Central Coast News

Issues & Ideas: Planes, pedicabs, and Alaine Locke

KCBX | By Amarica Rafanelli

Published February 6, 2019 at 6:31 PM PST

On this week's Issues & Ideas, we meet a Cal Poly aerospace engineering professor who has designed aircraft that hold nine world speed records. He's part of a team traveling the world for the 2019 Red Bull Air Race Championship. We speak to the newest member of the Grover Beach City Council, appointed to the city's governing body during the first city council meeting she ever attended. January 28 marked the 50th anniversary of the Santa Barbara Oil Spill, and we have a report from commemorative event. Later, we talk with a San Luis Obispo woman who launched a pedicab business, and says a fleet of the human-powered vehicles could help solve some of San Luis Obispo's traffic and parking issues. And we'll get to know the UCSB professor who recently won the National Book Award for his biography of Alain Locke, the famous "Dean" of the Harlem Renaissance.

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Tom Wilmer

Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcasts feature the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts--everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.

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Brian Reynolds

Brian Reynolds is a contributor to Issues & Ideas, a weekly show that brings listeners a wide variety of perspectives on KCBX. Brian was born in Visalia, CA, and spent many years in the Central Valley before leaving for college at UC Berkeley. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from UCB, and two Master’s degrees (UCLA and CSU Chico…Library Science and Public Administration). He lived abroad for two years in Spanish-speaking countries (Spain and Nicaragua) and is fluent in Spanish. He spent his career as a public librarian, serving as a Library Director for over 30 years. He retired from the Director position at the SLO County Library in 2013.

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Tyler Pratt

Tyler Pratt was a reporter, host and producer at KCBX from 2018 to 2020. You could hear him on weekdays filing news reports and hosting afternoon programming. Tyler hails from the deserts of West Texas but likes to call the the swamps of Louisiana home. He fell in love with public radio over a decade ago while studying improv comedy at the Second City in Los Angeles. He spent so much time in his car listening to KCRW while driving between auditions and various jobs that he eventually became inspired to switch careers from acting to radio journalism.

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