A Big Sur Podcast

Magnus Toren, host
  • 4.8 (37)
  • PLACES & TRAVEL

A Big Sur Podcast An ongoing conversation with people from near and far about Big Sur's past, present, and future. A Big Sur Podcast interprets “community” to mean ALL people from around the world who are curious about, and who care about, the preservation and restoration of the wild and rural character of Big Sur. Stories are told by visitors and residents, plumbers and linesmen, musicians and authors, dancers and jugglers and others. Sometimes we drift (way) off-topic into the arts, sciences, personal stories, gossip, politics, philosophy, ornithology, Henry Miller, and our zeitgeist in general. We like that! The opinions expressed here belong to the people who express them. They may or may not line up with yours, mine, or your neighbor’s — and that’s exactly the point. Different perspectives, lived experiences, and even wildly clashing views are what make conversations worth listening to: enriching, infuriating, life-affirming, and sometimes all three at once. If you are planning a visit to Big Sur and you listen to some of the folks on this Podcast talk about their love of the place your visit will probably be a lot more rewarding. Please email magnus@henrymiller.org with any comments, critique & suggestions. Music intro clip courtesy John Holm: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO0Rh2QU Sound editing software by Hindenburg: https://hindenburg.com/Please support the podcast by making a donation to the Henry Miller Library, a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization. Thank you!

  1. # 119 Walking Toward the Stars — A Conversation with Brita Ostrom (Öström)

    6D AGO

    # 119 Walking Toward the Stars — A Conversation with Brita Ostrom (Öström)

    Send a text In this episode of A Big Sur Podcast, I sit down with Brita Ostrom — longtime Esalen resident and author of Steeped: A Big Sur Elixir of Sulfur and Sage. Brita’s life bridges several revolutions at once: the islands of the Pacific Northwest, the Haight-Ashbury explosion of 1966–67, the psychedelic and political turbulence of the Summer of Love, and the early, formative years of the Esalen Institute. We talk about Haight Street — the overwhelming beauty of it all: the posters, the music, the saturated colors. And later, how the fog began to settle in. About sidewalks so crowded you could barely move, and children who quietly went missing. About free love and jealousy, about massage tables and incense, about the uneasy dance between material success and spiritual seeking. Brita describes arriving at Esalen for the first time — the candlelit baths, the shock of nakedness, the silkiness of sulfur water against cold skin. She reflects on figures like Fritz Perls, Storm, and Lars — and on what it meant to come of age inside a cultural experiment that promised liberation but carried its own tensions and blind spots. This is not nostalgia. It is a reckoning. What does it mean to “drop out”? What does it cost? What does it give? What remains when the fog clears? Brita’s memoir is a meditation on community, intimacy, ritual, and the long arc of a life shaped by Big Sur’s muse-like pull. As she writes in her dedication: “Dedicated to those who walk this earth while gazing at the stars.” I hope you’ll enjoy this thoughtful, tender, and at times unsparing conversation. — Magnus Esalen InstituteHaight-AshburyGolden Gate ParkHenry Miller Memorial LibraryPeople Mentioned Fritz PerlsAlan WattsEbba MalmborgCarlos CastanedaCesar ChavezKen KeseyDennis MurphySelig MorgenrathBands of the Era (Referenced in the Conversation) Grateful DeadJefferson AirplaneMoby GrapeQuicksilver Messenger ServiceThe CharlatansSupport the show _________________________________________________ This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County! Let us know what you think! SEND US AN EMAIL! 😊 magnus@henrymiller.org FaceBook Instagram

    1h 42m
  2. # 118 Andrew Munn: From Experimental Sound to Operatic Myth

    FEB 9

    # 118 Andrew Munn: From Experimental Sound to Operatic Myth

    Send us a text Andrew Munn in conversation! Deep Listening, Between Cage and Wagner, from Silence to Parsifal. Listening for the unheard, where sound becomes ceremony. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Links to more on what we spoke of: ANDREW MUNN Short video from the HMML performance. Peter Mattei John Cage Pauline Oliveros Deep Listening Rami Sarieddeine Shanghai Concert Hall Tanglewood Parsifal Magic Flute Elektra Support the show _________________________________________________ This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County! Let us know what you think! SEND US AN EMAIL! 😊 magnus@henrymiller.org FaceBook Instagram

    1h 28m
  3. # 117 Kendra and Matt: Here's Your Song!

    10/07/2025

    # 117 Kendra and Matt: Here's Your Song!

    Send us a text The Ballad of Kendra and Matt (or, The Song That Never Made It to the PA)   A neighborhood celebration, a home-recorded love song, a forgotten “play” button — and a reminder that even when things go sideways, community and humor always find a way. Magnus tells the true story behind a tune that almost didn’t get heard — until now. Support the show _________________________________________________ This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County! Let us know what you think! SEND US AN EMAIL! 😊 magnus@henrymiller.org FaceBook Instagram

    9 min
  4. # 116 Steve Beck, Master Gardener

    09/29/2025

    # 116 Steve Beck, Master Gardener

    Send us a text Support the show _________________________________________________ This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County! Let us know what you think! SEND US AN EMAIL! 😊 magnus@henrymiller.org FaceBook Instagram

    1h 9m
  5. # 115 Kangalee & The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder

    08/14/2025

    # 115 Kangalee & The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder

    Send us a text A clown stands alone… somewhere between Henry Miller and Samuel Beckett… somewhere between laughter and the cosmic void. Henry Miller once said, “A clown is a poet in action.” Today, that poet is Kangalee—the one-man actor and director—returning to the stage with a new mono-drama that refuses to stay in one world. Silent film. Revolutionary vaudeville. Delirious mime. Poetry. Nirvana. This is the modern holy fool—not Keaton, but Kangalee—struggling, leaping, breaking through to offer us something sacred. And for the first time in America, Henry Miller’s most mysterious story comes alive on stage in Smile: A Clown’s Ascension — based on The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder. This episode is a conversation with Kangalee!  Please visit: Kangalee Arts Ensemble HM 21 Symposium With support form the Arts Council of Monterey County Support the show _________________________________________________ This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County! Let us know what you think! SEND US AN EMAIL! 😊 magnus@henrymiller.org FaceBook Instagram

    1 hr
  6. # 114 The ENDURING WILD: Journeys Beyond the National Parks with author Josh Jackson.

    06/25/2025

    # 114 The ENDURING WILD: Journeys Beyond the National Parks with author Josh Jackson.

    Send us a text Author-photographer Josh Jackson grew up camping the Midwest’s state-parks but it wasn’t until he had moved to California, and after the birth of his third child, in 2015—when every California campground was booked solid—that a friend uttered the words “BLM land.” One spur-of-the-moment trip to the Trona Pinnacles cracked open a new universe: 15 million acres of under-sung, “left-over” public land in California alone. Over the next decade Jackson made pandemic-era pilgrimages to deserts, sagebrush plateaus, and the Lost Coast’s King Range, keeping a field journal, hauling a camera, and gradually uncovering two intertwined stories: A Scrappy, Essential Landscape – Bureau of Land Management parcels host wild‐and‐scenic rivers, endangered species, Indigenous cultural sites, and 60+ first-come camps where solitude still reigns.A Perpetual Target – From the Sagebrush Rebellion to Senator Mike Lee’s 2025 amendments that would auction up to 1.2 million acres, BLM lands survive only by “enduring” repeated sell-off and extraction threats.The Enduring Wild braids those threads—personal awakening, ecological portraits, Indigenous history, and political urgency—into 100 photographs and 45 k words aimed at turning anonymity into affection. Jackson’s thesis echoes Baba Dioum: “In the end, we will conserve only what we love.” His book is an invitation to know, love, and therefore defend America’s most overlooked public commons. Come down to the Henry Miller Library - browse and buy your copy ofThe Enduring Wild.  Wallace Stegner; These are some of the things wilderness can do for us. That is the reason we need to put into effect, for its preservation, some other principle that the principles of exploitation or "usefulness" or even recreation. We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope. https://psych.utah.edu/_resources/documents/psych4130/Stenger_W.pdf Support the show _________________________________________________ This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County! Let us know what you think! SEND US AN EMAIL! 😊 magnus@henrymiller.org FaceBook Instagram

    1h 4m
  7. # 113 Patte Kronlund, speaking of love and loss.

    05/25/2025

    # 113 Patte Kronlund, speaking of love and loss.

    Send us a text This episode is a particularly tender one. I had the privilege of speaking with Patte Kronlund whose husband, Butch, recently passed away after a long and difficult battle with cancer.  Patte and I have an open, heartfelt conversation—one marked by courage, honesty, and that shows Patte's extraordinary personal strength. She speaks about grief, love, and the quiet acts of devotion that carry us through our darkest times. Her willingness to share such intimate reflections is something I deeply respect, and I think you will, too. There’s of course also much more we could have talked about Patte than what we were able to cover here. For one Patte has been a vital part of our Big Sur community through her work with CABS, and although we touched on that in our conversation, I chose to focus this episode on her personal story. I hope we’ll return to her community work in a future episode. For now, we're simply grateful to Patte—for her openness, for her strength, and for reminding us that even in loss, there can be great beauty and connection. Here's a link to the podcast with Butch. Support the show _________________________________________________ This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County! Let us know what you think! SEND US AN EMAIL! 😊 magnus@henrymiller.org FaceBook Instagram

    1h 51m
  8. # 112 Atomic Dreams: The New Nuclear Evangelists and the Fight for the Future of Energy

    05/14/2025

    # 112 Atomic Dreams: The New Nuclear Evangelists and the Fight for the Future of Energy

    Send us a text If Diablo Canyon stays open, does it open the door for a broader reevaluation of nuclear’s role in the U.S. — or is it a one-off anomaly in a blue state’s climate panic? Talking with  Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow author of "Atomic Dreams: The New Nuclear Evangelists and the Fight for the Future of Energy." What role should nuclear power play in our energy future? Rebecca explores the unlikely resurgence of nuclear power as a climate solution — not through the lens of old Cold War anxieties, but through a new generation of thinkers, engineers, and environmentalists who see splitting the atom as a bridge to a carbon-free future. And here in California, that question hits home. Diablo Canyon — the state’s last operating nuclear plant — was on its way out. Now, it’s looking like it's on its way back in. What changed? And what does that tell us about the shifting cultural and political ground beneath our feet? Stay with us as we explore the strange, complicated afterlife of nuclear power — from protests and policy to power grids and hope. Support the show _________________________________________________ This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County! Let us know what you think! SEND US AN EMAIL! 😊 magnus@henrymiller.org FaceBook Instagram

    1h 20m
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Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
37 Ratings

About

A Big Sur Podcast An ongoing conversation with people from near and far about Big Sur's past, present, and future. A Big Sur Podcast interprets “community” to mean ALL people from around the world who are curious about, and who care about, the preservation and restoration of the wild and rural character of Big Sur. Stories are told by visitors and residents, plumbers and linesmen, musicians and authors, dancers and jugglers and others. Sometimes we drift (way) off-topic into the arts, sciences, personal stories, gossip, politics, philosophy, ornithology, Henry Miller, and our zeitgeist in general. We like that! The opinions expressed here belong to the people who express them. They may or may not line up with yours, mine, or your neighbor’s — and that’s exactly the point. Different perspectives, lived experiences, and even wildly clashing views are what make conversations worth listening to: enriching, infuriating, life-affirming, and sometimes all three at once. If you are planning a visit to Big Sur and you listen to some of the folks on this Podcast talk about their love of the place your visit will probably be a lot more rewarding. Please email magnus@henrymiller.org with any comments, critique & suggestions. Music intro clip courtesy John Holm: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO0Rh2QU Sound editing software by Hindenburg: https://hindenburg.com/Please support the podcast by making a donation to the Henry Miller Library, a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization. Thank you!

Information

  • Creator
    Magnus Toren, host
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    117
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 A Big Sur Podcast
  • Show Website
    A Big Sur Podcast

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