Big Blend Radio

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 cake...

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...

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 th...

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 Tu...

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...

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 L...

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...

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 i...

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...

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 li...

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,...

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...

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...

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 cof...

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. Hosts Lisa D. Smith and Nancy J. Reid join Steve...

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...

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 Nat...

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 health...

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 Lege...

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...

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...

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 t...

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,...

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...

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...