Happy When Curious

Some questions/dichotomies I'm thinking through around my news fast...

Am I burying my head in the sand or aiming my attention where my agency lies? Is it privileged selfishness to ignore the news or is it wise self care? Is news anxiety producing only because we don’t act on it and through organizing and action we reduce our anxiety, or is the fundamental business model of the news industry giving us a distorted sense of the nature of reality by taking advantage of our evolutionary predilection towards negative information?

Jesse Visciglia is the Head Brewer and part owner at San Juan Island Brewery in Friday Harbor Washington.  Join me as we discuss all things beer and brewing like...

-How to taste a new beer
-The role curiosity plays in brewing
-How a former middle school science teacher found his way into commercial brewing
-The relationship between inebriation and the art of fermentation
-Are expensive beers better?
-The hegemony of the IPA

And more!

And I make an embarrassing confession to Jesse at the end of the interview :)

I hope you enjoy this conversation about beers as much as I did!

Learn all about the beers Jesse makes for San Juan Island Brewery here.

My guess is no. 

Nathan Kessler-Jeffrey  is Executive Artistic Director of the San Juan Community Theatre and has been teaching, directing, and acting in theatres, colleges, and high schools for over two decades. He holds an MFA in Directing from Rutgers University, and his teaching specialties include directing, acting, stage combat, and rehearsal techniques. He is the former Education and Outreach Director for Taproot Theatre Company in Seattle, and has been a guest instructor at high schools, colleges, and universities.

Nathan’s directing work includes productions for San Juan Community Theatre, Taproot Theatre Company, Driftwood Players, A Contemporary Theatre, American Globe Theatre, Abilene Shakespeare Festival, Transparent Storytellers Theatre, and the Seattle Play Series. In January of 2018, he joined San Juan Community Theatre as Executive Artistic Director and now divides his time between directing, acting, teaching, and leading SJCT’s team of staff and volunteers. 

Maria Michaelson is the co- founder and co Director of Alchemy Art Center in NW Washington. She received her BA degree in Ceramics from the California College of Art in 2009. Maria spent many years in West Africa learning the craft of bronze casting. In 2016 she was an Artist in Residence at 69 Rue de Rivoli in Paris, and for 8 seasons she has participated in the San Juan Island Artist’s Studio Tour. Since 2016, she has been working to create Alchemy Art Center, where her art practice is currently based.

Is the courage it takes to create connections with new people zero sum?

Clayton Banry is a community educator at the Joyce L Sobel Family resource center, a morale officer at San Juan Island EMS and has been a huge part of the Friday Harbor community for many years, and I was excited to have a chance to talk to him!

The Joyce Sobel Family Resource Center:
https://sjifrc.org/

YAAS
https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/opinion/disability-awareness/

San Juan Community Theatre
https://www.sjctheatre.org/

How should we go about connecting the dots of our past into a narrative of who we are? Which types of narrative are "true" and maybe more importantly, which types are useful?

After a childhood spent in the jungles of Ecuador, Roger Johnson was educated in the United States, and holds a degree in Engineering and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Minnesota. From 1988 to 2010, Roger was Founder and President of Radiant Optics, Inc -- a successful commercial enterprise that marketed a radiant heat system based on a biomimicry patent in optics. The system can be seen in Home Depot stores countrywide. 

In addition to patents granted to Roger related to radiant heating, he has patents pending in connection with the Kinetic Response Helmet (KRH), and others in various stages of planning. Roger is the founder and creative lead of Eidon, LLC. He expects that the KRH will be the first of many projects with the group.