This week on Chopping It Up, Keith sits down with a man who should probably charge him rent for all the space he takes up in his head — his good friend Robbie Boyd, calling in from the opposite coast with a sharper wit than any TSA agent deserves to deal with at 3AM.

This is a special episode.
Not because Robbie grew up in Belfast during the Troubles.
Not because he once rewired a house with a fountain pen and Catholic guilt.
Not even because he flew across the country to sit in front of a microphone he absolutely did not want pointed at him.

It’s special because this conversation is what we used to do as a country — two people who disagree on almost everything… agreeing that none of it is worth losing a friendship over.

We go deep into:

• “Luxury has gotten cheap, but survival has gotten expensive.”
  Robbie drops the line that’s been haunting Keith for a year — and together they unpack smartphones, heated car seats, McDonald’s inflation, Cribs-level envy, and the weird comfort of knowing we all live better than kings but still feel worse.

• AI as tool, threat, and mirror.
  From fake videos that could ruin your life to kids who know how to swipe but not how to troubleshoot, we talk about what we’re gaining, what we’re losing, and what we’re absolutely sleepwalking through.

• Loneliness disguised as convenience.
  DoorDash instead of dinner. Netflix instead of date night. Banking instead of walking into town. When the easiest option becomes the default option, community quietly evaporates.
  (Spoiler: community doesn’t survive unless you show up.)

• Why comparison is killing our joy.
  Two pairs of shoes, one pair of wedding shoes, and a whole lot about Russian Czars.

• How friendships survive disagreement.
  The real heart of the episode — and the reason Keith refuses to hang up the phone when Robbie calls… even if he knows he’s about to lose an hour of his life.

We end where all good conversations should:
with Vonnegut, a walk to the post office, the joy found in the “in-between spaces,” and a reminder that the only thing anybody remembers about you is how you made them feel.

This one hits you where it matters — in the part of your soul that still wants to be known, still wants to be connected, and still believes we can build something better together.

Plug in.
Sit with it.
And maybe… call a friend.

In Part 2 of this episode of Chopping It Up, Keith picks back up with Efran Pulido right where we left off — on MSR Bug in Iraq, at the height of the IED war.

Efran walks us through dismantling devices while insurgents watched from the hills, the day he rendered safe a 500-pound bomb buried in a ravine, and what it feels like to walk down a shut-down highway in a bomb suit with a blinking detonator in front of you and thousands of people stacked up behind you. From EOD school to “energetics,” to training TSA in explosive detection and X-ray recognition, he explains how you go from cutting wires in a war zone to calmly untangling 16 liens on a local property without breaking a sweat—because, as he says, “no one’s dying today.”

Then we bring it fully back home: what the Valley felt like when El Rancho was a shoebox, Los Olivos was the edge of the earth, Los Alamos was quiet, and you had to wait for someone to give up their Verizon slot before you could even get internet. We talk about the old gas station, the Los Olivos sewer fight, why quaint is a feature and not a flaw, and why this snow globe of a town needs to stay under glass.

We close with what matters most: family and community. His wife Kelly (the vice principal at the high school), their four kids, his son Diego setting kicking records under the Friday night lights, and the ridiculous concentration of talent in this Valley—Baja legends, polo champions, world-class musicians, and the guy fixing your flats at the tire shop.

If you want a realtor who’s defused bombs, navigated federal agencies, and still treats your house deal like the most important mission of the day, you can call Efran at 805-598-4140. And if you find something suspicious on the side of the road… maybe call him for that too.

This week on Chopping It Up, Keith sits down with homegrown Valley kid Efran Pulido — and Part 1 of his story starts a long way from real estate signs and collared shirts.

Efran walks us through how his family first came to the Santa Ynez Valley: his grandfather in the Bracero Program, his dad alone on a horse ranch where Sunstone sits now, ready to hitchhike back to Mexico until no cars came… so he stayed and built a life here instead. We talk about learning English at Solvang School, crying in front of a black-and-white TV because he couldn’t understand a word, growing up on Elm Street breaking windows and playing basketball, and running the full gauntlet through SYVUHS.

Then the story takes a hard turn: losing his way in Isla Vista, answering a random recruiter postcard meant for the Army, and getting poached by a Marine who walked in and dropped the line, “You wanna be on varsity?” From there it’s Okinawa, Hawaii, and finally EOD school in Florida—training to be the guy who walks up to bombs on purpose.

By the end of Part 1, Efran is rolling into Iraq at the height of the IED war, watching burned-out convoys coming the other way, living at Checkpoint 22 with Iraqi National Guard, and suiting up in a bomb suit on his birthday to walk down a major highway in 120° heat toward a blinking device that might end his life.

Part 2 picks up right where we left off—with the largest IED in the region, a 500-pound bomb, and the moment Efran earns the Navy Commendation Medal for Valor.

This week on Chopping It Up, Keith sits down with mason and maker Emily Cody to remember her father, legendary sculptor and back-country builder John Cody — the man Keith calls “the Da Vinci of the Santa Ynez Valley.”

Emily walks us through John’s wild arc: a dyslexic kid nicknamed Jungle Jack building cabins in the woods, a young sculptor carving serpentine in Solvang galleries, and the moment he hiked up Manzana Creek, found a meadow that felt like heaven, and decided to hand-build an off-grid stone home 37 miles from the flagpole in Los Olivos. We hear about the ocean-buoy hot tub cauldron, the hand-dug 50-foot well that still pumps today, and the way he used nothing but native rock, scrap, grit, and patience to turn wilderness into a living work of art.

Emily shares the personal side, too — what it was like to be raised by a man who could turn a pile of stone into a crab, a train barbecue, or a life-size triceratops, and who quietly mentored half the Valley. From the rebuilt Hollister wall in Los Olivos, to headstones at Ballard Cemetery, to public pieces in Santa Maria and beyond, John’s fingerprints are everywhere…and now Emily is carrying that torch with Manzana Masonry, keeping his standard of real stone, real work, and no shortcuts.

If you’ve ever driven past a Cody wall, soaked in his mountain magic, or just wondered what it looks like when someone refuses to live by anyone else’s rules, this episode is a love letter to a father, a family, and a Valley — and a reminder that our job now is to keep their stories, and their work, alive.

This week on Chopping It Up, Keith sits down with local legend Johnny Hogan — the guy who didn’t just grow up at the Alisal, he shot 60 out there and holds the course record at the Ranch Course.

They get into what makes that quiet little strip of fairways and oaks one of the most underrated classic tracks in the country — from its 1950s “dude ranch” roots to ice-block racing down 16, avocado toast and milkshake games, and the kind of staff that has known you since you were seven and still remembers your order.

Johnny walks us through his journey from Valley kid to top-250 junior in the nation, breaking his wrist right when it mattered most, grinding his way back, qualifying for the U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields, and earning a full ride to Long Beach State. You’ll hear about teeing it up alongside names like Bryson DeChambeau, JT, Jon Rahm, and how chasing that dream led him into mini-tour life on the Dakotas Tour — living out of a suitcase, learning real golf on the road.

But the heartbeat of this episode is what Johnny’s doing now:

• Mentoring the next generation of Valley “range rats” like Vaughn Gordon

• Taking kids who’ve never stepped on a private course and unlocking the “superpower” of that first perfect strike

• Using golf as a classroom for discipline, humility, and community

• Choosing to go 100 days without alcohol just to see what’s possible for his game and his life

If you’ve ever flushed one and felt that “oh no… I’m gonna do this for the rest of my life” tingle through your whole body, if you’ve ever wondered what makes the Alisal Ranch Course feel like a secret society of good people and good swings, or if you’re just looking for a reason to finally book that first lesson — this one’s for you.

Tune in to Chopping It Up with Keith Saarloos on Krazy Country 105.9, and if you’re ready to start your own journey, you can find Johnny on Instagram @johnnyhogangolf or catch him out at the Ranch Course, turning nerves, bad lies, and big dreams into something beautiful.

This week on Chopping It Up, Keith sits down with Eric Steinkamp, the mind (and hands) behind Feral Future / Feral Foods, to talk about what really happens when you stop eating like a lab rat and start eating like you actually live in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Eric shares how his fiancée Carrie literally read the stars with astrocartography, pointed at this valley, and how that cosmic nudge turned into a real-life move from LA race tracks to slow roads, gardens, and a kitchen full of elk chili and wild boar pasta. From there, the conversation dives deep into what “you are what you eat” really means—epigenetics, gene expression, seed oils, sun, skin cancer, and why local, seasonal food grown in the same dust and pollen you breathe can literally change how your body works.

They dig into one-ingredient foods vs. ultra-processed “forever foods,” butter vs. canola, and how our grandparents’ way of eating somehow became the radical, counterculture choice. Eric breaks down Feral Foods’ farm-to-table-to-go approach: elk chili, wild boar pasta, turkey wild rice soup, venison “mexi meat,” seasonal corn chowder, mineral-rich feral tea, grass-fed collagen marshmallows, and pantry staples like full-spectrum salt and feral herb blends—real food, prepared locally, ready to heat, eat, and feel good about.

You’ll hear how Feral Future is bigger than just food: it’s about what you consume, what you surround yourself with, what you wear, and how you care for your tools—right down to Eric’s mobile knife sharpening so your kitchen is actually a place you want to cook in. At the core is a simple challenge: if you love this valley, prove it three times a day with what’s on your plate.

Listen in, get hungry (in a good way), and then take one step: swap one processed meal this week for something made by your neighbors, from this dirt. Check out feralfuture.com, look for the Feral Foods fridges at Joy Cafe in Solvang and The Yard Orchard in Los Olivos, and support the people trying to keep our community healthy, strong, and here for the long haul. 🌾🤝

This week on Chopping It Up, Keith sits down with community powerhouse Lisa Palmer to dive into the vision behind the Santa Ynez Valley Community Aquatics Foundation—and why a world-class, two-pool complex right on the high school campus would change lives across the Valley.

From learn-to-swim lifesaving skills for our youngest to aqua fitness and rehab for seniors, from everyday lap swimmers to CIF-ready competition for swim and water polo, Lisa lays out how this project strengthens health, safety, and community connection for ages 1 to 101. You’ll hear about the foundation’s progress, the plan to keep school use secure while opening daily public access, and how tournaments and true “home games” could finally bring that electric, hometown-crowd feeling to the pool deck.

We get real about the goal—$13.7M—what’s already been raised, how local cities are stepping up, and exactly how time, talent, and treasure can push this across the finish line. If you’ve ever learned to swim, watched a kid fall in love with the water, or felt the calm of a good long swim—you’ll understand why this is the kind of legacy project that shapes a community for decades.

Listen in, get inspired, and get involved. Put your hand up—volunteer, spread the word, or give what you can. Search “SYV Aquatics Foundation” to connect and learn more. 🌊🤝

Highlights:

• Why year-round public swim access matters (safety, health, inclusion)

• The plan: competition pool + community/recreation pool

• Secure, concurrent school + public use

• Local support, fundraising milestones, and how you can help

• A vision for Valley pride: from first swim lesson to Olympic dreams 🏅

In this one, we sit down with author (and valley neighbor) Adam McHugh, whose memoir Blood From a Stone is a love letter to the Santa Ynez Valley and a raw, honest look at going from hospice chaplain and grief counselor in L.A. to wine guide and storyteller among our vines. We cover: how grief can become gratitude, why this valley saves souls with big skies and bigger terroir, the punk-rock work behind “romantic” wine, and what it really takes to belong to a place you once only visited. It’s reflective, hopeful, a little history-dorky, and very local.

Listen if you’re into: real talk about loss + resilience, the geology and magic that make SB County wines special, and the winding road from “escape” to “home.”
Grab the book: Blood From a Stone (find it at The Book Loft in Solvang or your favorite indie).
Bonus: Adam teases his upcoming Solvang kids’ book—because this valley makes room for both hard truths and holiday wonder.

Press play, take a deep breath, and fall back in love with where we live. 🎧✨