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Mushroom Madness 
Fungi can cure or kill, nourish life, and also decompose it back into soil. Fossil evidence for fungi is limited, but the ability to analyze molecular data has led to revelations about the evolution of this extraordinary family of...
Fool’s Gold: The Myth of Tiburcio Vasquez 
“And still of a winter’s night, they say,  when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon  tossed upon cloudy seas,    When the road is a ribbon of moonlight  over the purple moor,    A...
Billions in Flight: Migratory Birds 
Autumn doesn’t officially begin until the equinox on September 22, but all across North America birds are already on the wing—billions of them. Migration times and destinations vary based on the species and variables like weather and food sources—some...
One-Room Schoolhouse 
Back to school. A hundred years ago in Topanga, it would have been on foot—and often barefoot—to the little, red, one-room schoolhouse by the creek in the bend of the dirt road.  Public education in California was still relatively...
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The Power of Clarity 

There are certain parts of Topanga Creek that run clear; you can stoop down in the shallows and, on occasion, see aquatic life darting about. Similarly, when our thoughts are unmuddied and energy flows unobstructed, we can see our...
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Clothes Make the Human 

It’s fall.  What are you going to wear? Autumn is the season for back-to-school.  It may mean back-to-a-physical workplace, and back to wearing pants or otherwise dressing the nether region below the frame of the Zoom camera. The shopaholic...
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Material Matters 

The fashion industry is responsible for about ten percent of our global carbon emissions with other impacts coming from the sourcing of materials, sweatshop labor, chemical processes, fossil fuel-based fibers, and vast quantities of water waste.  Once we bring...