A Big Sur Podcast

Big Sur Fire Chief Matt Harris takes us inside the Timber and Plaskett Fires from the perspective of the local department: the first night, the competition for resources, unified command, evacuation orders, community knowledge and the preparations that helped protect Big Sur. He also describes what must change before the next fire - and why a successful response should be understood as a beginning...

What does a member of Congress actually do when a wildfire breaks out in Big Sur? Before getting to that question, this conversation goes somewhere more personal. Congressman Jimmy Panetta talks about his family’s roots on the Central Coast, beginning with his grandfather Carmelo Panetta, who came to the United States from Calabria in 1921, eventually settling in Monterey and Carmel Valley. Jimmy...

John Mills and the app Big Sur turned to during Timber and Plaskett! During the Timber and Plaskett Fires, many of us, I certainly did, kept Watch Duty close at hand—checking its map, reading incident updates and waiting for the next alert. It feels indispensable.  <<<<<<<< NOTE: A technical problem affected Magnus’s side of this recording. We have improved it as far as pos...

What happens to the land after the fire engines leave? In this fifth conversation in our Living with Fire: Big Sur series, I talk with biogeographer, vegetation ecologist, teacher and conservation advocate Nikki Nedeff about the Timber and Plaskett Fires—not primarily as emergencies to be fought, but as ecological events whose consequences may unfold for decades. Nikki grew up exploring the Carmel...

What happens when local knowledge meets the machinery of government during the Timber and Plaskett Fires. This is the fourth conversation in Living With Fire: Big Sur , an ongoing A Big Sur Podcast examination of the Timber and Plaskett Fires and of Big Sur’s larger relationship with wildfire. The previous conversations have taken us to some different parts of the same emergency. Marcus Foster des...

This is the third conversation in Living With Fire: Big Sur , an ongoing A Big Sur Podcast series examining the Timber and Plaskett Fires from different points of view—and asking what they can tell us about living with wildfire in Big Sur. Previous episodes: # 131 Living With Fire: Big Sur - Marcus Foster on the Timber Fire, Local Knowledge, and What Comes Next # 132 Living With Fire: Big Sur — Lu...

Living With Fire: Big Sur is an ongoing series of conversations about the Timber and Plaskett Fires—and, more broadly, about what it means to live with wildfire in Big Sur. In this episode I talk with Lucas Handy of Treebones Resort , on the South Coast of Big Sur. Longtime listeners may remember that Lucas's parents, John and Corinne Handy , have both been guests on A Big Sur Podcast , talki...

What happens in the hours after a wildfire starts in Big Sur—before the full machinery of a major incident has arrived? Over the coming weeks, A Big Sur Podcast will be talking with a number of people about the Timber and Plaskett Fires, and more broadly about Big Sur’s long and complicated relationship with wildfire. This first conversation is with Marcus Foster of Keep Big Sur Wild , who was on...

Melting Point: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land A dusty, life-size portrait no one looked at. A family name no one could spell. And a single line in a 1941 obituary — "a household name for Jews across the Russian Empire." At 24, Rachel Cockerell started pulling that thread, and it led her from a messy house in North London to the docks of Galveston, Texas. I talk with R...

Send us Fan Mail Magnus, a secular Swede in Big Sur, speaks with Father Cyprian Consiglio — musician, Camaldolese monk, former prior of New Camaldoli, and now Secretary General of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue in Rome — about vocation, music, solitude, Rome, Iran, God, and why real love may simply mean: “I’ll be here tomorrow.” >>>>>>>>> Magnus speaks with Father Cypr...

Send us Fan Mail From Tehran to the Akasha: Rohini Moradi on grief, ancient wisdom, and the search for meaning Raised in a Hindu temple in Tehran before emigrating to the United States, Rohini Moradi brings an unusually personal perspective to ideas that are often presented only as modern spirituality. Meet Rohini Moradi at the Henry Miller Library on July 14 for a book reading. Reserve your spot...

Send us Fan Mail Travel writer, guidebook author, former Big Sur ranger, and old friend, Stuart Thornton, returns to Big Sur—at least in spirit—to reflect on a career spent encouraging people to visit the very places he sometimes wishes they would leave alone.  We talk about discovering California's coast, writing guidebooks, the challenge of over tourism, and whether AI will help travelers f...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Magnus has a conversation with Carol Olson, Executive Director of the Ventana Wilderness Alliance, about wilderness, responsibility, and the increasingly difficult art of protecting a place people love. GOOD LINKS: Big Sur Wilderness and Conservation Act Full text — Congress.gov Public Law details — GovInfo Summary — Ventana Wilderness Alliance Ventana Wilderness A...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of A Big Sur Podcast , I speak with the writer and journalist Matti Friedman about his remarkable book Out of the Sky — a work that begins with four words from the Bible, “Out of the sky,” and unfolds into a meditation on fear, memory, survival, aviation, mythology, Jewish history, and the strange psychological atmosphere that has surrounded Israel since October 7,...

Send us Fan Mail A conversation with artist Katie Holten about life and art, climate and action, walking and inaction! Katie's website Announcement for her new book! Support the show _________________________________________________ This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County! Let us know what you think! SEND US AN E...

Send us Fan Mail "At intervals the condor passed, huge as an ocean liner.” Henry Miller in Big Sur and the Oranges Besides marveling at the exceptional beauty and almost mysterious power of these amazing birds Joe Burnett and I discuss work in Big Sur and Monterey.  We talk about the rebuilding of the Ventana Wildlife Sanctuary after the 2020 Dolan Fire, how the sanctuary supports releasing,...

Send us Fan Mail The Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Forest a New Heyday Book The Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Website I sit down with artist, photographer, and author Josie Iselin, and what begins as a conversation about kelp opens into an exploration of the intricate world in the waters just off our coast. Josie traces her own path into that world—from artist to something closer to a natu...

Send us Fan Mail Alison van Diggelen – Journalist, interviewer, and author of The Love Project: A Journey of Intimate Conversations. Photo is of Alison and her Mom. Alison's website . Buy "The Love Project" at your local bookstore. May we suggest the Henry Miller Library. >>>>>>>>>>>>> Topics in This Episode The origins of The Love Project Love...

Send us Fan Mail Shamergence The skeptic asks, “Is it real?”  The shaman asks, “Did it help?” COME MEET ROB SOMERS ON SATURDAY, MARCH 21 >>>>>>>>>> Carlos Castaneda Joseph Campbell The Samples Ozymandias >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Shaman, Skeptic, and the Voice in the Belly Support the show ________________________________________...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of A Big Sur Podcast , I sit down with Brita Ostrom — longtime Esalen resident and author of Steeped: A Big Sur Elixir of Sulfur and Sage . Brita’s life bridges several revolutions at once: the islands of the Pacific Northwest, the Haight-Ashbury explosion of 1966–67, the psychedelic and political turbulence of the Summer of Love, and the early, formative years of...

Send us Fan Mail Andrew Munn in conversation! Deep Listening, Between Cage and Wagner, from Silence to Parsifal. Listening for the unheard, where sound becomes ceremony. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Links to more on what we spoke of: ANDREW MUNN Short video from the HMML performance. Peter Matte i John Cage Pauline Oliveros Deep Listening Rami Sarieddeine Shanghai C...

Send us Fan Mail The Ballad of Kendra and Matt (or, The Song That Never Made It to the PA)   A neighborhood celebration, a home-recorded love song, a forgotten “play” button — and a reminder that even when things go sideways, community and humor always find a way. Magnus tells the true story behind a tune that almost didn’t get heard — until now. Support the show __________________________________...

Send us Fan Mail Support the show _________________________________________________ This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County! Let us know what you think! SEND US AN EMAIL !  😊 magnus@henrymiller.org FaceBook Instagram

Send us Fan Mail A clown stands alone… somewhere between Henry Miller and Samuel Beckett… somewhere between laughter and the cosmic void. Henry Miller once said, “A clown is a poet in action.” Today, that poet is Kangalee—the one-man actor and director—returning to the stage with a new mono-drama that refuses to stay in one world. Silent film. Revolutionary vaudeville. Delirious mime. Poetry. Nirv...

Send us Fan Mail Author-photographer Josh Jackson grew up camping the Midwest’s state-parks but it wasn’t until he had moved to California, and after the birth of his third child, in 2015—when every California campground was booked solid—that a friend uttered the words “BLM land.” One spur-of-the-moment trip to the Trona Pinnacles cracked open a new universe: 15 million acres of under-sung, “left-...