Grab your helmet and your grip tape for a ride through the surprising past and thrilling present of skateboarding, a sport that’s indelibly shaped West Coast slang, fashion, and urban landscape design.

Our hosts are joined by former pro skater and current Olympic judge Alex White for a journey through the drained swimming pools, Costco curbs, and other surprising locales that nurtured some of the world’s best skaters. Learn about the rebellious origins of skateboarding, as “sidewalk surfing” among the bored teens of suburban Southern California in the 1960s; the sport’s mainstream crossover with the X Games and rise of stars like Tony Hawk in the ‘90s; and the present, when city councils and urban planners are embracing a sport once viewed as criminal and fans gear up to watch world-class athletes catch air at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles—right where it all started.

Roll into these historic skate spots:

• Pacific Beach, San Diego
• Linda Vista Skate Park, San Diego
• Venice Skate Park, Los Angeles
• Dogtown, Los Angeles
• The Santa Monica Courthouse Skate Plaza, Los Angeles
• Rip City Skates, Santa Monica
• Sergeant Derby Park, Santa Cruz
• NHS Skateboard Museum, Santa Cruz
• Embarcadero and U.N. Plazas, San Francisco
• Burnside Skate Park, Portland, Oregon

Alex White is a lifelong skateboarder and self-described skate nerd who grew up skating in unsanctioned spots in Los Angeles during the late ’90s boom. After spending her youth dodging mall security, she grew up to be a professional skateboarder.

She’s now a skateboarding brand manager, co-host of the skateboarding podcast “Good Luck With That,” a certified Olympic judge and Olympic skateboarding commentator, and chairperson of the board at Skate Like a Girl, a nonprofit that creates opportunities and advocates for skateboarders of all ages, abilities, and gender identities. Alex lives in Monterey, California with her two sons and two cats.

Sporting a sparkling sky-blue tail, Rachel Smith goes to work every day as a professional mermaid. It turns out, you can find mermaids swimming all over the West—if you know where to look! Every May, they congregate at the California Mermaid Convention, the longest-running mermaid event in the West (which Smith co-founded), to parade through the cobblestone streets of Old Sacramento.

In this episode, Smith dives into the colorful history of a cultural movement that dates back to the early 1900s. Learn about the craft required for their elaborate costumes and how they gracefully perform underwater without looking like “flappy fish.” For Smith, mermaiding offers more than just her job as head mermaid at the Dive Bar in Sacramento: It’s where she’s found a community of fellow merfolk. Get an inside look at some unlikely, landlocked destinations where mermaids swim in bars, casinos, and motel pools.

Splashy mermaid spots include:

• Dive Bar, Sacramento, California: Nightly mermaid shows in a 40-foot saltwater tank.
• The California Mermaid Convention, Sacramento: A weekend of mermaid magic, including the Promenade of Mermaids through Old Town.
• Silverton Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada: Mermaids swim in a massive aquarium you can walk all the way around.
• Sip ’n Dip Lounge, Great Falls, Montana: A 1960s tiki bar where mermaids glide past porthole windows behind the bar.

Rachel Smith has been the head mermaid at the Dive Bar in downtown Sacramento since it opened in 2011. There, she trains, schedules, hires, and performs with a team of mermaids and mermen who swim nightly in a 40-foot saltwater aquarium. Born in Hawaii to two professional hula dancers, she’s one half of Mermaid and Mom, a company she runs with her mother, Laurie, bringing mermaid entertainment to events across Northern California and creating a fully swimmable line of fabric mermaid tails.

Since becoming a professional aquatic entertainer, Mermaid Rachel has performed across the United States and internationally—at corporate events, mermaid conventions, and festivals, and as a featured performer in documentaries and films. In 2019, she and her business partner Mermaid Ashley produced the first-ever California Mermaid Convention, which now draws hundreds of merfolk to Sacramento each summer. She is also lifeguard certified—so yes, this mermaid could save your life.

Taste the stories, history, and energy behind modern Native American cuisine with Chef Crystal Wahpepah. A member of the Kickapoo Tribe and key player in the recent resurgence of Indigenous food, Wahpepah became the first Native woman to own a restaurant in Northern California when she opened Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Oakland in 2021. Her debut cookbook, A Feather and a Fork, came out in 2026.

In this episode, Wahpepah details her journey from growing up foraging with her grandfather in Oklahoma to becoming the first Native chef on the Food Network show Chopped. Her own journey reveals the complex and emotional connections between Native cultures and foods, which heal communities, preserve ancestral ways, and express a deep love for the land. In one segment, she recalls the powerful moment when a man at her restaurant openly wept after eating blue corn, which he hadn’t tasted since leaving his reservation decades prior. Wahpepah also shares some of her favorite Native dishes and where to try them.

Indigenous restaurants mentioned include:

• Wahpepah’s Kitchen, Oakland, California
• Café Gozhóó, Whiteriver, Arizona
• Javelina, Portland, Oregon
• Tocabe, Denver, Colorado
• 39 Restaurant, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Guest: Crystal Wahpepah

Chef Crystal Wahpepah, a Kickapoo Tribe member, is a leading advocate for Indigenous food sovereignty. She gained acclaim as the creative force behind Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Oakland, California, the first Native woman–owned restaurant in Northern California. Her culinary work connects diners to vital Native issues and ancestral foodways, and educates the public about the health benefits of traditional Indigenous ingredients. Her debut cookbook, A Feather and a Fork: 125 Intertribal Dishes from an Indigenous Food Warrior, was released in March 2026.

Beyond her restaurant, Crystal has been recognized for her advocacy, including induction into the Native American Almanac and appearances on Food Network programs such as Chopped. She has cooked for the White House Hunger Conference with the James Beard Foundation and for the Academy of Motion Picture of Arts and Sciences and has served as chef-in-residence for the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab at Cal Poly Humboldt. She is the new consulting chef at 39 Restaurant at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City.