Best of Nancy's Bookshelf: From Chico State to Cheers with Rick Beren

By Nancy Wiegman,

Published March 25, 2026 at 10:00 AM PDT

When Rick Berens was a student at Chico State, he was arrested for selling 0.25 g of cocaine and incarcerated for five months.

His book recounts his experiences in the Butte County Jail and the Vacaville Prison. He later had success writing and directing for television shows like Cheers.

Berens will be at Chico's Barnes & Noble on April 4.

Episode #755

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Nancy Wiegman

Nancy Wiegman has a master's degree in French linguistics from Indiana University and taught yoga and foreign languages at CSU Fresno and the College of Charleston before moving to Chico in 1990.

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Matt Fidler

Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.

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