Podcast appearances and mentions of santa ynez

In this episode of Yet Another Value Podcast, host Andrew Walker speaks with Ben Kelleran of Kontrarian Korner to discuss Sable Offshore, a company attempting to revive the Santa Ynez oil unit off the California coast. They explore the high-stakes nature of this investment, dissect the complex legal battles with California regulators, and assess the upside potential of the project if full production is achieved. The conversation covers Sable's SPAC history, economics, leadership, refinancing plans, and what needs to happen for the company to fully restart operations and generate significant returns.______________________________________________________[00:00:00] Introduction and sponsor message[00:01:59] Guest Ben Kalleran joins[00:03:02] Overview of Sable Offshore[00:04:15] SPAC history and asset deal[00:06:23] Legal/regulatory hurdles explained[00:09:12] Why Exxon sold the asset[00:12:32] Sable's CEO and management[00:15:13] Current production status[00:17:13] Economics and ramp potential[00:20:46] Valuation compared to peers[00:24:02] Equity raise explained[00:27:49] Debt refinancing plans[00:29:56] Legal timeline expectations[00:34:14] Fire Marshal's role discussed[00:41:12] Takings claim details[00:43:40] All-clear signal for investors[00:47:56] Why O&G funds are hesitant[00:49:57] Key dates and next stepsLinks:Yet Another Value Blog: https://www.yetanothervalueblog.com See our legal disclaimer here: https://www.yetanothervalueblog.com/p/legal-and-disclaimer

Janine Benyus, the world-renowned “Godmother of Biomimicry,” and her colleagues at Biomimicry 3.8 have been demonstrating what it takes to design human settlements—cities, village, homes, and businesses—that create the same ecological gifts as the wildland next door. We also feature excerpted discussions from advocates like Anne LaForti and Dayna Baumeister, both from Biomimicry 3.8. Learn how biomimicry isn't just about emulating nature's aesthetics but understanding its functional mechanisms for survival and thriving. Unpack the principles of biomimicry, its implications for industries, and the ethical considerations of borrowing from nature's playbook. Support the Podcast via PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url Biomimicry aspires to create a world mentored and inspired by Nature's 3.8 billion years of infinite creativity and evolutionary ingenuity. Janine Beynus's seminal book: Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature defines biomimicry as a "new science that studies nature's models and then imitates or draws inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems." Designing, creating, and innovating in a generous and abundant vs extractive way that regenerates and reciprocates life is a fundamental aim of biomimicry. For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio LINKS Janine Benyus, from the film Biomimicry https://youtu.be/sf4oW8OtaPY?si=7W26J9cyuTayDTda Janine Benyus, from the Bioneers Conference keynote 2025: https://youtu.be/2ioEtnUjzQw?si=oawftg0O_wWGJVeY Interview with Anne LaForti on EcoJustice Radio: https://soundcloud.com/socal350/biomimicry-innovation-inspired-by-nature Dayna Baumeister "Learning From Nature" Omega Institute for Holistic Studies https://youtu.be/2SvltP8IcTk?si=5cqOAduiyyK2M26O Janine Benyus, from a TED Talk https://youtu.be/k_GFq12w5WU?si=4i1ChxIT7q6xe1FR Janine Benyus, a winner of countless prestigious awards, world-renowned biologist, thought leader, innovation consultant and author of six books, including 1997's foundational text, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, is widely considered the “godmother of Biomimicry.” In 1998, she co-founded the Biomimicry Guild, which morphed into Biomimicry 3.8 [ https://biomimicry.net/], a B-Corp social enterprise providing biomimicry consulting services to a slew of major firms and institutions. In 2006, Janine co-founded The Biomimicry Institute, a non-profit institute to embed biomimicry in formal education, and over 11,000 members are now part of the Biomimicry Global Network. Among various other roles, Janine serves on the board of the U.S. Green Building Council, the advisory board for the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, the advisory board for Project Drawdown and as an affiliate faculty member at The Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University. Anne LaForti has a Master's Degree in Biomimicry from Arizona State University, and is a project manager supporting nature-based innovation in the built environment and beyond at Biomimicry 3.8 [http://biomimicry.net]. She is deeply interested in ITEK (Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge), regenerative agriculture and landscapes, and is constantly curious about how to grow nutrient dense foods. Anne was the 2022 Spring Nature, Art & Habitat Residency (NAHR) Fellow [https://nahr.it/] in Santa Ynez, CA, working on "Soil as Pattern Language: Emulating Healthy Soil Communities" and has been a NAHR Ambassador since 2022. Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt Hosted by Carry Kim Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats Episode 258 Photo credit: Janine Benyus

On this episode of The Ty Brady Way, Ty sits down with Marley Majcher, serial entrepreneur, founder of The Party Goddess, and author of Stop Being Busy and Start Creating Cash. Marley shares her journey from Georgetown University to running a high-end event planning company serving A-list clients like Sofia Vergara and Snoop Dogg. She also talks about transitioning into consulting as The Profit Goddess and writing her bestselling business book. Marley dives into her unexpected venture into sheep ranching, inspired by a trip to the Faroe Islands. She discusses using sustainable wool products to help prevent wildfires in Southern California and the challenges of developing her 20-acre property in Santa Ynez. Ty and Marley also explore strategic risk-taking in business, including how she broke into the celebrity event scene through bold, high-value networking. This episode is packed with insights on time management, automation, and maximizing productivity. Marley shares actionable tips on tracking your time, outsourcing low-value tasks, and focusing on what truly moves the needle. If you're looking for inspiration to take control of your schedule and scale your success, this episode is for you!   As always, we would like to hear from you! Email us at thetybradyway@gmail.com" Or DM us on Instagram @thetybradyway 

GOOD EVENING: The show begins in California at the empty Santa Ynez Reservoir... 1940 PALISADES ICE PLANT CBS EYE ON THE WORLD WITH JOHN BATCHELOR FIRST HOUR 9:00-9:15 #PacificWatch: Progress on the Palisades Fire @JCBliss 9:15-9:30 LANCASTER REPORTS: Griping about egg prices Jim McTague, former Washington Editor, Barrons @MCTagueJ Author of "Martin and Twyla Boundary Series" Friends of History Debating Society 9:30-9:45 #LA: Man Made disaster Richard Epstein, Civitas Institute, UT 9:45-10:00 #SCOTUS: Ex Parte Garland 1866, and the Pardon Power Richard Epstein, Civitas Institute, UT SECOND HOUR 10:00-10:15 #KeystoneReport: Butler County rising Salena Zito, Middle of Somewhere, @DCExaminer Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, New York Post, SalenaZito.com 10:15-10:30 Three Cities in trouble: LA, Oakland, SF Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution 10:30-10:45 #Blue ORIGIN: Success at last Bob Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com 10:45-11:00 Moon: Blue Ghost outbound for commercial landing Bob Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com THIRD HOUR 11:00-12:00 Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets Eric Berger (Author) Four segments discussing SpaceX's development and achievements FOURTH HOUR 12:00-12:30 #NEW RIGHT: Unhappiness with Checks and Balances in the Constitution Peter Berkowitz, Hoover 12:30-12:45 #ITALY: PM Giorgia Meloni and the rescue of Cecilia Sala Lorenzo Fiori, Société de la Jordino 12:45-1:00 #AUKUS: Out of date? Henry Sokolski, NPEC

"PREVIEW: PACIFIC PALISADES: Colleague Jeff Bliss confirms widespread California media coverage of the LA Times report on Santa Ynez Reservoir, built in the 1960s to fight fires, now sitting empty. More later." 1920 Pacific Palisades

HRRN LISTENERS GET $10 INSTANTLY WHEN SIGNING UP FOR A NEW AMWAGER ACCOUNT. SEE DETAILS AT https://link.amwager.com/hrrn HRRN's AmWager Weekend Stakes Preview Bobby Neuman and Bob Nastanovich handicap the weekend's biggest stakes races including G2 San Vicente, G3 Las Flores, M, TSS Darby's Daughter, TSS My Dandy, Turfway Prevue, Santa Ynez, and Tinsel Stakes, plus give you the AmWager "Best Bet

Hello Interactors,It's been awhile. I've been off getting our kids settled at college…including a transfer to Los Angeles. And I may have also been seduced by the lazy days of summer. After dropping our son in LA, my wife and I took some time to return to Santa Barbara where we first met. I was reminded of how uniquely beautiful that place is. It's also host to a unique collection of physical geography. And while it mostly enjoys a cool, calm environment, it can also endure bouts of destruction and renewal. A bit like all of us.Let's reflect, shall we…MIGRATIONS, MOUNTAINS, AND MEMORIESTraversing the globe dropping offspring is as old as humanity. As far as we know, early hominins like Homo erectus first stepped out of Africa two million years ago. The oldest human skeletal remains outside of Africa to date were found in Eurasia (now the country of Georgia) and are 1.8 million years old. These waves of migrations were likely driven by changes in climate, resources, societies, and technologies — the same factors driving migration today.Our oldest kin dispersed widely across Eurasia, reaching as far as Southeast Asia. Some may have even used primitive boats to navigate to and between islands. This all set the stage for later migrations of other hominins, including Homo sapiens, as they spread across globe over the next million years.I was reflecting on this on a hike my wife and I recently took in the foothills of Santa Barbara (where we had our first date 34 years ago!). The Santa Ynez Mountains were uplifted during the late Miocene (23.03 million years ago) to early Pliocene (2.58 million years ago) due to the tectonic interactions between the Pacific and North American plates. This exposed a complex layering of ancient marine and terrestrial sediments that were deposited over millions of years in a marine basin stretching from current day central valley of California to Northern Mexico.These sandstones, shale, and conglomerates are revealed along the trails, cliffs, ridges, and valleys we traversed, all formed by folding, faulting, and fanning of eroded debris. The mountains continue to be pushed upward at a rate of 1 to 4 millimeters per year due to the ongoing compression between the tectonic plates along the dynamic San Andreas Fault — the same fault that originally formed them millions of years ago.The Miocene epoch, with its warmer and more humid climate, supported dense forests of subtropical and temperate species in the Santa Ynez Mountains. As tectonic activity uplifted the region, new habitats emerged, setting the stage for diverse vegetation to develop. This period laid the groundwork for the ecosystems that would later evolve as the landscape continued to change.By the Pliocene, global cooling led to drier conditions, favoring the transition from these lush forests to the more arid-adapted plant communities found today. The chaparral, oak woodlands, and coastal sage scrub we hiked through are products of this shift. These plants adapted to the region's famous Mediterranean climate, characterized by hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, and further shaped by the ongoing geological forces at work in the area.The resultant Santa Ynez Mountains significantly influence the weather patterns in Santa Barbara by acting as a barrier to the Pacific Ocean's marine air. Unlike much of the California coast, the Santa Barbara area faces south. During the summer, these south facing mountains trap the marine layer — a cool, moist air mass that forms over the ocean—leading to fog and low clouds along the coast. This marine layer helps keep temperatures in Santa Barbara cooler than in areas further inland, providing a mild and comfortable summer climate. Additionally, in winter, the mountains enhance orographic lift, causing moist air blown from the south to rise, cool, and condense, resulting in increased rainfall on the windward side of the range and benefiting the coastal regions. I recall one brisk winter morning in Santa Barbara in 1990 when frost appeared in the shadows on the roads and snow dusted the peaks of the Santa Ynez mountains.However, these mountains also create a rain shadow effect on their leeward side, where descending air becomes warmer and drier, leading to less precipitation. This topographical influence also contributes to the occurrence of sundowner winds—warm, dry winds that descend from the mountains into Santa Barbara. These winds can cause rapid temperature increases and lower humidity levels, sometimes creating critical fire weather conditions. My wife, then girlfriend, and I ran a 5k in 1991 that was overcome with smoke from fire stoked by these sundowner winds.BLAZE, BURST, AND BLOOMSimilar winds, Santa Ana winds, stoked a more and recent severe fire, the Thomas Fire, in 2017. These winds form east of the Sierra Nevada mountains over inland deserts and west towards the coast. Hot and dry winds channel through mountain passes and canyons, gaining speed as they descend across Southern California — and they can amplify even the smallest fire. The Thomas Fire was one of the largest wildfires in California history burning over 280,000 acres of wildlife and more than 1,000 buildings. Firefighters in Montecito, the northern-most destination, battled for days to save homes and lives.This left big chunks of the Montecito foothills charred. As crews worked to clear debris over the next month, the area was hit with a torrent of rain. While rainfall in Montecito was relatively minimal on the morning of January 9th, 2018, rainfall further up the mountain, enhanced by the mountain's orographic lift, was more severe. Residents were caught off guard as waves of water gained speed through canyons and creeks picking up charred debris and uprooting trees loosened by saturated soil.These post-fire debris flows, which included mud, rocks, and tree branches, reached heights of up to 15 feet speeding an estimated 20 miles per hour. The disaster resulted in 21 fatalities, two missing persons, and about 163 people hospitalized. Property damage exceeding $177 million, emergency response hit at least $7 million, and another $43 million was slated for cleanup and restoration.Six years later, hiking in these same hills, we saw evidence of county crews still restoring and re-shoring the foothills. We also saw evidence of plants re-emerging. Some of which are descendants of the same ancient plants that emerged in the Pliocene in the very same soil we were walking on. Hiking, and sometimes running, through the recovering foothills of Montecito, I was struck by how much this landscape mirrors a story of resilience that extends far beyond these hills and long before our time there. Over the previous two weeks my wife and I had crisscrossed the USA, east to NYC and west to LA, dropping our kids far away — modern migration with echoes of long ago, still alive still today. Like other humans that moved across vast distances, we and our kids are adapting to new environments and new stages in life. Just like the chaparral and black sage of these foothills.The plants that now re-emerge from the scorched and scarred earth are descendants of those that first appeared in the Pliocene. They use fire to propagate and regenerate in challenging terrain. Chaparral species, like black sage, evolved to thrive in this fire-prone environment. Fire-stimulated germination allows seeds to lye dormant until they're exposed to heat which triggers germination. Sprouts emerge from underground lignotubers, which are complex energy-storing structures that quickly regenerate new shoots — even amidst scorched soil. Serotiny, another adaptation, turns seed cones into popcorn like capsules that only open when exposed to fire's heat giving them a head start on invasive competition. These strategies enable chaparral plants to not only survive but to capitalize on the aftermath of wildfires and hillside scraping floods.In the charred and healing soil beneath our feet, I saw the enduring connection between past and present, nature and nurture — a reminder that our journeys, like those of the landscapes we inhabit, are shaped by the unyielding push and pull of time — of adaptation, and resilience. Just as the chaparral plants of the Santa Barbara foothills have evolved mechanisms to thrive after fire, our kids, too, will develop new strategies to adapt and flourish in their new environments. In the face of life's inevitable challenges, they will learn to not only survive but to rise stronger, just as the ancient mountains of Santa Barbara continue to do. All the while, the landscapes beneath our feet continue their unbroken cycle of destruction, renewal, and growth amidst ever evolving climates, resources, societies, and technologies. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

In the 6 AM Hour: Larry O'Connor and Julie Gunlock discussed: WMAL GUEST: 6:05 AM - INTERVIEW - MARK PENNAK - president of Maryland Shall Issue and counsel on the case SOCIAL MEDIA: https://x.com/MD_Shall_Issue/status/1827044525237248212 Maryland Shall Issue is an all-volunteer, non-partisan organization dedicated to the preservation and advancement of gun owners' rights in MD Federal appeals court upholds Maryland's handgun license requirements In a 14-2 decision, the court in Maryland Shall Issue v. Wes Moore rejected a Second Amendment challenge to a state law requiring a Handgun Qualification License to purchase a handgun.  ON FRIDAY: Attorney General Brown's Statement on Fourth Circuit's Decision Today in Maryland Shall Issue v. Wes Moore Upholding Maryland's Handgun Licensing Law Biden just left his week-long vacation in Santa Ynez, California for Dover, Delaware, where he'll head to Rehoboth Beach for a 9 day vacation. Since stating he dropped out of the race, 34 days ago, he's spent just 6 days at the White House. WHO IS RUNNING OUR COUNTRY? James Rosen on X: "It is growing increasingly common for the @WhiteHouse to publish blank schedules for @POTUS.  WMAL GUEST: 6:35 AM - INTERVIEW - CHRIS PILKERTON - former Acting Administrator of the United States Small Business Administration and author of "Plandemic: Covid, PPP & A Small Business Prescription for the Next Global Economic Crisis" SOCIAL MEDIA: https://x.com/cpilkerton Fed Chair Powell Signals ‘Time Has Come' for September Rate Cut. Jerome H. Powell made it clear that the Federal Reserve will cut rates on Sept. 18, as the central bank turns the corner in its fight against inflation. ON FRIDAY: Fed Chair Powell indicates interest rate cuts ahead: ‘The time has come for policy to adjust' ON THURSDAY: At least 5 Secret Service officials involved in planning Trump's Butler rally put on administrative duty ON FRIDAY: Judicial Watch: Secret Service Records Reveal DEI Is Prioritized for All Agency Employees in ‘Every Action, Every Day'  HAWLEY: NEW WHISTLEBLOWER ALLEGATION: Secret Service Prevented Extra Security Assets for Trump Rally Where to find more about WMAL's morning show:  Follow the Show Podcasts on Apple podcasts, Audible and Spotify. Follow WMAL's "O'Connor and Company" on X: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor,  @Jgunlock, @patricepinkfile, and @heatherhunterdc.  Facebook: WMALDC and Larry O'Connor Instagram: WMALDC Show Website: https://www.wmal.com/oconnor-company/ How to listen live weekdays from 5 to 9 AM: https://www.wmal.com/listenlive/ Episode: Monday, August 26, 2024 / 6 AM Hour  O'Connor and Company is proudly presented by Veritas AcademySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

(AURN News) — President Joe Biden has traveled to California for a family vacation while continuing his official duties, according to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. During a press gaggle on Air Force One en route to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Jean-Pierre addressed questions about the President's upcoming trip. "He's going to spend time with his family," Jean-Pierre said. "I think that's important for any families to do. Presidents are never on vacation. He's a president wherever he is." The press secretary indicated that Biden will receive regular briefings on both domestic and international matters during his time in California. According to White House pool reports, the president is in Santa Ynez which is near Santa Barbara. "He's certainly going to continue to be doing the work, going to be very much focused and getting updates — for example, what's happening in the Middle East; foreign policy, more broadly, and also domestic," Jean-Pierre stated. With President Biden on vacation, the focus for the week is on Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic National Convention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Lake Fire north of Santa Ynez is up to 29,000 acres. The land is moving again near Rancho Palos Verdes beaches. L.A. City Attorney's office says an entrepreneur broke short-term rental laws. We speak with LAist housing reporter David Wagner. Plus, more. Support The L.A. Report by donating at LAist.com/join and by visiting https://laist.com.Support the show: https://laist.com

In the 1880s, Pierce's disease caused a devastating, total collapse of the Southern California grapevine industry. Today, growers have hope for the future thanks to new varieties. Adam Tolmach, owner of Ojai Vineyard, planted four of these new varieties as a field trial on a plot of land where Pierce's disease wiped out his grapes in 1995.  Pierce's disease is a bacterium spread by insects, typically a sharpshooter. One bite and the vine dies within two to three years. To develop resistant varieties, Andy Walker of the University of California at Davis crossed the European grape Vitis vinifera with Vitis arizonica. 20 years later, commercial growers have access to three red and two white varieties. Listen in to learn how Tolmach's experiment is a success both in the vineyard and with customers. Plus get tasting notes for the new varieties. Resources:         REGISTER: The Ins & Outs of Developing a New Vineyard Site 89: New Pierce's Disease Vaccine (podcast) 137: The Pierce's Disease and Glassy-winged Sharpshooter Board 2021 Pierce's Disease Research Symposium session recordings Anita Oberholster, UC Davis Viticulture and Enology Webpage Office Hours with Dave and Anita, Episode 11: Pierce's Disease Resistant Winegrape Varieties Ojai Vineyard Pierce's Disease resistant winegrape varieties overview UC breeds wine vines resistant to Pierce's disease UC Davis releases 5 grape varieties resistant to Pierce's disease Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  Our guest today is Adam Tolmach owner and winemaker of Ojai vineyard. Thanks for being on the podcast, Adam.   Adam Tolmach  0:06  It's my pleasure, Creg. Great to be here.   Craig Macmillan  0:09  I want to give a little background. Before we get into our main topic. We're gonna be talking about Pierce disease resistant grape vines today, but I think your location has a lot to do with how this came about. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that you are a pioneer and innovator and quite frankly, legend in the history of the Central Coast. And one of the pioneering things that you did was you planted a vineyard in Ojai, California, why Ojai? And what is the what's the environment, like, you know, hi.   Adam Tolmach  0:33  Ojai because in 1933, my grandfather bought a piece of property in Ojai while I grew up in Oxnard, we, you know, on weekends, we'd come up here and chase lizards and snakes and stuff like that. And so I'm pretty familiar with the area and then I lived in Ohio for a few years after I finished studying at UC Davis getting a basically a viticulture degree. I came down here and and ran a truck farming operation, we grew vegetables and sold sold them in a roadside stand. And after doing that for two years, I made $4,500 After two years of worth worth of work. So I had said well maybe I should try to get a job in my my field. So my second job in the field was was working at at Zaca Mesa, 79 and 80. And then so as far as the place to plant grapes, you know, that's the reason we're in Ojai because we the family owns property.   Craig Macmillan  1:30  What is the environment like in Ojai? Because I think it's a little bit different than many grape growing regions.   Adam Tolmach  1:34  Yeah, you know, it's actually not that different than I would say the east side of the Santa Ynez Valley like the happy Canyon area or you know, or Paso Robles. Really as far as climatic goes. thing that's a little bit different about Ojai is the wintertime lows aren't as low as they are up in the Santa Ynez Valley or up in Paso. And that's that's a big deal, especially when it comes to Pierce's disease.   Craig Macmillan  2:01  That's where we're gonna go next. When you planted, were there things that you were expecting? And then were there things that came out that were unexpected? And then thinking maybe Pierce's disease is one of those?   Adam Tolmach  2:11  Well, yeah, certainly was, you know, as I've started, you know, pretty ignorant. As young people tend to be, I knew that there was a history of winemaking and grape growing in Ojai, which pretty much died off with prohibition. Actually, after Prohibition, there was a good sized Zinfandel vineyard that ended up being buried in the bottom of Lake Casitas. That sort of what I knew a little bit about grapes. And I didn't really realize it. Pierce's disease also worked into all that that, you know, you plant a vineyard around here, and it's pretty difficult to keep them alive  for the long term.   Craig Macmillan  2:48  Just cover the bases. What is Pearson's disease?   Adam Tolmach  2:51  It was originally discovered in Anaheim, California, you know, back in the I believe it's 1880s or so there were 10s of 1000s of acres of grapes in that area 10 or 20 or 30 years out. In fact, it was a much bigger growing area than, than say Napa, up north was for for grapes. And those vines all died. And at the time, it was called Anaheim's disease. Yeah. And so later on, Mr. Pierce, I think, discovered a little bit about the disease. And what we know today is that it's a bacterium that is spread by an insect, typically from a sharpshooter. But there are other insects that also spread this disease. In our case, we're not too far from a river habitat, a riparian habitat, these bugs like lush, green growing areas, and they live in the river bottom, all they have to do is get blown by the wind up to our place. If the insect is carrying this bacterium, it just takes one bite. And then within two or three years, the vine dies because basically the bacteria clog up the water conductive tissues.   Craig Macmillan  3:59  Exactly. When you were first addressing this problem. What kinds of management things did you do to try to manage this?   Adam Tolmach  4:06  Well, we didn't back then. And as we are now we're reasonably committed organic growers. So you know, we don't use herbicides, we don't use insecticides. And you know, I learned as the vineyard died, basically what was going on? So we didn't really do anything, preventative wise. And so the vineyard just slowly declined, right, which is pretty sad thing to see that really considering that I planted you know, every one of the vines in the beginning back in 1981.   Craig Macmillan  4:37  Yeah, yeah, exactly.   Adam Tolmach  4:39  And then so we went on, after that, and for years, you know, so the vineyard grew from planted in 81. And then in 1995, after the harvest, we pulled the vineyard because it's so much of it was gone from the disease and then and then there are many years where we you know, didn't grow any grapes on our property. We purchase grapes from mostly, you know, I'm from the Ohio area a little bit, but also mostly from the Northern Santa Barbara County. That area from Santa Maria to Lompoc is really where ideal grapes grow. But I'd always have a hankering to have, you know, to continue to have a vineyard here because we do have the winery right on site here. Close friends and family knew Andy Walker, who was the one who was developing these grapes that were at UC Davis that were resistant to Pierce's disease. You know, I kept kind of pushing the friends to see you if I could get some of these cuttings or plants. And then finally, really just a year or two before they were actually officially released to the public for sale. I was able to get enough to plant a very small vineyard here which is just 1.2 acres, and it's planted to four different varietals. All four of them were developed by by Dr. Walker that He basically took Vitus vinifera the European grape variety and crossed it with Vitis Arizonica in Arizona is a native of the southwest and there are some plant breeding advantages to using Arizonica, it carries the resistance, they can somehow see that really well in my days of knowing how all this stuff works is a little bit past but but there were there are certain advantages that Arizonica provided a one of which was it's a pretty neutral tasting grape. And then also the the second thing was, they were able to pick out right away if they did a cross whether they can tell whether it had the resistance or not. So they did worked on that he's worked on it for about 25 years. And in the end, he had these varietals that were that are 97% vinifera. And only 3% of the American stock, which is pretty important for the flavor profile. They taste very much like the different wines, not like you know, the native wines.   Craig Macmillan  6:53  And then you've expanded that vineyard, I'm assuming you had your trial vineyard and expanded it.   Adam Tolmach  6:57  No, no, no, it's all it's all we have is this 1.2 acres. Yeah. And so you know, we mostly make conventional grapes. So you know, we make Pinot Noir Syrah Chardonnay Sauvignon Blanc and a few other things. And we get some of those grapes from the Ojai area and in spots where they're when they're where there's less Pierce's Disease pressures. And then also up in Northern Santa Barbara County, as I said before, and so yeah, we're just we're still working with, with what we have, we found that the vines are very productive. And we are currently making really just the right amount that we need to provide our direct customers with the wines. It's been a fabulous experiment and great fun, because basically knew, but nobody knew how to grow these grapes. And each grape variety grows a little differently. And so then that was that was a real challenge there. Because I had grown grapes in the same spot before I knew some of the problems and challenges and they had a real strong sense of how I wanted to grow them a second time around. And so that was super helpful. But it's still they still were unknowns for for us, you know, the bigger the crop level, all that stuff, the taste. And then so that was great fun. And then in winemaking wise, Andy Walker had done a number of public tastings of these experimental varieties, I think I went to four of them, where they're mostly were three gallon lots that were fermented by the university. And so it's a little hard to tell from that, but they just seem like there was some potential there. Interestingly, Camus vineyard early on, got some of the vines have this one variety paseante noir. And so they made a really almost commercial size lot of that one, and I was able to taste that before I planted it. And while their winemaking style is a little different than mine, there was it was clear that there was like lovely potential in those grapes. So that was encouraging. But still, we knew nothing, we had no idea. It's still a work in progress it. You know, after five years of producing wine, there's a lot more to learn about how to best make these works. But so anyway, we planted four varietals one is passeante noir, which I think is sort of the best of the ones that I've I've tried. We also had a red, that is really it was never released to the public. So it's a you know, it's our own little thing. We have a small amount of that we call it Walker red. And then we have two whites caminante blanc and ambulo blanc and they're both to go back. Well to go on, I guess is the ambulo blanc and the caminante blanc are distinctively different. They're a bit on the Sofia and blanc side of life, I suppose. But not exactly. And then going back to the passeante noir that's I feel like it sort of tastes like a cross between between syray and maybe cab franc And then possibly some mouved you know, it's a little hard to, to read exactly what's there, but they're unique and different. And you know, in a world from 30 years ago, people wouldn't have known what to do with them. But these days, there's a lot of interest in unique grape varieties, you know, all over Europe, people are, are reviving ancient varietals that nobody's ever heard of, and they all have unique flavors and unique characters. Here are some newly bred ones that that are available now.   Craig Macmillan  10:27  What is the response from consumers have been like?   Adam Tolmach  10:29  Well, that's, that's been super encouraging. Because so you know, we're selling almost exclusively directly to our, our consumers, we have a tasting room, and we have, we do mailorder as well. And but I mean, it's been very positive, we've been able to sell out the wines, people seem to really enjoy them. So it that's been a thrill to, you know, have that consumer acceptance, I think it would be much more difficult if it was, you know, in a grocery store, for instance, but because nobody would know what the name meant. When we're able to hand sell it, it has not been difficult to sell. So that's, that's been super fun. Now, Dr. Walker, also, he had the idea that these varieties, you could grow them and use them as blending material, you know, like if you're making Cabernet Sauvignon in the Napa Valley. It's well known that in the Napa Valley near the Napa River, there's huge Pierce's disease problems. And so is one of his ideas is well you could you know, plant strips of of these varietals be able to have at use the ground productively and then blend them with Cabernet Sauvignon as long as you're over 75% You could call it Cabernet. But what's amazing to me is that the this Passeante Noir is really it's it's it works pretty well as a standalone varietal.   Craig Macmillan  11:41  Were you tempted to to blend we attempted to use these as blenders? Or were you committed to single varietal all along?   Adam Tolmach  11:48  I was much more interested in what they had to say. Yeah, so there wasn't very much interest in my part of of using them to stretch of wine or whatever to you know, to add to something else. It was an option I you know, if they weren't as good as they are, I would definitely could put them into you know, inexpensive bland we make it Ojai read or Ojai white. And so that was definitely an option. But I'm kind of thrilled that they you know, they're interesting enough, they can stand alone.   Craig Macmillan  12:13  Do you think that you'll expand your planting?   Adam Tolmach  12:15  Possibly right now, No, I've got too many things going on. And in this little vineyard year, being small as I do, I do all the pruning, and do some of the work out there. And so it's kind of a family affair. I'm not sure if I want to overwhelm my family with more. For our needs, we don't need too much more. As as things stand. We're we're pretty small size operation. And this is pretty much, well takes care of it. Interestingly, in the same vein, I own a small vineyard, up in the Lompoc area in Santa Rita Hills called Vaciega that's planted to Pinot Noir. And there's one area of the vineyard is kind of up on a little bit of up on a, a mesa or something in between, you know, above quite a bit above the river. The Santa Ynez river. But there's one small section of the property. That's right, basically, in the river bottom, it had been planted to Chardonnay and died of pierces within eight years of its planting. So it was pretty, pretty devastated. And so we actually planted the passeante noir down there and got our first crop this year into that world last year in 2013. And we're pretty excited by that. So really different climate to grow in. So you know, cool climate versus pretty warm climate. It seems pretty, pretty fascinating right now, I'm pretty excited by that. So we do you know, we do have more just not here in Ojai.   Craig Macmillan  13:43  Would you commit like, what are you going to cultural notes on each variety? And then also what are your like winemaking notes on each variety because this podcast is growers and winemakers and we can get a little bit more technical if you like.   Adam Tolmach  13:54  Oh, sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So Andy Walker released five different varietals, three red, and two whites. I have the two whites and I have only one of the Reds that are commercially released. And that one is paseante noir and paseante Noir is a very vigorous grower. We're on pretty rich soil, I mean, richer than you need for grapes, mostly eluvial stuff. You go down three and a half, four feet, and it's, you know, it's river rocks, and then there are shaley areas, but it's rather richer than you need. We haven't planted on one 114 rootstock which is quite deinvigorating. But in our site, it's still exhibits lots of vigor. And so the paseoante noir grows like crazy. We have planted pretty close together. So our rows are five and a half feet apart, rather than, you know, six or eight or 10. And I did that specifically, for climatic reasons, you know, you get these rows a little bit closer together. You get a fairly tall vertical trellis. And what you end up with is, is a little more shading. And we have this really narrow canopy, the grapes all get some direct sun, but just not for very long, a little bit in the morning a little bit in the afternoon, the rest of the time, they're shaded, also the ground is shaded a lot, because they are so close together. And I think that keeps the temperature down. And I think that's really better for quality. And that's, you know, my personal view on it. And, and that's worked really well we've never, we've never had a situation yet where, you know, it's gotten so hot that the grapes have rasined up, you know, just like overnight, it's not just not happened. So yeah, so here we have the paseante noir it's you know, it's a real vigorous grower, I have a quote on pruned it's incredibly productive. We've been dropping, you know, 50% or more of the grapes as a as a green drop every year and I think I need to double down and drop even more as it turns out, they really want to produce in part of its, you know, part of it is our rich soil, but I think they're also bred to be quite productive. So that's, that's really nice. You know, better than too little, which is, you know, kind of Pinot Noir is problem, generally speaking, the walker red is this one that nobody really knows about, but it's, it's a little more like if the paseante is is a cross between, in my mind a cross between Syrah and cab franc and the walker read is a little more Zin and Grenache kind of character grows a little more upright and with less vigor, a lot more like how Grenache grows. And then the two whites the caminante blanc produces these little tiny clusters that somehow end up always produced, you know, the yields are still high, even with the small berries, small clusters, they give a little bit of a blush to them almost, they're not completely green when they're fully ripe. And they have a really distinctive spicy character, they're quite interesting. And that one is the weakest growing, there's no bigger problem there, it grows along fine with it, it fills up the canopy, but just barely every year, because of the size of the clusters, you just don't expect there to be much crop, but it always turns out to be very generous. And then the other varietals is called ambulo blanc. And it's a little, maybe has a bit of Sauvignon Blanc, spiciness to it. But it also is it's got a much more sort of Chardonnay ish, like, produces large clusters. And it also grows vigorously. So it requires a lot of the trellising is really, really important. And so we spend a lot of time in the ambulo blanc and paseante noir, you know, weaving weaving the canes up, right.   Craig Macmillan  14:06  Based on your experience, would you say, Hey, this is a great idea. If you live in a Pierce's disease area, you should definitely try this out.   Adam Tolmach  17:55  Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Because I mean, if the if Pierce's Disease is pretty strong, you're you know, you're left with, you know, having to use a lot of insecticides, and they're very bee unfriendly insecticides. And so, you know, we're able to grow here completely organically. That's worked out really well. So that's, that's, there's a great advantage there. I noticed in your questions at the you had to get sent me a list of questions. And one of them is like, what else should they be working on at the university? And definitely, my opinion is, you know, the biggest disease problem of grapevines in California is called powdery mildew. Everybody knows about it, why there aren't more powdery mildew resistant vines out out here yet is, is is interesting, you and every other trade, people that are kind of, you know, they, they praise, the new things that are coming along, the progress has been made in the wine business, everybody wants to just the old thing, just the way it's always been, that's a little bit of a stumbling block in a world where the climate is changing. So that's what that's why I really recommend that's what should be worked on is is resistance to powdery mildew, because it's not going to get better with climate warming. And also, it's it's the reason that we drive through our vineyards, you know, five or 10 times in a season just for powdery mildew control, it would be an incredibly great environmental thing if we could grow great tasting grapes and make great wine out of powdery mildew resistant varietals.   Craig Macmillan  19:27  And I think people are starting to move that direction.   Adam Tolmach  19:30  Oh, yeah.   Craig Macmillan  19:31  But you're right, bring it on. You know, let's, let's try where can people find out more about you?   Adam Tolmach  19:36  You can go to our website, you know, Ohiovineyard.com. And there's, there's lots there's tons of information about about us and me and what we're doing and we have, there's a whole article on on the site about the Pierce's resistant vines that we're growing.   Craig Macmillan  19:52  Very cool. Well, um, so our guest today has been Adam Tolmach owner, winemaker. Oh, hi, vineyard. Thanks so much for being on the podcast. This is great. Right   Adam Tolmach  20:00  Yeah my pleasure I've been listening to your show now for quite some time I really enjoy it   Craig Macmillan  20:04  oh good fantastic thank you and for all of our listeners out there thank you for listening to sustainable winegrowing with vineyard team   Nearly perfect transcription by https://otter.ai

Join host Carry Kim as she welcomes biomimicry expert Anne LaForti to discuss the transformative power of looking to nature for answers. Learn how biomimicry isn't just about emulating nature's aesthetics but understanding its functional mechanisms for survival and thriving. Unpack the principles of biomimicry, its implications for industries, and the ethical considerations of borrowing from nature's playbook. Biomimicry aspires to create a world mentored and inspired by Nature's 3.8 billion years of infinite creativity and evolutionary ingenuity. Janine Beynus's seminal book: Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature defines biomimicry as a "new science that studies nature's models and then imitates or draws inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems." Designing, creating, and innovating in a generous and abundant vs extractive way that regenerates and reciprocates life is a fundamental aim of biomimicry. Biomimicry and Nature's intelligence can innovate a wide range of consumer products and services, biodegradable packaging, regenerative design, eco-friendly architecture, and building materials as well as influence social structures and organizations. Snakes and leeches can inspire better detergents, beetle wings, tortoise shells, and sea cucumbers can change the nature of packaging, kingfisher birds can inspire high speed bullet trains, ventilation systems can be modeled after termite mounds, a factory can be designed to function like a forest, arid landscapes can compel industrial development towards a regenerative model. Anne LaForti, Project Manager for Biomimicry 3.8 [http://biomimicry.net], a world-renowned biomimicry consulting group, joins us to illuminate the potential of biomimicry to help us collectively thrive and align with and for Nature. For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio LINKS Janine Benyus, from the film Biomimicry https://youtu.be/sf4oW8OtaPY?si=7W26J9cyuTayDTda Dayna Baumeister "Learning From Nature" Omega Institute for Holistic Studies https://youtu.be/2SvltP8IcTk?si=5cqOAduiyyK2M26O Janine Benyus, from a TED Talk https://youtu.be/k_GFq12w5WU?si=4i1ChxIT7q6xe1FR Anne LaForti is a soil nerd, myco (mushroom/fungi) enthusiast, and all-around biophile (nature lover). She has a Master's Degree in Biomimicry from Arizona State University, and is a project manager supporting nature-based innovation in the built environment and beyond at Biomimicry 3.8 [http://biomimicry.net]. She is deeply interested in ITEK (Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge), regenerative agriculture and landscapes, and is constantly curious about how to grow nutrient dense foods. Anne was the 2022 Spring Nature, Art & Habitat Residency (NAHR) Fellow [https://nahr.it/] in Santa Ynez, CA, working on "Soil as Pattern Language: Emulating Healthy Soil Communities" and has been a NAHR Ambassador since 2022. Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, Indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth. Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt Hosted by Carry Kim Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats Episode 216 Photo credit: Anne LaForti

Welcome back to another episode of Wine Talks! In today's conversation, we uncork the fascinating story of Vito La Fata, a man whose winemaking roots are as deep and rich as the vineyards of his Sicilian heritage. With the clink of glasses and the pour of a vintage, Vito takes us on a journey through his family's tumultuous history, from wars and the mafia to love, legacy, and pasta factories that have all infused the essence of every bottle they produce. Join us as we unravel the tapestry of stories woven into Vito's wine philosophy, where every sip echoes a moment, memory, mission, or meaning. Paul K expertly steers the discussion through the importance of terroir and the art of storytelling as Vito passionately shares his vision for not just winemaking but fostering a community and creating profound connections through the power of wine. Get ready to be inspired as we explore the lofty goals of the Winery Academy aimed at nurturing the next generation of winemakers, venture into Vito's encounters with resistance within the industry, and celebrate the pursuit of crafting authentic experiences over financial gain. Don't miss a minute of this heartfelt episode that bridges the gap between personal growth and viticulture, underscoring the transformative impact of a good story on the wine experience. Pour yourself a glass and let's dive into the world of Vito La Fata on Wine Talks. And don't forget to subscribe for more tasteful conversations filled with the wisdom of the wine world. Cheers!

A Morning News Update That Takes Into Account The News Stories You Deem 'Highly Conversational' Today's Sponsor: These Will Get You The Job! by J Cleveland Payne https://www.amazon.com/These-Will-Get-You-Job/dp/B0CQTJRNGY?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER Today's Rundown:Trump can't secure $454 million appeal bond in New York fraud case, his lawyers sayhttps://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/18/trump-cant-secure-454-million-appeal-bond-in-new-york-fraud-case-his-lawyers-say.html Reported Kate sightings fail to quell speculation about her healthhttps://www.yahoo.com/news/reported-kate-sightings-fail-quell-131550728.html Joann Fabrics and Crafts files for Chapter 11 bankruptcyhttps://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/joann-fabrics-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy-rcna143851 New study finds no brain injuries among ‘Havana syndrome' patientshttps://apnews.com/article/havana-syndrome-diplomat-health-brain-ea64e5c59d57e44a19aab40ac1b91e0d Target limits self-checkout to 10 items or lesshttps://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/target-limit-self-checkout-10-183638785.html Kobe Bryant's Parents Face Backlash After Putting Championship Ring On The Auction Blockhttps://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/kobe-bryant-parents-face-backlash-175830162.html Struggling Sports Illustrated inks deal to stay afloat following partnership with Minute Mediahttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/struggling-sports-illustrated-inks-deal-stay-afloat-partnership-minute-rcna143865 Tucker Carlson Pranked by YouTubers Pretending They Edited Kate Middleton Photohttps://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tucker-carlson-pranked-youtubers-pretending-161509454.html  Website: http://thisistheconversationproject.com  Facebook: http://facebook.com/thisistheconversationproject  Twitter: http://twitter.com/th_conversation  TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@theconversationproject  YouTube: http://thisistheconversationproject.com/youtube  Podcast: http://thisistheconversationproject.com/podcasts  #yournewssidepiece #coffeechat #morningnews  ONE DAY OLDER ON MARCH 19Bruce Willis (69)Andy Reid (66)Ebon Moss-Bachrach (46) WHAT HAPPENED TODAY:1918: The U.S. Congress established time zones and approved Daylight Saving Time.1957: Elvis Presley bought his Graceland estate in Memphis.1988: Michael Jackson bought a ranch near Santa Ynez, California, and built his own personal zoo and amusement park. He named it Neverland.  PLUS, TODAY WE CELBRATE: The Spring Equinoxhttps://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-spring-vernal-equinox 

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Feb. 19 at 7:15 a.m. CT: INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A shooting at a Waffle House restaurant in Indianapolis has killed a woman and wounded five other victims. the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department says officers responded to a report of a shooting at the restaurant on Lynhurst Drive around 12:30 a.m. Monday. Police found five victims with gunshot wounds who were transported to a hospital, including a woman who was in critical condition and died at the hospital. The wounded victims included a woman and three men, who all were listed in stable condition. Police say a sixth man traveled separately to a hospital with a gunshot wound from the shooting and was listed in critical condition. Investigators believe an altercation between two groups of people at the restaurant escalated to gunfire. There were no immediate arrests. BURNSVILLE, Minn. (AP) — A suburban Minneapolis community was in mourning after authorities said two police officers and a firefighter were killed by a heavily armed man who shot at them from inside a home that was filled with children. Officials say the suspect in the shooting also died. The shooting in Burnsville also wounded a third officer. Seven children were inside the home, but officials say the family was able to leave the home safely. Hundreds of people gathered in front of Burnsville City Hall on Sunday night for a candlelit vigil to remember the victims. BERLIN (AP) — An American man is on trial Kempten, Southern Germany for murder and other offenses after he allegedly pushed two women from the U.S. into a ravine near Neuschwanstein castle in June last year, fatally injuring one of them. The German news agency dpa reported Monday that the 31-year-old defendant admitted to the charges against him. Defendants in the German legal system do not formally enter pleas to charges. Prosecutors said the defendant raped one of the women and pushed her down the ravine, killing her. He also pushed the other woman down the ravine but she survived. Murder charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison in Germany. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels damaged a Belize-flagged ship traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, forcing the crew to abandon the ship. The ship targeted in the Houthi attack on Sunday reported sustaining damage after “an explosion in close proximity to the vessel." That's according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, which said its crew had survived unscathed in the attack. Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree issued a statement claiming the attack, saying the vessel was “now at risk of potentially sinking.” RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Monday that 107 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours. That brings the total number of fatalities to 29,092 since the start of the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its records, but says most of those killed were women and children. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The latest in a series of wet winter storms is gaining strength in California. Forecasters warned Monday of possible flooding, hail, strong winds and even brief tornadoes as the system moves south over the next few days. The National Weather Service says the central coast is at risk of “significant flooding.” Up to 5 inches of rain is predicted for many areas. Isolated rain totals of 10 inches are possible in the Santa Lucia and Santa Ynez mountain ranges. Flood watches and warnings have been issued in coastal and mountain areas up and down the state. MENTON, France (AP) — As most of Europe moves into the solemn weeks before Easter, the party is just getting started on the French Rivera. The Mediterranean town of Menton showcased its lush citrus and celebrated the upcoming Olympics in Paris during its Carnival parade on Sunday. Sculptures of athletes assembled from lemons and oranges decorated the streets and rode on giant floats. Nice, the Rivera’s capital, kicked off its annual Carnival season on Saturday night with a pop culture-themed parade that featured “Star Wars” character Luke Skywalker as king and Marilyn Monroe, clad in a Superwoman costume, as his queen. Modern versions of Carnival over the past century mocked politicians and ridiculed public figures. ATLANTA (AP) — Since Jimmy Carter entered hospice care at his home in south Georgia one year ago, the former U.S. president has celebrated his 99th birthday, enjoyed tributes to his legacy and lost his wife of 77 years. Rosalynn Carter died in November, about six months after the Carter family disclosed her dementia diagnosis. She lived only a few days under hospice supervision, with her frail husband at her bedside. Experts on end-of-life care say the Carters’ different paths show the range of an oft-misunderstood service. Those advocates commend the Carter family for demonstrating the realities of aging, dementia and death. PHILADELPHIA (AP) — As he closes in on the Republican presidential nomination, former President Donald Trump made a highly unusual stop. On Saturday he hawked new Trump-branded sneakers at “Sneaker Con,” a gathering that bills itself as the “The Greatest Sneaker Show On Earth.” Trump was met with loud boos as well as cheers at the Philadelphia Convention Center as he introduced what he called the first official Trump footwear. The shoes are shiny gold high tops with an American flag detail on the back. They are being sold as “Never Surrender High-Tops” for $399 on a new website that also sells Trump-branded “Victory47” cologne and perfume for $99 a bottle. In sports, the NBA stars put on a show, a pair of men's basketball top 25 teams lose, the top ranked team in women's college basketball records a record setting victory, it was a light schedule in the NHL, the PGA Tour sees a come from behind winner, and the Daytona 500 is pushed by a day due to weather. In entertainment, Paramount Pictures’ Bob Marley biopic “Bob Marley: One Love” outperformed expectations to debut at No. 1 at the box office with a $27.7 million opening weekend. But Sony’s “Madame Web” flopped with one of the lowest debuts for a movie centered on a Marvel character. Former Rep. George Santos is suiing Jimmy Kimmel, concerns over Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney's famous bass has been returned. In this week's small business monitor, a look at positive job growth. In this week's religion roundup, there are many unanswered questions after a shooting at Joel Osteen's Houston megachurch. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Sunday's Race of the Day is Santa Anita's Grade 3 Santa Ynez Stakes. Dan Illman and Mike Beer analyze here. This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

1,200 kilometers, or 745 miles. That's a long distance for an unsupported event! But that's exactly what Lisa Charlesbois did this year at Paris-Brest-Paris, arguably the oldest bicycle race in the world. She finished in 78 hours and 27 minutes, sleeping 9 hours in total during that time. On this podcast, Lisa chats with her coach Allie Legg and host Ben Delaney about training and preparing for such a monster event — and the excitement and nervousness and motivation for completing such a daunting task in another country.  --- FasCat has a new Zwift racing training plan, centered around racing on Tuesday for all you WTRL and ZRL racers out there. The plan includes the all-important race warm-up protocol on Tuesday. SBT GRVL is one of our favorite gravel events on the calendar, but getting in is tough as spots sell out via lottery in a flash. This year, we have a limited number of guaranteed entries that you can purchase with a one-on-one coaching package. Already a coached athlete? Then you can purchase a guaranteed entry here. Come train with us in April in Santa Ynez! Join the FasCat Coaches for a 5 night, 4 day training camp! Includes lodging, chef-prepared meals, Coach-led rides, airport pickup, sag support and more. --- Have you been enjoying the FasCat Podcast? Please leave us a review on the App Store or Google Play. Thanks! You can save 25% off your subscription to Optimize — your year-round training solution with unlimited training plans, meal plans and strength and conditioning videos — with the code 25podcast.

Coach and three-time U.S. MTB national champion Elliott Baring has raced all the main cycling disciplines and coaches his athletes in a wide variety of pursuits. On this podcast, he explains his Top 5 Training Tips that apply to athletes of all levels.  More is not always better, but 'more' is a theme for his top tips. Take on more carbs in races and hard training sessions. The optimal amount varies by person, but you're likely underfueling, which compromises not only that day's effort but the next day's as well. Rely on RPE (rate of perceived exertion) and speed instead of power when racing. And practice pacing with RPE in training, too! Keep things fun. Pay attention to motivation and drive, take breaks, and switch things up.  Be flexible. Going with the flow with decrease mental and physical stress, and make you a more effective athlete and a happier person.  Always be learning. Cycling's various categories are constantly evolving, as is our understanding of nutrition, training and equipment. Also, just because a pro or pro team does or uses something doesn't meant that is ideal for you. Study, test and trial new things. Announcements! FasCat has a new Zwift racing training plan, centered around racing on Tuesday for all you WTRL and ZRL racers out there. The plan includes the all-important race warm-up protocol on Tuesday. SBT GRVL is one of our favorite gravel events on the calendar, but getting in is tough as spots sell out via lottery in a flash. This year, we have a limited number of guaranteed entries that you can purchase with a one-on-one coaching package. Already a coached athlete? Then you can purchase a guaranteed entry here. Come train with us in April in Santa Ynez! Join the FasCat Coaches for a 5 night, 4 day training camp! Includes lodging, chef-prepared meals, Coach-led rides, airport pickup, sag support and more.   Have you been enjoying the FasCat Podcast? Please leave us a review on the App Store or Google Play. Thanks! You can save 25% off your subscription to Optimize — your year-round training solution with unlimited training plans, meal plans and strength and conditioning videos — with the code 25podcast.  

Christine Fossemalle owns and runs a dance school in Santa Ynez, California, in the same neighborhood that Michael Jackson called home at his Neverland Valley Ranch for 15 years. In the summer of 2003, Michael Jackson not only helped Christine with a fundraiser for her school, but also invited the entire school for a day at Neverland. In this episode, Christine tells us all about it.Buy the book “Humanitarian – The Real Michael Jackson” HERESupport Fossemalle Dance Studio HEREFollow Fossemalle Dance Studio on Facebook HEREFollow #HumanitarianMJ's Facebook HEREFollow #HumanitarianMJ's Instagram HEREFollow #HumanitarianMJ's Twitter HEREFollow #HumanitarianMJ's TikTok HERESupport the show

As we like to point out, we have no clue who is on our guest list when we start the podcast.  Luana brought three people we've spoken with before, and they wanted to weigh in on the same topic that was talked about last week - that is, how to get out of a negative mindset, as well as how to treat the negative impacts of football or drug abuse on the brain. In this case, Paul Allen, the cofounder of Microsoft who created the brain institute stopped by.  When Jennifer and I first met Paul it was some years ago - and is in the film TALKING TO PAUL ALLEN, JUNIOR SEAU AND DAVE DUERSON (Free on Youtube).  In that film, we detail how these three individuals wanted to tell us that "Joe Namath has cured his CTE using oxygen therapy."   No other way to put it - we were not aware of that in any way shape or form. And after their third visit to talk about it - I learned that indeed Joe was telling people that his oxygen therapy had likely cured his CTE. So I tried to clarify that what he had come through to tell us, was that Paul is suggesting "from the flipside" that oxygen therapy would be valuable in treating depression or brain trauma. As noted, in the research of Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin, he's shown that meditation can "change the shape of the amygdala, the regulator of serotonin in the brain - the regulator of emotions. I highly recommend people take a look at this research if it's something they're working on. Davidson has demonstrated that meditation can "cure or alleviate symptoms of depression."  Worth examining. Then there were two other friends who stopped by - one was Bill Paxton whom I knew for decades, and has shown up often in our book BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE where we interviewed him extensively about his journey. But also the film TALKING TO BILL PAXTON is now available on Amazon where I had three different mediums ask Bill the same questions on the flipside and he answered them all the same - including one session where I was not present. Finally, Charles Grodin is and was a dear friend, and for Jennifer to say that he was the source of the voice that I heard this morning (saying "HELLO" so loudly it woke me up) and my wife woke me up yesterday with this poking of my foot - saying "someone had poked her three or four times in the night." Again - it's a way of demonstrating that they still exist. Neither my wife nor I suspected that it was someone we knew - and I had planned to "ask the question during the podcast" if the time arose that I could ask it... and sure enough, it was brought up without me prodding, and Jennifer said that "something happened to Sherry as well" which was accurate. Anyways, a long way of saying our loved ones are not far away. Just allow that they know what we're doing, they know that it's okay to chat with us, they know that we will disbelieve that it really is them, but if one is listening to this podcast, it's likely because they would like to be able to converse with a loved one. Jennifer is doing a wine and spirits group this weekend in Santa Ynez, near Solvang - so if one is in the neighborhood check it out. Another mind bending session with the flipside.

Kathryn and Tug enjoy wine from a can! They talk about the advantages of drinking in this format. The hosts discuss the history of canned wine (hint: it's longer than you might think) and what the future might hold. Lots of winemakers are following this growing trend - Kathryn and Tug discuss what's unique about this particular can from just up the road in Santa Ynez. In other news, the duo recently took a road trip and also made their first visit to the newest restaurant in the Rustic Canyon Family: The Dutchess in Ojai. Kathryn shares love for a podcast and Tug is inspired by some of the leaders in the current SAG/AFTRA strike. The Wine of the Week is the Best Coast Wines ‘Fizzy Red Wine' Santa Ynez Valley, California. Follow us on Instagram! @thelongfinish @esterswineshop @kathrynweilcoker @tugcoker

Rich is testing the new iOS 17 Public Beta software. He only recommends installing it if you are tech savvy or have a secondary device. Otherwise, the official software launches in the Fall.A feature called Personal Voice in iOS 17 lets you recreate your own voice using AI.If you're going to the movies, be sure to enable Theater Mode on your watch. Don't forget to turn it off when you leave the theater.Rich switched to Notion for his note-taking.Rich really likes the Nothing Phone (2).Rod in Los Angeles says his computer mouse is constantly double clicking.Hollywood actors are on strike and AI is part of the problem.Guest Sissie Hsiao explains what's new with Google Bard.Marcy in Rancho Cucamonga asks about a data breach. Google has a free and paid dark web monitoring service. You can learn more about it here.Ted in Fountain Valley asks if he can transfer his software over to his new laptop.Amazon Prime Day sets a new record for sales.Kathy in Duarte doesn't like the Yahoo email redesign.AmazeVR's Lance Drake and Kyungkuk Kim to talk about their new VR concert app.Kerry in Santa Ynez wants to know why her friend's TV volume goes up and down.Leslie in Laguna Beach is having trouble with Mint. Is there an alternative?The Roku Channel is now on Google TVBarry wants to know why his NTFS drive isn't working on his mac. Check out NTFS for Mac from Paragon Software.Google Calendar now lets you easily find a mutual meeting time and accept paid appointments.Ben Sin reviews the Nothing Phone (2).See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After not being seen for decades, a rare native plant was recently rediscovered on the Central Coast. Botanists say the tiny Santa Ynez groundstar grows in the city of Lompoc and nowhere else.  Reporter: Beth Thornton  Tent encampments on sidewalks are often the public face of the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. But a new census of the homeless shows a big increase of the unhoused who live in parked vehicles.   Reporter: David Wagner, LAist 

Thanks to Markel for their ongoing support. Listen in as Paul interviews Janina Merz of Om El Arab, which has been a premier breeder of Arabian horses since 1970. They talk about the inception of Om El in the Black Forest of Germany and the complicated migration of the program to Santa Ynez, California. They discuss the founder of Om El Arab International, Sigi Siller, and how her grit and vision changed the way that Arabian horses were bred forever. In addition to bringing Janina into the world, Sigi was a legend within the breed, not only for her contributions to breeding programs on every continent, but also for her thoughtful and kind manner. Janina has continued Om El's journey since then, with a new generation of Om El horses leading the way across the country, including horses that trace back to their foundation mare, *Estopa, in all 18 World Champions in Paris in the 2022 World Championships. In addition to the lasting impact, there is a new generation of Om El impact, including stallions like Atticus ENB, Berlin MP, and Om El Maximus. Om El Arab also plays home to the Arabian Riding Academy - who has been previously covered on this podcast, which is helping bring the next generation of horsewomen and men to the breed. The producers of We Love Arabian Horses strive to provide informative and engaging content to our listeners without any bias or commercial interests. Our priority is to deliver valuable insights, discussions, and entertainment through our podcast episodes. If you have any questions or concerns about the content of our podcast, please reach out to us at Austin@WeLoveArabianHorses.com, and we will be happy to address them. Thank you for listening to We Love Arabian Horses. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/we-love-arabian-horses/message

Our guest in this episode, Rie Algeo Gilsdorf, describes herself as someone who believes in “seeing and integrating the big picture”. She believes in the whole person and integrating us all. She comes by this attitude honestly as you will hear. From attending a number of different schools while still living in the same house to how she learned through the years to live her life, Rie has made it her mission in life to help eliminate inequality in mind, body, and spirit. One of the fascinating things Rie talks about is why she obtained master's degrees in Biology and Dance. As you will hear, it's all about understanding the mind and body as part of the whole person picture. We get to have an interesting discussion about making choices, or not. As Rie discusses she was told often while getting her Dance Master's degree, “You have to make a choice of either being a dancer or a choreographer. Her response from the “big picture standpoint, “Why can't I be both is I choose to?” As we discuss, often people tell us to make choices, but it is because of simply the other person's point of view, not from a more general viewpoint or the point of view of the person who is thinking about what choice to make. I promise that our discussion will intrigue you. One very important concept Rie discusses concerns leaning into what we don't know. That is, when we do not know something or how to accomplish a task stop and look at the problem Learn from all your tools and sources how to deal with the issue. Most important, do not hesitate to ask others and especially don't hesitate to ask those who will be affected by your decisions. Big picture mentality again. My time with Rie is why Unstoppable Mindset is such a great podcast not only due to inclusion and Diversity but because we really do get to encounter the Unexpected in so many ways. As usual with our guests, Rie gives us all life lessons we can value and use. Enjoy, please. About the Guest: Rie Algeo Gilsdorf (She/Her) is passionate about seeing and integrating the big picture. Whether she's connecting people across distance and difference, integrating mind and body, science and art, or healing and change-making, Rie is dedicated to restoring wholeness to our common culture that heals and upholds us all. With Masters' degrees in Biology and Dance, Rie has an appreciation for the perceptions of the mind, heart and body, and the critical thinking and creativity they can provoke. Rie integrates Systems Change and Embodiment with an understanding of the physiology of trauma and the history of dominant and marginalized groups, applying all of this to overcoming systemic racism on a personal, social and global level. She is a national leader in the use of Social Presencing Theater (SPT) in antiracism work. Throughout her career Rie has facilitated adult learning that develops capacity to achieve equity across race, gender, sexuality and ability as well as urban, suburban and rural cultures.Currently, she provides Cultural Ways of Being audits, facilitation, coaching and SPT practice groups to individuals, schools, organizations and faith communities via Embody Equity. Ways to connect with Rie: Links for my website, LinkedIn, Instagram, class registrations and more are all found on LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/embodyequity About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.     Michael Hingson  01:20 Well, hello, once again, it is time for another episode of unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Oh, and our guest today is Rei Gilsdorf. And she's going to yell at me because I didn't include equity. I just said inclusion and diversity. But that's okay. We'll get to that. Rie is a big picture person. And she will tell you and she has master's degrees in biology and dance, which is pretty unique, and a lot of other kinds of things to go along with that. So I think we're gonna have a lot of fun today. I am certainly looking forward to it and looking forward to learning a lot and having a wonderful discussion. So Rie welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Rei Gilsdorf  02:05 Well, thank you so much, Michael. It's good to be here.   Michael Hingson  02:09 I'll it's always a pleasure to have somebody who comes on and really does look at the big picture. So we'll get there. But yes, let's let's talk about you growing up a little bit, your childhood and all that sort of how did you get somewhere and moving forward and all that? Yeah.   Rei Gilsdorf  02:27 Well, you know, the interesting thing is, I grew up in California in a small town, and my town at Santa Ynez, California, also also very close to solving that more people have put up right, with the cookies in the ABL fever.   Michael Hingson  02:44 But Zaca Mesa wine comes from Santa   Rei Gilsdorf  02:48 does, yes, it certainly does. And lots of other good ones. So when I was a child, my dad was in agriculture. He was an animal nutritionist, actually. And he worked mainly with large animals, cattle and horses. And so our fortunes were directly tied to those markets, which are very cyclical. And so what would happen for me is I started out my educational life in a private school, and then the bottom fell out of the Cadillac, and then I landed in a public school, and then I would be there for a couple of years until some egregious thing happened. Like, you know, they're going to put 24 Children in one classroom, which, of course, by today's standards, you know, there are teachers that would kill to have only 20. in their room, right. But back in the day, that was just unheard of. And so then,   Michael Hingson  03:40 when was that roughly?   Rei Gilsdorf  03:41 That was that would have been in the late 60s. Okay. So so you know, then I would move to a private school, and we'd be there for a few years, and then the market would fall, and then I'd go back to public school, and then some awful thing would happen, then I go back to private school. So even though I grew up my entire childhood in one house, I went to five different schools. So for me, I didn't have language for it at the time, of course, but there were cultural differences between those programs, right? So I would say things like, as a seven year old, I said to my mom, when I first went to public school, mom, they were in their 20s to school, because at the private school, there was a uniform and you had to have leather shoes, and then you came home and you changed into your play clothes and your tennis shoes. Right. So so like, I didn't understand what that meant. Or, you know, socioeconomically, that you know, not everybody has shoes for every occasion, you know, and that it's funny to wear your tennis shoes to school. It was just different to me. And over the course of all my schooling, I think the message that I got was, there are more than one way to be. There's one more than one way that is considered normal in different places. And so there's a skill of figuring out what is called for, and how I need to be in different places.   Michael Hingson  05:11 When you were when you were growing up, and you made that comment to your mom, I'm curious if you remember, what did she say?   Rei Gilsdorf  05:18 You know, I don't think she just said, Oh, honey, that's just how, you know, that's just a different school, and they just have different ways. And she started just minimize that she didn't really talk about it much.   Michael Hingson  05:30 Anyway, go ahead.   Rei Gilsdorf  05:32 Yeah. So anyway, I think that that like looking back on it, I think that's really, you know, how I first began to understand that there's more than one way to be, right, and that, that things that seem perfectly normal in one environment are like really not normal in another environment. And, and that, you know, like, wow, there's the way that we act in my home is not the way that everyone acts in their home. So then, you know, fast forward is that I go, and I get a degree in biology, and I get a degree, I get a degree in biology, because, you know, my dad, in agriculture thought that that would be great, because I could go to vet school, or I could go to med school, or I could go into research, or I could, you know, so I was, you know, didn't really know what I wanted to do. And I did that. And then actually got a master's in zoology and animal behavior. And, and it's very interesting if you if you want to learn the skills about observing, and describing animal behavior is a great place to start, because you don't know what that Sparrow is thinking. But you know, that he's trying to get to the top of the dominance hierarchy. And he's, he's like, there's a literal pecking order, and he's picking on the next slightly smaller Sparrow. Right. So so there are, there are things I think I learned about describing that, as opposed to interpreting and laying my story on that have been really helpful, because as much as we are all humans, and we all share, you know, one physiology and, you know, there's a lot of really lovely sentiments about, you know, we all smile on one language. And also, people have really different experiences. And it can feel like you're being erased, if somebody who has more power or is little more dominant in that situation just sort of is like, Oh, we're all alike, comma, you're like me? Well, like Michael, you're just like me, except for that. You're blind. And I'm not, but I'm just gonna say we're all alike. You know, so there's something that's just a little it again, it doesn't capture the big picture, we have to go out to the big picture of people's different experiences and needs, and then we can come back in to the immediate picture of okay, what does everybody need right now? And how are we like, and how are we going to be one group here today?   Michael Hingson  08:08 But what really got you to the point where you emotionally and intellectually understood the value or need for the big picture? Oh,   Rei Gilsdorf  08:18 you know, what? That's? That's an excellent question. Part of it is, I think that I have kind of always had a propensity for that when I was about 12, or 13, a pastor, actually, who was a friend of my older sisters said to me, you know, what, you're a middle person, you can see both sides, and people are going to try to make you choose. And really your gift is see both sides. And it was one of those moments where I knew that he had said something profound, even though you don't like it, well, I wasn't quite ready for it to be that profound. But then, you know, then the other piece is, then I go, and I get a degree in dance. And you know, my mother is beside herself, because like, what are you going to do with these two things that are so do science degree and an art degree and how you know, but really, I can see that it's all about the body. And there's, you know, like, cognitively, understanding how the body works, and the systems and all of those kinds of things. And then there's physically understanding what it is to inhabit your body and express something or understand body language or that sort of thing. So I think that I think it was probably in those years when I was, you know, getting my dance masters. So I would have been in my 20s when, you know, I began to really go Okay, wait, there's a bigger picture here. And even in dance, people were saying, you know, you have to choose, you have to either be a teacher or a performer you have to either be a choreographer or a teacher, you know, and realizing like, Well, no, those aren't, you know, what, why couldn't a person do both of those things? Life is long.   Michael Hingson  10:04 Yeah. And everybody always wants you to make a choice according to their definitions. And of course, that's the real issue is it's their view, and they don't look at other views that may cause them to stretch and grow, because they're too comfortable with the one thing that they know.   Rei Gilsdorf  10:25 Yes, very well said, really well said, Yeah. And because, you know, for that person, making some drastic choice early in their life might have been a really smart decision for them, it might be the best choice they ever made. Right? But that doesn't necessarily mean it's the right choice for me.   Michael Hingson  10:43 Yeah, it's, it is an interesting world we live in. And it's all too often that people just don't see the value of a big picture. And I also think that it is important that although you see the big picture, it's important to be able to bring it back down and focus in on whatever it is that you have to deal with the endeavor or whatever at the time.   Rei Gilsdorf  11:06 Absolutely. zooming out and zooming in. View, and then you've got because if you say the whole time with your head in the clouds really, then then you're not practical. And that's, you know, that there are people who use the big picture to kind of bypass that, you know, they get to that we all smile in the same language place, and then they, they don't get to like it. Okay, well, how are we going to make that work? Right?   Michael Hingson  11:34 What Where did you go to college,   Rei Gilsdorf  11:36 I took my first degree at Occidental College in Los Angeles, which is a small liberal arts college, which was a good step for me coming from a very small town going through a smallish college, you know, I think if I had gone to Washington State, which was my next step, which had probably 30,000 students at the time, you know, that would have been a too big of a step for me at the time. But, but yeah, then I went to Washington State for my science degree, and then I was dancing all along. And I had in my head, this, this old trope about how you know, you don't make it and dance by the time you're 30 your career is over, you know, and so I didn't allow myself to realize how much I love to dance and, and you know, how it could be a career path. Until, until I was almost done with my though ology masters. And so then I went to the University of Utah, because they have a great choreography program. And also, by the way, they have what's called the kinesiology program, dance, kinesiology. So that's the study of the body in motion. And so that was really kind of a sweet spot for me, you know, it really allowed me again, to develop both halves of that, although, you know, I was the first graduate student in their history, to write a thesis and produce a concert, you know, like, usually, if you're a choreography major, you're going to produce a concert. And if you're a science major, you know, kinesiology major, you're going to do a thesis. And I was like, No, I don't really do both of these things.   Michael Hingson  13:11 So you had a lot of fun doing it. I should it. What made you pick combination of science and dance, though? They are very different in a lot of ways. Which isn't to say, it's a good idea or not, but what what made you do both of those,   Rei Gilsdorf  13:29 you know, well, like I said, my dad had a science background, he was an animal scientist to be exact. And so really, I got my biology degree just to be compliant, you know, and my, my mom said to me, don't worry, if you don't know what you want to major, and you're like, Go start your biology major, and go, you're going to a liberal arts school and take a lot of classes, and you're going to meet some professor that just excites you and sees your potential, and you're going to just want to hang out with them and learn from them. And then you'll know like, that's where you should go. And I got into my senior year of college, and then I was really disappointed because I thought, oh, my gosh, I never met that professor, like, what's wrong with me? And then I realized that actually, it was my dance teacher. And because dance was an adjunct subject at that school, you know, she she wasn't a professor, right. So. So then what happened was, I went up to Washington State because I'd gotten a teaching assistantship, and by the way, that's where I fell in love with teaching because there were there were graduate students who had research assistantships, and teaching assistantship and the research assistant people were like, the people with the spotless transcript and the, you know, they were like that was that the you know, prize position. And other people like, well, I guess you're gonna have to teach and then even amongst Teaching, I got assigned biology 101 basic basic class. And I loved those beginners, you know, and I realized that I actually had a gift for helping make things clear to beginners. So, so I went up there, and I was part of a dance group, you know, just as an extracurricular thing. And, you know, the, the poor fortune of my professor there was that she was going through a very messy divorce, and she was depressed, and she didn't really have the wherewithal to run the group. So she turned it over to us. So then that was my good fortune, because that's where I found choreography. And I was like, Oh, wow, you could keep choreographing. But you know, like, it wouldn't matter if your viewer aging. So, so that's where I really got turned on by, you know, that bit by the choreography bug. And then, you know, finished out my thesis and went went on down to Utah from there.   Michael Hingson  16:02 Wow. So then what did you do once you have these two degrees, and you had to go out into the workforce and do something with them all?   Rei Gilsdorf  16:13 Exactly. So for a long time, I had a day job.   Michael Hingson  16:18 To have one of those occasionally.   Rei Gilsdorf  16:20 Yeah, yes. Gotta have those. And, and then, interestingly, you know, some years later, well, what   Michael Hingson  16:28 was your day job?   Rei Gilsdorf  16:29 Oh, my gosh, I had a sequence of data ups. But I'll tell you the most astounding one is I, I worked at a medical clinic, because growing up, I had worked in my dad's office, so I knew how to do office things. And and I worked at a medical clinic in the collections department. Like, I'm not exactly who you would think of the collector, just not, you know, firm in that way. Like I am not someone you think is going to break your kneecaps at all, you know. And so, so that was a rough job. And then actually, when I first kind of Mind, Body Jobs was the last year we were living that we were living there, because my husband at the time was getting his degree at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo. Yeah. And so I actually got offered a job being the physical therapy assistant at a day program for disabled adult. And they mainly were folks who had mild cognitive impairment and significant mobility issues. So a lot of folks that had had head injuries or, you know, cerebral palsy, or those sorts of things. And I, part of how I got this was that in college, I had done a semester with a professor who was really a pioneer in dance for folks with disabilities. And so I remember calling her because I was so nervous that I'd been offered the job. And I said, and I just feel like, you know, how do I know if what I'm doing is hurting them? Are they? And she said, Oh, well, there's a way to know. And I said, What is it? And she said, Why you ask them? They've been living in their body their whole life? Oh, God,   Michael Hingson  18:24 and how often we don't in all seriousness, and how often we don't we, we, and one end of the scale, we think we're the experts. And so we don't need to ask, and I've seen that so many times. The other end, we just don't think about asking even though it's the logical thing to do, and we don't, we don't work view ourselves as the expert.   Rei Gilsdorf  18:45 Exactly. Or there's the scripts about how it's not polite, you know, like when your mother has taught you that it's not polite to look or point at someone who is different, right, who has a disability, then that gets internalized? Well, I'm certainly not going to talk about it, but you like they've been living in their body their whole life, they would certainly rather, you know, my clients would certainly rather have me ask them, then, like, try some idiotic thing that does hurt, right. Oh, anyway. So that was really one of my first places of combining, you know, because we were doing physical therapy. But it was so you know, such a sort of great outlet and then i i Of course put some dance in there. And, and then from there we we moved to Colorado and then I was able to work in both like a it was probably a for profit colleges called Denver Technical College. So I was able to teach you know, anatomy physiology, those things there and then there must have been a baby boom like three years earlier in Colorado Springs because There were so many preschool programs that wanted to have a creative dance thing. So I was teaching, you know, college kids at night and little four year olds, and three year olds in the daytime. So that was a little schizophrenic, but lots of fun. And and then we ended up moving to Portland, Oregon. And at that point, there was a, an arts high school being built. And I ended up getting hired into that program. And amazingly enough, you had to have an art and an academic to teach full time, because they put the academics in the morning, when people's minds were fresh. And then they put the arts which are all things that you physically do in the afternoon, and which also are things that kids you know, tended to love. So they would like show up and focus and, you know, and all of that sort of thing. And because I had a background in biology and dance, I could teach full time there. And if the time was, when it opened, it was an alternative school. So it didn't matter like that. I didn't have the right licensure, and really, not very many states were licensing dance teachers in those days. And then along comes No Child Left Behind. And they had requirements for being a quote, unquote, highly qualified teacher. And even though by that point, I had been teaching dance and integrating, I mean, part of that program was that we integrated the art and the academics together, because we knew that children learn what we all learned, we don't learn in a box, right? Like, I never really thought a whole lot about math until I had to replace the floor and a bathroom. And I had to figure out the foreign tile, right? There was a lot of math in that. So the learning by doing thing is is very important. So anyway, I, I was very happy, happy as a clam there for 10 years, then No Child Left Behind came along, and they were like, well, you're gonna have to quit, and you're gonna have to go get your teaching degree. And in fact, it means that you're going to have to student teach in someone's classroom, that probably has less experience than you. And I just couldn't do I mean, a lot of my colleagues did it, bless their hearts. But at that point, then I got to principals license, and then shortly after that, I ended up moving to Minnesota, to be the principal of a different arts high school,   Michael Hingson  22:27 you certainly moved around a lot from California to Colorado to Oregon and then in a soda.   Rei Gilsdorf  22:35 Exactly, did a lot of moving.   Michael Hingson  22:40 So was was it all because of you or husband? Or was it job related? Or just you guys decided you wanted to see different kinds of snow?   Rei Gilsdorf  22:54 Well, you know, we did find that both Colorado and Oregon are the Birkenstocks was sock state. So um, so we moved to, we moved to Colorado for his job. And then he was really sort of burning out from that job. And he had gone on a trip to Portland, actually a whole bunch of West Coast cities and fell in love with Portland, he said, You have to come out here and see this. So we up and move to Portland, just because it felt really good. And managed to both get jobs there. And then move to Minnesota for my job. He has been the trailing spouse, as we say. So.   Michael Hingson  23:41 So when did you move to Minnesota? What What year was   Rei Gilsdorf  23:44 moved there? It moved here in 2004.   Michael Hingson  23:48 Okay. And then you put your principals license to work   Rei Gilsdorf  23:52 with the principals license to work. And as I got hired in that job, the superintendent who hired me, said he told me this little story about how the year before the prior principal, had had 11 openings for teachers, which I mean, I think there were only about 25 teachers in the school. So that's, that's a huge number of staff. And despite, you know, some pressure to diversify, the staff had managed to hire 100%, white able bodied folks, and even when those folks were, you know, like met each other for the first time, you know, I get the back to school, you know, welcome new teachers kind of event. They were kind of surprised and disappointed. And so this superintendent said to me, if you can't hire at least 50% diverse staff staff of color in particular, you will lose the trust of your faculty. And so I thought, wow, okay, so he's telling me to This is very important. And Hmm, I'm not sure I know how to do that. So at that point, I leaned into what I didn't know and started, you know, started my educational journey. And, and really, it was probably about 10 years after that, that I ended up kind of really fully going into this work. But I think that's another really important point is, you know, like this, this is the same thing as as asking people what their preferences are, or what what, you know, what they need, or whatever, that, you know, leaning into what we don't know. Like, there is no shame in that none of us knows everything. And if you try to make like, you know, things, then you're not really going to make progress. You've got to say, Well, okay, can I go to this conference? Can I pull together this learning group? Can I, you know, Can I try this? Can I try that? And that's, that's how we progress.   Michael Hingson  26:05 Did you happen to think of asking any of your faculty members for help and ideas about how to hire a more, at least racially diverse population and seizures?   Rei Gilsdorf  26:17 Yes, definitely. Good. Because the, you know, like, often the wisdom, a lot of the wisdom is in the room. Right. And there also are people that have networks of, you know, beyond I mean, certainly, especially as I was a brand new person in Minnesota, it's not like I knew a lot of people here, you know, and other people did. So. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  26:39 Well, and you'd already had lessons in the value of asking, so that's why I asked that question.   Rei Gilsdorf  26:46 Yes, definitely. Well, so   Michael Hingson  26:47 what do you do today? Exactly.   Rei Gilsdorf  26:50 So what I do at this point is, I have a little company, I'm a sole proprietor, it's called embody equity, because, of course, I'm gonna bring the body into thing. And, and I kind of do this on two levels. So there's the personal level, where people need to, myself included, you know, we need to learn how to listen to our bodies, which sometimes means quieting our minds in our mouths. And we need to overcome some of these fears and biases. I love that in one of your taglines, you talk about how, you know, we can't be inclusive until we tackle what's inside of ourselves. And I think that is so true. And very often, people will understand cognitively why it's a good idea to be inclusive, and all those things, but they can't quite, you know, when when a situation happens, things come out of their mouth, or they make decisions that they perhaps aren't real proud of, or wouldn't have if they'd had more time to think or whatever. And, and a lot of that is because a lot of these a lot of these fears and biases are things that we hold in our bodies. And again, if we've been trained that it's like, it's not polite to think about that or talk about that, it's certainly not polite to feel a feeling that doesn't feel good about another person. And so part of that is just like learning to feel into that feeling, allow it to come over, you understand what it's coming from, and then you can get to like, oh, well, that's a silly thing to be afraid of. I guess that's nothing to beat. That's nothing to worry about. Or, oh, wow, I guess, I guess that person might have a different perspective. And maybe I could listen to that. But if you, if you start from the body, then you can understand that, you know, a lot of wisdom and a lot of opening up can come out and a lot of letting go can come out of working with your body. So so really, you know, I also like to say the body's like that person in the meeting that doesn't speak up until the end of the meeting. And then they open their mouth and they just wow you that this amazing thought comes out that sums everything up. And clearly they've been paying attention the whole time. Your body's like that person in the meaning of you, your mind and your body. Your body is the one who's like very quiet they're not going to assert themselves but they know a lot and a lot of it is getting the mind to be a little quiet so we can listen to the body now. So that's one level. And you know, sometimes people even come to me for coaching on you know, gosh, I have a new daughter in law that's a person of color or I have a new co worker or I'm supervising this group of people and I realized that I'm I'm acting nervous around people who are different than me. So those kinds of things you know, I can do coaching on on those kinds of things. And then the other thing is, whole organizations need to embody that, that the statement that they have, right or that that eloquent thing that they came out with, after some hideous situation was in the news. And they wanted to differentiate themselves. And they said, We stand with the cause. And yet, then they don't actually know how to, as an organization, stand with the cause. So So really, what I do is I look for I have gotten in the habit of looking at people's documents, like, personnel, manual job posting those sorts of things, and finding the language in there that is pushing for the status quo. Because it's going to be in there because it's it's been written, like, you know, companies occur out of the status quo, companies, churches, schools. In fact, I thought it was fascinating. You had told a story about being in a church that was considering putting, I think, an elevator in place. And what was fascinating about that, Michael, is the pushback on that sounds exactly like the kind of pushback that I hear about other situations that are about race or gender or other other aspects of diversity. So see, that's where, like, I'm so tempted to then like, oh, let's come out to the big picture, what is this consciousness that people are inhabiting? That I'm only safe if things stay exactly like they are. And there's something vaguely unsafe about us putting an elevator here, because someone different than me is going to come to this church, you know, and how, like, if you if you really just play that tape on out to the end, like the logical end of that statement, that's, that's ridiculous on the face. You know,   Michael Hingson  32:02 so isn't it, and it's, it totally violates the the doctrine and the precepts of the church to not be inclusive, and it happens a whole lot more than we would like to think some people just think they own the church, it's theirs. It's not theirs, the last time I checked, but you know, it is amazing. And there's so many things, it's not ours, we're a part of a community. And the sooner we truly recognize that we're part of a bigger community, the better it will be all the way around. But as much as we hear it takes a village, we, when it comes to us, we don't like to think about that.   Rei Gilsdorf  32:42 Absolutely. You know, when I was at that first art school in Vancouver, Washington, where you know, you had to have an art and an academic to teach full time. That meant that we all shared classrooms, because I might be in a classroom in the morning that was suitable to do science in because it had sinks and counters and that sort of thing. Well, that's also a great kind of room to do visual art in and mix paint is not a great room to dance in. So I was gonna go to a gym, or some other large room to teach dance and an art teacher was going to come in behind me. So we all shared not only the children, but also the rooms and the resources. And as we were planning the school, our principal actually instituted what she called the my jar, which is kind of like the swearing jar and put 25 cents in if you say a bad word. So if anybody said, my kids, my kid my room, we had to put 25 cents into my jar. And let me tell you, that was quite an education about this idea that it's, it's ours, it's not mine. And it was hard was surprisingly hard again, even though on a cognitive level, I was all about this community. It took a couple of years to really learn how to live into that. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  34:00 And it is one of those things that all too often we don't learn very fast, and we should learn it more quickly. It isn't, there's no I in team, that's what it really comes down to. And there's a lot to be said for that. Exactly. So when did you actually give up being a principal?   Rei Gilsdorf  34:20 Um, you know, I did that job. I will tell you that that job. The thing about the State Arts High School is that it is a line item in the governor's budget. It's not a regular school district, and the governor appoints your school board. So I was politically over my head almost immediately. You know, came from out of state didn't really get Minnesota politics to begin with, and then had these board members who may or may not have really been interested in being a board member may have donated to a governor's campaign, you know, and so, so I left there after three years, but I went to another school to be they had a brand new position opening up, that was an arts department chair. So that was lovely, because then I got to really do a lot of coaching of teachers, which is one of my favorite things, you know, watching teachers teach. And coaching them was really a lot of fun. And then though, that was a private school, and I and I missed, oddly enough, the public school environment of like, really, you know, in a public school, you you accept the children that come to your doorstep. And in a private school, you have to go looking for diversity. And so it's, it's just a slightly different mindset there. So I went back to that school. And then that's where I really met the folks from courageous conversation, because that school was what was called an integration district. It's something that there had been a number of I wouldn't want to say in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And so it was a joint powers district of Minneapolis in the 11 surrounding suburbs, because what was found was that, that different suburbs were able to segregate themselves by having their own school district. And so this was a way that all of those districts had to submit an integration plan, you know, it got very wonky, but yeah, what we did, one of the things that we realized was, okay, so, so different kinds of children are going to these different districts and these teachers, it's not like normal, neighborhood change has happened, and you have, you know, a few kids who are different than you when you're in and then a few more, a few more, and you gradually learn your way into it, it's like, suddenly, now they've got a busload of children coming from this other part of town. And then they would do these things that just, you know, like, sometimes just getting out of yourself, and seeing, you know, having a set of outside eyes is really important. So for instance, there was a suburban school district here that was majority white. And they started getting a busload of mostly black children in and those children like that bus was arriving, like at a slightly earlier or later time, there was something weird about like, the timing and what was going on at the front entrance. And so they they just decided that they would have that bus come to the back door, you know, not thinking what does it look like when the black children have to come through the back door? Like what's, what's the inclusion message there? Yeah. Oh, and and given our shared history in this country, what's the message there? You know, so, so? Yeah, so we put together this thing that was called the cultural collaborative, that was a learning exchange for teachers, and, you know, at school administrators, and one year, my boss said to me, because at that point, and I was a, I was like, the curriculum integration specialists. So I was helping people pull the arts into the academics and, and by the way, look at how we can have different kinds of kids work together on arts projects, and learn from each other, and just have the experience of being together. So, so when you're my boss said to me, you know, we have this one company called courageous conversation that's coming in, and they're doing a lot of our classes, and then we have a whole bunch of other people. And I would like you to take as many of these classes as you can report back to me just as a quality control. And so in one year, I think I took 36 different one and two day courses. I mean, I really, I probably should have written up another Master's degree for that, but having to I didn't feel like getting a third. But at that point, you know, I learned a lot more of the technical pieces of it. And then there was a huge budget issue and all the people who were teachers on special assignment, in other words, who didn't have a classroom like B got laid off. And so after that, I ended up going to work for courageous conversation, which was the consultancy that was providing a lot of that. So I worked there for about six years. And then, at the beginning of the pandemic, by that time, I had really I discovered social presencing Theatre, which is the physical discipline that I'm working in now. And, and of course, when you work for someone that has conversation in the name of the business. And you say, Hey, I think we should do some movement seminars that aren't so heavily talk oriented, that you said, you know, our brand is conversation   Michael Hingson  40:15 comes in many forms.   Rei Gilsdorf  40:17 Exactly. So, you know, at the beginning of the pandemic, you know, of course, conversation was not a good idea in person. And so they laid off almost all of us. And at that point, I just knew like, oh, okay, right. So now's the time for me to really pull this together and figure out how this works. How do I work together with people to, to really embody equity. So that's, that's how I got there.   Michael Hingson  40:44 So you, you started your company, then somewhere in the early 2020? Yes, that's about three years old, which is, which is good. But you talk about equity, and you don't talk about or you don't have in your name, inclusion or diversity. Now, why is that?   Rei Gilsdorf  41:07 Yeah, so that's. So here's the thing. I think that diversity and inclusion are weak T compared to equity. And I'll tell you why. Diversity is the easiest thing to measure, because you can measure diversity just by counting and there are many categories that people disclose or, or are just visible. And so that, you know, in a way, that's the easiest your hat, what is what is the C suite look like who's in there who's not in inclusion is, there's a great book called The person you mean to be by Dolly too, and she talks about the metric of inclusion is how did your last meeting go? Like, who was talking, who was not talking? Who was even allowed in the meeting, you know, so so. So that's one way to think of it, I first really heard about inclusion when I was working at a school, and the parent association of the elementary part of the school had decided that if birthday invitations are going to be handed out at school, then you'd have to invite everyone in your class. And so I decided that that's a really fitting metaphor for inclusion, because I'm going to invite everyone to my party. And you know, of course, we're, we're all offered the same cake in the same punch and whatever, but it's still my party. And I might not be playing music that you like, and I might not have a cake that you like, or that you're even allowed to eat. And by the way, you have to bring me a present. So in a corporate sense, or in a school sense. Inclusion means I'm gonna make some overtures to make you minimally comfortable, you know, I'm going to acknowledge that you're here. And that you might have a couple of different needs, I might make a few accommodations, as I'm required to by law. But the program was designed for me, and for people like me. And so equity is about requires you to pull back and look at the big picture and say, Okay, if you have a diversity problem, what's the pipeline? Why aren't people finding their way to your business, or organization or church or whatever it is? What's going on, that is off putting, or that is disqualifying for people. And in the inclusion realm, equity is going to say, Okay, well, what are the cultural things that you are doing that, you know, you're like a fish in the water, you don't see your own culture, but people from outside your culture for sure can see it? And so what are the tools that you know, how can we expand your tool belt for equity, so that you can respond to multiple kinds of people, and so that it doesn't feel like a little weird exception has been made for this one person?   Michael Hingson  44:16 Yeah, it's interesting. I have to think about that. And what you said, my, my general experience is, certainly diversity does not include disabilities. Because as a society, we still believe disability means a lack of ability. And I think that in reality, we can change words. We can change definitions, we don't need to create necessarily new words. So diversity doesn't mean disabilities anymore, because that's what everyone has allowed to happen. So from my perspective, I I won't accept and I encourage people not to accept that inclusion doesn't include disabilities, either you are inclusive or you not it is a quantum, one way or the other, there is no partial inclusion, you either fully include all or you don't include anyone. And that disabilities are not things that mean a lack of ability, but rather, disability is a characteristic. And in some my point of saying that is, you are a person with a disability because you're light dependent. And, and the reality is, if the lights go out, power goes out, you run to find a smartphone, or a flashlight or a candle or something to keep light. Because mostly, the world has invented technologies to continue to allow you to have light all the time. And so for some of us, that's a catching up, and technology is getting better. But still intellectually, society doesn't accept that. So they don't include, for example, my need for a screen reader software package, as opposed to using a computer monitor like you use, although inclusion ought to be part of the cost of doing business, period.   Rei Gilsdorf  46:14 Okay, so the big picture, I'm fascinated, because what what just came to me when you're talking is, one could think of the desk lamp that I have in my office as an assistive device, it allows him to work past 5pm Yep. Whereas you would not need that assistive device. And and the thing is, none of us thinks of my desk lamp as an assistive device, whereas it is pretty early reader, it is an in in, you know, in the in the kind of historical equity work that I do often. There's this, there's a lot of talk about affirmative action, and who does that benefit and so on. But we don't think back to, you know, the 40 acres and a mule thing that actually, after the Civil War, the idea was that, that the enslaved people who had been freed, were going to get this little land grant so they could start their own farm and do their own work. And then that was actually reversed after a while into that administration. But meanwhile, the what would they call the Sooners and the boomers who like went through Oklahoma and everything they were given, like, more acres, a mule and several sacks of grain, right. So that was affirmative action for white people, white and indentured, you could get that. So there are these things where we don't think of it as affirmative action for the dominant group. But that is how the dominant group got dominant. And then I would say, we also don't think of assistive devices for the dominant group. But that's part of what keeps us dominant.   Michael Hingson  47:57 But the reality is that assistive technology was mostly first invented for the dominant people. Yeah, the dominant, the dominant. I won't say race, because it's different races, but the the dominant force. And what happened as a result is that that occurred, and those who were not classified by the dominant people as part of the dominant group, were left behind. And, and it has become worse, which is very unfortunate. But that is the reality of it that in fact, assistive technology was invented for you, long before it really was invented for me. Now, we can take it the other way. So Apple, for example, has put assistive technology in every one of its devices. If you go buy an iPhone, you can take any iPhone and Acrobat, activate a screen reader called VoiceOver. And it will verbalize whatever is coming up on the screen. Except that they haven't mandated that app developers make sure that they accommodate voiceover necessarily as they're creating their apps. So an app can be accessible one day and not the next, but leave that alone for them. But leave that alone for the moment. What I don't see Apple doing still is saying, you know, we've got this great verbal technology, audio technology, and creating new and better ways for you like dependent people to be able to use it. For example, when you're driving a car, you don't turn on VoiceOver so that it will tell you who's calling. And so you have to still look at the phone to see or you have to look at the phone to answer it. And we as much as we talk about safe driving and all that. We encourage people to look elsewhere other than just the road look at Tesla. Tesla uses touchscreens to control most What goes on in his cars? That means, yeah, you do have copilot, and so on, which in theory work to some degree. But why is it that we discourage people from continuing to look at the road, and not use the other technologies that in reality benefit me, but would also benefit you? And would benefit me more if we did it? Right. So the the Tesla, for example, it's all touchscreen. So I can't turn on the radio, I can't change a radio station. I can't do anything with it, because it's all touchscreen. And we don't we don't accommodate that stuff. We don't recognize the value of things like audio output, and, and using even audio input more, because we still have the dominant group that doesn't recognize that in reality, alternatives might improve their lives as well. Oh, wow.   Rei Gilsdorf  50:51 Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. And you know, what you're saying about it being because it's visual, it's, it's distracting. You know, my son has an electric car, not a Tesla. But it is like, it's, it's difficult for me, like I have to set things and adjust them before I start moving in the car, because it's too distracting for me, you know, so interesting.   Michael Hingson  51:14 Yeah. And it would be very easy to make the world much more inclusive for all, but it is a mindset change that we have not developed yet. But we need to have that conversation. And really encourage it because it would make life better. In 2010, the National Federation of the Blind were to get a law passed, called the pedestrian enhancement Safety Act, more and more cars were going hybrid or totally silent or becoming very quiet. So we don't hear that when they're coming down the road a lot of times, yeah. And a law was eventually passed, saying that cars needed to make a noise. Now, they're still working on citing white noise to us 12 years later, which is unfortunate. But leave that alone for the moment. The law didn't really get traction at being passed until NITSA, the National Institute for Highway or transportation, safety and so on, until NITSA, discovered that there were 1.5 times as many accidents that would happen to pedestrians, as a result of encountering a quiet car or hybrid vehicle, then would be encountering just a regular internal combustion engine. So when they discovered that other people, then people who happen to be blind, also were affected by my cars, then people's attitude started to change. You know, we're still not dealing with the inclusive mindset. And we need to well, you started your company. And so what exactly do you do today?   Rei Gilsdorf  53:05 Well, I do a couple of things I do, what I call equity audits, I'm beginning to to switch that name around to cultural ways of being audits. Because there are, you know, 18, different things that people do that are called equity audit, like sometimes it has to do with going in, and having focus groups of people of color and seeing what's working, what's not working. And so what that when I hear that I refer to that as a functional audit, like what is going on what's working, what's not working. And what I do is more structural, and it has to do with really looking at those, you know, hiring documents, policy manuals, I and I've done audits for, you know, churches and, like larger Diocese of churches. I did one, I've done a couple that have to do with what's the route to becoming a clergy member? And how is that like? What's the application? What's the selection process? What are the criteria, because if your organization was founded by people in the dominant, the, you know, the words are going to express that and they're going to express it in a way that is, you know, it's it's hidden in plain sight. It's just absolutely hidden in plain sight. So one of the one of the main ones, boy, let me back up and say, What I love about this approach is, you know, where I used to work, they would just come in, and they would do a seminar that was about, you know, Equity and Diversity, right? And it's very easy for people to launch that into the abstract realm and not bring it down to earth, right, like, oh, well, theoretically, that could happen. But surely we don't do that. Like I don't, you know, and so it's really lovely to come back with a report that says, Here are these things things that are in your documents. And can you see why, then when you go to hire someone who is different on any axis, that there's this conversation among the hiring committee afterwards, and they say, you know, what, just don't know if they're a good fit. And they're not a good fit. You know, your your your hiring document hasn't captured. You know, what, what do you hope to gain from this more inclusive atmosphere that's more inclusive, higher? And if all you can say is, well, we want more people who are different than you need to think more about, like, what are the unique perspectives that people could be bringing to you, and you write those into the job description, and then magically guess what more different kinds of people apply? And they answer the questions in such a way that shows what they have to offer. And at the end, the conversation is not about like, Hmm, they don't quite fit. It's like, wow, they've got some perspectives we really need. Right? So. So anyway, one of one of the things that comes up often is this idea of professionalism. Word, you know, I'm not advocating that we go away from being professional. And you know, each profession has some standards, they need to do tap, right. But if you don't define it, then it falls back to what is the dominant group do? Right, and, and all the other things are considered unprofessional. And so one of my favorite things that I love to do is if I'm talking, for instance, to a white group, I say, what was the consequence in your childhood home for showing up to supper late? Or? Another way to think of that is, what was the vibe in your house when you had to get the whole family bundled into the car at the same time to go somewhere to be at a place on time? And, you know, I don't know, Mike, what was what was it? What consequences in your house for showing up late to dinner was that a bad thing   Michael Hingson  57:05 was a bad thing, unless unless you had let mom and or dad know in advance, then there was a reason for it, which is a different animal. But if you just showed up late, or even getting everyone in the car, well, there were only four of us mom, dad, brother in me. So it was pretty easy, because we had afford our cars. Everybody had their own door, but But still, there were expectations that you you abide by rules, and the rules could change. And the rules were created to accommodate everyone. And I think that's part of the issue is that when you're making rules, if you have rules that don't work for some people, then that's a different animal to   Rei Gilsdorf  57:54 write well, and then the other piece is, over time, we attach values. So Punctuality is a good thing. When I go to the doctor, I like that, you know, they haven't slipped me down 18th in line when I had an appointment, right. But I'm sure you have been in a meeting, because I think we all have where somebody said, we're going to respect everyone by starting and ending on time, right. And of course, like today, you and I have an appointment, we're going to try and start it in on time. But if one of us had to leave, because there was a family emergency, you know, if you had to run out of the room right now, I wouldn't feel disrespected. You know, I don't have to feel this perspective. That's just a story, a cultural story that's been told. And another story to just like, tie this one up in a bow is that I recently had a hip surgery. And I was in the hospital. And one of my excellent nurses was this black woman who was an African immigrant. And she, you know, she was very charming and hospitable. And trying to get my mind off of the pain and all that stuff. She would chat me up and everything. She asked me what I did. And so I was telling her about this. And I asked her, like, what's the consequence in your child at home, growing up for not getting to supper on time, and she was like, she couldn't get her head around the idea that there would be a consequence for that. She was like, What are you kidding? It's like where, you know, our value is hospitality. And whenever you show up, we're going to try to show you the most hospitality. We grew up in a different culture. And it's not that they don't have values, it's that they're pulling out a different thing to value more highly than the actual punctuality. Right. So, so, you know, I had to appreciate that. And the other thing that I love about this story is and karma I appreciated that she was punctual in checking in on me to see if my payments had worn off or not right, so that she can help me man Just paying by not letting it get like way too bad and having to take an extra dose and all that sort of thing. So the reason I'm saying that is that often, you know, time is a great example, because we all have some experience with time. But what will happen if people don't want to understand this, and I honestly think it's a willful thing, they'll say, your thing that black people can't tell pride. And I'm not saying that at all, I'm saying that there are different tools to have in our arsenal in our tool belts. And one of them is when to be sticking to the agenda and getting people through, through so that we can leave here on time, and when to like, bend the agenda to attend to somebody's needs, and when to just straight up, be hospitable and say, hey, it's a party show up when you need to, you know, so all of those are possibilities. And it's about becoming aware of what the water that you and your fish are swimming it.   Michael Hingson  1:00:55 And that's exactly the point is that there is something to be said for all of those things. And there is something to be said for if someone is late, before you condemn, understand. And that is just something that we don't see nearly as often as we should, which brings up the point of there are so many people today who are afraid, afraid of saying the wrong thing, you know, and how do you deal with that? Because what really is the wrong thing. And I think that we can define and we do define the wrong thing, if you will, in terms of like how we deal with people who are different than us and so on. But we also don't really know how to deal with that. Yes.   Rei Gilsdorf  1:01:36 So so there's this, there's a there's a whole lot about this. Because there's, you know, am I overhearing someone say the right thing, did somebody say the wrong thing to me, and I say the wrong thing and realize it when it was halfway up my mouth, but I couldn't call it back. Right? So let's start with that one, because that's the easiest one to me is, you know, if you're just genuine and say, oh, that didn't come out at all, like I wanted it to, I'm so sorry. And can we talk about how that landed on you? And just own it, you know, because things come out of our mouth, right. And I think most people understand when you do that. So again, just like at being honest with it. I am a big follower of a woman named Loretta Ross, who is all about what she calls calling in, instead of calling out and her whole thing is, you know, you need to admit that other people's interior lives could be as complicated as yours. Right? So if somebody has said something, you know, who knows what was going on in their mind, we, a lot of times we make an assumption, we jumped to a conclusion about like, oh, my gosh, how mean they're being or how racist or biased or whatever it is. And, you know, her idea is, first of all, if it's happening online, you need to take it offline, you need to have a private conversation, because a conversation about something that has harmed someone or, you know, really touched a nerve that does not benefit from having an audience, you know, that just doesn't. So taking it offline, talking about it, and listening to the other person to see like, what did you mean, when you said this thing? What did you mean? Like, because that is the thing that we don't know, like, we might, you know, we might assume, and sometimes they really did mean to be mean.   Michael Hingson  1:03:40 Always that,   Rei Gilsdorf  1:03:41 there's always that. And if that's the case, you can do what's called calling it off, which means you say, wow, you know, I'm starting to get kind of upset in this conversation. And I feel like I'm not very grounded. And so I'm gonna end this conversation, and then it's up to you whether you want to come back to me like if it's a relative of yours that you care about, maybe you come back when you're both cooler, right? If it's a random person who was trolling you online, that you just just block them, block them and move on.   Michael Hingson  1:04:13 Or if you're somebody who may be a stranger or not a friend, but you decide, well, maybe I handled that wrong, or whatever. And it wasn't intended to be mean, but it's not either, or the first two things you described, then you figure out a way to go back and deal with it.   Rei Gilsdorf  1:04:30 Yes, exactly. And there's even another possibility that there's a woman named Sonya, Renee Taylor that has has suggested is that like, if you're just too exhausted by the situation, and you don't use it, you're gonna call someone in. That's probably even a series of conversations. Just take them some investment of your time and emotional energy. But you could also say, you know, Michael, I have heard many of your podcasts and You are such a compassionate human being. And that just doesn't square with that last thing that you said whatever it was. And I would just like you to think about that.   Michael Hingson  1:05:12 And help me understand it, or help me understand. Right?   Rei Gilsdorf  1:05:15 I would just like, yeah. So so you can put the work on the other person as well. You know, and that's   Michael Hingson  1:05:21 fine. If you do it in a constructive way, that should always be a reasonable thing to do.   Rei Gilsdorf  1:05:30 Yes, yes, absolutely. And then the only other thing is, if you're, for instance, a university presidents, like someone with a significant amount of power, and a group of students is protesting a thing, and they've called you out. One of the things that Loretta Ross says about that is, you have just gotten 1000s of dollars worth of consulting feedback for free. So the thing again, is to Job, listen, ask, engage, understand what they're trying to tell you. Because a, an actual call out from a group of people who really are less powerful like that. That is them saying Ouch, in the only way they can get it to register. And so if you can find another way to listen, that doesn't have to be so dramatic. And if you're actually willing to make some kind of change, then then often that's the way to defuse the situation. But again, it's leaning into it, you know, and it's valuing the other person's experience and what they're telling you.   Michael Hingson  1:06:41 Yes, absolutely. And it gets back to the gift that you just said, but those are very important. If and, yes, we all need to be more open, positive intentions aren't enough. It's the actions that come outside of the positive intentions, you can say, well, I really did want to do that. But what do you really do? And the positive intentions don't mean a thing, unless you add more substance behind them? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Which is extremely important. And we should do? Well, I have to tell you, this has been fun. And we went over our hour, but I'm not complaining. It was fun to do. But, you know, we've got to let you go get ready for dinner. It's getting closer to five o'clock there. And it'll be five o'clock soon enough. And then you can go off and decide if you're going to drink alone or with someone. Or whatever.   Rei Gilsdorf  1:07:38 Yeah, thank you so much, Michael, this has been great. How do people   Michael Hingson  1:07:42 reach out to you and learn about your

This week in North County San Diego...Cassidy is holding down the fort in SD and Chris is in wine county (Santa Ynez). The Giants whooped the Padres and are trucking right along. There are also some new breweries about to open or recently opened in North County (Prey Brewing, Creative Creature, and BeerDads Breworks). Enjoy!

Westside Motorcycle Collective just launched less then a year ago and they have hit the ground running. They put together some great rides and encoirage people to ride your ride and get to the destination safely and have a good time. Check out one of their rides or follow them on Instagram. We have also partnered with them for an event that we are hosting August 19th at Mavericks Saloon in Santa Ynez. This was a fun one so enjoy this episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/throttledroots/support

The health of a grapevine starts at ground level – literally in the soil. The California Department of Food and Agriculture is helping farmers improve the quality of their soils through the Healthy Soils Initiative. Taylor Jones, Ph.D., Director of Viticulture at Star Lane and Dierberg Vineyards used his funding as an opportunity to study the effects of compost. After completing two three-year trials in six different soil types in two American Viticulture Areas, Taylor found that compost additions significantly increased organic matter, Reduced Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium usage by 35 percent, and decreased water use dramatically. Listen in to hear the only downside to increasing the use of compost on your vineyard. References: 149: Fair Market Trade: Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Grapevines 151: The Role of the Soil Microbiome in Soil Health 163: Onsite Compost Production Using Vineyard Waste   165: Become a Microbe Farmer: Make Compost   167: Use Biochar to Combat Climate Change California Department of Food and Agriculture's Healthy Soils Initiative Compost Benefits and Quality for Viticultural Soils Compost use in premium vineyard development Dierberg Vineyard Taylor Jones LinkedIn  Tyler Jones: taylor@dierbergvineyard.com Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - DONATE SIP Certified Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  Here with me today is Taylor Jones. He's Director of Viticulture at Star Lane in Dierberg Vineyards. And we're gonna talk about some soil health projects that he's got going. Thanks for being on the podcast.   Taylor Jones  0:10  Yeah. Thanks for having me.   Craig Macmillan  0:12  I just learned about this recently, and you talked about a little bit in the vineyard team tailgate meeting that got me interested, you have more than one thing going on? Is that right? Yeah, yeah, we do. And these projects are funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture Healthy Soils program. Is that right?   Taylor Jones  0:25  Yes, that's correct.   Craig Macmillan  0:27  We'd love to chat about that part of it a little bit later. But right now, I really want to know what you're doing. How many projects, what are they about? What are you trying to find out?   Taylor Jones  0:33  We have two projects, we were awarded two different grants, one for each of our vineyard properties that we have. So we have one healthy soils project over in Santa Rita Hills that started in 2018. And it's a three year program. And then we have another project that's healthy soils program at our Star Lane Vineyard in Happy Canyon, AVA and over their three year project also. And that one started in 2020, I believe. So we just hit our final year, this this last year. So yeah, to two different projects. And essentially, we're the states paying us to put compost down and improve our soil health. So we're jumping on that and trying to see what actually happens in the vineyard after compost has been applied. Since we're getting all of this compost from CDFA. It's we're going to use the money that we're saving on the compost to kind of do some some studies and see what's actually being impacted in our vineyard soils.   Craig Macmillan  1:30  So talking about the Star Rita AVA, project.   Taylor Jones  1:33  Over at Santa Rita hills, we have Drum Canyon vineyard, and over there we were awarded, it was 35 acres of compost applications, we had six tons per acre. For three years, over the three year span, we had 18 tons per acre put down down over there what we did, we tried to, as best we could make an experiment, you know, it's kind of hard to make a proper randomized trial. In a field when you're doing compost applications with your normal operations, we try to apply compost in all the areas that we could in our vineyard and while leaving a few barrier rows that we could do tests. And so we had, for example, we'd have 10 rows applied with compost, and then a few rows, no compost so that we could test those rows separately see what's going on. Are there changes in organic matter? Are we seeing changes in compaction, all the good stuff that comes with soil, so testing soils for nutrition, microbial populations, and then also water, I think water is the big thing. So that's how we set everything up on the property, we have five or six different soil types that we apply conference to and in each soil type, we did our own measurements there. And we were able to have soil moisture probes in most areas so that we could utilize those to help with some data. We really saw a lot of benefits from putting the compost down. I mean, we're in you're entering our sixth year after application, the state's requiring us to send a final numbers and we have to do one more test of organic matter. So that's coming up soon for our final dataset. Overall, we saw some great really good impacts from from the healthy soil program at that site.   Craig Macmillan  3:11  Before we go farther, are we talking about banding under the vine we're talking about broadcasting?   Taylor Jones  3:14  Whenever you do your grant, you have to specify what you're going to do. And in our case, we went with banding the spreader that we have is a bander you know we'd have six foot rows and we have a ag soil works hydraulic gripper, the wings move. So we're in an area where we have a lot of compaction. Typically we like to rip every three years every other row. And so that kind of led to the decision of banding. We're getting the compost close to the vine. Since we're in a six foot row, our rippers going right down the vine row right next to the root zone. So we're trying to get everything incorporated and move down lower in the soil profile. That was our target what we did we since we had three different years, and we didn't want to rip every single year, we did well alternating rows. One year we did every other row with a compost band and rip. The following year we did the even numbered rows with the compost band and rip and then the final year, our desire was to go no till so at the final year, we banded and we just did a light disk and seed on top of that, that we didn't unnecessarily rip over again. So it was technically a combo of riping and broadcast.   Craig Macmillan  4:22  Unrelated just further conversation that I've had weed control under the vine using some kind of cold federal weed knife or using herbicides?   Taylor Jones  4:31  For the extent of this trial. We use it herbicides, trying to keep all the weeds down as much as possible so that we're not seeing any funky results coming from having weeds all over the place. So we try to keep the berms clean as possible.   Craig Macmillan  4:42  And this one has been going for a little while now. What kind of preliminary results do you think you're seeing?   Taylor Jones  4:47  We're seeing some some great preliminary results. The most impactful result that we're seeing is water. Our water usage has declined dramatically. I mean, we went from irrigating every two weeks historically, this will be my eighth vintage here at the company, we used to always pretty religiously we'd water every two weeks, if not more over on that property. And every year, we were kind of able to spread that out, we were seeing water holding capacity almost increase. So last year, we ended up waiting 79 days from basically from bloom until we harvested, we were able to not water at all. Pretty amazing, we were able to heat stress, we have totally sensors in the field that help us tailor our irrigation strategies, but that 79 days of no water being used was significant for our operation in terms of water savings, you know, propane costs, even the irrigator had more time to do other things besides troubleshoot the irrigation system. I think all of that kind of stemmed from the organic matter increase. We saw, on average over a three year timespan, the average was about point 2% increase in organic matter per year for those three years. And you know, 1% organic matter is more or less 20,000 gallons of water per acre that you can hold. That's our goal. Let's try to increase organic matter by 1% and try to achieve that extra water holding capacity. Let's see how high we can get and so we had different different soil types reacted differently in terms of how well they held water.   What kind of soils do you have out there? We're talking about the Santa Ynez River Valley, we're talking about being relatively close to Lompoc, for those of you who are interested, there is tremendous will type variability all through that area. And Drum Canyon is relatively on the west side of that area. I would describe it as that what kind of sils do you have out there?   So we have top of the hill pure sandbox, as you go down the hill, we have some nice Shaylee loans. As we continue down, we get more and more loamy but a little bit more clay and silt as you kind of go to the flats. We're getting a lot more water holding capacity there in the flat zone. And then we have another corner of the vineyard that is the lowest coldest spot and that's mostly sand like a kind of like a sandy clay. So huge variability in soils, we kind of have almost all the types on our property, which is well fun for me.   Craig Macmillan  7:12  Fun for you. Tremendous variation in water holding capacity.   Taylor Jones  7:15  Oh yeah, we had a block we tried to establish our sandy soils, and that was watering twice a week with four gallons per vine, like just trying to get those vines. I mean, it's windy there, we have a lot of struggles and sand is sands an issue trying to get vines established. And to get that taproot down, otherwise, our loams on the hillsides, they tend to have good drainage, they're maybe two feet deep before you hit a layer of sandstone. So our soils are fairly shallow. So we get good water infiltration and penetration, good ability to stress the vines out quickly, but not really holding water. Well, as you get to the flood zone, we've always been able to irrigate a little bit less often those soils kind of have more of clay particles, they're holding on to water a little bit more, until you hit the sandy zone and there are definitely watering twice as much as we do in other areas.   Craig Macmillan  8:02  But you're seeing improvement in all these areas?   Taylor Jones  8:05  Definitely every single area of all in line with each other and what what we're seeing in in our sandy soil series, we saw the higher increase in organic matter than the other soil series. And we were able to irrigate slightly less in those zones than the other ones, which then in previous years percentage wise, which was surprising, but also I'm so glad water is the same you know, in our sandy soils, we saw almost it was point eight 5% organic matter increase total over a final timespan. So that's the equivalent of 16,600 gallons per acre that of water that was used, On the lower end some of the, our loamy silty soils, we ended up getting about a point seven 2.45% increase over five years. So a little bit different there. But you know, we didn't need as much help with holding water in those soils of the sandy soils. So it kind of balanced out percentage wise in terms of how much water we were using.   Craig Macmillan  9:06  What about above ground? Did you see changes in the vines, the fruit crop load, wine quality?   Taylor Jones  9:11  Not so much crop load tons tons per acre, we're pretty spot on throughout the vineyard with seasonal variability. For better or for worse. Some areas we had too much vigor, some areas are vigor was improved overall vigor was higher than than previous years, even with reduced water and reduced and reduced fertilizer inputs as well. So yeah, above ground pruning weights increased a little bit. But that was that was kind of expected. We're having a lot more vigor. But yeah, fruit load was not impacted, which is fine. We're not like trying to pump out as much fruit as possible.   Craig Macmillan  9:43  We've made wines out of these?   Taylor Jones  9:45  Yes. So why is not really a lot of changes in wine. Our winemaking team. They make a couple different wines. A lot of its blended from different areas of our flat zones. And in our other ranch we saw some Yans increasing Other than Yans, that's about it in terms of wine quality was still on point with with every previous year, so no changes in wine quality and no changes in Brix or pH, anything like that phenologically ripening, everything seemed to be pretty, pretty standard for our ranch.   Craig Macmillan  10:18  And that's a good transition. So what about the Happy Canyon?   Taylor Jones  10:21  We're just getting some, I'm finally organizing some data for Happy Canyon. And they're we're seeing similar results. And if anything this year more so or we have had some pretty significant rains. But our cover crop took off a lot quicker than any previous year, this last November, November, December is when we put our final load of compost in from healthy soils. So we were in year three, and we're finally seeing cover crops just taking off. Unfortunately, I think the only downside of these projects has been a lot of increase in in inter row weeds, we've had a lot more weeds creeping up. And that's just I think, some of the compost we're getting this now the seed beds in there just stuck there. And you can see the Malvo just coming up right where we planted and ripped, which is frustrating, but I'll take the soil benefits and deal with the weeds later, you know. Happy Canyon, we're seeing very similar results, we're starting to be able to use less water on a per annual basis, we have a little bit less soil diversity over at Happy Canyon a lot more silty clay silty on the hillsides, clays towards the bottom and the flats. That grant there was 95 acres of compost and give that reference over over a three year timespan that ends up being it was 58 $59,000 worth of compost that we got to not to have from the state which which was phenomenal. And then at the Star Lane project, we're only doing four times an acre, not six tons an acre, the grants kind of based off of what compost you're buying and your carbon nitrogen ratio of your compost, so four tons an acre and Happy Canyon still with the goal of trying to go no till over there. And we're seeing similar increases in organic matter where we're getting that point 2.25% increase year after a year. So there were targeting hopefully, my goal is to find one block, maybe that we can get a full 1% increase in that would be amazing. But it's good to see similarity over two different ADAs two different ranches. It's nice to see the similarities kind of confirming what we're seeing at one ranch versus the other ranch.   Craig Macmillan  12:24  And I want to come back to that. But before I forget, again, we're talking about this is four tons per acre banded, you are not tilling the middle right now.   Taylor Jones  12:32  Correct.   Craig Macmillan  12:33  But you are tilling with that piece of equipment over at the Santa Rita ranch when you have to occasionally yes in terms of no tilled you for see Star Lane being able to farm with a no till system indefinitely? Or do you have plans that you'll have to reset the system every so often? And if so, how would you go about it?   Taylor Jones  12:53  That's that's a good question. I think that I would love to go no tilling indefinitely, unfortunately, with the rate of compaction all of our soils have and then the heavy equipment we're using it's it's inevitable that we're going to have to rip and till but I don't think that we'll ever have to do like every single year full plowed down kind of stuff. I'm totally fine with instead of ripping every three years, let's double that to rip every six years or even further down the road, see how far we can push it. I think with our compaction results that we're seeing in both ranches, our rate of compaction has reduced by about 80% We should be able to go for about five and a half years without ripping instead of every three years. So we can probably push that to six years and rip and then you know, maybe future copost applications will help reduce that even more. We're doing some no till trials where we planted a vineyard and started it no till and comparing it to the same block that's being tilled annually every year. And so far, we're five or six years in now and seeing no differences in yield or plant growth which is promising because I think that for our soil future we kind of need to go the the no till route and you know show that it can be done. And let's see what happens.   Craig Macmillan  14:06  Something that we didn't touch on that. I think if our listeners are not familiar, this is in Santa Barbara County, Santa Yenz Valley. Happy Canyon and the Star Rita AVAs are about as different as you could possibly get in my opinion. So fill us in a little bit about what's going on soil and climate between those two branches.   Taylor Jones  14:24  Both are similar in terms of frost. I mean we had we always have the same amount of frost days I feel like but yeah, so So Santa Rita hills a lot closer to the ocean. You've got the Santa Ynez mountain range, they're going east to west kind of funneling in all the morning fog so we get Santa Rita Hills morning fog usually burning out towards the end of the day, high winds and that that kind of leads to some nice distressed plants are really big fluxes in temperatures with daytime highs versus nighttime colds very similar toHappy Canyon Aava like stuff over there, we get a lot warmer during the day, we're seeing a lot more 90 degree plus days than what we would see in Santa Rita Hills. And with with the way the climates moving, both ranches seem to be trending towards more and more and more high heat days. And we're seeing more cold days as well. And out at Happy Canyon, we're kind of on the far edge of Happy Canyon where Star Lane is and we have morning fog kind of creeps in and it will kind of tickle the edge of our ranch almost kind of recedes a lot more back into Santa Ynez. So at Star Lane, we get a lot more a lot less foggy mornings, kind of ocean mist, and we have a lot more beautiful sunny mornings out. But over there, we also have a lot of wind as well, the significant amount of wind. So AVA wise, they are, you know, they're fairly, fairly similar, I would say only because you have some of that marine influence. High winds with soil types are completely different. And just like the amount of the day that you're getting sunlight in different areas, and wind is fairly different as well.   Craig Macmillan  16:05  Tell me a little bit about the Healthy Soils program. I think this is a really fascinating thing. I remember when it started, and how did you find out about it? How did you get led to it? What was the process like for getting into it?   Taylor Jones  16:17  Trying to think I found it, I really liked looking for grant money, I came from an academic background. And if there's free money to be had, why not apply for it, we use all the tractor replacement grants, we're trying to get electrification grants, you know, find money where we can find it to help our help our company out. Pretty sure we just stumbled upon this program being available. And we basically talked to CDFA. And we're like, Hey, we're interested in applying and said, Here's the process. And it ended up being kind of ridiculously easy. I'm surprised that more people don't apply for Healthy Soils programs, there's just an an online application that you fill out, not only while you're filling out this application, they make you use the Comet Planner tool online, which is a really fun tool, if nobody's used it before, just to estimate greenhouse gas emission reductions based on you know, that's, that's kind of the core of the program is reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing organic matter in your soils. And comet planner can kind of help you look at that. So there's some criteria you have to meet, you cannot have applied compost on these fields within I forget what it was in the last five years or something like that. If you've been applying compost, you can't get the Healthy Soils program. So we used some areas, we had put compost down so we couldn't use those zones, which is why in our Drum Canyon Ranch is 69 acres, but we could only put compost down on 35 of that. So that's one One limitation of the program. But overall, you pick your blocks that you want to do you set out a sampling protocol for them. And they'll usually accept it. And it's essentially you sample your soils every year during the program prior to compost application. And they'll reimburse you for those soil samples as well. So that you can track your organic matter. That's that's all they require. We submit our soils for more testing than just organic matter. Yeah, overall, it's a really simple end of the year, you have to send them proof of your project. And that's generally photos of the compost arriving pictures of the team implementing the compost, actually putting it into the ground, receipts, invoices that you had for just everything to prove that you've done what you do. And then yeah, it's three years. And then in year five, you have one last soil sample to send to the state. So overall, it's a simple application process. I found it one of the easier grants to actually apply for.   Craig Macmillan  18:38  You mentioned that you were doing soil analysis beyond just the soil organic matter what what variables are you looking at?   Taylor Jones  18:44  We just submitted for a full a full soil health panel looking back on it, I wish I would have added bulk density on that, because I think that would have been interesting to see how it changed. But you know, hindsight is 2020 but we looked at you know, NPK, calcium, magnesium cation exchange capacity. Any differences in pH, soil moisture, sodium, just kind of the whatever you send to us soil lab, whatever they'll give you for those tests. I think the biggest thing was we reduced our NPK usage by about 35%. At both ranches after this soil results showed you know we had some NPK increases, but not really as much. I think what we're seeing more so is our vines, roots, finding new areas where they haven't been before. And they're kind of being able to utilize resources that previously weren't available to them. So that's leading to our decrease in fertilizer usage, which is great. We're trying to go towards organic and getting away from a lot of inorganic fertilizer usages would be spectacular.   Craig Macmillan  19:47  That reminds me of something so have you been applying either synthetic organic NPK formulations on top of the compost as the compost been it for the fertility program?   Taylor Jones  19:56  We still do add a little bit, a little bit of NPK but more so calcium, we will have more calcium applications. Especially out in Happy Canyon, we have really high serpentine soils and really bad magnesium problems. So we're always trying to add in gypsum and calcium whenever we can. The Drum Canyon Ranch, not too much of a problem over there we have a problem with potassium uptake. Um, so we do increase our potassium usage they're coming into this year, I think we're really going to reduce based on what we saw last year in terms of vigor and vine health. I mean, our nitrogen applications are going to be really low. Phosphorus, we're always pretty fine on we don't need to use much will probably continue with potassium, but we'll see what petioles looked like this year.   Craig Macmillan  20:40  Well, we're running out of time. Is there one thing that you would tell a grower one piece of advice you'd give to a grower regarding what you've learned from this project?   Taylor Jones  20:49  I mean, the advice is use compost, I think we're we're seeing root zones reaching areas they haven't before where we're using significantly less water, which is just key to farming in California and really in the world going forward. You know, you're you're increasing your CEC or your cation exchange capacity so less nutrients down I mean, you're getting compost is kind of like a win win scenario. The only downside is weeds. Our soils are seem to be returned to normal. We had earthworms returned for the first time since I've been at this ranch. Five different soil pits we found earthworms in which they've never been in before. They're kind of creeping in from the edges, which is awesome. I think we're gonna maybe transition to worm farming.   Craig Macmillan  21:33  (laughs). Where can people find out more about you and what you do?   Speaker 2  21:39  you could always find out. Dierberg and  Star Lane Vineyards, we have Dierbergvineyard.com. Starlanevineyard.com. Otherwise, I kind of just bounced around the Santa Barbara County. I think it always...   Craig Macmillan  21:50  Just like if you're looking if you're looking for him. Just go to Santa Barbara County and drive around a little bit. Yeah. Probably near a vineyard.   Taylor Jones  21:58  Yeah, exactly.   Craig Macmillan  22:00  He has a lot of friends.   Taylor Jones  22:02  But no, yeah, you know, I'm happy if people want to reach out to me. You know, my emails, Taylor taylor@Dierbervineyard.com. Yeah, happy to help people out with applying for grants or if they want to chat or look at some data. I'm always down to see what other people are seeing and compare what we're seeing in our AVA versus another AVA or different grower strategies for compost applications. You know, I think information sharing is the way to go.   Craig Macmillan  22:28  Yeah, totally. Fantastic. Well, Taylor, I just am so happy you could be on the on the podcast, this has really been fun for me.   Taylor Jones  22:35  Thanks for having me.   Craig Macmillan  22:36  This is a topic. It's obviously a hot topic, continuing topic. And I think that the longer that we as an industry have been doing this, because this isn't something that people were doing in the 70s for instance, you know, is this you know, we've all had to learn we've had a compost is not just compost, you need look, the analyses and this rate is not the same as that rate and on the soil does that and the fact that you guys are doing that work along with everybody else and that you're sharing information. I think it's really fantastic. So, thank you so much for your contribution.   Taylor Jones  23:03  Yeah. Thank you.   Craig Macmillan  23:04  So our guest has been Taylor Jones. He is director of viticulture at Star Lane and Dierberg Vineyards in Santa Barbara County.   Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Join Katerina and Jesse on this week's episode as they sit down, fresh from their trip, to share about their last few days exploring the Santa Ynez Valley. Just a few hours north of Los Angeles, this beautiful part of Santa Barbara County captured their interest and so they headed up there to celebrate Katerina's birthday.  Staying at an Airbnb that was part of farm gave them the opportunity to make friends with the neighboring horses and resident donkeys. From hiking at the base of the Figueroa Mountains, to wine tasting and a quick day trip into Solveng, (a small Danish town just a few miles away), the Santa Ynez Valley had a lot to offer.    Mentioned: Our Airbnb stay Santa Ynez Billiards and Café Pony Espresso Sunstone Winery  SY Kitchen (birthday dinner place) Lovers loop hike on AllTrails Chiffon Spa Cross Hatch     Subscribe to the From the Honeycomb newsletter! Meditate with Katerina on Insight Timer Honeycombee Blog Follow me on Instagram!   Podcast Audio edit by Ma. Charmaine Sarreal, Podcast Specialist   @iamchasarreal Intro music provided by kabgig / Pond5   By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that the entire contents are the property of Katerina Burianova, or used by Katerina Burianova with permission, and are protected under U.S. and international copyright and trademark laws. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this Podcast may save and use information contained in the Podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational purposes. No other use, including, without limitation, reproduction, retransmission or editing, of this Podcast may be made without the prior written permission of the Katerina Burianova, which may be requested by contacting honeycombeeblog@gmail.com This podcast is for educational purposes only. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein.

What did John the Baptist, Dom Perignon and Saint Vincent have in common when it comes to wine? What makes the vineyard of Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy so fascinating? Why should you consider visiting the wine region Santa Ynez in Santa Barbara County? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Adam McHugh, author of Blood from Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks   Giveaway Three of you will win a personally signed copy of Adam McHugh's terrific book, Blood from Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and tell me that you'd like to win a copy. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights Why do French and American oak impart different notes? Historically, why were more Catholics than Protestants involved in winemaking? What makes the 100+ acres of Clos de Vougeot so interesting? Why was the wine négociant system created? Which major contributions did the Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon make to the wine world? How did John the Baptist become the patron saint of cellar masters? What's Adam's take on the ongoing debate between geologists and sommeliers? Why should you consider visiting the wine region Santa Ynez in Santa Barbara County? What are Adam's top tips for getting the most out of a visit to Santa Ynez? What was Adam's hope in writing Blood From Stone? Which unpopular wine belief does Adam hold? What's Adam's favourite wine book? Why is the Coravin Adam's favourite wine gadget? Which disastrous Shiraz wine pairing did Adam serve at a dinner party? What's the best way to pair a very tannic wine with food? Which Julia Child recipe is at the heart of Adam's current favourite food and wine pairing? How has John Steinbeck inspired Adam as a writer? What coffee message would Adam put on a billboard? What can you expect from Adam's book Blood From A Stone?   Key Takeaways I loved how Adam wove in the stories of John the Baptist, Dom Perignon and Saint Vincent as they relate to wine. I agree with him that wine can be a spiritual thing apart from its religious associations. Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy is such a storied vineyard. I'm glad he included it in his book. The Santa Ynez wine region in Santa Barbara County is on my radar to visit next. It's incredible that over 80% of the wines from Santa Ynez are made by family-owned wineries that make less than 10,000 cases yearly.   Join me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Live Join the live-stream video of this conversation on Wed at 7 pm ET on Instagram Live Video, Facebook Live Video or YouTube Live Video. I want to hear from you! What's your opinion of what we're discussing? What takeaways or tips do you love most from this chat? What questions do you have that we didn't answer? Want to know when we go live? Add this to your calendar: https://www.addevent.com/calendar/CB262621   About Adam McHugh Adam McHugh is a wine tour guide, sommelier, and Certified Specialist of Wine. He is the author of The Listening Life and Introverts in the Church and a regular contributor to Edible Santa Barbara & Wine Country. He lives in California's Santa Ynez Valley.     To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/222.

We are tasting the Margerum Wine Company's 2019 Viognier from their estate vineyard in California's  Los Olivos District AVA. Viognier has a wonderful floral aroma that jumps right out of the glass and its medium to full bodied taste makes this a nice alternative to chardonnay. The Los Olivos District AVA is in Central California's Santa Ynez valley where Rhone varietals grow in the west end and Bordeaux varietals grow in the east end. Margerum Wine Company: https://www.margerumwines.com/   Discussion of the source vineyards: https://www.margerumwines.com/Our-Story/Vineyards Santa Barbara County wine region: https://sbcountywines.com/ Send feedback to timetotastetx@gmail.com Visit our website: https://www.timetotastetx.com

Thank you to Markel Insurance for your ongoing support - Markel is the insurance with horse sense. Join us as first time interviewer Morgan Moore interviews legendary photographer April Visel, who in the last 15 years has changed the way that Arabians are photographed. April starts with her introduction to horses, Arabians via Walter Farley's The Back Stallion, and her first magazine collection. April made it a dream to find one of her photos on the cover of the Arabian Horse World, and she talks about her journey to get there. April's photography captures an astonishing amount of raw emotion, and it's often conveying exactly how the photographer feels behind the camera. She shares some of her more memorable evocative moments behind the camera, and what made them special. April began to host photography workshops in 2006, and the results of those workshops have helped shape a new generation of artists related to the horse. This year, she's taking the next step and taking her workshop from Santa Ynez, California all the way to La Fléche, France. A small sample of April's incredible art (including several photos mentioned in this interview) is available on her website: Visel Photography, and she maintains an active presence on every social media platform under Visel Photography. Have a great idea for a guest or topic, or just want to send us your feedback? Just head over to the Podcast page page on our website. Want to get some WLAH Merch? Totes and wearables are now available at the newly renovated We Love Arabian Horses website. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/we-love-arabian-horses/message

In this week's episode of Living in the Sprawl: Southern California's Most Adventurous Podcast, host Jon Steinberg shares his list of 10 Native American casinos to be found in Southern California. His list includes: Barona Valley Ranch in Lakeside, Agua Caliente in Rancho Mirage, Morongo in Cabazon, Pala in Pala, Harrah's in Valley Center, Chumash in Santa Ynez, Viejas in Alpine, Yaamava in Highland, Fantasy Springs in Indio and Pechanga in Temecula.Instagram: @livinginthesprawlpodcastEmail: livinginthesprawlpodcast@gmail.comWebsite: www.livinginthesprawlpodcast.comCheck out our favorite CBD gummy company...it helps us get better sleep and stay chill. Use code "SPRAWL" for 20% off.  https://www.justcbdstore.com?aff=645Check out Goldbelly for all your favorite US foods to satisfy those cravings or bring back some nostalgia. Our favorites include Junior's Chessecakes from New York, Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza from Chicago and a philly cheesesteak from Pat's. Use the link https://goldbelly.pxf.io/c/2974077/1032087/13451 to check out all of the options and let them know we sent you.Use code "SPRAWL" for (2) free meals and free delivery on your first Everytable subscription.Support the podcast and future exploration adventures. We are working on unique perks and will give you a shout out on the podcast to thank you for your contribution!Living in the Sprawl: Southern California's Most Adventurous Podcast is on Podfanhttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/sprawlSupport the show

Cole Sternberg, artist and creator of the Free Republic of California, talks about: His painting process, which involves exposing his paintings to the elements, including in extreme form, starting with his (and his team's) 22-day-long journey from Japan to the West Coast on a container vessel, exposing his paintings to the wind and even skating them over the surface of the ocean; what went into planning this expedition, the various friends he brought on in professional capacities, and the challenges of making the journey, the successes along the way, and its future life as a documentary; his epic Free Republic of California, a conceptual art project that uses California as a canvas to imagine and explore what's possible for us as a society and as a civilization; how he writes letters to people in power, giving himself a title appropriate to each recipient, whether ‘conceptual artist' or ‘chief conceptualist;' the value he places in the Free Republic of California's Constitution, which is the item he would own if he were to collect his own work; his relative openness to actually becoming a politician, while also realizing that the political sphere is not only too dangerous but ultimately simply not a productive route to making change; his first exhibition, in a bar during law school; his transition from having a day job as a lawyer to that of an artist, and how he actually never made as much income from law as from making art, surprisingly; and his rescue-animal-based farm in Santa Ynez, where he and his family settled during the pandemic. BONUS EXTRA: in an extension of our conversation, Cole talks about his epic t-shirt collection, which is currently at about 1000. To listen to this EXTRA, please consider becoming an ongoing or one-time donor to the podcast via: theconversationpod.com/support

Meet Anna Vocino: Anna is a voice over talent and stand up comic who also happens to be a Celiac who writes cookbooks. She co-hosts the “Fitness Confidential” podcast with Vinnie Tortorich. She has voiced thousands of commercials, cartoons, movies, promos, radio stations, and video games, which is a super cool day job to support her passion of food blogging and cookbook authoring. Her bestselling cookbooks Eat Happy and Eat Happy Too have 320+ easy to make low carb recipes that are all delicious comfort food free from processed sugars and grains. She recently launched an organic, farm-to-table CPG company called Eat Happy Kitchen with five flavors of tomato sauce and three spice blends. Anna hails from Santa Ynez, CA, raised a picky eater-turned-foodie, and cooks for a husband and a tiny dog.Where to find Anna  & Eat Happy Kitchen: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AnnaVocinoInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/annavocino/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/anna_vocino/_created/Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaVocinoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023159487790374What you'll learn in this episode:  The increasing number of food allergy diagnosis, and why cooking for them isn't as hard as it may seem.Anna's newly launched line of Eat Happy Kitchen Spice Blends and cookbooks. Why the specialty food market is growing so quickly. What's been some of the best advice and/or worst advice Anna has received throughout her entrepreneurship journey.---About Us - Women Who Brunch:Women Who Brunch is a community for  women who love connecting, networking, and learning from each other over the most important meal of the week...BRUNCH!Check out our website for updates on events, recipes, brunch spots, product reviews and more or say hi on Instagram!WWB Website: https://womenwhobrunch.comWWB Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenwhobrunch

Iris Rideau is the owner and founder of Rideau Vineyard, an award-winning winery based in the Santa Ynez valley. Iris is the first black woman to own and operate a winery in the United States. She began her journey in New Orleans and eventually made her way to California to start a career in the insurance industry. After a notable career in insurance, finance and politics, Iris decided to venture into winemaking. Fueled by her Creole roots, rock-hard determination and soul, Rideau Vineyards skyrocketed as one of the valley's most renowned wineries. Listen to Iris talk about her challenging upbringing in the Jim Crow era, career advice that actually works, and her new memoir: “From White to Black: One Life Between Two Worlds.” This episode is one of our best yet. Please enjoy this talk with Iris Rideau. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook: @chartinghercourse Connect with us at pacbiztimes.com

Randy and Carrie chat about Carrie's vacation up in Santa Ynez wine country, where she tried four new wineries.

Wine tasting in Santa Ynez and Los Olivos California. Backyard Makeover. Lavender Farms and Backyard Make Overs.

After the Plains All American pipeline spilled thousands of gallons of oil into the ocean off the coast of Santa Barbara in 2015, the Santa Ynez Unit for offshore oil production was shut down. ExxonMobil has repeatedly sought to reopen this unit to no avail, most recently through an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors for voting against their proposal to do so. KCSB's Zoha Malik speaks to Environmental Defense Center's Senior Attorney, Maggie Hall, to talk about ExxonMobil's complaint and why the reopening of Santa Ynez would continue to pose a threat to Santa Barbara wildlife.

Part 2 When Thriller was released in November 1982, it didn't seem to have a single direction. Instead, it arguably sounded like many singles. But it became apparent that this was precisely what Michael intended Thriller to be: a brilliant collection of songs meant as hits, each designed for a particular audience in mind. Michael put out "Billie Jean" for the dancers and "Beat It" for the rockers and then followed each jam with amazing videos to enhance his allure and his inaccessibility. These songs had a life of their own. Thriller was almost called “Star Light”. The lyric "thriller" in the track of the same name was originally "star light". The decision to change it was down to marketing appeal.    This wonderful article from Rolling Stone says: "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" had the sense of a vitalizing nightmare in its best lines ("You're stuck in the middle/And the pain is thunder. … Still they hate you, you're a vegetable. … They eat off you, you're a vegetable"). "Billie Jean," in the meantime, exposed how the interaction between the artist's fame and the outside world might invoke soul-killing dishonor ("People always told me, be careful of what you do. … 'Cause the lie becomes the truth," Jackson sings, possibly thinking of a paternity charge from a while back). And "Beat It" was pure anger – a rousing depiction of violence as a male stance, a social inheritance that might be overcome. It also almost caught the studio on fire. When Eddie Van Halen recorded his solo, the sound of his guitar caused one of the studio speakers to catch fire. The video for “Beat It” was set in Los Angeles' Skid Row and featured up to 80 real-life gang members from the notorious street gangs the Crips and the Bloods. It cost $100,000 to make.   Thriller's parts added up to the most improbable kind of art – a work of personal revelation that was also a mass-market masterpiece. It's an achievement that will likely never be topped. It was the best-selling album worldwide in 1983 and became the best-selling album of all time in the U.S. and the best-selling album of all time worldwide, selling an estimated 70 million copies. It topped the Billboard 200 chart for 37 weeks and was in the top 10 of the 200 for 80 consecutive weeks. It was the first album to produce seven Billboard Hot 100 top-10 singles. Thriller is still the highest-selling album of all time. Want to know what the top 25 are? Subscribe to our Patreon for our video bonus on the top-selling albums ever! Billie Jean was the first video by an African-American artist to air on MTV. The video revealed Jackson's new look of a leather suit, pink shirt, red bow tie and his signature single white glove. It was a style copied by kids throughout the United States. It caused one school, New Jersey's Bound Brook High, to ban students from coming to class wearing white gloves.   Toto members Keyboardist Steve Porcaro co-wrote Human Nature, and Steve Lukather contributed rhythm guitar on Beat It.   On March 25, 1983, Jackson reunited with his brothers for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, an NBC television special. The show aired on May 16 to an estimated audience of 47 million and featured the Jacksons and other Motown stars. Jackson had just performed a medley of greatest hits with his brothers. It was exciting stuff, but for Michael, it wasn't enough. As his brothers said their goodbyes and left the stage, Michael remained. He seemed shy for a moment, trying to find words to say. "Yeah," he almost whispered, "those were good old days. … I like those songs a lot. But especially—" and then he placed the microphone into the stand with a commanding look and said, "I like the new songs."  Then, wearing a white glove decorated with rhinestones, he swooped down, picked up a fedora, put it on his head with confidence, and vaulted into "Billie Jean." He also debuted his moonwalk dance (which became his signature dance). This was one of Michael's first public acts as a star outside and beyond the Jacksons, and it was startlingly clear that he was not only one of the most breathtaking live performers in pop music but that he could mesmerize the audience, something not seen since the likes of Elvis Presley. Michael had initially turned down the invitation to the show, believing he had been doing too much television. But at the request of Motown founder and Icon Berry Gordy, he performed in exchange for an opportunity to do a solo performance. And he killed it.    "Almost 50 million people saw that show," Michael wrote in his book Moonwalk. "After that, many things changed." At this time, Michael Jackson was obviously an immensely talented young man – he seemed shy but ambitious and undoubtedly enigmatic. Nobody knew much about his beliefs or sex life; he rarely gave interviews, but he also didn't land himself in scandals. He did, however, describe himself as a lonely person – especially around the time he made Off the Wall. Former Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn recently wrote of meeting Jackson in 1981, when the singer was 23, that Jackson struck him as "one of the most fragile and lonely people I've ever met … almost abandoned. When I asked why he didn't live on his own like his brothers, instead of remaining at his parents' house, he said, 'Oh, no, I think I'd die on my own. I'd be so lonely. Even at home, I'm lonely. I sit in my room and sometimes cry. It is so hard to make friends, and there are some things you can't talk to your parents or family about. I sometimes walk around the neighborhood at night, just hoping to find someone to talk to. But I just end up coming home.'"   Jackson's social uneasiness was probably formed by the wounds in his history; the children were insulated from others their age, and Jackson's status as a lifelong star may have left him feeling not just cut off from most people but also alienated from them – as if his experience or his vocation made him extraordinary. "I hate to admit it," he once said, "but I feel strange around everyday people." Not exactly an unusual sentiment for some highly celebrated celebrities, especially former child stars. At the same time, it's a statement full of signals: Michael didn't enjoy the sort of company that might guide him in positive ways. He probably never did throughout his life. Maybe the most troubling passage in his autobiography Moonwalk is when he talks about children in the entertainment world who eventually fell prey to drugs: "I can understand … considering the enormous stresses put upon them at a young age. It's a difficult life."   Thriller placed seven singles in Billboard's Top 10 (presently around 50 million copies). At the 1984 Grammy Awards, Michael finally claimed his due, capturing eight awards, a record he holds with the band Santana, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Rock Vocal Performance for "Beat It," Best R&B Song, and Best R&B Vocal Performance for "Billie Jean," and he won an award for the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial storybook. In addition, the album won Producer of the year (Quincy Jones).    At the 11th Annual American Music Awards, Michael won another eight awards and became the youngest artist to win the Award of Merit. He also won Favorite Male Artist, Favorite Soul/R&B Artist, and Favorite Pop/Rock Artist. "Beat It" won Favorite Soul/R&B Video, Favorite Pop/Rock Video, and Favorite Pop/Rock Single. In addition, the album won Favorite Soul/R&B Album and Favorite Pop/Rock Album. Thriller's sales doubled after releasing an extended music video, Michael Jackson's Thriller, seeing Michael dancing with a group of incredibly designed zombies and was directed by John Landis.   Michael had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point, with about $2 for every album sold (equivalent to $5 in 2021). The same year, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, a documentary about the music video, won a Grammy for Best Music Video (Longform). At this time, The New York Times wrote, "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson, and there is everybody else."   Oddly enough, On May 14, 1984, then-President Ronald Reagan gave Michael an award recognizing his support of alcohol and drug abuse charities.   In November 1983, Michael and his brothers partnered with PepsiCo in a $5 million promotional deal that broke records for a celebrity endorsement (equivalent to $13,603,408 in 2021).  On January 27, 1984, Michael and other members of the Jacksons filmed a Pepsi commercial. Pyrotechnics accidentally set Jackson's hair on fire during a simulated concert before a whole house of fans, causing second-degree burns to his scalp. Michael underwent treatment to hide the scars and had his third rhinoplasty shortly after. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated the $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California; its now-closed Michael Jackson Burn Center was named in his honor. Michael signed a second agreement with Pepsi in the late 1980s for $10 million. The second campaign covered 20 countries and provided financial support for Jackson's Bad album and the 1987–88 world tour.  He was making SO much money and was the most significant music star globally.   Then, months later, it was announced that Michael would be setting out on a nationwide tour with the Jacksons. He didn't want to do it but felt obligated. Clearly, Michael was bigger, better, and "badder" than his family's limitations on him. He should have been taking the stage alone at this point in his career.   Jackson's aversion to the Victory Tour was apparent when he sat looking miserable at press conferences.   The Victory Tour of 1984 headlined the Jacksons and showcased Michael's new solo material to more than two million Americans. Following the controversy over the concert's ticket sales, Jackson donated his share of the proceeds, an estimated $3 to 5 million, to charity. What controversy, you ask?    Don King (yeah, boxing promoter Don King), Chuck Sullivan, and Papa Joe Jackson came up with a way to generate extra money from ticket sales. Those wanting to attend would have to send a postal money order for $120 ($310 in current dollars) along with a particular form to a lottery to buy blocks of four tickets at $30 apiece (US$78 in 2021 dollars), allegedly to stop scalpers. Upon receipt, the money was to be deposited into a standard money market account earning 7% annual interest; it would take six to eight weeks for the lottery to be held and money to be refunded to those that didn't win. Since only one in ten purchasers would win the lottery and receive tickets, there would be more money in the bank for that period than there were tickets to sell, and they expected to earn $10–12 million in interest. Obviously, the Jacksons were all for the idea, but Michael wasn't, and he warned them that it would be a public relations disaster. The $30 ticket price was already higher than most touring acts (like Prince and Bruce Springsteen) were charging at the time and was even worse by the requirement to buy four. This put tickets out of reach of many of Michael's African-American fans who were not financially secure. At this time, Michael was already being blasted about his physical look and music separating him from his race.  That community was joined by many commentators in the media in criticizing the Jackson's over the plan. Nevertheless, it worked, and people were lining up to get their newspapers to sign up for the lottery. On July 5, 1984, after receiving a letter from eleven-year-old fan Ladonna Jones, who accused the Jacksons and their promoters of being "selfish and just out for money," Michael held a press conference to announce changes in the tour's organization and also to announce that his share of the proceeds from the tour would be donated to charity. Jones later received VIP treatment at the Dallas concert. The following is Michael's speech at the press conference: "A lot of people are having trouble getting tickets. The other day I got a letter from a fan in Texas named Ladonna Jones. She'd been saving her money from odd jobs to buy a ticket, but with the turned tour system, she'd have to buy four tickets and she couldn't afford that. So, we asked our promoter to work out a new way of distributing tickets, a way that no longer requires a money order. There has also been a lot of talk about the promoter holding money for tickets that didn't sell. I've asked our promoter to end the mail order ticket system as soon as possible so that no one will pay money unless they get a ticket. Finally, and most importantly, there's something else I am going to announce today. I want you to know that I decided to donate all my money I make from our performance to charity. There will be further press statements released in the next two weeks."   Some procedures were modified; however, the ticket price remained unchanged, and at a press conference, Don King justified the $30 fee as appropriate and that he did not blame the promoters for charging that price, adding that "you must understand, you get what you pay for." During the last concert of the Victory Tour at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Jackson announced his split from The Jacksons during "Shake Your Body".   His charitable work continued with the release of "We Are the World" (1985), co-written with future Icon Lionel Richie, which raised money for the poor in the U.S. and Africa. It earned $63 million (equivalent to $158,728,032 in 2021) and became one of the best-selling singles, with 20 million copies sold. It won four Grammy Awards in 1985, including Song of the Year for Michael and Lionel as its writers.    Michael collaborated with Sir Paul McCartney in the early 1980s and learned that Paul was making $40 million a year from owning the rights to other artists' songs. By 1983, Michael had begun buying publishing rights to others' songs, but he was careful with his purchases, only bidding on a few of the dozens offered to him. Michael's early buys included Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People" (1968), Len Barry's "1–2–3" (1965), Dion DiMucci's "The Wanderer" (1961), and "Runaround Sue" (1961).   In 1984, it was announced that the publishing rights to nearly 4000 songs from ATV Music, including most of the Beatles' material, were coming up for sale. In 1981, Paul McCartney was offered the catalog for £20 million ($40 million). Michael submitted a bid of $46 million on November 20, 1984. When Michael and Paul were unable to make a joint purchase, McCartney did not want to be the sole owner of the Beatles' songs, and did not pursue an offer on his own. At first, Michael's team couldn't figure it out and walked away, but then they heard someone else was looking to buy them. Michael's increased bid of $47.5 million (equivalent to $119,675,897 in 2021) was accepted because he could close the deal faster. His purchase of ATV Music was finalized on August 10, 1985.   So, at this time, why was Michael being questioned about his look and his music? As a child, Michael had a sweet, dark-skinned appearance; many early Jackson 5 fans regarded him as the cutest of the brothers. J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness, has written, "[Michael] believed his skin… 'messed up my whole personality.' He no longer looked at people as he talked to them. His playful personality changed, and he became quieter and more serious. He thought he was ugly – his skin was too dark, he decided, and his nose too wide. It was no help that his insensitive father and brothers called him 'Big Nose.'" Also, as Jackson became an adolescent, he was horribly self-conscious about acne. Hilburn recalled going through a stack of photos with Jackson one night and coming across a picture of him as a teenager: "'Ohh, that's horrible,' [Jackson] said, recoiling from the picture."   The face Jackson displayed on the cover of Thriller had changed; the skin tone seemed lighter and his nose thinner and straighter. In his book, Moonwalk, Michael claimed that much of the physical overhaul was due to a change in his diet; he admitted to altering his nose and chin, but he denied he'd done anything to his skin. Still, the changes didn't end there. Over the years, Michael's skin grew lighter and lighter, his nose tapered more and more, and his cheekbones became more defined. This all became fair game for mockery to some; to others, it seemed like mutilation – not just because it might have been an act of conceit, aimed to keep him looking child-like, but worse because some believed Michael wanted to transform himself into a white person. Or an androgyne – somebody with both male and female traits.  Michael's art was still his best way of making a case for himself at that time. Then, in 1987, he released Bad, his highly-anticipated successor to Thriller. It may not have been as eventful and ingenious as Off the Wall and Thriller, but Bad was awesome.    It became the first album to produce five U.S. number-one singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," "Bad," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Man in the Mirror," and "Dirty Diana.", which you can hear our version at the end of this episode. Another song, "Smooth Criminal," peaked at number seven. Bad won the 1988 Grammy for Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical and the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form for "Leave Me Alone". Michael won an Award of Achievement at the American Music Awards in 1989 after Bad generated five number-one singles, became the first album to top the charts in 25 countries, and the best-selling album worldwide in 1987 and 1988. By 2012, it had sold between 30 and 45 million copies worldwide. Oh, and it was considered a "flop." Oh, and The title track for the Bad album was supposed to be a duet with Prince. But the latter walked away from it due to the opening line "Your butt is mine". "Now, who is going to sing that to whom? Cause [he] sure ain't singing that to me, and I sure ain't singing it to [him]," Prince said in a TV interview with American comedian Chris Rock.   Later that year, Michael staged his first solo tour, The Bad World Tour. It ran from September 12, 1987, to January 14, 1989. The tour had 14 sellouts in Japan and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record for a single tour. In addition, the 504,000 people who attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium set a new Guinness World Record.   In 1988, Michael released the autobiography, as mentioned earlier, Moonwalk. It sold 200,000 copies and reached the top of the New York Times bestsellers list. In October, Michael released a film, Moonwalker, which featured live footage and short films starring himself and Goodfella star Joe Pesci. In the U.S., it was released direct-to-video and became the best-selling videocassette. The RIAA certified it as eight-time platinum. In March 1988, Jackson purchased 2,700 acres (11 km2) of land near Santa Ynez, California, to build a new home, Neverland Ranch, at $17 million (equivalent to $38,950,760 in 2021).   In 1991, Michael renewed his contract with Sony for $65 million (equivalent to $129,317,127 in 2021), a record-breaking deal. Also, in 1991, he released his eighth album, Dangerous, co-produced with Mr. Rumpshaker himself, Teddy Riley. It was certified eight times platinum in the U.S., and by 2018 had sold 32 million copies worldwide. In the U.S., the first single, "Black or White," was the album's highest-charting song; it was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks and achieved similar chart performances worldwide, and the video featured a very young Macauley Culkin.  The second single, "Remember the Time," peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and that video featured Eddie Murphy. At the end of 1992, Dangerous was the best-selling album worldwide and "Black or White" the best-selling single of the year worldwide at the BillboardMusic Awards.   Obviously, Michael wanted to tour in promotion of his latest album, and The Dangerous World Tour ran between June 1992 and November 1993 and grossed $100 million (equivalent to $187,583,506 in 2021); Jackson performed for 3.5 million people in 70 concerts, all of which were outside the U.S. A part of the proceeds went to the Heal the World Foundation. In addition, Michael sold the broadcast rights of the tour to HBO for $20 million, a record-breaking deal that still hasn't been broken.   Also, in 1993, Michael performed at the Super Bowl 27 halftime show in Pasadena, California. The NFL wanted a prominent musical artist to keep ratings high during halftime. It was the first Super Bowl where the halftime performance drew higher audience figures than the game. Jackson played "Jam," "Billie Jean," "Black or White," and "Heal the World." Dangerous rose 90 places in the album chart after the performance   In January 1993, Michael won three American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Album (Dangerous), Favorite Soul/R&B Single ("Remember the Time"), and he was the first to win the International Artist Award of Excellence. In addition, he won the "Living Legend Award" at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in February. He attended the award ceremony with Brooke Shields. In addition, "Dangerous" was nominated for Best Vocal Performance (for "Black or White"), Best R&B Vocal Performance for "Jam," and Best R&B Song for "Jam."   In June 1995, Michael released the double album HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book I. The album debuted at number one on the charts and certified for eight million sold in the U.S. It is the best-selling multi-disc album of all time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide. In addition, HIStory received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. The first single from HIStory was "Scream/Childhood." "Scream" was a duet with Michael's youngest sister Janet, or "Miss Jackson if you're nasty." The single reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals." Also, at the time, in 1995, it was the most expensive music video ever produced. It had a budget of 7 million dollars. FOR ONE VIDEO!!  His second single, "You Are Not Alone," holds the Guinness world record for the first song to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In addition, it received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Vocal Performance" in 1995.   In November of the same year, Michael merged his ATV Music catalog with Sony's music publishing division, creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. He kept ownership of half the company, earning $95 million upfront (equivalent to $168,941,909 in 2021) and the rights to a ton more songs.   Michael promoted HIStory with the obviously named HIStory World Tour, from September 7, 1996, to October 15, 1997. He performed 82 concerts in five continents, 35 countries, and 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans, making it his most attended tour. It grossed $165 million, or $302,346,462 today.   In 1997, Michael released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which contained remixes of singles from HIStory and five new songs. Worldwide sales stand at 6 million copies, making it the best-selling remix album ever. It reached number one in the U.K., as did the title track. In the U.S., the album reached number 24 and was certified platinum. Yeah, a remix album going platinum.   From October 1997 to September 2001, Michael worked on his tenth solo album, Invincible, which cost $30 million to record! Invincible was released on October 30, 2001. It was his first full-length album in six years and the last album of original material he would release in his lifetime. It debuted at number one in 13 countries, sold eight million copies worldwide, and went double platinum.   In September 2001, Michael performed in two "30th Anniversary concerts" with his brothers for the first time since 1984. The show also featured Mýa, Usher, Whitney Houston, Destiny's Child, Monica, Liza Minnelli, and Slash.    On January 9, 2002, Michael won his 22nd American Music Award for Artist of the Century.   On November 18, 2003, Sony released Number Ones, a greatest hits compilation. It was certified five-times platinum by the RIAA, and nine times platinum in the UK, for shipments of at least 2.7 million units.   During this time, allegations of child sexual abuse, and the trials that followed, were all over the news. If you're unfamiliar, you can research it for yourself.  Unfortunately, Michael's finances were also coming undone; he had been spending ludicrous sums, and he'd mismanaged his money – which took some doing since he had made such a vast fortune. As a result, the biggest star in the world had fallen from the tallest height. He left the country and moved to Bahrain, where it was announced that Jackson had signed a contract with a Bahrain-based startup, Two Seas Records; nothing came of the deal, and Two Seas CEO Guy Holmes, later said it was never finalized. That October, Fox News reported that Michael had been recording at a studio in County Westmeath, Ireland. It was unknown what he was working on or who had paid for the sessions; his publicist stated that he had left Two Seas by then. After that, Michael was only occasionally seen or heard from. Nobody knew whether he could recover his name or preserve his undeniable music legacy until he announced an incredibly ambitious series of 50 concerts – which he described as the "final curtain call."    The "This Is It" shows were his first significant concerts since the HIStory World Tour in 1997. Michael suggested he would retire after the shows. The initial plan was for 10 concerts in London, followed by shows in Paris, New York City, and Mumbai. Randy Phillips, president, and chief executive of AEG Live, predicted the first 10 dates would earn Jackson £50 million, or close to 63 Million US dollars. After record-breaking ticket sales, the London shows were increased to 50 dates; over one million tickets were sold in less than two hours. The concerts were to run from July 13, 2009, to March 6, 2010. Michael moved back to Los Angeles, where he rehearsed in the weeks leading up to the tour under the direction of choreographer Kenny Ortega, whom he had worked with during his previous tours. Most rehearsals took place at the Staples Center, which was owned by AEG.   It's hard to believe that Jackson, who was so proud of his public performances and so peerless at delivering them, would have committed himself to a project he might fail so tremendously. At the same time, it is not inconceivable that Michael Jackson could have been a man half-hungry and broken in the past few years. All that is certain is that on June 25, in Los Angeles, Michael Jackson met the only sure redemption he might know in the most famous unexpected, and mysterious death in current history. That redemption didn't come because he died, but because his death forced us to reconsider what his life added up to. Less than three weeks before the first This Is It show was due to kick off in London, with all concerts sold out, I repeat; sold out, Michael Jackson died from cardiac arrest caused by a propofol and benzodiazepine overdose. Conrad Murray, his personal physician, had given Michael different medications to help him sleep at his rented mansion in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. Paramedics received a 911 call at 12:22 pm Pacific time and arrived three minutes later. He wasn't breathing, and the medics performed CPR. Resuscitation efforts continued en route to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and for more than an hour after Michael's arrival, but were unsuccessful, and Michael Jackson, the king of pop, was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm.   News of his death spread quickly online, causing websites to slow down, crash from user overload, and put unprecedented strain on services and websites, including Google, AOL Instant Messenger, Twitter, and Wikipedia. Overall, web traffic rose by between 11% and 20%. MTV and BET aired marathons of Michael's music videos, and specials aired on television stations worldwide. MTV briefly returned to its original music video format, which is messed up that it took an Icon to die for MTV to actually be MUSIC TELEVISION, and they aired hours of Michael's music videos, with live news specials featuring reactions and interviews from MTV personalities and other celebrities.   His memorial was held on July 7, 2009, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, preceded by a private family service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park's Hall of Liberty. Over 1.6 million fans applied for tickets to the memorial; the 8,750 recipients were drawn at random, and each received two tickets. The memorial service was one of the most-watched events in streaming history, with an estimated US audience of 31.1 million and an estimated 2.5 to 3 billion worldwide. Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson, and others performed at the memorial, and Smokey Robinson and Queen Latifah gave eulogies. Reverend Al Sharpton received a standing ovation with cheers when he told Michael's children: "Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway." Michael's 11-year-old daughter Paris Katherine, wept as she addressed the crowd. Michael's body was entombed on September 3, 2009, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.   Oh, but wait. There's more. But of course there is. It's Michael Jackson!   His doctor was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter and was found guilty. So he was sentenced to four years. Yep... four friggin years.    After his death, Michael was still winning awards. He won 4 awards at 2009's AMA's, bringing his total AMA wins to 26, something no one else has touched.    The documentary "Michael Jackson's This Is It" came out shortly after, and I have seen it and loved it, as sad as it was knowing that he'd never get to perform those concerts. Despite a limited two-week engagement, the film became the highest-grossing documentary or concert film ever, with more than $260 million worldwide earnings.

Rick Soto • Ranch Church, Santa Ynez

Rick Soto • Ranch Church, Santa Ynez

Thank you to Markel for sponsoring this podcast. Markel is the Insurance with Horse Sense. Listen in as Paul Kostial talks with Nedra Johnson of the Arabian Horse Riding Academy on her first experiences with horses and her unique, hands-on program located at the stunning Om El Arab breeding farm in Santa Ynez, CA. Nedra talks through her approach to building lasting horse lovers and the multiple avenues her lesson kids have gone - many outside of the show ring! To contact Nedra and learn more, send her an email at arabianhra@gmail.com. Have a great idea for a guest or topic, or just want to send us your feedback? Send us an e-mail to austin.garrett@welovearabianhorses.com! Want to get some WLAH Merch? Totes and wearables are now available at We Love Arabian Horses!

On this episode of the California Now Podcast, host Soterios Johnson speaks with the culinary innovators behind three Michelin-starred restaurants. To start things off, Johnson connects with Matthew Kammerer, executive chef of Harbor House Inn in the North Coast town of Elk. Awarded a second Michelin star as well as a Michelin green star for sustainability in 2021, Kammerer discusses his love for hyper-local ingredients, foraging in the nearby cove and forests, and the restaurant's very own working ranch. Johnson then chats with Greg and Daisy Ryan of newly starred Bell's in Los Alamos. The culinary power couple talks about how their French-inspired bistro settled into the Santa Ynez wine country, and discusses crowd-favorite dishes such as escargot and steak au poivre as well as some of their own favorites. Finally, Johnson talks “California gastronomy” with Executive Chef William Bradley of Addison in Del Mar. Recently awarded a second Michelin star––the only two-star chef in San Diego––Bradley takes Johnson on a culinary adventure through Addison's nine-course tasting menu, highlighting signature dishes and desserts along the way.

Welcome to a preview of L is for Losers where we dive in deep on all the latest in pop culture + reality tv. For full episodes of L is for Losers go to Patreon.com/LisforLosers. L is for Losers: Bored and Passionate!   - NEWS (19:14): We do our damndest to try and tear through the Kanye-Julia Fox-Kim-Pete of it all! We've got dates all over LA, Madonna somehow in the mix, Kanye punching someone at SoHo house and then posting a pic of a skinned monkey to promo a new collab?! Meanwhile, MGK and Megan Kelly get engaged via blood drinking and Drake gets accused of filling a used condom with hot sauce!  - Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (56:51): It's unfortunately time to celebrate increasingly unlikeable Seth's birthday at a weird rooftop pool where Whitney oddly brings out a cake shaped like her boobs. And then a new brawl breaks out between Lisa and Jen on the way to Zion!  - Real Housewives of Orange County (1:21:14): Heather's daughter, Max, gets a full-on event thrown for her book release where Emily gets absolutely hammered and is a total delight. Meanwhile, we learn Noella's Sweet James has been located in... MYKONOS.  - Vanderpump Rules (1:45:31): Brock proposes to Schaena in a historically awkward scene before it's time to hit Santa Ynez for Raquel and James's doomed engagement party weekend.  - Below Deck (1:58:18): Rayna is hitting her wall while Fraser nervously struggles over the new stew joining soon. Meanwhile, the charter's preference sheets get roundly ignored by Heather!

Season 9 Episode 14 take 2 So sorry about the strange upload this morning! Here is episode 14! Enjoy! Arian and Katie meet with Randall about investing in their sandwich shop, while Sandoval gets cold feet about helping Brock with his latest scheme to marry Scheana; the gang heads to a beautiful winery in Santa Ynez

Hey Magic Makers! This episode starts with a few housekeeping updates: Personal update: I'm (temporarily) moving to Santa Ynez, a town in Santa Barbara wine country. I'll be there for a month to see if it's somewhere I can see myself long term. I'm super nervous because I don't know a single soul there, so if you have friends out there send ‘em my way! Business update: I've decided to re-open my signature course, Copy Class! Many of you have been messaging me about it and I felt bad making you wait 6+ months for doors to open again. So, I decided to go ahead and make it possible for you to enroll- learn more at kelseyformost.com/copyclass Podcast update: I want to be SUPER transparent & call this out rather than just sneaking it in...I've decided to start working with a couple VERY carefully selected podcast sponsors. You'll now hear one or two ads from businesses who have personally helped me and made both my business and mental health journey easier. THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK. Now to the GOOD STUFF: here's what to expect from this incredible conversation with one of my best friends in the whole world, Gentry White. Gentry is an amazingly talented LA-based actor; he currently stars in ‘Jett' on HBOMax, ‘The Shannara Chronicles' on Netflix, ‘Unreal' on Hulu, ‘TURN Washington Spies' on Netflix, and the ‘Fast and Furious' franchise. We're diving into how to approach your creative and entrepreneurial projects with a sense of play and childlike wonder. One of the ways to do that is to find a creative outlet that is JUST for joy; not putting pressure on making money on every single side project you do. Those passion projects pour into our cup and are just as important as the ones that brings us financial abundance. Gentry does an amazing job balancing the creativity he brings to his work on set and making sure he has a creative outlet outside of work so he can continue to approach creative work with a sense of play. During quarantine, Gentry decided to dive into the world of photography, specifically self-portrait photography. He began taking photos of himself and found that it helped with not only his artistic creativity but also his body dysmorphia. He wanted to express himself and his individuality, but having someone take photos of him terrified him. So, he just decided to do it himself. This boosted his confidence and made him realize that the way he saw himself in the mirror was so different than how the camera and others saw him. Gentry and I also get very real about the vulnerability it takes to express yourself as an artist- not hiding behind a mask or a character but rather being brave enough to bring a deep truth to your work. When you're open, you can foster lifelong connections and produce your best work because you're being your most authentic self. We also talk about Black representation in media and entertainment, a topic that truly needs to be addressed more frequently and with more accountability from the white community. Gentry was so generous to speak on the subject, sharing some of his eye-and-heart-opening stories about some roles he's been offered in the past that didn't align with the stories he wants to tell about the Black experience in America. This episode is real, honest, raw, and positively dripping with MAGIC. PS- Please take a moment to hit “subscribe” if you're enjoying this content! It helps other people like you find this community. Deeply grateful for you! CONNECT WITH GENTRY:Gentry's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gentrywhite/Gentry's Twitter: https://twitter.com/GentrywhiteWatch Unreal on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/unreal-dcd85133-0465-410f-8792-aeb94ebd5755Watch Jett on HBO Max: https://www.hbomax.com/series/urn:hbo:series:GYNUd2AdaH5TCJwEAAAAK Connect with Kelsey: Kelsey's Website: http://www.kelseyformost.com Kelsey's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/keformost Kelsey's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelsey.writes/ Kelsey's Courses: https://kelseyformost.com/courses Original Themesong composed by Jules Grant https://www.instagram.com/j.u.l.e.s.g.r.a.n.t/ Produced by Hayleigh Hayhurst http://www.espressopodcastproduction.com

Today our host, #DeborahZaraKobylt of @deborahkobyltlive speaks with #MikeGordon, owner of Toscana, one of the most notorious Italian restaurants in all of Los Angeles for over two decades.Mike fell in LOVE with all things Italian and spent time in Italy to learn everything about food and wine from the best. But it was actually a day spent with Wolfgang Puck that convinced Mike to get into the restaurant business over 25 years ago. Now he's got six restaurants between LA, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, and Santa Ynez. In fact, Mike and his wife have a vineyard on their property in Santa Ynez, where he makes his own wine, and pizza, too!There's so much to talk about from Mike's background as an entertainment executive to his Hollywood A-List friends and customers. #LittleItalyofLA@toscanabrentwood @deborahzarakobylt @ubngo Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/biz/fund?id=GYVQXMPXJL9D4)

Join Mark Weaver with Puck Erickson, principal and co-founder of Arcadia Studio on 'Designers at Home' for an informative and interesting discussion. Noted landscape architect Puck Erickson will chat with Mark about a recently completed residence they worked on together in Santa Ynez; the art of landscape architecture; favored gardens around the world; and much more. To learn more about Arcadia Studio you can visit their website arcadiastudio.com or follow them on Instagram @arcadia_studio Be sure to keep up to date on 'Designers at Home' by following @markweaverandassociates on Instagram

The Wine Dude - Off The Vine - A Grapetacular Interview with Bion Rice Ever been to Organic Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez? How about the Organically Artistic Artiste Winery in Los Olivos......Well They have one thing ion common - Bion Rice the amazing and talented Winemaker & Owner of BOTH Wineries Shot at the Amazing & Beautiful Sunstone Villa behind Sunstone Winery - Bion shares with us how these 2 great wineries came to be and the stories behind them and his career.A true gift to the Fabulous World Of Wine...