On 7/13 we visit Chico Theater Company to talk with director and actors from "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," a collection of musical theater sketches about contemporary life and love.  We also talk with a teacher from Yuba City High about a ceramic mural made by her students, a mural about the life-cycle of salmon, for display at the Feather River Fish Hatchery. 

Summer travel season means it is time to hit the road. This one is very long if not winding as we learn about what it would be like to travel to planets beyond our solar system! Dave visits with Eric Mamajek, Deputy Project Scientist for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program. Dr. Mamajek gives an overview of the history of detecting planets beyond our solar system as well as the many different kinds of worlds that we have discovered in the past few decades. Then we visit with Arielle Samuelson. Arielle is a web manager who has helped pool the resources of scientists and artists to create the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Exoplanet Travel Bureau. You can see what it would be like to travel to an alien landscape with virtual reality simulations and whimsical travel posters promoting destinations light years away from our solar system. FInally, Sheryl Hosler, aka The Roving Naturalist, joins us for her report on strange lifeforms on our own planet that emit their own light in a story about bioluminescence.

In May of this year, the gardening world – specifically the ecologically based gardening world – lost one of it’s great leaders, Beth Chatto. This August her gardens and educational trust are hosting a symposium to honor her life and her work. On Cultivating Place this week we hear more about the woman and her legacy – join us!

For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher. 

Palo Cedo author Steven Callan learned a love of nature from his game warden father, and Steve himself had a 30-year career as a wildlife protection officer for the California Department of Fish and Game conducting investigations that thwarted outlaws and saved wildlife. This week join Nancy for a conversation with the author of The Game Warden's Son.

Today our guest is Nashville songwriter, Nicki Bluhm. Originally based out of San Francisco, Bluhm is perhaps best known from her band Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers, which she led alongside her former husband Tim Bluhm. After the couple split in 2015, Nicki moved to Nashville for a change of pace and to process her thoughts the best way she knows how, through her songwriting. We talk with Bluhm about her latest album, To Rise You Gotta Fall.

We visit two viual-art venues in Chico. We explore the current exhibition of finely observed views of a garden and flowers painted by watercolorist Candy Matthews.. We also talk with the proprietors of the James Snidle Gallery which is closing at the end of this year. We'll hear about exhibits planned for the final six months -- artshows that include a showcase of paintings by the late revered artist Ann Pierce.

Our nation's fleet of weather satellites are one of our greatest orbital assets. They provide the data that is fed into sophisticated computer models which are then used by forecasters to give us accurate 5 to 7 day outlooks on the weather. In November, the Joint Polar Satellite System or JPSS-1 was launched with amazing instrumental capabilities. In the image above, you can see the smoke plumes from the devastating Thomas Fire, the largest wildfire in California history. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service operate the nation's weather satellites and provide their products for local forecasters, firefighters and disaster planners as well as commerce and industry. In this episode, Dave talks to Mitch Goldberg, the Program Scientist for the JPSS and an expert on all types of weather satellites. In the second half of the show, a three way discussion ensues with Joe Pica, the Director of Observations for the NWS and Rob Elvington, a television meteorologist with a deep level of understanding of how to use satellite data and imagery for his daily forecasts.

This week we’re joined by two native plantspeople – Julie Nelson and Michael Kauffmann - to delve into the unsettling case of the poached Dudleya this last year here in California – j oin us as we explore the interesting, sometimes bothersome issues an incident like this brings up for us gardeners. 

For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.