Activist Hilton Kelley was raised in the segregated, predominantly African-American west side of Port Arthur, Texas—often cited as the most polluted coastal town in America. He went on to join the U.S. Navy and later became a successful actor. At 39, Kelley returned home to help restore his community and confront the pollution that had long defined daily life there. He emerged as a leading environmental justice advocate, winning key battles against air pollution, PCB incineration, and the Keystone pipeline. Alongside his reflections on oil spills and industrial harm, Kelley recites the poem that helped shape his path forward, “My True History.”

In this episode, host David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein sit down with Dionne Ybarra, director of the Wahine Project, whose path to the ocean was anything but direct. Raised in an inland Mexican American farmworker family, Ybarra didn’t find surfing until she was 38 years old — and when she did, she looked around the lineup and didn’t see many people who looked like her. Rather than paddle back to shore, she did something about it. Ybarra launched the Wahine Project — wahine being the Hawaiian word for surfer girl — and has since taught thousands of young girls, along with some boys and adults, to read waves and face their fears, from the kelp-cold waters of Monterey all the way to Mexico, Gaza, and beyond. It’s a story about belonging in the surf, and about what it means to ride waves not just for yourself, but for the ocean itself.

From Iowa to an Oscar, Louie Psihoyos continues to engage people with his famed National Geographic photography, award-winning films including ‘The Cove’ and ‘Racing Extinction’ and projected images. His larger than life endangered species vying for our attention on the Empire State building and the Vatican and his evolving views on food and social movements are just a few of the things we discuss with him.