In soundscape ecology we think of three different categories of sound. One of those, and really the first, is geophony. It can be quite musical, and here’s a good example of it. The creek’s flowing quite well, and there’s this great low frequency plunging sound of the water. So, let’s just give a listen to the musicality of this geophony!
Mute Swans are the ones you see in so many fairy tales. People started bringing them to North America from Europe around the late 1800s. They can severely impact native ecosystems, eating up to 8 pounds of underwater plants a day! This leaves less for native waterfowl. Mute Swans flap their wings and run across the water as they take flight.
Springtime at London Lake, in Jack London State Historic Park, is alive with the sound of many species of birds and insects.
The Swainson’s Thrush is one of those birds that you’re more likely to hear than see. If you paddle along the south bank of the Russian River Estuary, near Jenner… you might just hear the beautiful music of our russet-backed Swainson’s Thrush!
In memory of Gustav Hobel.
My friend Gustav and I used to live next door to one another on Sonoma Creek. The Belted Kingfishers would fly by, calling, with that ratchety kind of sound that they have in their voice. That’s why he’d call them the “mechanical bird.”

The Varied Thrush's song has been described as haunting, ethereal, and mysterious. Listen, and you might just hear the spirit of the old growth forests they call home, reverberating in the song of the Varied Thrush!
One bird you’ll hear around parts of Sonoma County in the summer is the Pacific-slope Flycatcher. Once you learn their song it’s easy to recognize. So, next time you’re relaxing in the shade by a creek and sipping lemonade on a hot summer’s day in Sonoma County, keep an ear out for the Pacific-slope Flycatcher!

Red-breasted Nuthatches can be found in parts of Sonoma County. You can sometimes hear them in Annadel State Park. The next time you visit your favorite stand of conifer trees, keep an ear out for the Red-breasted Nuthatch!
The Calabazas sub-watershed is one of the largest in the greater Sonoma Creek watershed. During major storms it collects an impressive amount of water. Listen to the rushing waters of Calabazas Creek just before it reaches the mainstem of Sonoma Creek.
With the busy-ness of one’s day to day life it’s easy to forget how the rhythms of nature can sooth us. It’s good to take a minute to tune into this place, and to all the other creatures who live here at Drakes Beach, in Point Reyes National Seashore.
Harbor seals spend up to 70% of their life underwater. Their aquatic home can sound strange and even abstract to our ears. In this recording from Jenner we can hear harbor seals making grunting sounds, and blowing bubbles.
They're small, and hard to see at night. But when you hear that bouncing ball rhythm coming from the forest, you'll know it's a Western Screech-Owl!
(Photo: Randy R. Magnuson, CC BY-SA 3.0)
In 1897 a physicist named Amos Dolbear published a paper called “The Cricket as a Thermometer.” He’d discovered a formula for estimating the air temperature by counting the chirps of crickets. Let’s try it!
Western Bluebirds are a small thrush that can sometimes be found in backyard nest boxes. Sometimes, if you sit quietly and listen, you can observe a lot in your own backyard!
Earle Baum Center Community Open House
September 22nd, 2018 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Your Vision, Our Focus – Free Community Open House
This exciting free event will highlight on-going
Earle Fest 2017
SOMO Village Event Center
Saturday September 23rd, 2017 @ 3:00 pm
The Earle Baum Center of the Blind & SOMO Concerts invite you to the 10th year of
On the August, 2018 Word By Word: Conversations With Writers, host, Gil Mansergh welcomes the Barcelona-born NY Times bestselling writer Edgar Cantero with his decidedly different new novel This Body’s Not
How can art help heal trauma? We talk to a class of thirdgraders to find out.
The timeline for recovery after a disaster is different foreveryone. Educators in Santa Rosa

Suzanne Lang talks with Eiren Caffall, a writer who also has a hereditary illness. She writes of the environment’s wounds that affect the life and health of our planet and of our ocean’s through the lens of her own life, struggles, and ultimate optimism, in her book The Mourner’s Bestiary.

Amory Patrick Blaine joins Suzanne to talk about Book 1 of the trilogy American Renaissance, or Inquiry Concerning Political Justice in the Arts & its Influence on Morals and Happiness, a playful and philosophically probing story of art, culture, terrorism, and political intrigue.
It’s A Novel Idea, first, third, and fifth Sundays at 10:00am PT. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.
Mouthful explores the traditions of El Dia de Los Muertos, with an emphasis on Petaluma’s celebration.
Podcast: Play in new
This edition A Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang features two authors who go deep into our cultural histories and help us understand where we’ve come from and where we are through
Africa in the early 1960’s was a place of transitions, political and personal. Suzanne Lang talks with Elaine Neil Orr on her novel, Dancing Woman, set in Nigeria during a time of political unrest and explores the longing of an energetic and artistic
wife of an agricultural aid worker.
Als
o featured is Suzanne’s conversation with Rosemary Manchester on her memoir of life in the Congo
during the revolution from Belgian rule, Turn Left at the Big Anthill.
A Novel Idea, Sunday, February 2nd at 10am PT. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.
Three Sonoma County wineries have electric car charging stations available
at no cost for visitors to the wineries. On today’s show, we hear from James Luchini of Francis Ford Coppola Winery,
Suzanne Lang talks with Elene Catrakilis on her novel, Under an African Sky, a story of profound friendship between a Greek woman and her Black South African maid, set in the waning days of South African apartheid.
Nancy Econome talks with Suzanne on her novel of Greek identity and extended family set in Northern California of the 1950’s: Finding My Olympia.
It’s A Novel Idea, every first, third, and fifth Saturdays at 5:00am and Sundays at 10:00am on KRCB 104.9. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.
Titular roles don’t come more challenging than those of Miguel de Cervantes, the Man of La Mancha and John Merrick, better known as The Elephant Man, so why not increase the
If you visit Drake’s beach at Point Reyes National Seashore, there may be an elephant seal or two taking up your parking space .
Every year in the winter, the
If you visit Drake’s beach at Point Reyes National Seashore, there may still be an elephant seal or two taking up your parking space.
Every year in the winter, the Northern
Eli Colvin of Petaluma’s Revolution Bakery talks about his rustic, whole grain, wood-fired, small batch breads. If you have been looking for a delicious alternative to breads made with highly processed

Bones of the Earth is the tenth installment in the Inspector Shan mystery series by award winning

Eliot Pattison is the author of gritty mysteries set in the historic past and joins Suzanne Lang for an hour of conversation. His latest novel is Freedoms’s Ghost, a Mystery of the American Revolution, a recent installment into his Bone Rattler series, set in the pre-Revolutionary War Colonial America. Also featured is a 2019 segment with Eliot discussing the tenth and last installment of his “Inspector Shan” series set in Tibet, Bones of the Earth.
Eliot Pattison and Suzanne Lang on A Novel Idea, Sunday, November 19th at 10 am PT on KRCB, 104.9 FM in Sonoma County, streaming and podcasting to the world at krcb.org.
Tonight, Mouthful checks in with Eliza Dean of Dean Family Farm, whose 2018 apple season has just wrapped up, and Amanda Graziano, of Spirt Works Distillery in Sebastopol, who brings three
So You want to Own Greenland? Lessons from the Vikings to Trump is Arctic strategic policy advisor Elizabeth Buchanan’s latest book and she joins Suzanne Lang in conversation.
Also featured is journalist Andrea Pitzer with her book on Arctic exploration, Icebound, Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World.
It’s A Novel Idea, Saturday March 7th at 5am and Sunday March 8th at 10am PT. Streaming and podcasting at norcalpublicmedia.org.
What is biodynamic farming and why should you care? For answers, tune in Sunday evening at 6, when Mouthful welcomes Elizabeth Candelario, director of Demeter USA. She’ll explore the principles of
Award-winning novelist Elizabeth George is creator of the bestselling Inspector Lynley mysteries. George introduces listeners to A Banquet of Consequences, the19th book in the series.
Since many readers first encountered Scotland
Suzanne Lang speaks with Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, who has spent a lifetime observing other creatures and other cultures, from her own backyard to the African savannah. Her books have transported millions

When fiction is grounded in scientific fact, our world opens up. Suzanne Lang talks with novelist Elizabeth Reed Aden on her medical thriller The Goldilocks Genome, which uses the science behind pharmaceuticals and the human body to create a taut story of terrorism and the geeks who pursue the terrorist.

Also featured is award winning writer Nell Freudenberger with her latest work of fiction, The Limits, a novel of family and culture, the survival of the coral reefs, and the social challenges of living during the early days of COVID.
It’s A Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio
Raven Performing Arts Theater
Friday, November 16th, 2018 @ 7:00 pm
Heart Space & The Raven present Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio!
Legendary blues guitarist, songwriter
The Emerald Cup, or as one attendee called it, “TheDisney Land of cannabis” attracted around 30,000 people over the weekend.
Thousands traveled from around the country to attend SantaRosa’s annual
Willie Nelson snagged a big award in Santa Rosa on Sunday. The famed “outlaw” is now a law-abiding citizen in California; at least, when it comes to his favorite habit.
Another atmospheric river hit yesterday, fortunately for us in the North Bay, it was concentrated well to south of us and should not significantly affect the Russian River. Still, residents have
Discovered: Emerging Visual Artists Exhibit
Petaluma Arts Center
Saturday, January 21, 2017 at 5:00pm
Join us for the Discovered: Emerging Visual Artists Exhibit Opening Reception.
The five artists will
Emma Goldman Day
Arlene Francis Center
Saturday, March 9th, 2019 @ 2:00 pm
Ten actors, three staged readings, three discussions and three meals.
Jessica Litwak’s Emma Goldman Trilogy explores the life
Mouthful explores the environment, from the Laguna de Santa Rosa to the California Coast, with guests Una Glass of California Coast Walk and David Bannister of the Laguna Foundation.
Why?
It’s a question we seem to be asking ourselves daily as we wake up to the news of the latest national tragedy or act of incomprehensible behavior. That too-oft-asked question
Equus
6th Street Playhouse
February 9th – 25th, 2018
Dr. Dysart, a psychiatrist, is confronted with Alan Strang, a boy who has blinded six horses in a violent fit of passion.
Gil Mansergh welcomes the celebrated novelist and master of the short story, Eric Puchner as his guest on KRCB-FM’s Word By Word: Conversations With Writers show. Professor of writing seminars at

The importance of gathered botanical and ecological knowledge to our survival as human beings in a changing landscape is explored.
Suzanne Lang talks with evolutionary biologist and science writer Erin Zimmerman, whose book is Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood, and the Fight to Save an Old Science, a memoir of botany and natural history seen through the lens of her own career, the barriers she faced, and the work she’s done.

Suzanne also talks with Manjula Martin on her book, The Last Fire Season; A Personal and Pyronatural History, which weaves her personal journey through health issues with her exploration of fire, place, gardening, indigenous knowledge, and living in a body and a landscape that sometimes confound.
A Novel Idea airs Sunday, June 16th — and the 1st, 3rd, & 5th Sunday of every month, at 10am PT.
Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

Esmeralda Santiago, a prolific Puerto Rican author of a series of memoirs, along with nonfiction works, and works for young people joins Suzanne Lang to talk about her life, Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans, and her latest novel Las Madres.
Corky Parker, with roots in Public Radio and a successful career with her own media company, buys a small inn on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, and nearly twenty-five years later tells us about her experiences in la Finca -Love, Loss, and Laundry on a Tiny Puerto Rican Island.
It is A Novel Idea, Sunday October 29th, at 10am PT on KRCB 104.9 in Sonoma County, streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.
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