Talk of the Bay from KSQD

Angel Garcia, our guest, is a spokesperson for Californians for Pesticide Reform which just filed a lawsuit against the state of California for dragging their feet on clarifying pesticide regulations. Here is their recent press release further explaining the reason for the suit. They claim the state’s approach to regulation is both confusing and dangerous, given the hazardous nature of 1,3-D, which is applied by the hundreds of thousands of pounds per year on fields in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties.

Farmworker Advocates Sue California Over Conflicting Regulations for Cancer-Causing Fumigant Pesticide 1,3-D

Nine ye...

My guest is Kischka Bluspiro organizer of the local Sunday Assembly Santa Cruz, which is a secular (non-religious) gathering that promotes community and inspiration. They gather monthly to listen to inspiring speakers, sing together, and get to know each other. They also have small groups based on specific interests (games, movie night, etc.), and they’ll be doing some community service projects as well.  Sunday Assembly Santa Cruz is a part of a global network of Sunday Assemblies that started in London in 2013. The local branch has been going for a couple months now, but in March they’ll be mo...

On today’s Talk of the Bay, we explore the role of recalls and censures in electoral politics. Host Meilin Obinata welcomes Raul Urena, former mayor of the border town, Calexico, who was elected into office with 70% of the vote but later the subject of a successful recall by the Republican Party which weaponized Urena’s gender identity. Urena is also a current graduate student at UC Santa Cruz.

Obinata also speaks with Peter Szalai, a voter who shares his thoughts about the social media posts and the censure of Salinas City Councilmember Andrew Sandoval. 

That’...

Spencer Critchley is an award-winning communication strategist and national media commentator with experience in journalism, digital media, public relations, advertising, and music. He’s the author of Patriots of Two Nations and host of the podcast Dastardly Cleverness in the Service of Good, and founder of Boots Road Group.

He talks with me about the moment we are in and how to view it in light of history and philosophy.

Film maker Ana Blanco and biologist Natasha Benjamin team up for a film about saving the kelp forests and their link to local coastal economies. The local premiere of the film shows on February 6th at the surfshop, the Santa Cruz Boardroom on 41st Avenue and includes a discussion and action talk.

Sequoias of the Sea – Community Screening & Ocean Action Night Friday, February 6, 2026 | 6:30–8:30 PM Santa Cruz Boardroom 825 41st Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95062

Representative Jimmy Panetta held a press conference on Thursday, January 28th to affirm his opposition to passing a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security which oversees ICE. Ami Chen Mills and Nyanko Nyasu were there and have this report.

Talk of the Bay, host George Cadman discusses the history and the future of The Catalyst in downtown Santa Cruz with her guests Alyssa Pullen owner of the Teahouse Spa, David Bean host of KSQD’s New Squid in Town music program and local music scene expert, and Hector Marin, organizer of the the Save the Catalyst campaign and local activist. They will discuss how they see the plans to rebuild the Pacific Ave property as seven stories, six of which would be residential units without parking, with ground floor retail.

To stay on top of the Sa...

On this Monday’s Talk of the Bay, your host Meilin Obinata invites you to learn about the latest fiery news regarding the Rail and Trail Project. Guests Lani Faulkner of Equity Transit and former candidate for District 1 County Supervisor, Stephanie Auld a disability and elderly rights transportation advocate and James Weller a land title expert, share their views and expertise regarding what you need to know about the status of passenger rail in Santa Cruz County. What do the recent decisions of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission mean? What is the current vision for sup...

Talk of the Bay host George Cadman spoke with Jess on January 20th about her Substack & social media videos, her activism, and what motivates her. They also spoke about using anger and grief as fuel for good.

There are so many attacks on our democracy, our rights, and our bodies every day, that it is hard to know where to start. It can feel overwhelming.

Jess Craven addresses how ordinary working Americans who are raising families and trying to survive can resist this tidal wave of attacks on our freedom, on our democracy, and on...

On Monday, January 21, thousands of marchers filled the streets of Santa Cruz to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Your Squid on the Street was there! Special thanks to Daymia Rousseau for their help editing.

There are some 5 million Iranians living in the United States. A large population live in the Monterey Bay and the Bay Area. On this program, we hear from activist/student Elnaz Sarbar, Data Scientist, Azadeh Sanjari, and Santa Cruz City Council member, Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson about what they are hearing from family members. Since the government of Iran cut off internet, it has been difficult for journalists and families living abroad to find out the fate of their loved ones after what appears to have been a mass killing of protesters in Iran.

Join host Omar Dieguez for a powerful conversation with Yanely Martinez, longtime Safe Ag Safe Schools (SASS) organizer, Camila, a rising future leader in the movement, and Señor Torres, representing a family rooted in generations of activism fighting pesticide exposure in our communities.

From Monterey County to Sacramento and the Pajaro Valley, this episode highlights the real work happening on the ground—uplifting youth voices, organizing families, and building collective power to protect our children, our schools, and our land.

This podcast centers the next generation of leaders and honors the families who continue to...

One of your Squids on the Street, Suki Wessling, caught up with locals at the Martin Luther King, Jr. parade and rally to find out which of King’s words or deeds especially resonate with them during these difficult time.

Nolan Higdon, profesessor of media studies at UCSC discusses the way the U.S. media is framing what is happening in Venezuela leading up to and after the kidnapping of President Maduro.

Ocean advocate, Dan Haifley discusses the intricacies and urgency of preventing oil drilling and mining off California’s coastline, as the Trump administration goes all in for “drill, baby drill” policies that would open the coastal waters to extractive industries. The deadline for comment is January 23rd. Comments can be submitted to the Federal Register by January 23, 2026, at: Regulations.gov.  Contact your Congressional representative Jimmy Panetta at: Congressman Jimmy Panetta | Representing the 19th District of California.

Hello, I’m Daymia Rousseau, a UCSC Intern reporting for KSQD. In 2023, Santa Cruz county experienced one of the worst storms in the city’s history. In cities like Capitola, streets were flooded , waves crashed into various businesses, and the wharf was destroyed. Meteorologists called it a bomb cyclone with lots of rain and wind. As Santa Cruz county endures storm season once again, many coastal communities remain anxious about another natural disaster, or how California’s coast will handle storms as sea-levels rise.

Griggs“What’s gonna be more problematic…in the relatively near-term in the year 2050, o...

Zaya Ralitza Benazzo was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. For as long as she can remember, she has been fascinated with exploring life’s big questions. She feels most at home in nature and, increasingly, within herself. Zaya is a producer and film director with engineering, environmental science, and film degrees. For many years, she worked as an environmental activist in Europe. Her deepest passion is bringing together wisdom from spiritual traditions in service of all life. Zaya believes that individual and collective liberation are inextricably interwoven.

Maurizio Benazzo grew up in Italy, and in...

Talk of the Bay’s George Cadman hosts a conversation on the controversy surrounding Flock Safety, and their cameras that appear to track more than just license-plates.  After revelations that the police have illegally shared data with ICE and other agencies, the Santa Cruz City Council will meet Tuesday, January 13th, to consider ending the contract with Flock Safety.  Can technology and government be reined in to protect our 4th amendment rights of privacy?

The city’s two-year contract is set to expire on March 27, 2026. It allows for a termination of the agreement with 30 days’ notice, which would me...

Your Squid on the Street, Suki Wessling, caught up with Kelly Menehan and Faye Johnson of Indivisible to talk a little bit about the rally and their organization at the January 2026 Get ICE out for Good Rally in Santa Cruz.

Your Squid on the Street interviews rally-goers at the corner of Ocean and Water Streets in Santa Cruz about their reasons for attending the rally on January 11, 2026.

If you’ve had writer’s block — and for all the listeners out there who have ever put pen to paper, chances are a good that you have — there’s no shortage of pithy quotes or “how to” books from famous authors that can help snap you out of it.

“Write what you know,” goes one.

“No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader,” goes another.

As inspiring as some of these aphorisms can be, perhaps our deepest understanding of writer’s block can be gleaned from fictional representations of the commonly experienced phe...

Sara Niedzwieck is a professor of politics at UC Santa Cruz and studies South American politics. She offers her analysis of what is currently happening in Venezuela, a developing story.

On January 3rd the U.S. military conducted a strike on the capital of Venezuela, Caracas, killing dozens of people, and capturing President Maduro and his wife and bringing them to New York to stand trial. What does this mean for the region? What is it really about?  Michael Fox is a Latin America-based media maker and the former director of video production at teleSUR English. He puts the action into context.

Omar Dieguez reports live from the vigil marking the killing by an ICE agent of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.

From the Streets brings you a powerful live podcast and performance featuring Dub Souljah, Safaa (Baytal), Miguel Kultura, and Shinelight—artists using resistance music to inspire, awaken, and empower our youth to rise as leaders. Join us January 24, 2026, at the Veterans Hall, 846 Front St. Doors open at 12 PM. Featuring additional performances by The Neighborhood Kids and The Indigenous Cats, plus vendors, drum circles, and danzantes. Part of the proceeds benefit The Center for Farmworkers. Come show love, build community, and support the movement.

This event is sponsored by Indigenous Justice.

More info: @RESISTANCE.ENTERTAINMENT ✊🔥

https...

Mark Toney has been the Executive Director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN) since 2008. Mark has transformed TURN into a social movement organization, whose 27 staff are two-thirds women and two-thirds people of color, and has expanded its impact to promote and win racial and economic justice in energy affordability, climate action, and broadband equity.

Mark was appointed in 2020 to the California State Bar Board of Trustees by Governor Newsom and reappointed in 2024. He also currently serves on the National Whistleblower Center board, and previously served on the boards of ACLU Northern California and California Shakespeare T...

Christine Barrington starts a new show on KSQD this Friday: Apocalyptic Supper Club. But Christine is hardly new to KSQD—in fact, she’s a Squid super-volunteer. Apart from hosting Talk of the Bay for several years, Christine was a board member, volunteer coordinator, behind-the-scenes producer, and host of a series called Behind the Mic. In this series she interviewed many of the roster of fascinating people who make up KSQD’s volunteer on-air presence.

This week, Babblery host Suki Wessling turns the tables and sends Christine to the other side of the board so she can talk a...

Long-time arts and culture journalist for Santa Cruz, Wallace Baine is retiring from his post at Lookout, the online news site, but not before they won the Pulitzer Prize for local journalism. We look back at some of his most exciting interviews with the likes of Randy Newman and Carol Burnett, plus his take on the changes he’s seen over his thirty year tenure covering the cultural life of our community.

Dr. David Ebert is an expert on shark biology with the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory and San Jose State University with the Pacific Shark Research Center. In the wake of the death of triathlete Erika Fox at Lover’s Point in Pacific Grove, sharks are once again in the news. But are they the human killers they’ve been made out to be in the media? What motivates them? Why are some encounters fatal and others survivable? Do those bracelets marketed as shark repellents actually work? How are sharks doing in our Monterey Bay? These are just a few of t...

🎙️ FROM THE STREETS | Special Broadcast

Hosted by Omar Dieguez on KSQD

This Monday’s episode of From the Streets was a powerful and necessary conversation, broadcast live from a special School Board meeting addressing the devastating cuts proposed in our school district.

Parents, students, and school board members spoke directly about the impact of eliminating mental health clinicians, school counselors, special education services, and art programs—programs our youth desperately need to survive and thrive.

KSQD once again opened the mic and created space for our communit...

Last Night is a do-it-yourself, decentralized, collective, spontaneous, open, public New Year’s Eve celebration in Santa Cruz, California since 2005. Celebrating what we can do as a community when we work together. Sunset on New Year’s Eve every year starting at Pacific & Spruce (behind Ace Hardware), and ending with a street party at Pacific and Cooper!

Guests: Stacey Falls has been an active participant in the last night DIY parade for 20 years. Though she is not one of the original founders, she has been invested in keeping it going as a wonderful Santa Cruz cultural phenomenon.Stac...

When he was a young man of college age, Richard Hodge was attending seminary and thought he was going to become a Methodist minister. As the fates would have it, he instead went on to become a lawyer, who defended some of the most notorious, and politically charged, crime cases in America, including the Oakland 7, the Soledad 3, and Los Siete. He later developed a specialization in entertainment law, and represented a wide range of clients, including Richard Brautigan, Kenny Loggins, the Steve Miller Band, Boz Scaggs, and many others. He eventually became a judge in the Alameda C...

KSQD Community Radio Hosts Critical Conversation on PVUSD Cuts Impacting Student Mental Health

On Talk of the Bay From the Streets, we aired a one-hour program addressing recent cuts within Pajaro Valley Unified School District that have reduced mental health clinicians, counselors, and special education supports.

Hosted by community advocate Omar Eduardo Dieguez, the program features:

The discussion centers student safety, transparency, environmental justice, and the urgent need for community-driven sol...

On Talk of the Bay host Meilin Obinata, welcomes Christopher Barrera of the Salinas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens known as LULAC and Salinas City Councilmember Andrew Sandoval. Barrera discusses the civil rights concerns LULAC has regarding the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office investigations into the signature gathering process of the Protect Salinas Renters campaign, while Sandoval, a major supporter of the Protect Salinas Renters Coalition, shares his experience of facing a censure motion from his colleagues which has ultimately been postponed.

46th Annual Eco-Farm Conference at Asilomar (Jan 21-24) – Talk of The Bay

On Tuesday, Dec. 9th, Talk of The Bay host George Cadman spoke with Rebecca North (Executive Director of the Ecological Farming Association) and Ken Foster (co-owner of Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping & permaculture instructor at Cabrillo College) about the upcoming 46th annual Eco-Farm conference which will be held at Asilomar from Jan. 21st to Jan. 24th.

EcoFarm is the oldest and largest organic farming conference west of the Mississippi, bringing together more than 1,500 farmers, ranchers, and food system leaders each year. It’s an insp...

Anjelka Stipanovich, Anna Michel, and Julia Alaimo are the Program Coordinators for the Resilient Central Coast program at Ecology Action. The program is only a few months old.

Resilient Central Coast introduces everyday actions and local resources to help you prepare for the unexpected, electrify your home, and build community climate resilience.

Hello, I’m Daymia Rousseau, a UCSC Intern reporting for KSQD. The Trump Administration’s attacks on DEI programs have hit especially hard when it comes to access to gender affirming care for trans youth. Regardless of the intense pressure on schools by the Department of education to remove all forms of “gender ideology”, many schools and healthcare settings are challenging this position and moving to protect trans youth.

Adam : “There are implicit and explicit impacts that trans youth, and trans young adults, are experiencing right now. The explicit ones…are that Gender affirming care is becoming more difficu...

What does Santa Cruz love about the holiday season? Squid on the Street spoke to parade participants and attendees at the 2025 Holiday Parade in downtown Santa Cruz. It was a joyous celebration of food, song, costumes, and above all, community. Listen to their voices and click here to see a gallery of photos.

Lindsay Owens, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative. Widely known for her ability to communicate pressing economic concepts and arguments, Lindsay has been credited with changing the way we understand inflation by leading the charge to expose – and articulate – the role of firm pricing power and corporate profiteering in price increases. Her work has been hailed by Jon Stewart as “music to my ears” and consumer advocate Ralph Nader described her as “a burst of new energy in the civic community in Washington, D.C.” Washingtonian Magazine named her one of the “Most Influential Peo...

On this episode of Talk of the Bay, with host Meilin Obinata, guests James Weller, a land title expert and Barry Scott a clean energy educator bust the latest myths and misunderstandings regarding the Rail and Trail Project of Santa Cruz County.

Our third guest, Debora Fudge, has multiple decades of experience serving on the board of the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) and as the chair for multiple terms. SMART was able to build a 43 mile passenger (and freight) rail project with a trail out of an existing set of train tracks, a situation extremely...