Renoites

This week on the podcast, Conor welcomes Reno’s city council member from Ward 1, Jenny Brekhus. Jenny has served on the Reno city council since 2012 and is running for Mayor of Reno this year. Conor and Jenny discuss current issues facing Reno, including the controversial Jacobs Entertainment Neon Line District and accompanying development agreement with the city, the CARES Campus and homelessness, the recent judicial decision forcing the city council to approve a housing development in Verdi, how to best spend federal funds that the city will be receiving in the coming years, and much more! You can learn more about Jenny at her website https://jennybrekhus.com or subscribe to her substack newsletter at https://jennybrekhus.substack.com This episode was produced by Conor McQuivey and Ciara Cihak. Thank you for listening! If you have guest suggestions, ideas for episode topics, feedback, or just want to get in touch, you can email Conor at conor@renoites.com

Renoites is back for the new year with more great guests and episodes every Tuesday! This week on the podcast, Conor welcomes local stand up comedian David Gamble Jr. to talk about the world of stand up comedy both nationally and here in the Biggest Little City. David has been performing stand-up in the Reno area for 7 years, including creating and hosting a regular showcase of local and regional comedians at Ferino Distillery in Downtown Reno. On this episode, Conor and David discuss the world of stand-up comedy, the process of translating jokes from conversation with friends into material for the stage, the power of comedy to help us talk about serious issues like race and racism, the changing dynamics of who is allowed to joke about what, what makes stand-up such an enduring form of comedy generation after generation, and so much more. We also talk about David's viral essay from 2020, "Growing up Black in Reno" You can follow David on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/dgjcomedy/  To find more comedy shows in Reno, join the Facebook group Reno Stand Up Comedy Thank you for listening!

One of the greatest frustrations for people who are large, chunky, plus-size, fluffy, husky, or (to skip all the euphemisms) just fat is that we live in a society that has labeled fat as a "bad word" and assigned various judgments and criticisms to people who have big bodies. From having diets recommended that they didn't ask for, being assumed to be unhealthy based on nothing more than their appearance, being discriminated against by medical providers, or struggling to find major retailers who carry fashionable clothes that fit, there are many unique struggles for plus-size people. On this week's episode of Renoites, Conor welcomes Emily Treischel, founder of the plus-size clothing swap Curve NV and an advocate for fat acceptance and body positivity. Conor and Emily have an informative and wide ranging conversation about the many aspects of what plus-size people experience in our society, and what we could all be doing to foster a more size-inclusive world. Some of the topics discussed on this episode include the appropriate language to use when discussing our and other's bodies, the gender and racial elements of the body positivity movement, the role of social media in destigmatizing fat bodies, body positive events and communities, navigating the dating world as a fat person, the pluses and minuses of increased representation in mass media, weight loss surgery, and so much more. Thank you to Emily for providing such a great overview and explanation of these important issues. Check out her plus-size clothing exchange community Curve NV on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/curve_nv/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/bigbeautifulbroke/ Thank you for listening!

Black Wall Street was the name of a thriving black-owned business district and surrounding residential area in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1921, just over 100 years ago, it was destroyed in a racial massacre that left many residents and business owners dead or injured, and their businesses burned to the ground. It is among the worst cases of racial violence ever recorded in the United States. This week on the podcast, we welcome Donald Griffin and RoMar Tolliver. Together, they have founded Black Wall Street Reno, a nonprofit named after the original Tulsa district and guided by a mission to build up the black community in the Reno/Sparks area. Conor, Don, and RoMar talk in this episode about the origins of Black Wall Street Reno, services they provide to the community, developing their organization based on local needs, the different approaches and effectiveness of political and direct aid organizations, sobriety and recovery from addiction, the challenges of raising funds and recruiting volunteers as a new nonprofit, Reno's racial history, spoken word poetry, creating generational wealth for black communities, teaching accurate history in schools, and a whole lot more. Please be sure to check out Black Wall Street Reno at http://www.blackwallstreetreno.org and follow them on social media! Thank you for listening!

This week's guest on Renoites is Manuel Mederos, Language Access Specialist at the Northern Nevada International Center. NNIC provides multiple services with the goal of improved global diplomacy, including exchange programs, refugee resettlement, and Manuel's specialty: translation and interpretation services. Learn more about the Northern Nevada International Center at nnic.org NNIC has also recently launched a monthly podcast called DiploChatz which Manuel co-hosts and can be found on most major podcast platforms or at diplochatz.org Conor and Manuel talk about the importance of interpretation services especially in the medical and legal realms, the difference between translation and interpretation, what makes a good interpreter, multi-lingual information for emergency preparedness, the role of interpreters in refugee resettlement, the goals of the DiploChatz podcast, Manuel's background in radio, the benefits and drawbacks of different podcast formats, and a whole lot more! Thanks for listening!

But what about Sparks? The "Reno Area" is of course inclusive of more than just the city of Reno. We also have the city of Sparks immediately adjacent to us as a major part of our shared economy and community, and Sparks shares many of the same concerns Reno does around growth, development, homelessness, and more. This week on the show we welcome the best person to talk about the city of Sparks- Mayor Ed Lawson! Ed and Conor talk about what type of city Sparks is and wants to be, how the city plans to grow vertically in key areas, a lands bill 6 years in the making which may create new capacity for tens of thousands of homes, building a new road to connect Spanish Springs and the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, addressing homelessness through the use of Sparks Police Department's HOPE team and regional projects like the NV Cares Campus, Ed's role on the Community Homelessness Advisory board (CHAB), the influence (or lack thereof) of partisanship and national issues on local elections, the smells of nature while riding Harley Davidson motorcycles in the Sierras, and a whole lot more. Thank you for listening!

After reading in school about a double decker bus in London being converted into a mobile book shop, 11-year-old Broden McClelland loved the idea and suggested to his parents that they do something similar here in Reno. The Golden Owl Bookshop was born, and has become a staple at the Riverside and Sparks United Methodist farmers markets, Sprouts Farmers Market in Sparks, and various other locations around town. On this episode of Renoites, Broden and his mom Alex join Conor to talk about the creation of their mobile bookstore, but as often happens on this show, the conversation didn't stop there. Topics on this episode include the mental health and attention span benefits of readings, why we are drawn to particular genres, what goes into curating the selection for a small book store, home schooling during covid, the effects of social media on young people, alternatives to Amazon/Audible/Goodreads for buying and listening to books or tracking our reading lists, and so much more. Huge thanks to Alex and Broden for coming on the show and for bringing a super cool mobile bookshop to Reno! You can find their schedule posted weekly on their website at http://www.goldenowlbookshop.com  Thank you for listening!

2021 marks the 40th Anniversary of one of Reno's biggest community events, the Great Reno Balloon Race. It's held at Rancho San Rafael park (September 10-12 this year) and is the largest free ballooning event in the world. This week on the Renoites, Conor is joined by the executive director of the Great Reno Balloon Race, Pete Copeland. Pete and Conor talk about the balloon event industry, how the Reno Balloon Race got started as an opening at for the Air Races, the different challenges of piloting in different parts of the country, advancements in balloon-manufacturing, the history of all the fun weird-shaped balloons, the GRBR pilot incubator program to train new pilots, partnerships with local organizations like The Children's Cabinet, and so much more! You can learn more and prepare for the event at http://www.renoballoon.com Thank you for listening!