What type of political activism can nonprofit organizations engage in without running afoul of the IRS?  Joel Diringer of Diringer & Associates will lead us through the types of lobbying and promotion nonprofits can safely do.

City Repair is a Portland-based nonprofit that facilitates artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking through projects that honor the interconnection of human communities and the natural world.  Join us as we talk to Mark Lakeman, founder of City Repair.

Stanford Professor Mark Z. Jacobson discusses his roadmaps to convert 139 countries to 100% wind, water and sunlight for all energy purposes.  Prof. Jacobson has testified before Congress and governmental agencies on this subject, was a guest on the Letterman show and spoke at the 2020 Central Coast Bioneers Conference.   Hear how we can achieve energy security and a healthier planet.

Known as the “upside-down river,” the Salinas River has its source in San Luis Obispo County and runs north to empty into Monterey Bay.   The river and its two tributaries are dammed by three dams, creating difficulties for native steelhead trout to come upstream to spawn.  Polluted with agriculture runoff and choked with invasive species, the Salinas River is one of the most degraded rivers in California.  What is being done to improve the situation for the river and its inhabitants?  Devin Best, Executive Director of the Upper Salinas-Las Tablas Resource Conservation District will talk about efforts to create a watershed management plan to save the river. 

Adrienne Garcia-Specht, Steering Committee Member for San Luis Obispo's Central Coast Coalition for Undocumented Student Success, talks about the Coalition's mission of creating social change to ensure educational equality for all students, and how they support undocumented students achieve their goals of graduation and college.

Recorded June 2019

Eileen Crist, author and associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology and Society at Virginia Tech, discusses her latest book, "Abundant Earth."  Crist calls for a profound shift in the way humanity is addressing the extinction crisis.

Grassroots environmental activism is hard work.  Monitoring local media, writing op ed pieces and letters to the editor, attending city council and county supervisors meetings, supervising targeted litigation and promoting green initiatives are all part of the job.  Andrew Christie, Executive Director of a small Sierra Club chapter based in San Luis Obispo, describes his typical day.

The Wildlands Conservancy is California’s largest nonprofit nature preserve system, offering free admission to nature lovers and families.  Biologist Landon Peppel will tell us about the mission and projects of TWC and what it is like to work in the conservation field.