Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast
Podcast & Audio Production
Overseeing the Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast's production, promotion, and strategic growth. Fluid Studios manages podcast development, from concept to publication, ensuring high-quality content that resonates with audiences. We develop social media and content marketing strategies to maximize engagement and reach. By collaborating with the Blue Frontier team, we maintain the podcast's vision, enhance its impact, and leverage analytics to optimize performance, drive continuous improvement, and contribute to the organization's dynamic leadership and innovative solutions.
A refreshing, irreverent dive into the lives, work, and explorations of today’s leading and diverse ocean voices.
Each half-hour episode co-hosted by David Helvarg of Blue Frontier and Vicki Nichols Goldstein of the Inland Ocean Coalition sails through lively discussions with our guests about marine life, culture, and critical issues affecting our rapidly changing seas. Informative, enlightening, and often humorous it is an invaluable resource for anyone passionate about understanding, enjoying, and protecting our salty blue world.
Jan Freiwald puts People in Kelp & Coral
In the latest episode of Rising Tide David and Blue Frontier’s Natasha Benjamin talk with Reef Check Executive Director Jan Friewald. For 30 years his organization has been developing citizen science projects to survey and protect both coral reefs and kelp forests around the world. Jan, who studied marine biology in Germany before moving on to complete his PhD on Marine Protected Areas in California talks with us about the differences between coral and kelp, the threats they both face from a warming ocean, how they’re growing their pool of volunteers through training young people who might not otherwise have access to scuba diving and how El Nino and the next marine heatwave might impact kelp forests (and corals) and how people will respond. So, dive in with us on this latest and highly informative Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast.
Peter Benchley Awards: The Oscars of the Ocean
The unsung heroes and innovators on the front lines of protecting the marine world and its future.
The latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast turns its attention to the 2026 Peter Benchley Ocean Awards, held this spring at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The awards bear the name of the Jaws author who, haunted perhaps by the monster he'd created, devoted much of the rest of his life to defending sharks and the seas they swim in. Founded nearly two decades ago by Blue Frontier and Wendy Benchley, and now carried forward under the Aquarium Conservation Partnership, the awards have earned a reputation as the Oscars of the Ocean — with more than 80 honorees to their name.
The 2026 class is a wide-ranging one, drawn from the halls of government, the depths of science, the world of commerce, and the next generation stepping up to inherit an ocean under pressure. This year's winners include Julie Packard of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, President José Manuel Bolieiro of the Azores, California Congressman Jared Huffman, deep-sea scientist Dr. Diva Amon, ocean-minded business Bureo, activist Marcé Gutiérrez-Graudins, the sweeping documentary Ocean with Sir David Attenborough, and youth honoree Coji Senanayake — proof that the movement to protect the blue heart of the planet is neither slowing down nor running out of voices.
Catherine Breed's Odyssey & Charting New Waters
In the latest episode of Rising Tide Ocean Podcast, Natasha Benjamin and Vicki Nichols talk with marathon swimmer Catherine Breed — a record-breaking endurance athlete, former U.S. National Team swimmer, and founder of Sea Dreamers. From world-record swims between the Farallon Islands and the Golden Gate Bridge to crossings of Lake Tahoe and beyond, Catherine shares stories from a life shaped by the ocean and discusses her most ambitious challenge yet: swimming the entire California coast. The conversation explores open-water swimming, adventure, ocean conservation, and of course, everyone’s first question — what about the sharks? Tune in for an inspiring and thought-provoking conversation with Catherine Breed.
Support the Rising Tide and donate to Blue Frontier: Your gift of any size will help bring communities together to protect our coasts and ocean.
Blue Frontier: Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild.
Inland Ocean Coalition: Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protection
You can also listen to Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast on a variety of platforms including Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Android, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Blubrry, Podchaser, Gaana, the Podcast Index, and Deezer. Additionally, the podcast is broadcast on several radio stations: KGUA Radio (Public Media for the Mendonoma Coast), KWMR (Point Reyes West Marin Community Radio), KGNU & KGNU-FM (Denver & Boulder Community Radio Stations), KKRN (Round Mountain California Listener Supported Radio), & G-TOWN RADIO (Germantown Community Radio, Philadelphia).
Check out the Our Blue Frontier on Substack for transcripts, emerging ocean & climate issues highlights, and the lighter side of the Environmental Apocalypse.