As carers, let's make sure that other people know you're not alone. My Life with Dementia is an award-winning podcast from Dementia UK. I'm Culler Bikini. After losing my dad to Vascular Dementia, I wanted to share stories of other families facing dementia and fighting their way through it. We never talked to her about dementia. I wanted to protect her from that. Subscribe to My Life with Dementia for honest, hopeful stories, community and support. When life gets hectic, energy ups and downs are all you need. If you're seeking energy reassurance, Eonnext can help. From regularly updating our tariffs to get you our best value, to SmartTech that helps you take control of your energy future, we're here for whatever's next. Just one of the reasons why we're rated excellent on TrustPilot by our customers. Find out more about how we can help at eonnext.com. Eligibility and T's and C's apply. TrustPilot February 2026. I'm Ina Garten. I love to invite interesting people to my house for good food, great conversation and lots of fun. The amazing award-winning musician and composer, John Batiste, is joining me for a wonderful day at the barn. He's a big PB&J fan, so I'm making my peanut butter and jelly bars. I guess it's okay. Oh yeah. Then John's taking over the kitchen and showing me how to make his mom's famous Louisiana style red beans. Oh! We in the playoff now. Be my guest. The insanely talented musician John Batiste is coming to spend the day at the barn with me. I understand he likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so I thought wouldn't it be great to make peanut butter and jelly bars for him. So this is what I've done. I've got butter and sugar mixing in here. Gonna add a teaspoon of vanilla. Okay, next is two eggs. Basically what I'm doing is I'm making a short break with lots of peanut butter in it. Okay, so that's the eggs. And now I'm gonna add two cups of smooth peanut butter. It's a lot of peanut butter. Okay, next are the dry ingredients. So three cups of flour, all-purpose flour, one teaspoon of baking powder, and one and a half teaspoons of salt. Okay, I'm just gonna sip these together. And while I sift them, let me tell you about John Batiste. John Batiste is an incredible composer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and band leader. Born in Louisiana when he was just eight years old, he played drums in his family's legendary Batiste Brothers Band before switching to piano and then going on to study jazz and classical music at Julliard. He formed his band Stay Human, famous for their impromptu street performances, called Love Riots, who became Stephen Colbert's much-loved house band on The Late Show. John is famous for his unique mix of classical jazz and modern music styles, and has written and performed a symphony documented into the film American Symphony. He's recorded chart-topping albums, and he has won many prestigious awards, including an Oscar, an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and seven Grammys. John is married to best-selling writer Suleika Juard. They've known each other since they were teenagers, and John's been at her side throughout her long battle with cancer. John's done so much from acting, performing at the Super Bowl, and receiving honorary degrees. I mean, talk about talented. Isn't he amazing? Okay, now the dry ingredients. Make it low enough that it's not going all over the place. I want all the flour in the bowl, not on me. Okay, so that's the dough. So what I'm going to do is take two-thirds of this and spread it into a pan. Got the baking pan all greased and floured. And then I'm going to save a third of it and use it for the topping. You'll see. This is a great dough. Okay, it's a little sticky, so I'm going to use floured hands to press it in. Don't have to roll it out. Doesn't have to be fancy. Okay, next comes the jelly part. And I actually use raspberry preserves. I need one and a half cups. I'm just going to spread it out. This makes a lot of peanut butter and jelly bars. Okay, that should be right. Okay, that's the jam. Now what I'm going to do is take little dollops of the rest of the dough and put it right on top. Okay, here I go. Okay, that's the topping. One more thing for texture is I've got chopped salted peanuts. I'm just going to sprinkle it on top. Okay, ready for the oven. These are going to bake 350 degrees for 45 minutes, and then I'll be ready when John gets here. These are the peanut butter and jelly bars. They smell so good. So they've baked and cooled, and now I'm just going to cut them up in squares. Okay, you think three is enough for two of us? Probably. Okay, one more. Okay, now some hot water for tea. Ha ha ha, we're going to sea island. I got my instrument. And it's going to be a beautiful day, and I'm very excited. I'm very, very excited. And I think we're pulling up to the house right now. Oh, I know. Oh, I know. I know. Oh, I ain't got a nice situation. Oh, nice bush. I ain't a garden with a garden. Ha ha. Oh, I know. Oh, well let me just go ahead on. Oh, I know. Oh, I think I hear John. Oh, I know. I'm so happy to see you. Thank you so much for coming. Great to be here. What did you bring? Oh, look at this. This is my instrument, my harmonoboard. I just can't believe you can play that without seeing the keyboard. Oh, yeah. That's incredible. I had carried it around for many years. So I made something I think you might like. You and I both like comfort food, right? Yeah, I understand. And I understand peanut butter and jelly is yours. Oh, yes, yes. Is that right? So I made peanut butter and jelly bars. Oh, my goodness. I love the way that they look and the concept of them. And I think it will continue once they're in my mouth. So what did peanut butter and jelly mean to you? Is that what you had as a kid? Comfort food. It's very consistent. It's absolutely... You know what it's going to be every time. Well, I hope you like it. Thank you so much for making my favorite. If you don't like this, I'm in trouble. No, I think it'd be hard to do it. I guess it's okay. Oh, yeah. We know the vibe. Oh, yeah. It's a good situation. It's a good situation. Wow. This is a great texture, great flavor. Perfect. Well, it has to be intense, like music, but familiar. Definitely. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah. I know. I love that there's a song about me. Hello, it's Ed Gamble here from the Off Menu Podcast. And James A. Caster here from the Off Menu Podcast. And the Off Menu Podcast is currently being brought to you by Magnum Bonbons. Bite-sized ice cream indulgence, James. Oh, Ed, I've been loving Magnum Bonbons lately. I bet you have. Everything you expect from a Magnum, just in bite-sized form. Cracking chocolate, creamy ice cream, ribbons of sauce, and crunchy inclusions. You're not the only one who loves Magnum Bonbons. I absolutely love it for a night in. Pop a film on, crack out the bonbons, toss one in the air, catch it in my mouth, high five my wife. And listeners, have you tried Magnum Bonbons yet? These bite-sized treats are perfect to share and available in four indulgent flavors. I think my favorite is Magnum Bonbon White Chocolate and Cookies. Back to the show. This is an ad from BetterHelp. Some days, it feels like you're carrying something no one else can see. Stress, grief, responsibility. The kind of heaviness that doesn't show up in photos but follows you everywhere. You don't have to hold it alone. With BetterHelp, you can talk to someone who helps lighten what you've been carrying for far too long. Take the weight off. Start therapy anytime from anywhere online with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Random Podcast for 10% off your first month of online therapy. New dates now on sale. Book your tickets at abavoyage.com. I'm here with a musical genius, John Batiste. I'm so happy to see you. Glad to be here. Incredible. I mean, you've won so many awards. It's just astonishing. I love that picture where you had five Grammys for one album. It was just incredible. What did it feel like? It's a gift. I love to make music that changes who you are and it changes the world around you and brings people together. Tell me about, I love this term and I'm not sure exactly what it is. What are love riots? Love riots are musical processionals where a band, my band, will move and play and we'll gather people along and we'll sometimes bring people who have a certain energy. We call those crowd pushes, spiritual shakers. Are we talking on the street? On the street, in subways, everywhere. It comes from the tradition of New Orleans Second Line but I created my own ritual based on that. And it started, I think, when you were at Juilliard, right? Yeah. And you were doing this classical music, learning everything you could and then going to the subway and having love riots. Yeah, you know, I was a disruptor from the inside. I went to Juilliard but you know, I grew up in a family of musicians who were my mentors, were all about exploring the music, experimenting with the music, pushing the boundaries of it, mixing and matching things to your expression. So tell me about American Symphony. How did that come about? So, I decided to create a brand new vision of what a symphony orchestra is. So I took the classical symphony, U of C, and I melded it to create this new age orchestra of indigenous folk musicians and marching band musicians and, you know, modulate synth programmers. There's never been this collection of musicians in this way, but one night only performance. And the approach was really to make something that was, Fluribus Unam, out of many one. And in the middle of it you had a surprise, didn't you? The power on stage goes out. Nobody knows. So what did you do? I started to improvise on the piano and I stalled for maybe 20 minutes, 15, 20 minutes or so, until the power came on. That moment felt as if everything could fall apart and never happen again. That's just one of those instinct moments, I guess. And that's where you find out that you're better than even you imagined, right? Yeah, you gotta learn. What is that for you in terms of your craft? Do you see it as a craft or do you see it more as a labor of love? How do you see getting better at it? Because for me, those moments, I live for those, even though I dread those. Every time I have a dinner party, I always think I'm never going to be able to do this. I give myself a challenge and I always think, oh, it's going to be a total disaster. And when it's done and everybody has a wonderful time and the food is delicious, I'm like... Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not playing in front of an audience without any preparation, but in my own small way it is. Do you see similarities between food and music? I see certain food, certain foundational foods as key centers. Like rice is C major. Oh, do you really? Yeah, it's just like rice. Yeah. It's just like... It's like the bass of it. And then you got pasta. D-flat. You hear it. I love that. I love that you see this food. It's all about finding how to blend the elements just like a good dish. Yeah. What engages you more, writing music or playing music, or is it basically the same thing? I love to rehearse. I love to record also, but I really love to rehearse. You really can get inside the music and it is a moment where the musicians can experiment and you can be raw. You can just find it. Mm-hmm. Your lovely wife, Sulika, and you have had such a love story, but it's been the highest highs and the lowest lows. She's had such terrible health problems. How do you take care of each other? Yes. Well, you know, creativity and using that as an act of survival through her journaling practice, through her memoirs, through her painting. For me, composition, obviously, performance. And we're just grateful to God that we have this blessing of each other and the art to use as this superpower. And we try to marshal that superpower to also illuminate the path for other people who are going through stuff. Everybody, like us, has life interruptions, not regularly scheduled programming. That's a great description. Exactly. Not what you planned. So you gave one of the most extraordinary commonsense speeches I've ever heard, and you advised the students to make a list of words that describe them and then connect the dots, and that's the way their lives should go. When you make those connections, that's your integrity. When you make those connections, that's who you are in its rawest sense. And you gave a list of who you were. Do you remember what the words were? Petrichor, Forest Gump, New Orleans food like red beans and rice. Oh, yeah. You ever had New Orleans-style red beans and rice? I've never had New Orleans-style red beans and rice. Oh. Am I in for a treat? Yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, I know. Oh, I know. Oh, I know. You heard it? That's nice on you. That was great. You're not. I heard something. I heard something. Do you sing? No, God. You sing harmonies? No, I don't sing at all. Sing it all. It's like we went like, yuh, and you went yuh. Can't do it. You do that? Yuh. Can't do it. Wow, you don't sing. Horrifying. Wow. Yuh, yuh, yuh, yuh, yuh. What about that one? I can't do it. Never happened. They run screaming from the room. Yeah, I feel it. I feel it. I love it. So John promised to show me his mother's red beans and rice. I've never had it, so here we go. So I think the pot's hot. Yeah, it's hot. What do you put in? You put some olive oil. It's three tablespoons. Oh, you know, I don't really use these things when I cook. I just add it. I never know how to measure anything. So just go for it. I just look at the situation. So then we just put all this in? Yeah, you put the vegetables in there. Okay, shall I do it? And just dump it in there. Just dump it in? Yeah. Just go for it? Yeah, Steph Curry. Oh, oh. Oh, 10 points. As fire. Okay. Oh, we in the playoffs now. You can't miss. And the garlic? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Put the garlic in there. Ooh, ooh, see that? And you got to do it with some panache. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just throwing it in. You got to do it. That's why the music when it's playing in the back. Okay, so that's the onions, celery, peppers, and garlic. Yes, and garlic. Okay, so these have to cook a little bit? Yeah, yeah, just for a little while. Not so long. Just saute them. But we should put some water in here now. Okay. Once you start to see them get a little bit soft and they relax into the party. Yeah, just go ahead and dump that in there. Okay, that's that. Ooh. All of it? Yeah, yeah. Okay. There you go, a whole in one. You can see the color of the water. Yeah. My mother would tell me, you know, you could tell the proportions by the color of the water. That should look like a swamp. Does that look like a swamp? Yeah, you've been in a swamp? No. I believe you though. I'm trying to get you to sing. Oh no, you're never going to get me to sing. What about if you just say the word one? One. One. One. Say it long, one. One. One. Oh, wait, you heard it? One singular sensation. Ooh. See, it's happening. So these are red kidney beans? Red kidney beans. Okay. So now you see it's already piping up, so I'm going to put the spices in. Again, they are measurements for this, but I'm just doing my thing. Okay, I think that's part of the charm of it, right? Yeah, so we're going to go in here. That's turmeric. That's a... It gives it like a deep flavor. Yeah, and that's not usually in everybody's recipe. That's a Catherine Batey special. So does your mother's red beans and rice come from her father? You know, so my mother is incredible because she is super curious in researches, all types of different qualities in food and different cultures in food. She was an environmentalist before she retired. Oh, really? Yeah. So she would take all these traditional New Orleans recipes and reinvent them. Well, this is what you do. To make them. With music. Exactly. That's amazing. It's a similar... I got that from her. So John put in Cajun spices, and this is cayenne pepper, which is really hot. Fire like cayenne. I know. I know. Get your attention. Yeah, yeah, you got to have it hot. Wait a minute, there's something on the board here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the sprinkler parsley. Parsley? Should I put it in? Yeah, you could believe a little bit of it out. You want some later. Okay. How's that? Yeah, that's a nice vibration. So look at it, look. You see it, see it now? It's perfect. It's looking swampy. That's going to be a good batch. I never knew I wanted swampy food, but I do. Yeah, that's a swampy. Woo, who that way at, uh-huh. So how long does this cook for? A couple of hours. A couple of hours. Yeah, the longer it cooks, the more the flavor seep in. You know the swamp. It all comes together. Simmer down. But I think you made one for us, right? Oh yeah, yeah. Is it this one? Yeah, yeah. Okay, here we go. Let's see what this looks like. Let's see what we have. Ta-da. Woo, you see how it all came together. It did. It did. A burgundy, reddish brown, red bean. That looks amazing. Swamp bean. It's amazing that this becomes that, right? Yeah. So what's next? You want to mash some on the side because you want to have a... Oh, so thickens it, right? Yeah, a base with some thickness and panache. Panache, I like panache. You see, yeah, see, look at that. I'm going to look at that. You don't want it to be lethargic base like liquidy. We're rolling around on your plate. Then we put some sausages in it. This is like the last flavor capsule that unlocks superhero status for your beans. This is so good. At GrapeTree, you'll find fantastic deals like our bestselling Supreme Almonds, now for just £8.99 a kilogram, or £3 for £25. As carers, let's make sure that other people know you're not alone. My Life with Dementia is an award-winning podcast from Dementia UK. I'm Culler Bikini. After losing my dad to Vascular Dementia, I wanted to share stories of other families facing dementia and fighting their way through it. We never talked to her about dementia. I wanted to protect her from that. Subscribe to My Life with Dementia for honest, hopeful stories, community and support. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. I'm Culler Bikini. Back Markets with the World's Shops Refurbish Tech. So John and I are making his mother's red beans and rice, right? Yes. Wow. So what goes in next? You've got two kinds of sausages, right? Yeah, you put both of them in. Let's be adventurous. Okay. Turkey sausage? Turkey sausage? For the meat eaters, the carnivorous. And what kind of sausage is this? That's the Andui. How am I doing? Yeah, Andui. That's the good stuff, right? Yeah, that's the good stuff. Great spice and great flavor. Yeah, yeah. Are these bay leaves going in? Yeah, you do the bay leaves. Bay leaves? Yeah. I like fresh bay leaves. And let's drop a little bit of that parsley in there. Okay. Great. See that? Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom. You see that? That helps. It gives it more flavor, right? So I'll stir and you... Stir it. Not gorgeous. That's gorgeous. I love that. Okay. Okay, you see, this would take an hour or so, you know, the flavors to kind of come together. So I came last night. You broke in? Yeah, I broke in. You can break into my house anytime you want. That's not an invitation to anybody else. No, definitely not. I'm not going to break into your house. Anybody else? No, definitely not. Definitely not. And I made a batch that is advanced into the future of where this is heading. How about if I do this? I'll do the tough work. Oh, you want to switch it? Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's the whole swamp bread there. That's all of it. Okay. Gator country. Yeah. And this is after it's cooked. It's good and swampy. Yeah, yeah, you see that texture? It's like a thick stew. Fabulous. And you put that over the rice. So the rice doesn't go in. It's served on top of the rice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Much better idea. You see? So I have all this cooked rice in my little rice cooker. Boom. Boom. Like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That's a nice ratio, actually. How we doing? Do you need a ladle? Yeah, if they have one. Yeah, I got a ladle. You're asking me if I have a ladle? Yeah, I'm a Ina Garten. I know you got the ladle. Oh, oh. Doctor? Hey, wow. Ladle? Great. Okay. Okay. This is going to be so good. Yes, indeed. I mean, how good does this look? Oh my goodness. Would your mother approve? Yeah, yeah. Oh, would you take a picture and send it to her? Let's do a selfie with her. Red beans and rice. Okay, there we go. Look at that. Yeah. Oh, hey, Mom. Oh, hey, Mom. Isn't that great? That's great. Cheers. What a dream. Oh my God. That is crazy good. That is so... You just threw stuff in and it came out like this? Hey, you got to feel it out. Are you going to play? In a song. Oh, yeah. Fabulous. That's the perfect ending for it. Oh. I loved it. Thank you so much for coming. And for cooking for me. We cook. I'll definitely be making this. We slam. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. 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Pop a film on, crack out the bonbons, toss one in the air, catch it in my mouth, high five my wife. And listeners, have you tried Magnum Bonbons yet? These bite-sized treats are perfect to share and available in four indulgent flavours. I think my favourite is Magnum Bonbon white chocolate and cookies. Back to the show. Hello, we're Sam and Pete and our podcast staying relevant is currently sponsored by PayPal. They have launched a brand new rewards program called PayPal Plus and it is a game changer. You can earn points whenever you pay with PayPal, whether it's online or using the PayPal debit card in store. And get this, you can redeem those points at millions of places online when you check out with PayPal. It's basically rewarding you for stuff you're already doing. So go on, be a bit smarter, sign up for PayPal Plus for free in the app. Pay smarter, PayPal. Rewards are earned as points through PayPal Plus and you must be enrolled to earn rewards. 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