Out now online @marinmagazine is my interview with Dr Courtney Goode, Tamalpais District Superintendent, discussing what I believe is the most critical issue for the well-being of our youth. I learned something important about learning. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:
In The Digital Delusion, Harvath goes on to talk about how your brain consolidates information as you learn new information. I’ll give you the analogy that he does in the book. You’re sitting in math class and you’re learning about the Pythagorean Theorem. As you learn, your brain is carving a track, like a ski track in freshly powdered snow. Then as you walk out of class and you walk to your next class, you talk with friends, you sit at a table, and eat lunch, just casual conversation, during that time your brain is consolidating that information. It’s like it skis down the same slope, again and again. It’s carving a deeper path into your brain. When you go to sleep at night, your brain then kind of permanently carves a track. and that’s how you recall that information and process that information. That’s how learning happens. But instead, if you walk out of class and immediately you have the high octane content of social media, YouTube, whatever you are looking at, your brain is not consolidating that information. And your brain is then not consolidating that information when you go to sleep at night. And he attributes this to why you see diminished learning and diminished cognition in kids today versus kids two decades ago.
link in bio
Spring… it comes, despite the chaos, greed and brutality out there. How do we hold both? thats the trick to being human and alive I guess. Despite everything, Im taking stock of all this west coast spring has brought us… cousins and a cousin’s baby, a breathtaking river valley, new hike with old friends, my sister’s pup… Mt Shasta, an epic bike ride and a perfect Mt. Tam staycation…hardworking chickens (plus their eggs!) bobcats overly interested in those chickens…vines I thought hadn’t survived a winter transplant came back in full glory… life on this planet: confusing, confounding… glorious and eternally surprising.
this month, as part of my ongoing writing about housing and homelessness for @marinmagazine you will find my piece on workforce housing. I interviewed four people (Jenny Silva, Sarah Jones, Andrea Osgood and Eric Lucan) ,all on the frontlines of affordable housing, all working to figure out how we can make Marin county affordable for the service workers, first responders, teachers, caregivers, and others who make Marin work for the rest of us
And today, Happy Birthday @ardenjones , a quarter century! … the courage to take the path less traveled, keeping your head down everyday, staying humble, and having fun. You inspire me and i love you with all my heart❤️
You’ve now been here for 15,768,000 minutes, and Ive cherished you with all my heart for every single one of those minutes… how did I get so lucky to know you? (let alone get to have you as our eldest daughter)
Happy 30th Birthday @teyneff ❤️
its that time of year - back cold plunging in beautiful icy blue Lake Washington… and yes, this is how dramatic the soundtrack is in my head every time I go in
🐑 From Ancestral Roots to Regenerative Futures 🌿🔥 Jenna Coughlin didn’t just find her purpose — she returned to it. Guided back to her Coast Miwok ancestral lands, Jenna is redefining land stewardship through regenerative agriculture, targeted grazing, and prescribed burning.
As the founder of @shepherdsofthecoast , Jenna uses sheep and goats for vegetation control, and to restore ecosystems, prevent wildfires, and heal soil — all while working with an “ecological web” of farmers and ranchers in West Marin and Sonoma who support sustainable land management and each other. 🌎✨
After working with @tolumafarms to learn all aspects of dairy farming and cheesemaking, Jenna pivoted to animal and land management, establishing Shepards of the Coast in 2024. She grazes sheep owned by Guido Frosini at @truegrassfarms in Tomales using fencing acquired with an agricultural grant from @malt_ag . Her collaboration with @fire.forward , a “good fire”-based project of @allhandsecology allows for prescribed burns post-grazing to mitigate fire risk while improving the soil—employing regenerative land practices the Coast Miwok used for centuries.
👉 Want to see how grazing + good fire can change the land? Link in bio to read Jenna’s story—one of five profiles in Ancestral Grounds, Native Stewards in the Restoration of our Local Food Systems from the winter issue of Edible Marin & Wine Country magazine.
Words: Kirsten Jones Neff @fullbloomday Photography: Matt Dolkas for @malt_ag
#regenerativeagriculture #indigenousknowledge #targetedgrazing #ecologicalrestoration #fireprevention sheepgrazing womeninag landstewardship sustainablefarming westmarin climateaction ancestralroots agroecology 🐐🌾🔥
We spent the final days of 2025 with family in Bend, Oregon saying goodbye to my stepfather, Jim, who is nearing the end of his life.
My father Arden passed away at age 57, suddenly, of a heart attack, and I’ve thought of him - what he would think, do or say in any given situation - most days since he died almost 25 years ago.
I never imagined that I would get a second father, someone who has loved our extended family as his own and who we adore. We are heartbroken, and deeply grateful for Jim - he has made our lives so much better.
My resolution for 2026, is to try to be more like Jim. Here are some of the things he has shown me over the past 15 years:
To truly care for someone you must observe them carefully, thoughtfully… look out for the smallest details that reveal who they are and what they need. This includes people in your own family, who you might assume you understand…be attentive. (Jim was a family practice doctor for 40 years, and a father and grandfather who has made each of us feel seen and cared for).
You can be deeply good without being self-righteous. Don’t take your own goodness too seriously.
You can be heartfelt and also humorous, self-effacing, a trash talker (esp bocce games) and irreverent - it is possible, and wonderful, to be all of the above…but you have to have good timing.
Be playful - introduce wooden airplanes, treasure hunts, easter egg dying, poetry readings, art projects…to people of all ages. It brings us together.
There are different ways to counter an autocrat. One important way is to look for the people who most need support - spend your days bolstering them, elevating them…be an ally.
Faith is a personal endeavor…a meandering lifelong journey… if you are not religious in a specific way, feel free to draw from the great religious and spiritual traditions..they are powerful.
thank you Jim❤️
The beautiful Winter @ediblemarinwc came out last week and includes one of my favorite articles to research and write in a long time: “Ancestral Grounds: Native Stewards in the Restoration of Our Food Systems.”
When we moved to the North Bay, almost thirty years ago, I grew curious about how the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo lived in Marin and Sonoma. This article allowed me to speak to individuals who carry and are preserving this knowledge. Archeologists have discovered evidence of 600 Coast Miwok villages and hundreds of Southern Pomo villages in this region. Before European settlement, an estimated 20,000 indigenous people lived here.
For this piece, I interviewed indigenous people who are teaching us about the way their Native Americans ancestors lived on the land and sea, and who are reintroducing the practices that allowed their ancestors to nurture the ecologies that fed them.
Deepest gratitude to @culturalconservancy , @ewillie44 , @goodrockwoman , @shepherdsofthecoast , @bokashi4u , @alliance4felixcove
People talk about Christmas Magic…I understand, but for me, all the magic lies in Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a holiday to celebrate the best that we can be, without adornments and distractions. It is a day to recognize our shared humanity, our deepest instinct to come together around a table to share a meal as we share ourselves
We set a table, make it as beautiful as we can, and offer what we can. Sometimes the meal is elegant and indulgent... Sometimes we offer simple sustenance. My stepfather Jim told me he once spent Thanksgiving in a diner in a strange city, the gravy almost inedible. I imagine him there alone, surrounded by others pouring the same gravy over their potatoes, and I know that this meal was meaningful because it was Thanksgiving. This is the moment that we pause to recognize that we are all in this together, this experience of living on this extraordinarily generous and also complicated planet, needing to sustain ourselves, and we are doing it side by side.
The magic for me this year was in the mingling of closest family with strangers, the sharing of thoughts and feelings between generations. It was healing, the meal and conversation we had, sustenance in every sense of the word.
ps- plus dogs, including a foster Enzo who needs all the love he can get, and our first blue-green egg of the season
