Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast

Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast

A refreshing, irreverent dive into the lives, work, and explorations of today’s leading and diverse ocean voices. Each half-hour episode co-hosted by David Helvarg of Blue Frontier and Vicki Nichols Goldstein of the Inland Ocean Coalition sails through lively discussions with our guests about marine life, culture, and critical issues affecting our rapidly changing seas. Informative, enlightening, and often humorous it is an invaluable resource for anyone passionate about understanding, enjoying, and protecting our salty blue world.

Episodes

September 22, 2025 28 mins

In the latest episode of ‘Rising Tide, the Ocean Podcast,’ David speaks with Erica Hammond, Legislative Director of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO.  They represent most of the roughly 1,000 workers who’ve been out of a job since the Trump administration issued a stop-work order in August on the ‘Revolution’ wind farm project.  That’s a 5 billion-dollar 80 percent completed offshore wind farm that was slated to bring clean power to New En...

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In the latest episode of 'Rising Tide, the Ocean Podcast,' hosts David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein of the Inland Ocean Coalition interview Dr. Drew Harvell, an esteemed professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University. The discussion delves into the recent breakthrough in identifying the bacteria responsible for sea star wasting disease, which has decimated starfish populations and kelp forests on the Wes...

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The latest episode of Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast features a conversation with Kirsten Donald, a marine mammal biologist, educator, and ocean advocate with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California. This renowned rescue center responds to whales and dolphins in distress while rehabilitating and releasing hundreds of sick and injured seals and sea lions each year.

Before joining the Pacific Marine Mammal Center,...

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The latest episode of the Rising Tide Ocean Podcast features an excerpt from a recent conversation between David Helvarg and Chris Clarke of the desert podcast 90 Miles from Needles. Clarke discusses Helvarg’s first book, The War Against the Greens (1994), which was highly influential in exposing a violent environmental backlash funded by western industries such as hard-rock mining, beef, and timber. Helvarg draws parallels betw...
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In the latest Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast David and Vicki talk with former Ocean Conservancy Chief Scientist and policy expert George Leonard about the Trump administration’s approach to our public seas. In taking a closer look at the BBB (‘Big Beautiful’ or ‘Big Brother’) mega-bill that Congress just passed, George breaks down many of the vital services from ocean observation and weather labs to protection of salmon, parks in t...
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July 14, 2025 28 mins
In the latest episode David & Vicki talk with Wildaid CEO Meaghan Brosnan who, when it comes to marine wildlife and protected areas, is all about the enforcement. Wildaid is a leading international non-profit dedicated to saving the world’s declining wildlife species, perhaps best known for its decade-long media campaign that helped turn China from a consumer to an opponent of shark finning. Since taking over in 2017, Meaghan h...
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June 30, 2025 28 mins
In the latest episode of Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast, David & Vicki bring you some of the news that other media may not have. Earlier in June there was a United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France attended by thousands of people including many heads of state. While a lot got done there, there was little coverage of it in the United States. That’s why Rising Tide Ocean Podcast recently talked with Mike Sutton, Executive D...
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In this episode of the Rising Tide Ocean Podcast, hosts David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein welcome Tom Ford, CEO of the Bay Foundation and Director of the Santa Monica Bay National Estuary Program. They discuss Ford's journey from his first ocean encounter in high school to his extensive work in kelp forest restoration. Ford shares insights into the Bay Foundation's efforts, including restoring 75 acres of kelp forest off Pa...
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In the latest episode of Rising Tide, the Ocean Podcast David Helvarg and Natasha Benjamin talk with Kim McIntyre, the Executive Director of the Aquarium Conservation Partnership, a coalition of 35 aquariums working together to increase their collective impact. Along with helping revive the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards that took place at the National Aquarium in May, the 9-year-old coalition is involved in educating its members’ 40 ...
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Our latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast ranges from Palau in the central Pacific to Washington D.C. After a short Blue News update with Congressman Jared Huffman in his DC office we go to the shark enhanced – not infested - waters of Palau where Blue Frontier's David Helvarg interviews Tiani Dun an underwater photographer who also organizes dive charters, part of the multi-billion-dollar global scuba diving industry. ...
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On Friday April 25 the Rising Tide Ocean Podcast recorded our show with a live audience during SF Climate Week – one of the largest climate gatherings in the world. From the downtown studios of KALW – “The Voice of the Bay Area,” David and Natasha discussed global and Bay Area aspects of the Ocean and the Climate Crisis with guests Rod Fujita, a marine consultant and recently retired director of ocean research and development for ...
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April 21, 2025 29 mins
In the latest and award-winning Rising Tide: the Ocean Podcast, David Helvarg, and Vicki Nicholas Goldstein speak with Jeremy Rifkin, who wants us to rethink our home in the universe. He is a best-selling author of 23 books translated into 35 languages and a major climate advisor to the European Union and China. He has returned to basics with his newest book, "Planet Aqua," about how water is the animating force of life, something ...
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April 7, 2025 29 mins
In the latest episode of the award-winning Rising Tide: the Ocean Podcast David and Vicki talk with retired NOAA Captain Craig McLean about the Trump administration’s attacks on the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. 20 percent of its workforce including weather forecasters and ocean and climate scientists have already been laid off and more than 10 percent of the budget cut and things could get worse. Havin...
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March 24, 2025 27 mins
In our new episode of Rising Tide - the Ocean Podcast David Helvarg & Vicki Nichols Goldstein talk with friends Natasha Benjamin of Blue Frontier and Ana Blanco of the International Ocean Film Festival about their new role as co-directors of ‘Sequoias of the Sea.’ SOS as it’s also known is a 54-minute documentary film about the global crisis facing Kelp Forests. It tells that story through the lens of the people of Fort Bragg Calif...
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This fall NASA launched the Europa Clipper spaceship on a mission to the Jupiter moon of Europa to see if life might exist in its subsurface ocean. In this episode or ‘Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast’ we interview Dr. Kathy Crane who was key to the discovery and mapping of hydrothermal vents in the deep Pacific 45 years ago when new ‘chemosynthetic’ life including giant clams and tubeworms were discovered. These are the kinds of de...
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February 24, 2025 28 mins
In our latest episode of ‘Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast’ David and Vicki check in on Nat Herz founder and reporter at The Northern Journal. After covering our 49th state (including one third of America’s coastline) for the Alaska Daily News and Alaska Public Media Nick set out on his own in 2022, creating an Anchorage-based investigative newsletter covering issues from public lands and water, energy, mining, fisheries, politics, ...
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February 10, 2025 28 mins
In this episode of 'Rising Tide, the Ocean podcast,' hosts David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein interview Melanie McField, the founder and director of Healthy Reefs for Healthy People. Melanie shares her journey from a childhood interest in marine biology to her work in Belize with the Peace Corps and beyond. She discusses the creation of the world's first science-based coral reef report card, which evaluates the health of the...
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January 27, 2025 27 mins
Last fall we spoke with a University of Alaska scientist about the state of salmon. Today we speak with Tim Bristol, the Director of ‘Salmon State’, a Juneau based environmental initiative to protect and sustain Alaska’s wild salmon that include some of the largest runs in the world. But all’s not well in their river and ocean home. Working with Alaska Native people, commercial fishermen, river guides, and conservationists Sal...
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In this episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast David Helvarg & Vicki N. Goldstein talk with longtime anti-offshore drilling activist Richard Charter about one of President Biden’s last acts in office, his January 6th ban on future offshore oil and gas drilling permits along the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the U.S. in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the northern Bering Sea off Alaska. Richard, whose been a leader of c...
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In this episode of the Rising Tide Ocean Podcast, David Helvarg presents a compilation of the most impactful ocean voices of 2024. The episode features commercial fisherman turned journalist Nick Raheim discussing sperm whales in Alaska, artist Rachel sharing her fish-inspired art, Dr. Sarah Frees Torres on her marine biology journey, author Shelby Van Pelt on her book's influence, Nancy Rabley on the Gulf’s dead zone, Rear Admiral...
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