Meet Marie Sayles: Connecting to Nature and People

Meet Marie Sayles: Connecting to Nature and People

Author: A Julie Sunshine Production July 3, 2025 Duration: 16:19

At every opportunity, including her current job at the Bay Area Ridge Trail, Marie Sayles encourages deeper and more meaningful connections to nature -- on land or in water. She's always inspiring others to get outdoors be it to a local park, your backyard, the Criss Cross trail, the bay, or the entire Bay Area Ridge Trail, which when complete will be 550 miles long. Hear how the water clears and calms her mind, why she joined the club at 50, and what she learned at "sauna university".


The cold, swirling waters of the San Francisco Bay are a character in themselves, but the true heart of this place beats within the 2000 Stories from the Dolphin Club. This podcast, an intimate production from A Julie Sunshine Production, isn't about athletic feats, though they happen daily. It's about the people. Each conversation pulls back the curtain on a unique, saltwater-stung community, revealing the personal histories and unexpected motivations that draw individuals to this iconic, challenging stretch of water. You'll hear from lifelong rowers with hands like weathered driftwood and newcomers confronting their fears one stroke at a time. The stories collected here form a mosaic of human experience-tales of loss, resilience, quirky routines, and quiet camaraderie forged in the fog. It’s a deep dive into the journals of daily life, exploring how a shared, almost ritualistic engagement with the natural world shapes culture and identity. Listen to this podcast for unvarnished, often humorous, and profoundly human accounts from inside the clubhouse and out on the open bay, where every member has a tale worth hearing.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

2000 Stories from the Dolphin Club
Podcast Episodes
Meet Joseph Omran: Living the best day of his life [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:21
Ask Joe Omran how he is on any given day and he'll always reply: "It's the best day of my life." Joe is truly living by those words, even in the midst of sorrows, struggles, the war in Palestine, and the chaos (especiall…
Meet Rusa Chiu: Living with Gratitude [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:26
Interviewing a therapist is no easy task, and a Jungian analyst at that, but luckily I had more than 50 minutes to get to know Rusa Chiu's amazing life story. It began in China and moved to Taiwan, Japan, Berkeley, Paris…
Meet Peter Molnar: A Keeper of the Bay [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:16
Peter Molnar doesn't just swim in the Bay, he helps keep it clean through his work as a board member of San Francisco Bay Keeper. And he takes it one step further, combining his non-profit work with his career in wine by…
Meet Kalani Leifer: Feeling Lucky [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:37
Kalani Leifer doesn't take his luck in life for granted. That's why he has spent the last 10 years building COOP Careers, a nonprofit working to overcome underemployment for first generation college students. In this epi…
Meet Deb Sullivan: Tending Bar, Art & Tides [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:07
Is the tide ebbing or flooding? Thanks to Deb Sullivan, the Dolphin Club's resident tide chart keeper, it's easy to find out. But that's just one small aspect of Deb's rich life, filled with painting, bar owning, swimmin…
Meet Joby Bernstein: Never Standing Still [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:08
It's election time, so who better to profile than Joby Bernstein who, at the ripe old age of 28, had the crazy idea to run for Congress. He didn't win...this time...but he's winning in lots of other places in his life, i…
Meet Margaret Keenan: Finding Happiness & Trinkets [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 14:34
Margaret Keenan makes the most of the Dolphin Club and the Bay, swimming, rowing, paddling, piloting and volunteering, always with a smile on her face. It's her happy place. In this episode of 2000 Stories hear about her…
Meet Charlie McIntyre: Motivating Rowers & More [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:08
Charlie McIntyre loves rowing. But a spate of injuries means he can no longer pull like he used to. So, he's moved to the coxswain seat of the Wieland wooden boat and for the last 18 years or so has been motivating women…
Meet Diane Campbell: Earning Her Place [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:47
In this episode of 2000 Stories you'll meet the indomitable Diane Campbell. She spent her career coaching and teaching others — in the pool and in the classroom — and now in the Bay where she runs the incredibly popular…