Unpacked In Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz feels different the moment you notice what is missing: billboards. That small design choice opens a bigger conversation about attention, consumerism, and why being five minutes from nature can change your nervous system. We sit down with filmmaker Scott Leiserson to talk about arriving here from San Diego, living inside the UCSC bubble, and then stepping into the wider Santa Cruz community through documentary filmmaking and video production work. 

From there, we get honest about the creative life. Scott breaks down what it takes to “capture” a documentary instead of forcing a scripted story, why the e...

Santa Cruz can feel like paradise and pressure at the same time. I’m sitting down with Bob Ledesma, a longtime Santa Cruz surfboard shaper who has watched the town transform from a place where surfers were outsiders to a place everyone wants to claim. We talk honestly about that weird mix of love and concern: the world-class coastline, the daily ritual of checking the ocean, and the reality that it is getting harder and harder to survive here, let alone own a piece of it.

Bob takes us into the shaping bay and into the apprenticeship cu...

Dead seals on the beach. Algae blooms in the bay. Nitrates in wells. A heat wave that can ruin a tomato crop before you even see the damage. We record a raw, grounded conversation with Santa Cruz farmer Joe Schirmer about the real cost of feeding people, and why so many farmers are carrying a level of stress that the rest of us rarely see.

We start with the mental health crisis in agriculture, including farmer suicide, anxiety, and the identity trap that comes with generational work and “man up” expectations. From there we dig into the econ...

We have a shared language, so why does it feel like we cannot talk anymore? I step into a solo, personal soliloquy about the post-COVID shift I see everywhere: families avoiding hard topics, friends splitting into factions, and everyday conversations turning into coded arguments about money and politics. I use the Tower of Babel as a modern metaphor not to preach, but to name the feeling that we built something too big to understand, and now we live inside the confusion. 

From there, I trace a straight line through American capitalism and the rise of capital markets: t...

Santa Cruz has a way of changing your breathing. When Shari talks about coming home and catching the first smell of the ocean, you can hear what she means: peace isn’t a concept, it’s a physical shift. From there we go deep fast. Shari is a math PhD who’s taught everywhere from middle school classrooms to NYU, and she makes a case that math is an art form, a pattern language you can spot in waves, leaves, and the messy order of real life. 

Then we step into the world powering all of our screens...

Water debates get loud fast, but the real story is quieter and more practical: who plans the supply, who forecasts demand, and what a community does when the next drought hits. We’re back in Santa Cruz talking with Ben Pink, a longtime water resources planner who’s worked across public utilities, private utilities, and regional agencies. He walks us through the day-to-day reality of water conservation programs, long-range water supply planning, and why the numbers matter more than the headlines.

We dig into California water management from multiple angles: the old Northern vs Southern California tensions, the...

Your team is down a few runs and you can feel the dugout quitting, not loudly, but quietly. That moment is where youth baseball stops being a game and starts being a mirror, and it’s where Stephan and I spend most of our time in this conversation.

We talk about what it’s like coaching in Santa Cruz, how Stephan's love of baseball started as a kid watching the Yankees with his dad, and how a sport built on failure can create real resilience. We also unpack why Stephan coaches now: the kids who walk in with...

Pressure has a way of telling the truth, and not just in sports. I sit down with veteran coach Todd Kent to talk about what pressure reveals on the jiu jitsu mats, in a locker room, and at home when life is heavy. We start with Santa Cruz as a place, the sunsets, the beach-as-backyard years, and the strange beauty of finding community through a handful of circles that don’t always overlap. 

Then we go deeper into mindset and leadership. Todd breaks down how Brazilian jiu jitsu becomes a real-time lab for failure, fatigue, and decision-making, and...

A relaxed coastal town can still be filled with competition, loneliness, and people craving connection, and that tension runs through our talk with Bonnie Carver. Bonnie is 81, a longtime teacher and watercolor artist, and someone I’ve watched choose presence for decades. We start with what Santa Cruz means as you age, how Watsonville feels different, and why “home” is sometimes less about the address and more about what you decide to carry inside yourself.

Bonnie shares her path from Buffalo, New York to California, her early experiments with the hippie back-to-the-land dream, and the unexpected pivot into e...

Santa Cruz can change you, but not always in the glossy way people imagine. We sit with Mitch Riley, a gentle giant with a long memory, to talk about what it really takes to start over, build community, and stay upright when life is expensive, fast, and relentless. Mitch walks us through leaving Columbus, Ohio, finding a new life in Atlanta, tasting the intensity of Los Angeles, and eventually landing on the Central Coast to raise a family. Along the way we get into music, graffiti, work in natural foods retail, and why “real food” culture in Santa Cruz is b...

Capitalism gets treated like a political label, but it’s more useful to see it as a machine, not a piece of morality. A man made principle acknowledging surplus not made by humans-but a piece of the fabric of the world we share with everyone that is only as moral as the humans governing it. One that can build real prosperity and still trap people in confusion. Michael is taking a risk and laying out a minor brief on his own political lens, not to pick a side, but to give you the missing premise of what he sees mo...

Santa Cruz is one of those places that can feel like vacation and crisis at the same time. We sit down with John Barrs owner of Ideal Homes, to talk about what it’s really like to live, commute, raise kids, and run a local business in a county where Highway 1 is jammed, new buildings rise fast, and “affordable housing” can still mean $5,500 rent for a two-bedroom.

We get personal first, from surf panic stories to the day-to-day reality of being a girl dad and watching childhood fly by. Then we go straight into the money and logist...

Santa Cruz can feel like paradise and a pressure cooker at the same time, and that tension is where this conversation starts. I sit down with David McIntosh to unpack what “change” really looks like on the ground: a working class beach town shaped by Silicon Valley gravity, rising costs, and the quiet fear of being pushed out, alongside real opportunity for the people ready to adapt.

David’s path to Santa Cruz is anything but linear. He grew up near Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, describes what it’s like to see hardship as a daily backdrop, and how...

Santa Cruz can make a world champion feel like “just another guy in the lineup”. That’s exactly where this conversation starts. 

I sit down with Mark Allen, the GOAT and six-time Ironman World Champion, and lifelong surfer, to get under the surface of what makes this place a haven for talent and why it also has an edge that forms you over time. We talk about the strange Santa Cruz magic where titles-no matter what they are- don’t land the way they do elsewhere. How community is built through consistency, respect, and real relationships instead of status...

Santa Cruz loves to call itself creative, but what happens when creativity becomes a commodity and everyone feels forced to hustle?

I’m sitting down with local artist and designer Hannah Selden to unpack the push and pull of making art in Santa Cruz after COVID. Hannah talks about growing up here, studying print design, and building a Santa Cruz apparel brand before stepping back to reclaim creativity that doesn’t have to fit a sales funnel. We get real about maker markets, the invisible competition that rides underneath a “hippie” vibe, and why this town can feel lik...

Santa Cruz can feel like paradise, a trap, and a time capsule all at once and that tension runs through our conversation with graphic designer and storyteller James Reitano. He grew up with Santa Cruz roots, found his way into the high-pressure world of Santa Cruz Skateboards (NHS), and learned early that making “cool” work isn’t the same as making work that survives a market shift. We talk candidly about imposter syndrome, creative rejection, and why the best rooms can make you feel like you don’t belong.

Then we follow the path south to Los Angeles...

Santa Cruz can feel like paradise until you look closer and realize how much pressure hides under the flip-flops. We sit down with longtime Santa Cruz realtor Brian Di Diego to talk about what it’s like to build a life in a small town where everybody knows everybody, prices keep climbing, and real estate decisions are never just “business.” The conversation starts with home: kids leaving, houses getting quiet, and the strange mix of pride and grief that shows up when family life shifts. 

From there, we get honest about identity and work. Brian shares what 34 years i...

A GED, a 0.0 college moment, and a kid obsessed with a Commodore 64 somehow add up to a career that lands at Borland, rides the Netscape wave, and still ends with one clear conclusion: Santa Cruz feels like home. We trace the real path, not the cleaned-up résumé version, from rural Pennsylvania winters to California fog, from bulletin boards and shareware checks to high-stakes interviews with the people who built the tools an entire generation learned on. If you’ve ever felt like an outsider who “got in by luck,” you’ll recognize the emotional thread running through every chapter. <...

A pro surfer from Rio de Janeiro moves to Santa Cruz, builds a family, all knowing that the hardest opponent was never another person. Andre joins me for a raw, wide-ranging talk about ego, identity, and what it means to stop chasing trophies while still chasing growth. We start with Santa Cruz as home, then follow the real story underneath: crowded lineups, culture shock, and the quiet work of becoming someone your kids can trust.

Andre opens up about leaving Brazil at a breaking point, and learning that “positive thinking” only works after you face what hurts. We g...

Santa Cruz can feel like a spell. One minute it’s sunshine and greetings on a neighborhood street, the next it’s elbows up in a surf lineup that treats every set wave like property. We sit down with Jefferson De Paula, born and raised on the east side of São Paulo, Brazil, to name that contradiction and to figure out how a person stays soft without getting pushed out.

Jefferson came to Santa Cruz to learn English after a career moment that exposed a gap he couldn’t ignore. Then a violent car accident left him wit...

A clear morning over Highway 17 can change a life. That’s how Dan Hammer first saw Santa Cruz—blue water, a small-town vibe, and the feeling of finally arriving. He left to study computer science, built a career as a bridge between engineers and executives, and returned years later with a sharper lesson: titles fade, but a life built on principles holds.

We dive into the real cost of calling a coastal town home—why Santa Cruz feels like an island in culture of real estate, how remote work reshaped who can live here, and when local pride...

Santa Cruz looks like a postcard, but it feels like a pit: fast, loud, and full of heart. We crack into that contradiction with Guerin Myall, a surf-skate-punk lifer whose lens has chased barrels, stage dives, and the kind of moments that never make the brochure. From junior lifeguard summers and the boardwalk’s myth to downtown’s new skyline and the angsty undercurrent that keeps the town honest, this is a tour of a place that refuses to go soft.

We talk about why Santa Cruz pride starts with the dot logo and ends in a mosh...

Paradise looks peaceful from the cliff, but step onto a towboat in Monterey Bay and the picture changes fast. We sit down with captain and small business owner Anthony Capriccio to explore why he chose Santa Cruz over everywhere else, how he built a life around boats, and what really happens when the ocean stops cooperating. From routine jumpstarts to midnight salvage, from towing grounded hulls to dragging dead whales offshore with NOAA’s coordinates, Anthony shows us a working bay where risk, responsibility, and rescue live side by side.

We get honest about the paradox at th...

The city is changing fast, and so are we. From rising rents and a shifting skyline to the quieter work of neighbors feeding neighbors, we unpack how hope can take root right in the middle of pressure—no slogans, just people doing the next right thing.

I sit down with Brian Upton, the mind behind Santa Cruz Vibes, to trace his path from hometown kid to media founder and to examine a different way to build a platform. We talk about why impressions aren’t the same as influence, how abdication (not charity) shapes trust, and what it m...

A town can shape you before you notice. That’s the tension we explore as a longtime local sits with Jay Brown, who moved to Santa Cruz to be near his daughter and got pulled into its undertow of beauty, scarcity, and stubborn pride. We start with raw honesty—fear of influence, years of civic fatigue, and the ache of watching good ideas fall apart—and open into a bigger frame: what if surf culture explains more than surfing?

Jay and I trace how point breaks trained a mindset of safety and scarcity that spills onto land—into tra...

A single dirt road outside Harare changed everything. What began as a UCSC field study became a three-decade commitment to an orphan school in Zimbabwe: ten classrooms raised brick by brick, a lifesaving well drilled through granite at 2 a.m., and a partnership powered by small donations and relentless trust. Alongside that story of patient progress, we open up about Santa Cruz—why we love it, why it hurts, and how traffic, safety, and policy shape whether we actually feel like a community.

We unpack how commerce and social values must work together if we want a vi...

What if the lost years of your career became the blueprint for a better way to lead, parent, and live? We sit down with Michael Dunn, a veteran of Apple, Netscape, and Joby, to unpack the IPO-era rush, the “sleep at the office” mythology, and the long tail of burnout that followed. This candid conversation about buying the wrong house in Texas, chasing stock spikes, and missing family dinners—became enlightening about rebuilding around people, patience, and a different kind of ambition.

Michael’s leadership philosophy was forged in the hardest classrooms: global teams that never slept, deadline...

The postcard says mellow. The rent, the staffing headaches, and the quiet arms race to stay here say otherwise. We sit down with Chris Buich to examine how Santa Cruz looks from the inside: a surf town where “chill” coexists with relentless drive, where class myths flatten real stories, and where small businesses survive on grit, not vibes. Chris traces his path from Carmel Valley’s rancher era to Salinas’ hard edges and into a Santa Cruz that demands excellence while pretending it doesn’t. The throughline is identity: what happens when others decide who you are before you speak, and...

A cold Santa Cruz morning sets the stage for a warm, unguarded conversation with Alvin Medina—a Watsonville native, former college defensive lineman, college coach, and jiu-jitsu devote. We talk about what happens when the adrenaline fades, and the anxiety shows up.  He takes us from scout-team hits and weight-room grit to recruiting rooms where NFL vets drop by to recruit your JUCO talent, showing how relationships—not just X’s and O’s—win the long game. The story pivots when a panic attack on Park Avenue forces him to examine anxiety, therapy, and why beating yourself up is not the...

The coastline can look calm from the cliff, but the people who watch it know better. We sit down with Nathan Tall, a 22-year-old state lifeguard raised in Aptos to trace a path from junior guards to first responder, and the story that emerges is bigger than waves: it’s about character, community, and the courage to keep showing up when the job stops being glamorous.

We start with home—how Santa Cruz shapes kids who spend summers sprinting in soft sand and tasting salt every day. Junior guards isn’t just swim tests and flags; it’s a quie...

A quiet kid from Soquel loses his friend group at 14 and finds an unlikely ally in the aftermath: endurance. Collin Brown joins me to unpack how betrayal became a strange mercy, why pain can be a presence without being a prison, and how hope turns from a heckler to a compass when faith gives it a bridge. 

We follow that thread into his life today—five kids, custom learning at home, and a coder's fascination with AI that never quite drowns out his human-first instinct.

Collin’s take on AI is both hopeful and cautionary. He ca...

A short hiatus turned into a clear-eyed look at what this show stands for: celebrating the normal, telling honest stories, and making love a verb. I open up about rescheduling interviews, moving house, and why I’m choosing to weave my own perspective into the conversations you hear—so you know the “why” behind every question I ask.

That takes us straight into the question people keep sending: are you a Christian? I walk through why I stepped away from denominational leadership out of integrity, not resentment, and where I stand on the pulpit-politics divide. We also crack op...

The story starts with following Chris Balthasar from a Swiss-American childhood in Philadelphia and winds through Hollywood backlots, a B-movie alligator, and a surreal day in a Sonic the Hedgehog suit getting heckled by Tony Danza all day-then pivots into law, environmental advocacy, and a move to Santa Cruz that finally felt like home. Chris takes us on a  winding road with uncommon honesty, connecting big breaks and bigger heartbreaks to the simple habits that keep him grounded: food choices with purpose, a community that welcomes you as you are, and the discipline of Jiu-Jitsu.

We explore h...

What happens when a kid from São Paulo lands in Santa Cruz and discovers a town where surfing, jiu-jitsu, and community can actually shape the way you live? We go deep with Rafael Eboli—longtime local, Cafe Brazil mainstay, and black belt professor at Claudio Franca Jiu Jitsu Academies—on how a six-month plan turned into a life built around waves, trust, and family.

Rafael shares why Santa Cruz clicked: the ocean as a daily classroom, in a culture that rewards respect over noise, and a gym where people are learning to kill each other, yet leave...

Mercy isn’t the word most people expect from a fighting art—but that’s exactly where we start. We sit down with Master Claudio Franca, who left Rio de Janeiro in the mid-90s with little more than a gi, a surfer’s heart, and a mission to plant Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Santa Cruz long before it anybody have ever heard of it. He opens up about early challenge matches, skeptical onlookers, and how a rough surf town learned to love the “gentle art” that wins with control, not damage.

From choosing Santa Cruz over the sprawl of So...

A shy kid from Live Oak skates to school, paddles out at Pleasure Point, and learns quickly that lineups have rules you won’t find on the beach signs. Then a jiu-jitsu academy opens behind his house, and everything changes. Nathan Mendelsohn’s story isn’t a straight line from surf to mats; it’s a layered map of belonging—how a combat art became a family, how Brazil reshaped a Santa Cruz mindset, and how loyalty can feel both territorial and generous depending on which door you walk through.

We dive into the unfiltered realities of Santa Cruz...

Aiming to stop conflict nearly broke us; learning to create peace brought us back. That’s the arc we explore with our guest, Graseilah Coolidge—born in Iowa, raised in Venezuela through coups and shutdowns, trained in nonproliferation, and recruited into intelligence after 9/11. The work was high‑stakes and mission‑driven, until a harsh realization landed: data doesn’t always drive decisions when agendas are in play. When that worldview cracked, she didn’t double down on noise; she went to the redwoods.

We talk about forest immersion as a practical, grounded practice: days in nature with water, warmt...

What does it truly mean to coach youth sports in today's hyper-competitive world? In this candid conversation, host Michael "Coach Powers" Howard sits down with Little League coaches Matt Kuhn and Frank Schonig  to unpack the beautiful mess that is youth baseball in Santa Cruz County.

The trio begins by sharing their uniquely Santa Cruz upbringings – from Frank's "mountain boy" childhood with dirt bike tracks and paintball courses on 10 acres of redwoods to Matt's journey from Ben Lomond to Live Oak. Their stories capture a freedom and independence that shaped their coaching philosophies years later. Neither planned to...

Ever wonder what it's like to grow up inside "a bubble within a bubble"? Neil Sprenkel takes us into the unique world of Capitola, California—where neighborhoods feel like sanctuaries and surf spots become territories with unwritten rules that shape young lives in profound ways.

When his parents divorced during his seventh grade year, Neil found himself drawn deeper into surfing—not just as a sport, but as therapy. "I would go underwater and scream until I felt that energy leave my body," he reveals, describing how the ocean became his sanctuary during emotional turmoil. This raw conf...

Have you ever looked in the mirror and suddenly realized you've been playing a role in your own life? After mysteriously disappearing for five months, I'm finally breaking the silence to share the profound revelation that stopped me in my tracks.

What began as a celebratory moment—watching my podcast metrics climb after a wonderful interview with Natalie—transformed into an existential crisis during what should have been a dream surf trip to Chile. Picture this: perfect left breaks (heaven for a goofy-footer like me), no responsibilities, just freedom and waves. Yet there I was, sitting on an i...