Talk of the Bay KSQD - Latest News

Host Meilin Obinata introduces you to Andrew Sandoval, City of Salinas Councilmember of District Five. What is it like to survive a recall campaign when the big money is after you? Or what it’s like to advocate for renters rights when the majority of the city council isn’t? And what it was like to be […]

On this episode of Talk of the Bay, host PK Hattis speaks with Amanda Poulsen, Assistant Vector Control Manager for Santa Cruz County, about one of summer’s most persistent pests: mosquitoes.

  On this episode of Talk of the Bay, host PK Hattis is joined by Dan Emmanuel, Director of Research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, for a critical conversation. They dive into the freshly released 2025 Out of Reach Report, which once again names Santa Cruz County the least affordable rental market in […]

Talk of the Bay’s host Omar Diéguez brings you an interview with Sylvia Reyes on From the Streets. In this episode of Talk of the Bay: From the Streets host Omar Diéguez. welcomes a powerful voice of entrepreneurship, empowerment, and corazón, Sylvia Reyes. A proud Latina and dynamic force in Santa Cruz County, Sylvia wears many hats: She’s […]

In this episode of Talk of the Bay, your host Meilin Obinata welcomes Pastor Julie of Somos Watsonville to the KSQD studio! Learn about a new way to practice ministry and fellowshipping from Pastor Julie. What is Somos about? Why is a church campus hosting health clinics for young people? What’s the secret to a […]

    In this episode of Talk of the Bay, host Omar Dieguez introduces you guests Dr. Ann López and Adam Bolaños Scow who are alerting us to the dangers of pesticides being sprayed near schools in Watsonville and Pajaro. Over ten schools sit near fields owned by Driscolls, who continue to spray harmful pesticides, […]

  On this episode of Moment of Truth, host Meilin Obinata introduces you to the Chair of the Housing Committee and District 10 California State Senator Aisha Wahab. In this housing-centric conversation, you’ll hear about her personal experiences as a rare renter in the state legislature, her views on affordable housing and her concerns about […]

Host Suki Wessling of the Babblery spoke to Aptos residents out for the “Good Trouble” protest on July 17, 2025. Visit goodtroubleliveson.org and www.indivisiblesantacruzcounty.com for more information. Photos by Suki Wessling.

  On this episode of Talk of the Bay, your host Meilin Obinata spoke with Heather Edney a pioneering co-founder of the Santa Cruz Needle Exchange Program which made history in the early 1990’s for being one of a handful of needle exchange harm reduction programs in the United States, in the grip of the […]

  Marichka is a Ukrainian-Canadian singer and human rights advocate, winner of the Amnesty International Prize and creator of the folk music website, https://folk-ukraine.com. She is the former lead singer with Balaklava Blues and Lemon Bucket Orkestra. She has performed at top venues around the world including Carnegie Hall in New York, The Barbican Centre […]

On Tuesday, June 24th, 2025, host George Cadman interviewed Paul Johnston of the Santa Cruz Welcoming Network, a 100% volunteer-run community network that is dedicated to welcoming and supporting asylum seekers and other refugees in Santa Cruz County. Paul Johnston is a sociologist and labor/community organizer. He has been an advocate for immigrant rights […]

  Douglas Rushkoff is an author and documentarian who studies human autonomy in a digital age. His twenty books include the just-published Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, as well as the recent Team Human, based on his podcast, and the bestsellers Present Shock, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Program […]

  Charles Hood is a naturalist, adventurer, and poet. He has also been a factory worker, a ski instructor, a dishwasher, and a nature guide in Africa. Nature study has taken him to all 50 U.S. states, 80 countries, and the South Pole. Along the way, he has been lost in a whiteout in Tibet, […]

  Michael Gene Sullivan is an Actor/Writer/Director/Activist based in SF. He is an alum of the Playwrights Foundation, and has been awarded both a Djerassi Arts Center Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship as a dramatist. Michael is also Resident Playwright for the Tony and OBIE award-winning SF Mime Troupe, where he has written or co-written […]

You may have heard of President Donald Trump’s spending bill moving through Congress known as “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act” Yes, that’s the actual title of the 1,000 plus page piece of legislature. In fact, if you’re a regular listener of Talk of the Bay have indeed because we’ve had many guests on in […]

Remembering Mike Rotkin: A Special Talk of the Bay Tribute Hello again, Santa Cruz and beyond! Welcome to Talk of the Bay on KSQD 90.7 FM — now proudly broadcasting to more of our coastal neighbors in Salinas and Monterey too! This week’s show is a heartfelt special: “Remembering Mike” — a tribute to the […]

This Talk of the Bay episode from Monday, June 16th, 2025 was originally a two part show starting with a conversation with the comedian and impresario DNA. That conversation with DNA will be released as a separate podcast later. We spent the rest of the hour with community organizer Hector Marin. In 2024, he ran […]

On this episode of From the Streets, Omar Dieguez speaks with Rolla Alaydi, a Palestinian American organizer who has spent months fighting to evacuate her family from Gaza. Since November 2023, Rolla has made countless appeals to Representative Jimmy Panetta’s office—pleas that have been met with silence, even as she has lost over 100 loved […]

Talk of the Bay: From the Streets host Omar Dieguez, a mentor with Barrios Unidos, sits down with a group of girls from Pajaro Valley High School to discuss the powerful role mentors play in schools. Listen in as they share how Barrios Unidos creates safe spaces for students to express themselves, connect with their […]

KSQD presents a conversation between Chris Krohn and Mike Rotkin, recorded just 2 months before Rotkin’s death on Wednesday (06/18/2025). Rotkin served 25 years on the Santa Cruz City Council, and 5 terms as mayor. He was active in local political and social issues for more than 50 years, and loved and respected for his […]

  On Tuesday, June 10th, host Meilin Obinata spoke with Dr. John Silva from the Protect Salinas Renters coalition. This coalition is seeking signatures for a referendum campaign to repeal the Salinas City Council’s recent vote to repeal four renters’ rights ordinances including one for rent stabilization. We learn from Dr. Silva, whose years of […]

Host George Cadman discusses the civil rights issues raised by recent ICE deportation raids with constitutional law attorney, Mauni Jalali. Jalali is instituting a call to action, to motivate local electeds to answer to the voters. He has developed expertise in administrative law matters, government regulation, and plaintiff-side antitrust, with particular emphasis on cases involving […]

On this special FanimeCon edition of Inside Education, host Meilin Obinata speaks with Gilles Poitras, an expert in the realms of anime and manga, Japanese forms of comic book and animated entertainment which have caught popularity around the world. What connections do these storytelling formats have upon learning? How do librarians benefit from having manga […]

Our intrepid reporter/intern Maury Burnett-Cavoto asks: How are you dealing with the rise in egg prices?

What happens when a former Soviet state experiments with Silicon Valley-style capitalism – when the worlds of open source hardware collide with proprietary corporate control? What happens when American landlords use the latest and greatest in surveillance tech to terrorize renters? McElroy also shares the origin story of SF BARF which Sonja Trauss led, which […]

Are universities hedge funds? Is knowledge political? What do you think? Join host, Meilin Obinata, for a discussion with Max Sárosi, an organizer of of the Jews Against White Supremacy (JAWS) chapter at UCSC. Sárosi has studied how billionaire philanthropy impacts the University of California, including UC Santa Cruz. What secrets lurk in the gifts […]

In this episode of Talk of the Bay, host Meilin Obinata introduces two members of the Tzimtzum Community, which offers Jewish Gatherings for Personal and Collective Liberation. One is the founder Rabbi Chel Mandell, and the other guest is a Jewish educator and is a dedicated member, Ben Yanowitz (who is also a host on […]

In early May, dozens of nonprofit and health care leaders assembled outside of Watsonville Community Hospital to altogether issue a desperate plea: hands off our health care. The message came hours before the U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee, which is responsible for health care funding, began debating a Republican-sponsored spending bill in Congress that seeks […]

Sara Barth, executive director of Sempervirens fund, joined Talk of the Bay just a few days shy of a monumental occasion for California’s first land trust — its 125th anniversary. The conservation group, focused on forest protection and restoration since 1900, commemorated the milestone with the first-ever Redwoods Festival at the historic Roaring Camp property […]

We have the pleasure to talk to the family of Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famer Ritchie Valens. He was the first Chicano to reach such accomplishments. On this episode of Talk of the Bay, From the Streets, host Omar Dieguez interviewed multiple members of the Ritchie Valens family, including his brother’s daughters Brenda Morales […]

I am traveling in Italy, in the Garfagnana region, a hilly, remote valley with ancient hilltowns and castles. In the small town of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, we come upon a protest organized by the villagers decrying conditions in Gaza. Here is what we recorded from the few who could speak English.

Our intrepid Squid on the Street, UCSC Humanities intern, Maury Burnett-Cavoto asked people how they feel about traveling out of the country under Trump’s current border security crackdowns.

On KSQD’s Talk of the Bay, host Omar Diegez speaks with Bobby Pelz, Ethnic Studies teacher at the Pajaro Valley High School, and Caroline Kuspa, of Jews for a Free Palestine. They discuss the curriculum in the school district and the recent tensions and controversies, around the failed censure of trustee Gabe Medina.

The host was Omar Diguez. Our guests discussed what it’s like to be in recovery, the sense of desperation, seeking healing though ceremonies. many different forms of recovery through twelve step programs and spiritual practices such as praying at sweat lodges. One guest, Eric, a resident of Salinas, has been in recovery for 14 years. […]

“From the Streets,” is a new Talk of the Bay series, hosted by Omar Dieguez. His guests for this show were Professor Christine Hong of UC Santa Cruz and Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee, Gabriel Medina. They discuss the dedicated community work that recently led to the reinstatement of ethnic studies in the Pajaro […]

“From the Streets,” is a new Talk of the Bay series, hosted by Omar Dieguez. His guests are Roy Recio, Watsonville native and founder of the Tobera Project, preserving Fililpino immigrant history in the Pajaro Valley; and marine ecologist Nat Low of Aptos, director of the Asian American Justice and Innovation Lab. They discuss their […]

On Talk of the Bay host Andrew Schoneberg interviews leaders from the Carmel Foundation, a non-profit service organization that facilitates successful aging by providing a rich spectrum of interactive activities and services for the ever-changing physical, social, emotional and cognitive needs for those 55 and older. Have a listen to learn about the history of the […]

Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and immigration activist. He tells the story of coming to the U.S. as a child, unaware that he was entering without legal documents. His 31-year quest to obtain legal status led to a life of hiding until he “came out” in a New York Times article titled, […]

In this show, engineer Sandy Stone and board chair Rachel Anne Goodman reminisce about the circuitous route that KSQD’s founders took in getting on the air. Here is something I wrote up trying to capture a lot of the milestones. Our story: Once upon a time back in the 1970’s there was a visionary writer […]

It’s no secret that Santa Cruz County loves its weed. Take a trip to UCSC’s campus on April 20th and you’ll get a sense of what I mean. But despite the community enthusiasm for the flowering herb, the industry has struggled to take off both at the local and statewide level after it was legalized […]

Artistic Director for Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Charles Pasternak talks about the bard and how his plays always provide fresh insights, as the four-decade-old company readies for its new season in July.

  Vicki Abeles is a filmmaker, attorney and change agent. She directed the award-winning documentaries Race to Nowhere and Beyond Measure and reached millions of viewers by focusing on social impact. She is the author of the NYT best-selling book Beyond Measure. Additional film credits include Associate Producer on the Sundance favorite Miss Representation (2011) […]

This compilation of audio impressions reflects the sentiments of the people gathered with estimated 8,000 others to protest the takedown of our government by Musk and MAGA.

  David Woodbury is the founder and host of the Central Coast Conference (now in its 2nd year), a weekend-long lecture series dedicated to topics in American history. He earned a degree in History from the University of Evansville, in Indiana, before moving to California 40 years ago. He pursued a long career in publishing, […]

  John Brown Childs is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was born on December 2, 1942, in a public housing project, in the Roxbury section of Boston. In 1963, he co-organized a group of students from the University of Massachusetts to go to the March on Washington […]

This was a special edition of Talk of the Bay, hosted by Omar Dieguez. His guests were Nane Alejandrez of Barrios Unidos, Mary Lou Alejandrez of Barrios Unidos, and Catarina, a Maori influenced by Barrios Unidos who is visiting from New Zealand. This fascinating conversation included reflections of Cesar Chavez’s enduring impact, the role of […]

Stephen Zunes is chair of the Middle East Studies program at the University of San Francisco. In recent days, students with a history of protest against the U.S./Israel actions in Gaza have been snatched off the street with no due process. We talk about the war on civil liberties at home and abroad and the […]

Justin Cummings, Third District Santa Cruz County Supervisor, talks about efforts to retain his seat as chair of the powerful California Coastal Commission. He also explains other ordinances under discussion at the county level.

  Jeanne Proust has studied Humanities, Philosophy and Visual Arts in Bordeaux, Berlin, and Paris. She has been teaching Philosophy for the last 14 years in the US and is actively involved in the Center for Public Philosophy at UC Santa Cruz, where she served as director from 2023-2024. She currently holds the position of […]

This week we honor Jesse Colin Young, the folk-rock icon of the sixties and seventies, who died at 83. His hits included “Get Together” and “Ridgetop” to name just two of his many songs that conveyed the spirit of the times. Our guest is KSQD’s station manager, David Bean, who was Jesse Colin Young’s manager […]