00:00.00 alifeinruins Welcome to episode one fifty three of a life and ruins podcast where you investigate the careers of those living a life in ruins I am your host Connor John and and I am joined by my co-host David Howe this week we are joined by the founders of community connections historical consulting. 00:05.55 Jasmine Saxon Are. 00:17.68 alifeinruins Historical consulting company based out of Denver Jessica and Jasmine. Thank you so much for joining us today. How are you doing. 00:25.97 Jessica Ericson Um, doing well thanks for having us. 00:26.68 Jasmine Saxon Yeah, doing good happy to be here. 00:29.45 David Howe Yeah. 00:29.48 alifeinruins Yeah, as is it like field work season for you you all here right now or yeah. 00:38.23 Jessica Ericson It's about to be. It's about to be crazy. Yes. 00:41.67 Jasmine Saxon Yeah, we haven't I don't think we've quite well we're just talking about false spring right? So It's still kind of like hit or miss right now. But yeah I hear it's going to be really busy, especially for just but we've got some field work coming up too So That'll be. Ah, be Fine. We can talk about that in a minute. 01:01.76 David Howe Yeah, are you guys? Ah, based out of Denver right now is that what you're recording cool. Okay, um, nice I do love Denver ah I never lived there but I've been there a million times seems like a cool place to live. 01:02.32 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah, yeah, yes. 01:04.70 Jasmine Saxon Yes, yeah. 01:16.80 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah, wait where are you at now David awesome cool. 01:19.32 David Howe I'm in Nashville Tennessee yeah, um, yeah, are you in a closet right now. Cool. 01:23.66 Jessica Ericson I am I am in my closet I am avoiding all of the animals in my household. So this was the only place that worked. 01:34.50 David Howe Smart now you you wouldn't be the first poor fifteenth guest that is done actually? um yeah so um I guess we can get slate. We can get into what you guys do. But I guess we wanted to start off with you know. 01:39.30 Jessica Ericson Um, okay yep, this is where it's at. 01:49.53 David Howe How'd you get into anthropology in general I guess we can start with Jasmine. 01:54.52 Jasmine Saxon Ah, yeah, sure. Um, so I actually got into archeology before anthropology I mean anthropology. Obviously it's all connected and everything. But um when I was about 12 02:01.62 David Howe Share. 02:08.89 Jasmine Saxon I went overseas for a little while like like I think ten days or something like like that and I stayed um in England Ireland and Wales and I got to do a lot of really cool sightsing so at twelve years old my brain was just like completely exploded with these like amazing cultural sites and so. 02:29.36 Jasmine Saxon Ever since then I just had this love for exploring culture and history and understanding how people used to live a long long time ago and like Lo and behold that's archeology. so um so I came back from that trip and I was just super inspired and. 02:39.10 Jessica Ericson Um, no. 02:39.22 David Howe Um, yeah. 02:45.93 Jasmine Saxon That really started my journey on figuring out like what archeology is and I ended up going to my undergrad and studying archaeology and eventually got my master's in anthropology with a concentration archeology from university of Denver so that's kind of the shortened. So like version of like how I originally got into history and archeology. 03:08.20 David Howe Nice. 03:11.29 alifeinruins What was ah the coolest thing you saw overseas that really sticks out in your in your brain. 03:17.46 Jasmine Saxon Um, you know I I got to see like Stonehenge but that actually wasn't one of the most prominent memories for me because it was already gate like blocked off at that point when I went so you know you were like in a bus. You just get to like see it out the window. So it's like not really as impactful as you might hope it would be um, but I think what was really impactful for me was actually kissing the barney stone so I didn't realize you had to lay on your back and like basically do a backbend and like hold onto these metal bars and like. Lean all the way back and like Kiss the stone that's like on the outer wall of the castle and I'm afraid of heights so that like took a lot of um, a lot of courage for me to do that and so I remember that really distinctly and of course you know it's a iconic historical thing. But um. 03:56.38 David Howe Ah. 04:06.60 Jasmine Saxon Also I think what was really impactful too was when I was staying in Ireland I got to stay with a host family. So I got to have a little bit more of an inside view on like cultural practices and foods and we took a like horse-dran carriage through some of the mountain passes there. And it was super green and beautiful and so I think yeah, just those 2 memories like really stick out to me as just um, very vivid and impactful in a way because it was not just like historical but it was also a cultural. Um, component there where I got to understand a little bit more about how people lived in different parts of the world and I think that's really important too. 04:47.45 David Howe So one could say you connected with the community. 04:52.86 Jasmine Saxon Um, ah ding. Yeah, totally. 04:56.78 David Howe I Do have a ah quick question on that though, do they like wipe the blarney stone down before the next person Kisses it or how's that work. 04:57.48 Jessica Ericson Um, so so again. 04:58.82 alifeinruins Um. 05:01.53 Jasmine Saxon You know they probably don't even let you do that anymore. But like back in you know when was that like early two thousand s or something. Yeah, definitely not in the before times. Yeah, yeah. 05:11.16 Jessica Ericson Um, and yeah, yeah. 05:12.36 David Howe Okay, in the before times. Yeah, ah it. 05:15.48 alifeinruins Know the beastie before covid um I just took looked at a picture of the Blaney Stone it looks I would to have a bad time like just like the height it's at it seems like. 05:20.51 Jasmine Saxon For real. 05:25.74 David Howe Are. 05:27.96 Jasmine Saxon Um, it's pretty sketchy. Yeah yeah. 05:28.45 Jessica Ericson Ah, yeah. 05:31.48 alifeinruins Yeah, um. 05:32.92 David Howe Is it like a Disney Disney like Disney ride length weight to do it. 05:39.97 Jasmine Saxon Um I think it can be I don't remember it being that long but I was also 12 so it was a long time. It could have been long I'm not sure. Yum. 05:40.87 Jessica Ericson Um, who yeah, um. 05:45.28 David Howe Yeah, oh yeah, that is definitely corroded from faces being on it. Cool. Ah. 05:46.77 Jessica Ericson Um, but ah. 05:53.42 Jessica Ericson Um, super yummy. 05:54.21 Jasmine Saxon Like all of those germs. Yeah. 05:56.40 alifeinruins And there's like there's like a wet spot that never really goes away looks like just gross. Um, what about you Jessica what was um how did you get into archeology anthropology history. 06:00.28 Jessica Ericson Ah, oh. 06:09.29 Jessica Ericson Yeah I Ah let's see so my dad was always in the history. So I kind of had that Baseline foundation of like oh this is something. That's really interesting and then I mean I see it seriously was watching the mummy. 06:25.11 Jessica Ericson Um, I absolutely loved that movie and I wanted to figure out how to do that in my life. So um, yeah let's see that came out in 9099 so from watching the mummy I just tried to figure out how I could like travel the world to get involved with any different culture. And it kind of just kind of boiled down to archeology and I was like let's roll with it. Let's see what goes let's see what happens and then I ah I ended up going to some from P Publo Colorado and there's the pleblo archaeological and historical society. And they had a monthly meeting and I showed up and I was they are the sweetest people we still have connections with them and have worked with them a little bit. But yeah, they they brought me in and started introducing me to absolutely everybody so that was how it kind of all started happening. It was good 10. 07:20.20 David Howe Um, cool shout out Brendan Frazier also 07:21.27 Jasmine Saxon Yeah, we recently? Yeah, we recently went and so and had a little talk at the archeological archeological society and it was so sweet because like they just welcomed just back in like their long lost daughter that had. 07:21.67 Jessica Ericson Good times. Yeah yes, hey yes. 07:40.15 Jasmine Saxon Gone away and done all these amazing things that had come back to like share her dirty. It was like really cool to see that connection there. Yes. 07:43.64 Jessica Ericson Um, and we're so sorry. 07:46.72 David Howe Cool. 07:48.71 Jessica Ericson Um, they they're great super gay. 07:49.82 alifeinruins So I found like some of the nicest people can be in those like small archeology chapters who are like really interested in what you do and you know ask you about stuff I think that's something that any aspiring archeologists should do is go. 07:55.51 Jessica Ericson I know. 08:08.56 alifeinruins To one of these meetings and be welcomed in and be inspired. Hopefully. 08:10.39 Jessica Ericson Um, oh yeah. 08:13.10 Jessica Ericson Yeah, they're a great group. Super great. Great to have them. 08:15.15 Jasmine Saxon Um, yeah. 08:19.54 David Howe So um I kind of guess I kind of went into that are the know your histories before this. But what exactly is it. You guys do because it sounds like what you both just explained has kind of led to that. 08:30.62 Jessica Ericson Yeah, we're we do a lot of different things all combined under the under the name of community connections. So we're both field archeologists that came together to really like we're like we want to change things like this is pretty much just salvage archeology. So ah, you know a lot of the cultural resource management world is and so we wanted to come together to really show that show the public that there's actually archeology around that it's not dinosaurs that it has nothing to do with Indiana Jones and that. It's all around us. So Jasmine can explain more on that. But like yeah we have a big mission big goals. 09:11.93 Jasmine Saxon Yeah, yeah I think primarily we use archeology as a tool to talk about history and heritage and identity and what that looks like in communities and. Using Archaeology as a tool is is really cool because it allows us to do all whole kinds of different things. It doesn't just pigeonhole us into just doing crm or just doing this or that it really opens the door to like all kinds of really unique, fun projects that some include fieldwork Some don't some are just purely educational. Um, others like our assessment projects. Others are just purely consulting projects. So It just is really neat to be in a space where we've kind of ah kicked the door down on like the limits of like what we can do with archeology and a crm world and taking it beyond that. And really using it as a way to connect people together within a community. 10:06.28 Jessica Ericson Yeah, yeah, exactly. 10:09.19 alifeinruins So that's super cool. Take kid you guys. How did you guys meet was it out on a crm project or at a company or ah, do do tell. 10:17.40 Jessica Ericson Um, no it was. It was a conference. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 10:19.49 Jasmine Saxon Conference go to your conferences. Ah yeah, seriously yeah, we met at um, the Colorado council of professional archeologists. Their annual conference in Longmont in 2019 10:22.27 David Howe Um, ah I guess that's where I met you? yeah. 10:34.59 Jessica Ericson 1818 yeah and then we eventually went into business together April First of 2019 so it was like a year of knowing each other hanging out and then yeah, then it then it all started from there. 10:37.43 Jasmine Saxon 18 sorry 2018 yeah right 10:49.66 Jasmine Saxon Yeah, yeah, we met through a ah mutual friend and there she was like you've got to meet each other so we did and just was like I Just like she's like hey I'm just I'm like oh hey, nice be on Ja and she's like I'm going to the bar you when I drink and I was like ah sure. 10:52.41 David Howe Um, cool. 10:56.30 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah. 11:06.22 Jasmine Saxon And so we just went and then we started talking and I don't know how we got on to talking about public archeology like community archeology and stuff. But we just we did it was like 1 of our very first conversations and we were just like vi and we're like yeah like we're so passionate we're gonna change the world like we're gonna do this. 11:06.87 Jessica Ericson Um. 11:13.57 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah, yeah, but do this. 11:25.90 Jasmine Saxon And yeah, we just became friends over that year first year and then yeah april first Twenty Nineteen we're like let's I don't know what we're going to do but let's do something? Um, yeah, yeah, funny like not like. 11:35.86 Jessica Ericson Um, we're doing it. Um, exactly yeah our our launch party. Yeah. 11:36.80 David Howe Nothing bad's going to happen in the next year as we start a business. Yeah i. 11:45.53 Jasmine Saxon Not funny haha but ironic Yeah, our launch party was scheduled. Yeah. 11:51.30 Jessica Ericson On the day that they closed Denver down so like her parents were going to fly out like we had a whole venue booked and everything and then it was just like home. It was unfortunate. Unfortunately yeah, we do. 11:51.60 alifeinruins Hall. 11:51.97 David Howe Oh no, oh no. 11:59.99 Jasmine Saxon Yeah, yeah, yeah I mean we didn't really have any sort of like overhead or any like no employees if we were fortunate on that part. But yeah. 12:01.36 David Howe Oh it sounds like you guys made it through it. So that's good. Yeah sure. 12:09.85 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah. 12:14.50 Jessica Ericson Um, yes. 12:19.80 David Howe Good. Um, so I guess what or we out on time. Okay, hang on Chris cut this out sorry I didn't want to jump ahead. Um, yeah, so what? exactly like is it like what's the day-to-day look like for you guys. 12:34.86 David Howe Doing that kind of work. 12:37.49 Jessica Ericson Um, it varies so much. But. 12:37.76 Jasmine Saxon A man. Yeah so different. Ah some days we're in the field if we have a specific project but that's like a very little part of what we do I think a lot of what we do is we create so much content I think don't you think Jess. 12:52.80 Jessica Ericson Yeah, I'd say a good chunk at the time we're at work co-working spaces each other's houses coffee shops and we're like okay we got to do We're making this pamphlet. We're gonna make this for social Media. We're gonna make this for a course. So. It's constant like creating and dreaming and making things look pretty like it's.. It's fine tuning and creating all the time. 13:13.44 Jasmine Saxon Yeah I think a lot of our projects. We've partnered with nonprofits and a lot of times we've found that they need a ton of help like with just creating materials that they can use in the community or like website stuff or just like. Yeah, informational things or if they have an idea of a program they want to do like they need so much help. They just like don't have those resources in-house. So a lot of what we're finding is these um projects are coming to us that are primarily educational and outreach facing and so they're like hey like we have an idea for this cool kids course. But we can't make it and like we don't have the ability to host it. So for example, we have on our website right now. It's a free course for kids on obsidian and South Park and that was sponsored by um, South Park Site Stewards and the site Steward Foundation incorporator of New Mexico and it's just a free like simple little course it. Teaches kids how to make volcanoes and talks about obsidian and you know how it was used by ancient peoples to make tools and that's pretty much it. But like South Park site sewers didn't have someone to actually build it. They didn't have anywhere to really host it. They didn't know how to like put it on a website so they just paid us to do that and so we're finding that a lot of our projects. 14:13.46 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah. 14:24.65 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah. 14:30.39 Jasmine Saxon Center around projects like that. So I think to be as general as possible. It's a lot of outreach and education material that we are creating. 14:31.12 Jessica Ericson Who. 14:36.73 Jessica Ericson Yeah. 14:38.20 alifeinruins Do you enjoy that aspect of it. The I guess it seems like everything's varied and any sort of project could come in in any sort of format. Do you guys? really? and think you enjoy and kind of thrive in that that that kind of environment. 14:54.74 Jessica Ericson I definitely love the it's so it's so it's for me, it's refreshing to be able to be like okay we have to do like Jasmine's the writing Queen like she goes she writes and writes and writes and writes and it's wonderful and I'm so thankful. Um, but yeah, like we come together in a very. Balanced manner I'd I'd say like we have a lot of variety and it I think it helps fuel um different ideas for different even other projects and yeah, it's it's a it's stuff I love it. 15:23.92 Jasmine Saxon Yeah I think what's really cool too is we have the ability to be like oh somebody should do this and then we can do it like like you know it's like we should create like a social media series on like like I have like I live in a house that's was built in like 1921 15:31.25 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah, yeah, oh. 15:41.81 Jasmine Saxon And so I know I have archeology in my backyard and we're like oh we should just do a series on like archaeology in your backyard and just like use it as an educational thing right? and like we can do that you know so I think what's really cool about this. Is it like really opens the door to like kind of just. 15:58.35 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah. 15:58.93 Jasmine Saxon Using archeology as a tool like I said before but doing like all these really cool things with it that you cannot do in so cm. Um, it's just not built that way. Um, you know we're built to like be in the field and do nine day sessions and die and come back to life and. 16:07.15 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah. 16:14.69 Jessica Ericson Um, go and go go. 16:16.11 Jasmine Saxon You know and like that's just not and like this is like all the happy like Fuzzy warm feelings of archeology and so and so um, it feels really fantastic I. 16:23.24 Jessica Ericson Um. 16:28.50 Jasmine Saxon Um, especially yeah, Jess was saying we make a really balanced team and I 100% agree with that I think justs is like an idea generator like she is so amazing at brainstorming and like coming up with these fantastic ideas and then like making an outline and me like this is how we can do it and then I'm really good at coming in and being able to like. Fill all that stuff in like I like she said I write a lot and so um I think between the 2 of us. We just have a really unique relationship that we can um, really do some cool projects and Jess specializes in like pre-contact archeology I specialize in historic archeology. 16:48.52 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah, yeah. 17:04.50 Jasmine Saxon Um, which I don't know we're probably changing that name at some point I don't know what to call it now. It's post european archeology I have no idea. Um, but yeah, so we do have this kind of like cool relationship where we can kind of hit all aspects of archeology here in the US and 17:13.39 Jessica Ericson Um, yeah, the moment is yeah. 17:23.53 Jasmine Saxon I Think that makes us like pretty fierce. So yeah. 17:24.11 Jessica Ericson Again again. 17:24.46 David Howe Cool. 17:27.82 alifeinruins That's awesome. Um I think on that note, we are gonna end the segment. We'll come back in a second segment and talk a little bit more. 17:33.17 David Howe Yeah.