🎻 Episode 14 — Aidan Woodruff: The Most Interesting Young Man in the Valley 🐟
Chopping It Up with Keith Saarloos · Released September 18, 2025 · Santa Ynez Valley, California
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About this conversation
Some kids pick a lane. Aidan built a freeway. At 20 years old, this UCLA cello phenom can make a room go silent with a bow stroke—then turn around and free-dive 60 feet in the Channel Islands hunting halibut with a spear. We go from Bach to big water: blind orchestra auditions, chamber rehearsals, and the dream of recording film scores… straight into kelp forests, 🐠 white sea bass runs, 🐙 urchin ecology, and the moment a 14-foot great white slid into frame. Then—curveball—Dodgers fandom and the wild micro-economy of modern sports cards, including how Aiden tracked down my brother’s one-of-one rookie card and handed it to me like it was Excalibur.
This episode is about craft and courage: showing up, knocking on doors no one thinks to knock on, and saying “teach me.” If you’ve ever needed a nudge to chase the next thing—music, ocean, or otherwise—Aiden’s your sign.
🪈 Music, grit, and gills. 🎵🌊
🐟 Follow Aidan: @aidanjwoodruff (spearfishing) | @aidanjwcello (music)
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Saarloos + Sons archive host Keith Saarloos. Context photograph; not a portrait of the guest or a photograph of this recording.
