Fresno's Best

On the show today, we have Chris Roup. She is the executive director of the Fresno office of the Naitional Alliance on Mental Illness, a organization that does amazing things to support and advocate for people struggling with mental illness and the families that support them. We talk about mental illness, portrayals of mental illness in hollywood, her own journey, tri tip, and Wonder Woman.

Recommended Books

I'm Not Sick, I Don't Need Help Xavier Amador

Insane Consequences DJ Jaffe and E. Fuller Torrey 

Hidden Valley Road Robert Kolker 

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On the show today, we have Donald Munro, our local arts and music reporter, who worked at the Fresno Bee for 25 years covering the arts and culture, and now runs his own site called the Munro Review where he has continued this work independently. In this pod, we cover the local music scene, theater, criticism, book recommendations, and much more. Please enjoy my conversation with Donald Munro. 

Links:

Donald's Homepage:

The Munro Review

Book Recommendations:

Exhalation by Ted Chiang 

Collapse by Jared Diamond 

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In this first episode of season two of our program, we speak with Phil Arballo, congressional candidate and financial advisor, about politics, in general and what was happening today in Washington D.C., race and culture, bicycles, breakfast burritos and much more. 

Today, we have the Tower Quartet on the show. They are easily my favorite group of classical musicians in town. For the record, though, I don't know that many. They are a brilliant group of musicians making beautiful music. Please enjoy this episode and support us below:

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On today’s episode, we have Sara Borjas. Sara is a Fresno poet. Her debut collection of poetry, Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff was published by Noemi Press in 2019 as part of the Akrilica series and received a 2020 American Book Award. Her work can be found in Ploughshares, The Rumpus, Poem-a-Day by The Academy of American Poets, and The Offing, amongst others. She is a lecturer in the Department of Creative Writing at UC Riverside, where she works with innovative undergraduate writers.

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On today’s episode, we have Paul Swearengin. Paul has served as a sportscaster/talk show host, business owner, health care business developer and is a founder of a church. More recently, Paul has started the wonderful podcast the Non-partisan Evangelical as well as being the co-host of Fresno famous podcast Two Guys Talking Fresno. In this episode, which we recorded before election, we diagnose the problems that polarize us, how evangelicalism and the republican party fused, and suggest some ways forward.

Books:

Letters from a Birmingham Jail

Jesus and the Disinherited

Love Wins 

Talking to Strangers

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Today, we have Sergio Cortes on the podcast. Sergio is the owner and Creative Director of Agape Creative studio. He received from Fresno State with a degree in Mass Communications and Journalism. Birthed from his advocacy work, Sergio started a political multimedia studio for the San Joaquin that is targeted towards Millennials and Gen Z called uSpark valley, a creative outlet to deliver news to younger audiences through social media. Sergio was super fun to talk with and the kind of leader Fresno needs.

Books:

Joseph Comes to Town

The Very Good Gospel

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In this episode, I interview Jessica Mast-Foss. Jessica is a rural Oklahoman Mennonite girl turned urban Fresno ecumenical woman. Jessica grew up in central Oklahoma, moved to Fresno at age fourteen, and fell in love with the town within a few weeks of her move. She graduated from Fresno Pacific University with a degree in Biblical and Religious Studies and a minor in Peacemaking and Conflict Studies. After graduating, Jessica went on to participate in the Pink House, came to love downtown Fresno more specifically, and grew passionate for community development and exploring the intersection of faith and justice. She has since moved on from her work at the Pink House and has a lot of thoughts as she transitions from that intentional community.

Recommended Book:

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

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Like me, y’all probably exhausted by election drama. So today’s episode will be nice reprieve from all that. Today, we have on the show, the artist Elowyn, who you may know from a beautiful watercolors on Instagram. Elowyn is a Fresno-based artist. I loved this conversation and art is a topic that I don’t get to dig into often, so here we go.

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Our guest today is Lee Herrick. Lee is the author of many books and his poems have been featured in more magazines than I can count. He served as Fresno Poet Laureate from 2015-2017. And he teaches at Fresno City College and in the MFA Program at Sierra Nevada College. I am just going to prepare you for the nerdy poetry talk that will follow, but as always we talk about food, we talk about hip hop, we talk about the movie Parasite, and much more.

Lee's Homepage

Books:

Philip Levine

Peter Everwine

Larry Levis

Marisol Baca

Anthony Cody, Borderland Apocrypha

Juan Philipe Herrera

Mai Der Vang

Brynn Saito

Steven Sanchez

Joseph Rios

Sara Borjas

David Campos

Steven Church

Corrinne Clegg Hales

Patricia Smith

Brian Turner

Carolyn Forché

Tina Chang

Poetry Foundation

Academy of American Poets

From the Fishhouse

Tracy K. Smith


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