Send us a text In this episode, I share my eventful month, which included a fabulous trip to Italy, an unexpected bout with the flu, and the devastating and unprecedented impact of Hurricane Helene on our Florida Gulf Coast. It all started with exploring Venice, Florence, Siena, Sorrento, Capri, and Rome, soaking in historic sites and delicious foo…

Send us a text In this episode, we explore the remarkable journey of Sindia M. Rivera-Jiménez, Ph.D., a native of Puerto Rico who was born and raised near the ocean. With a deep love for the beach, Sindia built a beautiful life in Puerto Rico, earning a degree in engineering, meeting her husband, and starting a family. The ocean was always a centra…

Send us a text This audio version of my podcast newsletter starts with a heartfelt story called "The Water" by Rachel LaPresti, touching on how the beach affects us all. I also dive into Waterlust, an innovative eco-apparel company with a fun facts newsletter —did you know sharks could be exposed to cocaine through pollution? I also talk about my r…

Send us a text Today, we delve into the powerful concept of "Blue Mind" and the profound impact of water on our well-being. My guest, Amanda Esposito of Northern Tides Studio, shares how she met Wallace J. Nichols, the author of Blue Mind, and how the ocean has shaped her life and artistic expression. Key Highlights: 1. The legacy of Wallace J. Nic…

Send us a text In this episode, I speak with Mary Carroll Moore about her novel Last Bets, set on the Caribbean island of Bonaire. The novel features twists of fate, paranormal elements, high-stakes gambling—and a hurricane! I like to describe it as "Queen's Gambit" meets "White Lotus." We share some personal anecdotes; I reminisce about playing ba…

Send us a text Have you ever been at the beach on a full moon? One of my favorite things to do is sit on the beach and watch the moonrise over the ocean. It elevates my mood and stirs up a feeling of wonder and otherworldliness—watching that bright white globe shining on a velvet black sky, that sparkling trail of light shining across the water fol…

Send us a text Jen Hardy is a true beach girl - so much so that after receiving a life-threatening health diagnosis, she instinctively knew that she - and her family - needed the healing power of the beach to get through it. So, Jen, her husband, and their seven kids moved from their home in Tennessee to an island paradise off the coast of Florida,…

Send us a text Today’s episode is a conversation I had recently with Jessie King Regunberg, author of the book SEARCHING FOR SEASHELLS: An Artist’s Guide to Treasures on the Beach It’s all about the enchanting world of seashells and how they have touched our lives and sparked our curiosity. Jessie’s book is a testament to her passion for shells, ar…

Send us a text I recently had the opportunity to visit one of the beaches on my bucket list—Venice Beach. Venice is on the Gulf Coast of Florida and is often called the “shark tooth capital of the world” because of the plethora of prehistoric shark teeth you can find there. Some are the size of your hand! Now, I don’t have the greatest record when …

Send us a text In early October 2021, when the post-pandemic world was beginning to open up for travel, we had just discovered that Ernie only had a month's vacation before starting a new job; we decided to go on a 12-day adventure in Costa Rica! It was last minute, and I had no idea how we were going to pull it off - but I knew my friend and trave…

Send us a text Capturing the essence of the beach with my phone is one thing, but in a painting - in real-time - it is a whole other thing. I’m in awe of anyone who can paint in the moment - no photograph- just sitting in nature with a canvas, painting the scene in quick brushstrokes. You have to stay in the present and pay attention. This painting…

Send us a text I was a guest on an Instagram live with Amanda from Northern TIdes Studio and Wallace J. Nichols, author of Blue Mind - talking about water, the Blue Mind movement, and the healing properties of the ocean. Amanda asked how living at the beach has changed me. I don’t know why that question caught me off guard - it was a great question…

Send us a text When I started thinking seriously about moving from land-locked Orlando to the beach, the first three questions people would ask were, “What beach?” “Where will you live?” and “What will you do?” I would say, “I haven’t decided what beach yet, but I’m sure I’ll find one with a couple of palm trees where I can hang a hammock, and, I d…

Send us a text It’s February, so in the spirit of this Month of Love, I asked my soulmate, Ernie, to join me on the podcast because it’s a very special month for us. Although I’ve talked about how we met and our journey to living out our vision here at the beach on the podcast before, I thought it would be the perfect time for Ernie to share some o…

Send us a text I love quotes, especially the ones that when I hear them, I think, " Oooh, I can relate to that - or that is so inspiring! I need to write that one down before I forget it! " I’ll rush to scribble it in a journal or notebook - it’s like I’m attaching a sticky note to my brain - you know, a reminder, to go back to it later. And let me…

Send us a text Imagine, you’re about to do what might be the craziest thing you’ve ever done. And you’re thinking this could be crazy good or crazy stupid. Then the “what ifs” start to creep into your consciousness: “What if something goes wrong?” “What if I’m not good enough?” “What if it turns out to be nothing but a waste of time and money?” Tha…

Send us a text Recently on The Beach Speaks, I posted an episode sharing my beach story as a guest on Rabiah Coon’s podcast More Than Work. Today, I’m bringing Rabiah back - this time as my guest - to hear her beach story. Rabiah currently lives in London, but she grew up near the beach in California. When she said she was coming home to California…

Send us a text Hey Beach lover, How is the beach speaking to you today? I’m sure you have noticed that I’ve been doing a lot of solo episodes: like, how I met my soulmate - on the beach, watching fighter jets fly over the beach, and how learning to fly was a lot like moving to the beach - and while it’s been a lot of fun sharing stories about how t…

Send us a text Many of you have asked me how I found the nerve to leave my job - to move to the beach - and not have a job to go to, and what beach? Where was I going to live? I would laugh and say, I’m sure whatever beach I go to, there will be a couple of palm trees where I can hang a hammock, and I’ll make jewelry out of shells! It sounded silly…

Send us a text You know I love the beach, but I also love airplanes! This fact is especially poignant because aviation and learning to fly was one of the (many) surprising characteristics that attracted me to my husband, Ernie (You can hear more about that in my recent episode “How I Met My Soulmate - On the Beach”) Ernie spent the majority of his …

Send us a text If you are a regular listener to the podcast, you’ll know that I often talk about how I met my soulmate, quit my nine to five and moved to the beach - it almost always comes up in conversation when I meet someone new, and we get to talking about the beach. Of all three, I get the most response from the “met my soulmate” part - like “…

Send us a text Listening to your voicemails is like going on a beach walk, picking up the messages like seashells and adding them to my collection. The voices and stories are different - but what they all have in common is a shared connection to the beach - I love them all - and I’m excited to share them with you! Thank you Terri Maxwell, Jen Hardy…

Send us a text Today’s guest is Pam Uzzell, the creator and host of Art Heals All Wounds - a podcast that’s changing the world - one artist at a time. Pam and I met as members of the “pod squad,” - the slack community created by Squadcast - a remote podcast platform we use to record our shows. Pam reached out to me a few months ago with a wonderful…

Send us a text My guest today is Oneike Jackson, the beach manager at the Boardwalk Beach Resort in Negril, Jamaica. I have to say, after editing this episode, I couldn’t stop smiling! His high-vibe Jamaican energy is just that palpable. Oneike is a great storyteller; however, he did not want to come on the podcast at first. He was shy, and he didn…

Send us a text I have a slight obsession with books. My house is filled with stacks of unread novels, coffee table books, and hidden gems waiting to be explored. But today, I want to focus on a specific genre that holds a special place in my heart: beach reads! A good beach read is more than just a book you read while lounging on the sand. It's a b…

Send us a text Take a walk with me on the beach while I share some stories about what I collect there. It’s a personal journey through my experiences of collecting shells on my beach walks and the odd and sometimes disturbing things I discovered along the way. Diving deep into the world of seashell collecting, let’s explore the treasures lost and f…

Send us a text “One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can only collect a few. One moon shell is more impressive than three. There is only one moon in the sky.” ― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea It’s hard to think about going to the beach and not wanting to take a little something with you to remember being there. It…

Send us a text If you’re as passionate about books as you are beaches, you are going to love this conversation with Jane L. Rosen Jane is an author, screenwriter, and former Huffington Post contributor, and today we’ll be talking about her latest book, On Fire Island - a place Jane knows intimately because she’s been a resident there for 30 years. …

Send us a text My guest today is Amanda Soler; the creator and host of the SolFul Connections podcast. It seems appropriate that her podcast is called SoFul Connections because Amanda embodies connecting on a soul level; it's in her DNA. I noticed this from the moment we first met - on the virtual social forum Clubhouse; I'm not sure in what “room”…

Send us a text How do you feel about seaweed? I bet you could smell it as soon as you heard me say the word! When I think about the beaches here on the Atlantic coast, I never really considered that seaweed could be a problem. I only notice it when it's washed up in small patches along the shore or in the ocean - but it’s never really gotten in the…

Send us a text Is Australia on your beach bucket list? If it is, you’re going to really like today’s conversation with travel podcasters Lyle and Leanne, who live on the beach in Australia! Their podcast is called Beach Travel Wine, and I first heard about it when Leanne sent me a message. She told me that they sold their business and retired to tr…

Send us a text The Number One member of The Beach Speaks Podcast Fan Club joins the conversation to talk about the "Mosts:" from the Most Enthusiastic Guest and the Most Inspiring to the Most Popular episode of the entire show (this one might surprise you!) Learn how "Naked on the Beach" became the theme song and what keeps me going when producing …

Send us a text I was recently inspired to step out of my comfort zone and write a letter to someone that I deeply admire - my all-time favorite podcaster Rich Roll, host of the Rich Roll podcast. Sitting down to write the letter, I thought - wouldn't it be fun to do it in audio form instead - podcaster to podcaster? It makes sense because, you know…

Send us a text Do you dream of moving to the beach? I dreamed of moving to the beach for so long, and now I can open my front door and walk down to the beach every day! One morning I was sitting on the sand with my eyes closed, tuned in to the sound of the waves, and listening to what the beach had to say about my journey to living at the beach, re…

Send us a text I was on the beach taking sunrise pictures with my new iPhone 14pro, and when I opened up my photo app to find some to post on Facebook, I glanced at the number under the “recent” file: 46,454! I wasn’t entirely shocked at the number, but it did make me think about how I could have that many images on my phone! There’s a lot of talk …

Send us a text What do you think about when you hear the word, Joy? I’ve noticed in many conversations recently that Joy has come up a lot - like, What makes you feel joy? How can you bring more of it into your life? and If you’ve "lost that joyful feeling," - how do you get it back? We all know what joy is - that feeling of pure pleasure and happi…

Send us a text When I think about my 2023 beach bucket list, the ones at the top are on the Gulf Coast - the ones on practically every travel guide’s top 10 Florida beaches, like Caya Costa, Captiva Island, Sanibel, Destin, and Pensacola. Jensen Beach was not on my bucket list, but when I got a chance to go - even though I had a lot of work on the …

Send us a text This episode is a continuation of the theme, close encounters of a marine kind, from Episode 56, which I recorded with my friends, John and Jennifer. I thought I’d start out telling one or two of my own stories of scuba diving with my family; I was certain that recalling these events would be like an easy drift dive in the crystal cl…

Send us a text Happy new year, Beach lovers! I just wanted to check in and tell you a little about what I have planned for The beach Speaks in 2023. Thank you for subscribing and continuing to share the beach love - it means a LOT to me. I just got back from a whirlwind week between Christmas and New years traveling around the Tampa area visiting o…

Send us a text I was on an exercise power walk on the beach (which is really kind of a misnomer because I stop so much to take pictures and videos - I’m not sure how much “exercise” I’m getting!) brainstorming themes for the podcast when I began thinking about all the marine life in the ocean, which got me thinking about SCUBA diving, and of course…

Send us a text Remember the commercial for Calgon bath powder? The one where a woman, totally frazzled and exhausted from the day's chaos, cries out: “Calgon, take me away!” Then she magically appears in a bubble bath, soaking in an oasis of relaxing healing water. When I was a kid, I thought it was just a funny commercial, but over the years, when…

Send us a text Aloha Beach Lovers! I’ve been talking a lot about the not so fun aspects of beach life - hurricanes. I thought you might need a break from that and want to hear more about the more pleasant aspects of beach life, so I called Cathi - my go-to beach travel expert and super fan of the podcast, because, lucky her, while we were battling …

Send us a text A friend of mine from “up North” asked me what’s it like to be in a hurricane? That got me thinking about my past 22 years living in Florida. How many hurricanes had I been in? I grew up in the mountains of Pennsylvania. The only “natural disasters” I ever experienced were blizzards - which were fairly common and not all that disastr…

Send us a text Ever since Hurricane Ian hit Florida a few weeks ago, I told you I would do an episode about what it’s like to be in a hurricane at the beach - and I fully intend to do that - soon, However, in the meantime, as I start collecting hurricane stories, I thought it might be interesting to hear from one of my fellow podcasters, Kevin Lowe…

Send us a text Did I ever tell you about the time I ran away from summer camp to go to the beach? Well, I guess I might be a little dramatic - I didn’t really “run away.” It was more like I “wandered off.” One summer when I was about 7 years old my parents joined a private boat club on the long island sound that had tennis, boating, and. . . a beac…

Send us a text Welcome to my 50th episode!! Now you might be thinking, “Ok, 50 is a good number - but what makes it so special? Why not 100?” Well, here’s the deal, according to the latest podcasting statistics, in the past several years a LOT of podcasts started, but the truth is most of those shows are - dead. There are many good reasons why a sh…

Send us a text My guest today, Emily Pasnak-Lapchick, lives in Saint Petersburg, FL (we call it St Pete) with her life partner Andres and two cats (there seems to be a theme with cats lately - since my recent guest Alise Sauders travels with her two cats. It just occurred to me that I have a lot of friends and family that have two cats, and I’m all…

Send us a text Is traveling to Greece on your bucket list? It’s definitely on mine! So, when my friend Cathi Taucher asked me if I might be interested in going on an amazing Greek island tour that she has planned - well, yeah, of course! While she was telling me about it, I said: "hold on - this is something I bet my listeners would be interested i…

Send us a text Wouldn’t it be great if you could just leave your job, travel AND make a living doing it? In 2018, Alise left her corporate life and six-figure salary, feeling like she wasn’t living life fully. She created her first business, a virtual bookkeeping company, and two years later realized and embraced her dream of being a travel blogger…

Send us a text This episode is a bit of a departure from my typical beachy conversation - I mean, what does an end-of-life, death doula have to do with the beach? Please stick with me on this one because once you hear my guest, the Sacred Servant, Nada Frazier, I think you’ll have a good idea why I invited her back to the podcast. My first conversa…