Hello Sonoma!

Growing up in rural Montana, Amy's dream was to move to glamorous city life in California. Little did she know the twisting path she would take to get here. In this episode we talk about the challenges of being a young person in a small town, the confidence required for effective costume design and styling, and the relationships we build with the places we escape from. TW: Suicide If you live in C...

Don Landis the Olive Guy is doing all this just for fun. For the past 40 years he has dived deep into a passion for olives, learning all their varieties, experimenting with both ancient and modern ways to make them edible at least 4 different ways, and all while educating people about it. While he doesn't sell his products (he tried it, but it just wasn't enough fun), his knowledge and contagious...

Karina Garcia strives to represent her community in various ways. First as a Television executive for TV Azteca, she traveled the Bay Area finding and highlighting local stories. Now as the community liaison for Sonoma County's district supervisor and as a part of the Springs Municipal Advisory Council, she is the eyes and ears of Sonoma County and, much like KSVY, the voice of Sonoma Valley in ou...

What a year!  ✅ - 43 episodes ✅ - 70 interviews ✅ - 8 Countries and 3 Sister Cities  In this episode, we relive some of those moments with my incredible guests from Sonoma and beyond, with highlights from 23 episodes and music, as always, by @SharingSkies.  I hope each guest's story will inspire you as much as they inspired me, and that these moments can give you optimism and hop...

Dean Biersch has a passion for creating environments that bring people together to enjoy themselves. First as co-founder of Gordon-Biersch, now as head of Sonoma and Marin County's Hopmonk Taverns, Dean has tapped into the spirit of beer to create fun, relaxing, and unpretentious communities.  He used his experience in the restaurant industry to create top-notch food matched with carefully cr...

Martín Gobbée's restaurant experience has taught him that a good venue breeds community. At his new post as Taub Family Outpost's general manager, he is using all his skills from New York City's restaurant industry, Chicago's improv scene, and his acting acumen to create a new community space on the plaza. From World Cup matches to behind the scenes magic, Martín has brought the best of his experi...

Gerardo Diaz is a bridge-builder. As the bi-lingual engagement coordinator for the Sonoma Community Center, he aims to bring Sonoma's community closer together through valley-wide outreach. Known for his generosity and kindness, he has had a circuitous journey to this role that seems meant for him. Through uber driving, landscaping or even working at an egg factory, Gerardo developed the skills ne...

Bruno Freijanes is now a civil engineer, strategic planning strategist, and world traveller. But in 2009, he was a Brazilian exchange student at Sonoma Valley High school. He came back in 2022 to visit our town with new experiences having lived in Australia, and traveled throughout Europe and Asia. I sat down to talk with him for a live interview in our KSVY studio. In this episode we talk about t...

Dr. Nancy Dome leads with compassion, whether as CEO and co-founder of Epoch Eduction, or as a longtime educator, she strives to see beyond what people present to reveal who they are. Throughout her own journey first in non-profits and public education, then into the private sector with her company, she has endeavored to "transform how we talk about differences," bridging knowledge gaps, and encou...

Everyone has a story. Your neighbors, your colleagues, your parents, your friends. They all have a story worth telling. I believe it’s worth hearing them, being inspired by them, and learning from them. Though this journey starts locally with those around you, with empathy and curiosity, the sky’s the limit. On this program I interview guests from Sonoma and beyond, to highlight how much we can le...

Maite Iturri is a community leader. What started out as an serendipitous turn into the education field, has since become a stage for leading communities through tough times and seeing far into the future. As a teacher, Maite led with love, always seeing her students not only for the kids they were, but for the people they could be. As principal of El Verano School, Maite ensured the community was...

Alan Early is a musician, a computer scientist, and a world traveler. His journey has taken him throughout Europe, South Africa, and eventually into the early years of Silicon Valley where he was a programmer – a far cry from his first early years playing in post-WWII bomb-craters in London. In this episode we talk about his musical experiences, his travels, and the unexpected twists and turns tha...

Sheri Mignano is an historian, an accordionist, and a keeper of tradition. She has delved into the annals of Italian-American history in the Bay Area and beyond to uncover the connections between the accordion and the mandolin, the stories of countless immigrants who shared their spark, and the power of music in building communities. In this episode, we talk about Sheri's own contributions to thes...

In this episode, I wandered the paths of Sonoma's historic plaza to interview several of the artisans that help make the Valley of the Moon Vintage Fest so special. I speak with jewelers, woodworkers, photographers and more about their art and why they do what they do. Later on, I made a stop at the Glen Ellen Valley Fair and spoke with Arthur Dawson, a local historian, about Sonoma Mountain and G...

Kaitie Bailie is an artist, an open water swimmer, and a bridge builder. Since she moved to Sonoma, she's done all three, forging a connection to Sonoma's sister city in what was then the USSR (now Ukraine), Kaniv; opening an art studio and exhibiting paintings throughout the Valley; and swimming to Alcatraz, Elba, across the Bosphorous, and more. Among her many talents she is a painter, a...

The world around us is full of surprises where we might not typically look. Early one morning in Milwaukee, I cleaned carpets with my friend Rick, and was reminded once again of just how true that is.  In this episode, we talk to Rick about his experience in the carpet cleaning business, but also his love of the outdoors, his passion for horses, his experience as a bull rider, and even his fo...

Sandro Melaranci is many things: painter, makeup artist, musician, producer, restauranteur. But most of all he is a connector and a community builder. His restaurant Manuia, founded with his brother Tony, became one of Rome's most successful spots not only because of its good food, wine, and music, but because of the focus they put on making their customers feel like family. His patrons, many of t...

Last episode set the scene for our journey to Tokaj with perspectives from various people of all ages and occupations. In this episode, we speak with Hajni Prácser about the history of our Hungarian sister city, and her role in it, her thoughts on wine-tasting, and the chances of meeting your husband while on an exchange journey in Sonoma. We also speak with Kathryn Arontsohn, who moved to Tokaj a...

Tokaj, Hungary, is a world-famous wine region, known for its aged special sweet wine known as Aszu. In this episode, we talk to some of the people who make this Hungarian delicacy, as well as many other characters from around town. I speak with a local teacher and a few of her students, inn-keepers, historians, cultural ministers, wine makers, and even the present and former mayor. Throu...

Greve-In-Chianti is has been Sonoma's Sister City since 1983, and over the years various students, adults, and groups have visited to learn more about wine-making, to practice their Italian, and to see what this beautiful city has to offer.  During my three days there, I had the chance to talk with Alessandra (from the office that promotes the Chianti territory) Stefano (from the renowned Fal...

Chambolle-Musigny has been a sister city of Sonoma since 1959, and this visit to speak with Chambolle's citizens highlighted the strength of those long-time connections. In this episode, I got the chance to speak with three statesmen of the sister city organization Lucien (former president of the sister city organization for 25 years), Regis (former teacher and mayor of Chambolle), and Henri (loca...

The North of France is known for its corn and dairy farms, for its old coal mines, and for the horses and cows that dot the landscape. In this episode, I interviewed some of the people behind each of these staple cultural phenomena, hearing about how they got interested in each of them and what they aim to do in the coming years. As has become custom, this episode also includes unexpected stories...

The Golden Triangle is one of India’s most famous road trips. From New Delhi, to Agra, to Jaipur, the voyage includes stops at the center of Jaipur’s walled city, old monuments in Delhi city center, and, of course, the glorious Taj Mahal. In this episode, we visit these sites, hearing what it sounds like to be on the grounds of the Taj Mahal as well as inside. We talk to my guide Mahesh about his...

Hello Sonoma! Is on a journey! This episode comes to us from New Delhi, India. The history of India spans over 5 millenia, with thousands of different communities and hundreds of languages, it is a vastly diverse place – plus India is massive. Not only is it in the top 10 largest countries by area, but it is set next year to overtake China as the world’s most populous. This hour long episode doesn...

Broadcasting from the French Pyrenees, in this episode I interview local journalists, bakers, fishers, and hoteliers. All of them have one thing in common: human stories.  This is the second episode as part of the Hello Sonoma Global series in which I am traveling to 3 of Sonoma's sister cities to hear stories and broadcast them at home. While we don't have a sister city in the south of Franc...