Matt Fidler

Blue Dot's "Apollo at 50" series continues with this look back at Apollo 12 which took place in November of 1969. Dave often says that "Apollo 12 was one of my favorite missions -- it paved the way for the scientific exploration of the Moon and had the crew that can definitely be called 'A band of brothers!'

While none of the Apollo 12 astronauts are with us on Earth, they are certainly with us in our collective memory and we take a look back at the epic mission to explore the Ocean of Storms 50 years ago with Lead Flight Director Gerry Griffin, Flight Controller John Aaron and astronaut Alan Bean's daughter Amy Bean.

This week we’re settling into the flavors of the Autumn season – and the seasonings we turn to in cooler weather - headed toward the tastes of the winter holidays ahead. We’re joined in this by Sue Goetz, author of A Taste for Herbs.

She explores with us how to start from our gardens, from the personality and chemistry of our herbs, and move from there to the deliciousness we want to evoke in the kitchen - rather than the other way around. Join us!

In honor of the one year anniversary of the Camp Fire, Cultivating Place is joined this week by Douglas Kent, author of Firescaping, and Calli-Jane DeAnda and Ben Hart of the Butte County Fire Safe Council to talk about the importance of gardening and gardeners modeling important land care and stewardship ethic in fire country. Join us.

From his "Growing with Plants” blog to his first book "Mastering the Art of Vegetable Growing”, which he researched, photographed and wrote – plantsman Matt Mattus is inspiring.

He joins us this week on Cultivating Place to share more on the different twists, turns and fertile offshoots of his plant journey. We talk about his first book AND get some hints about his new book coming out soon on unusual selections for the flower garden too. Listen in!

Author photographer Douglas Keister published People, Places, & Pieces of Paradise on the anniversary of the devastating Camp Fire. Stunning images from the fire’s ignition on November 8, 2018, to the fire’s aftermath, along with portraits and sketches of citizens and survivors. 

Dave visits with James Zimring, author of the new book What Science is and How it Really Works. In a wide-ranging conversation that covers everything from the methodology of science, news flash, there really isn't a "Scientific Method" like the version you saw in your high school biology textbook, to some of the most important social issues of our day like the anti-vaccination movement and climate change science denial. 

Misti Little is an environmental consultant working in GIS services. As a naturalist, gardener, explorer and fellow garden audio producer, she (and her garden) help us to map where we are – and how to see that more clearly – connecting the dots of ecosystems large and small, public and private, through watersheds and through-hikes right back to our own homes.  Misti Joins Cultivating Place this week to share more - listen in!

This week we head up the road to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, unofficially known as The Rock, where countless bad guys did their time in the former federal prison there.

Visiting Alcatraz is like touring the dark side of the American dream, like peering into democracy’s private demon hold. At Alcatraz, freedom is a fantasy. If crime is a universal option—and everyone behind bars at Alcatraz exercised that option—then all who once inhabited this desolate island penitentiary were certainly equal.

Composer and long-time vegan Will Tuttle wrote The World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony.  Redding author and adventurer Joel Stratte-McClure drops by to wish his mother happy 100th birthday, and Camp Fire survivor Bill Hartley was featured in Douglas Keister’s book People, Places, and Pieces of Paradise. 

In this episode, we explore the amazing story of the Western Flyer, the fishing boat immortalized by John Steinbeck in his 1940 book The Log From The Sea of Cortez. Fresh off the success and controversy surrounding The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck and his best friend and mentor in the newly emerging science of ecology, marine biologist Ed Ricketts (the model for the character of "Doc" in the novel Cannery Row) set off to explore the Baja California coast and the Gulf of California (more romantically referred to as "The Sea of Cortez") in 1940.