kate, thanks so much for joining us on, well, your show.
Kate Jetmore: Thank you, Chris. I’m really excited about this conversation.
Chris Hardie: Me too. And I think anyone who’s listened to the show has obviously gotten to know you a little bit, and they can tell that you are a thoughtful, insightful, reflective person. They get to hear the questions you ask our guests, but we haven’t really gotten to know you very well, so I was so excited that you were willing to take some time, as we said, to turn the tables and ask you some questions and get to know you a little bit better. So thank you.
Kate Jetmore: Thank you. I’m also really excited.
Chris Hardie: Well, let’s start at the beginning, and I know that you are a native of Richmond, but tell us a little bit more about your history in this place and what growing up meant for you in being from Richmond and in this area.
Kate Jetmore: Sure. I do have really deep roots in Wayne County and more specifically in Richmond, but I’m not a native of Wayne County. I was born on the East coast. I was born in New Hampshire while my dad was doing his residency at Dartmouth. I was born actually in the hospital where he was doing his residency. And then my family moved around quite a bit until I was six. We lived in Arizona, we lived in Arkansas, we lived in Indianapolis. And then when I was in first grade, we settled just south of Richmond, just out of town in the country.
And I got started at Garrison Elementary School, which was such a special place. I have so many amazing memories of my elementary school years. Mr. Stafford was our principal, and Ms. Montgomery was the librarian. And I just have amazing, amazing memories. I have no doubt that those years, the years that I spent at Garrison Elementary School really laid an incredible foundation for the person that I am and so many other people who were able to go there. I was there from first grade until sixth grade, and then I went to Dennis Junior High. It was actually when I started there in seventh grade, it was the very last year that Dennis was a junior high school.
And then my eighth grade year, which was my last year there, was its first year as a middle school. So I really straddled. And that was an important point in Dennis’s history because the fact that it shifted away from being a junior high to being a middle school was kind of a key moment. During my years, both at Garrison and at Dennis, I was very, very involved in all kinds of performance, especially at Richmond Civic Theater. And while I was at Dennis, so let’s say I was maybe 11 or 12, I began to do a lot more performing and get kind of better roles, leading roles, I performed… While I was at Dennis, I performed with the Dayton Professional Opera and started getting roles that I was really proud of in Richmond and just had so much fun with that. And then that continued when I was at Richmond, so I also… Excuse me, when I was at Richmond High School.
Chris Hardie: Yeah. And I want to hear… We’re going to talk more about your career and performance, but I wonder if there was a moment where you first knew that you were interested in performance or where you were excited by it or invited into it. Was there this one show or one moment, or was it more of a gradual thing that got you into that?
Kate Jetmore: Well, there is a moment. I can tell you what that moment is, and I will tell you that story. But that moment occurred against the backdrop of a culture of performance and theater that was already in my family. My dad has always been very involved in performance, and he’s been a key figure at Richmond Civic Theater and spearheading some other projects like Richmond Radio Works, for example. And I’m actually named after the lead character in The Taming of the Shrew.
Which was one of my dad’s favorite pieces of theater. But that moment I referred to happened at Richmond Civic Theater. My dad was performing in An Enemy of the People, Ibsen, and I have not seen that show since I was a little kid. And I went to see my dad every single night that he was on stage during the run of that show. So I can’t tell you exactly what was happening. I don’t actually even know the story, but I remember so vividly my dad in character coming on stage for the first half of the show and looking kind of normal. And then every night, there was this moment halfway through the show where he would come on stage and he had a black eye.
He had been beaten up, and I think maybe his clothes were sort of torn and muddy or something, but that for me was the magic of the theater to go back and forth every night. Now you’re starting at zero and now you’re seeing him injured. And to believe that even when you know that it’s makeup and costumes and lighting, it’s that suspended disbelief. Even though you know exactly what the mechanics are, you go there and that just… I mean, it swept me away and I just fell in love with the theater.
Chris Hardie: And do you remember your first show or your first time on stage?
Kate Jetmore: I do. And I think I was at Garrison. I think I must’ve been in first grade and it was a Christmas show and I played Mama Tree or something. I remember I was a Christmas tree.
Chris Hardie: That’s great. I love it.
Kate Jetmore: And then my first show at Richmond Civic Theater was actually… It was a show called The Ransom of Red Chief that was based on an O. Henry Short story, and it was with junior players, and I played ball bouncer number one, and I had one job, which was to bounce this ball. And I remember it bounced into the orchestra pit.
Chris Hardie: Not where it was supposed to go-
Kate Jetmore: So I literally dropped the ball.
Chris Hardie: Yeah. But it sounds like it stuck with you or the appeal that seeing your dad on stage performing and the idea of being a part of that was something that was more than just a whim. And we’ll talk in a moment about your professional career. Before we move on to that, I want to ask you, you mentioned your family moving around before settling in Richmond, and I know you were pretty young. But did it feel like home to you at that point in life? Did you know that this would be home for a long time or was there some sense of we might move again? How did you begin to feel like, okay, this is the place where I’m going to be?
Kate Jetmore: Well, I have to say I was so little when we were moving around before we settled in Richmond, that I have very few memories from those years. I do have a few memories, like maybe my first memories from four to six when we lived in Indianapolis. So I do have a sense, and I did have a sense that where we settled south of Richmond was home. But I don’t know how much of that is… That it was home, and how much of it is that it coincided with being 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. I think those are moments in a person’s life when wherever you are feels like home.
Chris Hardie: Yeah, pretty formative years. And the connections formed there don’t go away easily, obviously.
Kate Jetmore: Exactly, exactly.
Chris Hardie: So you graduated from Richmond High School, and as I understand it, moved to New York City. Was that straight out of high school? Is that graduate, pack up and go?
Kate Jetmore: It was. There was a short stint in Washington, D.C. just the summer between high school and college. So I got accepted to New York University in New York City for theater to Tisch School Of The Arts. And I was so excited, and I had an aunt and uncle who lived in Washington, D.C. and my uncle said, “Oh, you’re studying acting. You really need to know how to wait tables.”
So he kind of set me up with a job waiting tables in Washington, D.C. which was, oh, that’s a whole nother story. We’ll have to have coffee and talk about that. But waiting tables on Capitol Hill for politicians, that was quite an experience.
Chris Hardie: But there’s this… There’s the stereotype, right? Of the struggling actor, actress who is looking for their next gig and waiting tables to make ends meet. Was that suggestion from him purely about the economics of how you were going to pay your way?
Kate Jetmore: It was.
Chris Hardie: Okay. Okay.
Kate Jetmore: Yeah. And actually, I think it was a really smart thing for him to do. The rest of the story is that I did not last long in that job. It was first of all, super demanding. I mean, I was working at a French restaurant super… I mean, there were lobbyists and senators, and it was just filled with people hitting each other up for money, basically. And there were a lot of people touching me in that restaurant. And so it was not something that I knew how to deal with or felt that I could deal with. And so I ended up going and working at a summer camp, which was a much better fit. However, when I got to New York, I did need to string together a bunch of day jobs. And if I had had that credit and that experience, I think it would’ve been a little smoother to make my living in that way, but I never did.
Chris Hardie: Yeah. So what was landing in New York City like? What was that like for you? I mean, coming from Richmond and that background, but also as someone looking to… I don’t know if at that point you were thinking professionally for acting, but looking to move into that world, what was that like?
Kate Jetmore: Oh, yeah. I went to New York City knowing exactly what I wanted. I knew exactly what I wanted to be, not just when I grew up, but immediately. And that was to be an actress and singer. So that’s what I was studying at NYU, and that’s what I majored in. I don’t know why or how, but I just knew that I wanted to be in New York City. It wasn’t Chicago, it wasn’t LA. Atlanta wasn’t what it is now, but it wasn’t any other city except New York City. And I still love New York City. There’s just something about it. It’s just, it vibrates with creativity and possibility, and it’s like any idea you have is possible. That’s what it feels like. And you know what? Feeling like something is possible is sometimes half the battle. And I miss that. I miss that energy.
Chris Hardie: What you’re describing, I would’ve guessed you would’ve said something like coming from rural Indiana… Yeah, maybe a sense of being out of place. Did it take time for you to feel like you could navigate that sense of possibility, or did you feel it right away? Like here I am in this magical place, let’s go.
Kate Jetmore: It was definitely, let’s go.
Chris Hardie: Wow, that’s great.
Kate Jetmore: It is great. And I look back and I’m like, who was that girl? I was so full of confidence, and I don’t know how that read to other people, but I was completely unaware of how brazenly confident I was. And that confidence got me so far. It got me through so many doors, but it’s also just youth. I lived in New York from the time I was 18 until the time I was 30. And those are, I think, the most confident years of your life. Anything is possible, anything at all, the future is yours. And I did feel that from the moment I arrived there.
Chris Hardie: Wow. Wow. So what path did you follow from NYU to professional experiences? I mean, where did that take you? Where did you land? What did you find out about that world?
Kate Jetmore: Well, pretty quickly, I knew that I needed to join the union. I needed to join the stage actors union, which is called Actors’ Equity. And kind of on the heels of that, I pursued joining the union for TV and film, which is SAG. Now it’s called SAG-AFTRA. So I started pursuing that. I started going out on auditions that would provide me the opportunity to sort of… I think it was like a point system or something. You had to work with certain producers and earn a certain amount of points to then be invited to join the union. And I was able to do that pretty quickly out of school through a production company called TheaterWorksUSA, which specifically… I don’t know if they still do this exclusively, but at the time, what they did was produce… Fully produced musicals that toured around the United States for school children.
And I ended up working with them for… Kind of on and off, but pretty consistently for about two years with three different musicals. I did The Secret Garden, I did Hansel and Gretel, which was based on the Humperdinck opera, and I did The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for almost a year. And that was just so much fun. It was trial by fire. I mean, it was not great conditions, but we all felt like we had won the lottery because we were doing what we love to do and getting paid for it. And it was five actors and a stage manager in a van with all our stuff, the entire set, and costumes and sound equipment and everything. And we had a blast.
Chris Hardie: Was it like two shows in one spot and then onto the next thing?
Kate Jetmore: Pretty much. Yeah.
Chris Hardie: Wow.
Kate Jetmore: It’s funny because I haven’t thought about that in years. But when you asked if that was the format, that’s exactly what the format was. It was like, get up at 6:00, have breakfast at McDonald’s, set up in a school gymnasium or something. Do the show at 9:30, do the show at 11:30, break down, go have lunch, drive to the next place.
Chris Hardie: Amazing. Wow.
Kate Jetmore: Crazy.
Chris Hardie: Did you get feedback that… I mean, I think of actors and people in the world of performance is being driven by different things. And I would guess that for some, it’s the reaction you get from an audience, right? It’s that vibration, that feeling, that energy in the room. For others, it may be refining or perfecting a craft. For others, it may be the camaraderie of being in a performance with others. So what was it for you that you enjoyed the most about those moments or those kinds of shows?
Kate Jetmore: Well, I have to give you the children’s theater answer to that question.
Chris Hardie: Sure.
Kate Jetmore: And then the kind of take a step back and give you the performer in any circumstances answer. So the children’s theater answer is so different because an audience full of children is not going to pretend that they’re liking it if they don’t like it. They are all going to have to go to the bathroom at the same time. And if their teachers don’t allow them to go to the bathroom, they’re going to start talking. So that was a real wake-up call. And you can’t be angry with them if they don’t like your show. They’re being honest.
They’re also learning theater protocol. But there you are, you’re there for it. It’s kind of not fun to be part that process if you’re one of the people on the stage. But I remember in the first children’s theater musical that I toured with, which was Hansel and Gretel, I played Gretel. And there was a scene where I had to sing a duet with a bird. And the bird was a puppet who was being operated behind a curtain, and then there was an actor singing the bird’s part behind the curtain. And someone had decided to seat in the very first row, not the second grade girls, but the sixth grade boys. And I mean, even before we went out to perform, we were all whispering backstage like, “Oh, my gosh, this is going to be a disaster.”
And so these kids, these 10, 11-year-old kids were resting their face on their hand and just like, oh, they’re so over it. And so there I am trying to sing this duet with a bird, and this kid turns to his friend and just completely out loud, he wasn’t even whispering. He goes, “Yeah, right. Like a bird can talk.”
Chris Hardie: Oh, no. They might as well have given them tomatoes to throw at you.
Kate Jetmore: Yes, exactly. But what can you do? And it just becomes a great story that you tell. But to circle back to your question, well, anyone out there listening who has the experience of performing for a live audience will know exactly what I’m going to say before I say it, which is that performing for a live audience is such a joy and such a privilege. There is an energy like no other, that comes from people gathering at 8 o’clock in a theater. The lights going down and then just being there for that moment, whether it’s a concert or a standup comedian or a musical or Shakespeare.
It’s a moment when we come together as a community for a very specific purpose, and then we all focus on the same thing. It gives me chills just to think about it. I remember my very first day of acting class at NYU. We were in a black box theater, and we all were asked to stand up on the stage, which is the main space in a black box. And we were standing in a circle and our teacher, Hope Arthur was standing in the circle with us. And she asked us to go around the circle and basically answer that same question. What is it? Why are you here? And what is it that pulls on your heart?
And I remember my friend Joey said, “When I’m on stage, there’s just this amazing energy zinging around from actor to actor on stage.”
And he said, “I almost feel like the audience is secondary. The audience, it’s not an exchange of energy between the performers and the audience. It’s an exchange of energy between the performers that the audience is witnessing.”
And that description has always stuck with me as well.
Chris Hardie: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Well, I know that we could dive even deeper into life in New York City, but I also want to… I don’t think you’re still performing. So somewhere along the way some things changed. And I know that you made a big move and you’re doing different things now. So take us forward a bit to what happened next. Yeah.
Kate Jetmore: Well, super fast-forward, I did progress beyond children’s musicals, and I performed with lots of touring shows. I had a cabaret in New York City that was very successful and that I had a great time with. And I began to use my voice a lot doing something called looping, which is post-production audio work for film and TV in New York City.
And really build a career. And the year that I turned 30, I mean, it was not connected to me turning 30, but that summer, I decided to travel to Spain, just me and my backpack and hike a pilgrimage trail that I had heard about called the Camino de Santiago, which goes east to west and ends in the city where it’s believed that the Apostle St. James is buried, and there’s a huge cathedral built on the side of his tomb. And while I was hiking that trail, I met the man who I would marry and fell in love with the man who I would marry. And so just a few months later, I moved to Spain. So I met him in July of 2002, and I… Excuse me, July of 2001, because then 9/11 happened. I went back to New York, and 9/11 happened. And then in January of 2002, I moved here to Spain, and I’ve lived here ever since.
Chris Hardie: Wow. So I mean, I think of Richmond, Indiana to New York City as a big move. Obviously, if you survive that, you were capable of adapting to new environments. But what was that change like for you and then for your new family?
Kate Jetmore: Well, it’s interesting that you should bring that first change into the question, because the fact that I grew up in Richmond, I think really saved me. I think if I had grown up in New York City and then moved to the town where I live, which is about the size of Richmond, I’m not sure that it would’ve stuck.
But moving to this smaller city in Spain, I live in a city called Cuenca in Castilla-La Mancha, and it really reminds me a lot of Richmond. It’s about the same size. There are a lot of places where you can walk, people know their neighbors. There’s a lot of culture here, especially visual arts, but there’s a huge touring theater here where a lot of tours come through different musicals and concerts and dance and stuff. So it was a big change. It was absolutely a big change. But for you, or for people out there who are listening, anything that is prompted by love, falling in love, passion really has a strong pull.
Chris Hardie: Yeah. Yeah. Today, I mean, we’re connecting by video conferencing, audio conferencing, technology that’s really common. 2002, not so much. I mean, you had long distance phone calls, you had email. Did you feel like you were disconnected or creating distance either intentionally or unintentionally between you and your family or the people you knew back in Indiana? I mean, you had already again made that move to New York. So what was your relationship with home through all of these changes?
Kate Jetmore: There definitely was a sense of disconnect and a sense of separation, but just as a reminder, a reminder to you, because you remember the before times and as a bit of a lesson to anyone out there who doesn’t remember the before times, people weren’t as connected. So I mean, I remember when I was an exchange student in Italy when I was 15, and I think I called my parents collect when I got there to let them know that I had gotten there and then maybe once while I was there. So in my life, I had definitely had moments of not being so much in touch with my family in Indiana, and again, had lived in New York for 12 or 13 years by that point.
But there was not internet in our apartment when I moved in, that was not a thing. People did not have. So Spain is a little bit behind the United States and things like that. Definitely have caught up by now, but it’s always… I remember when McDonald’s came to town here in Cuenca, I kind of watched fast food come here. But again, there was no internet, and there was definitely no Wi-Fi. That was not a thing. But I had to go… When I wanted to call home or send an email, that kind of thing, I had to go to an internet cafe, remember those places?
Chris Hardie: Sure. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Kate Jetmore: But it was easy enough, and it was pretty cheap. So I could just walk there and pay my €4 or whatever it was to use their computers. But yeah, I was definitely far away.
Chris Hardie: Yeah, yeah. Well, and so now the technology has evolved to the point where we’re all connected all the time, and we could talk at length about the pros and cons of that, but my understanding is that has allowed you to build other aspects of your career, other kinds of business. I know you’re a coach, and I want to ask you what that has meant for you. And then also you do translation for the Spanish film and TV industry, which I assume is made possible in part by being able to connect and do that work and transmit it over the internet and not necessarily having to be in a place back to the idea of having to be at the center of it all in New York City. You don’t have to go to the place where it’s all happening anymore, at least for some kinds of things. So what have you embarked on more recently that’s made possible by that technology?
Kate Jetmore: Yeah, you’ve touched on a few different things. When I first moved here, there was kind of the obvious way to make my living, especially without that technology when I first got here, was to teach English. So I did some of that. But then as my Spanish improved, because I didn’t really speak much Spanish when I moved here, but as my Spanish improved, I began to do a lot of translation work and really enjoy it. And I created a niche in the fine arts sector. I did a lot of those audio tours that you do when you go to a cathedral or a national park or that kind of thing.
As a translator, I got in that door, translating the English version of those self-guided tours, and then pretty quickly was able to say, oh, PS I’m a voiceover artist. Because I had done a lot of that in New York City and began to offer sort of a package deal. I’ll translate it and record it. And I did that for so many galleries and museums, and I have shifted away from that. Things kind of changed during the pandemic for a variety of reasons, but I’m so happy with my new niche, which is the Spanish film and TV industry. I love, love, love, love, love translating subtitles, scripts, pitches. I also translate all the exhaustive materials that accompany a project in development. So that’s kind of where I am right now with translation.
Chris Hardie: That’s amazing. Just to make sure I understand, so a Spanish film project comes out, they’re recording the dialogue. It’s in Spanish. And are you translating then from Spanish to English?
Kate Jetmore: Yes.
Chris Hardie: And you’re doing the text version of that or are you participating in any of the actual voiceover or sound parts or… Yeah, what pieces are you touching there?
Kate Jetmore: I’m referring only to translation. So I have one client who will send me a fully, fully produced TV series or movie, and I mean it’s already airing on Spanish TV, but then they want to sell it to Amazon Prime or Netflix or whoever. And so they need the subtitles. And so I translate all the subtitles. And again, I think this is an important question and important thing to clarify. Yes, I do translate only in one direction. I only translate from Spanish into English, and that’s pretty typical in the Spanish… Excuse me, that’s pretty typical in the translation industry, translation and interpreting that you only translate or interpret into your mother tongue.
Chris Hardie: Okay, okay. Well, tell us about coaching. What is coaching in the context of how you do it and who do you work with and what happens in the practice of coaching?
Kate Jetmore: I’m so excited about coaching, and it’s something that I think I’ve been kind of flirting with for many, many years. And when I found it, I knew that I had found it. I actually found it when I was kind of exploring some other possible options professionally. And I worked with a coach to look into those other possibilities. And as we were sitting there, I thought, this is what I want to do. I want to sit across from somebody who’s maybe feeling a little bit stuck or frustrated or has the urge or the need to change or evolve in some way, but just doesn’t know how to move to action.
They’re sort of spinning their wheels or spending a lot of time in their head, and they kind of can’t get past themselves. So coaching is very focused on an objective, and it’s an objective that’s defined by the person who’s receiving the coaching, the coachee or the client. And so you very clearly say, I want, fill in the blank, or I need, fill in the blank, which can be really scary. I mean, I’ve had clients, and I have to admit, I myself have also experienced this. I’ve had clients who are so scared of saying what they want. They maybe have never even said what they want to themselves or anyone else. But what you come to find out is that’s the first step.
Defining which direction you want to move in, and then you can start moving in that direction. So what the coach does is accompany that person. And it’s so interesting because the way that I envision this exploration is that the client is really exploring on her own or on his own. But the coach is sort of sitting there at their elbow reminding them where the path is. You said you wanted to go north, and now you’re sort of aiming east, so why don’t you kind of turn left a little bit? And asking powerful questions that will help to shed light, help to let things go, help to open doors, asking powerful questions, but also providing feedback, holding up a mirror. And it’s just incredible. It’s incredible to be coached, which is something that I’ve also experienced, but it’s equally incredible to be the coach, and it’s just an incredibly rewarding part of my professional life.
Chris Hardie: It sounds really rewarding and really meaningful. And yeah, I mean, circling back to the impact of performing for a live audience, which is obviously a very different part of your career, but the energy that comes with actions you can take as a coach and questions you can ask and things you can do that has this kind of immediate effect on the person you’re working with and what they’re able to do. And I kind of want to bridge that to talking about podcasting because… Well, partly because we’ve spent a lot of our time listening, hearing your story, and I’ve loved it. And I also want to kind of see how those things are all tied together in the world of podcasting. I know you created your own podcast, The Listen in 2019, and you say in your introduction to that show that it’s about the subtleties of culture and compassion.
And I can see that it’s a continuation of this theme of you using your voice and this interest in bringing stories out or maybe helping someone get unstuck, maybe in the immediacy of a podcast conversation that’s like, how do we get to the next deeper level of this conversation? But you’re clearly using those talents and skills that you developed in that podcast context. And then you and I talked about a podcast for the Western Way News that we launched then in 2023, where again, you’re using your voice and your ability to see a little bit deeper to the next level.
What’s the thing that might need to be talked about here? Or what’s the thing that’s not yet been said that we should get to to bring people’s stories out, specifically for people who live in or are connected to Wayne County in some way. So what has all of that meant for you as… I don’t want to call it the culmination of your career, but at this point in bringing all those different skills together, what does it mean to you and what does it mean to you to do it for a Wayne County specific context?
Kate Jetmore: Well, I’m glad you brought up The Listen, which is a passion project, and it was something that had been sort of brewing in me for many, many years. And a good friend of mine stepped up and said, “I can probably help you fill in some of those gaps that are stopping you from doing this.” And so thank goodness, my very good friend Lauren Lovett stepped in as producer, and I would not be podcasting without her. And that podcast, and this podcast would not exist if not for her support. So I’m so grateful for that. That project was born at a time… Again, you said 2019. I recorded the first interviews early in that year and then put them out into the world at the end of that year.
That project was born at a time when my son was maybe 11 or 12, and I was very, very aware of what he was hearing on the airwaves and what kind of resources were available for him and for all people and for all young people. But I was very focused on my own son. And I thought, we need to be having meaningful conversations. We need to be asking questions from a genuine place of curiosity. We need to be responding respectfully so that our young people know that that’s an option. And I felt it was just a grain of sand on the landscape of media or even podcasts, but it ended up taking on a life of its own. And I really felt like I hit the mark when it came to that goal. And also, I have to say that the inspiration for that show was very linked to… The very first season of that show was focused on women raising their children outside of their own culture.
Which I definitely had experience with and wanted to explore with other mothers. And so from there, it went on and it took on this life of, I really wanted to talk to people from other cultures and other countries, and there was even probably 10 or 12 episodes in a row of Americans abroad. But then I went back to, okay, well, it’s always in English, but I love talking to people from other countries and other cultures. So it took on… It was almost like a telescope where I would look through my telescope and think, okay, now Asia, okay, now Africa, okay, now Americans, but outside their own culture.
And when you approached me about bringing what I do to the creation of the Western Way News Podcast, I’m not sure I could have put this word on it at the time, but thinking about it now, I really feel like it was like I went from the telescope to the microscope. It was like, let’s bring it down to a local level. But it’s all the same stuff. It’s still the voices of other human beings, which is so, so powerful. Just having another human voice in your ear.
And when you frame it as listen to the voice of your neighbors, these are the people who live in your community with you. This is one of the voices of the people in your hometown, of the people in your home county. That to me just feels so important. I left Richmond many, many years ago, and I have lived in other places over many, many years, but Richmond is still my hometown, and it will always be my hometown. And what’s one thing that’s really surprising to me about this project is that I feel like it’s really strengthened those ties even though I continue to live thousands of miles away.
I feel closer to Wayne County than ever, and I feel more loyal to Wayne County than ever. And I feel like I would do anything for Wayne County. And part of what I’m doing right now is this show.
Chris Hardie: That’s really special. And I mean, I have told people about, oh, yeah, we have this podcast and our lives in Spain, and it’s this local podcast about local people, and they kind of tilt their head and look. And it’s kind of like, well, how does that work? But as you say, the power of the voice and the power of just the sound of someone telling their story, thank goodness we have a way to do that across the miles. And because you are someone who spent a lot of time here and feel this place, I think in your roots, in your bones, you can have those conversations in a way that some other random person living in Spain doing interview would not be able to do.
So it’s really fun the way that… The themes you’ve explored of people away from their own culture, but still connected to it are showing through in the podcast. And I guess as we wrap up, again, just to talk a little bit more about the role of this podcast in your life, in the Western Way News and how the project’s unfolded, do you have any favorite moments or surprising moments or moments of doubt about like, oh, is this going to work? What has been the journey of producing it and the interviews that stand out to you, moments that stand out to you over time?
Kate Jetmore: Gosh. Gosh, I hate to sort of call out specific interviews because there’ve been so many that have been special, and I won’t be able to name all of them. But one thing that I’ve loved is being able to use my Spanish skills by recording interviews in both English and Spanish with our guests who are bilingual.
To me, it’s really important to be able to speak to everyone in our community. And sometimes that means doing it in a different language. So I’ve been really grateful. And grateful to you because you were the person who made the decision that, yeah, let’s do, let’s do it in both languages. So that was something that I was really appreciative of. I’ve recorded interviews with people who I already kind of knew or knew of, and that’s been kind of great to reconnect with people or to connect with people who are, for example, John Faas, who runs Richmond Civic Theater, which as I said, I grew up in that theater and I have so, so many memories of the theater. Didn’t know John, but we have that in common.
He loves Richmond Civic Theater, and so do I. And so we were able to connect in that way. And then of course, they’re the guests who come across my desk who are just a complete surprise, a complete… Like I didn’t know this project was happening. I didn’t know that this person existed, but oh my gosh, how exciting. And so to feel excited myself and then be able to bring that story to our listeners, that’s the best. It’s just wonderful to do those stories.
Chris Hardie: Well, and I’ve noticed no matter whether it’s someone you are connected to in some way or familiar with or someone brand new to you, the conversation feels like two old friends catching up, right? I mean, I think you’re able to bring this familiarity and this kind of really engaging conversational style that makes the listener a part of it and feels like I’m getting to hear, as you mentioned, you and John talking about theater history and life. It felt like listening to two friends walk down memory lane and talk about the history of the theater and what that part of life in Wayne County was like.
So it’s a joy to listen to, and I hope our other listeners experience that the way that I do. It’s just so much fun.
Well, Kate, thanks so much for being willing to share your story today and to walk us through your life. I always feel like a half hour, an hour conversation trying to capture all of the things that someone has experienced, and the milestones in life is so hard. But I feel like we’ve gotten to know you a little bit better, and I’ve really enjoyed that. I’m sure our listeners have too. So thank you.
Kate Jetmore: Thank you, Chris. It’s been a real joy. Thanks for having me.