Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast

In the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast we highlight the 2026 Peter Benchley Awards that were held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium this spring. They’re named after the author of Jaws who spent most of his subsequent life as a shark and ocean protection advocate. Founded almost 20 years ago by Blue Frontier and Wendy Benchley and continuing under the auspices of the Aquarium Conservatio...

An inside look at the determined youth ambassadors advocating for oceanic policy reform. In the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast David and oceanographer and Blue Frontier board member Joy LeiLei Shih talk about our Youth Ambassador program before interviewing our 2026 ambassadors – Avery, age 13, Jack, 13, Liam, 14 and Kianna 16 on their return from an Ocean Week trip to Washington...

In the latest episode of Rising Tide Ocean Podcast, Natasha Benjamin and Vicki Nichols talk with marathon swimmer Catherine Breed — a record-breaking endurance athlete, former U.S. National Team swimmer, and founder of Sea Dreamers. From world-record swims between the Farallon Islands and the Golden Gate Bridge to crossings of Lake Tahoe and beyond, Catherine shares stories from a life shaped by t...

Exploring the Depths: An Investigative Dive on Ocean Conservation and Cultural Impact In the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein have an engaging conversation with Paul Greenberg, author of the best-selling book ‘Four Fish’ and more recent writings including his latest novel ‘A Third Term’ (George Washington takes on Donald Trump). A Writer in...

Unraveling the Threads of Change: From Photography to Global Environmental Advocacy Academy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos returned to the Rising Tide Ocean Podcast for a conversation as wide-ranging and urgent as his films. Host David Helvarg sat down with Psihoyos before a live audience during SF Climate Week at the downtown San Francisco studios of KALW public radio — and the exchange di...

Exploring the Forgotten Frontlines of Our Ocean's Battle Against Climate Change The tables turn on the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast as Blue Frontier’s Natasha Benjamin interviews Rising Tide co-host and author David Helvarg on his latest book, ‘Forest of the Sea – The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp’ (coming out May 5th). As co-director of the award-winning kelp for...

Explore the alliance between fishermen and environmentalists that is reshaping the industry and safeguarding marine life. On the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast , host David Helvarg and co-host Vicki Nichols Goldstein sit down with James Workman and Amanda Leland, co-authors of Sea Change – Unlikely Allies and a Success Story of Oceanic Proportions — a book that makes a convincing...

On the latest episode of Rising Tide, hosts David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols-Goldstein sit down with Angelo Villagomez, Senior Ocean Fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington D.C. — a man who has spent his career turning conviction into policy at the edges of the map. A longtime activist and advocate for community and indigenous governance, Villagomez was a central force behind the e...

Breaking Barriers & Pioneering Pursuits On the latest episode of Rising Tide, bodysurfer David Helvarg and board surfer Natasha Benjamin sit down with photographer, filmmaker, and journalist Sachi Cunningham — a woman who has spent more than two decades pointing her lens at the pioneers rewriting what's possible in big wave surfing. Cunningham helped build the LA Times video team from the grou...

On the latest episode of *Rising Tide*, hosts David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein sit down with Mark Benjamin and Katie Carpenter, co-directors of the powerful feature documentary Fatal Watch. Fatal Watch exposes the darkest underbelly of the global fishing industry—the murder and suspicious deaths of dozens of onboard fisheries observers assigned by the tuna industry and others to document...

On the latest episode of Rising Tide, hosts David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein sit down with Erin Hudson, Director of the Seafood Watch program at the world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium. With more than 15 years dedicated to advancing sustainable seafood, Hudson brings deep insight into how consumer choices ripple through ocean ecosystems and fishing communities. The conversation traces th...

In the latest episode of Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast, David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein speak with former guests and good friends of the Ocean Philippe and Ashlan Cousteau. Philippe is the third generation of the legendary family of Jacques Cousteau and a founder of the youth group Earth Echo International. Ashlan is a former entertainment journalist who now reports on the doings of sea...

In the latest episode of Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast, David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein speak with longtime ocean activist and former guest Richard Charter about the Trump administration’s punitive effort to open the entire California coastline to offshore oil drilling. It has been several years since their last conversation with Charter, who has spent decades leading efforts to protect...

In this year-end episode Holden Hardcastle and Nick Paz do an on-the-ground (actually on the beach) interview with Vince Yuen, founder of 'Refuse, Refuse San Francisco.' During a beach clean-up on the city's oceanfront he discusses the significance of community-led trash cleanups in protecting the environment. Vince shares how his organization started as a personal project during the COVID pandemi...

In the latest episode of Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast, David speaks with Superintendent Eric Jones of the Cal Poly Maritime Academy, the only one of 7 U.S. Maritime Academies located on the west coast. A retired Coast Guard Rear Admiral credentialed to captain anything afloat, Eric served 13 years of his distinguished career at sea where he commanded three Coast Guard cutters including the 3-mas...

In the latest episode of Rising Tide, David Helvarg speaks with Peter Gros and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, co-hosts of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild,” a show whose origins go back to 1963, when most televisions were still black and white, but wildlife was both more abundant and less understood.  Today, you can see their Emmy-nominated television show on Saturday mornings on NBC or w...

In the latest episode, David Helvarg and Natasha Benjamin speak with Amy Bowers Cordalis of California’s Yurok Tribe about her life and her new book, The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family’s Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life. Amy, the former general counsel for the Yurok Tribe, the largest tribe in California, living along the Klamath River, shares the story of her family’s leadership in...

In the latest episode, David Helvarg & Vicki Nichols Goldstein talk with the Reverend Robert Wilkins about how his faith led him to his work with the Seafarers Ministry, serving ship crews arriving at the Port of Oakland, California. Wilkins and his team make ship visits, help crew members connect with families in places like the Philippines and Bangladesh, and check in on conditions such as time...

In the latest episode of Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast, hosts David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein speak with Chef Andrew Zimmern — the award-winning host and producer of numerous acclaimed radio and television programs, including the Food Channel’s Bizarre Foods and the PBS documentary series Hope in the Water, which explores ocean farming and restoration.  Zimmern, who began working in th...

In the latest episode of ‘Rising Tide, the Ocean Podcast,’ David and Natasha speak with Dr. Ben Halpern. Along with being a past Peter Benchley Ocean Award winner, Ben serves as Director of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, a research center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is also a professor of marine biology and conservation science. Among his nu...

In the latest episode of ‘Rising Tide, the Ocean Podcast,’ David speaks with Erica Hammond, Legislative Director of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO.  They represent most of the roughly 1,000 workers who’ve been out of a job since the Trump administration issued a stop-work order in August on the ‘Revolution’ wind farm project.  That’s a 5 billion-dollar 80 percent completed offshore wind farm that was sl...

In the latest episode of 'Rising Tide, the Ocean Podcast,' hosts David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein of the Inland Ocean Coalition interview Dr. Drew Harvell, an esteemed professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University. The discussion delves into the recent breakthrough in identifying the bacteria responsible for sea star wasting disease, which has decimated starfish popu...

The latest episode of Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast features a conversation with Kirsten Donald, a marine mammal biologist, educator, and ocean advocate with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California. This renowned rescue center responds to whales and dolphins in distress while rehabilitating and releasing hundreds of sick and injured seals and sea lions each year. Before joini...

The latest episode of the Rising Tide Ocean Podcast features an excerpt from a recent conversation between David Helvarg and Chris Clarke of the desert podcast 90 Miles from Needles. Clarke discusses Helvarg’s first book, The War Against the Greens (1994), which was highly influential in exposing a violent environmental backlash funded by western industries such as hard-rock mining, beef, and timb...

In the latest Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast David and Vicki talk with former Ocean Conservancy Chief Scientist and policy expert George Leonard about the Trump administration’s approach to our public seas. In taking a closer look at the BBB (‘Big Beautiful’ or ‘Big Brother’) mega-bill that Congress just passed, George breaks down many of the vital services from ocean observation and weather labs...