LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY
Margaret Croom is ‘Magsy’, a local of Whidbey Island, Washington. Whether you’re a local, a would-be islander, or just someone who loves a good story, ”Local Whidbey” is your weekly dose of community, inspiration, and a reminder that the best places aren’t just found on maps—they’re found in people. Are you an AUDACIOUS ISLANDER(tm)? For more info, go to https://LocalWhidbeyPodcast.com
Episodes
When most of us hear the word port, we probably picture boats, docks and shipping.
But on Whidbey Island, the Port of Coupeville is something much more interesting.
It is responsible for two of the island’s most recognizable public assets: the historic Coupeville Wharf and Greenbank Farm.
One sits over Penn Cove and has been part of Coupeville’s waterfront identity for generations.
The other encompasses farm...
This episode of Creative Economy Builders is a little different.
I’m reaching back into Season 2 of Local Whidbey to revisit a conversation that, looking at it now, was really a Creative Economy Builders story all along.
Every Labor Day weekend, downtown Oak Harbor transforms. Streets fill with people. Musicians come in from across the co...
When we talk about Whidbey’s creative economy, we often talk about the people who live here and build something.
But there’s another piece of a creative economy that may be just as important:
Can you create something compelling enough that talented people choose to come here—and then choose to come back?
Every year, Island Shakespeare Festival brings professional actors, directors, designers and ...
When people hear the words arts commission, they may picture a committee that chooses murals, reviews public art, or helps organize cultural events.
But an arts commission can do something much bigger.
It can help shape how a city sees itself.
It can influence what our public spaces look like, which stories get told, ...
Today's guest is Catherine Markel, who moved to Oak Harbor with her husband in late 2024. They didn't know anyone here, and they weren't moving because of the military. They simply found Whidbey, fell in love with it, and decided to make a very different kind of life.
Catherine came from a career as an attorney handling child abuse case—a job that left her angry at the...
Today's story is a reinvention story, but with little different perspective on Oak Harbor a lot of us do not have.
Sometimes reinvention means leaving. Sometimes it means starting over. And sometimes, after years away, it means coming home.
My guest grew up right here in Oak Harbor. After high school, she left and spent the next 20 years bui...
What if the next great agricultural story in Washington isn’t wine, apples or berries—but tea?
That may sound improbable. Washington has never exactly been known as tea country. But on Whidbey Island, a group of farmers, entrepreneurs and culinary professionals are betting that the Pacific Northwest could become home to something entirely new: a thriving tea-growing region.
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'Barbara Fuller on Starting Over and Finding a New Purpose'
Today's guest has reinvented herself more than once.
Barbara Fuller began her career as a police officer in San Mateo, California. After being injured on the job, she was forced into an early retirement and had to figure out what came next.
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Welcome back to Local Whidbey Podcast. I'm Magsy, and this week I'm bringing you a conversation from Season One that I decided deserved a second look through the lens of my Reinventions series.
When I originally interviewed Scott Price, I thought of him simply as an interesting islander—the creator of Price Sculpture Forest in Coupeville.
But listening back, I realized there was a much bigger reinvention st...
Another great local story in my REINVENTION SERIES.
For many people, retirement or a career change marks the beginning of something different. But today's guests didn't wait for one chapter to end before beginning the next.
Martha Valle has spent her career creating memorable experiences as a bartender with Morale, Welfare and Recreation on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. ...
My guest today is someone who perfectly embodies the idea of having the courage to create something new in her life.
By day, Jen Schmitz serves Island County as the Natural Resources Manager, helping protect the land and waters that make Whidbey such a remarkable place to live. It's thoughtful, technical work that requires science, collaboration, and long-term thinking.
Welcome to Local Whidbey Podcast. I'm Magsy, and this is another episode in our Reinventions series, where we explore the people who have found new purpose by embracing change.
Sometimes reinvention isn't about starting over. It's about taking everything you've learned in one chapter of your life and applying it in an entirely new way.
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During the early days of the pandemic, people were literally driving to farms and knocking on doors, hoping to buy eggs, vegetables, or meat. The usual ways of getting local food had broken down almost overnight. That's when today's guest and a community of farmers got together and said "There is a way!"
The Whidbey Island Grown Cooperative's FOOD HUB began.
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Welcome back to the Local Whidbey Podcast and another episode in our special Saltwater Lives series, where we're exploring the people, history, industries, and traditions that make life on Whidbey Island inseparable from the sea.
Before there were highways connecting towns, the water was our highway. Steamships carried passengers, freight, livestock, and ...
There's a particular rhythm to life on Whidbey that you can't find anywhere else—a tide-driven cadence that shapes everything from when we wake to what ends up on our plates. In the "Saltwater Lives" series, we're diving into the stories of those whose lives move with the water, whose hands bear the marks of nets and lines, and whose identities are woven into the very salt spray of this island. To...
Some people look at the ocean and see a frontier; others see a home. For Dr. Florian Graner, the waters around Whidbey Island are both a laboratory and a canvas. He is a scientist, a conservationist, and an award-winning filmmaker who has taken the hidden world beneath the waves and brought it to screens across the globe. From his work with Disney and Netflix to his latest acclaimed film, Orcas — ...
Why would someone come to Whidbey Island to disappear? Novelist T Kira Māhealani Madden talks about refuge, memory, and the island at the center of her new novel 'Whidbey'.
Today on Local Whidbey Podcast, I’m joined by T Kira Māhealani Madden, an award-winning writer whose highly anticipated new novel Whidbey is set right here on Whidbey Island.
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Meg Olson is one of those people who make a town feel like home.
If you’ve ever walked into Kingfisher Bookstore and felt immediately welcomed, challenged, entertained, or gently told what you should be reading—there’s a good chance you’ve met Meg Olson.
Meg is the owner of Kingfisher Bookstore in Coupeville, and she is fu...
If you’ve ever thought mead was just a medieval novelty — or something overly sweet — today’s conversation might completely change your mind.
On Whidbey Island, there’s a meadery that’s quietly redefining what mead can be by blending honey, botanicals, fermentation science, and a deep respect for pollinators and place.
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Today on the Local Whidbey Podcast we are honored to have Alanah Lawrason, known in these parts as the “Farm-Her” of Foggy Hill Farm. Nestled on Whidbey Island, Foggy Hill is a two-acre vegetable and cut-flower farm that’s as much about growing community as it is about growing food. Alanah has been farming in some capacity for about eight years — including roughly five years here on Whidbey — lear...
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