Big Blend Radio

On this episode of Big Blend Radio’s “Quiltripping Travel with Rose” Podcast, travel writer and photographer Rose Palmer of Quiltripping.com joins us fresh off the MSC World America, MSC’s newest mega ship, sailing from Miami to the Caribbean and the private island of Ocean Cay in the Bahamas. 
Rose and her best friend celebrated milestone birthdays in the exclusive MSC Yacht Club, a “ship within a ship” with its own restaurant, lounge, sun deck, pool and a personal butler. Rose compares it to flying business class: the attention of a small luxury ship with the dining and entertainment of a big one, at a fraction of the cost of Ponant or Seabourn.
In this episode:- Life in the Yacht Club, where fewer than 300 guests share the top decks of a ship carrying about 6,500 people, and the butlers in tails and white gloves.- Finding breathing room on a mega ship, and why it feels like business class versus coach.- Sweet Temptations, the Jean-Philippe Chocolate Café, the craft brewery and The Gin Project, and dinner at Eataly, Paxos, Hola and La Brasserie.- The not-so-secret secret telephone booth that isn’t on any deck plan.- What’s included in the Yacht Club, and why this ship works for multigenerational families and solo travelers.- Ocean Cay, MSC’s private island, transformed from an abandoned sand-mining site into a Caribbean paradise, plus the MSC Foundation’s work.- Spa and thermal rooms, Queen and Dirty Dancing shows, and dueling pianos at The Loft.
RESOURCE LINKS:- Read Rose’s full article and listen on the Big Blend site:https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/msc-world-america-caribbean-cruise - Rose’s blog, Quiltripping.com: https://www.Quiltripping.com - Big Blend Radio’s “Quiltripping Travel with Rose” Podcast: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/quiltripping-travel-with-rose-podcast - “Quiltripping Travel” Digital Podcast Magazine: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/quiltripping-travel-magazine 

Celebrate Pizza Month, Italian American Heritage Month, and Family History Month with pizza, wine, and Sicilian family stories in this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Wine Time with Peggy" Podcast!
Peggy Fiandaca, co-owner of Arizona's LDV Winery, starts with a fall update from the vineyard and the tasting room in Old Town Scottsdale, including a Burgundy wine talk, Petite Sirah in November, trivia night, and two new wine releases. Then she and Lisa D. Smith dive into Peggy's Italian American heritage: growing up Sicilian in Chicago, why so many Italian immigrants came to America and the discrimination they faced, and the close-knit extended family and Sunday suppers that shaped the way she cooks.
Peggy shares the Sicilian pizza traditions of her childhood, a thick, rectangular, focaccia-style pizza baked in an olive-oil-slicked pan and made at home every Friday night. She also explains her Wine Term of the Month, Nero d'Avola, Sicily's flagship red, and what makes a ragù different from a Sunday sauce. Then it's time for pizza and wine pairings: what to pour with a cheesy slice, ham and pineapple, Margherita, and white pizza, plus why pizza for brunch with bubbles sounds like a great idea.
LINKS & RESOURCES- Get Peggy's pizza and wine pairing tips, plus more of her Italian-style recipes: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/how-to-pair-wine-with-pizza - Learn more about LDV Winery: https://ldvwinery.com - Check out the "Wine & Bites" Recipe & Podcast Digital Magazine: https://online.fliphtml5.com/yhwzg/fmlb - Follow "Wine Time with Peggy" Podcast: https://wine-time-peggy.podbean.com/ 

What does it look like to explore Sweden at the pace of a ferry? On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Wander the World" Podcast, travel writer and photographer Sharon K. Kurtz takes us on a slow-travel journey through Stockholm, Gothenburg, and the islands of the Southern Archipelago, by ferry, by train, and by kayak.
Sharon shares the Swedish ritual of fika, the daily pause for coffee, a cinnamon bun, and friends. She also talks about fresh fish and a Michelin-starred vegetable-and-fish dinner in Gothenburg, and Swedish meatballs, from a fine restaurant to IKEA. In Stockholm she visits the Vasa Museum, the ABBA Museum, and Skansen, the world's first open-air museum, where she joined the Midsummer maypole dance. She also stayed on Skeppsholmen Island, took a Nordic food tour, rode the train to Gothenburg, and cruised its canals on the Paddan boat tour. Then it's on to a kayak trip off Styrsö and Donsö and a stop at Popsicle, a café and knitting shop in an old firehouse.
RESOURCE & LINKS: - Plan your trip with Visit Sweden: https://visitsweden.com/ 
- Sharon's full article has the links and details for planning your own trip: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/sweden-by-land-and-sea 
- Wander the World Podcast: https://wandertheworldwithsharon.podbean.com 
- Wander the World Digital Podcast Magazine: https://online.fliphtml5.com/yhwzg/gyoy/#p=1 
- Sharon K. Kurtz: https://sharonkkurtz.com 

It's October in Asheville, which makes it ghost-watching season. In Part 2 of Big Blend Radio's "Adventures in Asheville" visit with Dawn Bankson of Star Watch Night Vision Tours, we head out after dark to historic Riverside Cemetery in the Montford neighborhood, a couple of blocks from The Lion & The Rose Bed & Breakfast.
Host Lisa D. Smith and Nancy J. Reid join Steve and Karen Wilson, Dawn, and her guide Todd Robertson at the old vault that ghost hunters report as the most haunted spot in the cemetery. Through military-grade night vision goggles, the building seems to shimmer with waves of twinkling lights. They compare notes on what they're seeing, spot what might be orbs, and keep an eye out for the mother bear and two cubs said to be living in the cemetery.
Then it's out to a farm under a sea of stars to talk about satellites, strange moving lights, how Dawn got started with night vision tours, and why she and Todd love searching for stars and Bigfoot near Mount Pisgah. Todd shares his own Sasquatch call, a camping mystery with no bear tracks, and the squeals that made the group wonder what was out there.
Listen to Part 1, watch the full episode, and get more information:https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/star-watch-night-vision-tours-asheville 
Follow Dawn & Star Watch Night Vision Tours:- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057159232266 - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starwatchnight 
Stay at The Lion & The Rose Bed & Breakfast:https://www.lion-rose.com 
More Adventures in Asheville:- Podcast Channel: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/adventures-in-asheville-podcast - Digital Podcast Magazine: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/adventures-in-asheville-magazine 

Step inside the 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a 1922 Chitlin' Circuit landmark and Mississippi Blues Trail stop just across from the historic train depot. On location for Big Blend Radio's "Travel with Terri" Podcast, travel journalist Terri Guthrie sits down inside the hall with Rachel Dangermond, the writer and award-winning journalist who purchased it in 2018 and now leads the nonprofit that keeps it alive. It's the perfect episode to celebrate Global Diversity Awareness Month! 
Rachel traces the hall's roots to a self-reliant benevolent association formed in the Black community during Jim Crow, and shares the skits, the manless weddings, and the legendary musicians who played here, including James Brown, Ray Charles, Etta James, Guitar Slim, and BB King. She also explains how a Mardi Gras crew began in the hall as the Merrymakers, why the Chitlin' Circuit story is more nuanced than most people know, and how the hall's mission has grown to celebrate every community through A Soulful Christmas, Día de los Muertos, and the Matzo Ball.
You'll also hear about the hall's four annual fundraisers: Rock 'N' Roux in January, Swamp(gr)Ass Get Down in April, Booker Fest over Labor Day weekend, and Cigars Under the Stars benefiting Gulf Coast veterans. Rachel talks about the endowment protecting the hall's future and why visitors from as far as Japan, Australia, and New Zealand keep coming back. Along the way, Terri shares the route of Amtrak's Mardi Gras Train, which runs twice daily between New Orleans and Mobile.
RESOURCE LINKS:- Plan Your Visit: 100 Men Hall: https://100menhall.com/ - Listen to the previous episode about Amtrak's Mardi Gras Trainwith Knox Ross, Chairman of the Southern Rail Commission: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/mardi-gras-train-gulf-coast-amtrak 
TRAVEL WITH TERRI:Travel with Terri: https://www.travelwithterri.com/ Travel with Terri Podcast: https://www.travelwithterri.com/podcast Travel with Terri Magazine: https://www.travelwithterri.com/magazine 

Clean water and sanitation touch nearly every part of life: health, education, safety, economic opportunity and human dignity. 
On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Table & Compass" Podcast, Lisa D. Smith is joined by co-hosts Joelle Machia and Ryan Slough of Wanderers Compass for a conversation with His Excellency Ambassador Dr. Nabhit Kapur, Permanent Observer to the United Nations for the Pan-African Intergovernmental Agency on Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA).
Dr. Kapur began as a psychologist and mental health advocate, founding the Peaceful Mind Foundation and World Leaders for Mental Health. He explains how that work in Africa led him to the UN and to water and sanitation. He shares why women and girls are central to the solutions, including through his WaterHer initiative, and what happens to a community when clean water is a long walk away. He also describes a visit to a small town in Ghana where children walk five kilometres each way for a bucket of water.
The conversation covers how a small UN observer mission works, from taking ideas to member states to getting them to the grassroots, and how WSA's science-based approach shapes its projects. He describes the sanitation and water clubs in Nigerian schools and a youth sanitation and water Model UN planned for next year. Joelle and Ryan add what they've seen traveling, including Sint Maarten's dependence on rainwater and desalination and the questions they ask hotels about protecting local water. The episode ends with what gives Dr. Kapur hope.
Recorded just ahead of UN General Assembly 81 in September 2026. Whether you live in a city, a village or a hotel lobby, you can ask what is happening with water in your own community.
RESOURCE LINKS:- Dr. Nabhit Kapur on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnabhitkapur - Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA): https://wsa-un-ny.org/index.php - UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6 - New episodes of Big Blend Radio's "Table & Compass" Podcast air every first Monday, here: https://table-and-compass.podbean.com/  - Learn more about Joelle Machia & Ryan Slough, Founders & Publishers of Wanderers Compass: https://www.wandererscompass.com/  - Explore Big Blend Radio and Big Blend Magazines: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/  

It's Health Literacy Month, and today is publication day for the book, "Treating a Broken System: A Physician's Cure for the Healthcare Crisis."
Retired physician and Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine Dr. Neil J. Farber joins Lisa D. Smith on Big Blend Radio to talk about why he wrote the book and what he believes it will take to fix the way patients, physicians, and healthcare administrators work together.
After decades of teaching communication to physicians, Dr. Farber became a patient himself and saw the healthcare crisis from the other side. In this conversation he explains why you keep getting asked the same questions at every visit, how electronic records, patient portals, and AI note-taking are changing the workload for doctors, and why he calls the pressure on physicians "assembly line medicine."
You'll also hear practical tips you can use right away: bring a list of your concerns, bring someone with you or ask to have them join by phone or Zoom, record the visit, and look for a physician who practices shared decision making. Dr. Farber also describes a Mayo Clinic approach in which administrators listen to physicians and give them the authority to fix their own workload, and a Valley fever story that shows why curiosity about the whole person helps both doctors and patients.
Dr. Farber says the book is for patients, physicians, and administrators, and Lisa adds caregivers and families to that list. He is donating his book profits to charity.
Get the book & learn more: https://neiljfarber.com/ More from Big Blend Radio: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/ 

In celebration of Global Diversity Awareness Month, Big Blend Radio's "American Jukebox" Podcast series takes a seven-song journey from Cuba to Brazil, Spain to Detroit, showing how global traditions have shaped American music, and how American artists have inspired the world right back.
Singer-songwriter Johnny Schaefer and Lisa D. Smith talk through Rufus Wainwright & John Legend, Rodríguez, Gilberto Gil, Buena Vista Social Club, Rosalía, Rusted Root, and Michael Franti & Spearhead, plus a look ahead to November's Songs for Positive Change. Timely note: Rosalía returns to Saturday Night Live as the musical guest on Saturday, October 10! 
NOTE: This is the spoken-word version of the episode. Hear the full version with all seven songs on our episode page: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/american-jukebox-global-diverse-voices 
LINKS:🎵Spotify Playlist:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1rSdFzHK3MUUWOLFHArCvw?si=90d04d9a9b3c44ee 🎵 Johnny Schaefer: https://hearjohnny.com/ 🎙️ Explore all American Jukebox episodes: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/t/american-jukebox