

Waterpeople Podcast
Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich - surf stories & ocean adventures
Stories about the aquatic experiences that shape us. Listen with Lauren L. Hill and Dave Rastovich as they talk story with some of the most adept waterfolk on the planet. Waterpeople is a gathering place for our global ocean community to dive into the themes of watery lives lived well: ecology, adventure, community, activism, science, egalitarianism, inclusivity, meaningful play, a sense of humour. And, surfing, of course.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 21, 2021 • 1h 11min
Taki Gold: Scar Gazing
He fled from civil war on foot as a six year old, physically unscathed, but forever changed by the unthinkable violence, rhythms, and energy of Liberia's internal conflict. After making his home in California, Taki Gold set out to transform the dark relationship he’d once had with the ocean by taking up surfing. Along the way, he's grown into a multi-faceted artist and musician. Taki's latest album Girl God is a testament to the women who carried him through the horrors of war. Content warning: please make sure that you’re in the right headspace to listen to this episode and that there aren’t any young ears around. ...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave RastovichSound Engineer & Music By: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music: ‘Evergreen’ by Band of Frequencies: Men of Wood & Foam album www.bandoffreqs.bandcamp.comTaki Gold'Liberian Boy'Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast Waterpeoplepodcast.comPhoto Credit: Unknown (If you took this photo please reach out)Send us a text...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast ... Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox. You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Sep 3, 2021 • 1h 33min
Nature as the Third Parent with psychologist Robin Grille
What does the way we treat children say about who we are as individuals, and as a culture? Our guest, psychologist and father Robin Grille, believes that parents and teachers are amongst the most powerful agents for social change. We meander through stories about finding flow in parenting, moving away from the power-over paradigm, how colonialism has historically guided parenting norms, and the inherited trauma that most of us are called to unravel as adults or parents. Robin Grille has been in private practice as a psychotherapist, relationship counsellor and parent coach for 30 years. He is the author two books, Parenting for a Peaceful World and Heart to Heart Parenting. Robin was born in Uruguay to migrant parents, and then migrated to Australia at age 10. Spanish is his first language, French his second and Romanian his third. .....Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave RastovichSound Engineer & Music by: Shannon Sol Carroll Join the conversation: Waterpeoplepodcast.com@Waterpeoplepodcast Send us a text...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast ... Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox. You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Aug 26, 2021 • 56min
Jack McCoy: Life & Breath
Seven years ago, an episode of breathlessness after bodysurfing -- and subsequent health challenges (including a 15% chance of survival) -- shook up Jack McCoy's single-minded focus on filmmaking. Jack has crafted 25 feature films. From his 1976 debut Tubular Swells, to the contrasting narratives of Blue Horizon, and the historical themes of A Deeper Shade of Blue, Jack’s films have documented shifting surf cultures and bolstered many young men’s surfing careers. In his attempt to make art rather than simply document performance, Jack collaborated with musicians like Paul Mccartney, innovated cinematic approaches, and elevated the surf film genre over the last 45 years.Jack talks us through meeting Duke Kahanamoku, being the poster boy for Bruce Brown, Rell Sunn's radiating aloha, learning to follow his instincts, the value of colonics, and the encompassing importance of breath. ...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave RastovichSound Engineer & Music By: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music: ‘Evergreen’ by Band of Frequencies: Men of Wood & Foam album www.bandoffreqs.bandcamp.comJoin the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast Waterpeoplepodcast.comPhoto Credit: Grant EllisSend us a text...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast ... Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox. You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Aug 12, 2021 • 1h 14min
Changing the Visuals with RHONDA HARPER
Rhonda Harper is a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, and founder of the NGO Black Girls Surf, which creates access opportunities for black and brown women and girls to experience surfing. Black Girls Surf is fostering a new generation of recreational and professional surfers through international training camps, while pushing back on exclusive surf media. Parallel to Black Girls Surf, Rhonda is working to further develop professional surfing in Africa , by dreaming up an African Triple Crown: a series of professional surfing events to highlight indigenous surfers. Her mission is to continue diversifying the visuals of surfing and surf culture......Welcome to our mini series, Watershed Chats, conversational deep dives with experts and those in service of solutions for a healthy and habitable future on Planet Ocean. Watershed Chats are presented by The Waterpeople Podcast in collaboration with Patagonia. .....Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave RastovichSound Engineer & Music by: Shannon Sol Carroll Artist in Residence: Chris Miyashiro Join the conversation: Waterpeoplepodcast.com@Waterpeoplepodcast Photo Credit: GloriousSport.comSend us a text...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast ... Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox. You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Aug 2, 2021 • 1h 20min
Taylor Steele: The Observer Effect
If the act of looking at something changes it – an effect that holds true for people, animals, even atoms -- then what further impact does documenting have? Over the course of the last 30 years, Taylor Steele's observations and interpretations have helped to define and redefine surf filmmaking -- and to shape the modern, California-centric culture of surfing. In the 1990s Taylor documented a new era of approaches to wave riding through films like Momentum and Loose Change. Later, his cinematic surf travelscapes like Sipping Jetsteams, Castles in the Sky, and Proximity paid poetic justice to the beauty of an adventurous surfing life -- a creative shift inspired by the birth of his daughters. Taylor shares stories about finding a way to do what we love, the impact of fatherhood on his creative process, his formative family surfing experiences, being the 3rd best surf filmmaker in his high school, and realising a formula for making good memories. ..."Taylor, you’re the kinda guy who’s a real observer. That’s probably why film became your thing because you like to watch. And maybe you don’t make a strong opinion in words, but you do in the things you put out.” – Kelly Slater, on Taylor Steele. ...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave RastovichSound Engineer & Music By: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music: ‘Evergreen’ by Band of Frequencies: Men of Wood & Foam album www.bandoffreqs.bandcamp.comJoin the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast Waterpeoplepodcast.comPhoto Credit: Taylor SteeleSend us a text...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast ... Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox. You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Jul 27, 2021 • 1h 5min
Valerie Taylor: Sixty Years with Sharks
Do you have a memory about the movie JAWS? Australian icon Valerie Taylor was commissioned by Steven Spielberg, along with her partner Ron Taylor, to shoot the live action scenes for his unforgettable classic -- a film that ultimately drummed up irrational fears about sharks. Valerie spent much of the rest of her career trying to dispel those myths. Valerie's life’s work has become the basis for much of what we know about sharks today. She is best known for featuring on the cover of National Geographic Magazine being bitten by a blue shark, and for her work in establishing marine protected areas. Her life is chronicled in the new documentary "Playing with Sharks," which traces Valerie's career trajectory from champion spearfisher to passionate shark protector. Here, she talks us through a few of the many adventures in her long and very adventurous watery life, and what it has meant to document the Anthropocene. .....Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave RastovichSound Engineer & Music By: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music: ‘Evergreen’ by Band of Frequencies: Men of Wood & Foam album www.bandoffreqs.bandcamp.comJoin the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast Waterpeoplepodcast.comPhoto Credit: Ron & Valerie TaylorSend us a text...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast ... Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox. You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Jul 14, 2021 • 1h 26min
Lynne Boyer: All These Secrets
Our cultural heros, and especially our sheros, seem to always glimmer with a steely façade of smiling heteronormative perfection. The soft underbelly of this manufactured reality is often left unspoken. Parallel to her time at the top, two time World Champion Lynne Boyer ( '78 and '79 ), struggled with addiction and stifling her sexual orientation. Still, she managed to define radical surfing amongst her cohort, and kept four time World Champ Margo Oberg on her toes with ongoing competitive rivalry. Now a professional artist, Lynne shares about the fledgling years of professional surfing, coming out, breaking down, the comparison of sex and tuberiding and the redeeming power of love......Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave RastovichSound Engineer & Music By: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music: ‘Evergreen’ by Band of Frequencies: Men of Wood & Foam album www.bandoffreqs.bandcamp.comJoin the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast Waterpeoplepodcast.comPhoto Credit: Bob BarbourSend us a text...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast ... Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox. You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Jul 5, 2021 • 1h 31min
Isaiah Helekunihi Walker: Claiming Kuleana
How far are you willing to go to protect the place where you live, love and belong? Native Hawaiians have had to face this question regularly over the last century or so, as colonialism threatened, and continues to threaten, indigenous ways of being, playing and thriving in their islands. Professor/Surfer Isaiah Helekunihi Walker contextualises Hawaiian localism within the historical framework of waves of colonialism -- from the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom to the annual onslaught of the surfing industry on the fabled North Shore. Isaiah is the author of "Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in Twentieth-Century Hawai'i." His research offers an alternative to the dominant, California-centric narrative of surfing, by offering a native history from the birthing grounds of surf culture. We also delve into the particular shaping of Duke Kahanamoku's public persona and legacy, question who has driven surf storytelling, reveal the gender bias in ancient Hawaiian moʻolelo (toward female surfers), and speak to the ancient sustainable food science of Ahupua'a, which allowed for surfing to exist as we know it. ....* "Kuleana is a uniquely Hawaiian value and practice which is loosely translated to mean 'responsibility.' The word kuleana refers to a reciprocal relationship between the person who is responsible, and the thing which they are responsible for.For example, Hawaiians have a kuleana to our land: to care for it and to respect it, and in return, our land has the kuleana to feed, shelter, and clothe us, through this relationship we maintain balance within society and with our natural environment.".....Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave RastovichSound Engineer & Music By: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music: ‘Evergreen’ by Band of Frequencies: Men of Wood & Foam album www.bandoffreqs.bandcamp.comJoin the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast Waterpeoplepodcast.comPhoto Credit: BYU HawaiiSend us a text...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast ... Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox. You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Jun 28, 2021 • 1h 30min
Susan Casey: Fathoming
What do you do with sparks of curiosity? Susan Casey follows many of them into full immersion: jet skiing down the face of a Pe'ahi set wave with Laird Hamilton, into the lightless innerspace of the deep marine biosphere via submersible, and straight to the ruins of forgotten ancient cultures to ascertain truth and significance for herself --- while taking readers along for the ride. Susan Casey, a self-proclaimed 'stealth activist,' is the author of three New York Times bestselling books including The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean, The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks, and Voices in the Ocean: A Journey Into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins.Susan was the creative director for Outside Magazine, and served as editor in chief for both Sports Illustrated Women and O, The Oprah Magazine, as well as being editor at large across all of Time Inc.’s magazine titles. Susan is one of our culture's most compelling advocates for marvelling with and protecting our oceans. .....Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave RastovichSound Engineer & Music By: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music: ‘Evergreen’ by Band of Frequencies: Men of Wood & Foam album www.bandoffreqs.bandcamp.comJoin the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast Waterpeoplepodcast.comPhoto Credit: Unknown (If you took this photo please reach out)Send us a text...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast ... Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox. You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Jun 21, 2021 • 47min
Welcome to Season Three
Listen with Lauren L. Hill, Dave Rastovich and Waterpeople's sound engineer/ in-house musician Shannon Sol Carroll as they sit down to recalibrate for another 21 episodes of conversation with some of the world's most adept waterpeople -- and those stretching the culture in imperative ways. .....Hosts: Lauren L. Hill & Dave RastovichSound Engineer & Music By: Shannon Sol Carroll Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast Waterpeoplepodcast.comSend us a text...Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast ... Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox. You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.