Big Blend Radio

The Jefferson Highway begins in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and runs all the way to New Orleans. In this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Jefferson Highway" Podcast, producer Lisa D. Smith and Jefferson Highway Association (JHA) president Roger Bell travel north with Lou Erickson of the Morris & District Centennial Museum and JHA Board Member Derek Thille of Winnipeg. 

You’ll hear how a 1919 garage photo sparked a whole town’s Jefferson Highway pride, from a parade float to the first official Jefferson Highway Association sign in Manitoba in a hundred years. Derek shares his Emerson-to-Morris road trip, and we cover...

Halloween is a blast for us, but it can be a scary, and sometimes dangerous, night for the pets in our house. On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Pet Connection" Podcast, co-host Angela Laws of TrustedHousesitters and Lisa D. Smith sit down with veterinarian and best-selling author Dr. Gary Richter, known as America’s Favorite Veterinarian, to talk about keeping pets safe, calm and out of the candy stash.

Dr. Richter explains why chocolate, xylitol and even peanut butter can be a problem. He also covers the tinsel, ribbon and string that look harmless but can ca...

On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Lost Angel Travel Adventures" Podcast, travel writer and author Linda Ballou takes us to Moab, Utah, the red-rock gateway to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. She shares how a chance meeting in an airport led to her first kayak trip down Labyrinth Canyon on the Green River, and how much Moab has changed in the twenty years since her first visit.

Along the way, Linda explores Highway 128 along the Colorado River and the film museum at Red Cliffs Lodge. They talk about Thelma & Louise, John Ford, and the outlaws and...

In this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Journey Jukebox" Podcast, travel writer Lisa Evans takes us to Clarksville, Tennessee. It isn’t the Clarksville of the Mississippi Blues Trail. It’s a river city less than an hour from Nashville that deserves a day, or several, all to itself. 

Lisa shares the history, the attractions and the public art that made this one of her favorite recent trips.

You’ll meet Olympic legends Wilma Rudolph and Pat Head Summitt, and hear how Wilma insisted her hometown welcome be open to everyone. Lisa tours the 1898 Customs House M...

On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Travel with Terri" Podcast, travel journalist Terri Guthrie continues her Mardi Gras Train series with a stop in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

Terri calls it a casual coastal escape that feels worlds away from New Orleans, even though it’s less than an hour by rail. She walks us through Old Town’s art, boutiques and golf carts, her stay at the Pearl Hotel, and dinner downstairs at the Thorny Oyster, where she met owner and executive chef Jeffrey Hansell. There’s amberjack, a roasted beet salad with lemon ricotta, and a...

Wine country, waterparks, supper clubs, and yoga with alpacas: Wisconsin Dells has something for every season, and it’s not just a summer destination.

On this episode of Big Blend Radio’s "Food, Wine & Travel" Show with the International Food Wine Travel Writers Association (IFWTWA), host/producer Lisa D. Smith talks with Ken Leiviska of the Wisconsin Dells Visitor & Convention Bureau. He shares what to see, taste and do in the Dells all year long.

Ken explains how the Ice Age shaped Wisconsin’s wine country and why the Dells’ wineries are worth a stop. You’ll a...

Come hungry! Every third Sunday, Travel Avoyelles hosts Wilbert Carmouche and Mary Guillory join Lisa D. Smith for a visit to Avoyelles Parish in Central Louisiana. This time they brought a special guest: caterer John Ed Laborde of Panaroma Foods in Marksville, the creator of Crawfish Bread®.

We talk crawfish étouffée, boudin and boucherie, cracklins, court-bouillon, sweet potato crunch, king cakes, cinnamon rolls, drive-through daiquiris and gas station plate lunches. Then each of them plans a full day of eating for first-time visitors, from breakfast to dinner. Pull up a chair!

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Victoria Chick, the artist spearheading the Southwest Regional Museum of Art & Art Center in Silver City, New Mexico, joins Lisa D. Smith on Big Blend Radio’s "World of Art" Podcast. They start with October’s pop-up museum weekends, where temporary walls and museum-quality exhibitions showed Silver City what’s coming. Victoria also explains why a first-rate art museum matters for the whole southwest corner of New Mexico, a region about 270 miles wide with no museum close by.

Then the conversation turns to Leighton Fossum (1922–2011), a graphic designer and illustrator born in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, a destinat...

We’re building the Big Blend Media House pixel by pixel, room by room, and we’re reintroducing our Big Blend Radio experts so you can get to know your friends and family. In this "Getting to Know You" interview, organizational coach and author Rita Sever joins Lisa D. Smith for seven fun questions.

Rita is the author of "Supervision Matters," the book Big Blend first met her through about ten years ago, and "Leading for Justice." She hosts Big Blend Radio’s "Supervision Matters" Podcast every third Friday. She begins by explaining why she believes the heart...

Award-winning crime novelist James W. Ziskin joins Matt Cost and BJ Magnani on Big Blend Radio’s "Pets, Plots & Poisons" Podcast to talk about his "Ellie Stone" Mysteries, set in the 1960s, and his new standalone suspense novel, "The Prank."

The conversation starts with pets: Saint and Millie’s dirt-road romance, Dr. Watson the fetch-playing cat, and Jim’s cats Tuppy and Boko, including Tuppy’s ice cube “launch pad.” 

Then Jim explains how a pug named Little Leon sneaks into every "Ellie Stone" book, why he’s named after Trotsky, and what it takes to write a 1960...

Author Kayla Hardy on "The Quarter Queen," her debut historical fantasy reimagining Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, and her rebellious daughter, Ree. 

Voodoo queens, secret societies, and the mother-daughter bond that can make or break a family. For National Book Month, Kayla Hardy joins Big Blend Radio’s "Books & Authors" with Books Forward, to talk about The Quarter Queen, a lush, richly researched story of two generations of powerful women in a magically and racially divided 1840s New Orleans.

In the novel, Ree finds her formidable mother, Marie, comatose in the bayou and...

Why would a cruise line skip the hot seafood chowder in the Caribbean, then serve it on deck in Glacier Bay? 

On this episode of BIg Blend Radio's "Food, Wine & Travel" Podcast with the International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association (IFWTWA), host Lisa D. Smith sets sail with Emma Ciciriello, Senior Manager of Food & Beverage Product Development for Holland America Line and Seabourn, for a behind-the-scenes look at destination dining at sea.

Emma explains how menus, cocktails, table settings and even a Panama hat help guests taste the place they are visiting, from Alaskan halibut a...

Harry Belafonte was a legend in music, but the film "Following Harry" isn’t about his music. It’s about what he did when the music stopped. In this Big Blend Radio conversation, host Lisa D. Smith talks with Emmy-nominated filmmaker and editor Susanne Rostock, director of "Following Harry" and its companion film, "Sing Your Song," about the last twelve years of Harry Belafonte’s life and the new generation of artists and activists he mentored.

Susanne shares how the film began. "Sing Your Song" ended with Harry looking straight at the audience and asking, “What do we do no...

Why do we keep coming back to New York City? Travel writers Joelle Machia and Ryan Slough have a lot of answers, and they’re not what the typical headlines say.

Joelle has just wrapped a week in the city. She was born here and spoke at a United Nations side event during the General Assembly. Ryan joined her for part of the trip, riding Amtrak in from Harrisburg. He once almost had a panic attack in a New York taxi. Now he says every visit is better than the last.

On this episode of Bi...

Celebrate America 250 in upstate South Carolina! On Big Blend Radio's "Jo Goes Everywhere" Podcast, travel writer Jo Clark takes us to Ninety Six National Historic Site, a backcountry crossroads where 12 roads met and later the site of the longest land siege of the American Revolution, from May 22 to June 18, 1781. This park also turned 50 this year.

Jo walks us through the Star Fort and Kosciuszko’s brick-lined mine tunnel. She also tells the tale of the engineer who got shot in the butt, poses for a selfie with the big replica gun, and explains why the kids’ tunnel is s...

B is for Budget! In this episode of Big Blend Radio's "ABC’s of Horses" Podcast, world champion horse trainer Christy Wood gives an honest look at what it really costs to own a horse, and why planning ahead keeps a dream from turning into overwhelm.

Christy starts with the horse itself and why the price depends on what you plan to do with it, then moves on to where your horse will live: zoning and subdivision rules, boarding stables, box stalls and turnout time, and why you should find out how a horse has been living be...

Travel writer Erin Coyle takes us to Oman, where a cup of coffee is an invitation and hospitality is a way of life.

On this episode of Big Blend Radio’s "Food, Wine & Travel" Podcast with the International Food Wine Travel Writers Association (IFWTWA), host Lisa D. Smith talks with IFWTWA member Erin Coyle, a freelance travel writer and ESP teacher who moved to Oman in 2018 to teach, started writing about travel during the pandemic, and now lives in Muscat.

Erin shares what it’s really like to travel in Oman: the warm welcome, the cust...

On this episode of Big Blend Radio’s “Quiltripping Travel with Rose” Podcast, travel writer and photographer Rose Palmer of Quiltripping.com joins us fresh off the MSC World America, MSC’s newest mega ship, sailing from Miami to the Caribbean and the private island of Ocean Cay in the Bahamas. 

Rose and her best friend celebrated milestone birthdays in the exclusive MSC Yacht Club, a “ship within a ship” with its own restaurant, lounge, sun deck, pool and a personal butler. Rose compares it to flying business class: the attention of a small luxury ship with the dining an...

Celebrate Pizza Month, Italian American Heritage Month, and Family History Month with pizza, wine, and Sicilian family stories in this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Wine Time with Peggy" Podcast!

Peggy Fiandaca, co-owner of Arizona's LDV Winery, starts with a fall update from the vineyard and the tasting room in Old Town Scottsdale, including a Burgundy wine talk, Petite Sirah in November, trivia night, and two new wine releases. Then she and Lisa D. Smith dive into Peggy's Italian American heritage: growing up Sicilian in Chicago, why so many Italian immigrants came to America and the discrimination...

What does it look like to explore Sweden at the pace of a ferry? On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Wander the World" Podcast, travel writer and photographer Sharon K. Kurtz takes us on a slow-travel journey through Stockholm, Gothenburg, and the islands of the Southern Archipelago, by ferry, by train, and by kayak.

Sharon shares the Swedish ritual of fika, the daily pause for coffee, a cinnamon bun, and friends. She also talks about fresh fish and a Michelin-starred vegetable-and-fish dinner in Gothenburg, and Swedish meatballs, from a fine restaurant to IKEA. In Stockholm she...

It's October in Asheville, which makes it ghost-watching season. In Part 2 of Big Blend Radio's "Adventures in Asheville" visit with Dawn Bankson of Star Watch Night Vision Tours, we head out after dark to historic Riverside Cemetery in the Montford neighborhood, a couple of blocks from The Lion & The Rose Bed & Breakfast.

Host Lisa D. Smith and Nancy J. Reid join Steve and Karen Wilson, Dawn, and her guide Todd Robertson at the old vault that ghost hunters report as the most haunted spot in the cemetery. Through military-grade night vision goggles, the building seems to shimmer...

Step inside the 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a 1922 Chitlin' Circuit landmark and Mississippi Blues Trail stop just across from the historic train depot. On location for Big Blend Radio's "Travel with Terri" Podcast, travel journalist Terri Guthrie sits down inside the hall with Rachel Dangermond, the writer and award-winning journalist who purchased it in 2018 and now leads the nonprofit that keeps it alive. It's the perfect episode to celebrate Global Diversity Awareness Month! 

Rachel traces the hall's roots to a self-reliant benevolent association formed in the Black community during Jim Crow, and shares the s...

Clean water and sanitation touch nearly every part of life: health, education, safety, economic opportunity and human dignity. 

On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Table & Compass" Podcast, Lisa D. Smith is joined by co-hosts Joelle Machia and Ryan Slough of Wanderers Compass for a conversation with His Excellency Ambassador Dr. Nabhit Kapur, Permanent Observer to the United Nations for the Pan-African Intergovernmental Agency on Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA).

Dr. Kapur began as a psychologist and mental health advocate, founding the Peaceful Mind Foundation and World Leaders for Mental Health. He explains how t...

It's Health Literacy Month, and today is publication day for the book, "Treating a Broken System: A Physician's Cure for the Healthcare Crisis."

Retired physician and Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine Dr. Neil J. Farber joins Lisa D. Smith on Big Blend Radio to talk about why he wrote the book and what he believes it will take to fix the way patients, physicians, and healthcare administrators work together.

After decades of teaching communication to physicians, Dr. Farber became a patient himself and saw the healthcare crisis from the other side. In this conversation he...

In celebration of Global Diversity Awareness Month, Big Blend Radio's "American Jukebox" Podcast series takes a seven-song journey from Cuba to Brazil, Spain to Detroit, showing how global traditions have shaped American music, and how American artists have inspired the world right back.

Singer-songwriter Johnny Schaefer and Lisa D. Smith talk through Rufus Wainwright & John Legend, Rodríguez, Gilberto Gil, Buena Vista Social Club, Rosalía, Rusted Root, and Michael Franti & Spearhead, plus a look ahead to November's Songs for Positive Change. Timely note: Rosalía returns to Saturday Night Live as the musical guest on Saturday, Oct...

Think Ashland, Oregon is only about Shakespeare? Think again! On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Sip, Savor & Travel" Podcast, producerLisa D. Smith and travel writer Linda Kissam, the Food, Wine & Shopping Diva, sit down with Katharine Cato, Director of Travel Ashland, to explore everything Ashland offers beyond the famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Katharine shares how a town of about 21,000 residents welcomes more than 300,000 visitors a year, and why Ashland's spot right off I-5, where the Cascade and Siskiyou mountain ranges meet, makes it both an easy stop and a true destination. Linda brings her food, wine...

What happens when a comedian walks into a volcano? In this return visit on Big Blend Radio's "Toast to the Arts & Parks" Show with the National Parks Arts Foundation (NPAF), Lisa D. Smith catches up with stand-up comedian Ben Miller, the scientist-turned-comedian who became the first stand-up comedian ever selected as an NPAF artist in residence, at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park in February 2023.

That month on the Big Island, spent learning from volcanologists, entomologists, archeologists, and local Hawaiians, became "Volcano," a science comedy hour that has toured 70+ cities internationally and is now available to watch on YouTube...

It's October, and that means The Peanut Patch is open! Donna George, owner of The Peanut Patch in Yuma, Arizona, joins producer Lisa D. Smith on Big Blend Radio's "The Peanut Patch" Podcast, to celebrate the start of the season, with fresh peanut brittle and fudge back on the counter for Yuma locals, winter visitors, and road trippers passing through.

Donna shares what it takes to get the store restocked, from making peanut brittle every day to a fudge table that can hold about forty-five flavors at once. They talk pepitas and pumpkin seeds, about twenty Peanut...

It's October in California's Sequoia Country, and there's a lot going on. On this month's "California Sequoia Country" episode with the Sequoia Tourism Council, Big Blend Radio host Lisa D. Smith is joined by Holly Streit of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Suzanne Bianco of Visit Visalia to kick off fall.

The episode starts with an anniversary: on October 1st, 1890, General Grant National Park was established to protect the General Grant Tree, the second largest tree in the world and the nation's only dedicated living shrine to service members. Holly explains how that four-acre park...

Mexican-American author Leslie Adame joins Big Blend Radio for Global Diversity Awareness Month to talk about her middle-grade fantasy series following Chloe Vega, a twelve-year-old from East LA whose biggest fear is that her undocumented parents will be taken away — until she discovers her family belongs to a secret magical society, and that she has powers of her own.

The first book, "Chloe Vega and the Agents of Magic," is out now. The second, "Chloe Vega and the Missing Unseen," arrives October 6, 2026 from HarperCollins Children's.

In this conversation, Leslie talks about building a magic academy th...

On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Nature Connection" Podcast, host/producer Lisa D. Smith talks with clean energy executive Jared Schoch, founder and chairman of TurningPoint Energy and author of "Solar Coaster: The Untold Story of the Solar Industry, One Man's Journey Leading with Soul" (Regalo Press, November 10, 2026). 

Jared has spent more than two decades in the industry and has managed more than 3 gigawatts of projects representing over $5 billion in solar and energy efficiency investments.

The conversation starts with what a gigawatt means in terms of homes, then looks at why solar took so l...

On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Before They Vanish" Podcast, explorer and author James Michael Dorsey returns to talk about the gray whales he has spent decades getting to know in Baja's San Ignacio Lagoon, and about his book, "The Lagoon: Encounters with the Whales of San Ignacio."

Once hunted to the edge of extinction, these forty-ton animals now swim right up to the boats to be petted, and James explains why he calls the lagoon the only place on earth where wild animals in their natural habitat routinely seek out human contact.

James...

September is National Preparedness Month, and getting your paperwork in order is part of being ready. Estate planning attorney Lauren Corman joins Lisa D. Smith on Big Blend Radio to break down wills vs. trusts, how to avoid probate, powers of attorney and health care directives, protecting a business, and the everyday details families overlook, like titling assets and storing passwords.

In this conversation:
- Wills vs. trusts, and why California probate is costly and slow
- Protecting founders, startups, and business owners
- Naming successor trustees and backups
- Why a trust...

In honor of World Tourism Day, we're at Tiffany's Bed & Breakfast in Bismarck, Arkansas with innkeeper Tiffany Bertram for this Big Blend Radio Success Insider — a stop we make every year, and one that happens to sit right on the historic Jefferson Highway.

Tiffany takes us through her whole path into hospitality: a hotel management degree from UNLV, working her way up from housekeeping to general manager, and a career that carried her through six cities and multiple hotel brands before she and her husband Bob bought a Hot Springs-area bed and breakfast twenty-some years ago — a purc...

Every fourth Sunday, Big Blend Radio's "Music Talks" series brings together host/producer Lisa D. Smith and co-host Joey Stuckey — the award-winning musician, producer, and Macon's own "Music Ambassador." This time, the mic turns toward Joey's own milestone year.

Joey opens up about "Alive Day" — the anniversary of surviving a childhood brain tumor doctors once called inoperable — and the moment his parents reframed it forever: "September 29th is not the day you almost died. It is the day you lived."

What began as a quiet family tradition has grown into a free, all-ages concert in downto...

On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "English Connection" Podcast, Glynn Burrows takes us for a wander through England's forests — ancient and modern, native and man-made — and what a single tree can teach us about history, health, and home.

From Sherwood's legendary (and ailing) Major Oak to Thetford's man-made pine forest, from tree-ring dendrochronology to the real origin of the word "underdog," this one covers a lot of ground.

Along the way: tree equity and environmental justice in American cities, why a felled tree feels like a genuine loss, cemetery bird-watching, England's Heritage Open Days, and...

It's World Contraception Day and acclaimed Director/Producer Vaishali Sinha (Made in India and Ask the Sexpert) joins Big Blend Radio to talk about her documentary "Give It A Shot," which follows the decades-long global race to develop the first reversible male contraceptive since the modern condom. At the center of the story is 83-year-old Indian researcher Dr. Sujoy Guha, who has spent nearly 50 years on the technology, alongside a US-based team working toward the same goal.

Vaishali shares the personal story behind the film, why men currently have only three contraception options compared to more than...

It's World Contraception Day and acclaimed Director/Producer Vaishali Sinha (Made in India and Ask the Sexpert) joins Big Blend Radio to talk about her documentary "Give It A Shot," which follows the decades-long global race to develop the first reversible male contraceptive since the modern condom.

At the center of the story is 83-year-old Indian researcher Dr. Sujoy Guha, who has spent nearly 50 years on the technology, alongside a US-based team working toward the same goal.

Vaishali shares the personal story behind the film, why men currently have only three contraception options compared to...

This episode of Big Blend Radio's "Historic Jefferson Highway" Show is packed with news from the road. As always, the show features Roger Bell, Co-Host and President of the Jefferson Highway Association, along with host and producer Lisa D. Smith.

Fresh home from the Crossroads of America Centennial Conference in Joplin, Missouri, Roger shares the highlights. The conference marked 100 years since Joplin was promoted as the crossroads of the Jefferson Highway and Route 66, and brought together Route 66 Association members, tourism bureaus, travel writers, classic car clubs, and vintage trailer owners from every state and province on the...

San Diego employment attorney Ward Heinrichs has been sharing California employment law updates on Big Blend Radio since 2014. For this special "Getting to Know You" episode, he sets the fine print aside for a fun, unscripted Q&A with host Lisa D. Smith. It's part of a series reconnecting with the Big Blend Radio family as Big Blend moves into its new home, the Big Blend Media House.

Ward reveals that his lifelong spirit animal is the Wolverine: fierce, a little badass, and fitting for an attorney. Since he dreams of exploring North America by RV, he...