Written by Jade Ruston
Without questions, where would we be? Good question! Nobody knows, because we have had to ask questions as a species in order to evolve in the way that we have. By asking questions, we eliminate confusion, admit humility and gain knowledge. The sooner you ask your question, the quicker you are on the path to discovery, and oooooh what a beautiful path that is, which is why it’s so much more exciting to start early. Young mother Tere Rodriguez, guided her daughter Ari to be fiercely curious and gracious upon her findings as she grew. To explore every avenue presented with an open mind and heart, whilst being absorbent of the lessons being made. “Now it’s very often that I learn from her from the kind of questions that she poses” Tere talking about her now 30 year old daughter.
“I always respected the little person that she was when she was little and just encouraged her as much as I could, her freedom, her creativity and her own personality. I don’t think I have ever tried to put a boundary on what she was trying to do, where she was wanting to go, her ideals, I am always trying to encourage her. She left to Spain when she was very young, just 17, having an awesome time and all of her friends used to help me serve the paellas in my then catering company and ask me, how is it possible that you let her go?! But I have always trusted her I knew she needed to go on with her life and blossom into the beautiful person that she is”
Tere’s persona is one of beaming colour, hard determination and honest intentions. Having had a life so far rich with travel, discoveries, and lessons from around the world, she carries a distinctive, warm openness about her that impulsively makes you smile in return. Despite that energy, which is vital to have around, speaking multiple languages, with a successful record of studies, a work history inclusive of being a chef to transitioning to copywriting and content creating for the past 10 years, initial times proved really difficult to find employment in Australia,
“There was really no way I could find a job in Australia. I probably applied for 200-300 jobs, barely got any calls despite the fact that I have a BA in Ancient studies and 2 Masters, I have experience in a number of fields, I can speak multiple languages, but I was 46, and with the surname like the one I have, Rodriguez, and an accent it was really hard to get a job so I decided to start my own business.”
The majority of her clients are residing in Spain where she already has an established reputation stemming from her podcast called Cuentos de Cocina, “Tales of the kitchen”, where the 30 episodes hear interviews from a range of people who work across hospitality, from chefs to somilers to wait staff or enthusiasts, anybody that was making a new mark in the scene, exploring unorthodox concepts next to the average venue that we are exposed to. When vegan food began to be more widely experimented with for example, at one stage it was almost unheard of, whereas now, after questions and exposure and education, it’s a growing lifestyle change that many around the globe are now making for themselves. From this experience, and with a lot of lockdown time on their hands, there was full confidence that combined with her daughters booming career as a videographer, and their already close and intellectual bond, that they could develop an interesting platform for other creatives to come and share new perspectives, methods of doing things and general life experiences that hold deep lessons, but otherwise perhaps wouldn’t have been able to be shared. The podcast ‘The Tari Experiment’ (Tere and Ari, adorable, I know) is much much bigger than food concepts. Ari told The Jolly Times,
“I was just thinking about the relationship between mother and daughter, parent and child, and how it would be interesting to have a web series where children or young adults interview their parents with pretty in depth questions. Just digging into the deep, seeing who they were before they had kids, and deep listening between generations. I feel like in the west, we don’t value that stuff all that much. We wanted to translate all of this into a podcast. There’s alot going on, there’s the mother daughter thing going on, the bilingual, English to Spanish aspect, it’s so multicultural and we’re both creatives as well so we interview very creative and interesting people.”
Tere explained, “It’s called the Tari Experiment because we didn’t know where we were going. We knew that we loved talking to each other obviously, we knew that there was a lot to learn from a lot of people out there, with their experiences, and we knew that we wanted to learn from older generations, and to capture all those stories that are getting lost, all those precious moments that are just getting lost”
The podcast holds two interviews a week, one in both English and one in Spanish, which is an incredible way to begin building bridges between two or more countries.
“Maybe there are Spanish speaking Australians here who want to be a little more involved in the community and because mum has that unique path connection, it’s exciting to know what to do with it.” Said Ari.
The kind of minds we have met through their podcast so far have included the likes of author Thomas Myor, a Torres State islander who has an anthology book of first nations fathers to sons. The book was described as ‘activism through storytelling’ which is exactly what the Tari Experiment explores and practices deeply.
Aside from the unique content of the experimental podcast, what makes it so Jolly is that even though it’s been developed whilst the two have been separated during the lockdown, you can both see and hear how much fun energy has been injected, breathing life into the ears of any listener.
“There’s been a lot of self growth in this podcast” Ari told us, “I love reading and watching things and consuming stuff but sometimes that can be too much, but having a refined focus, like, were doing this (the podcast) on ‘this’ topic, so I get to research for the week, that’s fun to me, then have a great conversation with interesting people that can be a little bit scary for the first few, but then you get over that and you’ve grown a little bit. Editing it all together has just been a really good time and a lot of fun to be honest”
A few qualities that are distinctive attributes to their joyful success, which we could all learn from, is that through their love and the respect for each other to do well, they keep themselves disciplined and accountable to meet deadlines and objectives, which is important in the game of taking life seriously and growing as a human. Discipline doesn’t come from motivation, it comes from you demanding better from yourself and believing that the outcome of what you are trying to do, holds benefit to yourself/people.
The ability to be aware that they are constantly learning about their new adventure. There is alot of fear surrounding the unknown to those who are shut off from learning. Once you open up and are willing to accept that you have space for more knowledge the possibilities of the roads that can be built are endless.
“Every guest teaches you something, definitely you learn so much you really develop a new perspective. We meet so many people, doing such good things, in really unique ways, and I think overall that’s a positive, exactly like The Jolly Times, giving people hope.”
“We want to bring good vibes to the world it needs it so much”
“I definitely had the closest relationship with my mum out of all of my friends, she’s 55, I’m 30 now so i always thought my mum was cool and the other kids thought their mums were lame. My little brother is quite a bit younger than me and my dad worked away a lot so it was just kind of us two. Exercise is a huge thing for us we will go on super long walks and runs always just chatting which is a really big part of our lives in reflection”
This is a beautiful project and an inspiration to more than just the topic-interested listener, but also to mother daughter relationships. How to communicate with each other, finding a friend in your parent/ child, and one that would be a tremendous bonus in the world to see it thrive and enhance the base of their podcast.
you can keep up with their Instagram and please email us at hello@thejollytimes@gmail.com if you know about someone doing some really fantastic stuff so that we can get in touch with them and spread the smiles!