Patient radio for civic and inner life.
KSQD 90.7 FM Santa Cruz carries locally rooted interviews that let guests explain the work, loss, science, and belief behind public life on the Central Coast. Its tone is unhurried and neighborly, moving from ecological memory to brain injury, nurseries, faith communities, sleep, and civil grand juries.
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KSQD 90.7 FM Santa Cruz is a community-radio feed where the Central Coast appears through people, institutions, land, memory, and care. It has the feel of a public room rather than a polished studio product. The strongest episodes give guests time to build a thought slowly. A conversation with Jason Dove-Mark turns ecological change into something personal and observable, from Mount Shasta glacier photographs to garden diaries and the shifting idea of what counts as normal. The mood is serious, but not remote. State of Mind brings a steadier clinical lens, explaining traumatic brain injury, mental health, identity changes, sleep disruption, and recovery with plain-language care. Those episodes are more structured, but still human. Moment of Truth uses a long interview with James Weller to connect activism, land-title knowledge, progressive Christianity, theological study, and the practice of responding to genuine invitations. The garden episodes are warmer and looser. Stephen E. Popp, Joe Truscott, and Martin Quigley talk with nursery and pollinator guests in a way that makes plant sourcing, local growers, fragrance, acclimation, and seasonal life feel like part of civic culture. The station can also be memorial in tone. The Reverend Herb Schmidt interview looks back on Paul Lee, faith-based shelter work, Cuba solidarity, Food Not Bombs, and decades of local advocacy. A civil grand jury episode takes a similarly local view of democracy, focusing on recruitment, oversight, public funds, and the work of community members who investigate local government. Across the feed, the recurring method is conversation before conclusion. The station lets expertise arrive through story, credentials, memory, and service rather than through quick takes. It works best for listeners who value local voices, patient interviewing, and topics that sit at the intersection of public life and private meaning. It is broad, uneven in format, and distinctly place-based. That breadth is part of its identity.
Made for: For listeners who like community radio with local texture, thoughtful interviews, and subjects that move between public affairs, ecology, mental health, faith, and everyday practice.
What sets it apart: Its range is unusually grounded: the same feed can hold sleep science, glacier memory, civil grand juries, nursery culture, and faith-based homelessness work without flattening them into quick commentary.
KSQD 90.7 FM Santa Cruz - Community Radio for the Central Coast
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
KSQD turns local interviews into a detailed account of how civic, environmental and health questions take shape around Santa Cruz.
KSQD 90.7 FM Santa Cruz works as a collection of locally rooted conversations rather than a single news format. Its programs move among community activism, environmental change, mental health and gardening, with hosts giving guests room to explain how public issues enter…
A nursery rose, a shrinking glacier, and a life in activism all find their way to your dial.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A calm conversation about remembering ecological change.
Jason Dove-Mark and Len make a calm, careful case for treating memory as a working habit, not a private one. The discussion moves from glaciers on Mount Shasta to a nature and garden diary, then circles back to how absence can start to feel ordinary.
A patient look at how brain injury can change a life.
Traumatic brain injury is treated here as more than a medical label. It can alter mood, identity, and the routines that hold a day together. The episode is at its best when it places executive function beside a survival story, so the listener gets both the brain science and the…
A steady portrait of activism, faith, and the work that links them.
Meet James Weller offers a measured profile of a man whose public life runs through activism, church life, and land-title consulting. Mailing Obinata keeps moving beyond name recognition and asks for the substance, which gives the conversation its center.
A Salinas nursery story built from family history, local plants, and practical advice.
The episode follows Jeff Nielsen, the third-generation owner of Boquet Nursery in Salinas, and it works best when family history turns into plain gardening advice.
A reflective memorial interview about friendship, faith, and hands-on service in Santa Cruz.
A memorial interview for Dr. Paul Lee becomes a quietly affecting portrait of a friendship that began with a Sunday knock on Herb Schmidt's door and stretched across nearly 60 years.
Prayer, presence, and lighter living.
Len talks with Jason Dove-Mark about his book, The Earth Said, Remember Me: How to Revive Our Memories and Restore the Planet.
Deborah Sloss returns to a 2022 conversation about traumatic brain injury.
Mailing Obinata sits down with James Weller, known to friends as Jim.
Jeff Nielsen joins KSQD's Saturday morning garden show for a warm, local conversation.
Herb Schmidt remembers Paul Lee, his friend of nearly 60 years, and describes how their partnership produced Santa Cruz projects including the Whole Earth Restaurant, campus daycare, and a youth hostel.
This episode features an interview with Corey Andrikopoulus, the garden director at Gamble Gardens, discussing plant pollinators and gardening topics on a community radio garden show.
This episode features a discussion with civil grand jury experts about the purpose, recruitment, and investigative role of civil grand juries in ensuring efficient local government.
This episode explores the critical connection between sleep and mental health, featuring experts discussing how chronic sleep issues affect emotional well-being and evidence-based strategies like CBT-I for improving sleep.
Luigi Opito hosts a local tech show from Santa Cruz, introducing the episode's focus on navigating tech security while promoting community support and listener engagement.
This episode features interviews with a Minnesota mother discussing ICE-related chaos and activism, and a Middle East expert analyzing the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Host Luigi Opito introduces a tech talk show covering internet and computing topics, with a community radio format.
A computer repair shop owner hosts a call-in radio show offering tech advice and discussing internet and computing topics.
This episode explores how parents cope with the profound grief of losing a child, discussing statistics on child deaths and strategies for moving forward.
This episode explores how to cultivate presence and resiliency during times of political turmoil, violence, and immigration crises, featuring Reverend Elijah Christopher from the Center for Spiritual Living.
This episode explores the high cost of living in Salinas and delves into local political dynamics, including a group opposing renters protection measures on the ballot.