The Brief

Over 50 community college students in California currently serve as resource guides for peers in need of stable housing, food access and other basic needs.

The students are part of the California Community Colleges’ Student Ambassador Program, which trains students to share information on available resources, including CalFresh and housing stipends with their fellow students. The program uses peers to share such resources in an effort to reduce the stigma around accessing basic needs services.

“They’re students on the campus, on the ground floor, knowing what students need, knowing how their campus operates, what works, what doesn’t,” said Yuriko Curiel, an ambassador program specialist.

The need is acute. According to a recent report by The Community College League of California and the RP Group, only 32% of the 66,741 students who responded to their survey felt secure in meeting all their basic needs. Over half of respondents were concerned about running out of food; 3 out of 5 students experienced housing insecurity, and 1 in 4 reported experiencing homelessness.

Anecdotes from two recent student ambassadors, Adela Gonzales and Xavier Navarro, highlighted the program’s impact.

Gonzales said in a recent interview that she spoke with a student who was on his way to a Riverside City College parking structure where other students had died by suicide . The student told her that he was heading there because he was contemplating doing the same. But on that day, he came across Gonzales, who was handing out pamphlets regarding various student services, including mental health support.

“I was able to talk with him … give him a little bit of validation, and then walk him to the Student Health and Psychological Center,” said Gonzales, who is studying biochemistry and sociology. “I still message him here and there to see how he’s doing.”

She said what most stood out in her work as an ambassador was how only a few students were aware of the campus’ psychology center or their crisis text hotline. Her interest in supporting other students prompted her to join the program two school years in a row.

Adela Gonzales was a student ambassador for two years at Riverside City College.

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At Santa Ana College, Navarro was working at the campus food pantry when he met a fellow student veteran, named Louie, who didn’t have a home.

Meeting Navarro, who was a student ambassador at the time, led to Louie being quickly connected to resources, including a housing voucher to book a hotel room for about a month, food assistance via CalFresh, a free bus pass, and a job at the same food pantry where he met Navarro.

“He was hurting, and it hurts you as a person because you want to help … and now that you have the tools, why not?” said Navarro, who is now an accounting student at Cal Poly Pomona University in Southern California.

It was Navarro’s own experience as a veteran that helped facilitate the initial conversation with Louie.

“We care about the students, we want the students to succeed,” Navarro said. “Because college is hard, it’s expensive, and it can be challenging. Not having a home, not having food. … Caring goes a long way, especially for a college student.”

Students’ identities are crucial in connecting with their peers, said Curiel, the program specialist who was an ambassador before she graduated from San Bernardino Valley College.

Yuriko Curiel was a student ambassador and now works as a specialist for the program.

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“Not only are they connecting with peers, they’re connecting with people who reflect their own community,” she said, noting that Navarro is a veteran; Gonzales, a former foster youth; Curiel was balancing work and school as a single mom during her time as an ambassador.

Ambassadors also often understand being food or housing insecure. Gonzales and Navarro, for example, both relied on CalFresh in the past. Gonzales also received a housing grant while enrolled in college because she couldn’t afford her rent after a roommate moved out of their shared apartment.

Gonzales and Navarro said that a common response they got from students was disbelief that they might qualify for CalFresh, the state’s food assistance program. Complex eligibility rules for students is a known barrier to the program.

“Not everybody on campus knows what’s available to them and how they can access, and even when they access that, there are still questions,” Gonzales said. “Being able to point them in the right direction and get the right information for them is very important.”

The ambassador program was launched in 2016. Students who join are expected to put in at least six to eight hours each month, for which they receive a stipend of $1,500 after completing the program.

The first cohort in 2016 included 20 students, while the current group includes 53 students. Previous groups have included over 100 ambassadors, according to Sarah London, external and executive communications director with the Foundation for California Community Colleges, which operates the program.

“The fluctuation in numbers is solely based on available funding,” said London. “Ideally, we’d have hundreds of ambassadors every year, so we strive to bring on more philanthropic funders to support and help us grow these efforts in the future.”

While student support services vary at the state’s 116 community colleges, some examples include CalFresh application assistance, low-cost auto insurance, a mental health crisis text hotline, and emergency financial aid grants, among others .

Students interested in joining the program must apply for a position and meet eligibility requirements, which include being at least 18 years old, enrolled in at least one unit for the fall and spring semesters during the school year in which they’re applying, and availability to attend a Zoom training.

Gonzales, Navarro and Curiel were all encouraged to apply for the program by staff members managing student organizations they had joined.

For example, Gonzales was part of Guardian Scholars, a chapter-based organization on college campuses that helps support former foster and homeless youth, before learning about the ambassadors program. A staff member with the group noticed that Gonzales often took the initiative by sharing basic needs information with her peers and suggested she apply to be an ambassador.

“I’ve always enjoyed providing resources for all my foster sisters,” she said, adding that joining the ambassador program felt like an extension of what she was already inclined to do in her personal life.

Student ambassadors use a variety of strategies to reach their peers, such as tabling during campus events, creating social media posts, sending out mass emails about available resources, and presenting to their classmates during class breaks.

“This is really investing in our next generation of leaders,” Curiel said. “I see our dean of student services coming out of this, our basic needs coordinators, or people doing public policy; I think that’s just the power of the program.”

According to the American Christmas Tree Association , 83% of households who plan on displaying a Christmas tree in 2025 will choose an artificial one. But this year, not even holiday cheer is safe from economic tensions, as tariffs and supply chain pressures are pushing prices up.

Mac Harman, founder and CEO of Balsam Hill, an artificial Christmas tree company, explains the increase will be noticeable. "Whatever price point you might have been looking at last year, expect that to be about 10% to 15% more this year," he says.

Nearly all artificial Christmas trees are imported from China. While Harman says that manufacturing costs remain steady, the price vendors pay to U.S. customs has increased, as a result of President Trump's ongoing tariffs on China.

Trump often says his tariffs are intended to incentivize manufacturing on American soil. However, manufacturing domestically wouldn't be a simple switch for Harman and his team. "The interesting thing about pre-lit artificial Christmas trees is they've never been made in the U.S.," Harman explains.

Harman says it's a tedious process to attach the lights by hand like his company does – involving zip ties and painstaking attention to detail to ensure each bulb is perfectly placed – a task American workers rejected 30 years ago when prelit trees first hit the market. "It's very unlikely that something almost like basket weaving is a trade that's going to move from a lower wage, lower cost of living country to the United States for the first time," Harman says.

In this photo, Balsam Brands founder and CEO Mac Harman poses with artificial Christmas trees at the Balsam Hill Outlet store in Burlingame, Calif.

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Other companies in the Christmas industry are facing the effects of tariffs too. Harman says many of his company's U.S. based suppliers, who purchase their component parts overseas, are also seeing higher costs too. "The prices have gone up no matter if we make something here or if we make it in other places," he says.

Harman has tried multiple strategies to keep Balsam Hill's prices competitive. Internally, he's made reductions to his workforce, paused hiring, and frozen raises. He's also diversified his supply chain, manufacturing trees in Mexico, Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia.

Last year, when President Trump won the election, Harman pre-ordered his supply for Christmas 2025, almost a year in advance. "We shipped as many products as we could between November and January 20th, Inauguration Day, because there was a lot of discussion that there was going to be a day one tariff," Harman says. Each time the administration lowered tariff rates this year, Harman restocked his supply – an option he fears may not be available to him next holiday season.

For shoppers, his advice is simple: don't procrastinate. Because of the price increases, some retailers ordered less stock, raising the risk of mid-December shortages. "Look for a tree that you love, and if it's on some kind of sale, buy it," Harman says.

In past festive seasons, shoppers might have delayed in the hope of getting a bargain, but that might not be such a good idea this time around. "Seeing if you might get 10% off if you wait two weeks, I don't think that's going to work as well this year as it might in a normal year," Harman says.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Last week, people from around the world descended on Belém, Brazil, a gateway to the Amazon rainforest. They're there through this week for the United Nations ’ annual climate summit, called COP30, so-named for the 30 years the meeting has been in existence.

But missing among them will be delegates from the federal government of the U.S., including President Donald Trump, who has denied the existence of climate change. The lack of federal officials does not mean the country won’t be represented, however. Filling the void are leaders from states and cities alike. And California is leading the pack .

“California is a stable and reliable partner in low-carbon green growth,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said while attending the gathering along with several of his top climate leaders. “I’m here because I don’t want the United States of America to be a footnote at this conference.”

“It’s embarrassing that the federal government is missing in action on this global crisis,” said Wade Crowfoot, California’s Natural Resources Secretary, who’s in Brazil alongside Newsom this week and spoke with KQED.

While the formal part of the conference involves delegates hammering out goals around reducing emissions and more, California has been working through other channels, from both informal meetings to signing memorandums of understanding with other countries, states, and cities.

“The fact is that states and cities, led by California, are working to fill the void,” Crowfoot said.

The backstory

California has long punched above its weight in shaping U.S. environmental rules. In the late 1950s , the state established clean air standards before the federal Clean Air Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1970 .

Over time, the state has partnered with other countries like China and Australia on goals like improving air quality. Crowfoot said these agreements are both symbolic and substantive.

“In each instance, the policy and program staff of the different jurisdictions spends months, sometimes a couple of years, really identifying capacities or technologies or expertise that that one government has that the other government might be interested in,” Crowfoot said.

California partnered with Brazil in September to help it set up a carbon market. Another recent deal will bring Danish flood management expertise to California’s delta region .

What other states are doing

Experts said agreements like these aren’t new, but they are more visible given the vacuum of federal climate leadership.

Newsom is not the only U.S. governor attending the conference or meetings happening around the formal event. Governors Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and Tony Evers of Wisconsin also traveled to the climate event.

“The impact of governors and mayors traveling to Brazil is to make sure that the rest of the global community recognizes how much progress the United States is still making in spite of the headwinds,” said Casey Katims, executive director of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of American governors committed to keeping emissions low.

Chris Field, director of Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, said the federal government is forfeiting leadership and future economic opportunities by not attending or taking action on climate. But, he said, non-nation actors do matter.

“There are critically important roles for states and companies and communities and even individuals. The whole thing is going to be successful only if we can figure out a way to get everybody moving in the same direction,” he said.

California’s consistency, despite which political party has held the governor’s office, has been very important in moving the climate needle, Field said.

Where things stand

Gov. Newsom has already signed even more agreements while in Brazil. One is with Colombia, to address, among other things, the potent greenhouse gas methane. And another is with Nigeria, to help increase the adoption of electric vehicles.

The state’s representation at COP comes as President Trump has rolled back national climate policies. And, for the second time, the U.S. began the process of removing itself from the Paris agreement, which aims to limit global warming.

The weather's turning cooler, back-to-school shopping's all done and, sure, you could rake the leaves, but wouldn't it be more fun to escape to your local cinema?

We've got you covered. Everything from rom-coms to heist flicks, a sports/horror mashup, a pair of Broadway musicals, a biopic of The Boss, festival award winners, and lots of showbiz sagas — all curated by NPR critics.

We'll see you at the movies.

Twinless, Sept. 5 (out now)
The second film from writer/director James Sweeney vindicates my admiration for his first film, Straight Up, which was funny, smart and sweet — but not too sweet. In Twinless, two young men (Sweeney and Dylan O'Brien) meet in a support group for people who have lost a twin. There's more to the story, of course, and Sweeney handles the various revelations adroitly, but he knows that stories like this live or die not by their twists alone, but in what happens after the truth comes out. — Glen Weldon

Riefenstahl, in limited theaters across the country this fall
Arguably the most controversial director in film history, Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl always denied having known about the Holocaust. She repeated those denials to producer Sandra Maischberger in a 2002 interview. When she died at 101 in 2003, Riefenstahl left 700 boxes of letters, film excerpts and other material to a foundation, and Maischberger offered to organize and catalog them if she could use them in a documentary . This more complete portrait also serves as a commentary on current events. — Bob Mondello

The History of Sound, Sept. 12
Music conservatory students Lionel (Paul Mescal) and David (Josh O'Connor) meet in 1917, bond over folk songs, and fall into a passionate, life-altering affair in Oliver Hermanus' elegiac period romance. Based on a short story by Ben Shattuck, the film shares narrative DNA with Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain," but sings an altogether different tune, as the music-besotted pair traipse through ravishingly-shot hill country to capture folk songs before they disappear using wax cylinders. — Bob Mondello

The Long Walk, Sept. 12
One of Stephen King's bleakest stories is this 1979 tale (published under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman) of a competition in which a group of young men starts out walking, each having only one goal: walk longer than everybody else, because when you slow down, fall down, or misbehave, you'll be executed. An impressive cast including Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson and Mark Hamill seems promising, even though the story itself could not be more hopeless. Even for Stephen King, this one is dark. — Linda Holmes

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Sept. 12
The bustling saga that seemed destined to go on forever is apparently coming to an end, which is not to say the Crawleys will go out with a whimper. Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is handed the reins of the household, but is also involved in a public scandal; there's bad news from the American side of the family, and to add a bit of spectacle, the whole crowd heads for the races at Ascot. — Bob Mondello

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Sept. 19
Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie play strangers who connect and take a road trip, only to stumble upon a door in the middle of the woods. That door, and others, lead them to revisit their respective memories and, presumably, confront some heavy emotional baggage. If anyone can make this work, it's director Kogonada, whose previous films Columbus and After Yang proved him adept at finding moments of poignancy and resonance. — Aisha Harris

Him, Sept. 19
Selling point 1: Exec-producer Jordan Peele who, based on promos, is not just slapping his name on here for visibility — he seems genuinely excited about it. Selling point 2: Marlon Wayans as a football legend who's now, apparently, the mentor from hell. He runs a training camp that looks grueling and creepy, and like the kind of place you might not make it out of alive. Is this Suspiria for football? The protagonist, a rising quarterback (Tyriq Withers), is about to find out.. — Aisha Harris

One Battle After Another, Sept. 26
Paul Thomas Anderson loosely adapts another Thomas Pynchon novel; this time it's Vineland. The movie's official logline reads: "When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunites to rescue one of their own's daughter." It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, and Benicio del Toro. I don't need any more convincing. Do you? — Aisha Harris

Plainclothes, Sept. 19
Plainclothes, the debut feature from writer/director Carmen Emmi, features Tom Blyth as a closeted undercover cop in '90s New York City who's part of a sting operation that entraps and arrests gay men cruising for sex. He finds himself drawn to one of his potential targets, played by Russell Tovey. Critics out of Sundance were split on the film — some found Emmi's stylistic flourishes distracting — but Tovey and Blyth reportedly keep things grounded, emotional ... and sexy. That, too. — Glen Weldon

All of You, Sept. 26
It seems like the perfect moment for a Brett Goldstein rom-com, given his strong and funny showings in Ted Lasso and Shrinking. Here, Goldstein and Imogen Poots play best friends who think they might just want to be more, but a futuristic test that can identify soul mates tells them no — they are not meant to be. For years, they wonder whether to take the machine's word for it. With more and more people turning decisions over to robots, expect more and more stories like this. — Linda Holmes

The Smashing Machine, Oct. 3
Dwayne Johnson stars as the champion MMA fighter Mark Kerr, whose professional moniker gives the film its title. But the name that sets this biopic apart is that of Benny Safdie, the occasional actor and (with his brother Josh) director of the Adam Sandler stunner Uncut Gems. This solo directing effort is, if reviews from the Venice Film Festival are to be believed, more nuanced and intriguing than a conventional biopic. — Bob Mondello

Kiss of the Spider Woman, Oct. 10
This is the second film to adapt Manuel Puig's 1976 novel — although this latest version is technically an adaptation of the Tony-winning musical with a book by Terrence McNally, and music and lyrics by writing team Kander and Ebb. Two political prisoners in Argentina (Diego Luna and Tonatiuh) bond amid fantasies of a silver screen diva (Jennifer Lopez)(!). I'm hopeful, but keep in mind that writer/director Bill Condon wrote Chicago (great) and directed the live-action Beauty and the Beast (inert) — so this could go either way. — Glen Weldon

The Woman in Cabin 10, Oct. 10
Keira Knightley stars in the Netflix adaptation of Ruth Ware's thriller about a travel writer who finds herself trapped on a fancy yacht where something is very wrong. Specifically, she is certain a passenger was thrown overboard in the middle of the night, but no one seems to be missing. Ware just published a sequel called The Woman in Suite 11 (and both books are a lot of fun), so if this goes over well, expect to see Knightley back in this role before long. — Linda Holmes

Roofman, Oct. 10
Whenever Channing Tatum's wielding power tools, I'm interested — so count me in for this dramedy where he plays a real-life man who robbed dozens of restaurants by drilling holes in their roofs. By most accounts he was an amiable thief and no one was physically hurt, and the film's tone appears to be on the lighter side. Throw in a stacked supporting cast — Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage, Uzo Aduba — and the chances of an entertaining time at the movies are through the (ahem) roof. — Aisha Harris

After the Hunt, in limited theaters Oct. 10, wide release Oct. 17
A popular college professor (Andrew Garfield) is accused of sexual assault by a promising grad student (Ayo Edebiri), in Luca Guadagnino's #MeToo drama. But the lynchpin in the drama is the student's mentor who is also the professor's closest friend (Julia Roberts). She's angling for tenure, and must decide what the optics are before she decides where to throw her support. — Bob Mondello

The Mastermind, Oct. 17
According to the positive reviews out of Cannes, the title of Kelly Reichardt's new heist movie is meant to be wry — Josh O'Connor plays an out-of-work suburbanite in the 1970s who turns to stealing art for cash, but has zero aptitude for thievery. With Reichardt though, we're always in capable hands, so this — along with a cast that includes Alana Haim, Bill Camp, Gabby Hoffman, and John Magaro — is a must-watch. — Aisha Harris

Blue Moon, in limited theaters Oct. 17, wide release Oct. 24
Lyricist Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke), who'd penned many Broadway shows (Pal Joey, Babes in Arms) and hundreds of songs ("My Funny Valentine," "The Lady Is a Tramp") with composer Richard Rodgers, is drowning his sorrows at the legendary showbiz hangout Sardi's on March 31, 1943. Why sorrows? Because it's opening night of Oklahoma!, the start of Rodgers' new partnership with Oscar Hammerstein II, and the birth of a new breed of musical that will eclipse everything Hart's ever done. Richard Linklater's been mulling this one for years. — Bob Mondello

Hedda, in theaters Oct. 22, on Prime Video Oct. 29
The actress Tessa Thompson starred in Nia DaCosta's impressive feature debut, Little Woods, and afterwards she appeared in DaCosta's The Marvels. It's nice to see them link up again in a non-superhero project. For this pairing they reimagine Henrik Ibsen's classic play Hedda Gabler, in which a general's daughter feels suffocated by her marriage and acts out in destructive, messy ways. Thompson's played a stifled wife in a period drama brilliantly before (the criminally underseen Passing), so we're almost certainly in for a treat. — Aisha Harris

Bugonia, in limited theaters Oct. 24, wide release Oct. 31
This U.S. remake of 2003's Save the Green Planet!, an incredibly dark, violent and twisted sci-fi comedy from Korea, will be directed by ... (checks notes) ... Yorgos Lanthimos. Which, you know. Makes sense. Two conspiracy theorists, convinced that a powerful CEO (Emma Stone) is an alien bent on destroying the Earth, kidnap and torture her. Dunno how, or if, the film will work once the truly unhinged original story gets filtered through Lanthimos' chilly aesthetic. But I'll be there to see. — Glen Weldon

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Oct. 24
If Timothée Chalamet can learn to play guitar and sing as Bob Dylan, how could The Bear's Jeremy Allen White to do anything less while prepping to play New Jersey's blue-collar troubadour. Scott Cooper's biopic centers on the creation of Springsteen's iconic 1982 album Nebraska, during what was a troubled period for the singer. White reportedly spent months training with music coaches, and his efforts earned him a "sings very well" from the Boss himself after an on-set visit. — Bob Mondello

Nouvelle Vague, in theaters Oct. 31, on Netflix Nov. 14
It doesn't always go great when someone decides to make a movie about the making of a widely beloved and iconic movie (see: Hitchcock), but Richard Linklater's projects are consistently intriguing, at the very least, and quite often, great. The inventive filmmaker turns his focus to Jean Luc-Godard's Breathless, with Guillaume Marbeck playing the influential director, and Zoey Deutch and Aubrey Dullin as Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo. And of course, it's shot in gorgeous black and white. — Aisha Harris

Nuremberg, Nov. 7
In this drama based on Jack El-Hai's nonfiction book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, Russell Crowe plays Hitler confidant and Nazi leader Hermann Göring, and Rami Malek is Dr. Douglas Kelley, the U.S. army shrink tasked with determining whether Göring is mentally fit to stand trial. Director James Vanderbilt, having penned scripts for David Fincher's Zodiac and the crowd-pleasers White House Down and The Amazing Spider-Man, is turning a page here — appropriate, as the book is a page turner. — Bob Mondello

Sentimental Value, Nov. 7
Filmmaker Joachim Trier's follow up to the clear-eyed and unsparing The Worst Person in the World re-teams him with that film's co-screenwriter (Eskil Vogt) and its star (Renate Reinsve). Reinsve plays the estranged daughter of a filmmaker (Stellan Skarsgård) who reenters her life to offer her a starring role in his next movie. The catch: She'd be playing her own grandmother, who died by suicide. It's a lot, but I trust Trier to pilot these emotional waters without sliding into sentimentality. — Glen Weldon

Now You See Me: Now You Don't, Nov. 14
The cast keeps expanding in this magic-centric rob-from-the-rich-give-to-the-poor heist franchise, as if the writers saw Ocean's 11-13 and thought, "we could do that." New kids Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa and Ariana Greenblatt join original Horsemen (and hangers-on) Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman and Isla Fisher in pursuit of a priceless diamond. — Bob Mondello

Keeper, Nov. 14
We don't know much about director Osgood Perkins' follow-up to Longlegs and The Monkey, but what we do know is creepy as hell. Tatania Maslany and Rossif Sutherland play a couple who repair to a secluded cabin in the woods on their anniversary in a desperate attempt to reignite the romantic spark. What could possibly go wrong? I'm not as sold on Perkins as a lot of my fellow critics are, but I'm always intrigued by his command of the bones of horror — the infrastructure of a good scare. — Glen Weldon

Jay Kelly, Nov. 14
Director Noah Baumbach has surrounded George Clooney's title character with some heavyweight supporting talent — Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Adam Sandler, Patrick Wilson, Riley Keough, and Stacy Keach among others — but the film is all Clooney's from start to finish. It's about a movie star in his 60s who's suave, relaxed, always seems to be playing himself, and gives off a definite Cary Grant vibe — who is, in short, a lot like George Clooney. — Bob Mondello

Wicked: For Good, Nov. 21
The longest intermission in the history of musical comedy comes to an end Thanksgiving weekend when the second half of this Wizard of Oz origin story finally arrives at cinemas. Broadway audiences wait 15 minutes; movie audiences will have waited a year to find out what happens to Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), Glinda (Ariana Grande) and assorted hangers-on. To make it worth the wait, composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz has crafted two new songs. — Bob Mondello

Hamnet, in limited theaters Nov. 27, wide release Dec. 12
This movie comes with a serious pedigree: The terrific 2020 novel it's based on won the National Critics Book Circle Award. Author Maggie O'Farrell co-wrote the screenplay with director Chloé Zhao. It stars Jesse Buckley and Paul Mescal as Agnes and William Shakespeare as they grieve the death of their young son. Zhao's films are quiet and meditative — two words that may not slot easily into Eternals' superhero action but that resonate strongly with the emotional topography of loss. — Glen Weldon
Copyright 2025 NPR

Music. Nature. Together. That’s the motto of composer Murray Hidary’s MindTravel concerts , the latest of which is coming to L.A.’s Elysian Park Tuesday Nov. 18.

At the events, you’ll find Hidary on the piano, surrounded by an audience of people on folding chairs or blankets. The difference — apart from the open sky above — is that they’re wearing headphones.

Hidary, who has performed in indoor stages and concert halls, finds this setting taps into stronger emotions.

“The audience kind of enters this flow state of just being present, and to me that's the most powerful place you can take an audience,” Hidary said.

Audience members can also lie down, close their eyes, stand up, walk around, not worrying about disturbing others — all while focussing on Hidary’s meditative music.

“It feels like I'm playing just for you,” he said.

Hidary’s performed MindTravel concerts around the United States for over a decade, including the beach in Santa Monica, but Tuesday’s concert is the first time he’ll play in Elysian Park, L.A.’s first official park.

State of contemplation

What does a MindTravel performance sound like? Don’t expect the structure of movements in classical compositions. Instead think of the long mesmerizing, meditative arcs of the music of Phillip Glass and Ravi Shankar , two of Hidary’s big inspirations.

Hidary hopes the music he chooses to play during MindTravel puts the audience in a state in which they contemplate the natural surroundings, the people around them, and their human emotions. Stage and theater concerts have their place, he said, but audiences in those settings expect entertainment. MindTravel is something else, he said.

MindTravel performances allow the audience to move around and interact with other people while listening to live piano.

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“Using music in that capacity, using music to open something up internally, to kind of expand our own state of consciousness and using music in that way” is his ultimate goal, he said. “[MindTravel] doesn't become an escape from your life, but it becomes a confrontation of your deepest self."

Hidary studied music and composition at NYU and had success in the tech boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. But a traumatic event at the tail end of that success led him to see music in a different way and put him on the path to create MindTravel.

MindTravel has been performed at the beach in Santa Monica and other outdoor venues around the U.S.

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“I went through probably the most difficult, challenging time of my life, which was the sudden and tragic death of my little sister in an accident,” he said.

He played the piano to work through the emotional pain and took up vedic meditation to help settle his thoughts.

Improvisation leads to deep connections

No two MindTravel concerts are alike because Hidary often changes what he plays to react to what he sees and feels at the time of the concert.

“I can remember one time there was a train going by and I kind of figured out what pitch it was and started to play in that pitch in kind of sympathy with the train moving in its own rhythm and its own pitch,” Hidary said.

People who’ve attended MindTravel say the event helps them tap into emotions in ways that an indoor concert cannot.

“This experience is so magical and grounding,” one person said on MindTravel’s Instagram account.

“It reminded me how powerful it is to just be. To breathe. To listen. To feel. When we slow down enough to be fully present, the noise fades — and our truth gets louder," another said.