"Sporting a sparkling sky-blue tail, Rachel Smith goes to work every day as a professional mermaid. It turns out, you can find mermaids swimming all over the West—if you know where to look! Every May, they congregate at the California Mermaid Convention, the longest-running mermaid event in the West (which Smith co-founded), to parade through the cobblestone streets of Old Sacramento.

In this episode, Smith dives into the colorful history of a cultural movement that dates back to the early 1900s. Learn about the craft required for their elaborate costumes and how they gracefully perform underwater without looking like “flappy fish.” For Smith, mermaiding offers more than just her job as head mermaid at the Dive Bar in Sacramento: It’s where she’s found a community of fellow merfolk. Get an inside look at some unlikely, landlocked destinations where mermaids swim in bars, casinos, and swimming pools."

-Listen to the episode here