Life in Verse: How the UA Poetry Center Inspires Tucson with Tyler Meier

• Discover the History: How a community’s passion built the UA Poetry Center into one of the largest contemporary poetry collections in the nation.

• Meet Tyler Meier: Executive Director of the Poetry Center shares his journey from construction worker to literary leader.

• Explore the Center’s Impact: Learn how open shelves, flexible spaces, and public programs make poetry accessible to all of Tucson.

• Poetry in the Streets: Find out how the Haiku Hike and other outreach efforts bring poetry into everyday life downtown.

• Celebrate Language: Hear about the upcoming event featuring acclaimed translator Natasha Wimmer, happening May 1st, 2025.

• A Living Tradition: Discover how the Poetry Center’s spirit of inclusion, creativity, and community connection continues to shape Tucson’s cultural soul.

In Tucson, the desert air crackles with creativity. It’s a city where murals blossom across brick walls and music drifts through café doorways. But beyond the visible vibrancy, there’s a quieter, enduring heartbeat — one that pulses through the University of Arizona Poetry Center.

In this episode of Life Along the Streetcar, hosts Tom Heath and Amanda Mourelatos invite listeners into the world of Tyler Meier, Executive Director of the Poetry Center, to explore how this unique space makes poetry not just accessible, but alive for everyone who crosses its path.

A Dream Built by a Community

The story of the Poetry Center is deeply woven into Tucson’s own history of resilience and imagination. Founded in 1960, not by university mandate but through the determination of local dreamers, it began modestly in two adobe houses. Over the decades, it evolved into one of the largest collections of contemporary poetry in the country — a place where poems are not locked behind glass but live on open shelves, inviting exploration.

Tyler Meier emphasizes that this space was built by many hands and hearts. It is not a monument to poetry as something distant or elite; it is a working home for words, and for the people who love them. Its architecture mirrors this ethos, offering flexible event spaces that blend indoors and out, breezeways filled with music and verse, and a library where millions of poems wait to be discovered. It’s a place that belongs to Tucson — to all who enter.

Tyler Meier: A Life Written in Real Lines

Tyler’s journey to the Poetry Center mirrors the Center’s spirit of grounded passion. His love for poetry was first kindled by a teacher who showed him that literature could be urgent and electrifying. But it was while swinging hammers and pouring concrete as an AmeriCorps volunteer that poetry took deeper root in his life — a humble, accessible companion through hard days and long nights.

This connection between craft and creativity still guides Tyler’s work today. At the Poetry Center, he helps nurture a space where poetry is seen not as an academic pursuit but as a vital, living force. Through programs like the Haiku Hike, which places haikus across downtown planters, and free community readings that invite everyone into the fold, the Center continuously extends poetry’s reach beyond its walls. Tyler believes — and demonstrates — that poetry can meet people wherever they are, offering a moment of belonging, reflection, or simply a shared breath.

Poetry Without Barriers

In Tyler’s vision, poetry belongs not to a chosen few but to the city itself. Through initiatives like the open-access Voca archive, visiting poet residencies, youth workshops, and collaborations across Tucson’s neighborhoods, the Center dissolves traditional barriers between art and audience.

The work is ongoing, always evolving to meet the community’s needs — from bilingual readings to programs aimed at young writers just finding their voices.

That same spirit is alive in upcoming events, like the evening with acclaimed translator Natasha Wimmer on May 1st, 2025. With free parking after 5:00 PM and doors open to all, events like these are an open invitation to anyone who has ever been curious about the power of language to build bridges across time, place, and culture.

Tucson’s Living Language

The University of Arizona Poetry Center stands as a living testament to the idea that poetry belongs to everyone. Tyler Meier’s story, and the story of the Center itself, remind us that creativity is not reserved for a chosen few, but is stitched into the fabric of daily life. Whether in the open air of downtown, the hushed aisles of the library, or the warm applause of an evening reading, poetry is alive in Tucson.

If today’s story has sparked your curiosity, we invite you to explore more. Visit the Poetry Center in person or online at poetry.arizona.edu, and consider attending the special event with Natasha Wimmer on May 1st.

If you know someone helping to shape Tucson’s cultural landscape — an artist, a poet, a builder of community — we would love to hear from you. Please visit our Contact Page to share your ideas or nominate a future guest for Life Along the Streetcar.

Thank you for riding along with us, where every street, every voice, and every poem tells part of Tucson’s vibrant story.

Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s, beautiful, sunny in the old pueblo. And you’re listening to Katy. Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch, shower with us on your downtown Tucson community. Sponsored, all volunteer powered rock and roll radio station this week for the very first time, I am joined by our co-host, Amanda Maltose. And together we’re going to be sitting down with Tyler Meyer, the executive Director of the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center.

Tom Heath
And we’re going to explore how this nationally renowned literary hub is making poetry more accessible, meaningful and alive right here in Tucson, including downtown Tucson. Today is April 27th, 2025. My name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to Life Along the Street. TR each and every Sunday, our focus is on social, cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s urban core, and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about, from a mountain to the University of Arizona and all stops in between.

Tom Heath
You get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM streaming on Downtown radio.org. Also available on your iPhone or Android using our very own Downtown Radio Tucson app. If you want to interact with us, on the show, we recommend you do that through Facebook and Instagram. And if you want more information about us here on the show or book past episodes, or to contact us.

Tom Heath
Head over to life Along the Street, Car Dawg. And if you happen to miss us here on Sundays, you can catch the, the podcast on platforms like Spotify, iTunes, iHeart radio. And as a reminder, we are now, moving into that, video age of our, our show and, on our website there life on the street car.org.

Tom Heath
You can see many of these interviews we’ve recorded in the studio and get a look at our guests. Well, today is special for several reasons. And one of those is Amanda. Mulattos will be joining me in my interview today with with our interview today with Tyler Meyer. Amanda joined us last year as an intern, and, she’s been learning some of the things about the podcasting world, and she’s kind of stepped into, different roles.

Tom Heath
She has hosted her own show. She’s done a, back on the behind the scenes work. And, for this particular episode, she was helping us schedule it out. She reached out and said, hey, Tyler in the Poetry Center, something I’m very interested in. Can I help? Can I host this with you? I thought, this is perfect.

Tom Heath
It gives me a chance to expand my horizons. And, I think we did a really good job. So this is the interview that, Amanda and I did with Tyler Meyer, recorded about a little over a week ago.

Tyler Meier
Well,

Tom Heath
This is an exciting time for lifelong streetcar. This is a first. We have, not only a first time and guests, we also have a first time co-host. Amanda and I are going to tackle this interview together. Welcome. First of all, welcome, Amanda, to the co-host chair.

Amanda Mourelatos
Thank you.

Tom Heath
You’re excited I am. Did you do a lot of preparation? Because, you know, I’m really rigorous about my research.

Amanda Mourelatos
I did some brief googling.

Tom Heath
I mean, yeah, that’s that’s actually more than. That’s actually more than I do. And we’ve got Tyler with the, the University of Arizona Poetry Center.

Tyler Meier
I’m thrilled to be here, too. This is really exciting for me. And, so fun to see the space and see how you guys do this.

Tom Heath
Well, thanks. Yeah, we’re we’re excited about it. Now, you and I go back a little bit because we actually, work together with Brian Laidlaw. This is a few years ago, but, we did a program called Silently Loud, and he was, he was doing music through the Poetry Center.

Tyler Meier
That’s right. Yeah. That was such a good day. And that, I think back on that very fondly. So Brian was is a singer songwriter, and a poet, and works with, artistic communities that are nonverbal. And so, he worked with a series of poets, who had created the lyrics for all the songs. And then Brian, set all those songs to music.

Tyler Meier
He talked about taking direction from them. So things like, this is a rock song you need to pick it up for. This is a love song. You need to make it more of a love song. And then he performed the whole suite of those songs at the Poetry Center. Really beautiful day. A lot of the the lyricists were in the audience, so it was fun to have both sides of that.

Tom Heath
And I if you want to look it up, the album is called Silently Loud, and, I can’t say my favorite song, but the song that I sticks in my head is trampoline.

Tyler Meier
Because of that jump.

Tom Heath
Jump and jump.

Tyler Meier
And that’s so.

Tom Heath
Poetry center. So you’re in charge of a poetry center. Does this are you a does this make you a poet, or are you like a administrate? Like, where are you in this, in this, this, spectrum.

Tyler Meier
Yeah. I’m a kind of, a hybrid of all of it. So, very much an administrative job, but. But I’m there because I love poetry. And that was my work. Called me to it. So, I started out as a poet and studied that. And in college and in grad school, and different, LifeWay pathways.

Tyler Meier
Led to this moment in Tucson. But a joy and a gift to be able to be working at the Poetry Center now, it’s, pure open, Year-Round, open to the community, especially, at the very end of the streetcar. So one can take the streetcar right to the Poetry Center.

Tom Heath
Nice, nice, nice timing. It’s nice to have a tie in the air.

Tyler Meier
And it’s good because parking is hard. So, so arriving on the streetcar or, with a bike is a great way to get there. Or scooter. And so, and it’s been a great trip, so it’s one of the largest collections of poetry in the country. There’s a really robust slate of programs that happen there that are free and open to the community.

Tyler Meier
Some classes that have a nominal cost that are available to people that want to work on their skills as writers, we really just try to be a hub for the writing life in Tucson. And it’s a great literary city. And so it’s just a great gift to be able to be in this role, thinking about it and working with folks that are that care about this stuff.

Amanda Mourelatos
So very cool. What sparked your interest originally in poetry?

Tyler Meier
Yeah. Good question. And when I think back to it, you know, I got a I got really awoken, and turned on by a, a teacher that, flipped a switch for me, and high school. And so, we were suddenly reading stuff that was way more interesting and way, way cooler than what I had read to that point.

Tyler Meier
And it I felt like I was coming alive. And so that that moment is when I can trace back to where I got more serious about writing. And then the second step to that was after finishing my undergrad, I did construction for a little while. I was working in America’s building houses in Philadelphia and in Portland, Oregon, and, and AmeriCorps works.

Tyler Meier
There’s a very little money, but it’s about service. And so, cheap habits and hobbies were good. And so writing was very affordable. And, so I got really serious about reading and writing during those two years. And, and then that led to grad school, and then suddenly that’s what I was doing with my life. So a lucky pathway.

Amanda Mourelatos
Yeah, in some ways. What do you think the Poetry Center provides for Tucson specifically?

Tyler Meier
Yeah. So, we’re so lucky that it’s here, you know, as one of the largest collections of poetry in the country, it could be in LA. It could be in Seattle. There appear versions of kind of what the Poetry Center represents in New York and in Chicago. But this exists in Tucson. And, and one of the reasons why that’s true is that, there’s a community in Tucson that really cares about it and wants this.

Tyler Meier
And so, we have a really beautiful facility, that I would love for people to come and visit, and everyone is welcome. But the story of that facility isn’t one where, you know, sort of one person said, we’re going to have a poetry center or the university said, we’re going to have a poetry center, and then sort of provided the resources.

Tyler Meier
There was many people involved, everyone kind of chipping in to make the dream become a reality. So that center at the center, started in 1960. The early versions of it were very humble. They existed in sort of two small Adobe houses, kind of classic Tucson architecture, 1000 square foot spaces. And then more recently, there was this big groundswell of support that said it really deserves a permanent and landmark home.

Tyler Meier
And, and if we were going to do that, what could it look like? And so we ended up with the aspirational building, and a great place to house all these programs in this collection. So that’s the biggest thing that we can offer. Tucson is, a kind of place making space for, for poetry that’s here. That’s ours.

Tyler Meier
And it really belongs to all of us. And we try to then think about the all of us in a really, big hearted way. So, trying to think about all parts of Tucson and how they can imagine themselves in that space. And also about, you know, different ages, people at different stages of life, how they think about what the opportunities are for them that’s there.

Tyler Meier
So so we’re really excited about that work, and keep thinking about it and ongoing ways. Yeah.

Amanda Mourelatos
So what difference do you think it would be if it wasn’t sponsored by the university?

Tyler Meier
It’s a good question to. So we’re so lucky that it’s at the university. It really helps with it’s been a backbone of support. It’s been amazing. There are times when it’s not perfect, but it’s mostly great. And we’re lucky for that. And so, when, when, other nonprofits, I think, sometimes struggle with resources that can ebb and flow, we’re lucky to have, staff that’s supported with state support that the university can offer.

Tyler Meier
And then likewise, the intellectual community of the university is a huge richness that enlivens the place. And we feel like we can be a kind of front door for a section of Tucson into the university, which can sometimes feel like a tough place to get into. You can buy a ticket to a game, you can buy a ticket to a show, but sometimes it’s hard to figure out how do I make use of all the good stuff that’s here?

Tyler Meier
And really, the university belongs to everyone in Arizona, and so we like to think that the Poetry Center is a part of that, too, you know?

Tom Heath
So when you’re talking about the center, it’s somewhat of an abstract term. So maybe you have you have a like a little campus within the campus, like you share with us a little bit about what happens there. Yeah. All the facilities.

Tyler Meier
Yeah. So, so it’s a beautiful space that’s very flexible. And it was designed so, so that we could do a lot of different stuff with the facility. So there’s a little apartment that’s part of it. That’s like a 400 square foot space. Really beautiful. And it’s where we host visiting poets, which is, has been an incredible benefit, for the 20 years that we’ve been in the facility.

Tyler Meier
We haven’t had to pay for any Jim Show pricing on hotels. Which is lucky, because we have a free place to put people up. But it also means when someone comes, we can say you can stay extra days. You can use the library, you can do some work in the community. We can visit some schools.

Tyler Meier
And that has been that’s added a really exciting layer to what is possible with the space. So that’s one part of it. There’s a really delightful presentation space where classes happen during the day, and our readings and events happen at night. And the doors on that space are on one, so on one wall can open up.

Tyler Meier
It’s a 40ft glass wall. And so you can add an additional sort of 150 chairs into a breezeway. And that makes the space very flexible for bigger events or smaller events. So that we can make them feel comfortable. And usually the weather cooperates, sometimes it doesn’t, most of the poetry readings then, because they’re indoor outdoor, become a duet with the train.

Tyler Meier
And the way they design is a kind of.

Tom Heath
A duet with the train. And that is the best way I’ve ever heard that describe live it to a poet to come up with that. It’s a duet with the train. The man has a way with words. We’re speaking with Tyler Meyer, the executive director for the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center, and this episode is being co-hosted by Amanda Maltose.

Tom Heath
I do want to correct something, though. I, I had mentioned, during the interview that this was the first time appearance for Tyler, and it’s not he was, a guest, when we had, Bryan Laidlaw on doing the release of his album Silently Loud, which was released at the Poetry Center. Bryan and Tyler were, guests at the same time on the same show.

Tom Heath
So apologize for that and apologize for my horrible memory. But I do remember that my name is Tom Heath, and you’re listening to Lifelong Streetcar and Downtown Radio 99.1 FM and streaming on Downtown radio.org.

Tyler Meier
This podcast is sponsored by Tom Heath and the Heath team and Nova Home Loans. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, continue listening or head over to lifelong the Street Goal.com for current events and information on what to do while visiting Tucson. Tom Heath and MLS number 182420 Nova and MLS number 3087, the UK number 0902429. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Tom Heath
Well, let’s jump back into the, second half of our interview here with Tyler Meyer. He’s the executive director for the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center. And if you are just joining us, we are making history here on Life Along the Streetcar. I have hosted many, many shows. We’ve had guest host, we’ve had, we’ve had several guests on a single show.

Tom Heath
But today’s episode is the first time that we have had co-hosts. So Amanda Maltose is join me as part of this interview and asking some great questions of Tyler Meyer. And we’re going to get back into the second half of that interview right now.

Tyler Meier
But it’s been, you know, during Covid, it was a magical it was a lucky space because we had all this airflow where we could make a safer space for people to start to come back together. A little bit sooner maybe, than some of our peers. And then across the breezeway, there’s the library collection. And so that’s designed to be accessible.

Tyler Meier
And open shelved. So it wasn’t designed so that we would hide the books that we wanted the books to be available to everybody, to come and see them and find them. And it’s a print based collection. So when you walk through the doors of that, you’re in the presence of somewhere around the 6 or 7 million palms, which is not a thing that’s possible anywhere else that we know of.

Tyler Meier
And that was a big part of the architecture, was imagining how do we do this in a way that foregrounds the materials so that people can go and find them? So it’s been a great space. It’s mostly a library. We have days where we turn it over to kids, and have kids centric programs. And that’s been a lot of fun.

Tyler Meier
So really, a big swath of programs have been libraries.

Tom Heath
Glass. Right. Like you will. Yeah. When you’re looking from the outside, you see clearly, like all of those volumes in there.

Tyler Meier
Right. It’s true. Yeah. So it’s glass and there’s some, filters. You know, there’s a bamboo garden on the east side of it. There’s the breezeway on the west side. So there’s some things that help sort of mitigate some of the direct, light and ability to look in. But, but it is very much designed to be a thing to look at and to observe, to see, and hopefully to celebrate that people are excited to be a part of it.

Tyler Meier
So, yeah, you’re very lucky.

Amanda Mourelatos
What kind of, guest poets do you have? Come in?

Tyler Meier
Yeah. So, I like to think there’s a way you can track the 20th and 21st century of American poetry and even some of its international poetry through Tucson. And that’s a, a hallmark of what the Poetry Center has been. And directors before me who have done that work and kind of establish this as a, as a place.

Tyler Meier
We’re really lucky that when we invite poets to come, they already know it, and they’re excited to come if they’ve never been, and usually they’re excited to come back if they’ve been before. So there’s a great history of, everyone you can imagine from sort of a sort of, upper echelon of kind of Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award winners, poet laureate.

Tyler Meier
We had the US poet laureate here last year, and December, which was great. Ada Limon, she’s about to finish her tenure, after a three year run. So that happens. But then we also have emerging writers to people at the beginning of their career, who are beginning to find their way to their best work. And, we record all of those visits.

Tyler Meier
So one of our great digital collections is that series of recordings, and we call that voca, and that’s, fully digitized, online and accessible. You can go find those readings. So if you heard of reading ten years ago, I mean, and you’re like, I remember there’s this reading, I want to go find it. There’s a good chance we can go find it and, even find that particular poem you might be remembering.

Tyler Meier
One of the big Covid projects for us, was a project to caption that archive. And so, we suddenly learned all the words that were in the digital, holdings. And so there’s about 7 million words in the archives, 25 languages. And it that improved accessibility, but it also improved searchability and discoverability. So you can find particular things in a new way.

Tyler Meier

Tom Heath
So that’s a good thing. Now, it correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re also involved in one downtown with the haiku hike, right?

Tyler Meier
Yeah. So the big thing, it’s great to have an awesome space. But if we just exist on campus, we’re not doing our job as well as we could. And so we are often trying to figure out ways to get out into the community more broadly. So the haiku hike is a great example of that. And that’s been a collaboration with the Downtown Tucson Partnership.

Tyler Meier
And really, truly, the the Tucson Poet Laureate, T.C. Tolbert has been an integral part of how that works. Open call to anyone to submit, haiku around the theme. And the winners are displayed in the planters throughout downtown Tucson, along Congress and on stone.

Tom Heath
Yeah, I have submitted a few, and I haven’t, I haven’t that’s it’s been selected. So I’m, I’m thinking there might be some kind of, rigging going on. Let me clear it up.

Tyler Meier
I restrategize we say this is one of the time poems. So there’s a special corner we put those in. The, the T.C. reads them all, blind. And so he doesn’t know who’s written them. And so and he there’s about 2000 per year that are submitted and 20 that are picked. So it’s a lot of reading and and kind of moving.

Tyler Meier
Yes. No. Yes. No. And a lot more no’s than yeses. So don’t don’t worry. Keep at it. And there’ll be a next year. This year’s theme is belonging. And, and so the poems were written and selected kind of around that theme, and imagining kind of what, how do we make the conditions for belonging and, what does that look like?

Tyler Meier
And so the poems show up differently. Some of them are a little bit more abstract. Some of them are more direct. Some of them are about the challenges of belonging. You know what what it feels like to feel like you don’t fit, when, a culture or a city maybe feels it makes you feel that way.

Tyler Meier
Others are more direct about what? You know, what causes that? There’s one that I love. It’s about a person just going out on their porch, laying down, and four dogs joining them. And so thinking, okay, poor dogs. But also that that’s a space, a safe space for all five of the creatures in that image. So what belonging looks like, how we imagine it.

Tyler Meier
It’s been exciting to explore it through poetry and kind of create a voice of the city. Yeah, it’s.

Tom Heath
Yeah, it’s been fun to watch it and grow and, you know, walking around and giving you something to do on a day to really explore. And I’m going to leave the last question here for Amanda. But before we get to that, how do we find out more about the Poetry Center?

Tyler Meier
Yeah. The best way, poetry, that Arizona, that idea. And if you want to come see us around the UVic campus on Helen Street, so, the website, a great way to learn more about it. All right. Yeah.

Amanda Mourelatos
My last question for sure. Yeah. So I come from a journalism background of just straightforward writing facts, nothing more to it. Yeah. How does poetry differ from different forms of writing?

Tyler Meier
Oh, another good question. Good work. So I like to think of there’s different, different ways to define poetry. How do we try to find it? One that I love from a poet named Mary Rufo is, it’s poetry is in, a linguistic configuration of energy. So this is how she thinks of poems, so that something made out of words, that has a special kind of energy or that may be hard to define, but it’s felt, and, and that it’s made.

Tyler Meier
Right. It’s manipulated by a person. The that’s what I think maybe differentiates it or separates it, say, from a piece of journalism or the instructions to program your micro microwave or, other kinds of writing, political discourse, other things. So I feel I feel really lucky to be around that kind of energy, even if it’s hard to put our finger exactly on what causes it or how to do it.

Tyler Meier
But when you feel it, you know it, and, And that’s been a lucky thing.

Amanda Mourelatos
That’s beautiful.

Tyler Meier
Thank you. Cheers. Yeah. Thanks so much. Nice to talk with you guys.

Tom Heath
Tyler, it’s great to have you in. We’ll get some information about the poetry Center because you’ve got some stuff coming up in May.

Tyler Meier
Right? Right. That’s right. Yeah. Happy to talk about that.

Tom Heath
We got.

Tyler Meier
Yeah. So, and, May 1st we’re really excited to have the translator, Natasha Wimmer coming. Amazing. Translated from Spanish, translates, Roberto Bologna. So we’re looking forward to that. That’s at 7:00 at the Poetry Center. Free free parking after 5 p.m.. Invite many to come out here. Both languages.

Tom Heath
So fantastic.

Tyler Meier
Thank you.

Tom Heath
Ramon. I think we did pretty well.

Amanda Mourelatos
It wasn’t so bad.

Tyler Meier
I give you guys an A-plus. Good work.

Amanda Mourelatos
Thank you.

Tom Heath
Again. I think Tyler mentioned on four occasions. Good question. And, those were never directed at me, so I, I think we we know it’s, the weak link on, on the stage here, followed by our poetry center and Merlot toast. I’m Tom Heath. Thanks so much.

Tyler Meier
Thank you.

Tom Heath
What a fun interview with Tyler Meyer, the executive director for the University of Arizona’s nationally renowned Arizona Poetry Center. And, so, so fun to do it with Amanda. I, you know, we we haven’t co-hosted before. We didn’t really know what to expect. I thought it flowed very well and, appreciated her, professionalism that she has learned through the School of journalism to kind of keep us on track.

Tom Heath
You know, I’ve been doing this for a while, so there’s some instinctual things that I do, but Amanda has a, a very trained way about her. And I think that comes from years of education from the University of Arizona, whereas I’m just making it up as I go along. Well, you are listening to life along the streetcar on Downtown Radio.

Tom Heath
We’re a 99.1 FM, and you can stream us on downtown radio.org.

Tyler Meier
Support for downtown radio is provided by the Tucson Gallery, located in downtown Tucson. Instead of the proper shops at East Congress Street, the Tucson Gallery offers original work, reproductions, and merchandise from Tucson artists like Joe Padgett, Jessica Gonzalez, Ignacio Garcia, and many more. For information about other artists, including when they will be live.

Tom Heath
At the Gallery, head.

Tyler Meier
To the Tucson gallery.com or find them on Instagram and Facebook as.

Tom Heath
Tucson Gallery.

Tom Heath
Wow. Well, episode here, 336 is coming to a rapid close. But don’t go anywhere because in just a few minutes you will hear the fabulous Ted Ski, with his show words and work, and he’s going to be interviewing writers and others from the labor movement right here on downtown radio. We’ve got some good stuff lined up for you.

Tom Heath
One of the things that Amanda has been doing, in addition to being a fabulous co-host and doing research for the show, is she is helping to schedule out interviews, which has really kind of given us, a little bit more of a consistency in how we’re setting up, these, these shows. And because of that, we have an idea of what’s coming up and next week.

Tom Heath
Look, every show is cool, every show is special. Every guest to me is it’s important that they spend their time. But every now and then I get to to interview one of those people that are just very influential in, in my life or career. And one of these individuals is coming up next week. His name is Anthony Ottinger, and you know him as Mister Nature.

Tom Heath
And the reason why he’s so influential to me is that for the last several years, almost five years now, actually, yes, five years, he has been leading off Sunday mornings with his show Little Leaf Radio right here on Downtown radio. And for five years he has been attracting a huge audience to the radio station. They listen to his show, they get all excited, and they they hang around for DJ Bank, get all relaxed.

Tom Heath
And by the time, they finished with, Little Leaf Radio and the Art of easing, they are so kind of connected to the station, they just they just keep it turned on. And, then they get here lifelong streetcar. And hopefully they stick around after that. And I don’t kill it for Ted, with his show words and work, but, it’s going to be fun to interview with, Mister Nature.

Tom Heath
It’s coming up next Sunday. Same time, same location. And if you have any thoughts of doing podcasting yourself or if you are a story teller, maybe you have a small business or a nonprofit and you want to get the word out. I have a business partner, and he and I started something called Show Source Studios.

Tom Heath
You can check that out on Show Source studios.com and we are helping people tell their stories. We have a a subscription based service which you can, sign up for, but we also for small businesses and nonprofits are helping them tell their story with a, a free session. We call it a pilot session. That gives you an opportunity to get a quality audio and video, production done at no cost to you.

Tom Heath
And, if you would like to explore that, head over to a show Source studios.com. There’s a, a free session button there. Click that and you can request a time. We do have to limit those, for, for a few reasons, but, if you do request a time on there, James or I will get back to you and, let you know when we can set something up.

Tom Heath
It’s a good way to to test out your your, your ambitions as a podcaster to see if this is a good fit for you. And at the very least, it could be a good way to get a nice piece of, of storytelling done for your business or your nonprofit. Again, that shows our studios.com if you want more of that information.

Tom Heath
And, my, my partner in that is, you know, James Portis, who is our production specialist here on life along the streetcar and if you want to contact us, you can do so through our email, which is contact at life along the streetcar.org. We really recommend, if you want to, to have a good interaction with us.

Tom Heath
You do that on Facebook and Instagram. That’s where we’re most active. And you can tag us in, stories there as well. But yeah, thanks for for listening. And again for episode 336. As we head out here, I remind you that Amanda Maltose is our production assistant and today’s co-host. My name is Tom Heath. I’m your host and producer.

Tom Heath
And as always, we have opening music courtesy of Ryan Hood. And today we’re going to leave you with, unrestricted editions, lyrics done by Christopher Stroman. And it’s, 2023 album Silently Loud, which we talked about in the interview with Tyler. And this is one of my, one of those songs that just sort of get you going.

Tom Heath
It’s called trampoline. I hope you have a great week and tune in next Sunday for more life along the streetcar.