Trey Wilhite grew up in Tucson skating a six-foot half pipe his dad, an architect, built in the backyard. When the family pool leaked around 2008 and there was no money to fix it, they drained it, and the skaters came. The music, the fashion and the skating all showed up at once. Now he sells vintage as Attic Slug and is putting on SlugFest: one stage, 12 local bands, a skate park built mostly from repurposed material, vintage vendors and art installations. It started as his idea and grew into a team of about seven. We talk about the festival in northeast India that inspired it, the permits nobody warns you about, why he treats the budget as an investment, his grandma's cardboard guitar, and Slugman, who Trey has only read about online.

SLUGFEST 2026
Saturday, October 17, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Historic Fourth Avenue Coalition, 311 E 7th St, Tucson
Tickets: slugfestaz.com/tickets
$10 off with code GRIND
Ages 14 and up. 14 to 16 with a parent or guardian.

Members watch it without the ads: eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Introducing Tucson to itself.
Gregorio C., El Tucsonan

CHAPTERS
0:00 Slugman shows up
1:45 Where SlugFest came from
4:47 Skating, music and a drained pool
6:47 Attic Slug, and what SLUG stands for
8:17 The festival in India that inspired it
10:49 Booking 12 bands for one stage
14:02 Building the team
18:21 The hardest part: permits and porta potties
22:53 What the day looks like
24:44 "Some guy called Slugman"
27:23 Why vintage
29:36 Ten genres, one stage
31:35 First music memories
33:05 Grandma's cardboard guitar
36:28 How skating came into his life
38:10 SlugFest in five years
42:21 Seeing trash as art
44:27 Solarpunk
47:13 Building the skate park
48:01 Vendors, food trucks and who can come
51:22 The budget, and why it's an investment
55:40 Start small, think big
56:28 A skate team and a record label
1:01:25 Does our logo look like the Hatchet Man?
1:02:26 Producer Questions
1:06:54 India, and music that makes you laugh
1:11:08 The Slugman round
1:12:55 Slugman's message for humanity
1:16:16 Three people to interview next

LINKS
Become a supporter: eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Sponsor the show: eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor
Instagram: @eltucsonan
TikTok: @el.tucsonan
YouTube: @Eltucsonan

SLUGFEST
slugfestaz.com
Instagram: @slugfestaz

LAST EPISODE
Tito Romero: https://youtu.be/hgKEJ0v4E4g

BOOKS & WRITERS
None this episode.

NAMES MENTIONED
Rachel, Andre, Carrie Ann and Alexis, the SlugFest team: creative direction, video, press and more.
Vijayanti Pappu, the South Indian Carnatic musician Trey is most excited to see.
Crooked Tooth, handling the bar at SlugFest.
KFMA Day and Fall Ball, the Tucson festivals Trey grew up going to.

El Tucsonan is produced by Self Media Productions LLC, Tucson, Arizona.

Tito Romero grew up in Barrio Centro and went to Julia Keen Elementary. The school closed in 2004 and sat empty for twelve years. When a trucking company came for the property, he and the Flowers & Bullets collective showed up to the town hall with more than 300 people. Today that school is the Midtown Farm: goats, compost, seed saving, a tiendita, and a whole neighborhood of people who made it happen. We talk about Mexican American Studies, where the name Flowers & Bullets came from, why his neighborhood never saw the rainwater rebate, and how all the circles come together.

Members get the full uncut episode, including the conversation that kept going after the questions ended: eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Introducing Tucson to itself.
Gregorio C., El Tucsonan

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:50 Tito and Flowers & Bullets
3:50 Mexican American Studies
6:35 T-shirts and a backyard garden
9:02 Corn, squash and beans
10:52 Where the name came from
12:59 From t-shirts to food and identity
19:37 Pick your anchor
21:44 Potlucks, gardens and rain tanks
25:36 300 people vs. a truck yard
27:05 Is harvesting rainwater illegal?
30:55 The green movement left us behind
32:45 Selling people on a backyard garden
36:57 What kept them going
39:03 No executive director
44:30 Their elementary school
49:50 Renting two acres at a time
52:25 Building on rented ground
56:01 COVID and a refuge
59:06 You're not growing plants, you're growing soil
1:01:16 Seed saving
1:02:25 Lessons from Oaxaca, and the goats
1:07:37 How the circles come together
1:11:03 A tiendita, a kitchen and an LLC
1:13:18 What excites him, and what's hard
1:18:05 Producer Questions
1:21:41 How to get involved
1:23:36 Three people to interview next

LINKS
Become a supporter: eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Sponsor the show: eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor
Instagram: @eltucsonan
TikTok: @el.tucsonan
YouTube: @Eltucsonan

TITO
Instagram: @tucsontito
TikTok: @tucsontito

FLOWERS & BULLETS
flowersandbullets.com
Get involved: flowersandbullets.com/get-involved
Instagram: @flowers_and_bullets
YouTube: @flowersbullets4607
Facebook: FlowersBullets

LAST EPISODE
Zuleyma: https://youtu.be/10Wwp33QTKg

BOOKS & WRITERS
None this episode.

NAMES MENTIONED
Dora and Jacob, who started Flowers & Bullets with Tito.
Tom Horne and Jan Brewer, the Arizona officials behind HB 2281, the law that ended Tucson's Mexican American Studies program.
Corky Poster, the architect who backed their proposal for the school and now sits on their board.
The Agnese Nelms Haury Program at the University of Arizona, which supported both the lease and the purchase of the property.

El Tucsonan is produced by Self Media Productions LLC, Tucson, Arizona.

Zuleyma came to Tucson from Nogales with two kids and no plan except fashion. She worked five years for free at Border Fashion Week, started the Capricorn Market so other small businesses had a table, and says the quiet part out loud: fashion is a rich people's sport, and she is building anyway. In this one she announces the Tucson Project House, a hub for every creative in this city, for the first time anywhere.
Introducing Tucson to itself.
Gregorio C., El Tucsonan

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
2:24 Spanglish, and a six-week business class
6:00 Two things: fashion and the Capricorn Market
7:19 Nogales, a border town
9:32 Border Fashion Week and Domingo Toledo
10:46 Five years unpaid, paid in knowledge
12:50 Eddie Corps and learning to sew
17:18 Her second show, at the U of A
18:42 Starting the Capricorn Market
27:24 Sky Bar, Screw Bean and Brooklyn Pizza
29:13 Why it is called Capricorn
35:14 New York, Beyond Walls and cactus leather
39:42 Border Fashion Week, Oct 1 to 3, Juan Gabriel
43:09 Tucson Fashion Week is gone
44:27 Fashion is a rich people's sport
48:46 Shein, quality and the $10 find
57:53 The job she turned down
1:01:51 I didn't do anything in my 20s
1:03:42 The paper form on a first date
1:11:17 Relationships, money and starting over
1:29:27 The mom tribe is a lie
1:34:17 A mind that will not slow down
1:41:05 Producer Questions
1:53:58 The Tucson Project House
1:59:40 Favorite brands, and Law Roach

LINKS
Become a supporter: eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Sponsor the show: eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor
Instagram: @eltucsonan
TikTok: @el.tucsonan
YouTube: @Eltucsonan

ZULEE
Instagram: @zuledelrey
TikTok: @zuledelray
The Capricorn Market: @thecapricornmarket
Border Fashion Week: @borderfashionweek | borderfashionweek.com
Everything else: linktr.ee/zuleymazepeda

TUCSON PROJECT HOUSE
@tucsonprojecthouse
Zule's Enterprise presents Tucson Project House: Music, Fashion, Film.
Market and launch party, Saturday September 19, 5PM to 9PM.
Café Passé, 415 N 4th Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.
Free and family friendly. RSVP required, guest list only: forms.gle/Cs47ZqtmUkdjM24e8

BORDER FASHION WEEK
October 1 to 3, 2026, Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona. Tickets are on sale now.

LAST EPISODE
Steven Cota-Robles: https://youtu.be/jP-4YpiS5gg

BOOKS & WRITERS
None this episode.

NAMES MENTIONED
Domingo Toledo, founder of Border Fashion Week in Nogales, Arizona, and the friend and first boss Zuli assisted starting in 2017.
Eddie Corps (Eduardo Corpus), Tijuana-born designer whose 2023 Border Fashion Week collection she calls one of her favorites.
Raquelle Pedraza, New York couture designer and celebrity tailor whose credits include Salma Hayek and Shakira. The job Zuli was offered and turned down.
Juan Gabriel, the theme of this year's Border Fashion Week gallery and collective.
Law Roach, celebrity stylist and Project Runway judge, the "Cinderella dress" she describes.
Aldo Rendón, Mexican stylist she recommends for brand suggestions.
SKIMS and Shein, discussed in the conversation about material and quality.
Versace, and Gianni Versace, her favorite house and the Medusa story behind it.

El Tucsonan is produced by Self Media Productions LLC, Tucson, Arizona.

Steven Cota-Robles was working a grocery job during the pandemic when he realized he wanted to spend his skills on Tucson instead. So he sold his house, quit, and started teaching kids how to cook. Today the Tucson Family Food Project sends 260 meal kits a week to middle-schoolers across five Tucson schools — real whole-food recipes, built to be made by a kid, at home, with what they've got. We talk about the teacher who told him not to just hand out food, the wife who upgraded the whole mission, regenerative farms on closed school campuses, and why he aims at the base of the flames.
— Gregorio C., El Tucsonan

CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open
3:09 "You teach kids how to cook"
3:35 The COVID grocery-job epiphany + a note from 2019
5:26 The teachers' rule: you can't just hand out food
8:41 Selling the house — and meeting his wife on Bumble
11:49 Getting into the first school (just ask)
13:02 20 kids, one kitchen: the proof of concept
18:30 Brownies, salad & minimum-equipment recipes
26:06 From 20 to 100: the church kitchen
33:46 "That's not a bag of food. That's a bag of love."
37:07 What surprised him: kids finding their voice
41:39 The new kitchen, 1,000/week, and 17,000 someday
43:57 Regenerative farms on closed schools
57:50 Why Tucson is the hardest — and the perfect — place
63:55 The poverty and food-insecurity cycle
67:11 Aim at the base of the flames
76:33 Producer questions: pushback, morale, advice
83:29 Financial transparency & the first 990
85:35 The student who changed everything
90:38 Guest recommendations & where to find TFFP

LINKS
• Support El Tucsonan (membership): https://eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
• Sponsor El Tucsonan: https://eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor
• Tucson Family Food Project: https://www.thetucsonfamilyfoodproject.org
• TFFP on YouTube — @thetucsonfamilyfoodproject3055
• TFFP on Instagram — @thetucsonfamilyfoodproject
• El Tucsonan — IG @eltucsonan · TikTok @el.tucsonan

NAMES & PLACES MENTIONED
• Catalina United Methodist Church (Speedway) — donated kitchen space
• Oatman Farms (Gila Bend) — first certified regenerative organic farm on the West Coast
• Flowers & Bullets · Tucson Village Farm · Market on the Move — Tucson food/farm orgs
• Heifer USA (Arkansas) — holistic land-management course
• Marley Foundation (Phoenix) — $125K kitchen-equipment grant
• Ardmore Institute of Health — $125K grant; "full plate living" 12-week pilot
• Zuckerman College of Public Health & Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine (U of A)
• "That Was Epic" (Juan, Phoenix) — positivity YouTuber referenced
• Guest recs: Chef Pablo Valencia (Gastronomic Union of Tucson) · Jennifer Ekstrom (TUSD School Board) · Dr. David Garcia (U of A / Andrew Weil Center)

Financial transparency: TFFP's Form 990 & IRS determination letter are public — look them up by name or EIN on the IRS site.

The Tucson Family Food Project is a registered nonprofit. This episode is a production of Self Media Productions LLC.

This week I sat down with Mike Curry — a Tucson native who spent years lost to addiction, prison, and three years homeless on these streets, and who now works one-on-one as a sobriety and mindset coach for entrepreneurs and high-level executives. We talk about the moment everything turned — a walk away from a robbery, a $8 yard job, a sandwich from Safeway — and how he built a life and a business on the other side of it: engaged, reconciled with his daughter, and coaching founders through the belief that 90% of business is mindset, and that the business owner is usually the bottleneck.

We get into his own influences (David Bayer, Zig Ziglar, Earl Nightingale), why he coaches from lived experience instead of theory, "hangxiety," and what it actually means to surrender. And we talk about Mount Lemmon, where his mom's ashes are, and Tucson — the city he loves enough to wish it grew more of its own businesses.

Watch the full conversation now. — Gregorio C., El Tucsonan

🔔 New episodes every Tuesday — subscribe on YouTube.
This episode includes sponsor/ad messages; timestamps above.

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open
1:59 Coaching men on sobriety & business
5:21 From car salesman to coach
8:44 Prison, pharmacies & the descent
10:19 Rock bottom: homeless on these streets
13:45 The day it turned: a yard, a sandwich
15:18 Who addiction really comes for
17:39 His brother, and "hangxiety"
25:15 Identity, your circle & resiliency
32:49 His mentors: Bayer, Ziglar & Nightingale
37:03 Faith & a spiritual awakening
49:38 Love, letting go & how she showed up
55:14 Becoming a coach & speaker
58:36 Why coaches need coaches too
64:25 Better humans, not just better businesses
71:04 Freedom, Mount Lemmon & loving Tucson
75:14 Tools to beat addiction (producer Qs)
79:30 The root of addiction: trauma & soul contracts
84:26 Guest picks & goodbye

🔗 LINKS
El Tucsonan — eltucsonan.com
Become a supporter (full uncut + early access): eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Sponsor the show: eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor
Instagram: @eltucsonan · TikTok: @el.tucsonan

Mike Curry — coaching: mikecurrycoaching.com · Instagram: @mikecurryofficial • https://www.youtube.com/@SobrietySpiritualityandSales

Episode 1 with Rey: https://youtu.be/D4L5OEVrY4M
Episode 2 with Q — Part 1: https://youtu.be/XZUkSfR43T0
Episode 2 with Q — Part 2: https://youtu.be/Hx3Xx68CQ9E
Episode 3 with KP: https://youtu.be/PHa9r1Uorj8
Episode 4 with Eva: https://youtu.be/IoTjFBDN8sI

📚 REFERENCED
- Mind Hack — David Bayer
- See You at the Top — Zig Ziglar
- The Strangest Secret — Earl Nightingale

🎬 NAMES MENTIONED
David Bayer — mindset coach, led the year-long program Mike went through
Zig Ziglar — motivational author (See You at the Top)
Earl Nightingale — "The Strangest Secret"
Bob Marley — "Redemption Song," which Mike calls the ultimate redemption music

El Tucsonan is a production of Self Media Productions LLC. Tucson, Arizona.
© 2026 Self Media Productions LLC. All rights reserved.

This week I sat down with Eva Sierra — poet, educator, and the person who's quietly kept a Tucson reading series alive for seven years, moving it from barrio courtyards to the south side to a house to Zoom and back. We go all the way back to a Douglas sophomore riding up to the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam once a month, and forward to the U of A Poetry Center, where she runs programs and teaches — without ever finishing the degree everyone around her has.

We talk about how you actually teach poetry (good artists borrow, great artists steal), the kid in juvie who wouldn't hold a pencil until, one day, he wrote a whole poem. We get into her belief that poetry belongs to everyone — "it's just language," it's been called "flower and song," it can even live in a TikTok — and her push to break down the wall between academic and street writing: "it's ours, it's public, let us have this." And we talk about Douglas and the border, the novel she's writing about it, and a childhood spent talking to the ants in the backyard because she was already a poet and didn't know it.

Underneath it is Isaac — the friend who told her "I'm not the one to do this, but I think you are," and helped plant the seeds of the reading series in his last months.

Members have the full uncut conversation. — Gregorio C., El Tucsonan

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
1:41 From Douglas to the Youth Poetry Slam (2013)
3:11 What a slam actually is
6:22 From participant to organizer
8:26 Starting the reading series (Virgo season 2019)
10:22 Isaac: "I think you're the one to do this"
12:52 Why "nomadic" keeps it alive
16:24 Twelve locations (and 42 on Zoom)
19:26 Making every flyer herself
21:14 Still writing: the novel
24:28 The U of A Poetry Center — and no degree
28:04 Poetry, libraries & community ("a dragon school")
32:37 How do you actually teach poetry?
34:19 Teaching poetry in juvie
36:48 The student who wouldn't hold a pencil
39:29 Meeting Ada Limón & Tracy K. Smith
45:06 Why writing still doesn't come easy (The War of Art)
48:09 A quick word from the show
50:11 Should the reading series come to the university?
51:01 Academic vs. street poetry: "It's ours"
54:01 Poetry is just language ("flower and song," even TikTok)
57:17 Always a poet: the trees, the ants, the backyard
58:39 Her mom, Spanish literature & bedtime books
59:28 The novel: Douglas, the border & the space between
67:09 Douglas → Tucson: craving the big city
69:39 The delight of the Cochise County Fair
72:09 Why Tucson is home now
73:10 Redefining success: "I am an educator"
73:31 Three Tucsonans you should meet
76:23 Where to find the reading series
77:49 Outro

🎵 MUSIC
'minhas perras" - DJQ
https://barriosounds.bandcamp.com/

🔗 LINKS
El Tucsonan — eltucsonan.com
Become a supporter (full uncut + early access): eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Sponsor the show: eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor
Instagram: @eltucsonan · TikTok: @el.tucsonan
Eva — the reading series on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereadingseries?igsh=Yzk0ZDRmNDRqZTI5
U of A Poetry Center: poetry.arizona.edu
Episode 1 with Rey: https://youtu.be/D4L5OEVrY4M
Episode 2 with Q — Part 1: https://youtu.be/XZUkSfR43T0
Episode 2 with Q — Part 2: https://youtu.be/Hx3Xx68CQ9E
Episode 3 with KP: https://youtu.be/PHa9r1Uorj8

📚 REFERENCED
- The War of Art — Steven Pressfield
- Ada Limón — U.S. Poet Laureate ("You Are Here"), the Saguaro NP bench
- Ofelia Zepeda — Tohono O'odham poet, the bench poem
- Tracy K. Smith — former U.S. Poet Laureate
- Ana Castillo — border / Mexican-American writing
- Octavio Paz — "poetry in any medium"
- "Flower and song" / in xochitl in cuicatl — the Nahuatl idea of poetry
- Spoken Futures / Tucson Youth Poetry Slam

🎬 NAMES MENTIONED
Isaac — in memoriam. · Mariana Rivera ("Mari") · Paola Valenzuela · Tyler (digital media) · Mark (Borderlands) · Monique (Casa Clyde) · Herman (photographer, Douglas) · Tanya & Jen · Eli & Joe (JoJo's) · Paula & Fatima (Douglas reading).

El Tucsonan is a production of Self Media Productions LLC. Tucson, Arizona.
© 2026 Self Media Productions LLC. All rights reserved.