LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY

This episode of Creative Economy Builders is a little different.   I’m reaching back into Season 2 of Local Whidbey to revisit a conversation that, looking at it now, was really a Creative Economy Builders story all along.   Every Labor Day weekend, downtown Oak Harbor transforms. Streets fill with people. Musicians come in from across the country. Food trucks roll in. Local businesses see crowds...

When we talk about Whidbey’s creative economy, we often talk about the people who live here and build something.  But there’s another piece of a creative economy that may be just as important:  Can you create something compelling enough that talented people choose to come here—and then choose to come back?  Every year, Island Shakespeare Festival brings professional actors, directors, designers an...

When people hear the words arts commission, they may picture a committee that chooses murals, reviews public art, or helps organize cultural events. But an arts commission can do something much bigger. It can help shape how a city sees itself. It can influence what our public spaces look like, which stories get told, where creativity shows up, and whether residents feel like they live in a place w...

Today's guest is Catherine Markel, who moved to Oak Harbor with her husband in late 2024. They didn't know anyone here, and they weren't moving because of the military. They simply found Whidbey, fell in love with it, and decided to make a very different kind of life. Catherine came from a career as an attorney handling child abuse case—a job that left her angry at the world and frustrated by what...

Today's story is a reinvention story, but with little different perspective on Oak Harbor a lot of us do not have. Sometimes reinvention means leaving. Sometimes it means starting over. And sometimes, after years away, it means coming home. My guest grew up right here in Oak Harbor. After high school, she left and spent the next 20 years building a life in Lake Stevens. Along the way, she created ...

What if the next great agricultural story in Washington isn’t wine, apples or berries—but tea? That may sound improbable. Washington has never exactly been known as tea country. But on Whidbey Island, a group of farmers, entrepreneurs and culinary professionals are betting that the Pacific Northwest could become home to something entirely new: a thriving tea-growing region. The ambition is enormou...

'Barbara Fuller on Starting Over and Finding a New Purpose' Today's guest has reinvented herself more than once. Barbara Fuller began her career as a police officer in San Mateo, California. After being injured on the job, she was forced into an early retirement and had to figure out what came next. Rather than stepping away from work altogether, Barbara went back to school and built an entirely n...

Welcome back to Local Whidbey Podcast. I'm Magsy, and this week I'm bringing you a conversation from Season One that I decided deserved a second look through the lens of my Reinventions series. When I originally interviewed Scott Price, I thought of him simply as an interesting islander—the creator of Price Sculpture Forest in Coupeville. But listening back, I realized there was a much bigger rein...

Another great local story in my REINVENTION SERIES. For many people, retirement or a career change marks the beginning of something different. But today's guests didn't wait for one chapter to end before beginning the next. Martha Valle has spent her career creating memorable experiences as a bartender with Morale, Welfare and Recreation on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Earlier this year, Tony...

My guest today is someone who perfectly embodies the idea of having the courage to create something new in her life. By day, Jen Schmitz serves Island County as the Natural Resources Manager, helping protect the land and waters that make Whidbey such a remarkable place to live. It's thoughtful, technical work that requires science, collaboration, and long-term thinking. But outside of her day job,...

Welcome to Local Whidbey Podcast. I'm Magsy, and this is another episode in our Reinventions series, where we explore the people who have found new purpose by embracing change. Sometimes reinvention isn't about starting over. It's about taking everything you've learned in one chapter of your life and applying it in an entirely new way. Today's guest is Andrea Mansfield, owner of Little Gemme, a re...

During the early days of the pandemic, people were literally driving to farms and knocking on doors, hoping to buy eggs, vegetables, or meat. The usual ways of getting local food had broken down almost overnight. That's when today's guest and a community of farmers got together and said "There is a way!" The Whidbey Island Grown Cooperative's FOOD HUB began. Today's story begins in the uncertainty...

Welcome back to the Local Whidbey Podcast and another episode in our special Saltwater Lives series, where we're exploring the people, history, industries, and traditions that make life on Whidbey Island inseparable from the sea. Before there were highways connecting towns, the water was our highway. Steamships carried passengers, freight, livestock, and mail. Fishermen, loggers, farmers, shipbuil...

There's a particular rhythm to life on Whidbey that you can't find anywhere else—a tide-driven cadence that shapes everything from when we wake to what ends up on our plates. In the "Saltwater Lives" series, we're diving into the stories of those whose lives move with the water, whose hands bear the marks of nets and lines, and whose identities are woven into the very salt spray of this island. To...

Some people look at the ocean and see a frontier; others see a home. For Dr. Florian Graner, the waters around Whidbey Island are both a laboratory and a canvas. He is a scientist, a conservationist, and an award-winning filmmaker who has taken the hidden world beneath the waves and brought it to screens across the globe. From his work with Disney and Netflix to his latest acclaimed film, Orcas —...

Why would someone come to Whidbey Island to disappear? Novelist T Kira Māhealani Madden talks about refuge, memory, and the island at the center of her new novel 'Whidbey'. Today on Local Whidbey Podcast, I’m joined by T Kira Māhealani Madden, an award-winning writer whose highly anticipated new novel Whidbey is set right here on Whidbey Island. T Kira first came to national attention with her deb...

Meg Olson is one of those people who make a town feel like home. If you’ve ever walked into Kingfisher Bookstore and felt immediately welcomed, challenged, entertained, or gently told what you should be reading—there’s a good chance you’ve met Meg Olson. Meg is the owner of Kingfisher Bookstore in Coupeville, and she is funny, outspoken, wildly knowledgeable, and absolutely unafraid to jump in and...

If you’ve ever thought mead was just a medieval novelty — or something overly sweet — today’s conversation might completely change your mind. On Whidbey Island, there’s a meadery that’s quietly redefining what mead can be by blending honey, botanicals, fermentation science, and a deep respect for pollinators and place. Hierophant Meadery in Freeland is owned by Jeremy Kyncl and Michelle Scandalis...

Today on the Local Whidbey Podcast we are honored to have Alanah Lawrason, known in these parts as the “Farm-Her” of Foggy Hill Farm. Nestled on Whidbey Island, Foggy Hill is a two-acre vegetable and cut-flower farm that’s as much about growing community as it is about growing food. Alanah has been farming in some capacity for about eight years — including roughly five years here on Whidbey — lear...

Today on Local Whidbey, we’re turning the microphone around — and in the best possible way. I’ve invited someone I admire, Tiffany Scribner, Program Manager for Leadership Whidbey, to step in as our guest host. If you know Tiffany, you know she has a gift for guiding conversations, drawing out people’s stories, and helping leaders understand not just what they do, but why they do it. Her work with...

There’s something I love about talking with people who’ve chosen Whidbey Island — people who didn’t just land here by accident but saw something in this place worth rooting into. My guest today, Hannah Andersen, is one of those people. She’s the Outreach and Education Coordinator for the Whidbey Island Conservation District, and part of a younger generation that’s quietly shaping the island’s futu...

Today on Local Whidbey with Magsy, we’re turning up the heat — literally — with one of the most entertaining chefs to ever land in the Pacific Northwest kitchen scene. You might remember him from The Next Food Network Star back in the day, but these days you’ll find him cooking up something even better — laughter, learning, and a whole lot of flavor — right here in the PNW. Chef Tommy Grella has b...

ENJOY THE LAST HOLIDAY RE-LISTEN! By the way ... listen to the end to learn how to teach for WILASC. Hai Anh Vue is looking for professional who love arts, languages and STEM. Today’s guest is about to blow your mind, expand your horizons, and quite possibly make you wish you’d paid more attention in science class.  We are talking to the brilliant Hai Anh Vue, the powerhouse behind the Whidbey Isl...

ENJOY THIS WEEKS HOLIDAY RE-LISTEN   You know how some people just have that magic touch? Like, they can capture a moment so perfectly that you swear you can hear the music, smell the salty sea air, and feel the collective joy of a crowd in a single photograph? Well, that’s Dennis Browne for you. This guy is basically the unofficial historian of Whidbey’s music scene—except instead of a dusty old...

This week is the third week of 're-listens' or maybe a new 'listen' for you as we are in the Holiday season. This week I'm bringing back Todd Hipsher or known on social media as @PNWBirdie. He walks somewhere on Whidbey Island everyday and takes amazing photographs. They are mesmerizing. He has quite the following. Enjoy his Whidbey Island journey. THE RE-LISTEN In today’s episode, I was honored t...