This Monday May 5, 2025 after noon, we’re gonna be hanging out on Reddit.
Hey Reddit—I’m Wes Modes (he/they). I spend my summers on a 20-foot shantyboat I built from scrapyard lumber and questionable decisions. With me today are my longtime shipmates Jeremiah (ship’s bo’sun and master of camp coffee), James (English-born pixel-wrangler who can coax Wi-Fi out of river fog), and—if the fishing’s good—Age (sun-toughened Kiwi fish-whisperer who swears the trout call him by name). Together we’ve logged 2,400+ miles on the Upper Mississippi, Tennessee, Hudson, and Ohio Rivers, recording oral histories from people whose voices usually get left out of “official” history—shanty-dwellers, levee-town elders, towboat deckhands, folks eking out life along the water’s edge.
This summer—after five land-locked years—we’re launching into the Atchafalaya Basin & Louisiana bayous, listening to Cajun, Creole, and Indigenous stories about climate change, petro-politics, and hanging on in a disappearing landscape. To keep it independent we just lit up a Kickstarter to cover fuel, repairs, and plenty of mosquito repellent.
Ask us anything about:
- Building a barely-legal houseboat that actually floats
- Dodging barges, floods, and the occasional river pirate
- Recording oral history in a mosquito tornado
- How arts funding cuts feel when you’re literally afloat
- Why moving at 3 mph can be an act of resistance
Proof!
We’ll be here all day: coffee in the morning, bourbon after dark. No question too weird—fire away!
Reddit Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1kfj6iw/i_built_a_diy_shantyboat_floated_2400_rivermiles/
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wmodes/secret-history-atchafalaya-expedition-2025/
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