Between the Levees

Retired Captain Samuel Schropp joins me again on the show - 110 episodes after his first visit a few years back. He retired from the river in 2020, served as an expert witness in legal proceedings as a representative of industry, served his community, and has since moved away to paradise with his wife, dogs, and a cat to enjoy the retired life away from the chaos of the mainland. He recounts brief...

Captain Sam Schropp joins me again on the show tomorrow night. It's been 2 years and over a hundred episodes since our last visit. Among other things, we discuss 50 years of history out there between the levees.

Captain Kevin Ferezan joins me on the show for a quick visit to chat through early life in New Orleans, a move to Corpus Christi, Tx post-Katrina, and an attraction to the maritime world that has grown into a career over a few short years.

Director of Maritime Education and Training for the Seamen's Church Institute's Center for Maritime Education, Capt. Stephen Polk joins me on the show to discuss life growing up in the Houston area, adventures into the maritime world in civilian and military functions spurred by his maritime studies at Texas A&M Galveston, and a long journey with the Seamen's Church Institute that...

From down da bayou in Dulac, Louisiana to frigid Indiana, Selena found a new home in the industry with ADM/Artco. A graduate of the Nicholls St. Maritime program, she found herself interning in St. Louis across a few of Artco's business units and is now Landside Operations Manager for them in Mt. Vernon. She is active in an array of industry organizations including WiMOS and the local Propelle...

Selena shares a bit about the podcast to preview this week's episode.

Coming out of a Summer break, Captain Rusty Ball joins me on the show to talk through a life lived on the water. Since the mid-60s boarding boats with his father as a young child through today, Captain Ball learned a great deal and made a life out there working for many companies over the years, but most notably, he is proud of his time spent developing safety programs for the industry. Down but n...

Preview clip for the Tuesday, July 15th release premiering at 18:00 CST.

Leadman Cole Bizwell runs up and downriver on the M/V JOHN D ROBERTS with Ingram Barge. He's five generations deep in the industry, and his family ran a company some out there may remember. We discuss his childhood and the upbringing that brought him into aviation, and his fateful decision to pursue a career on the water. He's been out here for about three years now, and it looks like many...

Jonathan Jackson, a crane supervisor for Associated Terminals, joins me on the show to talk through his early life in the Greater New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas as well as his journey into the industry with a short stint working for a contractor at AEP's Convent Wash Dock that led him to Associated Terminals first on deck, then running cranes, and now into Operations Management. It's a...

"Big Dave" joins us back on the show to reminisce about careers and past associations he and Charlie survived together. Sounds yet again like these guys had a pretty good time in life. I'm not much needed here, but surely enjoyed it.

For the new Kulage and Friends series I'll be producing on my channel, Charlie and I get caught up on last week's release and banter a bit waiting on his old friend and partner in crime, Captain David Raines... To learn more about Captain Raines, please check out his full-length episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Hq87XJZc2nkG2cRuBVCp6?si=ikeQ6rlsT4iFur1d3g0MYA And to learn more about Charl...

Charlie joins me again after six long months. He chronicles at length his journey into Recovery that continues through today in sober living and daily attendance in groups. This one's just over 3 hours long, and I'd ask that you watch and listen start to finish in as many sessions as may be necessary. For the next episode in two weeks, Capt. David Raines (Ep. 95 - https://youtu.be/id0DIkZ1...

We travel down memory lane again with Captain Rudy Ward as he shares stories about past associates and friends from a long career including, among others, Robert Thompson, Andrew McKinney, Jeremy Frazer, John Gentry, and Charles Strait. He also touches a bit on the Coast Guard, OSHA regulations, and those pesky shoreside folks.

Captain Greg "P-nut" Whittington joins me on the show to talk through his time on waterways across the United States as well as the trials and tribulations that persist out there for mariners related to mental health and coping with the towboat lifestyle. He's discovered a way through the challenges he's faced with depression when he picked up a banjo fairly recently and began sh...

Captain Joey Swords joins me to talk through his career and experiences from a furniture factory in Mississippi to a week-long deckhand school, placement with Magnolia Marine, a deck position with Artco, and a chance in the wheelhouse at Jantran. His twenty-year career has seen time on most every river, but nearly ten years later with Jantran, he is one of a handful running the Arkansas.

Closing out Season 2 of the show, Capt. Rudy Ward joins me to share memories of a 50-year career out there on the water. From making $12.50 a day in the mid-70s when minimum wage was about $2/hour to the pilot house, Pilots Agree and beyond, he recalls a few stories about life on the water back then and on through to the present day. His illustrious career brought him to work for a ton of companie...

Quick update on Charlie and what he's been up to lately. We'll see him again, I'd imagine, sometime early next year.

Quick update on things.

From St. Augustine, Florida, aboard the S/V Seeker, Mr. Doug Jackson joins me on the show to discuss the adventures that shaped his life from childhood through today. He chronicles his early travels across the southern border of the United States, to Columbia and West Africa, and all across the southwest region of his home country. He eventually landed in North Tulsa, Oklahoma well into an IT care...

Mr. Doug Jackson joins me on the show this week to discuss the ongoing project that took over his life many years ago. He is the owner and builder of the SV Seeker, a triple-masted Chinese junk rig sailboat, that came together over many years in his front yard in North Tulsa. In this short introduction to him and his project, among other things, he discusses the building process, the boat's specif...

Kannon Brown joins me on the show to chat through his life and career thus far, and his involvement in the Maritime Throwdown program his father, Kenny, created a few years ago. Kenny hops on as well to chat about the 2024 Wildcard Qualifier that took place at Workboat in New Orleans, and some updates about his program. If you missed it, you can check out the exclusive livestream (not great) of th...

Harley East joined me at the Workboat Show in New Orleans last week. She discussed her life growing up with a father in the wheelhouse, her life today, and her involvement with Riverbank Professionals, the all-new crewing and social media platform created to connect mariners with companies and one another. Become a Pro today @ https://riverbankpro.com/ To watch the livestream of the Maritime Throw...

Retired Captain David Greer joins me on the show yet again - this time to discuss some of the societal issues that have plagued our American history from the beginning - and of those, primarily, race. He covers his early life growing up in rural Mississippi, the emotionally charged 1960s, desegregation, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., an assimilation within the towing industry in...

Captain Dennis Springer II joins me on the show to share his story through life thus far. We hear about his familial history in the industry, a troubled childhood that found him emancipated and out of school by the age of 13, a 9-year prison term in young adulthood, and his journey into and through the industry thereafter with ample mention of a handful of previous podcast guests. He touches on th...