As creative journeys go, Michael Toms’ odyssey from corporate climber to the 'Socrates of radio' has been more than circuitous. The host of NewDimensions Radio and a leading interpreter of alternative thought for nearly 30 years,Toms has interviewed more than 3,000 of the world’s most creative thinkers. But when he moved to San Francisco in the early 1960s he was more interested in advertising than enlightenment. Over the next eight years, though, the magic of the ’60s Bay Area scene gradually transformed the Virginia native, and he took a self-imposed sabbatical that led to a 'spiritual unfolding.'

It didn’t take completely. He later spun off his own ad agency, bought a Mercedes, and moved into a Sausalito condo. Then one evening a Jehovah’s Witness named Justine Willis arrived on his doorstep. They spent the evening discussing comparative religion, fell in love, and a month later Toms gave up his business and embarked on a spiritual sabbatical that took them around the country in a camper. Returning later to the 'consciousness candy store' that was the Bay Area at the time, they immersed themselves in the Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, eventually married, and created a radio show to chronicle the new consciousness of the times.

'Radio is the perfect medium for what we wanted to do,' Toms says. 'It’s personal, intimate, full of ideas and dialogue.' Now, anyone who has a radio anywhere in the world can hear New Dimensions, the longest-running independently produced program on National Public Radio.

The Toms moved to rural Ukiah, California, in 1985. 'Alvin Toffler in The Third Wave predicted the electronic cottage,' says Toms. 'That’s what we have. We’re running a global broadcasting operation out of our cottage on the side of a mountain in Mendocino County.' In addition to New Dimensions, they produce a live program on Wisdom Network called Spirit of the Times. Michael Toms’ books include An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in Conversation with Michael Toms and True Work: The Sacred Dimension of Earning a Living, which he wrote with Justine. They are planning to start a daily online program this year. Michael Toms talked with assistant editor Karen Olson from his office in Ukiah.

What radio programs did you listen to when you were a kid? Archie, Sky King, and Duffy’s Tavern. They were magical. Radio creates pictures in your mind—the clearest ones you ever have. I grew up with live radio and live television in the ’50s, when they were fresh and authentic and real. Now the life is being produced out of them.