MEND Season 1 - Episode 10

Production, Pot Plants, Passions & Passports. (Oh My!)

Welcome to this - our Tenth episode of Mend!

This feels like a milestone for the two of us - as we intially envisioned compiling a grand total of 20 interviews for this - our first season of the podcast.   - so this would put us at the halfway point.

We’re continuing to enjoy the conversations and stories we unearth here so we’ll see how that number shifts as we journey forward.  

In this interview, we venture off the path we’ve trod thus far and sit down for a very candid and personal chat with Marie - a worker who has been on the production end of the cannabis scene, aka a “trimmer” for the past 8 years.  

We value deeply the perspective of the pioneers and originators of this tribe, but felt it necessary to examine some of the other aspects of this world as well.  

Here, you’ll gain a vivid portrait of a woman who has been able to  - among other things - travel, support her passions as a singer, a painter, and adventurer abroad.  She gives us a detailed accounting of the typical work day (a hint - not your typical 9-5) and season this particular job entails.  Plus get down to the nitty-gritty money bits - including how much one can make historically in this line of work - how that’s changing - and the great life she’s managed to carve out for herself as a result of this vocation - AND - living this fabulous life on a much smaller budget than you might expect.  

Marie shares with us how cannabis helped her overcome a debilitating addiciton to alcohol and cocaine in her early twenties.  We also dip into some controversial waters, too.  She shares her responses to those who see the Marijuana economy as one of Extraction - of merely taking without ever giving back.  

And we look toward what the future might hold for herself, but also the thousands of people like her who have relied upon this as a way of subsisting and bankrolling their dreams and passions in other walks of life.  

We’ve chosen to keep this talk raw and real.  

We don’t aim to portray perfect people here - but to provide a mic to learning, growing, imperfect folks - who are doing their best to navigate this time - with the tools at their disposal.  

MEND Season 1 - Episode 7

The Peace of Wild Things...

Welcome back.

In this hour, we talk to Salmon Girl - a longtime SoHum resident & outspoken member of the community.

She talks about the vast changes she’s witnessed in & around her beloved home over the past 40 years - about the shift from Wilderness to encroaching Industry and pollution - including sound, visual, and environmental - taking its toll all around.  

We speak about the loss of connection to the land itself.

Both physical but also spiritual as well.

About the problems surrounding Regulation - which, in many ways, is geared to support and promote Industry, above any real concern for the natural habitat.  

She tells us her own ideas about the marijuana plant - in her words, a “white-man luxury crop” - and the “cult” she sees having sprung up around it’s cultivation, use and promotion.  

As always, our hope here is to incite useful, instructive and in-depth conversation.

These words may leave you with more unanswered questions.

But may they also spur you to find the solutions, as well.

Oftentimes, it’s from the places of deep questioning, and heartache - that we unearth our own Salvation.

We hope you enjoy.  

MEND Season 1 - Episode 3

A Family Affair

In this episode we speak to Laura, a local midwife and resident of this county for nearly 20 years. 

For a decade she birthed babies out in the sprawling hills of Southern Humboldt. 

We discuss the many surprising advantages of raising children inside the marijuana culture along with some of the inherent challenges as well. 

Together we dive into some of the pervasive stereotypes associated with this way of life.  We look at some of the over sensationalized ways the traditional media depicts this region and it's people, and how that stacks up against the experiences and realities of those who live, work and caretake the land and their families here. 

She provides us an insightful and inspiring glance into the inner workings of the rich and varied landscape of people that make up this tribe.  We hope you enjoy this time as much as we did.