The award-winning KCBX Newsroom works to bring you local stories that represent our Central Coast listeners and supporters.

Issues and Ideas features a wide variety of people sharing their thoughts and perspectives about local issues, initiatives and happenings on the Central Coast. You might hear a policy maker discussing new regulation, an artist sharing their creative process, an entrepreneur exploring sustainable business practices, or an author talking about her latest book.Our regular segments include: "Wine Country" with wine journalist and author Mira Honeycutt; literary conversations on "Bookwaves" with former librarian Brian Reynolds; "Playing With Food" with culinary enthusiast Fr. Ian Delinger; stories of Central Coast downtowns on "Talking Downtown" with Carol Tangeman; Dr. Consuelo Meux's "The Nonprofit Story" that covers the work nonprofits are doing on the Central Coast, and "People and the Planet" with Gianna Patchen, who explores the interconnection between our communities and our environment.The show also carries occasional episodes from "Journeys of Discovery" by KCBX travel correspondent Tom Wilmer; features from the KCBX Newsroom, from KCSB, the student-run radio station at UC Santa Barbara, and from The California Report; along with interviews by other occasional contributors from our Central Coast community.

Central Coast Voices addresses the many ramifications of change and how today's choices will affect tomorrow's community. This program is an extension and production of "Action for Healthy Communities" an organization committed to identifying and carrying out projects that will improve the quality of life in San Luis Obispo County.

Fr. Ian Delinger hosts this fun monthly segment of "Issues & Ideas" about unique ways of looking at and preparing everyday foods on the California Central Coast. He travels around our region cooking with and talking with chefs, farmers, distillers, home cooks and more in this entertaining culinary exploration.

KCBX Top Regional Stories

The Reluctant Therapist, Elizabeth Barrett, leads a conversation about the state of our collective mental health and the ways in which our helping professions are either aiding or getting in the way of our cultural well-being. With so many social services, treatments and programs available—why are we all still struggling in so many ways?

Tom Wilmer’s Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel podcast, "Journeys of Discovery," is a regular segment on the weekly KCBX program "Issues & Ideas." Tom's interviews are recorded live on location across America and around the world and showcase the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine and spirits, brewpubs, the culinary arts and more. Tom covers nouns and verbs: people, places, things, and action — everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls, and interviewing the "real" Santa Claus in the Arctic. His feature, recorded live at Harland & Wolfe Shipyards in Belfast Northern Ireland, celebrating the centenary of the launch of the Titanic was the recipient of a Best Travel award from Outdoor Writers Association of California.