Podcasts about in alaska

Dr. Matt Haney is the Scientist-in-Charge at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, where he leads the charge to monitor and communicate the activity of Alaska's volcanoes — some of the most closely watched in the world. He explains that there are several ways to count Alaska's volcanoes, but one of the most striking is this: 54 of them have erupted in the last 300 years. That's more than any other U.S. state. Most of these volcanoes are found along the Aleutian Arc, a seismically active chain that stretches from Mount Spurr — just 80 miles west of Anchorage — through Cook Inlet and out across the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands. A few outliers, like Mount Edgecumbe in Southeast and Mount Wrangell near Glennallen, add even more complexity to tracking volcanic activity across Alaska. As a volcanologist, Matt is part of a network that assesses volcanic risk using the National Volcano Early Warning System, which ranks volcanoes by threat level. In Alaska, five volcanoes are classified as “Very High Threat” — including Mount Spurr, Mount Redoubt and Mount Augustine — not just because they're active, but because they're near population centers and critical infrastructure. Mount Spurr is currently under close observation due to signs of volcanic unrest, making it one of the most closely watched in the state. When Spurr last erupted in 1992, it launched ash clouds up to 60,000 feet into the sky and shut down Anchorage's airport for nearly a full day. Ash fall can disrupt air travel, damage engines and electronics, clog air filters, and cause respiratory problems. Today, with Anchorage serving as the second busiest cargo hub in the U.S. — and the fourth busiest in the world — the stakes of an eruption are even higher.

Dr. Matt Haney is the Scientist-in-Charge at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, where he leads the charge to monitor and communicate the activity of Alaska's volcanoes — some of the most closely watched in the world. He explains that there are several ways to count Alaska's volcanoes, but one of the most striking is this: 54 of them have erupted in the last 300 years. That's more than any other U.S. state. Most of these volcanoes are found along the Aleutian Arc, a seismically active chain that stretches from Mount Spurr — just 80 miles west of Anchorage — through Cook Inlet and out across the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands. A few outliers, like Mount Edgecumbe in Southeast and Mount Wrangell near Glennallen, add even more complexity to tracking volcanic activity across Alaska. As a volcanologist, Matt is part of a network that assesses volcanic risk using the National Volcano Early Warning System, which ranks volcanoes by threat level. In Alaska, five volcanoes are classified as “Very High Threat” — including Mount Spurr, Mount Redoubt and Mount Augustine — not just because they're active, but because they're near population centers and critical infrastructure. Mount Spurr is currently under close observation due to signs of volcanic unrest, making it one of the most closely watched in the state. When Spurr last erupted in 1992, it launched ash clouds up to 60,000 feet into the sky and shut down Anchorage's airport for nearly a full day. Ash fall can disrupt air travel, damage engines and electronics, clog air filters, and cause respiratory problems. Today, with Anchorage serving as the second busiest cargo hub in the U.S. — and the fourth busiest in the world — the stakes of an eruption are even higher.

In Alaska, amongst rolling snowstorms, the town of Barrow enters their month-long night. Only a fraction of the town stays to stick it out. Soon, a stranger (Ben Foster) arrives and creates havoc – especially with the town's ability to communicate. If this wasn't enough, a bunch of vampires in suits show up and just destroy everyone! Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) and the fire marshal, Stella (Melissa George), round up a handful of survivors in an attempt to hide throughout the town to survive until the sun rises again. Also, Beau Brower (Mark Boone Junior) goes on a much-needed vampire kill-spree. RTS makes the best of this end of winter month of darkness by watching a film about a month of darkness. Very meta! Jeremy and Collin throw a bunch of these blood-sucking demons into a metal masher. La-Mar asks a nice vampire child for a bag of chips at the general store. He gets them! Sometimes, you just have to ask nicely. Nemo and Rami go the old-fashioned route and simply explode vampire heads. That is VERY effective! Eat your can of cherries and stay warm tonight. Nighty night. Don't let the vampires bite. 

This week, we're discussing the drastic changes we've seen over the last month within our federal agencies and how thousands of people have been fired. Randy details his idea of Government Efficiency. A few news stories are also included. A Montana bill has been introduced that would take money generated from the tax on marijuana that currently goes towards funding wildlife habitats, parks, and non-game wildlife and re-direct it to the general fund and various marijuana addiction and prevention accounts. Another interesting bill in Montana would allow Fish Wildlife and Parks to compensate landowners for allowing access through their property to hunt inaccessible public land. In Wyoming, even more elk have been found dead from chronic wasting disease at one of the state-run feed-grounds. In Colorado, House Bill 25-1133 would prohibit 18 - to 20-year-olds from purchasing ammunition. This follows 2023 legislation prohibiting 18-20-year-olds from purchasing semi-auto rifles and shotguns. In Alaska, the Governor introduced legislation, Senate Bill 105, that creates opportunities for residents to purchase or lease state land for cabin sites. If you're watching this video right now. Public testimony is being heard in the Senate Resources Committee right now. In Kentucky, Senate Bill 89 would change how they define water within the state, abandoning its definition in exchange for the federal definition of navigable waters, which removes protections for wetlands, headwaters, and groundwater. In Indiana, House Bill 1447 would restrict logging and forest management within particular state forests. In Washington, House Bill 1775 would phase out and ultimately ban fur farming within the state. That bill narrowly passed out of committee and is moving forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) speaks in support of the Native name of Denali on the floor of the U.S. Senate on February 13, 2025. Murkowski serves as chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. She has introduced legislation to officially designate the highest peak in North America by its name in the Koyukon language. “In Alaska, it's Denali,” Murkowski said. “Once you see it in person, and take in the majesty of its size and breathe in its cold air, you can understand why the Koyukon Athabascans referred to it as ‘The Great One.'" This isn't a political issue – Alaskans from every walk of life have long been advocating for this mountain to be recognized by its true name," said Murkowski. "That's why today I once again introduced legislation that would officially keep this mountain's quintessential name, ‘Denali.'” President Donald Trump ordered the Department of the Interior to change the name of Denali to Mount McKinley. Secretary Doug Burgum took action on February 14. 2025 -- a day after Murkowski's remarks -- to adopt the directive. Murkowski's bill is S.573: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/573

A very short time ago, to think there would be an Executive Order from the United State President entitled "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation", would be unfathomable.How times have changed.That we have to protect children from this but more to the point of my interview today, that we are now going all in to try and stop it. The speed of history is, at times, baffling.Today on "I'm Glad You Said That", I have the privilege of speaking with Matt Sharp, a Senior Counsel and Director of the Center for Public Policy at Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF has 13 U.S. Supreme Court victories. They are as good as it gets legally.Matt will go into detail on why this Executive Order is so profoundly impactful and what states can expect from this strong Federal stand to lift up that which is good and punish evil. In Alaska, where no laws are in place to protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation and where these medical malpractices are occurring, this EO opens doors for us to make a difference. It's time to act.Support the show

In Alaska gibt der schmelzende Permafrostboden Verborgenes preis: eine 500 Jahre alte Siedlung zum Beispiel, deren Artefakte vor dem Zerfall gerettet werden müssen. Doch während die Vergangenheit freigelegt wird, droht die Gegenwart zu versinken. Von Rebecca Stegmann www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Die Reportage

In Alaska, reindeer are much more real than the fantasy animals that pull Santa's sleigh. Introduced to Alaska from Siberia by the US government in the 1890s, reindeer were part of a strategy to solve food shortages among the Native peoples after the gold rush. Today, reindeer provide food security and economic opportunities for the Alaskan Native community. Even more so than farming, reindeer herding requires a deep understanding of the needs of Indigenous communities and academic science—as well as how to navigate and influence local, state, and federal policies. On this episode, host Lisa Margonelli is joined by Jacqueline Hrabok and Bonnie Scheele of the University of Alaska Fairbanks's High Latitude Range Management program to learn more about the interplay of science, policy, and community in reindeer herding.  This is our final episode of 2024. We'll be back in late January for an interview with opera singer and actress Renee Fleming and neurology professor Susan Magsamen on the intersection of music, art, and health. And we would love to explore more local science policy issues in our upcoming episodes! Write to us at podcast@issues.org about any policy developments happening near you.  Resources: Learn more about the University of Alaska Fairbanks' High Latitude Range Management program.  Visit Bonnie Scheele's reindeer farm at the Midnite Sun Reindeer Ranch website and Facebook page. 

Thanksgiving is all about giving, and Esther Sanderlin takes that to heart... and to the skies! In Alaska, she pilots her single-engine plane to drop frozen turkeys to families living off the grid. It all started when Esther heard a family was planning to have squirrel for Thanksgiving. Remembering how someone helped her family the same way, she decided to pass on the kindness. Now, she's making sure 40 families get a proper holiday meal, dropping love from above and living out the truth of James 2:6: "If you say to one of them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but do nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?" 

  Please hit Subscribe/Follow and leave a positive comment. Click here for Jens Poshmark Closet. https://poshmark.com/closet/happie22 Click here to go to our Patreon Page. https://www.patreon.com/c/222ParanormalPodcast Click here to go to Larrys Website. https://www.alasquatchpodcast.com/ Click here to go to our website. https://www.222paranormal.com/   Larry “Beans” Baxter has spent the last 20 years working in the military and law enforcement. Living in Alaska has given Beans the unique opportunity to investigate Alaskan cryptids and mysteries such as the abandoned town Portlock, in Port Chatham, Alaska. Beans has participated in expeditions to other Bigfoot hotspots around the country and has appeared in multiple documentaries and television shows. Beans currently hosts the podcast Alasquatch and has written the first non-fiction book on the subject of Port Chatham: Abandoned the History and Horror of Port Chatham, Alaska. You can find him at his website www.alasquatchpodcast.com   Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a legendary creature that has been a part of North American folklore for centuries. In Alaska, sightings of this elusive creature have contributed to the state's rich tapestry of mysterious stories. Often described as a large, ape-like being covered in dark hair, Bigfoot is said to inhabit the dense forests, remote mountain ranges, and vast wilderness areas of Alaska. The state's rugged terrain, with its dense woods, snow-covered peaks, and expansive swamps, makes it an ideal setting for such a cryptid to remain hidden from human eyes. Many locals and visitors claim to have seen large footprints, heard eerie howls, or found strange hair samples that they believe belong to Bigfoot. Native Alaskan tribes, including the Tlingit and the Athabaskan, have long had their own versions of the creature in their oral traditions, describing forest-dwelling beings that are often seen as spiritual or supernatural entities. The legend of Bigfoot continues to thrive in Alaska, where it is part of a larger fascination with the unexplained and the wild frontier. Whether myth or reality, the idea of Bigfoot adds to the allure and mystery of Alaska's untamed wilderness. The presence of Bigfoot in Alaskan folklore is not a new phenomenon. Indigenous groups, such as the Tlingit, Athabaskan, and Haida peoples, have long had their own traditions of wild, forest-dwelling beings that bear similarities to the modern-day Bigfoot legend. These creatures are often viewed not just as physical beings but also as spiritual entities with deep ties to the natural world. The region's isolation and vast expanses of wilderness contribute to the mystery surrounding these sightings, as the wilderness remains largely unexplored. While there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of Bigfoot in Alaska or anywhere else, the continuous reports of strange encounters keep the legend alive. Whether rooted in myth, misidentification, or a genuine unknown, Bigfoot remains a captivating part of Alaska's culture and its allure as a land of mystery and discovery. Welcome to the 222 Paranormal Podcast, your gateway to the captivating world of the supernatural. Immerse yourself in our expertly crafted episodes, where we delve deep into a wide range of paranormal phenomena, including ghostly hauntings, cryptid sightings, and unexplained mysteries that defy logic. Each episode is meticulously researched and features engaging discussions with leading experts, seasoned ghost hunters, and renowned paranormal investigators. We cover the latest advancements in ghost hunting technology, offer practical tips for both amateur and experienced investigators, and review essential equipment for your paranormal adventures. Our podcast also explores the rich history of haunted locations, sharing true stories and firsthand accounts that will send chills down your spine. Whether you're a die-hard fan of the paranormal or just curious about the unknown, our content is designed to entertain, inform, and ignite your imagination. Stay tuned as we uncover secrets from the most haunted places around the world and analyze the most intriguing supernatural events. We also provide in-depth interviews with notable figures in the field and explore theories that challenge conventional understanding of reality. By subscribing to our Paranormal Podcast, you'll stay updated with the latest episodes, allowing you to join a community of like-minded individuals who share your fascination with the unexplained. Don't miss out on our exclusive content and special features, which bring you closer to the mysteries that lie beyond our everyday experiences. Dive into the world of the unknown with our Paranormal Podcast and experience the thrill of discovering what lies just beyond the veil of reality.

In this newscast: Final election results are trickling in today [WED] for the national and state races. In Alaska, unofficial results show the Republican presidential and U.S. House candidates lead in their races statewide,  but there's evidence of a lot of split-ticket voters in Juneau; A group home in Juneau for women experiencing addiction or leaving incarceration has just reopened after a three-year hiatus due to flooding. T'áa Shuyee Hit Haven House is now accepting applicants; Republican challenger Nick Begich had a solid lead in the race for Alaska's seat in the U.S. House after Tuesday's election night vote tallies; The effort to repeal Alaska's ranked choice voting and open primaries was ahead slightly late Tuesday, with about three-quarters  of the state's precincts counted; A bipartisan majority caucus is likely to hold on to control of the Alaska Senate, and some key pickups in the state House mean that the current Republican-led majority could lose control of the chamber. That's according to early election results in state legislative races; Initial results in Alaska's House District 1 race have Republican Jeremy Bynum with a commanding lead at more than 50% of the vote; The Museum of the Aleutians in Unalaska has received over 20 boxes filled with archaeological artifacts from the Islands of Four Mountains in the central Aleutian Islands. While some artifacts may never be displayed, they remain crucial to understanding Unangax̂ history.

Donald Trump will become the 47th President of the United States after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday's General Election. In Alaska, Nick Begich leads Rep. Mary Peltola in the race for Alaska's U.S. House seat. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here are some of the different ways states run their voting The U.S. general election on Nov. 5 will decide the country's direction, but it is far from a nationally administered contest. The 50 states and the District of Columbia run their own elections, and each does things a little differently. Here's a look at some notable variations in the 2024 election: Maine and Nebraska allocate electoral votes by congressional district To win the presidency outright, a candidate must receive at least 270 of the 538 votes in the Electoral College. In 48 states, the statewide winner gets all of that state's electoral votes, and that's also the case in the nation's capital. In Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who receives the most votes in each congressional district wins one electoral vote from that district. The candidate who wins the statewide vote receives another two. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden received three of Maine's four electoral votes because he won the popular vote in the state and its 1st Congressional District. Republican Donald Trump received one electoral vote from the 2nd Congressional District. Trump won four of Nebraska's five votes for winning the popular vote in the state as well as its 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts; Biden received one electoral vote for winning the 2nd Congressional District. Alaska and Maine use ranked choice voting In ranked choice voting, voters rank candidates for an office in order of preference on the ballot. If no candidate is the first choice for more than 50 percent of voters, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Voters who chose that candidate as their top pick have their votes redistributed to their next choice. This continues, with the candidate with the fewest votes getting eliminated, until someone emerges with a majority of votes. Maine uses ranked choice voting in state-level primaries and for federal offices in the general election. That means Maine voters can rank presidential, Senate and House candidates on ballots that include the Democrat and the Republican who advanced out of their respective party primaries, plus third-party and independent candidates who qualify. The presidential ballot will include Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, plus three other candidates. In the six years since implementing ranked choice voting, the state has used it twice in races for Congress in its 2nd Congressional District. The 2020 presidential race did not advance to ranked choice voting, with the winners of the state and in each congressional district exceeding 52 percent of the vote. Alaska holds open primaries for statewide offices and sends the top four vote-getters, regardless of party, to the general election, where the winner is decided using ranked choice voting. In all legislative and statewide executive offices, Alaskans can rank up to four names that can include multiple candidates from the same party. The exception is the presidency, which is eligible for ranked choice voting in Alaska for the first time. This year, there will be eight presidential tickets on the ballot, and Alaskans can rank all candidates if they choose to. The last time the winner of the presidential contest in Alaska failed to surpass 50 percent of the vote was in 1992, when third-party candidate Ross Perot won almost 20% of the national popular vote. But in 2022, both Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski won their elections after both went to ranked choice voting. Another wrinkle this year? In Alaska, where ranked choice voting was implemented by ballot measure in 2020, there's a voter initiative on the ballot this fall to repeal it. In California and Washington, candidates from the same party can face off California and Washington hold open primaries in which all candidates run on the same ballot and the two top vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party. This year, there are two House races in Washington that include candidates of the sam...

Nevada is the first state to extend electronic ballots to tribal members. It allows them to register and vote from their own homes, giving rural Native voters an alternative to traveling miles to their nearest polling or ballot drop-off site. It's an idea that other states remain wary of. In Alaska, efforts to improve voting among Native voters remain elusive. Opposition from Republican state lawmakers killed a bill eliminating witness signatures on absentee ballots. On a conservative talk show, the Alaska House Speaker admitted she opposed it because it would have favored U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat and the only Alaska Native in Congress. Rep. Peltola calls it "a concerted effort to silence" Native votes. We'll discuss progress and continuing hurdles for Native voters. GUESTS Mathilda Guerrero Miller (Kanaka Maoli), government relations director for Native Voters Alliance Nevada Elveda Martinez (Walker River Paiute Tribe), voter rights activist Michelle Sparck (Qissunamiut Tribe of Chevak), director of Get Out the Native Vote Gabriel Di Chiara, Chief Deputy Secretary of State for Nevada

Nevada is the first state to extend electronic ballots to tribal members. It allows them to register and vote from their own homes, giving rural Native voters an alternative to traveling miles to their nearest polling or ballot drop-off site. It's an idea that other states remain wary of. In Alaska, efforts to improve voting among Native voters remain elusive. Opposition from Republican state lawmakers killed a bill eliminating witness signatures on absentee ballots. On a conservative talk show, the Alaska House Speaker admitted she opposed it because it would have favored U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat and the only Alaska Native in Congress. Rep. Peltola calls it "a concerted effort to silence" Native votes. We'll discuss progress and continuing hurdles for Native voters.

In Alaska, the bodies of two young women are discovered in a home. A family member believed to be supplying them with marijuana and homebrew was connected to the crime. Over in Ireland, a young mother was discovered brutally murdered in her home in South Belfast. In Connecticut, police responded to a reported assault at an apartment. Shortly before police arrived, a man was observed jumping from the apartment headfirst into a dumpster. In Virginia, first responders were called to a home where a young child was suffering from cardiac arrest.Consider joining PLUS+ at swordandscale.com/plusSwing by our merch store at store.swordandscale.com

Retired Alaska District Court Judge Elaine Andrews moved to Alaska in 1976 immediately upon graduating from law school. Her first job as a lawyer was with the Alaska Judicial Council, which is tasked with vetting new judges and with deciding whether or not to recommend sitting judges for retention. In Alaska, a judge must be at least 30 years old, and Elaine Andrews applied and was appointed to the bench shortly after she turned 30. She served as a full-time district court judge for 22 years and continued as a pro tempore judge part-time for another two decades after that. 

Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention is underway on Wednesday in Chicago, with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz set to deliver his keynote speech and officially accept his vice presidential nomination. Other speakers include former President Bill Clinton and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Florida, Alaska, and Wyoming held primary elections on Tuesday. All incumbents in Florida and Wyoming seeking reelection will advance to the general election. In Alaska, GOP House hopefuls vowed not to target each other in the ranked-vote general election race to unseat Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska). Russia's foreign ministry said Ukraine's cross-border incursion into its Kursk region has ended all hopes of peace talks. As Ukrainian forces advance in Kursk, Russian troops are also gaining ground in Ukraine's eastern region. ⭕️Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV

Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention is underway on Wednesday in Chicago, with Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minnesota) set to deliver his keynote speech and officially accept his vice presidential nomination. Other speakers include former President Bill Clinton and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.Florida, Alaska, and Wyoming held primary elections on Tuesday. All incumbents in Florida and Wyoming seeking reelection advanced to the general election. In Alaska, GOP House hopefuls vowed to not target each other in the ranked-vote general election race to unseat Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska).Russia's foreign ministry said Ukraine's cross-border incursion into its Kursk region has ended all hopes of peace talks. As Ukrainian forces advance in Kursk, Russian troops are closing in on Ukraine's eastern region.

In Alaska’s 2022 special election, candidates as varied as Sarah Palin and Mary Peltola to Santa Claus were on the ballot. That year was also unique for offering ranked-choice voting, allowing conflicted residents to cast as many as four picks with descending weight. In November, both the incumbent Peltola and the ranked-choice repeal initiative are on […]

This week, the guys share plenty of tips on getting the most out of your garden, especially on how to harvest your plants and vegetables efficiently. In Alaska, things grow quickly, particularly cole crops like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage.Jeff emphasizes picking vegetables before they flower, while Jonathan suggests using a juicer to make the most of every bit of the garden.After the break, they answer questions about blueberries and cherry trees.Finally, Jeff wraps up by reminding everyone to start weeding invasive plants early.All that and more on this week's episode of Teaming with Microbes.**********************************************Have a question? Let us know at teamingwithmicrobes@me.comPlant a row for the hungry/Read Teaming With Microbes, Teaming With Nutrients and Teaming With Fungi!Thanks to our sponsors:Big Foot MicrobesNumber 2 Organics made in partnership with Malibu CompostDown To Earth All Natural Fertilizers The Teaming with Microbes Podcast is edited and produced with original music by Pod Peak.  Special thanks to the Anchorage Daily News for hosting the show!

It is time for another UFO and alien-themed listener submission episode!In this episode, we explore four intriguing UFO encounters from across the United States. James from Akron, Ohio recounts a childhood experience where he and two others witnessed strange red lights in the sky that split, moved, and vanished mysteriously.In Alaska, Julian shares his father's story of encountering an intense green spotlight while snowmobiling in the 1980s, illuminating the forest before abruptly disappearing.Devin from Tennessee describes a vivid dream-like experience where a bright light consumed his vision, leaving him with an unsettling feeling and questions about its reality.Lastly, Julie recounts two separate incidents: one in California involving a loud humming noise and bright green light shining through her curtains, and another in Arizona where she awoke to find her room filled with a peaceful blue aura.Patreon: Support Believing the Bizarre and get tons of extra content by joining our Patreon.For updates, news, and extra content, follow Believing the Bizarre on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitterDiscordWant to discuss the episode on the day it drops with Tyler and Charlie? Follow on Twitch and check out the extended Twitch streams every Tuesday.Shop Merch: You can rep Believing the Bizarre and buy some unique merch

Being a life-long blind person I have never served in the military and thus only understand the military way of life vicariously. There is reading about it, of course and there is talking to military people about their lifestyle. Today you get to hear a conversation not only about military life, specifically the army world, as it were, from a 20-year career soldier, Chase Spears who recently retired from the military as a major in the army. Chase grew up always interested in the news and what was going on in the world around him. He attended college, both undergraduate studies and later graduate work at universities in Tennessee. Along the way an army recruiting officer persuaded him to join the army. By that time, he was well married to a woman who, surprising to him, supported his decision to leave college and join the army. Chase's telling of this story is wonderful to hear. As you will see, he is quite the storyteller.   He and I talk a great deal about the world of a soldier, and he puts a lot of things into perspective. For those of you who have served in the military much of what you hear may not be totally new. However, since Chase served in public affairs/relations duties throughout most of his army career, you may find his observations interest. Chase and I had a good free-flowing and informative conversation. I personally came away fascinated and look forward to talking with Chase again in the future. A few months ago, Mr. Spears retired and entered into a doctoral program at Kansas State University where he is conducting research concerning how military life impacts the citizenship of those who serve. You will get to hear a bit about what he is finding.   About the Guest:   U.S. Army Major (Ret.) Chase Spears is first and foremost a Christian, Husband, and Father to five children who help to keep him and his wife young at heart. Having grown up with a passion for news and policy, Chase spent 20 years in the Army as a public affairs officer, trying to be part of a bridge between the military and the public. He merged that work with a passion for writing to become one of the Army's most published public affairs officers, often to resistance from inside the military. Chase continues that journey now as a doctoral candidate at Kansas State University, where his dissertation research explores how military life impacts the citizenship of those who serve. His other writings focus on topics including civil-military dynamics, communication ethics, and the political realities of military operations.   Ways to connect with Chase:   LinkedIn/X/Substack/Youtube: @drchasespears www.chasespears.com   About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Hi there and welcome once again to unstoppable mindset. And we have a I think really interesting show today are interesting episode we get to chat with major retired Chase Spears. I've been saying ret all morning because he's got Rhett in parentheses. And I didn't even think about it being not a name but retired. But anyway, that's me. Anyway, he has been involved in a lot of writing in and out of the military. He was a major military person for 20 years. He's now in a doctoral candidate program, Kennedy C candidacy program. And my gosh, there's a lot there, but we'll get to it also. Major Rhett major Chase spears. Welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here.   Chase Spears ** 02:13 just thrilled to be with you, Michael. Thanks for having me. Now   Michael Hingson ** 02:17 that now that we've abused you with Rhett, but that's okay.   Chase Spears ** 02:20 I think God worse. Well, there   Michael Hingson ** 02:22 you are. And by your friends, I bet. So that's what really makes them more fun. But we're but I really am grateful that you were willing to come on and spend some time with us. Why don't we start I love to, to start this way to give people a chance to get to know you. Why don't you tell us some about the early Chase spheres and growing up and all that stuff?   Chase Spears ** 02:44 Well, it's yeah, it's been quite a journey. I grew up in the southeast us My family was out of Florida. And when I was a teenager, we ended up moving we went out to Texas, which was really just kind of a an entire change of culture for us. If you can imagine going from the kind of urban parts of Florida that are really highly populated a lot of traffic, a lot of tourism, a lot of industry. And we went up to North Central Texas in my teen years. And if you can imagine going from from that, you know, Florida to a town of about 9000 people it was a an oil and agricultural cattle town, and Graham, Texas and it was really kind of a culture shock at first, but turned into some of the best and most formative years of my life where I I really learned the value of hard work working on the fields with my dad really got to kind of connect with nature and just taking some gorgeous sunsets in the evenings out working in the fields enjoying the views of the wildlife Hall. I was out working. But one thing that I did learn from hard manual labor, was it made sure that I kept on track for college. And so I ended up going to Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee in 1998. Right after I graduated from high school, I was homeschooled and met my Hi my sweetie there, Laurie. We were married by senior year we decided neither one of us we wanted to graduate and leave the other one behind. So we got married start a family pretty young afterwards. Went on to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville afterwards because I thought, hey, I want to work in journalism. And it'd be great to have a master's degree in journalism to prove my commitment to the field make people take me seriously. And it was during that time that I ran into an army recruiter while I was working my part time job at a law firm. I was working at the courthouse one day filing paperwork. And this gentleman and I just struck up a conversation in an elevator he was there in his full dress uniform was very impressive to me as a civilian at the time. And so I started asking him questions about what he did. In what army life was like just trying to be friendly, conversational, I was genuinely curious, though I was not looking for a military career. Well, as a good recruiter does, he managed to coax a phone number out of me. And seven months later there I am raising my right hand, swearing into the army in Knoxville, Tennessee. And so we were in the army for 20 years, we moved to several different parts of the nation, we've landed in northeastern Kansas, just on the outskirts of the Greater Kansas City, Missouri area. And now we're kind of starting a new phase of life after the army enjoying being kind of planted Gayndah. Watch our kids grow in a smaller community. And we're excited about what's next. So   Michael Hingson ** 05:42 what is the postdoc? Where are the doctoral degree in, that you're seeking.   Chase Spears ** 05:47 So I am in a program entitled leadership communication. But I'm kind of a misplaced public policy scholars what I've learned, but the faculty there have been so wonderfully gracious to me, and I've been very supportive of my research agenda. So I'm a career communicator. In the army, I was a public affairs officer. So everything I did was about stuff like this. I didn't community engagement, I did interviews, I was did social media strategy, I was part of the bridge that the military tries to build between it and the public, which is incredibly important in our form of governance. And so I love all things communication. And I also love team leadership, small organizational leadership, I had the chance to, to lead teams, I had the chance to lead a company while I was in the army, so fell in love with that. So when I saw a degree program that merged both of those, you know, they had me at hello, I was a sucker from the get go when I saw the marketing. So I applied and they very kindly accepted me. So I've been studying leadership communication, but my research agenda is actually more in the policy realm. My dissertation work is studying how did we come to this concept that the military isn't a political and air quotes institution, when it is funded by the government when it is commanded by elected leadership? When when we exert our national will, on other nations with it there absolutely political connotations to all of that. And And yet, we kind of say the opposite. So I was curious, I was like, this would be something fun to explore, how did we How did we get to where we believe this in spite of what we do? And so that's what my research Jind agenda is all about. And I'm having a lot of fun writing.   Michael Hingson ** 07:37 Well, and I guess we could go right to why well, so why do you think the reason is that we are not a political but we say we are? Oh, are you still researching it to the point where you're not ready to answer that yet? Well, I   Chase Spears ** 07:57 have, I have some theories and what I believe are pretty educated guesses. I'm trying to make sure that I don't bore your audience going too deep in the weeds on this. It's really kind of comes out of the Second World War. When you look at the history of the United States. Traditionally, we are a nation, our ancestors were part of a nation that were really cautious about the idea of having large standing military forces during peacetime. Because there had been this historical observance over hundreds of years, particularly in Europe, that large forces during peacetime ended up causing problems for society and the nations that bred large armies inevitably found ways to use them, that might not always be to the benefit of the populace. So we come out of the Second World War, and the nation has decided we're going to become the global military superpower, we didn't want to be caught off guard again, like we were for what Germany had done in the years after the First World War. And we also have a rising Russia, we need to counter that. So we decided as a nation, yeah, we will become a global, permanent, large, highly industrialized, highly institutionalized force. Well, how do you gain public support for that when the public has traditionally for hundreds of years been very, very suspect of that and very much against it? Well, Samuel, in walk Samuel Huntington, a brilliant political scientist who writes the book, the soldier in the state, and in it he proposed a theory of military supervision in which officers would abstained from voting and then over time that grew legs into Okay, well, now we're just not involved in politics and then in time that grew legs into where a political, but if you go around the force and ask most people what that means, if you ask them to define that word, few would actually be able to define it. It's one of those kind of discursive terms that we've come up with kind of like for the public good. Well, what is for the public good? Can you actually define that, and it's largely often in the eyes of the beholder. So that that's where I believe it came from, I'm still doing quite a bit of work and reading in that. But historically, it's very fascinating to see where we've come and just 70 years on that topic. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 10:25 And also, we're in a phase of all of that, where it seems to be at least that it's changing and morphing again, I mean, with what's happened in the last seven years in this country, and the, the lack of desire for discourse, the the desire on some people's parts to really involve the military and a lot of things. It seems like we're possibly changing again, or perhaps even strengthening the military in some way. And I'm not sure what that is.   Chase Spears ** 11:04 We there's really kind of been somewhat of a public backlash, the last, I'd say, five to 10 years, we saw an increasing comfort with military members publicly advocating for political policy for political parties, which is absolutely within their constitutional right to do, George Washington himself said, we did not lay aside the citizen to assume the soldier. But again, that that discourse coming out of the Second World War, really kind of conditions the American public to think that when you're in the military, you do give up your rights to expression that you do give up your rights to citizen agency, and, and, and meaningful involvement in civic processes. And while we do rightly give up some expressive rights, and that is captured and codified in military regulations, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, there's some legitimacy to that argument. But I would say, you know, if you're, if you're holding a ruler in your hand, the regulations kind of restrict us somewhere between the two and three inch mark on the ruler, whereas the perception that's just kind of come out of the repetition of these terms and ideas is more that we're up around the nine or 10 inch mark on the ruler, if that makes any sense for you. So we we've seen in the last few years, more military people being willing to get involved politically, and there has been somewhat of a backlash to it. And therein is the problem. You if you're going to hold to a belief to a doctrine to a discursive claim, then you have to match it. And the military is really kind of at a point right now they have a decision to make, are we going to hold on to this discourse to this idea? Or are we going to acknowledge that? Well, the regulations are much less restrictive than what people have been led to believe? It's it's a tough spot to be there's not a perfect answer, to help the institution requires cracking down on constitutional freedoms. And well, what is the institution there to serve? So it's a very sticky issue?   Michael Hingson ** 13:11 Well, it does seem to me that in no way, because the person becomes a soldier. And even in their oaths, do they give up the right to be a citizen of the country? So I'm with George Washington?   Chase Spears ** 13:26 Oh, absolutely. No, I am with with George Washington himself, you know, the greatest American? And I think we would, it's a, it's a good reminder of the importance of knowing our history and knowing where we came from. It's in my interviews with military members on this topic. In my research, I'm finding that that like me, most of them were just kind of told these things verbally. They were never pointed to the actual rules. They were never actually pointed to the actual laws. I only know the regulations because I have a personal fascination on the topic. And I went and looked them up. But no one ever told me where to find them. That was research on my own team and figure out where do I look for this. So it's, we really need to do better, nationally, to know our history and know where we came from.   Michael Hingson ** 14:14 We do have a really interesting paradox in the world, because we've gotten in the last two government administrations, to different views of not only how to govern, but to a degree how the military needs to be a part of it, and that's gonna not be very helpful to things either.   Chase Spears ** 14:34 Absolutely. The the military at the end of the day is controlled by the Civilian governance. Now. I'll acknowledge that General Mark Milley didn't really seem to think so and there have been other figures in military history who MacArthur being one of them who who seemed to challenge who was actually in charge of the military. But at the end of the day, constitutionally, we We are governed by by civilians. And that that is right, that is proper any anything else would be a coup and you don't want that. So we, it comes down to how does the military try to hold a consistent line? When you have governments that change every two to four to eight years and have drastically different perspectives on policy? How do you as a military hold an even keel and another wise stormy sea. And in previous generations, we had senior general officers who were pretty good at that they were pretty good at saying, regardless of what the ship of state is doing, the ship of military is going to remain on a heading to serve everyone. And there's been somewhat of a lack a breakdown of discipline at the senior ranks in the last probably 10 years, that's really kind of shuttered the ship of the military. And I think the current some of the recently promoted, general officers understand that I think General GA is the new Chief of Staff of the Army, I think he understands that and he's trying to do some things to reintroduce some stability, but it's a hard thing.   Michael Hingson ** 16:16 Yeah. And the other part about it is that the military, in some ways is a part of society. So we've had things like the whole Don't Ask, Don't Tell dealing with LGBTQ types of issues. And, and of course, even women in the military, and there's been a lot of things that haven't necessarily been as visible as they have become, and are issues that we are starting to face and deal with more. But it seems to me that the military, like it or not, is part of society. And we do need to recognize that collectively, as well.   Chase Spears ** 17:02 We were absolutely drawn from society. We serve society, we exist, you know, for the protection of society. But I will say there's one thing that's all always kind of set Western militaries apart a little bit, and the US military hails from that Western tradition of understanding that just because society chooses to take a move in one direction, doesn't necessarily mean that it's in the national security interest of the United States for the military, to follow suit. And then there's kind of a reason that the military has always tried to, in some way, set itself apart, of acknowledging that there's some things that society will do or want to that are affected by the times as Shakespeare himself noted, there's always a tide in the affairs and man, the tide comes in the time tide goes out the the, the winds shift. And but one thing that was said at the military part was this idea of, at the end of the day, if it's a societal change that enables us to better defend the nation, then that's the direction we'll move. If it's a societal change that could potentially be a friction point or cause additional challenges in securing the nation, we might, we might think on that one a little bit harder, we might be a little more a little slower to adopt that. And we've seen that has kind of broken down the military is very much going out of its way to be reflective of society. And in some ways that can be good in some ways that's caused additional unnecessary frictions to the force and is rightly being having questions asked about it.   Michael Hingson ** 18:45 And that's where having good solid leadership in the military at the highest echelons, has to be an important part of it, because that's where ultimately, the direction that the military goes, is at least in part, going to be authored. Yes, there is a civilian government that and civilian commander in chief, but still the military leaders have to really be the ones mostly to figure out where the military should go in terms of policies and how it deals with different issues or not, I would think.   Chase Spears ** 19:27 And the key word that you hit on there, Michael is leadership. Back a few months ago, I wrote a piece that was published by real clear defense called seven new things the new Sergeant Major of the Army could do to restore trust in the force. And the argument that I made his predecessor was one who was very kind of reactive to the, to the whims you might say, of a the younger generation of soldiers. He was very much all over Twitter about telling me your issues. Let me get involved in your issues. And he was, in some ways a very divisive, senior official in the military. And I equated it to you, you want to look at kind of the British constitutionalist position, the British Crown, if you're looking overseas, it has traditionally been something that it's kind of the rock, unmovable, unshakable, the parliament will do what parliament will do that the Tories and Labour will do what they will do, but the crown is unmovable the crown serves all. And that's kind of something that the military reflected, and I call out to the new rising generation military leaders to remember that, to remember that we don't own this, we owe nothing in the institution, we all leave it one day, as I left it a matter of weeks ago. All I have are my memories and and hopes that I was able to leave some things better than I found them and that the people I served that I hope I served them well. But at the end of the day, we hand it off to someone else. And it's so important for to have good leaders who recognize that we we steward the profession, that we we want to do the best we can with it in our time, and recognize the decisions that we make, will impact those who serve long after our time and do our best to hand it off in the best possible condition that we can for them. Because then to the to society, we returned. And then we depend on this who came after us for our national defense. And so it's the steward mindset to me as key.   Michael Hingson ** 21:41 Yeah. Well, and going back a little bit. So you're in graduate school you got recruited in and accepted and went into the military. What did you do? What was it like when you first went and that certainly again, had to be quite a culture shock from things that you would experience before? Ah,   Chase Spears ** 22:02 yeah, I figured absolutely was you'll never forget your first shark attack at basic training for for anyone who's unfamiliar with that, it's when you once you've done your initial and processing there, whatever base you get your basic training at, for me, it was Fort Jackson in South Carolina. And then they eventually buss you off to your your training companies, which is where you will actually conduct your combat training. This is after you've received your uniforms and done all your finances, paperwork, and life insurance and all that. And then the buses stop and the drill sergeants, they're just there waiting for you. And it's a moment you never forget. And of course, you jump off the bus and they're giving you all these commands that they know it's impossible for you to, to execute to any level of satisfaction. And then when you fail, as you inevitably will, you know, the entire group just gets smoked over and over and over again. And I remember that moment just having that realization of I have not in Kansas anymore, like the next next few months of my life are about to be very different than anything I've ever experienced. And it was it absolutely was. I got through that. And I think the first thing that was really kind of shocking to me be on to the training environment was the use of last names. So yeah, I go by chase my friends call me chase people who know me call me chase. I'm I'm not hung up on titles. I'm a simple guy. In the military, you are your rank and last name. I was specialist Spears sergeants First Lieutenant spears or LT Captain spears, major spears. And I remember at my first unit, there were other other people who in my unit there were the same rank as me. And so I thought were peers I'd call them by their first name. And they never gave me problems about it. But our higher ups would you know, people have rank spears, we don't go by first names spears. And I never I never 20 years and I still never really adjusted well to that I learned how to how to keep myself from getting as many talking to us about it over the years is I had in previous times. But that was a culture shock. And, and just the the constant what we call the military, the battle rhythm, you know, civil society would call it your work schedule, while in the military. It never really ends your day start very early. You have physical training that you're doing with your unit at 630. Depending on what unit you're in, you may be off at a reasonable time in the late afternoon, early evening, or you may be there. I've remember staying at work one night till 4am Just because the boss gave us a job to do. Frankly, it was an unreasonable job. But he gave us a job to do and an extraordinarily tight deadline and it took us till 4am to get the job done and And I was at work by 630, the next morning. So you never, ever really do get used to that in some ways, because you kind of come to accept it. But it's been really eye opening to me in the last nearly three months now that I've been now, looking back and having some control over my schedule now for the first time in 20 years, and realizing, wow, that was such a foreign existence I lived. But when you're when you're swimming in a fishbowl, you don't know you're wet. So every time you do adapt to it, but it's been neat being on the other side and realizing, you know, can kind of breathe in and start to have some say over what a schedule looks like, because I'd forgotten what that was, what that'd be like.   Michael Hingson ** 25:44 But as you rose in the ranks, and I assume took on more responsibility, did that give you any more flexibility in terms of how you operate it on a day to day basis.   Chase Spears ** 25:56 It all depended on the position, there were there were some jobs I had, where were, regardless of the rank, I had flexibility. And then there were other jobs, where I absolutely did not even as a major want, there was a job that I had, where the boss was very adamant. This is the time you will be here and you will be sitting at this desk between these hours and you are authorized authorized is a big term in the military culture, you are authorized a 30 minute lunch break period. And you will be here until this time every day. And this was when I had you know, I think I was at my 1718 year mark. And I remember thinking to myself, golly, do I need to ask permission to go to the bathroom to see, it seemed I didn't. So it really kind of depended on your job. There's a perception a lot of times that the higher you go in rank, the more control you have over your life. And I observed that the opposite is actually true. The higher you go, typically, the more the more demands are placed on you. The more people are depending on the things that you're doing. And and the bigger the jobs are. And the longer the days are was my experience, but it had been flooded depending on what position I was in at the given time.   Michael Hingson ** 27:17 Now, when you first enlisted and all that, what was Laurie's reaction to all of that.   Chase Spears ** 27:23 I was shocked. She was so supportive. She actually grew up in an Air Force household. And so she knew military life pretty well. Her dad had been been in, he spent a lot more time in the air force than I did the army. And then even after he retired from the Air Force, he went on and taught at the Naval Academy as a civilian. So she is just always had a level of familiarity with the military as long as she can remember. She joked with me that when she got married to me and then had to give up her dependent military ID card that it was kind of a moment of mourning for she didn't want to give that thing up. So one day, there we are Knoxville, Tennessee, and I approached her. And I'm trying to be very careful, very diplomatic, very suave, and how I bring it up to her and let her know I've been thinking about the army. And I'm kind of curious what she might think about that. Because it'd be such a drastic lifestyle change from everything we've been talking about. And I was bracing for her to look at me and be like, are you insane? And instead, she was like, Oh, you won't get in the military. And I get an ID card again. Yes. She was she was supportive from from Jump Street. And so you talk about a wife who just was there, every minute of it, and loved and supported and gave grace and rolled with the punches. milori Did she was absolutely phenomenal. Though, I will admit when it got to the point that I was starting to think maybe 20. I'll go ahead and wrap this up, because my original plan had been to do 30. But when I started talking with her about that she was she was also ready, she was ready to actually start having me home regularly for us to be able to start making family plans and be able to follow through with them. Because we had the last three years we had not been able to follow through with family plans, because of the different positions that I was in. So she was very, very supportive of me joining and then she was equally very supportive of me going ahead and and calling it calling it a day here or the last just at the end of this year. But what a what a partner could not have done it   Michael Hingson ** 29:41 without her. So where did she live when you were going through basic training and all that.   Chase Spears ** 29:46 So she stayed in Knoxville for nonGSA. Yeah. And then from there, she actually ended up moving up to her dad's and his wife's place up in Maryland because my follow on school after base See training was the Defense Information School. That's where all the Public Affairs courses are taught. And it's so happens that that is located at Fort Meade, Maryland, which is just about a 45 minute drive traffic dependent from where her dad lived. So while I was in basic training, she went ahead and moved up there to Maryland so that while I was in school up there, we could see each other on the weekends. And then from there, we didn't have to go back to Tennessee and pack up a house or stuff was already packed up so we could get on the road together there to wherever our next duty station was. And it turned out funny enough to be Colorado Springs, Fort Carson. And here's why that's funny. When, when I approached Laurie, about joining the army, one of the things that she was really excited about was seeing the world if you're in the military, you get to see the world, right. And my first duty assignment was the town that she had grown up in, because her dad had spent the last few years of his career teaching at the Air Force Academy there on the northern end of Colorado Springs. So so her her dreams of seeing the world with me, turned out that our first tour was going to write back home for her.   Michael Hingson ** 31:14 Oh, that has its pluses and it's minuses.   Chase Spears ** 31:17 Yep. So it was neat for me to get to see where she had grown up and learn the town little bit.   Michael Hingson ** 31:23 I've been to Fort Meade, and actually a few times I used to sell technology to folks there. And then several years ago, I was invited to come in after the World Trade Center and do a speech there. And so it was it was fun spending some time around Fort Meade heard some wonderful stories. My favorite story still is that one day somebody from the city of Baltimore called the fort because they wanted to do traffic studies or get information to be able to do traffic studies to help justify widening roads to better help traffic going into the fort. So they call it the fort. And they said, Can you give us an idea of how many people come through each day? And the person at the other end said, Well, I'm really not sure what you're talking about. We're just a little shack out here in the middle of nowhere. And so they ended up having to hire their own people to count cars for a week, going in and out of the fort was kind of cute.   Chase Spears ** 32:23 Well, there's quite a bit of traffic there. Now that basis when   Michael Hingson ** 32:26 I was then to there wasn't just a little shack, of course, it was a whole big forest.   Chase Spears ** 32:32 Yeah, yeah, it's I was back there. Golly, I want to say it wasn't that long ago. But it was about five years ago now is back there. And I almost didn't recognize the place. There's been so much new built there. But oh, I know, as far as army assignments go, it's a it's a pretty nice place.   Michael Hingson ** 32:50 Yeah, it is. And as I said, I've had the opportunity to speak there and spend some time dealing with folks when we sold products and so on. So got to got to know, people, they're pretty well and enjoyed dealing with people there. They knew what they were doing. Yeah,   Chase Spears ** 33:07 yeah, that's a it's a smart group of people in that base.   Michael Hingson ** 33:10 So you went through basic training and all that and what got you into the whole idea of public relations and what you eventually went into?   Chase Spears ** 33:20 Well, I had studied in college, my undergraduate degree was in television and radio broadcasting. My master's was in journalism, I'd grown up kind of in the cable news age, and the at the age of the emergence of am Talk Radio is a big, big tool of outreach. And I grew up thinking, this is what I want to do. I love communication. I actually thought it'd be really neat to be an investigative reporter on if, if you remember, back in the 90s, it was this big thing of, you know, Channel Nine on your side, yeah, had this investigative reporter who tell you the real deal about the restaurant or the automotive garage. And I always thought that would be amazing, like what a great public service like helping people to avoid being ripped off. And so I wanted to be a news. I'm sure you're familiar with the Telecom Act of 1996. That That caused a tremendous consolidation of media for your audience who might not be familiar with it. It used to be that really, if you had the wherewithal to buy a media station or a television station or radio station, you were unlimited in what you could you there were limits, I should say on what you could buy, so that you couldn't control too much, too much media environment, the Telecom Act of 1996, completely deregulated that and so large media companies were just swallowing up the nation. And that meant there's a tremendous consolidation of jobs and the my junior year in college. I was in the southeast us at the time at Lee University. Atlanta. Nearby was our biggest hiring media market, my June Your year CNN laid off 400 people. So I could tell really quick, this is going to be a chat and even more challenging field to break into than I thought. And that's why I ended up working part time in a law firm was in, in Journalism School. Afterwards, because I was looking great. I was looking for a backup plan. I thought if journalism doesn't work out, I also love the law. It'd be nice to get some experience working in a firm to see if I want to go to law school. So it was a natural fit for me when the army recruiter started talking to me. And he was asking me what I was interested in. And I told him, Well, here's what my degree is in, here's what my career plan had been, here's who I really want to do with my life. And he said, we have public affairs, I said, What's that? It turns out, the military has radio stations, and they have television networks and you PR, I had no idea. I was a civilian. And I was like, Well, that sounds good. And so I thought, yeah, sure, I'll I will enlist for that come in, do one four year contract, I'll build a portfolio and and then I'll be able to take that portfolio out into the civilian realm. And hopefully that will make me more competitive for a job in the news market. And of course, a couple of years into that. I was in Kuwait deployed to camp Arif John. And my brigade commander sat me down to lunch one day, and made it very clear that he expected me to apply for Officer Candidate School, which was nowhere on what I was interested in doing was nowhere on my radar, I applied, I really didn't have a lot of confidence. I thought, I looked at officers and I thought they were people who are way, way more intelligent than me, way more suave than me. And I really didn't know if I'd get in, well, I got in. And after I commissioned officer candidate school is about like basic training all over again. So that was fun. And I ended up being assigned to a combat camera unit. And then afterwards, I was able to put my paperwork in to branch transfer right back into public affairs, it was a perfect mess was everything I wanted to do. I didn't get to work in news directly. I wasn't a reporter. But I got to work with reporters, I got to be an institutional insider and help facilitate them and help to tell the stories of what some great American patriots were doing, and wanting to serve their countries. And so it was, for the most part, more often than not, it was a really, really fun way to earn a living living.   Michael Hingson ** 37:34 I collect as a hobby old radio shows I'm very familiar with but back in the 40s was the Armed Forces Radio Service, then it became Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. And so I'm aware a little bit of, of the whole broadcast structure in the military, not a lot, but but some and know that that it's there. And it does, I'm suspect, a really good job of helping to keep people informed as much as it can as they can with the things that they have to do in the world. It's   Chase Spears ** 38:04 definitely it's a comfort over the years, if you're spending a lot of time overseas to have kind of that that taste of home and our forces network does a really good job of that letting I think we're starting to see some debates inside the military. Now. What do we want to continue of it? Because now information is so ubiquitous, if you will, you can pull it down, you can stream whatever you want, wherever you are in the globe. So I kind of wonder in the next 1020 years, will it still be a thing, but during my early career during my early deployment before he could stream stuff, it was really cool to have an AFN radio station to tune into is really cool to have an AFN television network to tune into to be able to get a taste of home. That was much a comfort,   Michael Hingson ** 38:52 right? Yeah, it is. It is something that helps. So you can't necessarily stream everything. I spent a week in Israel this summer. And there were broadcasts I could get and pick up through the internet and so on. And there were stuff from here in the US that I couldn't get I suspect it has to do with copyright laws and the way things were set up but there was only so much stuff that you could actually do.   Chase Spears ** 39:20 And what a time to be in Israel you will I bet that trip is even more memorable for you now than it would have been otherwise.   Michael Hingson ** 39:27 Fortunately, it wasn't August. So we we didn't have to put up with the things that are going on now. But still Yeah, it was very memorable. I enjoyed doing it. spending a week with excessively over there and got into getting to meet with with all the folks so it was definitely well worth it and something that that I will always cherish having had the opportunity to do get   Chase Spears ** 39:51 for you. If it's on my bucket list. I've always wanted to spend some time over there.   Michael Hingson ** 39:56 Hot and humid in the summer, but that's okay. Let's say but they love breakfast. Oh, really? So yeah, definitely something to think about. Well, so you, you joined you got you got the public relations, jobs and so on. So how did all that work for you over? Well, close to 20 years? What all did you do and what, what stories can you tell us about some of that?   Chase Spears ** 40:25 It was it was fascinating. It was fascinating because everything that I got to touch was, in some way a story. And so my first job was in radio and television production. I did quite a bit of that in Kuwait. And it was actually there that I got my first taste of crisis communication, and I was immediately addicted. Do you remember back in? It was December 2004. Donald Rumsfeld said you go to war with the Army you have not the army want or might wish to have it another time? Yeah. I was there. That that was uttered in camp you're in Kuwait. And that was such an interesting moment. For me in terms of a story to tell. I was with the 14 Public Affairs Detachment we were deployed to camp Arif John to provide public affairs support for for Third Army's Ford headquarters. This was back during the height of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so there's a lot of military going over there. We were part of that. And I remember hearing this tasking that had come down that the Secretary of Defense is going to come out here is going to do this town hall meeting with the troops. There's going to be no question that you can't ask. You're going to be allowed to say anything you want to say to the Secretary of Defense, nothing's going to be scripted, nothing's going to be put through for review. And by the way, 14 pad you guys are going to make sure that it can be televised live back to the United States. And so here I am thinking what can possibly go wrong. And so we helped we all the event, Secretary Rumsfeld hindered and handled it really, really well. They set up this big, you know, fighting machinery display, they're in a in a big aircraft hangar epic camp bearing which is in northern Kuwait, just not too far south from the Iraqi border. And he gets up he gives the speech. He's well received by the troops. And it goes to the q&a part. And soldiers were asking him all sorts of questions. Most of them are jovial, you know, hey, when when do we get to go to Disney World, stuff like that. They were kind of big jocular with them.   Michael Hingson ** 42:42 Seems a fair question.   Chase Spears ** 42:44 Yeah, you know, I felt them right. And so finally, this one guy, I'll never forget his name, especially as Thomas Wilson from the 2/78 Regimental Combat Team. Tennessee National Guard asks him a question about when are they going to get the body armor that's needed? And in true Rumsfeld style, he's he says, Well, I'm not quite sure I understood the question. Can you ask it again, which is a great technique. He used to buy him some time to think the answer. And then it came back after the second question. And the whole hangar about 1000 of us in there. It was hast. I'll bet you could have heard a plastic cup hit the floor at the back back of the room. I mean, everyone was like, what? Oh, no, what just happened? What's about to happen? And Rumsfeld makes that remark, you go to war with the army have not the one you want or need. Yeah. And and then the questions went on. And there was not be after that. There was no awkward moment for the rest of the time. And I and I thought, wow, that could have gone south. But it didn't cool. It was just it was neat to watch. I was running the television camera that caught the moment. I was in the room. And so we me and my sergeant had to stay up there the rest of the day because there were some other television network interviews with other officials that we were running the satellite transponder for. And it was a long day our commander was kind of being a jerk to us. So by the end of the day, we were tired we'd been up there sleeping on cots for a couple of days, we were kind of just ready to get back to data camp Arif, John to our beds and put the whole mission behind us. And then we drive to three hours through this pouring pouring rainstorm in Kuwait, and a Canvas side Humvee that's leaking. All you know, water just pouring into this thing on us. So we're done. We're done. We're done. We're like, we just want to get a bed. We get back to our base. We're offloading all the equipment, putting everything away. And at this point in time, I forgotten about the moment earlier in the day when that question was asked, and I walk in and there we had this wall of televisions you know, tracking all the different news networks back in the US and on all of them Their Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, you go to war with the army have not the army won or wish to have another time. And at that moment, I was like, it's about to be an interesting few weeks around here. And it turned out, it turned out indeed to be an interesting few weeks, an interesting few months. And I got to be on the front end of what the public affairs response to that looks like. And I can tell you, I've never seen armored vehicles flow into a place as quickly as they did in the following month. So the power of a message transmitted is a real thing. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 45:39 so whatever happened to specialist Wilson?   Chase Spears ** 45:44 I don't I don't know. I know that news coverage. When that news reporters were asking that very question and coverage that I saw said, Oh, his unit, his assured that nothing bad will happen to him. He was a national guardsmen, so he kind of fall under a different, different command structure than us. From time to time, I have wondered that and I've tried to look him up online, and just try to find out what happened to the sky and what was life like for him? I'd love to talk to him and ask alright, what was it like, man, what is your unit do? But I, I have no idea. I can't find him. I presume he's gone about his life and doesn't want to be famous about it. But it also goes back to National Guard culture versus active duty culture. We talked earlier about the citizenship aspect. And the National Guard gets that way more than the active component. At the end of the day, they demobilize. And they go home. Right, you're running into the same people you serve, with the church, at the grocery store, at the grocery store, at the PTA, places like this, some of them might be your neighbors. And so they have an entirely different outlook. This is what they do to serve the country when needed. And then they go on about their lives. I don't think you would have seen an active duty soldier ask that question. I really don't because the culture is so so markedly different. And there's a level of kind of freedom of thought and expression, present that guard that that is much more lacking in the active component.   Michael Hingson ** 47:19 Should there be more freedom, in that sense in the active component? Or do you think that it's really appropriate for there to be the dichotomy that you're describing?   Chase Spears ** 47:32 And the act of force you need discipline? You need a discipline force, who, when they're given a lawful order, will carry it out hastily, because lives could hang in the balance. That's absolutely important, and we can never lose that. But sometimes we can use discipline I say sometimes, often, more is the more appropriate term often we confuse discipline with silence. We confuse discipline with a lack of willingness to ask tough questions. We confuse discipline with just saying Yes, sir. When you know, in the back of your mind, there might be something you need to dig into more. We we need, unfortunately, since the end of the Second World War, going back to my comments earlier about this large, industrialized, institutionalized force we have it breeds careerists. It breeds a mindset that's fearful to ask tough questions, even if you know they need to be asked. Because you want to be promoted. Right? You want to get assignments, right. And it breeds a culture where you really are much more timid. Or you're much more likely to be timid than someone who's maybe a reservist or National Guard member. We need people who will ask tough questions. We don't need indiscipline, we don't rush showmanship, we don't need people who are being performative just to be seen. But there are valid questions to be asked is, you know, is US defense policy? Better set for a 400? Ship navy or a 300? Ship? Navy? That's a valid question. Is it better for us to use this route of attack versus that route of attack? Given the Give Me Everything we know, those are valid questions. We need people in the military who who are willing to be critical thinkers, and there are a lot of extraordinarily brilliant people in today's armed forces, as there always has been. But there is on the active duty side a culture that works against original thought and that's really to our detriment. And I think the manner in which the evacuation of Afghanistan ended is one more blatant indicator of that.   Michael Hingson ** 49:48 It was not handled nearly as well as it could have been as we have seen history tell us and teach us now   Chase Spears ** 49:56 Absolutely. i It broke my heart. I'm A veteran of that conflict I'm not one who cries easily, Michael but I can tell you that morning when I saw the some of the images coming out of cobbles especially there's a video of a C 17 cargo jet taking off and people literally hanging to and falling to their deaths. Just i i fell off, I fell off my on my run into a sobbing human being on this on the ground for a little bit it is there's a lot to process and it has continued to be a lot to process. And there again, there's a great example of why you gotta be willing to ask tough questions. There was no no reason at all. We should have abandoned Bagram and tried to evacuate out of downtown Cabo. But that's a whole nother conversation. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 50:52 Well, speaking of you, I understand that you weren't a great fan of jumping out of airplanes, but you got used to doing them? I   Chase Spears ** 51:01 sure did. Oh, yeah. I always thought that would just be something that no, I don't want to say no sane person would do. I mean, I enjoy watching skydivers, I think it's really cool. And obviously, they're saying, I never thought I'd be among them. I thought, Nah, that's just something, I don't think I'm gonna do that. And when I was an officer candidate school, I was roommates with a guy who had been to Airborne School earlier in his career. And he was like, man, don't do it. Don't let him talk you into going to Airborne School, though, you'll be stuck at Fort Bragg, you'll just you'll be broke all the time, you'll be hurting all the time, the army takes the fun out of everything. And he's right. To an extent the army does take the fun out of most things that touches. But I got to my first unit as an officer. So I'd done enlisted time for three years, then I went to Officer Candidate School. And then my first job as an officer was at the 55th combat camera company, which is not a full airborne unit, but it's a partial airborne unit. And they had a hard time keeping enough active duty paratroopers on hand. And so I remember day one, when I was in processing the unit, there are all these different places you go, when you're in process, you gotta go see the training room, and you got to go see the administrative room, and you got to go see the Transportation Office and all these places, and they're just checking your paperwork. And so I see the training room, and there's the sergeant in there. And he's looking through my list. And he's asking me all these questions, you know, when was your last PT test? Where's the last physical, you know, making notes on me for the unit record? And then he says, Do you want to go to Airborne School? And without thinking, I said, Absolutely not. I have no interest in going to Airborne School. And his reply to me was go ahead and get an airborne physical. And I thought, There's no way I'm ever getting an airborne physical because I'm not going to Airborne School. So a few weeks later, I'm in the unit, I'm more comfortable. And I'm across. I'm in a different office across the hall from where this guy worked. And I'm joking around with this other sergeant. And I'm like, sir, and you're just such a cool guy. Like you've got all together, you're, you're like everything I want to be when I grow up. What how do you do it? He said, Well, sir, you got to go to Airborne School. That's step one. The other guy across the hall ever hears that, you know, mouse ears, I don't know how. But he darts out of his office across the hall into this opposite we're in, looks me straight in the face and said, Did you say you want to go to Airborne School? Like no, is not what I said, I absolutely have no interest. I'm not going to Airborne School. And he again replies with schedule your physical. And I thought, I'm not going to disappoint me scheduling a fiscal. So I get back to my office that later that day. And I thought this guy is not going to give up. So I came up with this brilliant plan. It was smart, smartest plan you'll ever hear of, I'm going to pretend I'm going to get my airborne physical and then he'll forget about me, leave me alone. So I called him and said, Hey, Sergeant, what's the phone number I have to call them schedule an airborne physical and it gives me the phone number and the the name of the person to talk to and I said, Great. I'll talk to him. There were two or three other lieutenants set to show up to the unit next in the next month. So I thought he will assume I'm getting a physical which I'm not getting and there's other guys will show up and he will convince them to go and I will fall off his radar. I was incorrect. That was a bad bad miscalculation on my part, you might say a flawed operation   Michael Hingson ** 54:39 with your the and you were the one who was talking about brilliant people in the army Anyway, go ahead.   Chase Spears ** 54:43 I know I know. Right? Yeah, I am a paradox. And so that within an hour I get an email from him with my he's already put me in for school. I already have orders generated to go to jump school. And then he calls me he's like Hey, by the way, your report in like three weeks, I need your physical as soon as you can get it. And I thought this guy, I told him I'm not going to Airborne School. Well, at the same time, our unit commander was a paratrooper, and he loves jumping out of airplanes. And I had two or three paratroopers in my platoon who were underneath me. And I thought, There's no way I can go now. Because if I, if I get the commander to release me, one, I'll lose face with the old man. And I'll lose face with the troops that I lead because the soldiers have to compete for this. They're just giving it to me. And so I went, protesting, kicking, screaming the whole way. I hated ground week. I hated tower week. And then they put took me up to the 250 foot tower and dropped me off the side of it under a parachute. And I loved it. I was like, Oh, this is fun. I actually asked if I can do it again. And they said, they don't get what's right. So the next week, we go into jump week in there I am in the back of an airplane, and it comes to my turn to get up and exit it. And I do, and I get to the ground and I survive. And I literally just sat there and laughed uncontrollably because I couldn't believe I just jumped out of a plane. And it was my first of 40 jobs. So I was I was absolutely hooked from that moment on.   Michael Hingson ** 56:20 And what did Lori think of that?   Chase Spears ** 56:23 She was a little bit surprised. She She again, was supportive. But she was surprised she never thought it's something that I would take to and it ended up being a great thing for us. Because having been on jumped status, it opened the door for me to request the unit and Alaska that we ended up going to for six years, you had to be on airborne status to be able to go to that job. And so had I not going to jump school, I would not have qualified to go into Alaska for that particular job. And so it ended up being a wonderful, wonderful thing. But I would have never guessed it, it just it's another one of those poignant reminders to me that every time that I think I've got a plan, it's God's way of reminding me that he has a sense of humor, because what's going to work out is always going to be very different from what I think.   Michael Hingson ** 57:10 And you help Laurie see the world. So well worked out. Absolutely.   Chase Spears ** 57:15 Yeah, she we never, we never got to spend time together overseas. But Alaska was an amazing adventure. And, gosh, if if no one in your listeners haven't been there yet to go see a Sunday?   Michael Hingson ** 57:29 Yeah, I went there on a cruise I didn't see as much as I would have loved to but still, I got to see some of them. It was great.   Chase Spears ** 57:38 It's nothing like it. No. Now you   Michael Hingson ** 57:42 as you advance in the ranks, and so on you, you started being in public relations, being a communicator, and so on. But clearly, as you advanced, you became more and I'm sure were viewed as more of a leader that was kind of a transition from from not being a leader. And just being a communicator and doing what you were told to be more of a leader, what was that transition like?   Chase Spears ** 58:07 That was another one of those things that I would have never seen coming. After I did my three years as the spokesman for the Airborne Brigade. In Alaska, I ended up becoming the deputy communication director for US Army, Alaska, which was the highest army command there in the state responsible for 11,000 troops and their families in multiple locations. And I remember one day, my boss came to me and saying, hey, the general is going to give a speech to the hockey team at the University of Alaska, about leadership. And so I need you to write it. And I looked at him and I said, boss, all right, whatever he told me to write, but the general has forgotten more about leadership than I know, like, how do where do I start with this? And I don't remember the exact words, I think it was something to the effect of, you're smart, you'll figure it out. And so I put together a speech, it was by no means anything glorious, but it was the best I had to give that moment in time and what leadership was fully convinced that I was not one. And then over time, I there are people who spoken to me at their headquarters who called out leadership that I didn't see they were pointing out influence that I had there pointing out people who I was able to help steer towards decisions that I didn't realize that I didn't know and it made me start looking back in other parts of my career and realizing, Oh, my goodness, I actually led that team. This man actually looks to me for decisions. I actually I am a leader, I had no idea. There's something I always thought if if you were in the military and you're a leader, you were some grand master, you know, like, like Patton or Eisenhower and I didn't think think myself anything like that. And so finally, in 2015, I was offered A chance to take command of a company which in civilian terms, that's kind of like being the executive director, if you will, of an organization of 300 people. And I was so excited for it. Because by that point in time, I finally made the mental transition of saying, I'm not, I'm not merely a communicator, communicating is what I've done. But occasionally it's I've worked on delivering us on passionate about, by came to realize, I love that so much because communicating is a part of leading and, and I, I am a leader, it's just something. Looking back. Of course, my life has always been there, I just never knew it. I never saw it, I never believed in it. And so by the time I was offered the chance to command, I was very excited for it, I was very eager for it, because I realized this is going to be an a wonderful adventure getting to lead a team at this level of this size. And it was the hardest job I ever did in the army, and the most rewarding. I don't know if you've ever watched any of the Lord, Lord of the Rings movie. But there's this moment where Aragon is being chided, is set aside the Ranger Be who you were meant to be to be the king. And that meant that came back to my mind several times I had to challenge myself that just because I only see myself as a communicator all these years doesn't mean that I can't do other things. And so it was a joy to actually walk into that. Believing is not easy. There's there are a lot of hard days or a lot of hard decisions. Especially when I was a commander, I agonized every decision. So I made because I knew this will have an impact on a person, this will have an impact on a family this, this will change the directions and plans that people had. And so it's a heavy weight to bear. And I think it's good that those kind of decisions come with weight. And I would question someone who who can make those kinds of calls without having to wrestle with them.   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:01 When you look at all the things that you've done, and the work that you do, and the work that you did, at the end of every day, or at some time during the day, I know you were pretty busy. But did you ever have the time to just kind of sit back and reflect on how did this go today? How did that go? What could have been better? Did you do any kind of introspection? Or did you feel you had time to do that?   Chase Spears ** 1:02:24 I didn't really feel I had time. And it would be easy for me to blame the unit, it'd be easy for me to blame people. But that responsibility rests with me. It's a discipline that I didn't develop until way too late in my career. And I eventually did develop it, I eventually came to realize the importance of reflection of introspection of taking a mental inventory of what I've accomplished I didn't accomplish and what I can learn from it. But it was sadly something that I didn't do as much as I should have. And I didn't do it as early, I was really, really bad at assuming well, because the unit needs this right now. I can't take care of this thing that I need to take care of that will that will allow me to be the leader that I need to be you know, I get in a car, someone slams on my car, and I need to get them to take care of it. Why don't have time unit Scott has to have me We gotta move on. Well, I've got six screws in my left hand and my left shoulder right now because I was always too busy to listen to the physical therapist and take care of myself, you know, the unit needs me the unit needs me the men need me. And so it, it was a hard, hard learned lesson. The importance of sitting back and reflecting is something I wish I would have learned much sooner. But once I did, it served me well. And it's a discipline that I still practice now.   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:46 Yeah, yeah, it's, I think a very important thing. And a lot of things can can stem from that. What's the best position your favorite position in the army and why?   Chase Spears ** 1:03:59 The best thing I ever got to do is company command. And it's hard to say that because it's really it's really closely tied with being a brigade director of communication. And t

This week, the guys are talking all about lilacs. In Alaska, there is a short window when lilacs are in full bloom (about 6 weeks), so it's important to care for them properly to keep them healthy year after year. Fun fact: Jeff's grandfather hybridized a lilac!After the break, Jeff shares the battery-powered tools he uses for gardening:Small chainsawBlowerWeed eaterJeff is disappointed with his modern weed eater because it's difficult to maintain, while Jonathan is pleasantly surprised with his weed eater's ease of use. One thing the guys agree on is that a good weed eater is essential for a healthy-looking lawn or meadow!Finally, they discuss the practicality of newer electric composters and ask listeners to share their thoughts.Discover all this and more in this week's episode of Teaming With Microbes!**********************************************Have a question? Let us know at teamingwithmicrobes@me.comPlant a row for the hungry/Read Teaming With Microbes, Teaming With Nutrients and Teaming With Fungi!Thanks to our sponsors:Big Foot MicrobesNumber 2 Organics made in partnership with Malibu CompostDown To Earth All Natural Fertilizers The Teaming with Microbes Podcast is edited and produced with original music by Pod Peak.  Special thanks to the Anchorage Daily News for hosting the show!

Where's our dam host? In Alaska! While he's out exploring the Land of the Midnight Sun, Summit Metro Parks Biologist Jason Whittle shares a sneak peak of what's to come. Free the Falls premieres next month!

Jory Knott is the Executive Director of the Alaska Innocence Project. The Alaska Innocence Project started in 2008 under the direction of Bill Oberly, and it took seven years for them to get their first exoneration — it was the Fairbanks Four case, in which four Alaska Native men were wrongly convicted of murder and subsequently spent 18 years in prison. Jory says that that case involved a number of factors that led to a wrongful conviction, including eyewitness misidentification, incentivized witnesses, confirmation bias, racial animus, misconduct, and bad science. This was the case that got Jory interested in working with the Innocence Project — he was an intern then, but made the decision to go to law school so that he could work there full-time.  Studies that consider the number of people who have been wrongfully convicted in the U.S. since the late-1980s estimate that up to 5 percent of the prison population is wrongfully convicted. In Alaska, that would mean about 150 innocent people are in prison. Nationally, the average person who is wrongfully convicted spends 12 years in prison before they're exonerated. And Alaska is among about a dozen other states that do not have a wrongful conviction compensation statute, so exonerees don't get any money following their release. Even convicted felons receive things like re-entry services, recidivism prevention, education, job services and drug counseling. But Jory says that, despite all of this, he still has faith in the criminal justice system because, for the most part, it gets it right and wrongful convictions are rare.

In Alaska and Barcelona, money from visitors is paying for heat pumps. What do we owe to the places we go on vacation? We hear how travellers can contribute to climate solutions. And, we answer a listener's question about whether our beloved maple syrup will disappear in a warming world.

In this one, Cody talks to Jory Knott. He's the Executive Director of the Alaska Innocence Project. The Alaska Innocence Project started in 2008 under the direction of Bill Oberly, and it took seven years for them to get their first exoneration — it was the Fairbanks Four case, in which four Alaska Native men were wrongly convicted of murder and subsequently spent 18 years in prison. Jory says that case involved a number of factors that led to a wrongful conviction, including eyewitness misidentification, incentivized witnesses, confirmation bias, racial animus, misconduct, and bad science. This was the case that got Jory interested in working with the Innocence Project — he was an intern then, but made the decision to go to law school so that he could work there full-time. Studies that consider the number of people who have been wrongfully convicted in the U.S. since the late-1980s estimate that up to 5 percent of the prison population is wrongfully convicted. In Alaska, that would mean about 150 innocent people are in prison. Nationally, the average person who is wrongfully convicted spends 12 years in prison before they're exonerated. And Alaska is among about a dozen other states that do not have a wrongful conviction compensation statute, so exonerees don't get any money following their release. Even convicted felons receive things like re-entry services, recidivism prevention, education, job services and drug counseling. But Jory says that, despite all of this, he still has faith in the criminal justice system because, for the most part, it gets it right and wrongful convictions are rare.

This week we're discussing a news series we're creating to become a better shot with a rifle but also how recreational shooters might contribute more money to conservation than hunters. A few news stories from this week include the following. In Alaska the Bureau of Land management has released their final supplemental environmental impact statement in regards to the construction of the Ambler Road where they have recommended "No Action". News of chronic wasting disease potentially infecting humans has been spreading like wild fire in national news, but our friend Jim Heffelfinger has pointed out that the article that is often being cited, is NOT a scientific study, it is simply a short report of events. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife just released their draft black bear conservation plan that shows that bear populations are thriving in the state and there is more than enough room for hunter harvest. Link to California Draft Black Bear Conservation Plan https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Black-Bear Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In April of 2023 Anchorage Voters passed Proposition 14 by a 12-point margin. That proposition dedicates marijuana tax money to child care and early child care education – estimated to be between $4 & $6 million per year. These funds seem to come at just the right time. Due to the scarcity of programs as well as the cost of care and lack of high-quality child care means that 51% of Alaskan families cannot fully participate in the labor force. And even when families can participate the costs are high with many child care spots costing up to $1800 per month in Anchorage. In Alaska, child care can account for up to 15% of parents' income. On this episode I am joined by members of the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education Fund implementation team to discuss how the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education Fund is being implemented and the marijuana tax funds used to address the needs of families and child care workers in Anchorage.   https://www.careforkidsanchorage.com   https://www.muni.org/Departments/health/Pages/default.aspx https://www.facebook.com/ancpublichealth https://www.instagram.com/ancpublichealth/   https://www.muni.org/Departments/Assembly/Pages/default.aspx https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anchorage-Municipal-Assembly/388908687838651   https://www.asdk12.org/school_board/   https://www.alaskachildrenstrust.org/ https://www.facebook.com/alaskachildrenstrust https://www.instagram.com/alaskachildrenstrust/   https://www.anchoragechamber.org/ https://www.facebook.com/AnchorageChamber https://www.instagram.com/anchoragechamber

In Alaska, where there is halibut, I put my thoughts about this into practice and it worked very well...

This week, Jeff and Jonathan are celebrating the longer spring days in Alaska. However, the warming sun has them thinking about the impacts of global warming.They kick off this week's episode by discussing recent scientific studies, which warn that global warming could threaten the survival of dung beetles.Next, they explore various natural indicators that signal when it's safe to plant outdoors (and indoors). In Alaska, the size of birch tree leaves serves as a reliable clue! Jeff also emphasizes that now is an ideal time to complete springtime tasks, such as cleaning up after your dog, shoveling snow around greenhouse entrances, and more.Finally, they answer a listener's question on composting.Find all this and more on Teaming With Microbes!**********************************************Have a question? Let us know at teamingwithmicrobes@me.comPlant a row for the hungry/Read Teaming With Microbes, Teaming With Nutrients and Teaming With Fungi!Thanks to our sponsors:Big Foot MicrobesNumber 2 Organics made in partnership with Malibu CompostDown To Earth All Natural Fertilizers The Teaming with Microbes Podcast is edited and produced with original music by Pod Peak.  Special thanks to the Anchorage Daily News for hosting the show!

To put in context, In Alaska since 1988, more than 16,000 people have dissappeared which is a huge number. For every 100,000 people, 164 of them have gone missing which is far higher than any other state by a long shot as the 49 states average out to around just 6 people missing per 100,000. Those figures aren't skewed for effect for the sake of this episode, it's a fact and so the question becomes….what exactly is going on in Alaska? 

This week we're going to talk about how hunting regulations impact wildlife populations and how people often over emphasize the impact hunters have on wildlife. In Nebraska, a bill was introduced that would transfer money out of the state game fund into the general fund along with transferring money from the Habitat fund and State parks fund into the general fund. In British Columbia the first cases of Chronic wasting disease were recently reported. In Alaska the State has updated the regulations for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd to reduce bag limits for all hunters. Read more about the bill in Nebraska here https://sportsmensalliance.org/news/nebraska-senator-mocks-citizens-supports-defunding-game-and-parks-department/ Contact Senator Steve Erdman here http://news.legislature.ne.gov/dist47/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are the stories we tell. In Alaska the Inupiaq people tell the story of Sedna the goddess of the sea. They understand that the land they live on is a complex web of physical and spiritual beings.But the colonisers of Alaska tell a different set of stories about the same landscape. They tell stories of Wilderness and of the Last Frontier.Our guest today is Tia Tidwell professor of Alaska Native Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She belongs to the Nunamiut people of Anaktuvuk Pass.Tia's recommendations:Alaska is the Center of the Universe (Audible exclusive podcast)The Alaska Myth https://www.thealaskamyth.com/Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code AFTERDARK sign up now for your 14-day free trial http://access.historyhit.com/checkout/subscribe/purchase?code=afterdark&plan=monthlyYou can take part in our listener survey here.

Major accidents in civil aviation are actually only rare today. The aircraft are safer, the electronics are more reliable, the pilots are better trained and flight safety is closely monitored — yet, the year began with two spectacular flight accidents. In Alaska, shortly after takeoff, a door fell out of the fuselage of a new Boeing and then, following a collision in Tokyo, a large Airbus completely burned out. All passengers were rescued, but that could have been a disaster. How can such incidents occur? Benjamin Kanthak asks aircraft engineer Lasse Krutschinna this question: - Große Unfälle in der zivilen Luftfahrt gibt es heute eigentlich nur selten. Die Flugzeuge sind sicherer, die Elektronik zuverlässiger, die Piloten besser ausgebildet und die Flugsicherheit wird streng überwacht - dennoch, das Jahr begann mit zwei spektakulären Flugunfällen. In Alaska fiel kurz nach dem Start eine Tür aus dem Flugzeugrumpf einer neuen Boeing und dann brannte nach einem Zusammenstoß in Tokio ein großer Airbus total aus. Alle Passagiere wurden gerettet, doch das hätte eine Katastrophe werden können. Wie kann es zu solchen Zwischenfällen kommen? Diese Frage stellt Benjamin Kanthak dem Flugzeugbauingenieur Lasse Krutschinna:

That's The Biggest Lady **** I've Ever Seen! This week on the podcast, Brian and Darryl are talking about, Lady Ballers from the Daily Wire, The Shift from Angel Studios, and Monarch episodes 3-5 from AppleTV+! Episode Index Intro: 0:07 Lady Ballers: 4:41 The Shift: 18:24 Monarch: 38:15 Lady Ballers (The Daily Wire) Out of 10 What is a Womans Darryl: 5.5/10 Brian: 5.5/10 Summary A down-on-his-luck former high school basketball coach will do anything to win, which in this case means, leading his team of men to don wigs and brutally dominate in multiple women's sports. Directed by Jeremy Boreing Written by Jeremy Boreing Brian A. Hoffman Nick Sheehan Cast Jeremy Boreing Daniel Considine David Cone Blain Crain Jake Crain Tyler Fischer Billie Rae Brandt Lexie Contursi Rosie Seraphine Harper Matt Walsh Candace Owens Brett Cooper Michael J. Knowles Andrew Klavan Spencer Klavan Clay Travis Seth Dillon Riley Gaines The Shift (2023) Out of 10 The Benefactor is a Real Dicks Darryl: 7.25/10 Brian: 7/10 Summary Kevin Garner encounters a mysterious man known as "The Benefactor". When Kevin refuses the man's enticing offer of wealth and power, he is shifted into alternate totalitarian realities, encountering infinite worlds and impossible choices, as he attempts to return to the woman he loves. Directed by Brock Heasley Written by Brock Heasley Produced by Brock Heasley Ken Carpenter Starring Kristoffer Polaha Neal McDonough Elizabeth Tabish Rose Reid John Billingsley Paras Patel Jordan Alexandra Sean Astin Cinematography Edd Lukas Edited by Chris Witt Music by Dan Haseltine Matthew S. Nelson Production Companies Nook Lane Entertainment Pinnacle Peak Pictures Salt Shaker Media Distributed by Angel Studios Release dates December 1, 2023 (United States) Running time 115 minutes Budget $6.4 million Box office $5.5 million Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (AppleTV) Out of 10 The One Character That's Ready for All This Isn'ts Darryl: 6.5/10 Brian: 7/10 Episode 3: Secrets and Lies Summary In 2015, Cate, Kentaro, May, and Shaw escape Japan on a ferry bound for Pohang, Korea. In Pohang, they are accosted by border guards before one of them, Du-Ho, reveals himself as Shaw's old friend. Du-Ho transports them to Alaska by plane; on the way, May infers from Bill Randa's files that Hiroshi was likely following a list of coordinates identified by Monarch. In Alaska, they find the wreckage of Hiroshi's plane as well as an encampment suggesting his survival. Du-Ho realizes that Hiroshi's plane was attacked after landing; a Frost Vark kills him and destroys his plane. In 1954, Shaw has joined Monarch in a command position. He, Randa, and Miura present a cast of Godzilla's footprint from Indonesia to Shaw's superior officer, Gen. Puckett, to secure uranium to lure Godzilla out of hiding. In Bikini Atoll, Randa and Miura are horrified to discover that Puckett has delivered the uranium in the form of a nuclear bomb intended to kill Godzilla as part of the Castle Bravo test. As Godzilla surfaces, Miura attempts to halt the detonation, but Shaw restrains her. In the aftermath, Shaw is given a blank check by Puckett for Monarch to research the Titans. Episode 4: Parallels and Interiors Summary In 2015, the Frost Vark's emergence was detected by Monarch. Cate, Kentaro, May, and Shaw manage to escape from the Frost Vark, but May falls into a pool of water and quickly develops hypothermia as they try to find shelter. Kentaro splits off from the rest of the group and finds a building that he saw from the plane, which turns out to be an old radio station that Hiroshi had previously repaired. Having learned that the Frost Vark feeds on heat energy, Cate, May, and Shaw create a bonfire to distract it, long enough for a helicopter that Kentaro contacted to arrive and rescue them. The group is taken to a Monarch facility, where they are greeted by Tim and Duvall. In 2014, Kentaro met May while waiting for his first art show at a prestigious gallery. He chooses to spend the evening with her instead of preparing for the show, and they bond. It's ultimately revealed that Kentaro decided to present his art before he was ready to do so, out of a desire to make his father proud, and that the night of the gallery was the last time he saw Hiroshi before the latter's disappearance. Episode 5: The Way Out Summary In 2015, Monarch deputy director Verdugo is frustrated to learn that Shaw had kept Cate, Kentaro, and May in the dark about the true nature of Hiroshi's activities in Alaska. Duvall suggests releasing the three to track their movements. After returning to San Francisco, Cate convinces her mother, Caroline, and Caroline's colleague James to smuggle them towards Hiroshi's office in a restricted zone of the city's ruins. Evading military patrols and dealing with Cate's PTSD, they eventually reach Hiroshi's office. While they fail to find further hidden files, Kentaro concludes from Hiroshi's maps that he likely headed to Africa in search of Titans. May secretly contacts Duvall, asking to go home in exchange for her cooperation. In 2014, two days before Godzilla's emergence, Cate was in a relationship with fellow teacher Dani. On G-Day, feeling guilt over having cheated on Dani, Cate chooses to leave her behind to escort a bus of children across the Golden Gate Bridge. Many of the children are killed when Godzilla destroys the bridge during his clash with the military. Infamous Shirts for Naked Bodies... You'll feel "shirty" when you buy our gear from the Flying Pork Apparel Co. Contact Us The Infamous Podcast can be found wherever podcasts are found on the Interwebs, feel free to subscribe and follow along on social media. And don't be shy about helping out the show with a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help us move up in the ratings. @infamouspodcast facebook/infamouspodcast instagram/infamouspodcast stitcher Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Play iHeart Radio contact@infamouspodcast.com Our theme music is 'Skate Beat' provided by Michael Henry, with additional music provided by Michael Henry. Find more at MeetMichaelHenry.com. The Infamous Podcast is hosted by Brian Tudor and Darryl Jasper, is recorded in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show is produced and edited by Brian Tudor. Subscribe today!

In early 1945, as World War II neared its climax, 19-year-old Gore Vidal was the first officer of an Army supply ship in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. The weather was often stormy. Another ship in the fleet was hit by an especially nasty type of wind storm. Vidal wrote his first novel about his time in the Aleutians, and incorporated that storm into the plot. In fact, he named the novel after the wind: Williwaw.In scientific parlance, a williwaw is a type of katabatic wind. Such winds plunge down the sides of mountains, roaring outward when they hit level ground. They're found all over the world. And they have many names. The warm, dry wind of Southern California, for example, is called a “Santa Ana.” In Alaska, British Columbia, and off the tip of South America, though, they're known as williwaws.A williwaw begins as dense, cold air atop a mountain slides to lower elevations, accelerated by gravity. When it reaches the bottom of the mountain, the wind blows along the coastline and out to sea. And it's something that no mariner wants to see coming.Williwaws produce powerful gusts. The strongest recorded in Alaska hit almost 140 miles per hour—the equivalent of a category four hurricane. The winds rattle buildings, rock boats in port and near the coastline, and can even capsize boats. When a williwaw is in the forecast, a vessel might add extra mooring lines, drop a second anchor, or even head to sea to stay out of its way—avoiding the fury of a williwaw.

How Early Humans May Have Transformed L.A.'s Landscape ForeverJoin us on a time traveling adventure, as we go back 15,000 years to visit what's now southern California. During the last Ice Age, saber-toothed cats, wooly mammoths, and dire wolves prowled the landscape, until … they didn't. The end of the Ice Age coincided with the end of these species. And for decades, scientists have been trying to figure out a big question: Why did these animals go extinct? A new study in the journal Science offers new clues and suggests that wildfires caused by humans might've been the nail in these critters' coffins. Guest host Flora Lichtman talks with paleoecologist Dr. Emily Lindsey and paleobotanist Dr. Regan Dunn, both curators at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles, California, about what we can learn from animals preserved in tar pits, how fire transformed the ecosystem, and why we have to look to the past for modern day conservation and land management. How Scientifically Accurate Are The Sharks In ‘Meg 2: The Trench'?“Meg 2: The Trench” is the sequel to the 2018 movie “The Meg,” in which a team of ocean scientists discover a megalodon, the largest shark that ever lived, thriving at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Megalodon went extinct over 2.6 million years ago … or so the movie's characters thought.When the team's research sub gets damaged, a skilled rescue diver, played by Jason Statham, is brought in, who happened to have encountered the same megalodon years earlier. Over the course of the movie, the team discovers how this long-thought extinct apex predator survived, and what they can do to stop it before it wreaks havoc on the surface world.“Meg 2: The Trench” largely follows in that movie's footsteps, but this time, it features not just one, but multiple megalodons. Oh, and they're even bigger this time. Universe of Art host D. Peterschmidt chats with Dr. Sora Kim, an associate professor of paleoecology at University of California, Merced, about what science the movie got wrong (and right) and how these over-the-top blockbusters can inspire the scientists of the future. Scientists Discover Dinosaur ‘Coliseum' In Alaska's Denali National ParkResearchers recently discovered a rocky outcrop at Denali National Park in Alaska covered in dinosaur tracks, which they dubbed the “Coliseum.” It's the largest dinosaur track site ever found in Alaska. The area has thousands of prints from generations of dinosaurs living about 70 million years ago, including: duck-billed dinosaurs, horned dinosaurs, raptors, tyrannosaurs.  Flora Lichtman talks with Dustin Stewart, former graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and paleontologist for the environmental consulting firm Stantec, based in Denver, Colorado, about this dino hotspot. Your Guide To Conquering History's Greatest CatastrophesGuest host Flora Lichtman takes us back to some of the scariest, deadliest moments in history. Think along the lines of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the Ice Age, and the asteroid that wiped out the dinos. But we're going to revisit them using what we know now—and science, of course—to figure out if and how we could survive those events.The idea of using science and hindsight to survive history is the premise of a new book, How to Survive History: How to Outrun a Tyrannosaurus, Escape Pompeii, Get Off the Titanic, and Survive the Rest of History's Deadliest Catastrophes by Cody Cassidy. We have a new podcast! It's called Universe Of Art, and it's all about artists who use science to bring their creations to the next level. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.To stay updated on all-things-science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

In Alaska, there is a stretch of 186,000 miles of frozen wilderness with a terrifying reputation. Since 1972, more than 20,000 people have vanished there without a trace. This is the story, of the Alaska Triangle.  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theconspiratorspodcast Check out our new TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/discover/the-conspirators-podcast Notes: https://www.kinyradio.com/news/news-of-the-north/mysteries-of-portlock-alaska-and-the-abandonment-of-the-small-town-in-the-1900s/ https://hwy.co/portlock-alaska/ https://www.anchoragepress.com/news/framing-nantiinaq-alaska-s-best-known-cryptid-homicide-case-debunked/article_ed6facfe-a1f9-11eb-b7fc-0bba856ee2fe.html https://www.historicmysteries.com/portlock-sasquatch/ https://www.way.com/blog/whats-haunting-portlock-alaska-and-more-mysteries/ https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/haunted/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-alaska-triangle-discovery-plus https://www.legendsofamerica.com/alaska-triangle/ https://www.themanual.com/outdoors/alaska-triangle/ https://allthatsinteresting.com/alaska-triangle https://www.thetravel.com/strange-facts-about-the-alaska-triangle/ Music: Music: Long note One by Kevin MacLeod Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3992-long-note-one Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Despair and Triumph by Kevin MacLeod Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3641-despair-and-triumph Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Long Note Four by Kevin MacLeod Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3991-long-note-four Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Long Note Two by Kevin MacLeod Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3994-long-note-two Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mass incarceration as we know it today owes much of its existence to the political rationale created by the War on Drugs. Although proffered as a solution to the public health crisis of drug addiction, prisons actually provide little in the way of real care or rehabilitation for people struggling with substance abuse. In Alaska, True North Recovery, an addiction treatment and advocacy organization run by formerly incarcerated people, is working to expand care for incarcerated people suffering from addiction. Kara Nelson joins Rattling the Bars to discuss these efforts.Kara Nelson is currently the Chief Operating Officer at True North Recovery, and a Governor-appointed board member of the Alaska Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Addiction. Since 2016, Kara has served as a chaplain for the Alaska Department of Corrections.Studio Production: David Hebden, Cameron GranadinoPost-Production: Cameron GranadinoHelp us continue producing Rattling the Bars by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-pod-rtbSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-pod-rtbLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews

By his mid-twenties, Tex Rickard had been a cowboy, a Marshal, was friends with Wyatt Earp and had followed the gold rushes to Alaska. In Alaska he became friends with people with names like Swiftwater Bill, Deep Hole Johnson, Ham-Grease Jimmy, and the Chills and Fever Kid. He also discovered his true genius, promoting sport. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the life of Tex Rickard, the greatest promoter in the history of sport. If you'd like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. As a member, you'll get: A weekly bonus podcast Exclusive behind-the-scenes access A fortnightly newsletter Access to the members-only chatroom Ability to vote on future episodes Early access to any live show tickets Click here to join today Follow Sports Bizarre on: Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever been on a drive and say 15 minutes in you think to yourself, “Woah, how did I get here?  You realize you've lost your way and you need to turn it around and go back to the start.    In this week's episode, we'll be taking a look at the past, the history of midwifery and women's care as it pertains specifically to the United States, and delving into some of the reasons that compared to many other westernized countries, women and babies in the US have abysmal outcomes. We'll be sharing just how lost we've become when it comes to maternity care, and how we should really turn this car around.   Janelle Alier is a Certified nurse midwife local to me, and one of the coolest women around.  As she'll explain momentarily, she's worked with moms and babies in a number of capacities, and she recently opened her own homebirth practice, Paris Mountain Midwifery.   Show Notes:   Anciently (ex. Ancient Greece), women were held in high regard and valued as healers.  When the mindset began to change, in a way this was the beginning of the end.  This change corresponded more with religious and theological changes, not the dawn of medicine. Protestants burning “witches”—women healers Much of the knowledge gained over time began was lost with these women   Colonial America- childbirth attendants were women/midwives/family matriarchs   1800s- medical schools are popping up.  Physicians were around, but not trying to be involved at all   19th century—we could charge a fee! Began being interested in birth.  Obstetrics   Midwifery predates medicine: Rachel's midwife is mentioned in Genesis   Varney's Midwifery includes transcripts from Doctors meetings talking about the “midwife problem”   One doctor said the answer was to “educate the ignorants”.  This started a campaign to portray midwives as dirty and uneducated.   Laws began to change—it became illegal for midwives to practice the way they had.  They now had to obtain licensure by the state, which was almost impossible to do.    What's happening to birth at this time?  Physicians recognize that the midwives are more skilled and have better outcomes, but they did not try to work with or learn from the midwives.   Obstetrics in its infancy—it's not going great!  Many deaths in the early years are now attributed to anesthesia   They were giving morphine and narcotics, which we now know doesn't lessen the pain, it just makes you care less… and forget.   Culturally there was not a lot of accountability.  Family members were told that the women didn't survive because “birth is dangerous.”   Late 50's, early 60's- nearly all birth occurred in the hospital   In the late 60's and 70's, there was a small subset of the population who revived the natural childbirth movement, but by that point, the medical model was so mainstream that this movement was considered radical   80's and 90's- c section rates soared   In the last few years, we've realized we've lost our way.  The profession of midwifery is becoming more organized, though there's not tons of money for research, scholarships etc. as there are for medical students.   In South Carolina, Black Grand Midwives were the women delivering babies and taking care of the communities.   What do we do?   More midwives,  more midwives of color, better integration of midwives and the hospital setting  (if a mother needs to transport to the hospital, that should be easy).   In other areas of the Westernized world (Europe, Scandanavia, the UK, Australia, New Zealand etc.) midwifery wasn't wiped out the same way it was in the United States. And their outcomes are much better than ours.    In the UK—there are 5-6 times more midwives than OBs.  Everyone starts with a midwife, and if you need a physician, you get referred by your midwife.  The OBs manage higher risk care while midwives manage low risk birth.   In the US, only 10% of births are attended by midwives.  In Alaska, it's up to 30%, whereas in Arkansas, it's more like 1-2%.    If you overlay a map of birth out comes by state and the integration of midwives… you see that where there are more midwives practicing, there are better birth outcomes.   In the US, we have 1% of planned homebirths in the home.  Most American midwives work in the hospital.  Globally, not only do they have more midwives, but they also have more options.  You can have a midwife at home, or she can follow you into the hospital and continue care (this is not the case in the US).    Episode Roundup  The first thing I want to emphasize is the idea of encouraging the little ladies in our lives to embrace their healing and intuitive natures. What a spiritual gift—And truly, the best way to encourage this is to embrace it ourselves. Isn't it amazing how in a matter of just a few generations our country lost so much birth wisdom? I'm grateful for the resurgence of midwifery, but how heartbreaking to think of where we could be now if circumstances had played out differently.  Perhaps our outcomes wouldn't be so abysmal. And finally, looking towards the future, we have a chance to make things better.  We have the ability to speak out about the inexcusable rates of maternal and infant mortality.  We have the ability to inform other moms of their options, so that they're willing to speak out, too.  On a local level, this can be as small as sharing your birth choices and experiences with others.   This is a perfect moment for me to give a huge thank you to all of the mothers who have so willingly shared their stories on this podcast.  Thank you for inspiring other mothers and showing how beautiful birth can be.  

The Orchestra Teacher Podcast with Katie Eakes (Ep. 60)Katie Eakes is Alaskan native musician and educator. She recently completed her 17th year teaching in the Anchorage School District. She is a graduate of East High School in Anchorage and Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, where she received a bachelors degree in music education. At TTU, Mrs. Eakes was a part of the Texas Tech String Project pre-teaching program and specializes in working with first, second, and third year string students. In addition to teaching, Mrs. Eakes is an active performer on Double Bass. While in Texas, she was tenured member of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. In Alaska she has served as a member of of the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra for 17 years, currently serving as Assistant Principal Double Bass, and performs with the Anchorage Opera where she serves as Principal Double Bass. Her leadership roles include serving as the Elective Department Chair, and the Co-Founder and Coordinator for the School Showcase. Mrs. Eakes also has a private bass studio, plays bass guitar with a reunion band, and serves as a studio and remote recording musician. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family, her dogs, and her plants, and focusing on physical fitness. Link: https://www.youtube.com/@katiepidgeoneakes1788 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/orchestrateacher/support

Episode Summary Carrot and Margaret talk about all things hiking, including thru-hiking and ultralight hiking. They talk about how to choose the right gear for the right purposes and how to minimize the impacts of long distance hiking on your body. They go through the complications of bringing dogs on long hikes and how to stay safer around grizzly bears. They also spend a good deal of time critiquing The Last of Us while developing a theory on how to hybridize many hiking strategies to develop the ultimate form of apocalypse travel. Guest Info Carrot Quinn (she/they) is an author, thru-hiker and hiking coach. She is the author of Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart and The Sunset Route. Carrot has a new speculative fiction novel coming out later this year, hopefully. Carrot is also an avid blogger and you can find them at www.carrotquinn.com or on Instagram @carrotquinn and Twitter @CarrotQuinn Host Info Margaret can be found on twitter @magpiekilljoy or instagram at @margaretkilljoy. Publisher Info This show is published by Strangers in A Tangled Wilderness. We can be found at www.tangledwilderness.org, or on Twitter @TangledWild and Instagram @Tangled_Wilderness. You can support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/strangersinatangledwilderness. Transcript Live Like the World is Dying: Carrot on Hiking Margaret 00:15 Hello, and welcome to Live Like the World is Dying, your podcast for what feels like the end times. I'm your host, Margaret Killjoy. And this week we are talking about walking and how to do it, the legs, the one in front of the other, etc. And in order to do so, we're going to be talking to an expert walker, or hiker, I suppose might be a better way of phrasing it, Carrot Quinn. And so we're going to be talking to her about all this stuff. Carrot writes a bunch of books about hiking and does a bunch of hiking. And so I'm really excited, because this has been on my mind a lot. But first, we are a proud member of the Channel Zero network of anarchists podcasts. And here's a jingle from another show on the network. Margaret 01:55 Okay, we're back. So Carrot, if you could introduce yourself with your name, your pronouns. And then I guess kind of like your background in hiking, thru-hiking, that kind of stuff. Carrot 02:07 My name is Carrot Quinn, and my pronouns are she or they and I got into long distance hiking in 2013. And long distance hiking is different from other kinds of backpacking, because you're just out for longer, I guess. And usually also, you're on trails that have a really specific weather window, which means that you need to hike more miles per day than you would on a more leisurely backpacking trip in order to finish in a certain weather window, or because the water sources are farther apart. So, you need to hike a certain mile per a day to get to the water sources, which means that you end up using different gear, because when you're out for that long and hiking that many miles, it's a lot more strain on your joints. And so, in order to be able to do it, you need to have lighter gear that puts less strain on your joints, or else you get overuse injuries. And you also wear different shoes. So, there's this whole different kind of way of walking in the wilderness, which I got into because I'd always backpacked with a heavy backpack, and I was always in pain. And then I discovered this style, and I wasn't in pain anymore. And I was like, "Oh my God, if I do this, I can just like live outside and sleep on the ground every night and I won't be in pain." So than I got really into it. And I hiked the PCT in 2013. Margaret 03:19 What's the PCT? Carrot 03:19 The Pacific Crest Trail, which is 2,650 or 60 miles depending on how you count. It takes five months to hike. I got really obsessed with it for a while. So, I've hiked 11,000 miles. I've hiked from Mexico to Canada three times. And I've also walked across Utah, and Arizona, and done a bunch of other shorter hikes. And I've hiked finished trails where there's like a path on the ground that you walk, like the Pacific Crest Trail, and I've hiked trails where there's not a path on the ground, and you're just navigating through canyons and washes and stuff. And then I've also made my own routes, which is where you look at the maps and figure out where you can walk and then you follow the path that you created. Margaret 03:20 I was gonna say that's wild, but I guess that's literally the point. That it's wild. Okay, and then you've written about this too, right? Carrot 04:13 Yeah, so I have a writing career more or less, most years I make my living as a writer. And I was able to build that by writing about long distance hiking, because it's a pretty popular niche. I've been writing my whole life. I always wanted to be a writer, and in my 20s I wrote zines and then I started blogging in 2008. And then I started long distance hiking in 2013. And so every one of these hikes I've ever done, all 11,000 miles I've hiked, I've written a blog post every single day. And so that's how I built my writing career because then people started reading those and people love reading about long distance hiking, you know, because it's hard to get time off work. It's hard to get the gear. It's hard to access, and so people being able to read that from the comfort of their home is like really nice. And so then I wrote a book about my first long distance hike, which is called "Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart." And that book is great, because I made so many bad choices. So, it's like a very good story. Because you know, the best stories come from when you're like completely brand new at something. Margaret 05:21 Yeah. Carrot 05:21 And everything goes like horribly awry. Those are like the best stories. So, I wrote that book. And then my second book was actually a memoir about growing up in Alaska and my years riding freight trains. And that came out in 2021. Margaret 05:37 What's that one called? Carrot 05:43 And it's kind of sad. It's not like the happiest, but whatever. But then, I just finished a speculative fiction novel about this young person that is fleeing this destabilizing city and riding her bike across the country trying to get to Nevada. So, I'm editing that right now. Margaret 05:57 Oh my god, is that out yet? Can I read it? Carrot 05:59 No. Margaret 05:59 Fuck. Carrot 05:59 I hope it'll come out someday. I don't know what the title is, either, but, I'm editing it right now. And, if I self publish, hopefully I can get it out by the end of the year. And I'm leaning towards self publishing. So, we'll see. Hopefully, it'll be out sooner rather than later. Margaret 06:16 Okay. Well, let's talk about that off camera. I think a lot about publishing speculative fiction, and I do it sometimes. Carrot 06:26 Yeah, you write speculative fiction too. Margaret 06:28 Yeah. Carrot 06:29 We could just talk about that for hours and hours. Margaret 06:33 I mean, I also like talking about that. Can I out us to the audience about how we know each? Is that...you seem pretty public about that. Carrot 06:41 Yeah, totally. Margaret 06:41 Yeah, I first met Carrot--actually, I don't remember if it's where we first met--but, we lived together in a squat in the South Bronx in 2004. And so, I've been following Carrot's career from afar since then being like, "Oh, shit, fuck yeah, another crust punk who became a writer." Carrot 07:00 And I've also been following Margaret's career and like hearing little updates about her life over the years and being like, "Oh, that's where Margaret is, that's what Margaret's doing. Oh, it's super cool." Margaret 07:10 Yeah. Yeah. I'm really excited to have you on to talk about this. And, I admit one of the reasons I'm really excited to have you on about this--because there's a couple reasons--one is because this topic is really interesting to me and has been for a while, you know, during say, the last presidential election when there was a decent chance of a fascist coup, and there was, you know, an attempt at one, myself and a lot of other people probably had to sit there and think, "What would be involved if I had to go on foot a long way to get away from here?" Right? And I think that that kind of thing is probably on a lot of people's minds, especially on a state by state basis right now, as a lot of states become increasingly unwelcoming and things. And of course, at the moment, people are allowed to leave states by cars and stuff, but whatever, we'll get to that. But, the other reason I'm interested in is because I've recently gotten more into hiking, and I've been obsessively watching YouTube videos of thru-hikers, and mostly these people really annoy me, but the stuff is really interesting. And, your name gets mentioned a lot in the sort of pantheon of thru-hiking writers as the person that everyone's like, "Well, I'm no Carrot Quinn," or whatever. So, I just think that's really cool. That's probably why I'm excited to talk to you. So, what is involved--and this is a very broad question, but what is involved in deciding that you want to go on a very long hike? Carrot 08:42 What is involved? Well, so, I really love this intersection of topics that we're talking about because those are the two things that occupy my brain all the time is overland travel by foot, and near future societal collapse. So yeah. Margaret 08:58 Yeah, you're writing a book about that. Carrot 08:59 Yeah. And, in the novel I just wrote, she starts out on her bike, but the bike breaks, and then she's just on foot. And, one thing I love while thinking about this stuff is like--for example, have you seen The Last of Us? Margaret 09:12 Yeah. Carrot 09:13 So they're on a long overland journey, a lot of it is on foot. And there are all these plot holes in my opinion because there are things about the way they're traveling on foot that just aren't realistic. Like their footwear is uncomfortable. They never drink water. None of their gear is waterproof. They're not properly dressed for the weather. So, I think that's really.... Margaret 09:29 Yeah, they have these tiny packs, but not not in an ultralight way. Carrot 09:33 They're tiny backpacks. They're just these bottomless pits of whatever they need. Somehow they have batteries, which like, you wouldn't have batteries. So, something I'm also really fascinated about, like thinking about near future collapse, is how we're going to be living in this hybrid time where we'll have all these materials available to us that are from this society where things are mass produced, but we'll be in a society where things are no longer are going to be mass produced. So, we'll be sort of like transitioning over the course of decades, from having access to certain materials to not having access to any of those materials. And that's like really interesting to me. And The Last of Us is set 20 years after collapse, so a lot of the stuff they have access in the show I don't think they would have anymore. Margaret 10:19 They a little bit talk about it where like, "Oh, the gasoline isn't quite as good. We have to stop all the time to siphon," but then they're just kind of like, "And then we just drive," you know? Carrot 10:28 Yeah, but like the batteries, you know, for their flashlights, they just...But yes, that's really interesting to me, thinking about for example, like a long journey. Like right now, the only reason I can long distance hike is because I have all this really high tech gear because you know, 30 years ago, to do a trail, like the Pacific Crest Trail, all of the gear was super heavy. So, you had to be sort of this like elite athlete in a way. Like just anybody couldn't do it because everything was so heavy, it was really hard on your body, like it was brutal. And now, because of this like really high tech gear we have, our packs are much lighter, and we just wear trail runners, and so it's much more accessible. And so, that's the only reason I can do it physically. And the only reason I enjoy it. Like, I wouldn't enjoy it otherwise. And so, it's interesting to think about, like, you know, in the future what people would use. But, to answer your question, if you wanted to do like, you know, where we are precollapse, if you wanted to go on a long hike--you know, the thing is that one of the things that's hardest for people is getting the time off. I like trails that are more than a month long, because walking long distances is our special secret human superpower. Like, no other animal can walk long distances the way we can. Like, people think that that's how we evolved from apes is we started like walking our prey to death, because a lot of animals… Margaret 11:50 Yeah, persistence hunters! Carrot 11:49 Yeah, a lot of animals sprint and then they sleep and they sprint and they sleep. But, we can just like zombie forward like endlessly, like just fucking zombie until our prey just like collapses with exhaustion. It takes--but a lot of us like the way we live, we don't spend a lot of time walking every day. And so, it takes time to sort of unlock that ability and get our tendons--that's like the biggest thing--like, our joints used to it. And so, if you were going to do a trail, like the PCT for example, that's like a five month trail, you would start out really slow, like say doing like 15 miles a day. You know, you would train beforehand so that you could do 15 miles a day. And then you would start doing that. And then, if you started feeling any pain in your joints, you would take days off, or pull way back. And then after about a month your joints get used to it, and that like superpower is unlocked. I've seen this happen so many times, because so many people the PCT is their first trail and they start right off the couch and they're not athletes--you don't have to be an athlete, like I'm not an athlete, I'm just a regular person--and as long as you don't get injured, or have some sort of illness you can unlock this superpower. And then, it's like, it doesn't hurt anymore. And you can just walk, and walk, and walk and it's really cool. So, that's why I recommend doing a trail that's more than a month, because it takes a month for the pain to go away and to feel like you've unlocked that superpower that I think all humans have, you know, barring injury or illness. And so, if you hike like a five month trail or three months trail then you have a month of discomfort, but then you have several months where you get to exist in this really cool body. But, it's hard to get the time off. So, a lot of people who long distance hike work seasonally or they'll you know, do the kind of work where you can--like in tech or as an engineer, as a nurse or whatever--where you can work for a period of time, like a couple of years and then quit, and then go back to work. The biggest demographics on a long trail are people just out of college and retired people, because those are the two people who have the easiest time finding that chunk of time. Margaret 12:30 That makes a lot of sense to me. I've always kind of wanted to do this, and it's never quite been a high enough priority. And this brings me to not the most important question, but my main question about it. I know that you can't thru-hike any of the existing like triple crown, meaning Pacific Coast Trail, Appalachian Trail, and whatever the third one is...Continental Divide Trail? What's the third one? Carrot 14:12 Yeah, yeah. Margaret 14:13 I know you can't bring a dog with you on those three because they go through National parks. But what do you do about dogs? I mean, like because in my mind my dog has way more energy than me, but I'm realizing that my dog has way more energy than me not necessarily in the sustained persistence hunter way that you're talking about. Carrot 14:31 Exactly. Margaret 14:32 So, I'm curious what is a limit of--I mean, obviously every dog is gonna be different and things like that-- but can you thru-hike with a dog if you're going way slower and you're not doing the seasonal running thing? You're just like....yeah, somewhere there's a question in there. Carrot 14:52 Yeah, totally. So you can. People do bring their dogs on the long trails. You kind of need a support person, so you can hand off your dog before you go through the no dog sections, and then get your dog back. It's considered cruel to bring a dog on a five month hike, because the way they exercise is so different than the way that we exercise. Margaret 15:11 Right. Carrot 15:11 They go really hard. And then they need more rest than we do. Like in Alaska, they have the Iditarod, which is this big sled dog race. And, it just happened. It just finished, and it's 1000 miles long. And the person who just won did it in eight days. So, his dogs ran over 100 miles a day. And so, these dogs trained really hard. And that is like the pinnacle of what they can do. So they could go really far, but they still can't necessarily go 20 miles a day, everyday for five months. And so, it's actually really rare for someone to thru-hike with a dog. You can do it, but it goes against their natural kind of the way their energy is throughout the day. Margaret 15:48 Right. Carrot 15:49 And so, one reason it's discouraged is because it's really hard to know, if your dog is too hot, it's hard to know if your dog is tired. Like a lot of dogs will follow their person, you know, to the point of injury, you know, because they just want to stay with you. So, people do it. But, it's rare. It's not natural for them. Like, we can do it and thrive. And they just kind of are low key suffering and maybe about to break. It's hard to tell. Margaret 16:28 Yeah, no, and so I guess I'm kind of curious. There's like two scenarios I imagine. One is because there's no one I can leave my dog with for a long period of time. So, I just sort of assume I will not be thru-hiking anytime soon, right? Because, you know, there's a creature I'm responsible for, and no one else is currently responsible for that creature. But I'm like, is there a sense of like you don't want to take your dogs on a month long hike? Do you want to take your dogs on a two week hike? Do you want to take your dogs only...Like, my dog loves going on day hikes with me. And from when I was like, you know, an oogle, a crusty traveler, like a lot of the dogs that I was around--I mean, obviously, not all of them--some of them were treated very badly. But, many of the dogs were very happy in that they got to be with their person all day and they were always like exercising and stuff. But, that wasn't like we're walking 20 miles today. That's often like we're walking five miles today, we're, you know, hitchhiking. We're doing all these other things. I'm just wondering if you have a sense of 1) The limit in terms of like the now, and then 2) If there's a sense of what you would think for if your protagonist escaping the apocalypse has a dog like, what are ways to work around that? Like I could imagine...like, if I had to leave, right, do I get a dog backpack? It's about 45 pounds. I would be sad. But like, if you know, if I'm not hiking for fun and I'm hiking for "I gotta get somewhere," right? Carrot 17:58 Yeah. So, people hiking the long distance trails, there's like a standard sort of blanket mileage that varies, but people generally say like 20 miles a day is kind of the standard. And so, over the course of like a month, three months, five months different dog breeds are different, but depending on your dog that could be too much for your dog. Like, your dog might need more rest days. But like, maybe your dog could do 20 miles a day for three days, but then they would need a day or two off, you know? Margaret 18:27 Right. Carrot 18:27 And so what you would have to do is instead of being tied to the weather window of the trail, you would be tied to how your dog is doing. So, you would just have to really be in touch with all your dog's signs, like does your dog...Like, know how to tell if your dog is too hot, if your dog's feet hurt, all these different things, and then you would just have to adjust your travel based on your dog. So, you just wouldn't...you wouldn't necessarily be able to hike the PCT in the five month window. And you would end up if you were in an arid area you would end up carrying more water. Because if you go slower than it's farther between water sources because the West is so dry. So, you would carry more water. But yeah, you would just plan the hike much differently. And it would be your own journey with your dog. Margaret 19:13 Yeah. Okay. Yeah, no, I realized...I pretty quickly disabused myself of the notion that I was going to be hiking the Appalachian Trail, or PCT, or anything anytime soon. Secretly, this podcast is me just asking people for advice about my own life and problems and then hoping it's universally usable in some ways. But that makes sense to me. And then it does seem like, you know, everything I'm reading about, what you're talking about, like hiking with lighter packs and all of that, and how it has all these advantages in being able to go further and be more sustainable and all of these things. And it does seem like a lot of the choices that people would have to make in different survival scenarios might counteract that, because if I'm talking about like...Okay, if I was hiking through the desert with the dog, I need way more water, which means I'm carrying a heavier pack and then also if I'm out longer I might need a different level of survival equipment. It seems like it would kind of escalate pack weight very quickly? Carrot 20:07 Yeah. But, I think that the sort of minimalism that one learns--like, it's the sort of strategic minimalism that you learn when you do a five month hike because all you have to think about every day is like what you're carrying and how heavy it feels and so you get really good at like...Just, it's like strategy. And so I think that would carry over, where even if you, you know, didn't have all these high tech materials, were in the desert, had a dog, like all these different things, your pack will still end up lighter than if you didn't use this sort of really fun strategic thing that I'm sure you've encountered on YouTube. Margaret 20:44 Yeah, yeah. No, go ahead. Sorry. Carrot 20:47 Yeah, yeah. But, it would be heavier. But then you would just work around that. Like, if your pack is heavier you don't go as many miles a day because it's harder on your joints. And you just, you know, you just work around that too. Like, last fall was my second season hunting in Alaska tagging along on my friends hunts, and I've never had to carry a pack as heavy as I do hunting. And that's been like a whole new learning curve being like, Okay, this is a 60 pound pack. Like, I can only go this many miles. You know, I have to really be careful like all these different things. Margaret 21:21 Yeah. Yeah, that is the thing that I because I, you know, I come from this background of like failed train hopping and regular hitchhiking. And like, these long distance walks and things like that, but not hiking. And I would need what I need to sleep and all of these things. And so, you know, we used to kind of make fun of ultralight hikers, who are like, you know, shaving off every ounce of what they could And it's like, well, I knew Pogo Dave who traveled with a big metal Pogo stick or whatever, right? And, you know, walked across the country pushing a shopping cart and shit. But then you just realize how different these setups are, and what their goals are is so completely different. And so yeah, I don't know quite how to phrase it, but I'm so interested in the difference between the 60 pound hunting pack and the 9.8 pound, you know, backpacking pack or whatever. And i did, I ran across these people. And I My first thought was like, "Well, fuck that. Just like carry what you need. Whatever," you know. And then slowly, when you see the people who are like less annoying about it, you're like, "Oh, I think I get it. I think I understand why they're doing this," you know? Carrot 21:21 Yeah, it's about injury prevention not being in pain and knowing what your goal is. So, if your goal is to finish a five month trail hiking 12 hours a day for five months, your chance of injury is really high. So, the lighter your pack is, to an extent, you know, the lighter your pack is the lower your chance of injury, and the less pain you'll be in. So, it actually really increases your enjoyment. The only caveat being--the rules I tell people because I do long distance hiking coaching and I do these like guided trips where I help people like make their gear lists and stuff--the rules...Here are the rules: you need to be warm, well fed, comfortable enough at night to sleep well, and be prepared for all the different weather you're gonna encounter at that season in that area. And as long as your gear fits those rules you meet those guidelines. Like, the lighter your pack is the more fun you're gonna have. Margaret 23:28 Yeah, it makes sense to me. I just have so many questions about ultralight stuff. It's just so fascinating to me. It seems like one of the things where people go without, to me, what seems like emergency equipment. Like, because I think about...it seems like I'm watching people--and I expect them wrong, that's why I'm presenting this to you is because you have a lot of experience with this and have tried different types of hiking--but it's like, if there's something that I keep around just in case, right, in case something terrible happens or whatever that I don't use it on a daily basis, and so it starts becoming one of those things that you could imagine getting rid of. And then you're like, "But when you need it, you need it." And so it seems like that is what I worry about when people talk about barely having first aid kits and shit like that, you know, or the kind of gear that if like the weather gets a lot worse unexpectedly--because it seems to me that if you have this very minimalist setup that works for most days but then it doesn't work for like the sudden really bad weather days--It doesn't seem like it's a good enough piece of gear. But, maybe that is being taken into consideration and I'm just being annoyed at people or like retro actively defending the fact that I used to carry this ridiculously heavy bag and I injured my chest with it once when I was like 28. I don't know. Carrot 24:48 Yeah, that's the thing is if your pack is too heavy it will injure you, and that will ruin your hike. So, it doesn't matter what emergency preparedness stuff you're carrying, like the emergency is that you ruined your hike and you have to get off trail and your hike is ruined. So, the thing is things are knowable. Like the world is knowable. Like when you go to drive your car you know what's likely to go wrong. And you know what would be a freak accident that you're not going to prepare for, like the stuff you have in your car. Like my car burns oil, so I carry oil. I carry coolant just because my car is old. I carry jumper cables. It's winter, so I carry a sleeping bag, you know, because I'm in Alaska, and I have an old car. These are the things that are likely to go wrong. I don't carry anything for if I get struck by lightning because there's not--I mean, if I lived like in the high mountains in Colorado in July, I would have to consider lightning--but in Alaska it's all central [uninterpretable word], so you don't think about lightning. I don't carry anything for shark attacks. I carry bear spray for a bear. But so, it's just knowing what's likely to happen versus freak accidents that don't make sense to be prepared for. So, people might not carry a generic first aid kit, but they do carry supplies for all of the medical problems that actually happen regularly. Like I don't carry just some generic first aid kit from REI because I don't know what to do if I break my leg. If I break my leg like I need a helicopter, you know? But that would be a real freak accident. That's extremely unlikely to happen. But, what does happen and what can end your hike and does end people's hike a lot are infected blisters, sprained ankles, and things like that. And I carry stuff, and I have treated stuff that like multiple times. And, I always have what I need. Or, like gear failures. Like I carry dental floss with a needle inside, which I learned from riding trails. And that's come in handy. So, I always have...and then things for chafe because chafe happens a lot and can be really painful. So, that can get you off trail. So, people actually, they might not have like, they might not have something for like a trauma wound, which would be like...I don't even know what a trauma wound...I don't even know what I'm saying. But like...or a puncture wound. But, that would be like a real freak accident. But they do have, in my experience, people do have stuff for the things that actually happen, and the same with the weather. Because, the weather in every spot on earth for whatever season you have to be there is knowable. You can research it, you can know what the trends are. Even with climate change, you can know what's likely to happen. You can talk to other hikers. Every long distance trail every year has a Facebook group. And people as they're hiking, will post on that Facebook group. So you can know like, "Oh, I'm climbing to 9000 feet tomorrow. And these people ahead of me say there's ice. I should have microspikes." Or like, "There's a storm coming in, and the people ahead of me say that the river is really swollen and it's gonna be hard to cross so I should like take a day off and wait for the river to go down." So, it's just..it's instead of carrying a bunch of stuff and having no idea where you are or what's happening, and just having all this stuff you just do your research. And like long distance hikers obsessively research when they're on trail because that's all you have to think about all the time. So, as long as--I mean, you can be reckless and not have any of that stuff--but then that will affect your chances of actually finishing, which is what everyone wants to do. Because, you want to have this like fun, full immersion experience. So generally, in my experience, people are prepared even though they don't have like generic first aid kits. Margaret 28:13 No, that makes sense. I think I have a like defensive maximalism, you know? It's not a maximal...Well, I mean, I guess it depends what you're trying to do. Like, it's not a like I'm going hiking and I need a folding saw, you know? Although if I'm gonna go live in the woods for a while, I want a folding saw, but like, you know, it's a very different goal, right? So I guess I wonder... Carrot 28:39 Okay, can I say one more thing? Margaret 28:40 Yeah, yeah, please. Carrot 28:41 They say that you pack your fears. And, so say you're afraid of getting hurt on trail. So you're like, I should bring all this extra stuff. That extra weight will hurt you. So, that's the irony. So that's like the irony in all of it. And the thing is, a lot of people start long distance hiking that way because that's kind of the way we all learned about the outdoors because we're an urban...Humans are urban. Like, humans in the US are urban. We're not little feral creatures that live in the woods. We don't have these like intimate relationships with like what the wind is doing, or like when the poppies are blooming, you know? And so we go out there and we don't have any idea what the fuck is going on or where we are. And so we want to pack our fears. And then as soon as you start a long distance hike every ounce you're carrying hurts. And so all day, every day, all you have to think about is sort of--as you're being like punished for carrying all your fears--all you have to think about is like, "What do I actually need?" And so that's really common for people to start with really heavy packs and then really quickly they're like, "Okay, I know what I really need and what I don't need." And you also start to learn what you as an individual need on trail because everyone is different. Everyone has like a different sort of comfort zone. So, it's a process because we're not...We're urban. We're like, we don't know what the fuck is going on in nature. Margaret 30:06 Well, I think a lot of the outdoorsy type folks will also over pack, but kind of in a different way. But it's more of the like...it's not thru-hiking. It's the like bushcraft version. It's the like, I'm gonna go build up a cabin version, you know? Which, I think is overkill for most people. Like most people, when they're imagining like disaster scenarios and the escape from disaster scenarios you don't need to go build a log cabin in the woods. You need to like get to a state where they're not trying to kill you for being trans or whatever. And it is a different thing. So, I guess I take back my own caveat. Carrot 30:42 Yeah, I think long distance hikers love to make fun of bushcrafters and probably bushcrafters love to make fun of ultralight backpackers. You know, I was thinking about bushcraft the other day, because I was skiing--or I was trying to ski, because I'm learning so I don't really know what I'm doing--and I was just looking at my gear and looking at my friend's gear and I was like, "Everything we have right now is because of plastic. Like literally everything." And then I was like, "What would this even be like if we didn't have plastic?" I was like, "We'd be wearing like wool, and leather, and like animal skins, and everything would be made out of wood." And then I started thinking about bushcraft. And I was like, "That's kind of what it is." Bushcraft is like outdoor stuff without synthetic materials in a way. Margaret 31:23 Yeah. Carrot 31:24 Which is like an interesting way to think about it, which is really different. It's really different. And so, if your gear is just heavier, there's just different things you can do. It's like just a whole different kind of thing. Margaret 31:35 Yeah, I really. No, that's such a fascinating way of thinking about the difference between bushcraft and hiking and then like...You know, I think it's funny because it's like, if someone decides that they're like, "I'm gonna get into outdoors walking stuff." There's all of these different cultures and ways of looking at it. And you have the bushcraft version and you have the ultralight hiking version and then you have like--traditional backpacking seems like sort of the weird in between--and then you also have the tactical version, where it's like, "This is how you get into enemy territory with like, you know, when you're stuck carrying like 30 pounds of ammunition." or wherever the fuck. And it's like, it's so interesting to me how it breaks down even to different like shelter types, right, like the bushcrafters like--although it does go full circle. I would say that bushcrafters and ultralight hikers are both the ones who are like "A tarp is all I need," or whatever, versus traditional backpacking where you're like, "I want a fucking tent." You know? Carrot Yeah, it's really interesting, our different relationships with nature in this year of our Lord, 2023 in the US. Margaret 32:41 Yeah. And there's ways that people have to think about kind of all of them if they're trying to prepare. Although I can see how you can get lost over preparing in thinking about every single possible thing that could go wrong. If you're traveling in a vehicle, it's a little bit easier to do that. Right? It's a little bit easier to be prepared for every possible contingency or whatever. Carrot 33:02 Can I tell you an interesting story? Margaret 33:04 Yeah. Carrot 33:04 I love thinking about this stuff. So, we we live in a time in human history where we're very urban, the most urban we've ever been, and so a lot of people don't spend much time outdoors at all, which, you know, is like they just can't. Like, they don't have access or there's so many different reasons. And, the people who do spend time outdoors, access it through these really different channels that almost aren't communicating with each other. Margaret Yeeeeah. Carrot 33:31 But, the tactical hunter versus the ultralight backpacker, and it's really interesting, because they've developed outdoors cultures that are so different. Like, in Alaska, for example, there are a lot of grizzly bears, which grizzly bears are dangerous, but they're also very knowable. So, you can kind of get to know grizzly bear culture and then you can do sort of like best practices and your chances of being attacked by a bear become extremely low. And so, depending on what you're doing, different people have ideas about what those best practices are. Margaret 34:04 Bear spray versus 10 millimeter? Carrot 34:07 I mean, bear spray works better. Margaret 34:09 Yeah, no, I know. Yeah. Carrot 34:12 But, for example, a few years ago, I was going on a four day backpacking trip in the Brooks range with some of my friends from Anchorage. And the Brooks range is in the Arctic. It's really remote and ironically, the Grizzlies are much less dangerous up there because the area we were going has no salmon. So, there are much fewer Grizzlies. There are just way fewer Grizzlies. And also, we're north of treeline, so there's no tree cover. And when Grizzlies are dangerous...if you see a grizzly from a distance, and it knows what you are, if it can smell you, it will run away like so fast. But, if you surprise a grizzly at close range, they feel like they have to like defend their honor and that's when they attack. It's like okay, they think it's like a challenge. They're like, "Now I must fight you!" Margaret 34:58 Understandable. Carrot 34:58 So, you want to avoid brush and trees in areas where there are grizzlies like as much as you can, avoid brush and trees. So, the Arctic is north of treeline. So it's a really safe place because there are fewer Grizzlies. And if you see one, it's like really far away and the two of you can just give each other a wide berth, because they're actually very scared. So, I was going on a trip with my friends, who are all from Anchorage, which is actually a very dangerous place because there are tons of grizzlies and like once a year someone dies. But, my friends were like, "Oh my gosh, we're going to the Arctic. What are we gonna do about the Grizzlies?" And I was like "You guys, like it's actually safer there. There's fewer bears." And they're like "We should bring Ursacks," which are these like Kevlar bags that the grizzlies can't bite through. It's like a bear can, but lighter. They're great. They're like, "We should bring Ursacks and we should line Ursacks with the scent proof plastic bags and we should put the Ursacks really far from our camp." And I was like, "We can do all that. But actually, it's like safer there than where we live." Like, hiking the Arctic is safer than going on a day hike in Anchorage, like 20 times safer. And, and I was like, "You guys go on day hikes all the time." Anyway, we went and we were all like super careful. Like, you know, when we set up camp, we would go cook like on a hill over there. And then we would put our food in our Ursack, and we could go put it on a hill over there. And then our tents would be here. And it would be like, you know, we would be up wind of where we cooked and like all these different things. And I was like, "Okay, great, you know, that's fine." And then a few weeks later, I went on a moose hunting trip with my friend Birch, who his whole way of knowing the outdoors is hunting, which is also really common in Alaska. And there were five of us and we were hiking eight miles into this drainage through Willow Brush with pack rafts and then we were going to get the moose and we were gonna pack raft out. So we got in and he got the moose. And we processed it. And you know, we were covered in blood. The pack rafts were covered in blood. Like, everything was covered in blood. And, we had these huge pieces of moose in cotton game bags that were soaked in blood like piled our pack rafts. We got we got to camp...Oh, no one has bear spray. I'm the only one with bear spray. You know? They have rifles. But, what good is a rifle gonna to do when you're in your sleeping bag? You know what I mean? Margaret 34:58 Yeah, totally. Carrot 35:29 Like that's when the bear could come for your blood or whatever. And, we get to camp and we like take these huge pieces of moose and lay them out on the gravel bar just overnight out in the open. And we all have our tent set up. And I was like, "Hey, Birch, do you ever use an Ursack?" And he was like, "What's an Ursack?" And, our moose hunt was in an area with way more Grizzlies. And there was brush everywhere and we saw like three grizzlies. And it was just so funny, because they weren't concerned at all. And, I think part of it is that guns give people this like false sense of confidence around bears, even though with bears like things happen really fast and you need something you can grab really fast. If you need to be like a sharpshooter, it's not very accessible, like you need something that anyone can use and another part of it....Go ahead. Margaret 38:07 Also, if you shoot a bear--I'm not speaking from experience, I'm speaking from reading about this-there's been a bunch of studies that shooting bears is not a particularly effective way of stopping bears in the short term and pepper spray or bear spray is very effective. Like, even if a bear is charging and I manage to shoot it that doesn't mean I'm safe. Carrot 38:25 Yeah, you have to have a certain gun. I don't know that much about guns. You have to have a certain gun and you shoot it in a certain place. So, the odds of all that happening like extremely fast...Whereas bear spray, you spray them in there. [makes a shrieking sound like a bear that's been maced] "It's burning!" You know, and then they run away. Margaret 38:41 Have you had to do that? Have you ever sprayed a bear? Carrot 38:43 No. Margaret 38:44 Okay. Carrot 38:45 But, I've been around a lot of bears, but I haven't yet had to spray one. Margaret 38:49 I'm glad. I'm just curious. Anyway, I interrupted you twice. Please continue. Carrot 38:55 Yeah. So, his conceptualization of what the danger was...Oh! That's the other thing. So, I think part of the reason hunters don't--this is my theory--I think part of the reason hunters don't think about bears is because the guns give them this false sense of confidence, even though bears do sometimes attack hunters. The other thing is bears have bear culture. Like, in different areas, bears learn different things and pass that knowledge on to their cubs. Like, some places, if you do a bear hang, the bear doesn't know what it is. And it can't get it. Other places, bears are really good at getting bear hangs, you know? And, I think that bears know when hunting season is and they know what hunters smell like. That's my theory. Margaret 39:40 And they're like, "I'm staying the fuck away from them. They all have guns." [inflected as a question] Carrot 39:43 I don't know if that's true, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was true. And that that's one reason that hunters don't have to take the same precautions. Margaret 39:50 I mean, it's sort of interesting because guns are notorious for a false sense of security. But, in this case it's like, even though it's sort of a false sense of security, it's not the right way to handle a bear, but maybe that kind of like confidence of walking through the woods with a group of people and doing your thing, maybe that's a better way to live. Like... [trailing off laughing] Carrot 40:18 There's also...so when an animal is a predator, it moves differently walking than when an animal is a prey animal, and hunters move the way predators move, and hikers tend to move, I don't know, all sorts of ways, but hunters move the way predators move. And so that could be something that communicates to the bear that these are hunters. And to be more scared, I don't know. Margaret 40:35 No, that's so interesting. I'm really fascinated by these different ways of interacting with the forest. Because, it's like, you know, I live rurally. But, it doesn't actually...it provides me access to nature in that, I can walk out my door, and there's a lot more trees than houses. I can see one house, and I can see 10,000 trees, you know? But, there's also just like private land everywhere. So, I actually can't go hiking out my door. I'm as far away from hiking here as as if I lived in a--not a big city, but a medium city. You know, when I want a good scenic five mile hike, I drive an hour. It's not as many miles, because rural roads take you forever to get anywhere. But, it's just such a different way of interacting with... And then, all like folks around here are a lot more likely to drive down with ATVs, and go like ATVing and shit like that rather than specifically go hiking. But, they are still people who are interacting with the woods constantly. And so, in my mind, I feel like I'm trying to find...I'm on this quest to find out which like culture's way of interacting with the wild and specifically around gear honestly, is the best for the preparedness person. And this is obviously going to be completely different depending on what your fucking threat model is, where you live, what your goals are. But, I think I'm subconsciously doing it. I'm trying to be like, "Do I want to be like a hunter? Do I want to be like a tactical bro? Do I want to be like an ultralight hiker? Do I want to be like an oogle? Like, you know, which method? Carrot 42:16 So, I have a lot of thoughts about what you just said. I think this would be my strategy, which may be the path I'm taking. Margaret 42:22 That is the goal of me asking you things, is to find your strategy. Carrot 42:25 Yeah. Because I also believe--well I don't know if this is exactly what you believe--but I think that all supply chains and infrastructure, and grids, and things are going to collapse in the next few decades. Margaret 42:39 Yeah...[On a] long enough timeline: Yeah. Carrot 42:42 I think if one learns the strategy of ultralight backpacking, which relies heavily on really high tech gear--that is currently being manufactured using these intensive processes that rely on supply chains and things--if one learns ultralight backpacking and hunting sort of strategy and gear, and like bushcraft, I think between those three skill sets, one would have the best chance of creating this like hybrid model for like, say, if you needed to walk across the country. Like in The Last of Us in their walk across the country--so, their world is like 20 years post collapse of supply chains manufacturing, like all those different things--I don't think they're carrying the right gear. So, knowing what they more or less, like guessing what they had access to, some changes I would have made is: They're wearing like leather boots. I think Ellie's wearing...What are they called? Margaret 43:45 Maybe Chucks? But I can't remember? Carrot 43:47 Yeah, Chuck Taylors. Margaret 43:49 I think. I can't remember. Yeah. Carrot 43:51 Like, if they have access to shoes, obviously, which maybe is unrealistic, but in the show, they have access to shoes. I would get some running shoes, or trail runners. And then, their backpacks are made of looks like heavy canvas. And, I would get a backpack made of a lighter weight material. And then I would line it with something like a trash bag to make it waterproof. Because, that's what I do now. I just carry a trash bag folded up, and I use that. And then, they weren't filtering their water. And also, all of their layers seemed to be cotton, which eventually, you know, in the future, we'll get to a point where we'll just have like natural materials again. But, if you still have access to a cotton like denim jacket, you can probably still find synthetic layers which are much smarter when it's cold and wet. So, I would have them wearing synthetic layers if they could. Margaret 44:46 That makes a lot of sense to me. Okay, but I've read--again, I expect I'm wrong and I'm running things past you for this reason--I've read that one of the reasons that people wear trail runners, but they sort of expect them to not last, necessarily even a full thru-hike, as compared to like hiking boots, which are expected to last like multiple thru-hikes. Am I wrong about a durability difference between these types of shoes? Carrot 45:15 You're right. So, the trade off is with hiking boots, they last a long time, but they turn your feet to hamburger if you're walking very far day after day. So, in The Last of Us they were walking. I mean, just like guessing by like how far they walk, they were walking all day, every day, day after day. So, in that circumstance, the hiking boots would last, but they would destroy your feet and maybe keep you from being able to continue on your journey. So, I guess the question would be...Like, the way I long distance hike right now, I change my trail runners every 400 miles because that's when the cushion gets more compact. And so, they don't provide as much cushion. So, I'll get more foot pain. But, if I was in a situation where I didn't have access to a lot of trail runners, I would just wear them for longer. And then,...I guess it would be a question of, can you eventually get to a point where your feet have adjusted to leather boots so that you can do that many miles day after day? Because, in traditional backpacking, people just didn't do as many miles day after day. Or, there's also you know, there's a lot of different... Margaret 46:26 Maybe they're only going eight miles a day? Carrot 46:29 But they went really far. I don't remember, but... Margaret 46:32 I think that's movie magic. Carrot 46:34 But, they went from the East Coast to Wyoming so... Margaret 46:37 I think they break down and they get most of the way out in car and then they break down. Anyway. Sorry. Please continue. Carrot 46:43 Yeah, maybe they were taking lots of breaks. Okay, so there is an alternative, I think, in this scenario. So, in Mexico, there are people, indigenous people, who are long distance runners and long distance walkers. I don't know if it's more than one tribe, or...I don't know. But, that book Born to Run talks about these people a lot. Margaret 47:04 The barefoot... Carrot 47:04 But yeah. So, they make sandals out of old tires. And, that's what they wear. Because sandals...So, the thing about hiking 20 miles a day, day after day, is it's less like backpacking, more like running a marathon. So, you want to think "Would I run a marathon in this?" because whatever you're wearing will rub you to death. So, boots will rub you to death. So, say trail runners aren't accessible, if you made sandals out of old tires, those are so minimalist that they might not rub you to death the way boots would, but you would be able to make new pairs and they would last a long time. So, actually, people in Mexico have maybe figured it out. Like, that might be the answer is sandals made out of tires. Margaret 47:47 I consciously believe you. But, I've been wearing boots my entire life. And in my mind, they're like...I mean, in my head, the compromises that I used to wear lace up steel toed boots and now I wear like tactical boots with a zipper down the side that are like, mostly mesh, and stuff. And in my mind, I'm like, these are clearly the perfect boots. These are clearly the best boots for every situation, how could they possibly be bad? But, I accept that you have the experience and you're probably right. My brain won't accept it. Carrot Would you want to a run a marathon in them? Margaret 48:26 I don't have the lung capacity to run. I have never been able to. So, I can't. That is a meaningless thing for me, right? Because, I've never been able to run. I mean, I can run, right? But, I like I lose....I can't imagine. But, I don't know. I mean, I used to just...whatever, I used to just be an idiot and kind of an asshole. And so I would just be like, "Oh, whatever. Like why are people complaining? Just toughen up. Just wear steel toed shoes all the time." Whatever. Bullshit. And, I'm no longer on that page. But, in my mind, I'm like... [makes grumpy noises and trails off] Carrot 49:01 Yeah, so I have two more thoughts about footwear. One is..so the reason backpackers used to always wear boots is because their gear was so heavy. So, when I go hunting--I actually had to buy my first pair of hiking boots, because if I'm carrying a 60 pound pack--you know how we occasionally roll our ankles when we walk and it's not a big deal? It doesn't really sprain your ankle really. But, if you're carrying a 60 pound pack, it's like much more likely to sprain your ankle. So, that's the point of boots. So, when I'm hunting, I only walk eight miles a day and it still hurts my feet, because the boots really hurt my feet. But, it keeps me from worrying about spraining my ankle if I roll it. Whereas, with the backpacking gear that exists now, it's not as heavy, so you can roll your ankle without spraining it, so you can wear trail runners. So, in this scenario, if your pack was really heavy, you probably would want to wear boots and then you would just compromise on how many miles per day you could walk, and your feet would be in pain. Margaret 49:56 That makes sense. Carrot 49:57 And then my other thought...but, hopefully in this scenario, you would be able to create this sort of hybrid kit with all your knowledge of like hunting, bushcrafting, and ultralight backpacking and the materials, we still have access to that your pack, maybe your pack wouldn't be crazy heavy. And, then my other thought is: So, in Mexico, there are people who run long distances who create these sandals out of old tires, which is a resource that will be around for a bit. And then in North America, or like further north North America where it's colder, traditionally, people had footwear that they made that they could walk long distances in that also was warmer, like things like moccasins and different...more like, flexible comfy footwear that also wasn't a boot. So, I think even if you didn't have access to trail runners, I don't think the only option would be boots for their durability. I think you could make like some sort of show. Yeah, that's my theory. Margaret 50:54 No, no, no, this is really interesting. Because, I'm like, imagining like the ultimate setup, in my mind, would be like, nonshiny materials, because in my head, I've heard it referred to as like, outdoors gear being either like tactical or technical, and sort of an aesthetic difference in a lot of ways. Like, everyone's wearing fleece, but some people are wearing camo fleece, and some people are wearing, you know, bright colored fleece or whatever, right? Except for me. I'm walking around in a fucking hoodie. And, this is...I'm slightly smarter than that. That's not true, the last time we went hiking, I was just in my Carhart coat over a hoodie. But, it also wasn't long distance. So, it doesn't really matter. Carrot 51:39 I mean, if you know there's not going to be cold rain, you probably won't get hypothermia. Margaret 51:45 Yeah. Yeah. So ,if you, I guess you're already north. If you had to leave on foot, you would be going for sort of a hybrid setup? I guess if it depends on the situation. Now, I'm already answering for you in my head. Never mind. Carrot 51:45 Yeah, let's say I had to walk into Canada, for example, which it would be really easy to sneak...I'm not allowed in Canada. But, it would be really easy to sneak...Because, there's one protest in particular on my record that they don't like from 2003. And then, there's all the like misdemeanor train stuff for my 20s. But, that's old enough that they don't they don't care about it. But, they really don't like this protest thing So, they just don't let me in. But, it would be really easy to sneak into Canada at the Alaska-Canada-border. So, let's say that's what I wanted to do. Well, the thing about Alaska is, there are a lot of really big rivers to cross. So, you would have to consider that like, would you either carry a pack raft, which would add weight, like between the pack raft, and the paddle, and like a PFD, you know, that would add like 10-15 pounds. Margaret 52:16 What's that? What's a PFD? A personal flotation device? Carrot 52:54 Yeah, just like a life jacket. Yeah. Or, would you, you know, just build a raft every time you got to a massive river and just case by case basis troubleshoot trying to cross these rivers. So, and then another consideration would be, so wherever you are, if you decide to go on a long journey, like where you are, for example, you'd want to know how the plant communities change at different elevations. That would help you plan your route. Like, if you were like, "At this one elevation, there's this really thorny brush that's impossible to get through and really terrible." And so, as you were passing through that elevation, you want to find like a road, or a trail, or something that goes through it as you're making your route. And then, if you were like, "Well, at this elevation, it's like this open forest, it's really nice." So then, you would plan your route as much as you could through the landscape that was easier walking. Or, you would be like, "There's these old roads." Like, Alaska doesn't have many roads, but like other places have a lot of old logging roads and mining roads. So, like finding those, you know, and then planning your route. And then, for me, it's pretty rainy in the summer, so, I guess I'd want to have a rain jacket, and rain pants, and trash bags to keep all my stuff dry, and good synthetic layers that were warm, even when they were wet. If I have a down sleeping bag, I'd want to make sure to have like really good trash bag waterproofing system for my sleeping bag in my backpack so it would stay dry. And then, as far as like, fuel goes, I guess it depends on what's available, maybe backbreaking fuel isn't available. Maybe I'm just making fires. And, the challenge would just be drying out if it happens to just rain for two months straight, like figuring out when I can dry out, which maybe it would be a matter of like making fires if the rain never stops. So, staying dry to prevent hypothermia would probably be like the biggest challenge, and then getting over these big rivers. And then for food, if backpacking food wasn't available, I have no idea how i would survive. I think, Okay, this is what I would do. I would have...Let's say that things have collapsed to the point where no one is regulating hunting. So, for example, like, as an Alaskan resident, even though I'm an Alaskan resident, like, I can't hunt seal. The only people who can hunt seal and whale are like, people in native communities in really specific areas. And so, I can't hunt seal, but realistically, if one is to live off the land in Alaska, you're gonna get most of your calories from fat from sea mammals. So, I would need to have figured that out in advance. Like, I would need like seal oil, and berries and dried salmon and dried meat, but I would need a lot of fat to get most of my calories from because there aren't any carbs up here that you can eat. Yeah. I think that would be my strategy. Margaret 55:58 Okay. Okay. That all make sense to me. Yeah, in my mind, because where I live is like, if I had to walk to Canada, I would be skirting back and forth across roads. On the other hand, maybe all the bridges across all the rivers is exactly where they would like, you know, the militias would be laying ambushes or whatever, you know. So actually, maybe all that stuff, but it never even occurred to me that there's something called a packraft until today. It's a neat concept. Carrot 56:27 You could bring a pool floatie. Margaret 56:29 Yeah, yeah, totally. Carrot 56:30 Just raid a CVS or a Walgreens. Margaret 56:35 I'm planning...I'm saving up to buy a freeze dryer. This is my like wingnut prepper thing that I really want. They're like, they started about $2,500 for home ones. And then, I can just give everyone backpacking food forever. Carrot 56:54 Cool. Margaret 56:55 But, it would work better if I was combining with, you know, honestly, if you're in a city and around people who dumpster dive, that's where a freeze dryer shines. Take your free food and preserve it forever. Or, if you garden a lot, or grow a lot of food. Okay, well. There's so much I want to talk to you about, but I think we're kind of running down on time. Carrot 57:18 We've almost figured it out. Margaret 57:19 I know. It's a combo of all of the...You have to multiclass between ultralight and hunter and then you're pretty much good. And with a little bit of bushcrafter, which I feel like the hunter is a little bit close to. Go ahead. Carrot 57:34 There's definitely a lot of skills I don't have that would be useful in this scenario. Like, I can't snare a rabbit. That would be really useful. I guess I would want to be hunting, but like, I don't know if I would have enough bullets or like, what kind of gun or like...Would I have like a bow and arrow? I don't know enough about hunting to know what kind of hunting I would be doing, or if I would just be carrying enough seal oil and dried moose meat to make the whole journey. So, I don't know. I don't know about that bit. Margaret 58:06 Yeah, no, I basically have already decided that my veganism lasts until it's like me or the animal. You know? And I actually believe very strongly in that...Like, I actually don't think there's anything ethically wrong with hunting at all. I just have no personal interest in an eating it. But...For anyone who's listening is wondering why vegan says that, in this case, I believe that you're not raising the animal in captivity, it lives free, whatever, people eat things, that's fine. This is the thing we get the most angry people writing about is whenever we talk about either veganism or nonveganism, people get really upset about, and vegans always hate me because I'm like a self hating vegan or whatever, because I'm like, I don't think there's anything ethically wrong with eating meat. Anyway, I just avoid thinking about all that stuff, which doesn't work because then I can't just be like, magically after the apocalypse, I like...I'm a decent shot. So at least I have that. Right? But, I don't know, fucking how to stalk, or dress, or cook. You know? But I'll just magically learn it in a survival situation. That's always the best time to learn. [Said very sarcastically] Carrot 59:19 Yeah, they say that people learn fastest when you're like a little bit stressed out. So also, you live in an area where you can grow a lot of foods. So, like you wouldn't be as reliant. In Alaska, you can't grow grains. You can't grow beans, like you can't. Traditionally, people lived off animal fat for most of their calories. Margaret 59:41 Totally. Carrot 59:43 I think it would sort of like quickly revert to that like, "Okay, we have a lot of fish." But, where you are, it would make sense to like grow a lot of like grain and stuff and that would be really good food to have. Margaret 59:56 Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna have so many freeze dried potatoes. A fucking entire basement full of freeze dried potatoes. What could go wrong? Well, is there anything? Last last thoughts? Or you know, do you want to talk about, you want to advertise your books again? Or, talk about the stuff that you run or where people can find you? Carrot 1:00:16 Sure. I'll I'll talk about this. Can I talk about this book, this novel I've been working on? Margaret 1:00:21 Yeah. Carrot 1:00:23 So I think... Margaret 1:00:25 But don't spoil it. Carrot 1:00:25 Okay, well, no spoilers. It's been really fun to think about, like everything we've been talking about, like if someone is on this long journey, like what would they have access to? What would still be around? How would they survive? So, that's kind of what I try to do. And, I kind of skip over the dark collapsing bits to get to the long journey part, because I think that's what's like fun and interesting. And, I think it gives me a sense of hope to try to be like, okay, what, what will things actually look like? This is one reason I love The Last of Us so much, too, is because you got to see how they like imagine like, oh, what would be left in a mall? Like a shut down mall. What stores would have been raided? What would still be left? Like, what materials would people have access to? And so, I think that's really fun. And, she does have a little dog. She has a chihuahua, that rides in her bike pannier, and nothing bad ever happens to the Chihuahua. Margaret 1:00:39 That's good. Carrot 1:00:49 Nothing bad ever happens to the dog. So, that's great. [The transcriber does not know if Carrot is being earnest or not and has not seen The Last of Us to discern whether this is a sarcastic statement or not] And, I think some people I think, maybe think thinking about this stuff is kind of dark, but I find it really comforting. Margaret 1:01:32 I agree. It's, yeah. Yeah, there's so many reasons. Carrot 1:01:39 I also, you know, I've read too, that in a survival situation, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what skills we have. What matters is like our ability to organize with other people, beca

Bundesinnenministerin Nancy Faeser drängte auch am Freitag wieder auf eine EU-Reform des Asylrechts. Nicht zuletzt, weil es auch innerhalb des Landes an der Verteilung hakt. Das zeigt eine Recherche, die zwei Reporterinnen der ZEIT angestellt haben. Sie waren immer wieder in den Orten Upahl (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) und Bach an der Donau (Bayern), in denen im Dezember beziehungsweise Januar über Nacht Gemeinschaftsunterkünfte angekündigt wurden. In beiden Orten folgten Proteste, in beiden Orten wurde gestritten, doch nur in einem Ort leben heute auch Geflüchtete. Wie das zustande kam und welche Stimmung generell in den Kommunen herrscht, das beschreibt Redakteurin Carlotta Wald. Das Willow Project ist eines der umstritteneren Vorhaben von US-Präsident Joe Biden. Weil es ein Bruch eines seiner Wahlversprechen ist. In Alaska wurde das größte Ölbohrvorhaben seit Jahrzehnten von der Regierung genehmigt, obwohl Joe Biden eigentlich den Ölausstieg angekündigt hatte. Unsere Hörerinnen wünschten sich eine Einordnung, die kommt von USA-Expertin Rieke Havertz. Alles außer Putzen: Lästig, eigentlich schon abgeschafft, unnötig, es ist mal wieder Zeitumstellung. Moderation und Produktion: Fabian Scheler Redaktion: Constanze Kainz Mitarbeit: Sarah Vojta und Lisa Pausch Alle Folgen unseres Podcasts finden Sie hier. Fragen, Kritik, Anregungen? Sie erreichen uns unter wasjetzt@zeit.de. Artikel zur Folge: Unterbringung von Geflüchteten: Platz da?! (https://www.zeit.de/2023/13/gefluechtete-unterbringung-kommunen) Tipps für Geflüchtete: Pass mal auf, so läuft das hier! (https://www.zeit.de/2023/12/gefluechtete-tipps-deutschland-omar-al-jaffal) Willow Project in Alaska: Der Klimaschutzpräsident lässt bohren (https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2023-03/willow-project-alaska-oelfoerderung-joe-biden) Joe Biden: Womit keiner rechnet (https://www.zeit.de/2023/13/joe-biden-fossile-energien-alaska)

Kristen opens up and shares her story from clipping in to her first bike ride six years ago to leaving a venture capital job to pursue her calling and winning podium finishes on the UCI World Tour.Where do YOU feel like you are your BEST self?  Are you brave enough to follow that?You'll leave with the courage that YOU can do it too. and reach your peak performance. Why not you?About Kristen FaulknerKristen is from Homer, Alaska, a quaint fishing village that is also the halibut fishing capital of the world. In Alaska, she cultivated her passion for the outdoors and for adventure. She spent her summers hiking, fishing, making homemade rasberry jam, and competing at local swim meets.She learned the value of hard work as a kid working in my parents' hotel and restaurant. She explains when asked why she worked so hard it was because she didn't want to spend the rest of her life cleaning toilets and checking in guests :)Kristen graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in computer science.  She was a varsity rower for 2.5 years in college and placed 2nd at the Junior World rowing Championship in 2010. After graduation, Kristen worked as an investment associate at Threshold Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. In addition to investing, she's passionate about gender equality and supporting more women in technology, entrepreneurship, and investing.  As an investor, she hosted free office hours for female entrepreneurs and was a cohort captain for All Raise, a community of female Venture Capitalists.In 2016 Kristen I attended a free, introductory women's clinic for cycling in New York City and immediately fell in love with the sport. In mid-2018, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and in 2020, began racing for the Professional UCI Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank (which has since become the WWT team EF-Education-Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank). She's primarily a road racer, though she has explored other disciplines including gravel, track, and Zwift. She represented the United States at 3 World Championships: 2020 (Zwift E-worlds), 2021 (Road Race) and 2022 (Road Race and Time Trial).Kristen currently rides for Team Jayco Alula. EPISODE LINKSKristen Faulknerhttps://www.kristenfaulkner.com CONNECT WITH US Claim Your Weekly EDGE Newsletter. It's FREE!Weekly email written by Brandon with insights that give you an edge to win.Over 17,200 listeners and counting!-> https://edge.ck.page/bea5b3fda6 Contact Brandon : B at Brandon C White dot com EDGE Website-> https://MyEDGEPodcast.com EDGE on YouTube-> https://www.youtube.com/@brandoncwhite OTHER GREAT PODCASTS FROM THE BEST PODCASTS NETWORK On Business Podcast An unscripted, brutally honest, conversation about running a successful company. For business owners looking to elevate their game and increase revenues.-> https://OnBusinessPodcast.com MARKETING PodcastMarketing science, case studies that reveal successful marketing techniques and teach strategic marketing analysis where we model the data and turn it into financial forecasts so you have predictable revenue.-> https://PodcastOnMarketing.com Top podcast for entrepreneurs...

Sure, there's winter, spring, summer, and fall. But the seasons in between have even more poetic names. In Alaska, greenup describes a sudden, dramatic burst of green after a long, dark winter. And there are many, many terms for a cold snap that follows the first taste of spring: blackberry winter, redbud winter, onion snow, and whippoorwill storm, to name a few. Plus, the family that plays trivia games at home may end up cheering for their teen in high-school competitions. Also, playful prayers at the dinner table: Amen, Brother Ben! Pass the butter, let's begin! All that, plus retten up, push the envelope, with bells on, self-deprecating vs. self-depreciating, taffy pockets, pigeon pair, the end of pea time, a puzzle about pairs of words. Here we go, laughing and scratching!  Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Twitter @wayword. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 117th Congress is coming to an end and with it ends the Democrats' full control of the legislative branch of government. Despite the narrow margins of the last two years, lawmakers ushered through historic legislation like the bipartisan infrastructure act. In Alaska, infrastructure money is set to help tribal communities withstand the effects of climate change. Lisa Desjardins reports. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

On Thursday's Mark Levin Show, President Biden gave an address from Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the American Revolution was launched. Biden and the Democrats keep alienating and lying to the American people and the people keep pretending to believe it. He labeled "MAGA Republicans" and election-deniers as a threat to our democracy. Biden called on all Americans to come together in the face of what he called extremism (soccer moms and conservatives). Then, Democrats are trying to change our entire political system. In Alaska, the California-born rank-choice voting was used to disenfranchise voters and defeat former Governor Sarah Palin who was running for Congress.  Later, Former South Carolina Governor and Ambassador Nikki Haley calls in to blast Biden for maligning Republicans while Democrats dehumanize minorities and divide Americans with his hateful MAGA-Fascism rhetoric. Haley also called New York State Attorney General Letitia James to the carpet for leaking the names of donors to her policy advocacy organization. This is the same office that is after former President Trump, the NRA and now Stand For America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices