Podcast appearances and mentions of monica gokey

In “Grandpa's Barbecue Blooms Out West,” Gravy producer Monica Gokey takes listeners to Idaho Falls, Idaho, to explore what happens when a Southerner leaves the South and opens a barbecue joint in the West.  Grandpa's Southern Bar-B-Q originally opened in the small town of Arco, Idaho, which is obscurely famous for being the first community in the U.S. powered by nuclear energy. At the time Grandpa's opened, Arco's population was about a thousand people. It was an unlikely location for any restaurant, much less a Southern food restaurant.  Menu items like smoked brisket, collard greens, gumbo, and buttermilk pie were new fare for many locals, and it wasn't the locals who patronized Grandpa's at first. It was tourists—either passing through Arco on their way to Yellowstone or the nearby Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.  Craters of the Moon is aptly named, and in 1969, Apollo 14 astronauts flew to Craters for a bootcamp on rocks. Their Apollo mission was focused on lunar exploration, and they spent time at Craters learning how to be field geologists. Thirty years later, park administrators got the idea to invite the surviving Apollo 14 astronauts back to Craters to commemorate the Monument's 75th anniversary.  Grandpa's had been open for four years at that point. A reporter who was in town to cover the Apollo 14 astronauts' return to Idaho stopped in for barbecue, and ended up doing a short feature on Grandpa's for the Idaho Statesman. That news story in Idaho's largest daily was something of a lift-off moment for Grandpa's. Spoiler alert: Grandpa's flourished. It became a destination eatery—so much so that the owners, the Westbrook family, started keeping guest registries for visitors from around the world. Grandpa's has since moved to the larger city of Idaho Falls, where you can sometimes find three generations of Westbrooks working the restaurant. The food has stayed true to its roots. At 79 years young, Lloyd is the pitmaster. His wife Loretta is the queen of desserts and sides. Kids and grandkids also help out. That familial atmosphere is something the Westbrooks extend to their customers, too. Everyone is treated like family when they step through the door.  When Grandpa's first opened its doors, the Westbrooks were the only African American family living in Arco. They saw it as an opportunity to build bridges, and even taught a Black history curriculum at the local school.  For this episode, Monica Gokey talks to Lloyd and Loretta Westbrook, co-owners of Grandpa's Southern Bar-B-Q, to learn how they built a thriving barbecue restaurant in the West. Listen to hear how the Westbrooks have learned to use food and friendliness as a vessel to build bridges in their community.

In Idaho, native grasslands were once a rich mosaic of plant life that supported a diverse cohort of birds. But as European settlers moved west, they converted those rich grasslands into farms. Today, very little native grassland habitat remains in the Intermountain West. In this episode of Threatened, producer Monica Gokey takes us on a quest to search for Long-billed Curlews, find a patch of restored habitat containing a bounty of grassland birds, and speak with the people working to protect and expand what's left of this unique habitat.There's more to the story!Check out Intermountain Bird ObservatoryLearn more about the Nimiipuu peopleRead about efforts to preserve Palouse PrairieFor the full transcript and more visit BirdNote.orgBirdNote is an independent nonprofit media production company. Your dollars make it possible to create sound-rich shows that connect you to the joys of birds and nature. Support BirdNote's conservation mission, and get more of the content you love, by subscribing to BirdNote+ at https://birdnote.supercast.tech or make a one-time gift at BirdNote.org. Thanks!

Abby's had a productive last couple of weeks, but not so much words-on-the-page.Abby organized/attended the very first Author Accelerator workshop, and then the Craft and Commerce Conference in Boise, ID - a lot of talk about email lists, cultivating email lists - very entrepreneurial in regards to what a writer would need to do post-publishing..and then she got to hang out with Mel! And Michelle Hazen! (@michellehazen on Twitter) and Monica Gokey! (@mondusko on Instagram).So while there weren't a lot of words on the page, she really got inspired to finish her revisions. Since she doesn't write well on planes or airports, and there's way too much in Boise to keep her busy, and away from the computer, Abby's wondering if she should go back to Chapter 4 - this was the chapter where she lost her readers while reading to her daughter's class. When you know you're not going to be in your regular routine, is it a good time to revisit something that's not just a blank page?"Don't try to make any big major decisions that will ripple through you're book when your tired or overwhelmed." - Kemlo.It's a good time to do so, Kemlo says, as long as you're not changing something that you're going to have to worry about fixing in the rest of your chapters. If you don't have time to think it through, wait!Abby's also wondering if layering in some humor with Chapter 4 will give it the oomph it needs. There's also some strategizing involved in what her protagonist knows, and when - these details of your story matter. You want to drop your clues in what may seem to you a fairly obvious way, but you know more about your story than anyone. Your reader isn't in your head! Don't leave too much time between the clue and the reveal, and remember - you've got to be moving your story along, there's got to be a point.There's more world-building to be done in this and later chapters, and Kemlo recommends slipping in more world-building for Abby's book world characters. Do they know each other, recognize each other? There are opportunities in this section, and others to make reference, shore up what the reader knows about the book world. Weaving these details in, layer upon later, iteration upon iteration, is what revision is all about.You've got the bones of your story, and now it's time to put up the wiring, stuff the walls with insulation, nail on the sheetrock...you get the idea.

Shoutout to MomWrites listener and fellow-bookstore-talk-giver Monica Gokey! Monica is a producer and reporter on the OutLANDish podcast, but she's also a fantastic writer and was recently published in the Jen Mann's You Do You. Mel and Monica did a bookstore talk together in January - Monica did a fantastic job...and Mel didn't even die from her fear of both the public and public speaking. Do things that scare you, guys...This week Mel reviews chapter eight, the first half of which she's deemed "a bunch of unfinished thoughts," and decides she wants another go at her character arcs - you can never know too much about your characters, what function they're serving, what their goals and motivations are in your story. A not so fun fact that we keep learning in this podcast: if you use characters as plot devices, we promise you, you will regret it. But if you've done this already, and you've got characters you haven't developed, you can still save them! Look at the scenes they're in, figure out what purpose they're serving, and trace it backward - find out THE WHY.What's going on when you don't like your writing, but you can't quite put your finger on what's wrong? Usually, it's because something isn't on the page--and maybe you're giving, as Kemlo says, "the what without the why." Don't make your readers guess at what's going on--readers are less patient than you think, and they know a fraction of what you know about your story - in fact, and they only know what you tell them. You don't want your readers confused or guessing. You want them devouring the pages, taking in all you want them to learn about your characters and your story and racing to the next chapter.When CPs or editors tell you to get specific about what's going on in your story, they don't mean go into detail about the descriptions of things or events, necessarily - what the mean (a lot of the time) are specifics about feelings. Specifics about the characters' internal worlds, the way they think, how they see the world. Our human brains flip through memories and theories and piece things together in real-time, so adding in those little bits of realism that suck us into the character's inner world helps us relate to what we're reading to on an intrinsic level. And sometimes it doesn't take a lot--a few sentences here, some nuance there--not every revision has you demolishing your pages and rebuilding from the ground up."That's the really satisfying part of revision for me--looking at something that's kind of 'meh,' and tweaking it just a little bit until it's 'whoa!'" - Melanie Parish

Does getting better at something increase our enjoyment of it? In today's episode, producer Monica Gokey asks the question of whether aptitude affects how much we enjoy a particular activity - in this case, fly-fishing. We'll also hear from an expert on how waterway access differs from public land access. Pull out your fly rod, tie a fly, and put in your earbuds - Outlandish is heading to the river! 

Living in Anchorage, a high cost of living city, working a job with a 40 hour per week minimum, and wanting to spend time with her family just didn't mesh for Monica. When her husband's family had an opening on the ranch for summer work, they leapt. But her career had to change with the move. It took a while to get her productivity and scheduling humming, but now Monica keeps a daily schedule with seasonal variants. I can't stress enough how building a schedule that works for you is paramount to keeping your location independent life going. If we don't keep us on track, no one does. Monica pitches media outlets, but the same ideas hold true for finding clients. Do you want to build a foundation of long term reliable work that may pay a bit less per hour or so you want to continually pitch new clients that may or may not be a good fit, though the one-off projects may have a higher hourly rate? (Price per project, even when you calculate hourly, but that's a separate discussion). And do you think you can turn those higher paying jobs into long term clients? There is no right answer, it's just a matter of choosing the right fit for you. Monica references her reach work a few times in this episode and this is an idea worth digging in on. Is what you're working on moving your career closer to your goals or are you just coasting along doing what you've always done? Both are fine, but need to be done with intention. If you have big goals, it's time to stop and think about what you're doing to get there. Monica sets aside about 5% of her work to move her career along. What percent would work for you? For full links and show notes visit compassopod.com/014

Wanna Know Idaho traveled to Idaho's West Central Mountains to answer this question from McCall resident Fred Coriell: "What impacts will an open-pit mining operation, like the one proposed by Midas Gold, have on our region?" Cascade-based reporter Monica Gokey has the story for this episode of the podcast .

Today on Outlandish our guest reporter Monica Gokey has a chat with rangeland researcher and llama packing hunter, Matt Rinella. When it comes to public lands and hunting, Matt and his llamas have some great stories. 

Monica Gokey was an avid whitewater kayaker. Paddling had stolen her heart, shaped her identity, and given her a tribe to belong to. Then she had kids. These days, Monica’s kayaking life has been replaced by the routine of caring for three small children. The adventurous side of her has been eclipsed by her new identity as a parent. And some days, that new identity is tough to swallow. On this episode, Monica shares her story. It’s a story about the parts of ourselves we give up when we choose to become parents. And it’s about attempting to reconcile yourself with a new identity.

On this bonus episode of Outlandish, we talk with our guest reporter Monica Gokey to discuss podcasting and public lands while on a hike in Idaho.