Join us for an informative and revelatory conversation with a member of the Miwok Tribal Council Jason Deschler, on the original peoples who inhabited Marin County, specifically the San Geronimo Valley and Nicasio.

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Since time immemorial, as long as the sun has filled our days with the gift of light, and as long as the moon has guided our path at night, Coast Miwok people, who hold the uncontestable aboriginal title, have occupied, tended, stewarded, held sacred ceremonies, defended and governed according to the traditions of our ancestors the unceded lands of present-day Marin County, California.

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The first humans to appreciate the beauty and bounty of Marin County were the Coast Miwok. How deep are our roots? One of the largest and deepest shellmounds excavated by archeologists in Marin is 5,000 years old; our own oral histories trace our lineage back at least 10,000 years, and our creation stories describe how our ancestors emerged from the land itself. For millennia we were careful stewards of the land; in return, the land took care of us. The bay, marshlands and streams provided an abundance of fish and shellfish. Herds of deer, elk and antelope roamed the hillsides, and rabbit and quail were readily available. We carefully tended, nurtured and gladed the many stands of oak throughout Marin that provided a key staple of our diet: acorns. We knew the yearly cycles of the plants, and exactly when, where and how to gather the wide variety of native berries, bulbs and tubers the land offered so there would be another good harvest when we returned to that location the following year. Loosely divided into five major bands inhabiting the general area that includes today’s Marin and southern Sonoma counties, Coast Miwok were the second largest group of Miwok Native Americans. Within each of the major bands were numerous, smaller tribal groups, each consisting of anywhere from 60 to a few hundred people. Each tribe had a headman (hoipu) or headwoman (maien), who advised the people and settled disputes. (Tellingly, the Coast Miwok language has no word for “war.”) While any attempt to quantify exactly how many people lived in Marin in pre-colonizer times is sheer conjecture, we can say with certainty that the lifeway our ancestors followed as agricultural stewards of the land both supported and required a significant population.

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Statement from Jason Deschler. As descendants of the original peoples of Marin County, the Huukuiko, also known as the Coast Miwok of Marin, we understand our duty and obligation to continue the work of tending the land and being the true spiritual leaders to all peoples. Love and compassion will always be the guiding forces behind this work. For the endurance in suffering that our ancestors went through has given us the wisdom to be able to survive and share this love and compassion with all living things and spiritual beings. The knowledge from this shows we have the ability to change.

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Ka molish (Thank you)

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Muk’am ka inniko (We are all family)

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Ka yomu mii (I love all of you)

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Walli towish (Blessings!)

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Our people have endured much at the hands of colonizers. As the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin, we believe it is our sacred responsibility to uphold and renew the traditional customs and practices of our ancestors, and to continue, with our prayers and ceremonies, to feed the land that Creator entrusted to our people’s care so many thousands of years ago. To the dismay of those who, like Burnett, gleefully predicted our demise, we are still here - and, once again, growing stronger.

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Today I am super stoked since we have another bicycling episode, but instead of enduro mountain biking, we are talking about adventure road riding across the globe with local San Geronimo Valley Residents, Margit Pirche and James Polack, you’ve seen them cruising up white’s hill and along Sir Francis Drake bluevard and if you are a world traveler you might have caught them winding their way through the Andes in Chile or atop Mchu Pichu, perhaps along the dusty roads of the Serengeti in Africa, or weaving between pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain.

Margit grew up in West Berlin and came to the U.S. in the mid-1980s after extensive travels—and she never used her return ticket. She got married here in the US, raised her daughter, and worked with children in various settings including playgroups, preschool, and kindergarten. She also founded Big Rock Sudbury School in West Marin and later worked as a crisis counselor and case manager at Huckleberry Youth Programs.

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In 2009, she met James Pollack, who asked if she wanted to ride with him to the end of the world. Two years later, they left Fairfax by bicycle and spent two years pedaling to Ushuaia, Argentina—the last town before Antarctica.

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That journey lit a spark. In 2015, they set off on another series of adventures, that I want to hear all about including Africa, the pandemic, and Europe.

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They finally returned home in late 2023 to focus on a different kind of journey—navigating some health challenges with care, intention, and the support of our beloved Valley community.

James was born in Indiana and raised in Kentucky. After studying landscape architecture at the University of Kentucky, he moved to Marin County in 1991 and worked as a landscape architect for the next 20 years.

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In 2009, he met Margit—and a few years later, together they set off on a life-changing adventure. From 2012 to 2023, with breaks in between, the two of them cycled thousands of miles across the Americas, Europe, and Africa, exploring the world slowly and deeply, one pedal stroke at a time.

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Join us for a wonderful conversation about building community on two wheels, through the joys of mountain bicycling, with Access for Bikes Executive Director Vernon Huffman, along with his amazing daughter, Gabby Huffman, an Enduro Mountain Biking champ and media creative. In this episode we discuss, the love of connecting with natiure on two wheels, how to create community through mountain biking, and a little around the politics of bike access on our local singletrack trails here in Marin County.

Vernon Huffman is the executive director of Access for Bikes a  group that advocates for fair, equitable and sustainable trail access here in Marin County. With Vernon's leadership the organization transformed from a Political Action Group to a 501c3 trails advocacy organization in 2007. Vernon's passion has always been about mountain biking and helping others discover the passion of riding, especially on single track trails, where he is most at home. Vernon has worked as a park ranger for the USFS and NPS, Vernon and Access 4 Bikes produce a series of amazing events including Ales and Trails, Biketoberfest, Valley Bike Fest, and Marinduro.

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Gabby Huffman is a passionate mountain bike advocate, storyteller, and media creative based in Marin County. An alum of the University of the Pacific and the NorCal NICA League, Gabby now works in media and marketing for the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), the California Mountain Biking Coalition, and Access4Bikes—organizations dedicated to growing and protecting access to trails and empowering the next generation of riders. Lately, Gabby’s been diving deeper into the Enduro and downhill scene, re cently claiming the #1 spot at Marinduro and gearing up to race TDS this weekend. She’s often found riding her favorite trails in the San Geronimo Valley with her trail dog Yuba leading the charge.”

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Join us for an insightful, inspiring and moving conversation with local San Geronimo Valley Photographer Sasha Gulish. Sasha is a parent, gardener, true artist and business-woman who is very active in her local community making a big impact on the lives of so many. Join us as we explore why engagement in community is good for your health, good for democracy, and good for the planet!

Sasha is a California-based photographer and director with over 20 years of experience in the commercial and editorial world. She got her start studying documentary photography at UC Berkeley, and her work has always centered around capturing authentic, emotional moments—especially in lifestyle and people-focused storytelling.

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Sasha has led campaigns for major brands like Ulta, Huggies, Pampers, Thermos, and AAA, as well as photographing incredible talent including Steph and Ayesha Curry and Billie Eilish. Most recently, her work is featured in Food Forward Garden, a collaborative book project with designer Christian Douglas which celebrates the power of growing your own food and designing landscapes with purpose.

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She lives with her family in West Marin, where the Valley continues to fill her cup and spark her creativity.

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Join us for an important conversation on aging in place with gerontologist, Sara Robinson. Sara Robinson is a gerontologist and has been a champion supporting people to age in their homes and communities with broad community information and support. She has gained experience as a hospice volunteer, a Marin Villages steering committee member, and through her work for the 11 Age-Friendly and Age and Disability-Friendly Communities around Marin.  When she worked as the Age Forward Coordinator for the County of Marin, she began attending our Elders Advisory Council meetings, sharing her wealth of knowledge about how communities can implement actionable strategies to make aging in place, not just a concept, but a reality.

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We like to think that during that time, Sara became endeared to our little community, and we are so lucky that her involvement has continued. Now, as a Project Manager for the Marin Aging and Disability Institute, Sara has been instrumental in helping us understand the needs of older adults in our region.

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With her leadership and guidance, we conducted an incredibly in-depth Older Adult Needs Assessment, surveying over 500 residents of the Valley and Nicasio. Today, we’re here to talk with Sara about why an age-friendly lens is so valuable in community building and what we’ve learned from the survey about aging in place.

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Woodacre Resident Harold Woodson was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1950 and attended the University of Wisconsin before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. After college he attended the San Francisco Art Institute where he expanded his love of art. Harold worked for the Golden Gate Transit District for 30 years, all-the-while caretaking an important collection of American art. Harold is an art collector, historian, and jazz aficionado, and all around wonderful neighbor and community member. Pieces from Harold's collection have been exhibited nationwide including at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Join us for this terrific conversation on African American art, community and connection!

Join us for a fascinating conversation with Woodacre resident and award-winning coreographer Alex Ketley, whose lastest work RESILIENCE about death row inmate Bill Clark has been garning incredible reviews from coast to coast. I saw this performance in April of 2025 and was profoundly moved. It was an extraordinarily dynamic, emotional, poetic and viscerally charged experience, beautifully performed. I would call it an essential work for our times.

Alex Ketley is an independent choreographer, filmmaker, and the director of The Foundry (a vehicle to explore the intersection of dance with mixed-media art, installation, and contemporary ways of devising performance). Formerly a classical dancer with the San Francisco Ballet and LINES Ballet, Alex left dancing professionally to create The Foundry as a platform to explore his interests in alternative methods of devising performance. The company has allowed Ketley the freedom to pursue projects that would be difficult to realize within his commissioning career. A few examples of these are: Syntax, an hour long duet systemically using the mechanics of language as an organizing mechanism; Lost Line researched how the application of environment affects the generation of movement and studied in direct response to California's diverse physical landscapes; the No Hero Trilogy which was a multi-year project that explored what dance and performance means to the lives of people living throughout rural America, and Distal Imprint a film created in collaboration with artist and Death-Row inmate Bill Clark. Which we will talk about. . .

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Alex has received numerous awards for his work including a Gerbode-Hewlett Choreographer Award, the Eben Demarest Award, the National Choreographic Initiative Residency, and a National Guggenheim Fellowship. Alex is an Advanced Lecturer at Stanford University.

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Join us for a facinating conversation on building community from the true master Dave Cort the "Mayor of the San Geronimo Valley" (now officially known as "Community Ambassador") who has devoted his life to building, sustaining, and celebrating community!

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Dave Cort served as the Executive Director of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center from 1991-2023. After growing up in Cleveland, Ohio Dave attended Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois and in 1978 graduated with a degree in Human Development and Social Policy. In 1978, Dave moved to West Marin and continued his studies at Sonoma State University in the graduate school of counseling and education. Dave’s career began in the Juvenile Justice system through an internship at Marin County’s Juvenile Probation Department and employment at the ground breaking Full Circle School, a group home for boys ages 10 to 17 in Bolinas. In 1991, Dave’s career transitioned to community based work at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center. Dave has served as a Board member for the Coastal Health Alliance and the Lagunitas School Foundation. Other service includes serving as a commissioner on the Marin County Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission and a member of the Marin Community Foundation’s Awards Committee. In January of 2019 Dave received a Jefferson Award for Public Service.

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You are not only what you eat, you are what you wear! Join us for an incredibly informative and fascinating conversation with Rebecca Burgess, founder of the Fibershed Organization, Community and Network.

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Rebecca Burgess, has two decades of experience working at the intersection of ecology, fiber systems, and regional economic development. She is the author of the best-selling book Harvesting Color, a bioregional look into the natural dye traditions of North America, and Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy released in 2019. She has taught at Westminster College, Harvard University, and California College of the Arts. She serves on the leadership council of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems at Chico State University, as Board Secretary for Hukuuiko (a non-profit serving the Coast Miwok Tribal Council), and on the board of the Carbon Cycle Institute.

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For more information about this extraordinary network please visit https://fibershed.org/

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How does one get connected and stay connected to community? How do we avoid isolation and lonliness? Tune in to find out and get inspired by longtime Valley resident Suzanne Sadowsky who has devoted her life to being of service in community for more than six decades and for multiple organizations.

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Suzanne Sadowsky was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York in 1935. She attended Alfred University in upstate New York, and went on to work for the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics soon after college, (first in New York, then Los Angeles and then in the San Francisco Regional Office) until her retirement in 1990.

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After retirement she got involved in her local community and was invited to join the Boards of a number of local nonprofit organizations including: West Marin Senior Services, the Coastal Health Alliance and our very own San Geronimo Valley Community Center. Suzanne worked at the center from in 1997 to 2017 doing program development, fundraising, and grant writing.

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In 1992, she  started Gan HaLev, the Jewish Congregation of the San Geronimo Valley. Since 2014, she has served on the Board  of the San Geronimo Valley Affordable Housing Association, now the Two Valley Community Land Trust. As well as the Marin County Commission On Aging.

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Join us for an enlightening conversation with former Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey about what it takes to understand the nuance, complexity and commitment of government, policy, and how to engage more deeply in community around important issues that effect us all.

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Steve Kinsey served as District 4 Marin County Supervisors from 2007-2017.  Prior to taking public office, Steve owned and operated a building design and construction firm for 19 years. He has a B.A. in Architecture and is a Ca. Licensed General Contractor.

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Steve’s unique blending of building design and planning skills with his local, regional, and statewide government experience has propelled notable community progress, including Marin County’s nationwide leadership in Safe Routes to School and non-motorized transportation, over ½ Billion dollars in voter-approved transportation funding, meaningful inclusion and funding equity for disadvantaged communities, and an award-winning General Plan grounded in principles of Sustainability.

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His commitment to detail in design is reflected in his project management leadership, and his natural ability to work with competing interests to achieve creative, holistic solutions accepted by all parties.

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During his years of public service in Marin County, Steve also served 18 years on the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission, elected as Chair from 2004-2006. He led adoption of MTC’s TOD Policy and chaired  development of its Smart Growth Livability Blueprint. He was founding Chair of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s public/private Electric Vehicle Strategic Council.

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While Steve’s focus is primarily on the built environment, he has also been active in coastal resource protection and agricultural land preservation. From 2012-2017 he served on the statewide California Coastal Commission, selected three times as Chair, from 2013-2016. For 20 years, he served on the Board of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, helping conserve over 45,000 acres of productive ranch and farmland.

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Join me for an adventurous conversation with adventure film-maker and local valley resident Josh "Bones" Murphy. Josh Murphy is a director and producer of film, commercials, and branded entertainment who began his career in film as a professional skier turned filmmaker and launched the UNPARALLELED series of award winning action sports films in the early 2000’s. Josh directed and produced PURPLE MOUNTAINS for POW (Protect Our Winters) about legendary snowboarder turned climate activist, Jeremy Jones. He also directed and produced THE SCALE OF HOPE for Patagonia about aspiring alpinist, climate activist, and former Obama White House Climate Team member, Molly Kawahata, as she struggles with mental illness while trying to create a new climate narrative framed around systemic change and hope.

Josh also directed, produced, and co-wrote the multi-award winning feature documentary ARTIFISHAL (2019) that was commissioned by Patagonia founder and owner Yvon Chouinard and premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival where it was a finalist for the Tribeca X Prize. It won the Banff Film Festival, the San Francisco Green Film Festival, the American Conservation Film Festival, the InScience Film Festival in the Netherlands, the International Outdoor Documentary Festival of China, the Special Jury Award from the Jackson Wild Film Festival, the Golden Gate Award at the International Oceans Film Festival. The film had over 3000 local screenings worldwide before being released on Amazon Prime, iTunes, and YouTube where it earned over 2 million views in the first month.

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Prior to film Josh was trained as a scientist with two degrees in natural resource science and fisheries biologist. His childhood idol was Jacques Cousteau and through him he discovered a love for film and the environment. Josh lives in San Geronimo, California.

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Join me for a fun (and funny) interview with longtime valley resident and award-winning writer Molly Giles, where we discuss her latest book LIFE SPAN: Impressions of a Lifetime Spent Crossing and Recrossing the Golden Gate Bridge, which is a memoir in flash form (short vignettes).  We also cover a little about the creative process, creative community and the power of place (Woodacre).

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Molly Giles is an award-winning fiction writer. Her first collection of stories, ROUGH TRANSLATIONS won the Flannery O’Connor Prize for Short Fiction, the Boston Globe Award, and the Bay Area Book Reviewers award. Four subsequent collections—CREEK WALK, BOTHERED, ALL THE WRONG PLACES, and WIFE WITH KNIFE, have also won awards, including the Small Press Best Fiction Award, the California Commonwealth Silver Medal for Fiction, the Spokane Short Fiction Award, and the Leapfrog Press Global Fiction Prize.  She published her first novel, IRON SHOES, in 2000, and twenty-three years later, published its sequel, THE HOME FOR UNWED HUSBANDS. Giles has taught fiction writing at San Francisco State University, University of Hawaii, San Jose State University, the National University of Ireland at Galway, the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and at numerous writing conferences, including The Community of Writers and Naropa. Her work has been included in many anthologies including the O.Henry and Pushcart Prize (three times), and she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Arkansas Arts Council. She has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Book Reviewing, been awarded residences at MacDowell, Yadoo, and The House of Literature in Paros, Greece.

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Join us for a fasicnating episode on the wilderness of community featuring LIVE flute music by Paul Berensmeier. In this episode I talk with Paul Berensmeire about Deep Ecology, and how to keep your community wild. We discuss Paul's influential parents Lee and Jean who were instrumental in mobilizing the community to resist a proposal for massive development of our community. Lee was an inspirational artists who taught in San Francisco and showed his work nationally. Jean was a founder of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center and an effective environmental conservation activist.

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Paul grew up in the foothills of Mt. Barnabe in Lagunitas, California.  A scholar-athlete at SFSU, Paul earned a BA in Physical Education and a Masters in Sport Psychology while competing in the decathlon, eventually winning the NCAC championship.  He co-founded Wilderness Way (a non-profit environmental education organization), focusing on taking children out of the classroom into the outdoors and bringing the outdoors into the classroom.  He does annual backpacking solos in the Grand Canyon filming old native routes, often writing about his outdoor experiences in his well received “Wilderness Calls” column in Stone Soup.  Paul has made over a dozen wildlife films of the Valley (including coho salmon), and does film documentaries of elders of the Valley.  He serves as Treasurer of the San Geronimo Valley Planning Group.  Paul’s work with Native Americans, and their philosophy about the health of the earth “seven generations into the future” heavily impacts his decision making, writing, and filmmaking.  Paul plays the Native American flute and studied with renowned flautist R. Carlos Nakai.  A Valley resident since 1965, Paul continues to run and hike the many Valley trails and now focuses his athletic talents on baseball, where he is a player/manager of a senior baseball team.

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Join us for an incredible conversation with Judith Selby Lang about art, perception, beach plastic, and the importance of place. We talk about how one person's garbage becomes another person's brilliance, and how great art can not only change how we perceive the world, but how making art can also possibly save it!  

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For some 25+ years, Judith Selby Lang has made the San Geronimo Valley her home. Although she and her artworks have traveled near and far from Forest Knolls to Point Reyes Station, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore, New York, British Columbia, Zürich, and beyond, she is always grateful to return to the Valley, the place that is the creative springboard for her launch into the wider world.

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The uplifting and transformative nature of her multi-dimensional art practice reflects her commitment to creating positive symbols and life-affirming images to energize the conversation about social, political, and environmental issues.

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Her ephemeral public artworks have graced the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza, the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, and Stanley Harbor, Hong Kong. As a dynamic speaker about the creative life, she has presented at the Pitzer Institute for Entrepreneurship in Claremont, CA, Applied Brilliance in Jackson Hole, WY, and the Newseum in Washington, DC.

Join us for an incredible interview with American musical legend, (and Woodacre resident) Harold Jones, where we talk about his collaborations with Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, and so many more!  

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Harold Jones was born and raised in Richmond, Indiana and attended the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago on a scholarship, then took work where he could find it, including theaters and night clubs. In 1962 as a young member of the Paul Winter Sextet he played at the White House playing for the Kennedys. In 1967, he was invited to New York for what was intended to be a two-week engagement with Count Basie's orchestra but which lasted five years. Jones played on fifteen albums with Basie.

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Harold Jones has played with some of the greatest Jazz, Blues, R&B  musicians in the world including Natalie Cole, BB King, Ray Charles Elvin Bishop (also a local) Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, Amy WInehouse, Tony Bennet and Lady Gaga to name but a few.

"In community lies the heart of the world"

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In this fantastic innaugural episode I interview the new executive director of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, Alexa Davidson; fourth generation Marin County resident who grew up in the San Geronimo Valley. We discuss our exciting vision for the podcast, a little history of her growing up in the valley, and what community means to Alexa. We also discussed the extraordinary number of musicians and artists that have graced our valley, people like Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia, as well as touching on her amazing talent as a singer.

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We closed with updates about our current paver campaign to raise money for our new courtyard and stage, upon which we will welcome the great musician Jesse DeNatale on August 18th as part of our Summer Music Series. Thanks for listening and supporting your local community center.