Wes “Scoop” Nisker was an award-winning broadcast journalist and commentator, a respected Buddhist meditation teacher, a bestselling author, and a standup Dharma comic who has been described as “masterful at using humor to lighten the enlightenment journey.”
His four-decades-long broadcasting career began in the late 1960s at San Francisco’s original free-form radio station KSAN, where he coined the catchphrase, “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own,” and was nicknamed “Scoop” by Abbie Hoffman while covering the Chicago Seven Trial. During his career, he received awards for excellence from Billboard Magazine, Columbia School of Journalism, and San Francisco Media Alliance. He was also inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame.
Wes studied Buddhist meditation for over five decades with teachers in Asia and America, and for the past 40 years led retreats and workshops in Buddhist insight meditation and philosophy at venues internationally. He was on the Teacher Council at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. Wes published several highly acclaimed books, including the enduring classic The Essential Crazy Wisdom and the recently released Being Nature and Big Bang, Buddha and the Baby Boom.
As a “cosmic comic” Wes performed his monologue “Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again!” and “How to be an Earthling” to critical acclaim in venues around the country, including the Berkeley Rep, the Freight and Salvage, and the Throckmorton Theater. (Recordings of his show are available on this website.)
Known for weaving together Buddhist wisdom, humor, poetry, science, social and climate activism, and a cosmic perspective, Wes delighted and inspired countless listeners, students, revolutionaries and fellow seekers with his kind heart and uniquely brilliant mind.
Remembering Wes 'Scoop' Nisker
Oaklandside, August 9, 2023
Bay Area FM radio news listeners knew him as Scoop Nisker. Buddhism students knew him as Wes Nisker. Readers knew him as a performer and author of Crazy Wisdom, Buddha’s Nature, and other books. I knew him as a close friend and spiritual big brother who encouraged and challenged me to be a better me and smile in the face of life’s absurdities. On Monday, July 31, after nobly struggling for a few years against the ravages of Lewy body dementia, Wes “Scoop” Nisker joined other crazy wisdom masters in that big comedy club in the sky. He was 80 years young.
For more remembrances please visit Scoop’s Facebook page.
Joke's Not Funny? Blame it on Buddha
New York Times, September 2, 2003
What is the sound of no hands clapping? It’s a Zen koan worth contemplating as Wes Nisker works the crowd on the stark bare stage at a park lodge here where L.A. Dharma, a Buddhist meditation group, is host to, of all things, a night of comedy.
“Before I became a Buddhist, I worried about my life,” Mr. Nisker said, ”Now I worry about my next life.”
Q&A - Wes "Scoop" Nisker Talkin' 'bout his generation of seekers
San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 2003
Anyone in the Bay Area who has been socially conscious and near a radio in the past few decades probably knows whose sign-off this is: “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.
Wes “Scoop” Nisker has been challenging us — politically and spiritually — on local radio waves on and off for 35 years as an alternative newsman, starting on KSAN in 1968 and later on KFOG.