Little Local Conversations

Meet Cameron Labrecque! He's the GM and Director of Hockey Operations for the Boston Gold Kings, a semi-professional hockey team here in Watertown. We talk about his personal hockey journey, the challenges of the semi-professional hockey world, the experience of coming to a game, and more. Find out more about the Gold Kings (and find their schedule): Instagram Facebook Support the show Head o...

Meet Sophia Suarez-Friedman! She's a clinical social worker and coordinator of the Watertown Social Services Resource Specialist Program at the Wayside Youth and Family Support Network. We talk about her early experiences with social work in DC and why the field is interesting and important to her, coming to Wayside in Watertown and how she fell in love with the community and its people, we d...

Meet Matthew Stephens! He's the President and CEO of the Mount Auburn Cemetery here in Watertown (yes, it's mostly in Watertown!). We chat about his background in horticulture including planting 1 million trees in NYC, how Mt Auburn was the first designed public landscape in the country and for many years was the #2 tourist attraction (behind Niagara Falls), why Mt Auburn is a place just...

Meet Nicole Gardner! She's the City Councilor for District A (East End) here in Watertown. We chat about her years of work in the management consulting world, how shifting into HR opened her eyes to the importance of diversity and inclusion and informed a lifelong human-centered philosophy, her diving into the Watertown community (from helping at the Perkins School for the Blind to starting t...

Meet Elan Rohde! She's the owner of Campolongo Cookie Company right here in Watertown. We dig into how she used her anthropology and archaeology background to learn the science of baking and hone her cookie recipe over the years, the importance of knowing her ingredients and making her own vanilla extract and brown sugar, the lessons learned from running a food business without a brick-and-mo...

Meet Arto Vaun! He's Executive Director of Project Save Photograph Archive and a musician and poet here in Watertown. We talk about his own journey as a self-described late bloomer in owning his artistic identity to now getting public acclaim for his music, how he came to be interested in joining Project Save and his vision for reimagining it for the future to have a broader scope outside of...

Meet George Proakis! He's the city manager for the City of Watertown. There's a lot to talk about in Watertown! We scratch the surface with: His background and early experiences with civil engineering, public administration, and city planning from corn fields to Assembly Row. The unique strengths of Watertown from its strong fiscal foundation to its regionally exceptional wedding venue....

Meet Ernie Thebado! He's the new Director of Recreation for the City of Watertown (though he's no stranger to rec in Watertown!). We chat about the people and moments that shaped him (as a kid and an adult) at Boys and Girls Clubs in Marlborough and Watertown, what he loves about working with kids, how he thinks about the future of recreation, and of course we delve into the programs you...

Meet Nookie Postal! He's a chef and co-owner of the new Revival Cafe and Kitchen here in Watertown. We get into a conversation about his culinary journey: From growing up where a nice night of food was going out to a chain restaurant to studying at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts His early years in the area cutting his teeth at Casablanca, Chez Henri, and Icarus Being sous chef at Olean...

Meet Ruth Rappaport! She's a musician living here in Watertown. Listen to hear about: Being a self-taught guitarist and growing up surrounded by the folk revival and cowboy music How running a coffeehouse and working at record labels helped propel her into the string band music scene Playing in a well-known band in her genre, The Poodles, and how they once had Julia Child kicking up her heels...

Meet Erin Rathe! She's the Senior Planner for Economic Development for the City of Watertown, a brand new position for the city. We talk about her journey transitioning from pursuing a PhD in English literature to owning a handcrafted gift shop to shifting into the world of economic development. We get into what it is that an economic developer actually does, the importance of storytelling an...

Meet Ryan Nicholson! He's the Fire Chief at the Watertown Fire Department. We chat about his Watertown roots, then his journey from early experiences on ambulances all the way up to fire chief with stops as training officer, fire inspector, deputy chief, and more along the way. Listen to hear about: - What firefighters do when they're not dealing with emergencies - The procedures they fo...

Meet Peter Pyne! He's the executive chef and owner of Olespaña, a Spanish bar and restaurant here in Watertown. We talk about growing up as a farmer in northern Spain (but also studying economics), the cultural differences between the US and Spain and how those play out in the restaurant business, how he's put a lot of thought into the interior design of the place (including Victorian ba...

Hi there! This is just a short message saying that I'll be taking a short break from releasing new episodes, but I'll be back at it in a few weeks. Until then, take care! Support the show Head on over to www.littlelocalconversations.com to check out all the episodes, events, and everything else going on.  Sign up for the Little Local Conversations email newsletter Follow on Instagram: @l...

Meet Sally Young! She's an artist and art activist here in Watertown and the mind behind Edible Watertown, an initiative of the Watertown Public Arts and Culture Committee. She's had a winding journey to get where she is now that includes being in the Peace Corps in Tunisia, doing social work in Philadelphia, and being the program coordinator of the Loeb Fellowship for the Harvard Univer...

Meet Joel Giacobozzi! He's the principal for the Watertown High School and (at least temporarily) for the Middle School as well. He has some surprising stories you might not expect for a principal such as stints living alone in the Yukon and studying Brazilian jiu-jitsu in Brazil. We talk about those stories as well as his 3-day career in finance, his love of music (he actually minored in cla...

Meet Tyler Cote! He’s the Community Engagement Specialist for Watertown, a new role in the city. We get into a conversation about his days working in a nonprofit teaching kids about online safety and a particular day there that forever changed his view on community engagements, we chat about what a community engagement specialist actually does and how it’s become a much larger role than he origina...

Meet Stephanie Venizelos! She’s the Community Wellness Program Manager for the City of Watertown (which includes managing the farmers market!). We chat about her early years teaching health in schools and her transition into broader thinking roles around helping people thrive and do well, what drew her to Watertown and how getting involved in the school community led her on a path to her current r...

Meet Christian Dallas! He's an insurance agent at Dallas Insurance Agency here in Watertown and is the president-elect of the Watertown Rotary Club. We chat about his experience working his way into the Watertown community and how the kindness of the already established people led him to start wanting to give back even more, what it's like stepping into a longtime family business focused...

Meet Gideon Schreiber! He's the Director of Planning and Zoning for the City of Watertown. We chat about his early experiences in the wilderness of Northern Idaho and the cold of Fairbanks, Alaska (where he once spent a month with temperatures never being above negative thirty degrees), his interest in the history of Watertown from its industrial roots with the world's fastest car to the...

Meet Steve Owens! He's the State Representative for the 29th Middlesex District which includes most of Watertown and part of Cambridge. We chat about missing the boat on the Silicon Valley gold rush, his history in freight transportation management, why a former state rep going to the RMV led to his first moment realizing he was making some actual important political decisions, insights from...

Meet Tia Tilson! She's the Executive Director of the Watertown Community Foundation, a place-based philanthropic organization here in Watertown. We chat about her early grassroots organizing and fundraising experiences and the lessons learned, how biking and gardening grounds her and allows her to recharge, and we get into the wide range of things the Watertown Community Foundation helps supp...

Meet Julie Fei-Fan Balzer! She's a painter, printmaker, and collage artist here in Watertown. We chat about her winding journey as a self-taught artist from her early rejections from scrapbooking magazines to snowballing hard work and luck into becoming a professional artist with tens of thousands of online followers (though we also talk about vanity versus practicality with social media numb...

Meet Darren Farrington! He's the Executive Director at the Mosesian Center for the Arts here in Watertown. We talk about his roots in the arts including a stint as an entertainment lawyer and interning for Les Mis in New York to arts advocacy and running educational theater in Connecticut, we discuss his transition to his current role in 2020 and dealing with all those challenges, and of cour...

Meet Kristen Kenny! She's an artist, arts organizer, and Chair of the Watertown Arts Market. We chat about how her wide-ranging artistic interests were a result of a childhood surrounded by musicians and artists, creating and running her own fashion business for over 20 years, learning to read (and find the tricks in) contracts and dealing with difficult people while booking bands for venues...