SideBar: Optimism in Action podcast welcomes Bill Burke, founder of The Optimism Institute and host of Blue Sky podcast.
MONTEREY, CA, UNITED STATES, January 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — SideBar: Optimism in Action podcast, a collaboration of KAZU/NPR 90.3 and Monterey College of Law, welcomes Bill Burke, founder of The Optimism Institute and host of Blue Sky podcast. Burke transitioned to promoting optimism in 2022 after an extensive media and sports career as an executive, writer, and producer. Burke previously served as CEO of The Weather Channel Companies after several years at Time Warner/Turner Broadcasting System, where he was the founding general manager of Turner Classic Movies before going on to become president of TBS Superstation. Additionally, for fifteen years he was the co-owner and chairman of the Portland Sea Dogs, the double-A Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.
As a writer, Bill co-authored Ted Turner’s top-10 New York Times Best-Selling autobiography, Call Me Ted, and later co-wrote/produced/directed “Live Another Day,” an award-winning feature-length documentary on the bailout of the U.S. auto industry.
Bill is a lifelong optimist and launched The Optimism Institute with a mission to inspire people with an optimistic, hopeful vision of the world and its future. A former Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellow, Bill is a frequent speaker on leadership and the power of optimism to transform individuals, teams, and organizations. For more information on The Optimism Institute, go to https://www.theoptimisminstitute.com.
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KAZU 90.3 radio and SideBarMedia are excited to collaborate to add SideBar: Optimism in Action podcast to KAZU’s digital programming on the station’s website (www.kazu.org/sidebar). KAZU is the NPR affiliate station for Monterey, Salinas, and Santa Cruz. The SideBar: Optimism in Action podcast – sponsored by Monterey College of Law, a long-standing nonprofit sponsor of KAZU 90.3 radio – has become the first non-newscast, locally produced podcast featured on the KAZU website and mobile application.
SideBar: Optimism in Action is cohosted by former law deans Mitch Winick and Jackie Gardina, produced by David Eakin, a local theater composer, media consultant, and podcast producer, and promoted by Dena Dowsett, social media specialist. “The podcast features nonprofit leaders, advocates, and community members who represent extraordinary work that is improving the humanitarian, public policy, and charitable needs of our local, national, and global communities,” explained Winick. “Our focus this season is on the amazing individuals who are pursuing positive change during challenging times,” said Gardina.
New episodes of SideBar: Optimism in Action are published on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at www.kazu.org/sidebar. To learn more about law dean cohosts Jackie Gardina and Mitch Winick, read our blog, and to preview and listen to more than 70 previous episodes, go to SideBarMedia at www.sidebarmedia.org.
Mitchel Winick
SideBar Media
+1 831-241-8999
email us here
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