Usually it so happens that my Sunday Mendo-Humboldt runs are timed absolutely perfectly, radio-wise. From Willits to about Bell Springs, I catch the tail end of "La Hora Mixteca" , the coolest program on the coolest public radio network in the USA. The program is jam-packed with boppin' chilenitas , heartfelt cross-border shout-outs and hosts who speak just a bit too fast for me, which is a welcome challenge. It doesn't even matter if they switch to Mixtec. Just let the sounds wash over you.

As 88.5 begins to fade, just south of Benbow, it becomes time to switch up to KMUD for the rotating Sunday afternoon talk show. Seems like I usually get the hippie economists, which is just fine with me. The idea of slightly paranoid hillfolk -- just slightly -- who also religiously read the Wall Street Journal is, to me, aesthetically appealing. I always learn something. But today it was Bud Rogers' show, which is either called "The Edge of the Herd" or "The Edge of the Heard." I met Bud when he ran for supervisor a few years back, but I don't think I've ever heard his show before.

People, it was frickin' awesome.

The idea, apparently, is that Bud and a couple of his lefty cronies get together around the old pickle barrel, and they chat about this and that and all the problems in the world and how we can make it a better place. In between, Bud plays some of his own songs about hope and redemption. The sincerity of the whole enterprise is strangely overwhelming.

I was running late today, so I only caught the last bit of the show. Dennis Huber was the guest. Education seemed to be the theme. One caller wondered why the hell we don't provide our schools with all the materials they need to teach kids with hands-on experience. That's the way they learn! But that would cost a lot of money. Where would the money come from? Maybe the kids could sell the things they made in school! How would that work? You'd have to get a non-profit to be in charge of it.

The next caller said, hey, that's what Waldorf Schools do -- hands-on learning. Why is there no Waldorf School in SoHum? Bud said that he had never taught in a Waldorf School, but they seemed like maybe they were a good idea.

And that brought us right up to this five-minute clip, which was just so amazing that it spun my head around and left me giddy. Seriously, it was like dropping X for the first time.

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