Voices of the Valley Podcast & Radio Show

Join us for this fun and insightful interview with local valley muscician Darren Nelson of the band San Geronimo, which is clearly inspired by living, playing, and creating community here in the San Geronimo Valley.

Darren Nelson is a singer/songwriter, guitarist, graphic artist and poster artist from the San Francisco Bay Area. He's been quoted, "If it doesn't pay well, then I'm probably an expert at it!" (being a poet I can relate to that!) Though, he was born on a farm in the Berkshire Mountains of New England, his career as an artist blossomed after relocating to the west coast. As a graphic artist, he has done work for countless companies large and small. From branding to advertising, working internationally in the fashion scene, to illustrating books. He has made a name for himself as a poster artist, designing work for John Legend, The Weeknd, The Black Crowes, PRIMUS, Third Eye Blind and more.

As a musician, he has shared the stage & developed friendships with the likes of Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead), Chris Robinson (Black Crows), Shooter Jennings, Lucas Nelson, Rosanne Cash, Wynona Judd, Lucero, Tim Bluhm & Greg Louicono (Mother Hips) and more.

Join us for an informative and revelatory conversation with a member of the Miwok Tribal Council Jason Deschler, on the original peoples who inhabited Marin County, specifically the San Geronimo Valley and Nicasio.

Since time immemorial, as long as the sun has filled our days with the gift of light, and as long as the moon has guided our path at night, Coast Miwok people, who hold the uncontestable aboriginal title, have occupied, tended, stewarded, held sacred ceremonies, defended and governed according to the traditions of our ancestors the unceded lands of present-day Marin County, California.

The first humans to appreciate the beauty and bounty of Marin County were the Coast Miwok. How deep are our roots? One of the largest and deepest shellmounds excavated by archeologists in Marin is 5,000 years old; our own oral histories trace our lineage back at least 10,000 years, and our creation stories describe how our ancestors emerged from the land itself. For millennia we were careful stewards of the land; in return, the land took care of us. The bay, marshlands and streams provided an abundance of fish and shellfish. Herds of deer, elk and antelope roamed the hillsides, and rabbit and quail were readily available. We carefully tended, nurtured and gladed the many stands of oak throughout Marin that provided a key staple of our diet: acorns. We knew the yearly cycles of the plants, and exactly when, where and how to gather the wide variety of native berries, bulbs and tubers the land offered so there would be another good harvest when we returned to that location the following year. Loosely divided into five major bands inhabiting the general area that includes today's Marin and southern Sonoma counties, Coast Miwok were the second largest group of Miwok Native Americans. Within each of the major bands were numerous, smaller tribal groups, each consisting of anywhere from 60 to a few hundred people. Each tribe had a headman (hoipu) or headwoman (maien), who advised the people and settled disputes. (Tellingly, the Coast Miwok language has no word for "war.") While any attempt to quantify exactly how many people lived in Marin in pre-colonizer times is sheer conjecture, we can say with certainty that the lifeway our ancestors followed as agricultural stewards of the land both supported and required a significant population.

Statement from Jason Deschler. As descendants of the original peoples of Marin County, the Huukuiko, also known as the Coast Miwok of Marin, we understand our duty and obligation to continue the work of tending the land and being the true spiritual leaders to all peoples. Love and compassion will always be the guiding forces behind this work. For the endurance in suffering that our ancestors went through has given us the wisdom to be able to survive and share this love and compassion with all living things and spiritual beings. The knowledge from this shows we have the ability to change.

Ka molish (Thank you)

Muk'am ka inniko (We are all family)

Ka yomu mii (I love all of you)

Walli towish (Blessings!)

Our people have endured much at the hands of colonizers. As the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin, we believe it is our sacred responsibility to uphold and renew the traditional customs and practices of our ancestors, and to continue, with our prayers and ceremonies, to feed the land that Creator entrusted to our people's care so many thousands of years ago. To the dismay of those who, like Burnett, gleefully predicted our demise, we are still here - and, once again, growing stronger.

Today I am super excited to present another bicycling episode, but instead of enduro mountain biking, we are talking about adventure road riding across the globe with local San Geronimo Valley Residents, Margit Pirche and James Polack, you've seen them cruising up White's Hill and along Sir Francis Drake boulevard and if you are a world traveler you might have caught them winding their way through the Andes in Chile or atop Machu Pichu, perhaps along the dusty roads of the Serengeti in Africa, or weaving between pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain.

Margit grew up in West Berlin and came to the U.S. in the mid-1980s after extensive travels—and she never used her return ticket. She got married here in the US, raised her daughter, and worked with children in various settings including playgroups, preschool, and kindergarten. She also founded Big Rock Sudbury School in West Marin and later worked as a crisis counselor and case manager at Huckleberry Youth Programs.

In 2009, she met James Pollack, who asked if she wanted to ride with him to the end of the world. Two years later, they left Fairfax by bicycle and spent two years pedaling to Ushuaia, Argentina—the last town before Antarctica.

That journey lit a spark. In 2015, they set off on another series of adventures including through Africa and Europe.

They finally returned home in late 2023 to focus on a different kind of journey—navigating some health challenges with care, intention, and the support of our beloved Valley community.

James was born in Indiana and raised in Kentucky. After studying landscape architecture at the University of Kentucky, he moved to Marin County in 1991 and worked as a landscape architect for the next 20 years.

In 2009, he met Margit—and a few years later, together they set off on a life-changing adventure. From 2012 to 2023, with breaks in between, the two of them cycled thousands of miles across the Americas, Europe, and Africa, exploring the world slowly and deeply, one pedal stroke at a time.

Join us for a wonderful conversation about building community on two wheels, through the joys of mountain bicycling, with Access for Bikes Executive Director Vernon Huffman, along with his amazing daughter, Gabby Huffman, an Enduro Mountain Biking champ and media creative. In this episode we discuss, the love of connecting with natiure on two wheels, how to create community through mountain biking, and a little around the politics of bike access on our local singletrack trails here in Marin County.

Vernon Huffman is the executive director of Access for Bikes a group that advocates for fair, equitable and sustainable trail access here in Marin County. With Vernon's leadership the organization transformed from a Political Action Group to a 501c3 trails advocacy organization in 2007. Vernon's passion has always been about mountain biking and helping others discover the passion of riding, especially on single track trails, where he is most at home. Vernon has worked as a park ranger for the USFS and NPS, Vernon and Access 4 Bikes produce a series of amazing events including Ales and Trails, Biketoberfest, Valley Bike Fest, and Marinduro.

Gabby Huffman is a passionate mountain bike advocate, storyteller, and media creative based in Marin County. An alum of the University of the Pacific and the NorCal NICA League, Gabby now works in media and marketing for the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), the California Mountain Biking Coalition, and Access4Bikes—organizations dedicated to growing and protecting access to trails and empowering the next generation of riders. Lately, Gabby's been diving deeper into the Enduro and downhill scene, re cently claiming the #1 spot at Marinduro and gearing up to race TDS this weekend. She's often found riding her favorite trails in the San Geronimo Valley with her trail dog Yuba leading the charge."

Join us for an insightful, inspiring and moving conversation with local San Geronimo Valley Photographer Sasha Gulish. Sasha is a parent, gardener, true artist and business-woman who is very active in her local community making a big impact on the lives of so many. Join us as we explore why engagement in community is good for your health, good for democracy, and good for the planet!

Sasha is a California-based photographer and director with over 20 years of experience in the commercial and editorial world. She got her start studying documentary photography at UC Berkeley, and her work has always centered around capturing authentic, emotional moments—especially in lifestyle and people-focused storytelling.

Sasha has led campaigns for major brands like Ulta, Huggies, Pampers, Thermos, and AAA, as well as photographing incredible talent including Steph and Ayesha Curry and Billie Eilish. Most recently, her work is featured in Food Forward Garden, a collaborative book project with designer Christian Douglas which celebrates the power of growing your own food and designing landscapes with purpose.

She lives with her family in West Marin, where the Valley continues to fill her cup and spark her creativity.

Join us for this wonderful conversation on spirituality, creativity, music, and community with Forest Knolls resident, Prem Byrne. Prem Byrne grew up in Poona, India before moving to Marin County where he has lived in for 35 years—and a more recently to the valley. Prem is a spiritual seeker, business manager (of a window-washing company in San Francisco), and most-importantly, musician. His music spans the thematic spectrum from toxic masculinity, death and dying, to a critique of profit-driven news media.

Join us for an important conversation on aging in place with gerontologist, Sara Robinson. Sara Robinson is a gerontologist and has been a champion supporting people to age in their homes and communities with broad community information and support. She has gained experience as a hospice volunteer, a Marin Villages steering committee member, and through her work for the 11 Age-Friendly and Age and Disability-Friendly Communities around Marin. When she worked as the Age Forward Coordinator for the County of Marin, she began attending our Elders Advisory Council meetings, sharing her wealth of knowledge about how communities can implement actionable strategies to make aging in place, not just a concept, but a reality.

We like to think that during that time, Sara became endeared to our little community, and we are so lucky that her involvement has continued. Now, as a Project Manager for the Marin Aging and Disability Institute, Sara has been instrumental in helping us understand the needs of older adults in our region.

With her leadership and guidance, we conducted an incredibly in-depth Older Adult Needs Assessment, surveying over 500 residents of the Valley and Nicasio. Today, we're here to talk with Sara about why an age-friendly lens is so valuable in community building and what we've learned from the survey about aging in place.

Woodacre Resident Harold Woodson was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1950 and attended the University of Wisconsin before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. After college he attended the San Francisco Art Institute where he expanded his love of art. Harold worked for the Golden Gate Transit District for 30 years, all-the-while caretaking an important collection of American art. Harold is an art collector, historian, and jazz aficionado, and all around wonderful neighbor and community member. Pieces from Harold's collection have been exhibited nationwide including at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Join us for this terrific conversation on African American art, community and connection!

Join us for a fascinating conversation with Woodacre resident and award-winning coreographer Alex Ketley, whose lastest work RESILIENCE about death row inmate Bill Clark has been garning incredible reviews from coast to coast. I saw this performance in April of 2025 and was profoundly moved. It was an extraordinarily dynamic, emotional, poetic and viscerally charged experience, beautifully performed. I would call it an essential work for our times.

Alex Ketley is an independent choreographer, filmmaker, and the director of The Foundry (a vehicle to explore the intersection of dance with mixed-media art, installation, and contemporary ways of devising performance). Formerly a classical dancer with the San Francisco Ballet and LINES Ballet, Alex left dancing professionally to create The Foundry as a platform to explore his interests in alternative methods of devising performance. The company has allowed Ketley the freedom to pursue projects that would be difficult to realize within his commissioning career. A few examples of these are: Syntax, an hour long duet systemically using the mechanics of language as an organizing mechanism; Lost Line researched how the application of environment affects the generation of movement and studied in direct response to California's diverse physical landscapes; the No Hero Trilogy which was a multi-year project that explored what dance and performance means to the lives of people living throughout rural America, and Distal Imprint a film created in collaboration with artist and Death-Row inmate Bill Clark. Which we will talk about. . .

Alex has received numerous awards for his work including a Gerbode-Hewlett Choreographer Award, the Eben Demarest Award, the National Choreographic Initiative Residency, and a National Guggenheim Fellowship. Alex is an Advanced Lecturer at Stanford University.

Join us for a facinating conversation on building community from the true master Dave Cort the "Mayor of the San Geronimo Valley" (now officially known as "Community Ambassador") who has devoted his life to building, sustaining, and celebrating community!

Dave Cort served as the Executive Director of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center from 1991-2023. After growing up in Cleveland, Ohio Dave attended Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois and in 1978 graduated with a degree in Human Development and Social Policy. In 1978, Dave moved to West Marin and continued his studies at Sonoma State University in the graduate school of counseling and education. Dave's career began in the Juvenile Justice system through an internship at Marin County's Juvenile Probation Department and employment at the ground breaking Full Circle School, a group home for boys ages 10 to 17 in Bolinas. In 1991, Dave's career transitioned to community based work at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center. Dave has served as a Board member for the Coastal Health Alliance and the Lagunitas School Foundation. Other service includes serving as a commissioner on the Marin County Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission and a member of the Marin Community Foundation's Awards Committee. In January of 2019 Dave received a Jefferson Award for Public Service.