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.

Tucson, meet KP.

He's a DJ and producer, an Army veteran who came home from Afghanistan, and the engine behind Soon Spins — Tucson's own internet radio station. But this conversation is really about a feeling: that somewhere after 2020, our city stopped smiling. KP came here from South Dallas and felt the culture shock — a place where strangers scowl instead of smile — and he's spent ten years trying to figure out why, and what it would take to bring the joy back. We get into the dance culture we lost, the grief under the surface, the people who quietly built something real, and why he believes Tucson already has everything it needs. It's fiery, it's tender, and it's a love letter to a city still deciding what it wants to be.

If this resonates, the best thing you can do is watch, drop a comment about something specific he said, and share it with a Tucsonan who needs to hear it.

— Gregorio C., El Tucsonan

⏱ CHAPTERS
0:00 — "We lost it" (cold open)
2:02 — Who is KP: DJ, producer & Soon Spins
3:51 — "Here, people scowl instead of smile": Tucson's melancholy
5:35 — A city unsure what it wants to be (transplants & development)
9:09 — Mountains, not high-rises
11:56 — Earth Day for the Hood & the TCE cancer story
14:42 — The Army, Afghanistan & coming home
21:16 — Finding music: the saxophone
23:06 — Debbie, the Dunbar & "let me be your intern"
32:36 — South Dallas to North Dallas: two worlds
34:38 — "Tucson was popping… and we lost it"
36:08 — Losing Isaac & the night COVID hit
39:34 — Power, complacency & who's really in the room
41:59 — What "not complacent" actually looks like
47:16 — Soon Spins: the dream & the mission
51:48 — George Floyd, walking out & starting over
56:34 — Bringing the dance culture back (El Tambor)
1:01:01 — DJing in Europe, paying artists & the end of the "American dream"
1:06:40 — On rap, Texas roots & Kendrick
1:13:50 — Teaching kids: Soon Spins in the schools
1:18:47 — Reagan took the instruments out of schools
1:24:23 — "Life starts right now": KP the mentor
1:29:57 — Last words & shout-outs

🎵 MUSIC & RELEASES (KP)
• No Titles No Masters — KP's album
• KPMADMAN — the "melancholy town" release
• "The Devil Wears a Suit and a Tie" — single
• Collaborations with Q (1202 / THEM&i)
• Live mixes & sessions on Soon Spins
(All linked below.)

🔗 LINKS
Watch ad-free + full episodes / support the show → https://eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Sponsor an episode → https://eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor
KP → Instagram @kpmadman · https://kpmadman.bandcamp.com · https://soonspins.com
El Tucsonan → Instagram @eltucsonan · TikTok @el.tucsonan · Subscribe on YouTube ↑

📚 BOOKS, WRITERS & IDEAS REFERENCED
H. Rap Brown · The Last Poets · Patrice Lumumba · "critical regionalism" — the idea of making something rooted in where you actually are, instead of importing another city's identity.

🎬 NAMES & PLACES MENTIONED
In loving memory of Isaac — a cultural bearer in Tucson's scene.
People: Debbie (KP's OG at the Dunbar) · Q · Tim (built the Soon Spins site) · Ms. Sanders · Duke · the guest DJs who've spun on Soon Spins.
Places: Soon Spins · KXCI 91.3 · Dunbar Pavilion · Hotel Congress · El Tambor · the Sonoran Room · Utterback Middle School · Davis Elementary's mariachi program.

—
This episode is a production of Self Media Productions LLC. Views expressed are the guest's own. Where on-screen text references a public event, it cites published news reporting.
© 2026 Self Media Productions LLC. All rights reserved.

Welcome back to Episode 2. This is Part 2 — the back half of my conversation with Enrique "Q" Garcia Naranjo (DJ Q, poet, teacher, co-founder of 1202). If Part 1 was the history, this is the dissertation.

In this half: what a decade of teaching — from a ski-resort town in Colorado to a Tucson juvenile detention center — taught Q about play, failure, and how the safest place some kids have is a cell. Then we go deep into the book he's spent six years on, Que Viva La Raza, Que No: where the phrase "Viva la Raza" actually comes from, the complicated man who coined it, and why Q thinks our inherited ideas of identity are an antidote that was dosed wrong. We get into the Santa Cruz, the monuments Tucson keeps and the ones it takes down, and the line they want to live by: "a warrior in a garden, not a gardener at war."

Members can already watch the full uncut conversation (Parts 1 + 2) on the website.

— Gregorio C., El Tucsonan

🎵 MUSIC CUES
Music in this episode by Q.
"bruto" and "07 FAT"
Find more of Q's music at Barrio Sounds: barriosounds.bandcamp.com

🔗 LINKS
Q & 1202 — @themi7298 · twelvotwo.com · barriosounds.bandcamp.com
El Tucsonan — eltucsonan.com
Become a supporter (full uncut + early access): eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Sponsor the show: eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor
Episode 1 with Rey: https://youtu.be/D4L5OEVrY4M
Episode 2 with Q — Part 1: https://youtu.be/XZUkSfR43T0

📚 BOOKS & WRITERS REFERENCED
- La Raza Cósmica (1925) — José Vasconcelos
- Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza — Gloria Anzaldúa
- Octavia Butler (on knowing history to read the future)
- "Latinidad Is Anti-Black" — [confirm author; Q couldn't recall the last name on tape]
- Ariana Brown · Wendy Treviño (poets/sources for the Vasconcelos research)
- Q's own work: Turtle Boy Says (Ojala Zine Press) · Descend a Dissident · forthcoming Que Viva La Raza, Que No (via 1202 + Half Breed Press, Tijuana)

🎬 NAMES MENTIONED
Logan Phillips (Tucson Poet Laureate — opened the Colorado teaching door) · Eva Sierra (educator) · KP (live phone-in) · Gazal / DJ Zaytoon (Q's partner) · Rey (1202) · Diego & the writer homies · Mario & Maria Miranda (Half Breed Press, Tijuana) · Max Milkweed (Ojala Zine Press) · José Vasconcelos · Isaac — in memoriam. This conversation lives because he taught us how to have it.

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

Welcome to episode 2. This one's a long one — so long I had to break it in half. This is Part 1.

My guest is Enrique "Q" Garcia Naranjo — DJ Q, poet, teacher, and co-founder of the 1202 collective. Q has been doing culture work in Tucson for 15 years. In this half, we get into Q's poetry origins, the Sin Ti show that pulled me into the Tucson scene in 2016, his run as DJ Q at Club Congress and the cumbia/El Tambo era, why Tucson has always been a crossroads, what COVID broke and what it rebuilt in him, and the only game he's willing to play with anybody: the millennium.

Part 2 drops next. Members can already watch the full uncut version on the website.

— Gregorio C., 

El Tucsonan

— ⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 — Hook 
00:14 — Welcome & episode intro
01:38— Q introduces himself
03:11— Poetry as a pillar
05:33— How we met: Sin Ti, 2016
11:23— DJ Q at Club Congress
12:12— Cumbia across the borderlands
17:57— Tucson as a crossroads forever
20:34— SB 1070 & the shadow under the music
24:02— Sponsor: Nina Flores
27:27— Resurrecting the dance floor
34:04— Hoko Fest
39:51— How COVID hit
42:24— Losing Isaac
44:27— "King to a crumbling tower"
51:10— Being serious about play
56:09— Aimé Césaire & the millennium
1:11:17— Nature's healing
1:16:18— We're here now

—

🎵 MUSIC CUES Music in this episode by Q —

"07 FAT" "bruto"

Find more of Q's music at Barrio Sounds: 
barriosounds.bandcamp.com 

—

🔗 LINKS Q & 1202
twelvotwo.com 
barriosounds.bandcamp.com 

El Tucsonan eltucsonan.com
Become a supporter (full uncut episodes + early access): eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Sponsor the show: eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor

Sponsor of this episode: Nina Flores, REALTOR® ninafloresrealty.com/en/rent-trap

Episode 1 with Rey: https://youtu.be/D4L5OEVrY4M

—

📚 BOOKS & WRITERS REFERENCED IN PART 1

• Notebook of a Return to the Native Land — Aimé Césaire
• Parable of the Sower — Octavia Butler
  

—

🎬 NAMES MENTIONED

- Logan Phillips — Tucson Poet Laureate
- Anna Flores — who put us onto Césaire
- Gazal (DJ Zaytoon) — Q's partner
- REY — the other half of 1202
- Mike — first show with Q and REY
- Lando Chill — performed at the Sin Ti show
- Milkweed — Sin Ti cover artist, Ojala Zine Press
- KP — recurring presence
- Eva Sierra — collaborator and educator
- DJ Humble, Lioness, DJ Dirty Verbs — Sonidero Tambo crew
- Isaac — in memoriam.

This conversation lives because he taught us how to have it.

— El Tucsonan is a production of Self Media Productions LLC.

Tucson, Arizona. © 2026 Self Media Productions LLC. All rights reserved.