{"id":436845,"date":"2026-08-19T01:50:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T01:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/436845\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T01:50:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T01:50:42","slug":"how-a-couples-podcast-preserves-san-francisco-bay-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/436845\/","title":{"rendered":"How a couple’s podcast preserves San Francisco Bay history"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mike Herz (left), founder of SF Baykeeper, and his wife Kate Josephs host the \u201cOnce Upon A Bay\u201d podcast from aboard their boat in San Pablo Harbor as dog Holly keeps watch. Credit: Maurice Tierney for Richmondside<\/p>\n

For years, Baykeeper founder Mike Herz\u00a0patrolled the San Francisco Bay by boat, fighting to preserve it from pollution.<\/p>\n

Now, decades later, Herz and his wife, Kate Josephs, devote their days on their boat, The Office, to a different kind of preservation project: a podcast about the body of water he loves so much titled \u201cOnce Upon a Bay<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The almost 90-year-old Herz, who is originally from Minnesota, spent his childhood sailing inland freshwater lakes. He first set eyes on the Pacific and the San Francisco Bay as an 18-year-old sailor and said that moment changed his life forever. He was in love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been advocating for the bay for over 50 years. The bay is like one of my kids,\u201d Herz said on a recent calm day, sitting aboard the boat the couple call home part of the year. \u201cI have felt this is a magical place.\u201d<\/p>\n

As their vessel gently sways, the couple, married for about three decades, can\u2019t help but ping-pong potential podcast ideas back and forth with each other.<\/p>\n

\"OnceUponABay_071326_Mtierney10\"Mike Herz (left) and his wife Kate Josephs spend half of the year on a boat in San Pablo Harbor and the other half on the East Coast. Their podcast tells stories about San Francisco Bay. Credit: Maurice Tierney for Richmondside<\/p>\n

While discussing a recently reported small Chevron-related oil spill, Herz recalled when two Standard Oil tankers collided on a foggy day in 1971 near the Golden Gate Bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we need to do that story!\u201d Josephs replied with excitement.<\/p>\n

When Josephs poses a question, Herz responds, delving into tangents of characters and events from years past. She admitted assembling podcast episodes can be challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ramble a bit,\u201d Herz said, chuckling.<\/p>\n

Beneath the deck of their small boat-turned-home, Josephs, in her late-60s, edits recorded clips on her laptop, a quilt-like audio tapestry based on memories, stories and long-time relationships from Herz\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Josephs enjoys diving into the podcasting process while their boat dog, an American foxhound named Holly, sits within nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re living on a boat, you\u2019re never more than 10 to 15 feet apart,\u201d Herz said. \u201cIt\u2019s a perpetual interaction. You gotta love your partner. I think we work incredibly well together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OnceUponABay_071326_Mtierney4\"A podcast microphone sits on Kate Josephs\u2019 desk on their boat, \u201cThe Office.\u201d Credit: Maurice Tierney for Richmondside<\/p>\n

Josephs first records Herz telling a story. Then they interview people related to that topic. Finally she records Herz one last time and pieces it all together for the final product.<\/p>\n

So far they\u2019ve posted six episodes, and Josephs said they have a couple dozen more in production. They\u2019ve garnered about 1,400 downloads since it launched in February. Episodes have discussed the sunken boats at Yerba Buena Cove<\/a>, the history of Baykeeper<\/a> and, most recently, how San Pablo Harbor came to be<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The couple never thought that, at their age, podcasting would become their hobby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be the oldest podcasters,\u201d Josephs joked, adding that the extent of their marketing has been giving away\u00a0postcards at the nearby Sailing Goat restaurant.<\/p>\n

\"OnceUponABay_071326_Mtierney3\"Kate Josephs (right) helps her partner Mike Herz, founder of SF Baykeeper, onto their boat-turned-home. The couple started a podcast to tell the San Francisco Bay\u2019s unknown stories. Credit: Maurice Tierney for Richmondside<\/p>\n

The Baykeeper connection led to marriage<\/p>\n

Josephs, a lifelong New Englander, first learned about the man who would become her husband\u00a0while reading a New York Times article<\/a> on a coffee break at the World Trade Center in 1989. They had written about his founding of the first Baykeeper group in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeeper,\u201d in this sense, refers to a person who dedicates their time and their voice to a particular body of water. They patrol via boat to look out for\u00a0pollution and work to hold those responsible for it legally accountable. In one instance, Herz was part of a lawsuit against the U.S. Navy for some 363,000 violations of the Clean Water Act.<\/p>\n

Herz\u2019s work with San Francisco Baykeeper inspired more than 350 similar organizations nationwide, some of which he helped get started.<\/p>\n

Within a few years of reading that New York Times article, Herz and Josephs eventually both ended up in Maine.<\/p>\n

Herz had taken a leave of absence from the Baykeeper and moved east with his family while Josephs had quit her job to relocate there with her family around the same time.<\/p>\n

After a year of living in Maine, both Herz and Josephs, who ended up single, were introduced to each other by Herz\u2019s ex-wife, who encouraged them to date each other. The two have been together ever since.<\/p>\n

Herz, however, never stopped working or advocating for the preservation of the bay. He continued participating in Baykeeper\u2019s Science and Technical Advisory Board and the two annually visited the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

Josephs, a 15th-generation New Englander, admitted she didn\u2019t \u201cget it\u201d about Herz\u2019s love of San Francisco Bay. But it was through Herz\u2019s stories that she learned to love it in her own way.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2022, while drinking beer with legendary San Francisco documentary filmmaker Judy Irving in Maine, Herz said he dreamed of moving back to live on the bay and \u201ccollect stories.\u201d Irving challenged him to do it and the couple bought \u201cThe Office\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"OnceUponABay_071326_Mtierney8\"Kate Josephs (right) and her partner Mike Herz, who founded SF Baykeeper in the late-1980s, began pursuing podcasting in 2023 after a conversation with a longtime San Francisco documentary filmmaker. Credit: Maurice Tierney for Richmondside<\/p>\n

Herz and Joseph say that conversation with Irving, and a little openness prompted by a guided psychedelic mushroom session the day before, launched their journey to settle in San Pablo Harbor. They now spend half of the year in Maine and the rest of the year on their boat in the harbor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people don\u2019t move across the country and start a new venture at that age doing something that they don\u2019t know how to do when they start,\u201d Josephs said. \u201cBut Mike has these stories and he opens doors. I mean, when he calls up these people they\u2019re like, \u2018Mike Herz, how are you doing?\u2019 I just follow along with a microphone, record it and put it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

She admits that she doesn\u2019t know whether people will respond to the episodes but feels that the two, at this point in life, don\u2019t have time to waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a window of time that we have to do this,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s one disadvantage of (Herz) being 90 (years old).\u201d<\/p>\n

In some instances, they have discovered that Herz\u2019s past connections, who they\u2019ve reached out to for interviews, had either died or weren\u2019t healthy enough to be interviewed. Another person who they interviewed died shortly after they spoke.<\/p>\n

Herz hopes to record some of the movement to preserve the bay and its history for the next generation of advocates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this battle that I think has existed forever in the nonprofit world that you don\u2019t want to have the same people on the board of directors of a nonprofit organization forever. You want to bring in new blood,\u201d Herz said. \u201cBut you have to maintain at least one or two people who are the collective memory of the past of the organization. And sometimes, some of the people who are enthusiastic about having new blood throw out the old blood and they don\u2019t have the continuity to tell the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

In environmental circles, Herz said, the problem he has seen is a lack of leadership diversity in those spaces in the last 40 years.<\/p>\n

\"OnceUponABay_071326_Mtierney6\"Kate Josephs and Mike Herz\u2019s boat \u201cThe Office\u201d is where they create their \u201cOnce Upon A Bay\u201d podcast in San Pablo Harbor. The environmental podcast covers the history and present day nature of the bay. Credit: Maurice Tierney for Richmondside<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a combination of being white and old farts,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s changed a bit and I think we have a generation of young people who are much more involved than what they were 15, 20 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple are hoping to release a number of Richmond-related episodes featuring stories on a nearby decommissioned former CIA boat, the whaling industry\u2019s ties to San Pablo Bay and the history of ferries. They also said they are interested in following the development of Point Molate Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really interesting place to be concerned about nature,\u201d Herz said, pointing to Richmond\u2019s environmental struggles at the foot of the Chevron refinery.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of our stories are going to end up being around us because we\u2019re here now,\u201d Josephs said.<\/p>\n

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