Miles started Light Harvest Solar 9 years ago buying solar panels in bulk and selling them a la carte. Since then, he's turned the company into a sophisticated supplier of both component-based and self-contained off-grid solar electric systems. I sat down with him in August as he moved into a new warehouse to talk about the direction of the company and his vision for off-grid electric in the future.

Charlie is a super activist and the Oregon Policy Manager for the Surfrider Foundation. While working at the aquarium, he moved onto an anchored boat right outside of Rogue Brewing in Newport, OR. I sat down to talk with him about the nexus between sustainability and minimal living, coastal advocacy, the similarities between territorialism in surfing and vanlife, and of course... pooping in a bucket.

I met Ed last summer on my way up the Oregon coast. We met up to caravan and record a podcast a few days later. It's really awesome to have a conversation with someone who's unapologetically confident about their path. I hope you have a good time with this conversation I thoroughly enjoyed.

Wow, Jacey Travels! We sat down in June, and Jacey made me feel like I needed to ramp it up. At 24, she had already traveled the globe on a shoestring budget, authored a book, and started traveling North America by van. 

Jarrod has been a good friend for 3 years, and he's been on my podcast too many times. But dude is fun to talk to, and he is constantly switching up his momentum for another new adventure. He's been on the podcast 4 times in the last two years, but he's also had 4 homes in that time frame. For a lot of van lifers, moving around geographically is enough. But Jarrod is constantly reframing what it means to travel and sit still. Is it all a gimmick to keep his YouTube viable? Well, I'm remiss that I didn't ask him that question directly, so I figured it was best to put him on blast in this caption to console my interviewer regret. Now, have fun listening to us be dicks to each other.

Christian recently returned to Encinitas after moving to Bend, OR to build out his second camper van. Not everything went exactly as planned, but his new van is rad and his photography gigs are really starting to take off. I really look up to Christian for his positive attitude and ambition. Definitely go check out his instagram to see his epic photographs. 

@henkel.photography

I met Erin & Joe at Tiny Fest this spring, and I'd been trying to get them on the podcast for a month. We finally connected right next to the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club and hung out for a day and a half. It was a rad place to rendezvous and spend an afternoon. Erin made us all some of her signature van life pizzas, and the next morning we finally sat down to record a podcast. It was a great time chatting with them. I was particularly interested in the van they built out on the same length Ram Promaster that I have. There are definitely some elements in their build that would have changed some of the elements of my build had I seen them first.

Nick & Jake are Moxi & Loon, a two piece psychedelic rock band that have played shows for years with their vans backed together outdoors at events. Jake is a full time van lifer in a Promaster with an impressive electrical system and Nick splits his time between his old converted Chevy and hashtaghouselife. Just as they were getting a tour booked in 2020, the world shut down. But they've used the time since then to sharpen their act and make connections that were uniquely available to them because of the weird world which presented itself last year. We just basically hung out and laughed at each other.

Sometimes, living in a van, you just meet someone in a parking lot. A lot of times living in a van, you just meet someone in a parking lot. Ali was parked over close to my favorite spot to cook and watch the surf in Encinitas. she was loading a SUP into her van, and we had a great chat. So we decided to record a chat about her decision to move into her van full time, and the travels she plans to execute in it.

Chris came out to Tiny Fest, CA from Nashville. He's only been in his van for a couple of weeks, and he's been going around to different van meetups as he settles into his mostly built van. We sat down to have a chat about his build and his adjustment into the whole van life thing.