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So there's an event coming up in Baton Rouge tomorrow
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that talks about Anthony Bourdain and the author of Anthony
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Bourdain Filmmaker is on the hotline with us right now.
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He is Todd Kennedy, a professor over at Nichols State University.
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How are you, man?
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I'm doing great. How are you doing, Brian?
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Doing very well on this end. What made you want
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to write about Anthony Bourdain?
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Well, first of all, thanks for having me on. But no,
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I like Bourdain fine. I never imagined myself as a
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major fan. I'm a professor at Nichols State University in
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film in Thibodeau. And when he died, it floored me
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in ways I never kind of expected. I think like
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it did a lot of people, but it surprised me more.
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And I started working through why. I taught a class
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with viral people, USA Today, nationally. And I decided to
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try to write a book about it, try to figure
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out why I was so floored. And for me, it's
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really just how much he stands out as a filmmaker.
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Talk to me a little bit about the connections there,
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because there's a lot that goes into what Anthony Bourdain
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was all about, that Louisiana's culinary scene overall, it vibes with,
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it matches with. Absolutely.
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I mean, he did several shows in New Orleans. He did,
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I think, a really interesting show about Cajun Mardi Gras
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in southwest Louisiana very shortly before he died. He was
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clearly drawn here. I think he was drawn to unique
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cultures in general and cultures that kind of keep their
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identity in the face of globalization and homogenization. And South
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Louisiana has that, right? We have several distinct cultures that
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are distinct from each other that are down here that
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are unique. And I think he revived with that in
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a lot of ways.
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The verbiage he would use to describe food and people
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was borderline lyrical. He is a man who would put
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things into words that you wouldn't think those words would
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be used to describe like culture overall. It just, he
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had a different way of putting things. How are you
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able to capture that and put it in your book?
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Yeah, so I really look at the way he approaches everything,
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but I think especially food, but architecture, history, politics, everything
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kind of in conversation with each other. He's less interested
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in just how food tastes or where you should eat
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the way a lot of travel shows are. He's more
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interested in what about that culture, it's politics, it's history,
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it's economics. team together to put that food on your
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plate to make to make you know creole gumbo have
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tomato for instance or or agent gumbo to never have
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tomato um and and i i think that's central to
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everything he did and he brings it together in a
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way that only way it can happen in film where
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multiple texts are coming together to make one meaning and
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he saw the world that way and i think that's
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why he saw food differently from so many people how.
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Hard is it to tell a story about a storyteller
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I think.
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It's really tough, and I think it's particularly because he's
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a better writer than I'll ever be, but also just
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because I'm very much trying to talk about the way
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he told his story, which is not the way we
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normally talk about him. Food people talk about him for food.
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Travel people talk about him for travel. I'm really trying
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to look at how all that came together to how
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he made, as he called them, independent films every week.
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And I'm trying to do that really for a mainstream audience,
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which is not what a lot of academics try to do.
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So it was a challenge, but I'm glad I did it.
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The, um, the legacy of Anthony Bourdain might be bigger
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than Anthony Bourdain himself. I think that those that have
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kind of picked up on him either through social media
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or going back, I mean, whenever there's
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reruns and he's,
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he's on, um, his, just his very, like his connection
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to humanity along the way. Uh, do you see his
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legacy tapering or fading at any time in the near future?
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I see it changing. I think right now he's probably
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no more as the travel mean guy, like telling you
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where to go, which wasn't really what he was. Um,
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And I also think that for a lot of people
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that were really invested in him, the death is very
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traumatic for a lot of people. So I see his
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name recognition fading, but I'm not sure I've seen a
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food or travel show post-Bourdain that doesn't take kind of
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a documentary aesthetic. They're very different. They're not as successful,
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in my opinion, as Bourdain. They're not as complete. But
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it completely changed how we look at food and travel
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on TV in a way that I think isn't going
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to disappear anytime soon.
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Well, they've all got their different spin, but they're all
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trying to recreate in some form or fashion what he did.
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Most of them are like, hey, I'm a celebrity in
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this place. Watch me eat things. Oh, goodness gracious. I've
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had him on the Dadgum show. The bald guy who
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goes places and eats weird stuff.
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Stanley Tucci.
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No, not Stanley Tucci.
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Oh, Zimmerman, Zimmerman.
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Zimmerman, yeah. Yeah, Greg Zimmerman. He just goes weird places
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and eats weird things. I mean, they all have like
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a spinoff of what Bourdain did, but nothing touches like
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the true essence of what he was about.
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Absolutely. I think that's a great contrast. And they were
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friends in real life. They even did a show together
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at one point. Right. Zimmer goes to eat the weirdest
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thing he can eat wherever he can find it because
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it's weird. He wants you to go, oh, my God,
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I can't believe you're eating that. Bourdain was willing to
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eat weird things if they were culturally normal where he was.
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He wanted that food to open him to that culture,
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and he didn't think of it as exotic. Nowadays, rabbit
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is exotic. If you're from South Louisiana, 50 years ago,
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rabbit was a very common protein. Everything that one culture
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thinks of as exotic is normal somewhere else. And I
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think Bourdain was willing to eat a lot of weird
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foods because he wanted to explore another culture. Zimmer, I
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like the guy, but he goes out and he seeks
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weird food for the sake of weird food.
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Which, by the way, the first alligator season, recreational alligator
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season in Louisiana netted 1,817 alligators. You want to talk
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about something that might've been, you know, uh, considered weird,
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but about to be a lot more mainstream. Um, here
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we are. Here we are.
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Alligator. I just made an alligator sauce last week and
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I think it's one of the better proteins for sauce.
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I rolled through a blackened alligator not long ago and
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I've got plenty more in my freezer. Um, we've got
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just a couple minutes left with Todd Kennedy talking about
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his book on Anthony Bourdain, Anthony Bourdain filmmaker. Um, Who
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have you found since Anthony Bourdain that comes, I mean,
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obviously not replicating him, but comes the closest? Who would
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you recommend if you're into that genre?
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Everybody seems to be trying to borrow from him, and
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I think kind of failing in the way you suggest.
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And I don't think it quite succeeds. But I do
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think Stanley Tucci's show about Italy is pretty good, and
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he comes pretty close. But the problem there being he's
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just doing one country, right? And I think CNN's had
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some spinoffs with, I can't think of her name right now,
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but she's Mexican-American. And she did Mexico, and then she
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did France. And it's the same kind of thing. She's
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not quite as good as Tucci. But again, it's limited
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to individual nations. I have yet to see anybody who
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really takes the holistic approach he does and really tackles–
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he could make South Louisiana feel as foreign as he
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could Madagascar. And I thought that that was a really
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interesting way to approach documentary subject matter. and I haven't
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seen that since then.
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I'm going to throw one at you here. It's a
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little bit goofy. It's a funny guy that does it,
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but he really touches on community and people and bringing
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people to break bread together. Somebody feed Phil.
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Oh, yeah, you know, I almost mentioned him. I think
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he's another one that comes very close. It's really funny.
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He pitched his show to the production company and said,
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imagine that I'm Anthony Bourdain with all the exact same interests,
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but I'm scared of everything. And I thought that was
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a very, I thought that was just such a funny pitch.
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And yeah, no, he's certainly trying to fall on his
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touchdowns in a lot of ways.
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Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a different vibe altogether, but
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at the same time, he's the guy's the creator of
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everybody loves Raymond. So it's going to be a completely
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different presentation, but it does bring it down to the
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human level. It does bring it down to telling people's stories.
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We got just a minute left. You've got an event
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coming up in town tomorrow, correct?
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Yes, I have an event in Baton Rouge tomorrow on
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Highland Road at TBR Books at Tea. It's from 4
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to 6. It's going to be an interview with an
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LSU professor. We're going to try to start that a
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little after 5. And if you're rolling late, it's really
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not a problem. Also, if you're in the larger audio area,
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there's an interview on Thursday at Big Mike's Barbecue in
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Thibodeau from 7 to 9. So if you want to
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come out and have some barbecue, it'll work there as well.
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But TBR and Books in Baton Rouge tomorrow.
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TBR Books. That is 7276 Highland Road, 4 to 6 p.m. tomorrow.
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He's Todd Kennedy. The book is called Anthony Bourdain Filmmaker. Todd,
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I appreciate a couple minutes this morning. Thank you so much.