1/3 Perry (left) and Johan during their interview with Pieter van den Hoogenband (photo: Perry Vermeulen).
The SMSs took a high flight, we all still had to go to the video store, the sperm fountain in the movie Scary Movie kept the minds busy and George Bush took on Al Gore in the United States. The year 2000 was the start of a promising new century. Or was it a farewell to a quiet, nice period? Helmonders Perry Vermeulen and Johan Fietselaars make an impressive podcast over the year 2000, exactly 25 years ago.
It is a hobby project, but it is starting to look nice on a professional podcast. Perry and Johan, both working in Helmondse Education, managed to catch big names in recent months. Olympic swimming champion Pieter van den Hoogenband, who experienced Golden Times at the Games in Sydney in 2000, participates, just like journalist Max Westerman and musical star Linda Wagenmakers, who participated in the Eurovision Songfestival in 2000.
Every two weeks the Helmonders look back on what exactly happened around that time in 2000. Perry keeps it all on a website, where you also Snake can play. The 2000 children know what that is.
“Now that you see Trump, you will miss bush.”
“Of all the people we approached for the podcast, 80 percent said yes,” says Johan enthusiastically. “People grant us mainly because it is a hobby project.” For example, the Helmond Duo had a large click with Max Westerman, the well-known RTL journalist who reported from the United States. “We went to Amsterdam for it and got in his living room in his living room. We drank a beer. And we especially had to appen when we were in Amsterdam again, so nice,” says Johan.
Westerman had a lot to say about the much -discussed elections in 2000. George Bush then won against Al Gore, but those elections were rather controversial to say the least. “Then you already saw that the US was no longer taking it so closely with democracy,” says Fietelaars. “Those elections perhaps have more specifically with how the US went on than the attacks on September 11 in 2001. Westerman told us that as a journalist it was very difficult to get quotes from Bush, he couldn’t stick to each other yet. He always looked so silly, but now that you see Trump, you will almost miss bush.”
Perry got the idea for the podcast when he listened to a song by Abel in the car. “I sang that song on HAVO and I thought, shit, that’s 25 years ago. I am a nostalgic person. How do we look back on that striking year 2000, where we had lived that way?” But Perry did not want to make the podcast on his own and so friend Johan came to look around the corner, who is a history teacher, among other things.
“We were full of adrenaline in the car back home.”
“The year 2000 is history, but we were there,” says Johan. In a few days the Helmonders had a plan for the podcast, which has 750 listeners. “But there are top broadcasts in between,” says Perry. “We made a broadcast with Danny de Vries. He made the film images of the fireworks disaster in Enschede and is now mayor. We looked back with him and that was very special. We were full of adrenaline in the car back home,” says Perry. That broadcast attracted 1500 listeners.
But the project is not only about making history alive again, there are also life lessons in the podcast. “We have standard questions,” says Johan. “What would you like to say to yourself 25 years ago? Pieter van den Hoogenband said that you shouldn’t worry and enjoy yourself. Still reflecting on the moment. Max Westerman said it on his New Yorks, I think Johan laughs. “Keep on Going.”