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A conversation with artist Katie Holten about life and art, climate and action, walking and inaction!

Katie's website

Announcement for her new book!

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This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County!

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"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, feeding, monitoring and recapturing condors to test for lead poisoning—the leading mortality threat—using radio and GPS transmitters to track a flock of 113 birds, including wild-born untagged chicks.

VWS outreach now centers on getting ranchers and hunters to switch to non-lead ammunition, which the program helps by providing free ammo, though non-lead .22 availability is a major hurdle.

Joe describes vaccinating about 90% of the population against highly pathogenic avian influenza, ongoing disease and blood-lead testing, wildfire impacts, public engagement while tracking birds, and resources and documentaries available through the organization’s website.

Thanks for listening!

Magnus

Ventana Wildlife Society

The beautiful documentary Condor Canyon

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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!
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magnus@henrymiller.org

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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 naturalist of the shoreline—guided by curiosity, attention, and a willingness to look closely at what most of us walk past. Kelp, in her telling, is not just seaweed but a kind of language: a way of reading the ocean’s health, its rhythms, and its disturbances.

We talk about the fragile balance of the kelp forests—about urchin barrens and restoration efforts, including diver-led removal and the promise (and limits) of lab-grown kelp. We touch on kelp’s often overstated role as a carbon sink, I learned the meaning of the “wrack line” as a living archive of the sea, and the ongoing tensions around sea otter reintroduction.

Threaded through it all is Josie’s project Above Below: The Mysterious World of Bull Kelp, created with illustrator Ellen Litwiller—first as a digital exploration, now as a beautifully realized book available where books are sold and at the Henry Miller Library.

It’s a conversation about paying attention and what the edge of the ocean might still teach us if we take the time to walk down to the shoreline and slow down long enough to see it.

/Magnus

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

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