Big Blend Radio

Big Blend Radio Network
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Viva Variety! Hosted by Nancy J. Reid and Lisa D. Smith, the mother-daughter travel team and publishers of Big Blend Magazines, Big Blend Radio educates, entertains and inspires! Topics include: Music, Books & The Arts; Travel & Recreation; Food & Drink; National Parks & Public Lands; History & Culture; Nature & Environment; Home & Garden; Family & Education; Business & Career; and much more!

  1. 7h ago

    Company Culture Isn't a Poster — It's How Your People Feel on Sunday Night

    Happy Global Company Culture Day!  Company culture isn't what's written on your website or printed on a poster — it's how your people feel walking in the door on a Sunday night. On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Supervision Matters" Podcast, HR and organizational culture expert Rita Sever joins Lisa D. Smith to break down what culture actually is, how it's built (and eroded), and why it has to be intentional from day one. Rita walks through the three components of a healthy culture — Mission, Vision, and Values; how the work gets done; and how people are treated — and shares the story of a NASA janitor who told President Kennedy he was "helping put a man on the moon." Rita is the author of two books — "Supervision Matters" and "Leading for Justice."  Links: 🌐 Rita's website: https://supervisionmatters.com  📖 Supervision Matters Digital Podcast Magazine: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/supervision-matters-magazine  🎙️ Supervision Matters Podcast: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/supervision-matters-podcast-with-rita-sever

  2. 1d ago

    Author Jule Selbo: Dee Rommel, Dashing Dogs & Friendly Frogs

    Screenwriter-turned-mystery-novelist Jule Selbo joins hosts Matt Cost and BJ Magnani on Big Blend Radio's "Pets, Plots & Poisons" Podcast to talk about her award-winning Dee Rommel mystery series — a countdown series that just landed its fifth book, "Six Days."   The conversation covers building a lead detective with a below-the-knee amputation, the Falmouth, Maine coffee-shop friendship that shaped her research, a scene-stealing Pomeranian named Prince Zhao, and how Seven Days turned PFAS "forever chemicals" into a plot device. Matt and Jule also trade plotting tips, and BJ closes out the episode with this month's poison: batrachotoxin, harvested from Colombia's golden poison frog. Learn more: - Jule Selbo: https://www.juleselbo.com  - BJ Magnani: https://www.bjmagnani.com  - Matt Cost: https://www.mattcost.net  - Pets, Plots & Poisons Podcast: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/pets-plots-poisons-podcast

  3. 1d ago

    Author Kenitra W. Dominguez: Finding My Voice in the Healthcare System

    For World Patient Safety Day, Big Blend Radio's "Quality of Life" Show welcomes author Kenitra W. Dominguez to discuss her debut memoir, "Because I Deserve It: What Chronic Illness Taught Me About Finding My Voice in the Healthcare System" — out now. In 2021, a routine eye exam led Kenitra to an ER visit and, the next day, a diagnosis of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) — a rare, incurable neurological condition. In this conversation, she talks with host Lisa D. Smith about what that diagnosis took from her, the racial and gender bias she encountered navigating the healthcare system, and the practical tools she built along the way: how to assemble a care team, how to prepare for a doctor's visit, how to request your medical records, how to ask for workplace accommodations, and how to trust your own instincts about your body. Kenitra W. Dominguez is the founder of Bay Equity HR, sits on the Advisory Board of the California Black Women's Health Project, and holds a master's in Work Law and Social Justice from UC Law San Francisco. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, HuffPost, and Teen Vogue. Book (out now): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX3131XK

  4. 2d ago

    Pet Memorials: Honoring the Animals Who Shaped Our Lives

    September is Pet Memorial Month, and on this episode of "The Pet Connection," Lisa D. Smith and co-host Angela Laws of TrustedHousesitters.com dig deep into how we remember the animals who shape our lives — personally, historically, and everywhere in between. From home memorial gardens and paw-print keepsakes to the extraordinary true stories of Old Sam (a Civil War artillery horse secretly buried at night), Cher Ami (the WWI pigeon who saved 200 soldiers), Old Abe the Civil War eagle, and Chaser the border collie who learned over 1,000 words — this episode covers the full span of how humans across history and cultures have honored their animal companions. Angela also shares insights from her pet-loss support work, including Trustedhousesitters' Pet Plaques program honoring extraordinary animals, and Lisa closes with the story of her heart-horse Cinnabar and the biggest lesson any animal ever taught her: be present. Listen to more episodes of The Pet Connection: https://pet-connection.podbean.com/  Learn more about Trusted Housesitters: https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/

  5. 2d ago

    Rafting Desolation Canyon: Six Days on Utah's Wildest Green River with OARS

    On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Lost Angel Travel Adventures" Podcast, travel writer Linda Ballou shares her latest adventure: six days rafting 89 miles of the Green River through Desolation Canyon, one of the largest roadless wildernesses left in the American Southwest.  Traveling with OARS Whitewater Rafting, Linda and a group of fellow outdoor enthusiasts — many of them retirees in their sixties, seventies, and eighties — floated past towering sandstone cliffs, ancient Fremont and Ute rock art, and the site where Butch Cassidy once hid stolen cattle. Linda talks about the rhythm of "river time" — no cell service, no politics, just canyon wrens at dawn and guitar music at camp — and how the trip challenged her physically more than she expected as she continues to rebuild her strength. She also shares the history of John Wesley Powell's 1869 expedition, which gave the canyon its name, and reflects on what six days unplugged in the wilderness taught her about pacing herself and accepting help from others. Whether you're planning your own rafting trip or just want an armchair escape to redrock country, this episode captures the scenery, the characters, and the quiet magic of one of Utah's most remote stretches of river. PLAY YOUR ADVENTURE: 📖 Read the full article on Big Blend Media House: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/deep-dive-into-desolation-canyon-in-southwest-utah   📝 Read more on NABBW: https://nabbw.com/expert-columns/travel/linda-ballou-rafts-desolation-canyon-utah-or-the-green-river-affair/   🚣 Raft With OARS: https://www.oars.com/adventures/green-river-rafting-through-desolation-canyon/   🌍CHECK OUT LINDA'S BOOKS & TRAVELS: - https://www.LindaBallouAuthor.com - https://www.LostAngelAdventures.com  🎙️ Subscribe to Lost Angel Travel Adventures Podcast: https://lost-angel-travel-adventures.podbean.com   📖 Explore the Lost Angel Travel Adventures Digital Podcast Magazine: https://online.fliphtml5.com/yhwzg/podcast-retrospective/

  6. 3d ago

    Yellowstone: America's First National Park, Still Wild After 110 Years

    Travel writer and advisor Lisa Evans, host of Big Blend Radio's "Journey Jukebox" Podcast takes us to Yellowstone National Park — America's very first national park, marking 110 years of the National Park Service this year.  This episode picks up right where her Cody, Wyoming visit left off: after basing herself in Cody, Lisa spent a day and a half looping through Yellowstone by chartered bus, and brings back a full rundown — bison herds thick enough to stop traffic for fifty cars, a moose sighting straight out of Lamar Valley, a surprise cinnamon bear, and the bighorn sheep on the way out of the park. From there we walk through the icons — Old Faithful (which kept everyone waiting an extra thirty minutes), the otherworldly colors of Grand Prismatic Spring and the Midway Geyser Basin, the bubbling mud volcanoes, and dinner at the historic Lake Yellowstone Hotel with a general manager who's spent 40 years working his way up through the park's lodging operation. We also get honest about the less charming side of visiting a place like Yellowstone: tourists stepping over barriers at Mammoth Hot Springs, walking up to bison for a closer photo, and — in one widely reported case — Pierce Brosnan's own $1,500 fine for wandering off a boardwalk into a restricted thermal area. With national parks already stretched thin on funding and staffing, we talk about why this isn't just about rule-following — it's about keeping the wildlife wild and the parks safe for everyone who visits them. Along the way, Lisa also looks ahead to her next stops — Clarksville, TN, and a trip up to Anacortes, WA — and shares more of the multi-generational travel trends she's seeing on the road. 🗺️ Plan your own trip: Full Yellowstone travel guide, park links, and resources: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/yellowstone-still-wild-at-110  - Missed her last stop? Catch Lisa's Cody, Wyoming episode & article: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/cody-wyoming-western-culture  🎵 Journey Jukebox Music Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7humUf03LIW04t8LiJSSN9?si=71c11c52c77c4596  🎧 More about the Journey Jukebox Podcast: - New episodes air every 3rd Tuesday at 6pm CST: https://journeyjukebox.podbean.com/  - Podcast Magazine: https://online.fliphtml5.com/yhwzg/JOURNEY-JUKEBOX---2026/#p=1  Follow Lisa Evans:  - https://substack.com/@allabouttravelwithlisa   - https://writerlisa.com/

  7. 4d ago

    Chasing Truffles in Istria with Prodan Tartufi

    Welcome back to another episode of Big Blend Radio's "Wanderers Compass" Podcast! Three years after Joelle's first truffle hunt in the pouring rain with a cooking group of sixteen women, she and Ryan return to Buzet, Croatia, to sit down with Višnja Prodan Jekić of Prodan Tartufi — a family truffle business now heading into its fourth generation. It started in the 1960s, when Višnja's grandparents didn't even know what truffles were — they thought they were smelly, inedible potatoes and fed them to the pigs, until Italian traders showed them otherwise. Today, the Prodan family hunts and trains their own truffle dogs (five of them, each with their own name and personality), collects from 50-60 local hunting families every week, and ships fresh truffles worldwide — to Michelin-star restaurants like Alchemist, Noma, and Geranium in Copenhagen, and markets as far as Japan, Singapore, and Dubai. In this episode, Višnja walks through what makes Istria's climate uniquely suited to truffles, how a dog is trained from puppyhood to become a serious hunter, the real differences between black and white truffles (and why white truffles can sell for €2,000-€5,000 a kilo), how to actually cook with truffles at home without overcomplicating it, how to spot a real truffle product versus a chemical imitation, and the story behind the largest truffle her family has ever found. She also shares her own favorite way to eat them — simple scrambled eggs — and what it means to be building a new generation of this family tradition while opening the business to travelers from around the world. 🔗 Read the article: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/prodan-tartufi-istria-truffles   🔗 Learn more about Prodan Tartufi: https://prodantartufi.hr/hr/   🔗 Wanderers Compass: https://www.wandererscompass.com/   🔗 More Wanderers Compass episodes: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/wanderers-compass-podcast   🔗 Wanderers Compass Digital Podcast Magazine: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/wanderers-compass-magazine  New episodes of the Wanderers Compass Podcast air every second Monday on Big Blend Radio.

  8. 5d ago

    Greensboro, North Carolina: History, Hospitality & Where Cornwallis Lost the War

    On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Jo Goes Everywhere!" Podcast, travel writer Jo Clark takes us to Greensboro, North Carolina — the third-largest city in the state and home to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, site of one of the most consequential battles of the Revolutionary War. Jo digs into Greensboro's roots, from the Saura and Keyauwee peoples who lived there first, to the German, Welsh, English Quaker, and Scotch-Irish settlers who followed, to the city's surprising reputation as the "second-holiest city in America."  Then the Revolution arrives: on March 15, 1781, General Nathanael Greene's Continental Army met Lord Cornwallis's British troops at Guilford Courthouse. Cornwallis technically won the battle — but at such a staggering cost in men that it helped set up his eventual defeat at Yorktown. Along the way, Jo tells the story of the Hoskins family, who fled war-torn Pennsylvania for a fresh start in Greensboro, only to have the British commandeer their farm and turn their home into a field hospital just three years later.  Jo also shares Greensboro's literary and broadcast history (hometown ties to O. Henry and Edward R. Murrow), plus where to eat, drink, and stay if you visit today, including Sàigòn Cuisine, Machete, Lewis and Elm, the O. Henry Hotel, Fainting Goat Spirits, and Angels Bed & Breakfast. Read Jo's full article: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/guilford-courthouse-national-military-park  Plan Your Visit to Greensboro - Jo's Greensboro Travel Guide:  https://recipestravelculture.com/greensboro-1781-battlefield-to-jeansboro/  - Guilford Courthouse National Military Park: https://www.nps.gov/guco/index.htm  Follow More of Jo: -  https://www.haveglasswilltravel.com/  - https://recipestravelculture.com/  - Jo Goes Everywhere! Podcast: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/jo-goes-everywhere-podcast  - Jo Goes Everywhere! Digital Podcast Magazine: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/jo-goes-everywhere-magazine

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About

Viva Variety! Hosted by Nancy J. Reid and Lisa D. Smith, the mother-daughter travel team and publishers of Big Blend Magazines, Big Blend Radio educates, entertains and inspires! Topics include: Music, Books & The Arts; Travel & Recreation; Food & Drink; National Parks & Public Lands; History & Culture; Nature & Environment; Home & Garden; Family & Education; Business & Career; and much more!

Information

  • Creator
    Big Blend Radio Network
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    111
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Big Blend Radio and Magazines
  • Show Website
    Big Blend Radio