When Sustainable Saratoga executive director Kelsey Trudell is not helping make our environment a better place throughout Saratoga County, she is a busy videographer and, along with her husband, Ben, are YouTube stars!

Her career took her to Arizona, where she worked early on with the Arizona Sustainability Alliance before the opportunity to move back to the area presented itself for her and her husband, Ben.

She talked about all the events that kicked off on April's Earth Day, to promoting the work of tiny pollinators during No Mow May to a Black Friday doorbuster type of atmosphere on May 31 for the annual Pollinator Palozza Plant Sale at Oginly's Country Gardens.

She talked about what the organization has done this spring, what's up next after a well-deserved break, including a bucket list destination and what you and I can do to help the environment that we all share.

For more information about the organization, visit www.sustainablesaratoga.org

For most people, Halloween is less than six months away, but for graphic designer Kayla Ek, the time is now. This Saturday, Ek will deliver new, intriguing, and — to some pedestrians — odd arts and exhibits to her second Nightmare on Jay Street.

Ek provided the first early evening exhibit in the marketplace last October, and its success created howls for another marketplace event in May.

Kalya stopped by The Daily Gazette podcast studio to talk about the Nightmare Marketplace, her start as an artist, her vision for the marketplace, and how early she likes to put up her own Halloween decorations.

For the past 22 years, Maggie Fronk has been front and center at Wellspring, the domestic violence and sexual assault services resource for Saratoga and Washington County in New York.

April is Domestic Violence Awareness month, and April 30th is Denim Day.

On a beautiful spring day, I sat down with Maggie Fronk, who shed light on Wellspring's mission, the history of Denim Day, and what everyone can do to help others who are in need of their services.

• (00:02:30) - Introduction to Wellspring and Denim Day
• (00:05:00) - 22 years at Wellspring
• (00:09:00) - What makes you happy
• (00:11:00) - What was COVID-19 like for your services
• (00:15:30) - "You helped me... a story"
• (00:19:00) - Explaining the job of Wellspring
• (00:21:30) - What can we do to help?

Paula Fidalgo is a familiar face in New York's Capital Region - one of the first staffers hired in 2002 at Time Warner Cable's Cable News 9 channel.

She spent years on screens, delivering the news, using her creative talents behind the scenes, and more before venturing out on her own.

The stories she helped deliver and the people she met helped her as she decided to craft her first book of fiction "They Even Took My Shoes: How a journalist overcame betrayal, an abusive court system and kept her promise."

I sat down with Paula to learn about her life; her world travels, and and her struggles. I learned how amazingly upbeat she was during her early life and how her energy continued as she told me her story.

Five years ago, Steve Derrick found himself working from home ... indefinitely.

The game developer and artist took the time to work on his craft and focused on portraits. He went from friends and family submissions on Facebook to finding the true heros of the pandemic - essential workers in some of their most trying moments.

Steve Derrick drew those portraits and sent them to the subjects free of charge, for months.

He said it helped him, but it also helped so many others - including myself and my family.

We both took moments to pause during our conversation because we still feel the memories deeply.

Introducing artist Steve Derrick who was kind enough to 'Tell Me Your Story'.

For the past 22 years, Skidmore College professor Daniel Nathan has taught American Studies on the Saratoga Springs campus. With the liberties given to him and his students, his '10 Books that Changed America' spurred on a new course - '10 Movies that Changed America.'

Nathan discusses creating the new course, what movies ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor, his favorite films, and the upcoming Academy Awards.

His work is incomplete as he remains busy as a writer, editor, professor, and sports enthusiast, so I plan to invite him again to this podcast.

Link to The Daily Gazette 'Getting to Know' story.

From Syracuse to the university to Albany to the streets of Baltimore, Tasha ‘Freedom’ McBride has made a difference. She was part of Art Night in Schenectady, shown inside the Schenectady County office buildings, first two floors, in a photo exhibit entitled “An Artist's Perspective: Defying a Broken System in celebration of Black History Month.

For the first time, McBride's photos will be displayed as part of an essay entitled “Broken Concrete.”

She was the first featured artist of the Schenectady County Human Rights Commission.

I called Tasha ‘Freedom’ McBride at her home in Maryland to learn about her journey as an artist and community officer with the City of Baltimore.

Winston Grady-Willis is a Skidmore College professor and the founding director of Black Studies. He was an associate professor of American Studies from 2008 to 2011. He became the inaugural director of the School of Gender, Race, and Nations at Portland State University and chaired Africana Studies at MSU Denver. He returned to Skidmore College in 2019 with his wife, Lisa Grady-Willis, program director and teaching professor of intergroup relations, at Skidmore College.

I sat down with Professor Grady-Willis on campus to talk about his journey and the role of Black History Month and Black Studies on campus and beyond.