Podcasts about Northern Arizona

In this Episode we have Landen Schaelling, founder of Sacred Soil Solutions, sharing how healthy soil biology transforms plant health from the ground up. Drawing on years of homesteading, regenerative soil research, and microscopy, he explains why bacteria, fungi, and other microbes are the true engine behind thriving gardens and farms. The conversation explores the science of rhizophagy, microbial ferments, compost quality, and practical strategies that gardeners and farmers can immediately implement to build healthier, more resilient soil. Landen also discusses how understanding living soil can reduce fertilizer inputs, improve plant immunity, and restore natural ecological balance.Our Guest: Landen Schaelling is the founder of Sacred Soil Solutions. He is focused on bringing optimal and approachable microbial inputs to gardeners and homesteaders, while also teaching farmers in the American West how to implement soil-building solutions at scale. Landen has been homesteading through a permaculture lens in Northern Arizona for over a decade. In the last couple of years, he has devoted his focus to restoring holistic soil microbiology and using practical microscope work to verify and guide that process.Key TopicsLiving soil biologySoil microbiomeRhizophagy (plant root feeding)Compost quality and fungal dominanceSoil microscopySymbiotic Antioxidative Microbes (SAM)Microbial fermentsCompost extracts vs. compost teasSoil pH and alkalinityWater retention in arid climatesPlant Health PyramidComplete protein synthesis in plantsRegenerative agricultureHomesteading and permacultureKey Questions AnsweredWhat makes soil truly healthy?Healthy soil contains a balance of minerals, water, air space, organic matter, and abundant biological life. Understanding each site's history helps determine the best path toward regeneration.Why are microbes so important?Microbes drive nutrient cycling, improve plant nutrition, build soil structure, support water retention, and create resilient ecosystems that naturally suppress disease and pests.What is rhizophagy?Rhizophagy is the process by which plant roots actively absorb bacteria and yeast through root tips, consume them, and gain proteins, micronutrients, and growth-promoting compounds directly from living microbes.Why does compost sometimes perform better than fertilizer?High-quality compost delivers living biology rather than simply nutrients. Plants respond rapidly when beneficial microbes become available through compost or microbial ferments.What's the difference between compost tea and microbial ferments?Compost tea extracts microbes already living in compost, while microbial ferments grow stable populations of beneficial microbes that can be applied as foliar sprays or soil drenches.Why is soil history important?Past management practices—including flood irrigation, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and previous crops—continue to influence soil biology, fertility, and plant performance years later.How can gardeners encourage healthier soil biology?Build mature compost, reduce unnecessary disturbance, increase carbon-rich materials, apply microbial ferments, mulch consistently, and maintain proper moisture.Can healthier soil reduce pests and diseases?Healthy plants with complete protein synthesis become naturally less attractive to many insect pests while beneficial microbes improve plant immune function against common diseases.How does soil microscopy help?Microscopy allows growers to directly observe microbial populations, assess compost quality, diagnose biological deficiencies, and monitor progress during soil restoration.What common mistake delayed Landen's success?Using feedlot cattle manure overloaded his soil with nitrates, producing vigorous foliage but poor fruit production and severe pest pressure, ultimately leading him to study soil biology more deeply.Episode HighlightsLanden left a traditional academic path after discovering permaculture and dedicated his life to regenerative homesteading.Healthy soil depends as much on living biology as it does on minerals and organic matter.Rhizophagy has changed how scientists understand plant nutrition, showing plants directly consume microbes.Compost quality depends more on microbial diversity than simply creating dark, finished organic matter.Acidic microbial ferments can help offset alkaline soils common throughout the American Southwest.Living microbes improve plant nutrition, reduce pest pressure, and strengthen natural disease resistance.Soil microscopy allows growers to verify biological activity instead of relying solely on assumptions.Taking action before knowing everything is often the fastest path to learning and improving soil health.ResourcesBook RecommendationRegenerative Soil by Matt PowersLearn MoreSacred Soil Solutions School (Skool community)Sacred Soil Solutions educational resources on microbial fermentsFollowFacebook: Landen SchaellingInstagram: Sacred Soil SolutionsEmaillanden.schaelling@protonmail.comVisit www.urbanfarm.org/SacredSoil for the show notes on this episode, and access to our full podcast library! Need a little bit of advice or just a feedback on your design for your yard or garden?The Urban Farm Team is offering consults over the phone or zoom. Get the benefits of a personalized garden and yard space analysis without the cost of trip charges.You can chat with Greg or choose one of the senior members of our Urban Farm team to get permaculture based feedback.Click HERE to learn more!*Disclosure: Some of the links in our podcast show notes and blog posts are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase, we will earn a nominal commission at no cost to you. We offer links to items recommended by our podcast guests and guest writers as a service to our audience and these items are not selected because of the commission we receive from your purchases. We know the decision is yours, and whether you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

AD search updates from Wisconsin, Purdue, Cal State Bakersfield & Northern Arizona; CAA Commissioner Joe D'Antonio on the CAA's unique structure; Florida State's concession move and more.We would love to know what you think of the show and you can let us know on social media @D1ticker.If you are not subscribed to D1.ticker, you can and should subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.d1ticker.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

The Pocket Fire in Northern Arizona is causing some worries as it's blazing through the dry terrain. We talked to Dick Fleishman with the Pocket Fire's public information team about the fight. 

Fires are burning in Northern Arizona, we get an update on how they're doing and what preparations have been made to prevent more. 

The era of top-down energy projects is over. Today demands collaboration, equity, and stakeholder engagement. And in the clean energy movement, Indigenous partnerships often lead the way. James Jenkins, Executive Director of Indigenous Clean Energy, joins thinkenergy to unpack the Regenerative Energy 2026 Report. He explores what a just transition looks like, how Indigenous communities are shaping the future, and what the industry can learn from working together. Related links:  Indigenous Clean Energy: https://indigenouscleanenergy.com/ James Jenkins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-jenkins-27787913b/ Regenerative Energy 2026 Report: https://indigenouscleanenergy.com/regenerative-energy-national-survey-2026/ Bringing it Home Program: https://indigenouscleanenergy.com/our-programs/bringing-it-home/  Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-8b612114  Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en    To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405 To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/@thinkenergypod Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thinkenergypod/  Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thinkenergypod  Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod -- Transcript: [00:00] Trevor Freeman: Welcome to Think Energy, a podcast that dives into the fast-changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and people on the front lines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional, and up-and-coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback, or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com. [00:26] Trevor Freeman: Hi everyone, and welcome back. We often talk on this show about the what of the energy transition. What needs to happen, what is happening, what technologies or initiatives are growing or up-and-coming. But it's also important to consider the how of it all. Energy systems are complex. That is something that should be clear in all the conversations we have around here, but it's not just technical complexity that we need to consider. Our energy systems are also socially, politically, and societally complex. It's not just a matter of picking the right technology and implementing it. If it was that case, we've got, you know, most of the technology we need, and we'd be in a much better position than we currently are. We have to figure out how we move these projects forward. [01:14] Trevor Freeman: Traditionally, energy projects have been these large, top-down infrastructure projects. But increasingly, we're moving into a time when collaboration, equity, and stakeholder engagement are critical components of project success. One area where this can be seen—and, in fact, it's an area that's really pushing a lot of this change—is Indigenous leadership. [01:38] Trevor Freeman: Over the past decade here in Canada, at least, we've seen a profound evolution where Indigenous communities are not just participants in the clean energy transition or kind of bystanders; they are actively leading it in many cases. That's not to say all the problems or challenges have been solved, but we're seeing a lot of movement here. And that's the topic of my conversation today. [02:02] Trevor Freeman: To help us understand the scale of this movement, I'm joined by James Jenkins. James is the Executive Director of Indigenous Clean Energy, which is a leading organization accelerating First Nations, Inuit, and Métis participation in clean energy projects from coast to coast. I'm really excited to have James on the show today because his expertise comes straight from real, actual experience on these projects. As a proud member and former CEO of the Walpole Island First Nation, James personally drove the equity development for two 100-megawatt wind farms for his community. Today, he leverages that firsthand experience along with a diverse background in consulting, local government, and academia to serve as a national champion for Indigenous clean energy partnerships. [02:54] Trevor Freeman: His organization just released their third national survey, the Regenerative Energy 2026 report, which provides a really eye-opening snapshot of how Indigenous communities are shaping Canada's energy future through innovation, equity ownership, and community-driven solutions. So today, we're going to dive into the findings of this report, talk a little bit about, you know, what a just energy transition looks like, and explore what utility and industry players can learn from these successful partnerships. James Jenkins, welcome to the show. [03:31] James Jenkins: Hi Trevor, thank you for having me. [03:34] Trevor Freeman: So, James, let's start a little bit with some background. Tell us about Indigenous Clean Energy and how your organization works to advance First Nations, Inuit, and Métis participation in the clean energy sector. [03:47] James Jenkins: Sure. Indigenous Clean Energy is a not-for-profit organization, and we've been operating for about 10 years. So we started 10 years ago with the 2020 Catalyst Program, which was designed to develop a cohort of clean energy leaders coming primarily from Indigenous communities and businesses that could really shape the future of Indigenous participation in the energy transition. So we started with a cohort. It was led by just a few staff and our founding director, Chris Henderson. And this is our 10th year, so we'll be celebrating 10 years of the 2020 Catalyst Program at our national gathering in August. [04:24] Trevor Freeman: Awesome. Congrats. [04:26] James Jenkins: Thank you so much. So the goal of that program was to really expand the opportunities, the capacity, and the number of communities engaged in clean energy. And we have seen that progress tremendously over the last 10 years. We've seen federal grant programs to support that work also emerge as major contributors, and we've seen utilities across the country get on board and try to find ways to expand Indigenous participation. [04:54] James Jenkins: So we've seen quite a bit of success, and with that success, we've grown as well. So we're now a team of about 35, and we're much larger. So we've expanded into a few other areas. One of them is youth, so we have two different youth programs. And we've expanded into energy efficiency as well, mostly under our "Bringing It Home" umbrella. [05:16] James Jenkins: And the idea behind that is we've seen the success of the 2020 Catalyst Program and clean energy leaders really pushing the envelope in terms of what is possible when it comes to Indigenous-led generation projects. So now we're identifying a gap still existing when it comes to energy efficiency. And so, in a way, we're trying to replicate the success of the 2020 Catalyst Program. We'll be running our third year of the Project Accelerator soon. So that's geared towards energy efficiency; it's an intensive training program, and it comes with a grant. [05:47] James Jenkins: And finally, we have a policy arm as well that's also very involved in engaging at the community and regional level. So that's through our Energy and Climate team, and we have a national hub that just completed a series of directional gatherings regionally. We also have a global hub as well that's active in Oceania and Latin America. [06:09] Trevor Freeman: Oh, that's fantastic. Tell me a little bit about the youth programs that you're running. [06:14] James Jenkins: So, we support youth across our programs, but we have two programs in particular that are geared towards youth. One of them is the Imagination Program, which comes with wrap-around supports and training. Right now, we're developing a micro-credential with the University of Saskatchewan for our program participants. It comes with a grant to lead a community-scale project. A good example might be a solar-powered greenhouse. Many of them are linked to schools, and, you know, we see the passion of younger members of communities that want to move these projects forward, but it's entrepreneurial in spirit. [06:49] James Jenkins: The second is called Generation Power, which is a wage subsidy program for Indigenous youth, and we pair them with employers in the clean energy field. So some of them are utilities or renewable businesses; in some cases, they're communities or Indigenous businesses that are moving forward on projects. And it's more than just a wage subsidy; we identify all of the potential barriers for Indigenous youth entering these jobs and provide those kinds of support to increase their chance of success and staying in the workforce after the placement. [07:22] Trevor Freeman: Oh, that's very cool. We've talked a few times on this show about building that next generation of energy champions and people that are focused, you know, on this new form of energy—this new energy transition or this new world of energy that we're moving into. So fantastic to see you guys participating in that. That's really cool. [07:42] Trevor Freeman: So, I want to spend some of our time here talking about the report that your organization recently released titled Regenerative Energy 2026. So before we dive into the specific data and the numbers, let's talk about, you know, just that title itself and what the document sets out to achieve. So first of all, tell us about that term, "regenerative energy." What does that mean? Why did you choose that title? [08:09] James Jenkins: Sure. So just generally, regenerative energy is the idea that these projects are doing more than producing electricity for the market and potentially bringing in revenue. They're also contributing to the broader ecosystem, which could mean the ecology of the landscape or a reduction of carbon into the atmosphere. So it's looking at the wider impacts and planning energy with that in mind. [08:33] James Jenkins: In the Indigenous context, it goes deeper than that. We're incorporating sovereignty, energy sovereignty, and acknowledging that communities are increasingly expecting to be able to move through their energy journey on their own terms. And so that could mean other outcomes in addition to just energy stability and security. It expands to food security, but also ultimately the community being able to plan its future—how does energy fit into that? [09:03] James Jenkins: I think it fits into what we're seeing in Indigenous communities in general, where there is a need to revitalize our cultures, our practices, our governance structures. We're finding that the energy sector—it's a business sector and an opportunity and an expanding sector—but there's also alignment in terms of values in many places, with communities looking to have an impact on their landscape, on the ecology, and this is a way to do that. [09:30] James Jenkins: So regenerative energy is acknowledging that there is this revitalization happening. It's not as though our communities, our governments, our nations were extinguished over the last 300 years. What does it mean in terms of revitalizing those practices, and how do all of these projects and ambitions when it comes to energy fit into that? [09:51] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I like that description. Thanks for that, James. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is it fair to say that the choice to use "regenerative" instead of "renewable"—which is fairly buzzy as a term, everyone kind of has renewable energy on their mind—was a deliberate choice? You're building more aspects to it; there are more facets of the description you just gave of regenerative energy compared to just renewable energy. Is that fair to say? [10:19] James Jenkins: Well, and that's true as well. And as you've read in the report, we're seeing projects expand beyond just what we would term "renewable" projects. So that was the bulk of the projects up until recently, but now transmission lines and battery storage are becoming more prominent. [10:36] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, absolutely. Great. Okay, I do want to talk to you about that. So my second question kind of at a high level around the report is, you know, one of the goals or one of the things you're doing in this report is really compiling and tracking national data around these projects. Why is that important? Why is that something that you're striving to do—to really track and compile that data? [10:59] James Jenkins: Well, in the context right now, we have a federal government that is trying to identify meaningful projects that can have an impact on the economy, have an impact on spurring economic growth in different regions. And so it's a critical time for us to broadcast information on our dataset because collectively, these projects that have Indigenous ownership and co-ownership are a massive portion of the electricity generating infrastructure of Canada, and they have a meaningful impact on the economy, but also the ability for communities to finance their own programs, to reinvest in economic development. [11:36] James Jenkins: So it's a critical time from that perspective. I think there's a need for us to be even louder because collectively as a nation, we seem to be looking for these wins that can be a shot in the arm. You know, we're worried about economic growth, and here we have many examples of projects that have Indigenous participation and that are having these benefits that are allowing different regions that are not participating in the economy in as active a way—this is a real opportunity for them. [12:05] James Jenkins: And unlike many of the mega-projects that we're thinking about right now, these have shorter timeframes, less challenges, and the risk is much more manageable in comparison. So, you know, we are trying to point out that, A, these kinds of projects—which are renewables, but also battery storage and some of these other projects—these are important for the federal government to continue to invest in because they have been investing in it heavily over the last 10 years, and that's part of the success story. [12:35] James Jenkins: But there is also a set of learnings that can be drawn from when we have so many examples of good partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations moving these projects forward. So I think when we look into the future as to how this should look, what does Indigenous participation look like for these mega-projects, we have a bit of a blueprint that we can draw from. [12:57] James Jenkins: And so we are trying to bring more attention to this. I think it's really step one. The federal government can pat itself on the back that it's been one of the key reasons why Indigenous participation in the energy sector has grown over the last 10 years, but it's not getting the attention it deserves in the current conversation. So I think that's why it's a really critical time, possibly for other non-government actors as well that are asking, "Well, in the current global and national framework, what is the best way to achieve climate outcomes, Indigenous participation in the economy, greater social outcomes?" And so we do want to point to this as a good news story that has a track record, and that's what the data really does—it speaks to that track record. [13:41] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, you often hear it framed, and in fact, just, you know, we're recording this on a Monday—just over the weekend I was listening to the radio, one of those call-in shows that really framed the choice as, "you know, we either invest in climate solutions or we focus on the economy." And I think you can probably say, "we invest in, you know, Indigenous partnership or the economy, or climate solutions." And what I'm hearing from you is it doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. It doesn't have to be either/or. In fact, the data you're showing and the projects that you're highlighting show that all of these outcomes can be achieved with the right focus and with the right investment. Is that fair to say? [14:21] James Jenkins: It is. And generally, the bucket of renewable projects or clean energy projects, the timelines are shorter, the cost is going to be easier to quantify, and the cost is coming down for these technologies—wind, solar, battery—in comparison to some of the other technologies that are being framed as the solution, which I think they will be. But framing it as either/or doesn't make much sense, especially when electricity demand is growing and it's an immediate issue. [14:51] James Jenkins: So we should look at some of these immediate solutions and acknowledge it's still a question mark for some of the other sectors that are going to be involved in building out our electricity capacity. Mining, some of these other sectors, there are some examples of Indigenous participation, but not hundreds of examples of equity participation. And so, absolutely, I've been hearing those kinds of either/or arguments, or "no more federal grants, we should have access to capital instead." That could do a real injustice to the existing capacity that's already there, like the number of people in energy offices at Indigenous communities right now. [15:28] Trevor Freeman: Yeah. So let's dive into some of the data then. You know, you see headlines sometimes about major Indigenous clean energy projects happening in collaboration, and the data in your report really backs this up. I don't want to throw too many stats out there for our listeners, but just quickly, you know, there are over 350 medium-to-large electricity generation projects across Canada with Indigenous participation. We've got 250 of those already operational, the rest in either construction or planning stages. From your perspective, James, you kind of already touched on this—the role of the federal government driving some of this momentum and visibility—just expand on that a little bit. Like, how did we get to these pretty impressive numbers where we're seeing lots of these projects? [16:15] James Jenkins: Sure, definitely. I think the origin goes back at least to around 2000 to 2008 when there was a series of Supreme Court decisions that ruled in favor of Indigenous communities when it comes to the duty to consult and accommodate—that's what the Supreme Court ultimately called it. So that's a framework that was very important when it came to Indigenous engagement in energy projects. [16:43] James Jenkins: As the UN Declaration starts to gain traction in our country, it may become less important, but it was certainly a turning point. So decisions like Mikisew Cree up to Tsilhqot'in created a framework where communities could get involved and had the legal backing to do so. Some jurisdictions—with Ontario probably taking the lead at that time, BC following, and many others following that model—supported Indigenous communities so that they could be involved in what the Supreme Court was framing as consultation. And what that meant was having the capacity to be engaged in project review. And often, the developer bore the cost of that. [17:23] James Jenkins: But there could be positive outcomes because it meant there was a framework and an impetus for communities and developers to sit down at the table when the development was taking place in the territory of an Indigenous community and their rights were potentially going to be impacted. So as that process became the norm in most regions in Canada, what emerged was this mechanism called an Impact Benefit Agreement as a way for the developer and the Indigenous community to sit down and say, "Okay, we've identified these impacts—and these are impacts to the practicing of rights that are enshrined in the Constitution, so there's this channel back to the Supreme Court decisions—so we'll have a confidential agreement called an Impact Benefit Agreement to offset those impacts," which never really fit the spirit of the Supreme Court decisions, but it was adopted all over the country. [18:14] James Jenkins: And when Ontario and BC went to bring more renewables onto the grid more quickly, they were looking at different ways to ensure there was the kind of local participation, and so they experimented with creating incentives for Indigenous equity participation in the projects. Sometimes that included municipal participation as well, but we saw a large uptake in that. And that was something I was involved in; I was a band manager in my community of Walpole Island First Nation in the past, and while this was happening, I had some other roles. [18:47] James Jenkins: But we saw it as an opportunity, and ultimately, there were many renewable projects entering the grid in Southern Ontario at a rapid rate. One of the things we were able to identify was that equity participation brought much more benefit to the community than an Impact Benefit Agreement. In the kind of projects we were looking at, it was usually tenfold if you quantified the net revenue from equity participation versus the takeaway from an Impact Benefit Agreement. [19:17] James Jenkins: So that started to become the norm, and Indigenous communities started to see this as a more meaningful way to address the need for development to happen rapidly in certain regions and especially with renewables. So there was a period where new hydroelectric projects started to include some equity participation, and then we saw, with the expansion of wind and to some extent solar, that happening at a rapid rate starting about 2008. [19:44] James Jenkins: It's expanded since then for a few reasons. So one is that over time, most regions in Canada have—most provinces have directed their utilities to put incentives in their calls to power to try to ensure more examples of Indigenous equity participation. The other possibility that's happened, which was more an Alberta story but it's been experimented with in some other jurisdictions, is a deregulated market where an Indigenous partner and non-Indigenous partner, or a fully Indigenous-owned project, can go to a consumer and negotiate a power purchase agreement, sell power directly. Sometimes having an Indigenous community providing power provides other benefits to the purchaser, whether it's the industrial or commercial partner, and so that led to quite a few projects as well in Alberta for completely different reasons. [20:34] Trevor Freeman: Would those other benefits be like preferred rates? What are the other benefits that you're referring to there? [20:39] James Jenkins: It could be preferred rates. In many cases, it's things like corporate responsibility, just the sustainability measures of having, you know, purchasing from an Indigenous partner. So that was enough of an incentive to really, you know, spur a market in those areas. [20:56] James Jenkins: And then we've seen the federal government invest through grant programs in Indigenous capacity in the energy sector. So that has allowed communities in many regions to engage in these opportunities and just have the staff to do it. Because most communities are generally dealing with many, many issues all at once—it's like three levels of government all in one, and most services are underfunded. So being able to actively participate in these opportunities, ensure there is enough trust to move forward and that the community is coming along with it, usually requires some expertise and people in the community that understand energy enough to keep everybody engaged. And these federal grant programs have contributed to that as well. [21:40] Trevor Freeman: Yeah. So with this change over the last let's call it 20-odd years or so, is there a fairly established model or process now that you see Indigenous communities and partners working through, or is every kind of new project finding its way anew? I guess what I'm asking is, yeah, is there an established process? Is it kind of like you know how these projects are going to go now, given that there's quite a bit of experience over the last 20 years? [22:06] James Jenkins: It's not an established process. And so we—for our Energy and Climate team—we engaged with BC Hydro and Manitoba Hydro to some extent on their recent calls to power and procurement because they're both looking at ways to ensure there's more Indigenous equity in projects, and there are different models to choose from. But there is the ability to look at what happened in different jurisdictions, draw from maybe what worked and what didn't, and so we're seeing utilities start to do that as they develop new procurement procedures. [22:38] James Jenkins: On the partnership side, things continue to evolve, and there's always the risk that some of these partnerships may be less beneficial to the Indigenous partner. So another report we released six months ago with Clean Energy BC is an equity guide, and the target audience of that is Indigenous communities that are looking at these equity participation opportunities to make sure that the process is fair to them and transparent to them. So there is a framework in place, but I think there's always a need to ensure that communities have access to the tools so that they have a meaningful seat at the table. And it's not a given that those will be in place, so it is an area where we place some of our efforts. [23:22] Trevor Freeman: And have you seen a change—like you talked about kind of the initial push for a lot of renewable projects being part of the impetus of seeing a big expansion here in Indigenous partnership—at least here in Ontario, which of course is where I'm sitting and we're having this conversation, there was a bit of a slowdown in that, but as we see demand significantly increasing, we're looking at more and more projects. So are you seeing that ebb and flow of project participation as well, or has it been pretty steady in terms of engagement over the last little while? [23:54] James Jenkins: In most regions, it's been growing. So you look at the Atlantic region, Quebec is really pushing for Indigenous participation in renewables. In most regions, that's happening—Maritimes very much so right now. [24:10] James Jenkins: In Ontario, we saw with the results of the most recent call to power quite a few northern projects, which is a bit surprising, but I know that's what they wanted to see happen, and it opens up some opportunity for communities in Northern Ontario. In Ontario, I think there are more regions where renewables are less socially accepted right now. And I talk to some people in Southern Ontario that are surprised how accepted it is in most of the country, with a few exceptions. So, you know, I think we might see ways that Ontario tries to draw projects in, whether it's within regions or partners where there is that social acceptance. But that's to be seen. [24:50] James Jenkins: But Ontario, like other places, knows they need to meet this growing demand, and renewables are relatively quick to deploy, relatively low risk, and will likely be part of that solution, just like everywhere. [25:05] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, absolutely. Great. Okay, I do want to talk to you about that. So my next question, you mentioned this a few times, that we're not just talking about solar panels and wind turbines, which I think is what most people think of when they think of clean energy projects, but you have mentioned a significant growth in transmission projects as well as battery storage. And there's a number of projects that are now kind of in operation with Indigenous co-ownership that fall into that transmission and battery storage category. So tell us about the economic opportunity for Indigenous communities of these types of projects, not just generation projects. [25:44] James Jenkins: Right. So battery storage is growing more along the same trajectory as those generation projects have been in the past, and as the cost for battery storage has come down, it's become a very viable way for utilities and provinces to deal with the intermittency of electricity and increase stability while meeting targets for carbon emissions. So we're seeing more Indigenous leadership in that area. [26:10] James Jenkins: And there's a premier project in Ontario, the Oneida Energy Storage Project, where Six Nations of the Grand River approached NRStor, their partner, to develop the project and then went to the Ontario government and said, "This is what we'd like to do, this is how we see it will meet some of the needs." So there was some real ingenuity in there, and I think in some way, that's an example of what could be the next stage in terms of Indigenous energy planning as that kind of capacity builds because Six Nations of the Grand River had quite a bit of experience under their belt in terms of participating in energy projects. [26:45] James Jenkins: And then Ontario has also been the leader in procuring battery storage projects, and for the most part, most of them have Indigenous equity participation in those projects. A lot of them benefit from existing relationships between construction companies and communities that can look at these opportunities and co-design them together. And I think we'll start to see that in other parts of the country as that builds. But it is a major opportunity as the technology allows us to meet some of the need to stabilize the grid, and, you know, it could reduce our reliance on solutions like natural gas, so it's a real opportunity. [27:21] James Jenkins: When it comes to transmission lines, it's a slightly different trajectory, but I think it goes back to the duty to consult and accommodate and parties sitting at the table understanding where do we go from here when there's a project that is going to have this enormous landscape impact and we can no longer do what we did in the past, which was ignore any Indigenous rights on the landscape. [27:46] James Jenkins: And I was in Ontario for the last 20 or so years and witnessed the demand from Indigenous communities to participate in transmission projects. It wasn't passive in any way. So now we hear from utilities that are saying the right thing to do is to provide these opportunities, which is fantastic. But back then, it really was Indigenous people with the foresight and the stubbornness to for years say, "No, we need a solution that's going to meet all of our needs." And as we started to see some examples—Saugeen and Nawash being one of the first, and then others in Ontario where there would be this kind of Indigenous co-ownership—it gradually started to become more accepted. [28:25] James Jenkins: And now it's part of the plan in many regions of Ontario, and this is a way to move the project forward, have Indigenous communities on board, and when they're sitting there as partners, there are a number of advantages that they bring to the table because in many cases there is knowledge of the landscape itself. And looking at preferred routes and other major decisions can really benefit from having these communities at the table providing their knowledge as opposed to sitting sort of on the other side of an adjudication table, which is only going to add risk to a project. [29:00] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I mean we see all parts of the electricity sector growing, and transmission is one of those areas for sure that in order to support electrification across the province, we're going to see more transmission. So it's great to hear that this is an area that is growing, or getting more buy-in, or there's more partnership happening in all parts of the electricity sector. [29:21] Trevor Freeman: So, James, you talked about regenerative energy earlier, we touched on that a little bit, and how that term is focused on being built on fairer and more equitable relationships. In your report, you kind of take this a step further by explicitly stating that this work seeks to advance the Truth and Reconciliation Commission—notably, Call to Action number 92. And so for our listeners who are not familiar—and please, definitely step in here if you want to explain it differently than I'm going to—but Call to Action 92 specifically calls on corporate Canada to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to commit to meaningful consultation and consent, and ensure Indigenous communities gain equitable access to jobs, training, and long-term economic benefits. [30:13] Trevor Freeman: So we often hear reconciliation discussed in a social or a political context, but your report really points to the actual act of Indigenous-led clean energy infrastructure and how that can embody this reconciliation in a material and meaningful way. And I apologize that I'm rambling a lot, this is a long question. How does building out physical infrastructure—like generation programs, transmission lines that we've been talking about, battery storage—how does that advance these goals that are kind of laid out and described in this particular Call to Action? [30:52] James Jenkins: Mm-hmm. And you're right, the benefits of these projects isn't just the net revenue, but it's also apprenticeships, jobs, the business capacity that comes with participating in the project, and sometimes the ability to open up opportunities for practicing harvesting rights where, when Indigenous communities don't have a seat at the table, often the gate or the door is shut to opportunities and access. So it's a way to open those up. [31:19] James Jenkins: And in my experience with projects in my community, when we were reviewing projects through the IBA or Impact Benefit Agreement process, the goal was always a number of apprenticeships, contribution to education, capacity, and it was always a good news story getting some jobs, employment readiness out of the project. And it was a remarkable shift to be sitting at the table as a partner and be discussing those same outcomes and really led to more of a spirit of cooperation. And we had some really great successes come out of that. [31:51] James Jenkins: As well as community members feeling like, "This is an industry that I can go work in, and I'm not a stranger in a strange land. My community has a stake in this," and feel that sense of ownership but also home, which can be this indirect challenge when it comes to people entering the workforce and sticking with it. So that kind of ownership—it's part of the solution, how do we grow the Indigenous workforce? When the Indigenous communities have a financial interest in it, it really changes the picture quite a bit, and it really helps with the foreignness that can exist. And so we've seen the opposite in renewable industries and clean energy where many communities and youth are starting to see this as a viable career path and one that makes sense for them. [32:38] James Jenkins: So, you know, and like I said before, when Indigenous communities are sitting at the table—and in my experience we had gone through project review on many, many projects because of the Impact Benefit Agreement process—we were able to bring that knowledge we had of project review to the table, which can help the project. So it was a real meaningful exchange of, "How can we meet these milestones on time? What can we bring to the table?" So there's that aspect of it, but then there's also the multi-generational knowledge that comes with living on the land. [33:10] James Jenkins: And, you know, in some ways sitting down with elders, that does take a long time and commitment and is often different than how we would typically view going through the early stages of a project. But at the end of the day, it can lead to better outcomes and actually not take as long because the pathway to gain the knowledge for the least impact through a traditional process is also incredibly time-consuming. And so having an Indigenous party at the table that can bring the correct knowledge keeps things forward, making a meaningful decision from their perspective can really add value in that way as well. [33:48] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, it's great to hear that you're seeing the impact of these programs on both the projects themselves and better outcomes in the projects, as well as building capacity and partnership in Indigenous communities. And I'm glad you kind of brought those youth programs back up; it's great to hear about those programs. [34:07] Trevor Freeman: So, you have a report or you have a section sorry in your report called "Opportunities Unrealized," which really highlights major gaps or a gap for community-focused projects right now as different federal funding programs sunset, and you specifically call out three particular pillars that need renewed policy and funding commitment. So first off, you talk about 78 healthy energy housing projects that are mostly just small pilot initiatives. And that's looking at energy efficiency in homes, which you did touch on earlier, and how that's tied to Indigenous health and energy sovereignty. So how do we move beyond those pilots to fund these at scale? What are your thoughts on how we do that? [34:53] James Jenkins: Right. So our approach is really, A, to support these pilots as much as we can so that we have that cohort of Indigenous leadership that has that experience in community, and so it can have that ripple effect where, when we started to see successful generation projects, some of them coming out of the 2020 Catalyst Program, other communities said, "Well, I want to do that too. How do I make that possible?" And then there's some leadership to grow from. So it's really catalyzing that momentum. And where do we start? So that's the piece in terms of making sure that there is a core group of energy leaders in communities that are almost at the stage where they can have a very impactful, community-scale project when it comes to efficiency that can be replicated and that there are individuals with this knowledge that are in the community. [35:41] James Jenkins: So that's the first piece, but then the second piece and the other side of the coin that we're very active in is identifying what would the solution look like to make that kind of change repeatable on a national scale. And what we're generally pointing towards is some aspect of federal support, but also private investment as well. So what kind of mechanism can be put in place that will allow private finance to make sustainability programs for Indigenous healthy homes and buildings and infrastructure feasible? [36:15] James Jenkins: And we think it is going to have to be some kind of partnership between the federal government to secure some kind of financing tool and then to bring that private capital in. And so we have a number of partners that's expanding in the finance sector, in government, to really look at what a solution like that looks like. [36:35] James Jenkins: Indigenous housing, being a federal responsibility with the federal government having a large role in it, is certainly unusual and comes with some very unique challenges that make change at that scale difficult, but it's also an opportunity. And it does put the federal government in a position where it could lead a process like that and have some very large impact. So we want to make sure there is the existing community capacity for community members to know what meaningful change looks like at the local level, what the challenges and opportunities are that can contribute to that process. So that's the idea behind the Project Accelerator, but also design at the national level of a program that can lead to new builds, new sustainable builds, and retrofits on a major scale. [37:21] James Jenkins: And there are interesting examples. I was in the US earlier this year at a clean energy conference and was surprised to learn that there were very large subsidies for energy efficiency that were available to Indigenous communities up until recently—I would say at a scale tenfold of what we've ever seen in Canada. So those kinds of programs are possible, and I think we need to think outside the box and think about how do we put this into action. [37:51] James Jenkins: But ultimately, what we point out in those reports is that energy efficiency also leads to other very critical outcomes, including health and social outcomes at the community level. And speaking with communities, politicians from communities, housing tends to be a near number one or number one issue, with housing in need of repair being the core issue. And so ensuring that new housing is built with these sustainability measures in place will lead to houses that stay healthy for longer. And so, you know, it really goes much farther than just energy outcomes and that's why it's so critical. [38:34] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, it's another example of it it's not an either or question here, it's, you know, do it right in the right way and have a focus on both healthy and affordable housing at the same time as making sure it's energy efficient and you're kind of achieving both of those goals. So that's great. [38:58] Trevor Freeman: So, the second item you've identified in this section is, you know, a lot of northern and remote communities who rely on diesel for their energy focus, and our listeners may remember about a year ago we had a conversation with Quest Canada on this topic as well. And so, a lot of those communities are among the most affected by climate change and natural disasters, and you address what needs to happen from an early-stage planning and funding perspective to ensure that those communities that are not necessarily connected to a grid aren't left behind in this transition. Can you speak to us a little bit about that? [39:41] James Jenkins: Absolute. So already the cost of diesel in these remote communities is very high. So it's already an economic and social challenge in the territories and remote areas in the northern provinces. And so it's an area where communities tend to be very engaged and have been since the beginning. So we've been engaged with northern communities since the beginning with 2020 Catalyst. [40:15] James Jenkins: And I think it has a really—for them, clean energy has this impact on them like on a visceral level. For communities that have been able to implement clean technology and turn off the diesel generator for a while, they've talked about the impact of that silence that they haven't heard in so long, you know, the smell of clean air and that sort of thing. So there's this real passion, but also acknowledgment that, you know, they want to be part of a larger climate solution, they're feeling the impacts. And so there are many initiatives in the north, a number of which we've supported. [40:53] James Jenkins: But there are many challenges as well in terms of logistics, the value chain. Transportation is a real challenge compared to infrastructure in the south. So because there have been so many projects and we partnered with the federal government through two phases of a program called the Indigenous Off-Diesel Initiative—and that was supported by a number of federal programs and we're just finishing off the second cohort—there is so much that we've learned through a couple dozen communities that have been heavily invested in reducing their diesel reduction. [41:35] James Jenkins: And we're really at a stage now where we can learn—we can take stock of what we've learned through this process and identify how do we get this to the stage of successful projects. And we've learned a number of things. It's also bringing technology to these places that's robust enough to withstand the challenges and just be at a utility scale, ensuring different technologies can work well with each other. [42:04] James Jenkins: But there's a real need to continue that growth, especially when there's been so much investment and so many communities are so close, with a few success stories and so much pride that comes with this. But ultimately, if they are left behind, the cost for them to power their communities with diesel is not going to become less of a challenge over time. It's only going to become more problematic. And so it's a real priority, and something that, you know, we need to keep staying loud about as well because these are where some of our real energy leaders are living and coming from when it comes to clean energy and ensuring that their priorities have a seat at the table. [42:52] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, you mention success stories, James, and as we kind of wrap up our conversation here, I want to touch on that a little bit. So you talk about looking at this in perspective of the global stage, and one of your policy recommendations discusses Canada Global Indigenous Cooperation. And you outline that there are more examples of successful Indigenous-led energy projects in Canada than anywhere else in the world. How is your organization, Indigenous Clean Energy, sharing this expertise internationally, and what can the rest of the world learn about what's happening here in Canada? [43:32] James Jenkins: So we started to learn just how far ahead Canada is in this area through participation in forums like the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and we participated in a pre-conference with 88 global Indigenous delegates. And many of them were surprised to learn of these equity projects and opportunities that exist in Canada. For us, it can still be very frustrating, so it is good to put that in perspective in terms of—from many other jurisdictions, they're still at the beginning stages. [44:06] James Jenkins: But we do have some programs in place, and for several years we've been supporting a sister organization in Australia called First Nations Clean Energy Network using a train-the-trainer model. So we've been active in Australia every year. We've been active in New Zealand as well. And we have some programming in South America in Ecuador and Colombia. And over the last year, we finished a program where we engaged with all of the provinces within Colombia with delegates from communities to assist in developing clean energy plans for their communities that they could bring to the government and and discuss a partnership framework so that they could start to reduce their reliance on diesel and other other carbon fuels. [44:59] James Jenkins: And we supported those meetings with the government as well and supported delegates from these countries to also visit communities and see success stories in Canada. And the US is another area where there have been some really positive success stories over the last few years, and there were a number of energy programs that particularly rural and remote communities benefited from, Alaska having probably a slight majority and then others in the northern part of the Lower 48. I think they're going to start to struggle because those programs are sunsetting now, I think most of them have recently sunsetted. And so I think it should be a wake-up call to our federal government that there has been this investment in the form of grants from the federal government. If we don't have some kind of programming in place, we will start to see that progress recede. [45:57] James Jenkins: But just in general, there's a lot that we can share with other jurisdictions globally, everything from what a good partnership looks like, you know, what are the learnings for meaningful participation. But we do have some examples that are very unique, I think, in almost every jurisdiction—Indigenous equity in transmission lines is is really unheard of, so so we should, you know, acknowledge that there are some things that we're doing well and um sharing that and learning what other communities are going through in other jurisdictions. It also really helps us in our strategy. [46:40] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I mean we started this conversation with you describing what your organization does, and something that struck me is it's a combination of supporting projects and project models and helping things get up and running off the ground, providing education, and focusing on advocacy. And I imagine that, you know, even within Canada but also looking at some of the partners you've just mentioned around the world, the focus on, you know, each one of those individual aspects will vary depending on what the biggest need is in that jurisdiction at that time as things change, as funding programs change. So I imagine, you know, advocacy becomes more and more important as you see funding programs change or even just project structure change. Is that kind of fair to say? [47:28] James Jenkins: Definitely. And our model is very community-driven with with community-tailored solutions and with education and capacity building at the community level being our our primary focus, which does set us apart from other organizations to some extent, but does reflect that that um every every solution is going to be different, and really bringing up that capacity at the community level is the most effective way to do it. And for these kinds of projects, there isn't one solution that fits everybody. [48:02] Trevor Freeman: Is there, to kind of wrap it up here, is there, you know, one piece of advice that you'd give to—I know this is a bit of a big loaded question, it's hard to boil it all down to one piece of advice—but is there something that you would kind of leave with let's say a utility or a developer who wants to build a successful and mutually beneficial partnership with Indigenous communities? What's that kind of one piece of advice you'd leave with them? [48:30] James Jenkins: Um, the one piece of advice, and sometimes I am asked that question, and I know there are developers outside of Canada that are starting to look at our market as things change globally. And what I would share, first of all, meeting with the communities is incredibly important. Community leadership, finding out what their process is for engagement and then establishing that relationship is hugely important. And um I think the advice usually stops there. I think many utilities and developers have heard that. [49:07] James Jenkins: But what I would suggest based on my own experience is that engagement occurs from the very top of the organization, from the utility and the developer. And that if the C-suite isn't meeting with the Indigenous partner themselves, they should be fully aware and engaged in what's happening. And that's usually the recipe for success. And you know, for these opportunities, many communities have a history where trust is something that does need to be cultivated, and that would be my main suggestion. I think it's where really successful partnerships have their strength, is there's that level of engagement from the entire vertical organization of the non-Indigenous partner. And so when there is an issue, political leadership from the community, they know who to call and vice versa, and it doesn't lead to larger misunderstandings. And it can lead to some of the more innovative projects we've seen like Oneida Storage, and there are many other examples of that where the developer and the community, after a successful project, they sit down together and they say, "What's next?" And they want to build on what they've developed together. [50:37] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I guess that's an indication of there actually being a relationship, trust built, rather than just kind of boxes checked and a process being followed. But if there's that actual trust built, it is more of a conversation that what next question can come up and there's sort of that mutual learning. So that's great. Thank you for that. So James, we always end our interviews with the same series of questions to our guests. So I'm going to dive right in here. What's a book that you've read that you think everybody should read? [51:11] James Jenkins: These are the top uh these are probably going to be the tougher questions for me, but um so I recently read a book by Cal Flyn, a UK author from Scotland, and it's called Islands of Abandonment. And the subtitle is Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape. And what she does is, in an investigative journalist style, goes to places where there hasn't been human presence for 50 or more years. Some of them are no man's land in war zones, some of them are cities facing urban decay, some of them are environmental catastrophe sites like Chernobyl, but then finding that nature has rebounded and that there is remarkable biodiversity in some of these places. [51:59] James Jenkins: So the message I don't want to take away from that is that if you get rid of humans everything will be perfect, because humans have had an impact on the landscape everywhere for much longer than we can comprehend. And in some cases, negative impacts to the landscape are because humans aren't doing what they were doing for a long time. So human intervention has a role and always will, but I think it's important to tell more stories that aren't a story of loss when we get to that point. [52:36] James Jenkins: And for Indigenous communities, many of us have been going through a process of healing, and many of us are still in that process. But as we start to heal and and ask ourselves what's next, that's when we start to think about regeneration, so regenerative energy, revitalization of our culture and and that's what's next and acknowledging that practices that have been lost are near lost can be revitalized in a way that that is uh is incredibly meaningful. And so I was happy to see that story in a widely publicized book because the major story in conservation, but also climate and other areas, has been one of loss. And so, with all of this loss, and and in some cases, you know, a bedrock of tragedy and historical tragedy, where is the, you know, where is the good news story? And I think having these stories about how nature can regenerate is important. It's important to tell that story. [53:50] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, that's fantastic. I appreciate that explanation, and these aren't supposed to be my questions to answer, but I do want to quickly mention a book called What If We Get It Right?—and I can't remember the author off the top of my head, but it really is a series of essays and poems and an exploration of like, what if we do the right things and we can address climate change? And I found it very helpful to kind of be able to imagine, yeah, this is what happens if we do the right thing, if we can address some of these challenges. So, along the same vein as what you mentioned. So, the next question is kind of the same, but what's a movie or a show that you've watched that you think everyone should take a look at? [54:36] James Jenkins: Uh, that that's a really tough one. I do like movies and shows. Um, I recently started watching two British series, um and uh they seem to be very into murder mysteries in the UK, which uh isn't something, you know, normally my favorite, but they do it really well. So I I really liked um Shetland, which is a series that takes place in remote islands in Northern Scotland. [55:06] James Jenkins: In some ways, I think even the setting that it's trying to tell, it resonates with our work in some ways and even the experience of living in an Indigenous community in a less remote location. So I enjoyed that, and then that led to um Sherlock, the the newer one starring Benedict Cumberbatch, which I thought was a very intelligent um show with a, you know, a compelling uh character with sort of superhero, but but somewhat comic book style realistic attributes, but also failings. Um, so I find I enjoy shows that are drawing from literature and putting them into today's terms and not worrying too much about um, you know, what's realistic and what's not, but really trying to—what would we how would this be written today? So I enjoyed that as well. [55:58] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I like that. Um, if somebody offered you a free round trip anywhere in the world, where would you go? [56:05] James Jenkins: So, Air Canada used to have contests for that, and we used to say Nunavut because it would get the most bang for your buck. You know, these are $4,000–$5,000 tickets, which speaks to the challenges that those communities face when it comes to decarbonizing the north. Um, for me, I mentioned I spent much of my childhood in Northern Arizona. I think at this time I'd probably use it for that, you know, I hope to visit again soon. [56:39] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, fantastic. Um, James, who is someone that you admire? [56:44] James Jenkins: Um, I've been grateful for wonderful mentors in the course of my career. Um, I'm really grateful that the founder of ICE, Chris Henderson, has dedicated himself to be a mentor for me and has has really he's committed to that um and I've learned a great deal from him. [57:04] James Jenkins: Working at Walpole Island, there were a number of chiefs that I worked closely with and have been thinking about one, um Charles Samson, who's passed away, and he really came into his own once he was chief. He had run for a long time, over 10 years, and um really learned a lot from him and his perspective. But then, uh other chiefs, Burton Kewayosh and Dan Miskokomon really really supported me and helped um helped develop my uh the breath of experience that I draw from. And today, um the current chief, Leela Thomas, is really showing some really great leadership, and I think it's a real breakthrough in our region that most of the chiefs in Southwestern Ontario are female, which was um really more rare in the past. So that's a breakthrough as well. [57:59] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, that's great. Uh, and final question, what is something about the energy sector or its future that you're particularly excited about? [58:08] James Jenkins: Um, I think what I'm excited about is that the door is open for Indigenous communities to really change the way that they're engaged with the economy, um for there to be some real opportunities for business development. Um, you know, for many years because I lived in the United States for a while, it felt like the overall economic development capacity of US tribes was far beyond what exists in Canada for a number of reasons. And and one of them is there were a few key industries in the US that the federal government, um it cultivated at different times, gaming being one, uh but it did lead to the infrastructure for US tribes to engage in business all across the country in a way that's still the exception rather than the rule in Canada. [59:02] James Jenkins: So it is exciting for me to think about there being that shift and that um truly Indigenous-led projects stop becoming one-offs, um but they start to be that real uh, you know, Indigenous leadership becomes embedded in the framework of energy decision-making. Um, the idea of it becoming a career path becomes more solidified. So I think it was a dream at one point that some ambitious leaders had, like thinking of Saugeen and Nawash equity participation in that transmission line, there was no blueprint for that. [59:39] James Jenkins: Um, but now that there's been a dream and we've seen it come into practice, so um it's exciting to think that we may continue to see that progress, and then in 10 years there there will be some foundational pillars for communities to really meet their own communities' needs on their own terms. Right now it continues to be a challenge in most places. It's uh, you know, what do we prioritize with limited resources? And um yeah, exciting that this could be a pathway to to start thinking more in terms of abundance. [1:00:19] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I mean we started this conversation with you describing what your organization does, and something that struck me is it's a it's a combination of supporting projects and project models and helping things get up and running off the ground, providing education, and focusing on advocacy. And I imagine that, you know, even within Canada but also looking at some of the partners you've just mentioned around the world, the focus on, you know, each one of those individual aspects will vary depending on what the biggest need is in that jurisdiction at that time as things change, as funding programs change. So I imagine, you know, advocacy becomes more and more important as you see funding programs change or even just project structure change. Is that kind of fair to say? [1:01:03] Trevor Freeman: James, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate you coming on the show and helping us understand the work that Indigenous Clean Energy is doing, some of the great success stories, but also a little bit of the path that's still to be walked in order to get to success. So thanks very much, I appreciate your time. [1:01:21] James Jenkins: Thank you, Trevor, really enjoyed it. Thanks so much. [1:01:23] Trevor Freeman: Great. Take care. [1:01:25] Trevor Freeman: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Think Energy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review. It really helps us to spread the word. As always, we would love to hear from you, whether it's feedback, comments, or an idea for a show or a guest. You can always reach us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com.

Send us a text and chime in!The Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Prescott (JCFGP) today announced two new educational grants that will expand career technical training opportunities in Northern Arizona. The signature grant provides 0,000 for the upcoming academic year to fund Career Technical Education scholarships at Coconino Community College in Flagstaff—the largest annual scholarship of its type in Northern Arizona. A second grant of ,000 was awarded to Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) to purchase the necessary technology for a new career technical program designed for students entering the field of Digital Media. The program will occupy classrooms in a new facility on the...   For the written story, read here >> https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/northern-arizona-career-technical-education-gets-150k-boost/ Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Send us a text and chime in!The Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority (CAFMA) is proud to announce that Engineer-Paramedic Jace Hall has been named the Northern Arizona Emergency Medical Care Technician (EMCT) of the Year. Presented by the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) and the Northern Arizona Emergency Medical Services Council (NAEMS), this prestigious award recognizes Hall's commitment to exceptional emergency medical care and service to Arizona's residents and visitors. The honor is awarded across Northern Arizona, a region encompassing Yavapai, Coconino, Navajo, and Apache counties, making this a significant achievement among emergency medical professionals in the region. Throughout his career, Engineer Hall has...   For the written story, read here >> https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/cafma-paramedic-earns-top-northern-arizona-honor/ Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

How the Brendan Sorsby decision impacts other cases, AD search updates at Kentucky and Northern Arizona, NCAA's Mark Hicks talks gambling and more.We would love to know what you think of the show and you can let us know on social media @D1ticker.If you are not subscribed to D1.ticker, you can and should subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.d1ticker.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Send us a text and chime in!The National Weather Service in Flagstaff has issued a Fire Weather Watch for portions of northern Arizona, including much of Yavapai County, due to strong winds, low humidity, and increased wildfire danger expected on Sunday. Forecasters say southwest winds of 15 to 25 mph, with gusts reaching up to 45 mph, are expected from Sunday morning through Sunday evening. Relative humidity levels are forecast to drop between 9% and 16%, creating critical fire weather conditions across the region. The Fire Weather Watch covers the Yavapai County Mountains, Chuska Mountains and Defiance Plateau, Little Colorado River Valley, Mogollon Rim, Black Mesa...   For the written story, read here >> https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/fire-weather-watch-issued-for-northern-arizona/ Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Montana State's women claimed its first Big Sky Conference outdoor track and field championship since 2003 with a resounding win in Portland, Oregon that helped MSU beat five-time defending champion Northern Arizona by 53 points. MSU freshman Tilde Bjerager, the meet's Most Value and Most Outstanding Athlete, along with senior sprinter Carolyn Hawks and junior thrower Sydney Brewster joined Colter Nuanez to recap the historic win.

Send us a text and chime in!Finding the right senior living community can feel overwhelming for families. Denice Dunker with Oasis Senior Advisors helps seniors and their loved ones explore assisted living, independent living, memory care, and care home options throughout Northern Arizona. She works closely with families to understand care needs, lifestyle preferences, and budget concerns before recommending the best fit.#SeniorLiving #AssistedLiving #MemoryCare #SeniorCare #SeniorLivingAdvisor #OasisSeniorAdvisors #NorthernArizona #PrescottAZ #SeniorSupport #CaregiverSupport #IndependentLiving #ElderCare #SeniorHousing #RetirementLiving #AgingParents #SeniorResources #MemoryCareSupport #SeniorCommunity #ArizonaSeniors #FamilySupport #SeniorWellness #CareHome #SeniorLifestyle #HealthyAging #SeniorPlacement #LocalBusiness #ArizonaCare #SeniorAdvocate #CompassionateCare #SeniorLivingOptionsCheck out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Send us a text and chime in!Handel's Homemade Ice Cream is expected to open its first Prescott-area location at 351 N. Montezuma Street (Montezuma & Sheldon), adding a new sweet spot near the heart of downtown Prescott. Founded in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1945, Handel's has grown into a popular national brand known for making its ice cream fresh daily in each store using original recipes and premium ingredients. The company now operates 180 locations across the country. The Prescott location will bring Handel's signature lineup of homemade ice cream flavors, shakes, sundaes, hurricanes, and waffle cones to Northern Arizona. The company's menu features dozens of rotating...   For the written story, read here >> https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/handels-ice-cream-is-prescotts-sweetest-new-arrival/ Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Send us a text and chime in!Northern Arizona VA Health Care System announced today that it received a 5-star rating in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' annual Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating report. This is the health care system's fourth year in a row receiving the top rating. CMS' Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings are based on five categories: mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely and effective care. A higher star rating, out of five, indicates better performance along these quality measures. “Receiving a 5-star rating from CMS is a reflection of the dedication our entire team brings to caring for...   For the written story, read here >> https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/northern-arizona-va-health-care-system-receives-5-star-rating/ Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Send us a text and chime in!Tyler Smith, owner of Yavapai Block, discusses how the longtime Northern Arizona company continues supplying materials for residential and commercial projects throughout the region. The conversation covers retaining walls, pavers, outdoor living trends, septic tanks, architectural block, and precast concrete products. Smith also shares the history of the third-generation family business and how Yavapai Block has helped shape communities across Prescott, Prescott Valley, and beyond. The company continues serving both contractors and homeowners with locally manufactured products and expanded retail services. Yavapai Block can be reached at 928-445-4340.Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Send us a text and chime in!The Northern Arizona Wranglers earned their first victory of the 2026 season in dominant fashion with their best performance of the season. All three phases of Wranglers football came together for a great team victory on SPE Systems Field inside the Findlay Toyota Center this past Sunday. The Wranglers got on the board first as quarterback Anthony Garrett orchestrated a scoring drive that ended with running back Benji Omayebu powering in for a 1-yard rushing score. Iowa answered quickly, but the Wranglers continued to excel offensively throughout the first half. Garrett settled into rhythm early, spreading the ball efficiently to...   For the written story, read here >> https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/northern-arizona-wranglers-secure-first-win-of-2026-season/ Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Senator Wendy Rogers joins the show for a wide-ranging conversation on some of Arizona's biggest and most troubling stories. We begin with a disturbing Northern Arizona case after a Flagstaff mother was accused of killing her toddler son and allegedly storing the child's body in a freezer for weeks before contacting authorities. Senator Rogers also discusses growing concerns over alleged fraud and corruption involving ACESS, AHCCCS, and Arizona's Medicaid system, which now serves roughly 1.8 million participants statewide. How widespread is the abuse, and what reforms could be coming? Rogers address the controversy surrounding Brigadier General John A. Conley and her opposition to his appointment as Adjutant General of Arizona. Plus an adventure in the sky and details on an early morning flight. 

Send us a text and chime in!Northern Arizona VA Health Care System received funding for Non-recurring Maintenance projects in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026, after receiving funding the first quarter of the fiscal year. The funding is part of a record .8 billion in nationwide VA spending to modernize, repair, and improve health care facilities in FY2026 via the Veterans Health Administration's Non-recurring Maintenance program. Funding projects for Northern Arizona VA in the second quarter of FY2026 are: Medium Voltage Cable Replacements Install Fire Detection and Suppression to Buildings T6 and 159 Upgrade and Expand Patient Communication System “This funding allows Northern Arizona VA...   For the written story, read here >> https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/northern-arizona-va-funding-for-facility-upgrades/ Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Send us a text and chime in!David Griego of Sunburst Patios discusses how patio covers, screen rooms, solar shades, and glass enclosures can help homeowners create more comfortable outdoor living spaces. The conversation covers wind protection, shade solutions, maintenance-free materials, patio upgrades, and ways to make outdoor areas more functional year-round. Griego also explains how customized patio enclosures can enhance comfort, usability, and even the resale appeal of local homes. Sunburst Patios continues to help Northern Arizona homeowners make better use of their outdoor spaces. They are available to reach at 928-772-8229.Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Send us a text and chime in!Ty Brand, founder and owner of Climb It High Tree Experts, and Serena DeeAnn, lead consultant and media coordinator, discuss the science and long-term planning behind proper tree care in Northern Arizona. The conversation covers soil health, irrigation, insects, pruning, root systems, storm protection, and the preservation of mature trees. They explain how many tree problems begin years before visible damage appears and why ethical tree care requires patience, education, and proper planning. Climb It High Tree Experts works with homeowners and properties throughout the region to help trees remain healthy, safe, and sustainable for future generations.Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Brent Myers has been coaching college football since 1982 and has 28 years of experience in the Big Sky Conference between his time at Eastern Washington (1982-1991), Northern Arizona (1992-1997) and Weber State (2014-2025). He's in his first year as the offensive line coach at Montana. He joined Colter Nuanez to talk about Bobby Kennedy, the transition of the UM coaching staff and his OL unit, which must replace five senior starters.

Flagstaff Councilwoman Lori Matthews joins Jeff for a conversation on several major issues shaping the future of Flagstaff and Northern Arizona. Jeff and Councilwoman Matthews take a deep dive into the controversial Regional Plan 2045, including concerns over growth, sustainability policies, housing, and the long-term direction of the city. Matthews gives an update on Flagstaff Pulliam Airport and a newly submitted federal Small Community Air Service grant application. If awarded, the funding could help attract an additional airline and expand air service options for Flagstaff travelers. Other topics include: Possible public safety bond proposals Potential sales tax discussions Upcoming election issues and local political dynamics Growth pressures facing Flagstaff Infrastructure and public safety funding challenges A wide-ranging discussion on where Flagstaff is headed — and who will ultimately pay for it.

Arizona Senator Wendy Rogers joins Jeff for a wide-ranging discussion on the budget showdown at the Arizona Legislature and the growing political battles shaping the state's future. Senator Rogers breaks down the chaotic budget situation at the Capitol, what went wrong, and why lawmakers continue struggling to find agreement. The conversation also dives into Arizona's crowded ballot initiative landscape, including whether the high-profile ESA/school choice initiative can actually survive the signature and voter gauntlet. Jeff and Senator Rogers also discuss a recent meeting with the City of Flagstaff and Mayor Becky Daggett focused on Northern Arizona water concerns, including: Desalinization proposals Long-term aquifer use Possible federal funding involvement The future of water infrastructure in Arizona The episode wraps with a discussion on rural housing challenges and whether rural tax credits and LIHTC-style incentives are truly conservative solutions — or just another form of government-driven development policy. Politics, water, housing, and Arizona's uncertain future — all in one episode.

Angela Oravits joins Jeff for a wide-ranging and occasionally germophobic hour covering Arizona politics, crime, weather, and the hidden dangers of modern life. The show starts with Governor Katie Hobbs vetoing the Republican-backed Arizona budget, setting up another major political showdown at the Capitol over taxes, spending, and the future direction of the state. Jeff and Angela also discuss Arizona's forecast for another brutally hot summer and the possibility of powerful monsoon storms later this year. Plus, Northern Arizona cargo heists tied to organized crime, a hantavirus scare aboard a cruise ship, Spirit Airlines planes piling up in Goodyear, and the shifting politics surrounding recreational marijuana in Arizona. And then things get personal. Jeff explains why buffet lines may actually be biological warfare zones thanks to people licking their fingers before grabbing serving spoons, then weighs in on the truly terrifying reality of hotel remote controls. If you've ever questioned public sanitation standards while reaching for potato salad or changing channels in a hotel room, this episode is for you.

Episode 290 of The Smart Agents Podcast features Tyler Vaughan, business growth advisor and top-performing Realtor in Northern Arizona to break down how real estate agents can scale smarter using proven business fundamentals.With a background spanning e-commerce, manufacturing, and high-growth startups, Tyler brings a unique perspective to real estate. Instead of relying on gut instinct, he shares how strategy, systems, and disciplined decision-making can create sustainable success.In this episode, we discuss:Why real estate is fundamentally a relationship businessHow systems and processes unlock scalable growthThe dangers of scaling too fast without infrastructureWhy “quality over quantity” is the key to building a strong teamHow startup thinking can give agents a competitive edgeIf you're looking to grow your business with more intention, stronger systems, and better decision-making, this is a must-listen.

Tonight on Airey Bros Radio Episode 453, we go stride-for-stride with one of the fastest-rising minds in collegiate distance running — Coach Jake Reed, Assistant Distance Coach and Head Men's Distance Recruiter at Northern Arizona University (NAU).After building a powerhouse at the University of Lynchburg — producing 4 NCAA National Champions, 33 All-Americans, and multiple NCAA Championship teams — Coach Reed has stepped into the elite world of Division I distance running in Flagstaff, Arizona, home to one of the most dominant programs in NCAA history.In this episode, we break down:The transition from D3 to D1 coachingWhat it takes to recruit elite distance runnersInside the NAU training environment & altitude advantageBuilding championship culture at every levelWhat student-athletes should look for in a college programIf you're a high school runner, recruit, or coach, this episode is packed with insight on collegiate cross country, track & field recruiting, and athlete development.

President Charlie Baker is “pretty optimistic” about five-year eligibility change, Northern Arizona launches AD search, Baylor AD Doug McNamee on religious identity and being fan-first and more.We would love to know what you think of the show and you can let us know on social media @D1ticker.If you are not subscribed to D1.ticker, you can and should subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.d1ticker.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Arizona enters new territory with its first Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS), raising questions about wildfire prevention, utility responsibility, and long-term impacts for Northern Arizona residents. Walt Blackman joins me to discuss what led to the decision, how it affects communities, and whether this will become a recurring strategy. We also cover the latest from the state Capitol, where Governor Katie Hobbs has vetoed key budget proposals and is threatening additional vetoes, creating uncertainty in the final stretch of the legislative session. Finally, we break down developments in Legislative District 7, including the David Marshall situation and the potential political fallout heading into the next election cycle.

Northern Arizona went dark—on purpose. In a move that left roughly 6,000 customers without power across areas north and east of Flagstaff, Arizona Public Service implemented its first-ever Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) under a wildfire mitigation strategy rolled out in 2024. But here's the question: why now? Spring winds in Flagstaff aren't new. So what changed? I sit down with APS spokesperson Yessica Del-Rincon to break down: What a PSPS actually is (and why utilities don't just call it a “blackout”) The metrics and decision-making behind shutting off power Why specific communities—from Doney Park to Valle—were targeted How long outages can last and what it means for schools, businesses, and families We also connect the dots to Arizona House Bill 2201—a new law requiring utilities to create wildfire prevention plans that may also shield them from massive liability if followed correctly. Is this about safety… or lawsuits? With billions in wildfire liability cases tied to utilities like Pacific Gas and Electric Company in California, has Arizona entered a new era where power gets cut before the wind even blows? And if this becomes the “new normal,” what does it mean for life and business in Northern Arizona? Plus, Olivia jumps in with a wild story exploring new evidence tied to Noah's Ark and Biblical  + An AZ gubernatorial and city council candidate survive petition challenges and will be on the ballot. 

Dr. Larry Stevens is the curator of ecology at the Museum of Northern Arizona and the director of Springs Stewardship Institute (SSI). He received his Ph.D in zoology from Northern Arizona University in 1989, and served as the ecologist for Grand Canyon National Park from 1989 to 1994. Well-respected in the field of ecology, Dr. […] Read full article: Episode 171: The Hidden Universe of Springs with Larry Stevens

 Stay ahead of what's happening in Prescott, Prescott Valley, and Chino Valley with your go-to weekly events guide. From outdoor fun and seasonal activities to local news and hidden gems, First to Know helps you make the most of your week. Don't forget to like, follow, and check back for more updates on everything happening in Northern Arizona! #F1RST2KNOW #prescott #prescottvalley #chinoValley #events #weekend #springevents #easterbunny #egghuntsF1RST2KNOW is part of the CAST11 Podcast Network of Prescott. Check out the podcast network website with ALL the shows at: https://CAST11.comFollow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

ADOT 's Doug Nintzel sits down with Jason Stephens to discuss the ADOT projects in the North Central District.

In this episode, Ken and Lisa Lain of Watters Garden Center in Prescott discuss perennial spring flowers that thrive for years. This segment introduces several colorful plants that are beginning to show up in local landscapes as the season warms. They'll also explore how these plants perform in Northern Arizona gardens and why they're popular choices for the season!Listen to Mountain Gardener on Cast11: https://cast11.com/mountain-gardener-with-ken-lain-gardening-podcast/Follow Cast11 on Facebook: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network/

Join us as we explore the 20-year journey of developing Flagstaff's mountain biking trails with Anthony Quintile, a passionate advocate and expert in trail development. Discover the behind-the-scenes efforts, community impact, and future plans for Northern Arizona's premier cycling destination.Connect with Flagstaff Biking Organization:Website: https://flagstaffbiking.org/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flagstaffbiking/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flagstaffbikingorg/Connect with the Finding Arizona Podcast:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@findingarizonapodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/findingarizonapodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/findingarizonapodcastWebsite: https://www.findingarizonapodcast.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/finding-arizona-podcast/Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/findingarizonaPRODUCTION:Ready to start your own podcast? Found-House powered by The Finding Arizona Podcast is your best find!Want to be a guest or a sponsor of the show? Send us a message on the https://www.findingarizonapodcast.com/contact

Northern Colorado vs. Montana College Basketball Pick Prediction by Tony T. Northern Colorado vs. Montana Profiles Northern Colorado at Montana 7:30PM ET—Northern Colorado sits at 20-11 overall with 10-8 in the Big Sky with road losses against Montana, Montana ST, Portland ST, Sacramento St, Northern Arizona and Eastern Washington. Road wins against Weber St, Idaho St, and Idaho. Montana is 16-15 with 10-8 in the Big Sky with road losses against Eastern Washington, Montana St, Sacramento St, Idaho St, Weber St and Northern Colorado. Road wins against Idaho, Northern Arizona and Portland St.

Weber St vs. Eastern Washington College Basketball Pick Prediction by Tony T. Weber St vs. Eastern Washington Profiles Weber St at Eastern Washington 10PM ET—Weber St has a record of 16-15 and 10-8 in the Big Sky with road losses against Montana, Montana St, Sacramento ST, Eastern Washington as well as Portland St. Road wins against Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Idaho and Idaho St. Eastern Washington is 13-18 with 11-7 in the Big Sky with road losses against Idaho, Weber St, Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado. Road wins against Idaho St, Montana, Montana St, Sacramento St and Portland St.

There are 92 games on the betting board for Saturday & Greg picks & analyzes EVERY one of them!  Link To Greg's Spreadsheet of handicapped lines: https://vsin.com/college-basketball/greg-petersons-daily-college-basketball-lines/ Greg's TikTok With Pickmas Pick Videos: https://www.tiktok.com/@gregpetersonsports?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc Timemarkers   Podcast Highlights  3:39-Start of picks Arkansas vs Missouri 5:35-Picks & analysis for Houston vs Oklahoma St 7:32-Picks & analysis for Butler vs DePaul 9:15-Picks & analysis for Notre Dame vs Boston College 10:55-Picks & analysis for Virginia Tech vs Virginia 12:49-Picks & analysis for Davidson vs St. Bonaventure 14:43-Picks & analysis for Xavier vs Villanova 16:34-Picks & analysis for Louisiana Tech vs Delaware 18:31-Picks & analysis for Georgia Tech vs Clemson 20:32-Picks & analysis for Connecticut vs Marquette 22:25-Picks & analysis for La Salle vs St. Joseph's 24:16-Picks & analysis for South Carolina vs Ole Miss 26:15-Picks & analysis for SMU vs Florida St 27:58-Picks & analysis for RIchmond vs Duquesne 29:59-Picks & analysis for Rhode Island vs Fordham 31:34-Picks & analysis for Western Kentucky vs Florida International 33:15-Picks & analysis for Cincinnati vs TCU 35:08-Picks & analysis for Cornell vs Dartmouth 36:59-Picks & analysis for Arizona St vs Iowa St 38:50-Picks & analysis for Sam Houston vs Liberty 40:35-Picks & analysis for Kansas St vs Kansas 42:41-Picks & analysis for Vanderbilt vs Tennessee 45:10-Picks & analysis for Louisville vs Miami 47:17-Picks & analysis for George Washington vs Loyola IL 49:31-Picks & analysis for Princeton vs Yale 51:49-Picks & analysis for Stanford vs NC State 54:09-Picks & analysis for Middle Tennessee vs Missouri St 56:14-Picks & analysis for Georgia vs MIssissippi St 58:22-Picks & analysis for Florida vs Kentucky 1:00:39-Picks & analysis for Florida Atlantic vs Wichita St 1:02:28-Picks & analysis for Jacksonville St vs UTEP 1:04:39-Picks & analysis for New Mexico vs Utah St 1:06:41-Picks & analysis for Boise St vs Colorado St 1:08:35-Picks & analysis for California vs Wake Forest 1:10:35-Picks & analysis for St. Louis vs George Mason 1:12:36-Picks & analysis for Wisconsin vs Purdue 1:14:57-Picks & analysis for Kennesaw St vs New Mexico St 1:17:41-Picks & analysis for Pittsburgh vs Syracuse 1:19:37-Picks & analysis for Wyoming vs San Jose St 1:21:43-Picks & analysis for Utah vs Baylor 1:23:41-Picks & analysis for Indiana vs Ohio St 1:25:36-Picks & analysis for Texas A&M vs LSU 1:27:38-Picks & analysis for North Carolina vs Duke 1:29:31-Picks & analysis for CS Bakersfield vs Cal Poly 1:31:30-Picks & analysis for UT Arlington vs Abilene Christian 1:33:29-Picks & analysis for Providence vs Georgetown 1:35:41-Picks & analysis for Fresno St vs Grand Canyon 1:37:46-Picks & analysis for CS Fullerton vs CS Northridge 1:39:57-Picks & analysis for Cal Baptist vs Southern Utah 1:41:57-Picks & analysis for Oklahoma vs Texas 1:43:52-Picks & analysis for Auburn vs Alabama 1:45:42-Picks & analysis for Utah Valley vs Utah Tech 1:47:55-Picks & analysis for UC San Diego vs UC Santa Barbara 1:50:06-Picks & analysis for UCLA vs USC 1:51:43-Picks & analysis for Northwestern vs Minnesota 1:53:56-Picks & analysis for UC Davis vs UC Irvine 1:55:44-Picks & analysis for Air Force vs Nevada 1:57:29-Picks & analysis for Texas Tech vs BYU 1:59:33-Picks & analysis for Washington vs Oregon 2:01:12-Picks & analysis for Arizona vs Colorado 2:03:03-Picks & analysis for Long Beach St vs Hawaii 2:07:25-Picks & analysis for Campbell vs Stony Brook 2:09:33-Picks & analysis for Northeastern vs Drexel 2:11:12-Picks & analysis for Hampton vs Towson 2:13:17-Picks & analysis for Elon vs William & Mary 2:15:19-Picks & analysis for The Citadel vs East Tennessee 2:17:16-Picks & analysis for NC Greensboro vs Wofford 2:19:04-Picks & analysis for Furman vs Samford 2:21:01-Picks & analysis for Western Carolina vs Mercer 2:22:55-Picks & analysis for Drake vs Illinois CHicago 2:25:02-Picks & analysis for Bradley vs Northern Iowa 2:27:24-Picks & analysis for Marist vs Quinnipiac  2:29:52-Picks & analysis for Mount St Mary's vs SIena 2:31:59-Picks & analysis for Southern Miss vs Appalachian St 2:34:13-Picks & analysis for Georgia Southern vs Coastal Carolina 2:36:44-Picks & analysis for Northern Arizona vs Idaho St 2:39:01-Picks & analysis for Sacramento St vs Idaho 2:41:00-Picks & analysis for Omaha vs North Dakota St 2:43:03-Picks & analysis for North Dakota vs St. Thomas 2:45:00-Picks & analysis for Portland vs San Francisco 2:47:05-Picks & analysis for Seattle vs Pacific 2:49:13-Picks & analysis for Morehead St vs Tennessee St 2:52:17-Start of extra games Winthrop vs High Points 2:54:16-Picks & analysis for UNC Asheville vs Radford 2:56:36-Picks & analysis for Florida Gulf Coast vs Central Arkansas 2:58:30-Picks & analysis for Austin Peay vs Queens NC 3:00:40-Picks & analysis for Stonehill vs Mercyhurst 3:02:50-Picks & analysis for Wagner vs Long Island 3:05:02-Picks & analysis for New Hampshire vs UMBC 3:06:50-Picks & analysis for Albany vs UMass Lowell 3:08:46-Picks & analysis for Bryant vs Vermont 3:10:42-Picks & analysis for Maine vs NJIT Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are over 140 games on the betting board for Saturday & Greg picks & analyzes EVERY one of them!  Link To Greg's Spreadsheet of handicapped lines: https://vsin.com/college-basketball/greg-petersons-daily-college-basketball-lines/ Greg's TikTok With Pickmas Pick Videos: https://www.tiktok.com/@gregpetersonsports?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc Timemarkers 3:35-Start of picks NC State vs Notre Dame 6:04-Picks & analysis for Virginia vs Duke 8:02-Picks & analysis for Iowa vs Penn St 9:59-Picks & analysis for Seton Hall vs Connecticut 12:00-Picks & analysis for Florida St vs Georgia Tech 14:31-Picks & analysis for St. Joseph's vs Rhode Island 17:10-Picks & analysis for Colorado vs Houston 19:41-Picks & analysis for Fordham vs VCU 21:52-Picks & analysis for Missouri vs Mississippi St 24:18-Picks & analysis for New Mexico St vs Middle Tennessee 26:33-Picks & analysis for Cleveland St vs Robert Morris 29:22-Picks & analysis for Georgetown vs Xavier 31:44-Picks & analysis for Massachusetts vs Bowling Green 34:07-Picks & analysis for UCLA vs Minnesota 36:32-Picks & analysis for Campbell vs Towson 38:44-Picks & analysis for South Dakota St vs South Dakota 41:14-Picks & analysis for Fort Wayne vs IU Indy 43:45-Picks & analysis for William & Mary vs No Carolina A&T 46:22-Picks & analysis for Oklahoma St vs Cincinnati 48:38-Picks & analysis for Oregon vs Northwestern 50:56-Picks & analysis for Central Michigan vs Buffalo 53:22-Picks & analysis for Boston College vs Miami 55:52-Picks & analysis for Vanderbilt vs Kentucky 58:04-Picks & analysis for San Diego St vs New Mexico 1:00:26-Picks & analysis for Youngstown St vs UW Green Bay 1:02:54-Picks & analysis for St. Bonaventure vs George Mason 1:05:06-Picks & analysis for VMI vs Chattanooga 1:07:06-Picks & analysis for The Citadel vs Wofford 1:09:30-Picks & analysis for Louisville vs Clemson 1:11:48-Picks & analysis for Sacramento St vs Montana St 1:14:19-Picks & analysis for Detroit vs Oakland 1:16:10-Picks & analysis for Florida International vs Louisiana Tech 1:18:40-Picks & analysis for Elon vs Monmouth 1:21:19-Picks & analysis for UTEP vs Western Kentucky 1:24:25-Picks & analysis for South Carolina vs Georgia 1:27:01-Picks & analysis for Utah vs Arizona St 1:29:28-Picks & analysis for Richmond vs Loyola IL 1:31:45-Picks & analysis for Texas Tech vs Iowa St 1:34:02-Picks & analysis for Northern Colorado vs Idaho 1:36:37-Picks & analysis for Ball St vs Northern Illinois 1:38:58-Picks & analysis for San Diego vs Portland 1:41:17-Picks & analysis for Portland St vs Montana 1:43:28-Picks & analysis for Toledo vs Ohio 1:45:39-Picks & analysis for Nebraska vs USC 1:48:26-Picks & analysis for Kansas vs Arizona 1:50:40-Picks & analysis for Valparaiso vs Evansville 1:52:39-Picks & analysis for Northeastern vs Hampton 1:55:13-Picks & analysis for Southern Indiana vs Little Rock 1:57:33-Picks & analysis for Northern Arizona vs Eastern Washington 1:59:49-Picks & analysis for Abilene Christian vs Utah Valley 2:02:29-Picks & analysis for Texas vs Texas A&M 2:04:58-Picks & analysis for Wisconsin vs Washington 2:06:48-Picks & analysis for Pittsburgh vs California 2:08:42-Picks & analysis for Air Force vs Wyoming 2:10:41-Picks & analysis for Tennessee St vs UT Martin 2:13:09-Picks & analysis for Lindenwood vs Western Illinois 2:15:06-Picks & analysis for Eastern Illinois vs SIU Edwardsville 2:17:36-Picks & analysis for East Tennessee vs Mercer 2:20:09-Picks & analysis for Tennessee Tech vs SE Missouri St 2:22:07-Picks & analysis for Colorado St vs San Jose St 2:24:21-Picks & analysis for North Dakota vs North Dakota St 2:26:38-Picks & analysis for Delaware vs Kennesaw St 2:29:10-Picks & analysis for Providence vs Creighton 2:31:09-Picks & analysis for Missouri St vs Sam Houston 2:33:07-Picks & analysis for Furman vs Western Carolina 2:35:28-Picks & analysis for BYU vs West Virginia 2:37:21-Picks & analysis for Syracuse vs Wake Forest 2:39:53-Picks & analysis for Oklahoma vs LSU 2:42:17-Picks & analysis for Dartmouth vs Princeton 2:44:43-Picks & analysis for Yale Columbia 2:47:00-Picks & analysis for SMU vs Stanford 2:49:35-Picks & analysis for Brown vs Cornell 2:51:47-Picks & analysis for UNC Greensboro vs Samford 2:54:13-Picks & analysis for Liberty vs Jacksonville St 2:56:34-Picks & analysis for Harvard vs Penn 2:59:17-Picks & analysis for San Francisco vs Pacific 3:01:40-Picks & analysis for Weber St vs Idaho St 3:04:01-Picks & analysis for Alabama vs Tennessee 3:06:12-Picks & analysis for TCU vs Kansas St 3:08:08-Picks & analysis for Wright St vs Northern Kentucky 3:11:00-Picks & analysis for Hawaii vs CS Fullerton 3:13:16-Picks & analysis for Stony Brook vs Hofstra 3:15:06-Picks & analysis for Boise St vs Fresno St 3:17:17-Picks & analysis for Washington St vs Pepperdine 3:19:19-Picks & analysis for Oral Robert vs Kansas City 3:21:28-Picks & analysis for Omaha vs St. Thomas 3:23:28-Picks & analysis for Oregon St vs Santa Clara 3:25:29-Picks & analysis for Baylor vs Central Florida 3:27:29-Picks & analysis for CS Northridge vs UC Riverside 3:29:21-Picks & analysis for Villanova vs St. John's  3:31:45-Picks & analysis for Duquesne vs Saint Louis 3:34:11-Picks & analysis for Ole Miss vs Auburn 3:36:27-Picks & analysis for Arkansas vs Florida 3:38:29-Picks & analysis for Utah Tech vs Southern Utah 3:40:36-Picks & analysis for Virginia Tech vs North Carolina 3:42:27-Picks & analysis for Tarleton St vs Cal Baptist 3:44:19-Picks & analysis for Seattle vs Loyola Marymount 3:46:12-Picks & analysis for Long Beach St vs CS Bakersfield 3:48:21-Picks & analysis for Nevada vs UNLV 3:50:27-Picks & analysis for Grand Canyon vs Utah St 3:52:38-Picks & analysis for Cal Poly vs UC San Diego 3:54:56-Picks & analysis for UC Santa Barbara vs UC Irvine 3:56:55-Picks & analysis for Gonzaga vs St. Mary's 4:01:05-Start of extra games Le Moyne vs New Haven 4:02:40-Picks & analysis for Army vs Lafayette 4:04:33-Picks & analysis for Chicago St vs Wagner 4:06:19-Picks & analysis for St. Francis PA vs Central Connecticut 4:08:10-Picks & analysis for Queens NC vs Central Arkansas 4:10:08-Picks & analysis for Austin Peay vs Bellarmine 4:12:05-Picks & analysis for Boston U vs American 4:14:05-Picks & analysis for Charleston Southern vs UNC Asheville 4:16:12-Picks & analysis for UMB vs UMass Lowell 4:18:25-Picks & analysis for Florida Gulf Coast vs Stetson 4:20:11-Picks & analysis for Loyola MD vs Holy Cross 4:22:06-Picks & analysis for New Hampshire vs Albany 4:23:49-Picks & analysis for Maine vs Binghamton 4:25:36-Picks & analysis for Mercyhurst vs Stonehill 4:27:29-Picks & analysis for Bucknell vs Lehigh 4:29:13-Picks & analysis for North Alabama vs West Georgia 4:31:20-Picks & analysis for Gardner Webb vs USC Upstate 4:33:22-Picks & analysis for Radford vs Longwood 4:35:24-Picks & analysis for Bethune Cookman vs Southern 4:37:20-Picks & analysis for NJIT vs Bryant 4:39:01-Picks & analysis for Colgate vs Navy 4:40:34-Picks & analysis for Howard vs Morgan St 4:42:40-Picks & analysis for Presbyterian vs Winthrop 4:44:22-Picks & analysis for Lipscomb vs Eastern Kentucky 4:46:09-Picks & analysis for SE Louisiana vs Nicholls 4:48:01-Picks & analysis for Fairleigh Dickinson vs Long Island 4:49:52-Picks & analysis for South Carolina St vs Maryland Eastern Shore 4:51:41-Picks & analysis for Norfolk St vs Coppin St 4:53:31-Picks & analysis for NC Central vs Delaware St 4:55:14-Picks & analysis for Stephen F Austin vs Houston Christian 4:57:04-Picks & analysis for Lamar vs Incarnate Word 4:59:13-Picks & analysis for Alabama St vs Alabama A&M 5:01:15-Picks & analysis for Jackson St vs Texas Southern 5:03:00-Picks & analysis for Alcorn St vs Prairie View 5:04:34-Picks & analysis for East Texas A&M vs UT Rio Grande Valley 5:06:31-Picks & analysis for McNeese vs New Orleans 5:08:15-Picks & analysis for Jacksonville vs North Florida 5:10:24-Picks & analysis for Mississippi Valley St vs Arkansas Pine Bluff 5:12:32-Picks & analysis for Northwestern St vs Texas A&M CC 5:14:25-Picks & analysis for Florida A&M vs Grambling Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. 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Today on Coast To Coast Hoops Greg recaps Wednesday's college basketball results, talks to Rob Donaldson of Underdog Fantasy about the different dynamic mid-major & power conference game have this time of year, the types of teams that have value the next few weeks, & Thursday's games, & Greg picks & analyzes every Thursday game! Link To Greg's Spreadsheet of handicapped lines: https://vsin.com/college-basketball/greg-petersons-daily-college-basketball-lines/ Greg's TikTok With Pickmas Pick Videos: https://www.tiktok.com/@gregpetersonsports?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc Podcast Highlights  2:15-Recap of Wednesday's Results 22:05-Interview with Rob Donaldson 40:20-Start of picks Charleston vs Hampton 42:30-Picks & analysis for Liberty vs Kennesaw St 44:59-Picks & analysis for Stony Brook vs Monmouth 47:21-Picks & analysis for Temple vs Florida Atlantic 50:34-Picks & analysis for UNC Greensboro vs Chattanooga 52:14-Picks & analysis for Delaware vs Jacksonville St 54:25-Picks & analysis for Elon vs Towson 56:42-Picks & analysis for Campbell vs Drexel 59:26-Picks & analysis for Northeastern vs William & Mary 1:01:53-Picks & analysis for North Carolina A&T vs UNC Wilmington 1:04:03-Picks & analysis for New Mexico St vs Western Kentucky 1:06:15-Picks & analysis for Missouri St vs Louisiana Tech 1:08:48-Picks & analysis for UTEP vs Middle Tennessee 1:11:28-Picks & analysis for Denver vs Oral Roberts  1:13:44-Picks & analysis for South Dakota St vs Kansas City 1:16:15-Picks & analysis for Tarleton St vs Utah Valley 1:18:32-Picks & analysis for Morehead St vs Little Rock 1:20:45-Picks & analysis for Michigan St vs Purdue 1:23:16-Picks & analysis for VMI vs Samford 1:25:32-Picks & analysis for Eastern Illinois vs Lindenwood 1:27:36-Picks & analysis for Tennessee St vs SE Missouri St 1:29:34-Picks & analysis for Tennessee Tech vs UT Martin 1:31:42-Picks & analysis for Western Illinois vs SIU Edwardsville 1:34:10-Picks & analysis for Wichita St vs Memphis 1:36:26-Picks & analysis for North Dakota St vs St. Thomas 1:38:42-Picks & analysis for Northern Arizona vs Idaho 1:41:15-Picks & analysis for Florida International vs Sam Houston 1:43:26-Picks & analysis for Sacramento St vs Montana 1:45:57-Picks & analysis for Abilene Christian vs Utah Tech 1:48:00-Picks & analysis for Hawaii vs UC Davis 1:50:17-Picks & analysis for UC Riverside vs UC Santa Barbara 1:52:25-Picks & analysis for Northern Colorado vs Eastern Washington 1:54;38-Picks & analysis for Portland St vs Montana St 1:57:01-Picks & analysis for Long Beach St vs Cal Poly 1:59:26-Picks & analysis for UC Irvine vs CS Northridge 2:01:36-Picks & analysis for UT Arlington vs Cal Baptist 2:04:08-Picks & analysis for CS Bakersfield vs UC San Diego 2:06:28-Picks & analysis for Rhode Island vs St. Bonaventure 2:08:45-Start of extra games Bethune Cookman vs Grambling 2:10:54-Picks & analysis for Bryant vs UMBC 2:13:47-Picks & analysis for New Hampshire vs Binghamton 2:16:17-Picks & analysis for Maine vs Albany 2:18:46-Picks & analysis for Mercyhurst vs Central Connecticut 2:20:40-Picks & analysis for Florida Gulf Coast vs North Florida 2:22:45-Picks & analysis for USC Upstate vs Radford 2:24:52-Picks & analysis for New Haven vs Wagner 2:26:58-Picks & analysis for Stetson vs Jacksonville 2:29:15-Picks & analysis for High Point vs Presbyterian 2:31:06-Picks & analysis for St Francis PA vs Stonehill 2:32:56-Picks & analysis for Fairleigh Dickinson vs Le Moyne 2:34-56:Picks & analysis for UMass Lowell vs Vermont 2:36:58-Picks & analysis for Winthrop vs Charleston So 2:38:58-Picks & analysis for UNC Asheville vs Gardner Webb 2:41:58-Picks & analysis for Chicago St vs Long Island 2:43:58-Picks & analysis for Alcorn St vs Texas Southern 2:45:58-Picks & analysis for Florida A&M vs Southern 2:47:58-Picks & analysis for Jackson St vs Prairie View Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I sat down with Coconino County Supervisor Tammy Ontiveros for a wide ranging discussion on housing in Northern Arizona, infrastructure, energy and more. 

A terrifying night in the high desert of Northern Arizona: a two-year-old boy, Bodin Allen, disappears from his home, wandering miles away as panic sets in. With darkness falling, hope seems to fade. Families, neighbors, and authorities search frantically as the night stretches on…And then God sends an unexpected someone to help--Buford the Anatolian Pyrenees!---------------------------------------------------If you're a fan of true crime but crave a dose of inspiration instead of tales of darkness, The Miracle Files is your perfect alternative. With the same storytelling intensity as true crime podcasts, The Miracle Files delves into the details of each miraculous story, exploring the people and circumstances that turned these moments into something unforgettable. Whether you believe in divine intervention or human perseverance, this podcast will leave you feeling uplifted and amazed.Website: www.themiraclefiles.com Podcast/RSS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-miracle-files/id1714203488Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_miracle_files_podcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.phpid=100093613416005&mibextid=LQQJ4d TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.miracle.files?_t=8rB5ooQd482&_r=1

Today on Coast To Coast Hoops it is a simple podcast as there are over 150 games on the college basketball betting board for Saturday & Greg picks & analyzes EVERY one of them! Link To Greg's Spreadsheet of handicapped lines: https://vsin.com/college-basketball/greg-petersons-daily-college-basketball-lines/Greg's TikTok With Pickmas Pick Videos: https://www.tiktok.com/@gregpetersonsports?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pcPodcast Highlights 3:37-Start of picks Wisconsin vs Indiana5:51-Picks & analysis for Louisville vs Wake Forest8:10-Picks & analysis for Arkansas vs Mississippi St10:15-Picks & analysis for Villanova vs Georgetown12:50-Picks & analysis for Syracuse vs Virginia15:20-Picks & analysis for Nebraska vs Rutgers17:55-Picks & analysis for Drexel vs Elon20:03-Picks & analysis for Temple vs East Carolina22:23-Picks & analysis for Massachusetts vs Coastal Carolina25;06-Picks & analysis for East Michigan vs Appalachian St27:26-Picks & analysis for Middle Tennessee vs Delaware29:53-Picks & analysis for Missouri vs South Carolina32:45-Picks & analysis for Oregon vs Purdue34:57-Picks & analysis for East Tennessee vs VMI37:16-Picks & analysis for Virginia Tech vs NC State39:48-Picks & analysis for Richmond vs Rhode Island42:37-Picks & analysis for Kansas St vs TCU45:06-Picks & analysis for Denver vs North Dakota47:05-Picks & analysis for Princeton vs Pennsylvania49:34-Picks & analysis for Miami vs Boston College51:46-Picks & analysis for Cleveland St vs IU Indy54:19-Picks & analysis for Baylor vs Iowa St56:11-Picks & analysis for Sacred Heart vs Manhattan58:37-Picks & analysis for Butler vs Marquette1:00:49-Picks & analysis for Cornell vs Columbia1:03:14-Picks & analysis for Detroit vs UW Green Bay1;05:28-Picks & analysis for St. Bonaventure vs Fordham1:07:26-Picks & analysis for Northern Illinois vs Georgia St1:09:53-Picks & analysis for George Washington vs Duquesne1:12:15-Picks & analysis for Missouri St vs Liberty1:14:15-Picks & analysis for Ole Miss vs Texas1:16:14-Picks & analysis for Omaha vs North Dakota St1:18:40-Picks & analysis for The Citadel vs Chattanooga1:20:39-Picks & analysis for Siena vs St. Peter's1:22:38-Picks & analysis for North Texas vs UT San Antonio1:24:41-Picks & analysis for Campbell vs North Carolina A&T1:26:58-Picks & analysis for Niagara vs Quinnipiac1:28:18-Picks & analysis for William & Mary vs Hampton1:30:32-Picks & analysis for Utah vs Kansas1:32:28-Picks & analysis for Kent St vs Southern Miss1:34:51-Picks & analysis for Florida International vs Western Kentucky1:36:57-Picks & analysis for La Salle vs St. Louis1:39:16-Picks & analysis for Sam Houston vs Louisiana Tech1:41:22-Picks & analysis for Bowling Green vs Arkansas St1:43:30-Picks & analysis for Ball St vs UL Monroe1:45:25-Picks & analysis for Oklahoma vs Vanderbilt1:47:31-Picks & analysis for SMU vs Pittsburgh1:49:20-Picks & analysis for Central Michigan vs Louisiana1:51:09-Picks & analysis for Eastern Illinois vs Tennessee Tech1:53:03-Picks & analysis for UC Riverside vs CS Northridge1:55:05-Picks & analysis for Alabama vs Auburn1:57:35-Picks & analysis for Buffalo vs South Alabama1:59:45-Picks & analysis for Northeastern vs Stony Brook2:02:01-Picks & analysis for Florida St vs Notre Dame2:03:46-Picks & analysis for Oklahoma St vs Arizona2:05:48-Picks & analysis for DePaul vs Providence2:07:46-Picks & analysis for Western Carolina vs Wofford2:09:50-Picks & analysis for St. Joseph's vs George Mason2:11:51-Picks & analysis for SIU Edwardsville vs Little Rock2:13:38-Picks & analysis for Miami OH vs Marshall2:16:08-Picks & analysis for Toledo vs James Madison2:18:10-Picks & analysis for Towson vs Hofstra2:20:07-Picks & analysis for UT Arlington vs Utah Valley2:22:07-Picks & analysis for Grand Canyon vs UNLV2:24:01-Picks & analysis for Morehead St vs UT Martin2:26:00-Picks & analysis for Western Illinois vs Tennessee St2:27:39-Picks & analysis for Robert Morris vs Youngstown St2:29:39-Picks & analysis for Southern Indiana vs SE Missouri St2:31:55-Picks & analysis for Western Michigan vs Texas St2:33:54-Picks & analysis for UW Milwaukee vs Northern Kentucky2:35:53-Picks & analysis for Cal Poly vs UC Davis2:37:50-Picks & analysis for Harvard vs Dartmouth2:39:43-Picks & analysis for Kennesaw St vs Jacksonville St2:41:53-Picks & analysis for Oregon St vs Gonzaga2:43:50-Picks & analysis for Georgia vs LSU2:45:36-Picks & analysis for Seton Hall vs Crieghton2:47:35-Picks & analysis for South Dakota vs South Dakota St2:49:32-Picks & analysis for Northern Colorado vs Idaho St2:51:41-Picks & analysis for Mercer vs Samford2:53:44-Picks & analysis for Idaho vs Montana2:55:39-Picks & analysis for Santa Clara vs Washington St2:57:56-Picks & analysis for Akron vs Troy3:00:24-Picks & analysis for Duke vs North Carolina3:02:26-Picks & analysis for Merrimack vs Rider3:03:55-Picks & analysis for CS Bakersfield vs CS Fullerton3:06:15-Picks & analysis for Ohio vs Old Dominion3:08:13-Picks & analysis for Marist vs Fairfield3:09:57-Picks & analysis for Mount St. Mary's vs Iona3:11:38-Picks & analysis for Fort Wayne vs Wright St3:13:35-Picks & analysis for Eastern Washington vs Montana St3:15:25-Picks & analysis for Pacific vs Pepperdine3:17:20-Picks & analysis for Utah St vs Wyoming3:19:21-Picks & analysis for Abilene Christian vs Cal Baptist3:20:48-Picks & analysis for Oral Roberts vs St. Thomas3:22:56-Picks & analysis for Georgia Tech vs Stanford3:25:02-Picks & analysis for Clemson vs California3:26:45-Picks & analysis for Illinois vs Michigan St3:28:14-Picks & analysis for Seattle vs Portland3:30:08-Picks & analysis for San Diego St vs Air Force3:31:42-Picks & analysis for Tennessee vs Kentucky3:33:28-Picks & analysis for Florida vs Texas A&M3:35:11-Picks & analysis for Tarleton St vs Southern Utah3:37:20-Picks & analysis for San Jose St vs Colorado St3:39:28-Picks & analysis for San Diego vs Loyola Marymount3:41:41-Picks & analysis for Northern Arizona vs Weber St3:43:43-Picks & analysis for UC Irvine vs UC Santa Barbara3:45:41-Picks & analysis for New Mexico St vs UTEP3:47:35-Picks & analysis for Arizona St vs Colorado3:49:00-Picks & analysis for Portland St vs Sacramento St3:50:48-Picks & analysis for Boise St vs New Mexico3:52:36-Picks & analysis for Fresno St vs Nevada3:54:36-Picks & analysis for Washington vs UCLA3:56:24-Picks & analysis for Houston vs BYU3:58:16-Picks & analysis for San Francisco vs St. Mary's4:00:08-Picks & analysis for UC San Diego vs Hawaii4:04:37-Start of extra games Lafayette vs Army4:06:23-Picks & analysis for Loyola MD vs Boston U4:08:20-Picks & analysis for Wagner vs Central Connecticut4:10:18-Picks & analysis for Chicago St vs New Haven4:11:58-Picks & analysis for St. Francis PA vs Le Moyne4:13:59-Picks & analysis for Florida Gulf Coast vs Bellarmine4:15:41-Picks & analysis for Charleston Southern vs USC Upstate4:17:39-Picks & analysis for Lehigh vs Holy Cross4:19:38-Picks & analysis for Jacksonville vs West Georgia4:21:19-Picks & analysis for New Hampshire vs Vermont4:23:15-Picks & analysis for Longwood vs Winthrop4:25:00-Picks & analysis for Gardner Webb vs Presbyterian4:26:37-Picks & analysis for North Florida vs Queens NC4:28:30-Picks & analysis for Mercyhurst vs Fairleigh Dickinson4:30:09-Picks & analysis for Stonehill vs Long Island4:31:59-Picks & analysis for South Carolina St vs Howard4:33:53-Picks & analysis for Maryland Eastern Shore vs Morgan St4:35:43-Picks & analysis for American vs Navy4:37:26-Picks & analysis for Texas A&M CC vs Nicholls4:39:06-Picks & analysis for Maine vs Bryant4:40:34-Picks & analysis for Binghamton vs NJIT4:42:23-Picks & analysis for Houston Christian vs SE Louisiana4:44:16-Picks & analysis for Delaware St vs Coppin St4:46:18-Picks & analysis for NC Central vs Norfolk St4:48:06-Picks & analysis for Incarnate Word vs McNeese4:49:41-Picks & analysis for Colgate vs Bucknell4:51:02-Picks & analysis for North Alabama vs Austin Peay4:52:47-Picks & analysis for Alabama St vs Grambling4:54:36-Picks & analysis for Central Arkansas vs Lipscomb4:56:27-Picks & analysis for Stetons vs East Kentucky4:58:19-Picks & analysis for Prairie View vs Bethune Cookman4:59:47-Picks & analysis for UT Rio Grande vs New Orleans5:01:47-Picks & analysis for Jackson St vs Mississippi Valley St5:03:28-Picks & analysis for Northwestern St vs East Texas A&M5:05:07-Picks & analysis for Lamar vs Stephen F Austin5:06:59-Picks & analysis for Texas Southern vs Florida A&m5:08:53-Picks & analysis for Alabama A&M vs Southern5:10:45-Picks & analysis for Alcorn St vs Arkansas Pine Bluff5:13:47-Picks & analysis for Radford vs High Point5:15:55-Picks & analysis for UMass Lowell vs Albany Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. 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Orville Wiseman of Wiseman Aviation shares his decades of stories and experiences as Flagstaff's fixed based operator (FBO) & flight school. I actually received my private pilots license from Orville's flight school as have 1000's over the decades. Orville shares some amazing stories of flying, Flagstaff challenging high elevation mountain airport, the history of aviation in Northern Arizona and the challenges airlines have in small rural communities. We also talk about the landing fee controversy and the potential for a new Arizona and federal law banning these fee's for general aviation planes. Orville touches on fighting forest fires and the role his FBO has at the historic Lindberg Winslow Airport in fueling and providing a location for the firefighter pilots to load the slurry to put out wildfires throughout the region. He also shares some of the famous people he's met over the years flying into Flagstaff (KFLG) Airport.    NOTE: This interview was recorded prior to the tragic helicopter crash in Flagstaff that killed 2 DPS officers.

Today on Coast To Coast Hoops Greg recaps Wednesday's college basketball results, talks to Rocco Miller of Bracketeer.org about the WAC landscape with Utah Valley currently not allowed to compete in the conference tournament, the landscape of the CAA & Big Ten, & the rising mid-majors to watch, & Greg picks & analyzes every Thursday game!Link To Greg's Spreadsheet of handicapped lines: https://vsin.com/college-basketball/greg-petersons-daily-college-basketball-lines/Greg's TikTok With Pickmas Pick Videos: https://www.tiktok.com/@gregpetersonsports?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pcPodcast Highlights 1:18-Recap of Wednesday's Results17:00-Interview with Rocco Miller35:07-Start of picks Penn State vs Michigan37:38-Picks & analysis for Monmouth vs Stony Brook40:17-Picks & analysis for Mercer vs Chattanooga42:39-Picks & analysis for Fairfield vs Sacred Heart45:14-Picks & analysis for Merrimack vs Mount St. Mary's47:47-Picks & analysis for Iona vs Siena50:06-Picks & analysis for West Virginia vs Cincinnati52:59-Picks & analysis for St. Peter's vs Manhattan55:23-Picks & analysis for Northeastern vs Hostra57:57-Picks & analysis for William & Mary vs UNC Wilmington1:00:27-Picks & analysis for Elon vs Hampton1:03:02-Picks & analysis for North Carolina A&T vs Charleston1:05:46-Picks & analysis for Canisius vs Quinnipiac1:08:29-Picks & analysis for Drexel vs Campbell1:10:47-Picks & analysis for Rider vs Marist1:13:38-Picks & analysis for Omaha vs North Dakota1:16:25-Picks & analysis for The Citadel vs Samford1:18:54-Picks & analysis for Lindenwood vs Little Rock1:21:40-Picks & analysis for Denver vs North Dakota St1:23:53-Picks & analysis for Abilene Christian vs Utah Valley1:26:24-Picks & analysis for Morehead St vs SE Missouri1:29:14-Picks & analysis for Western Illinois vs Tennessee Tech1:31:40-Picks & analysis for Ohio St vs Maryalnd1:34:34-Picks & analysis for Southern Indiana vs UT Martin1:37:20-Picks & analysis for East Illinois vs Tennessee St1:40:10-Picks & analysis for Northern Colorado vs Weber St1:42:46-Picks & analysis for Idaho vs Montana St1:45:44-Picks & analysis for Memphis vs UAB1:48:33-Picks & analysis for Jacksonville St vs Western Kentucky1:51:03-Picks & analysis for UC Santa Barbara vs UC Davis1:53:29-Picks & analysis for Northern Arizona vs Idaho St1:56:41-Picks & analysis for Eastern Washington vs Montana1:59:45-Picks & analysis for UT Arlington vs Utah Tech2:02:29-Picks & analysis for Long Beach St vs UC San Diego2:05:20-Picks & analysis for CS Bakersfield vs UC Irvine2:08:05-Picks & analysis for CS Northridge vs Cal Poly2:10:16-Picks & analysis for Tarleton St vs Cal Baptist2:12:56-Picks & analysis for UC Riverside vs CS Fullerton2:15:32-Start of extra games Albany vs Bryant2:18:15-Picks & analysis for Vermont vs Maine2:20:39-Picks & analysis for Binghamton vs UMBC2:23:09-Picks & analysis for Florida Gulf Coast vs Eastern Kentucky2:25:37-Picks & analysis for Le Moyne vs Wagner2:28:20-Picks & analysis for UMass Lowell vs NJIT2:30:59-Picks & analysis for North Florida vs West Georgia2:33:14-Picks & analysis for Stetson vs Bellarmine2:35:42-Picks & analysis for Stonehill vs Fairleigh Dickinson2:38:10-Picks & analysis for Jacksonville vs Queens NC2:40:42-Picks & analysis for St. Francis PA vs Mercyhurst2:43:27-Picks & analysis for Chicago St vs Central Connecticut2:45:48-Picks & analysis for New Haven vs Long Island Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Craniotomy Stroke Recovery: How a Massive Medical Event Reshaped One Man's Identity and Way of Living When Brandon Barre woke up after his stroke, half of his skull was missing. Doctors had performed an emergency craniotomy to save his life after a severe brain bleed. His left side barely worked. His memory felt fragmented. Time itself seemed unreliable; days, weeks, even months blurred together into what he later described as a kind of perpetual Groundhog Day. And yet, amid one of the most extreme medical experiences a person can survive, Brandon remained unexpectedly calm. This is a story about craniotomy stroke recovery, but it's not just about surgery, rehab, or timelines. It's about identity, mindset, and what happens when your old life disappears overnight, and you're forced to rebuild from the inside out. Life Before the Stroke: Movement, Freedom, and Identity Before his stroke, Brandon lived a life defined by movement and autonomy. He worked in the oil fields as an MWD specialist, spending weeks at a time on drilling rigs. Later, he left what he called “traditional life” behind and spent years traveling the United States in an RV. He found work wherever he went, producing music festivals, building large-scale art installations, and immersing himself in creative communities. Stability, for Brandon, never meant stillness. It meant freedom. Stroke wasn't on his radar. At 46, he was active, independent, and deeply connected to his sense of self. The Stroke and Emergency Craniotomy The stroke happened in Northern California after a long day of rock climbing with friends. Brandon didn't notice the warning signs himself; it was others who saw that his arm wasn't working properly. Later that night, he became profoundly disoriented. He was found the next morning, still sitting upright in his truck, barely conscious. Within hours, Brandon was airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center, where doctors removed a blood clot and performed a large craniotomy due to dangerous swelling. Part of his skull was removed and stored while his brain recovered. He spent 10 days in intensive care, followed by weeks in inpatient rehabilitation. Remarkably, he reports no physical pain throughout the entire process, a detail that underscores how differently each brain injury unfolds. Early Craniotomy Stroke Recovery: Regaining Movement, Losing Certainty Physically, Brandon's recovery followed a familiar but still daunting path. Initially, he couldn't walk. His left arm hung uselessly by his side. Foot drop made even short distances difficult. But what challenged him most wasn't just movement; it was orientation. He struggled to track days, months, and time itself. Short-term memory lapses made planning almost impossible. Writing, once a core part of his identity, became inaccessible. He could form letters, but not their meaning. This is a common but under-discussed aspect of craniotomy stroke recovery: the loss isn't only physical. It's cognitive, emotional, and deeply personal. “It's kind of like I'm in this perpetual day ever since the stroke… like Groundhog Day.” Technology as Independence, Not Convenience One of the quiet heroes of Brandon's recovery has been voice-to-text technology. Because writing and spelling no longer function reliably, Brandon relies on dictation to communicate. Tools like Whisper Flow and built-in phone dictation restored his ability to express ideas, stay connected, and remain independent. This matters. For stroke survivors, technology isn't about productivity. It's about dignity. Identity Reset: Slower, Calmer, More Intentional Perhaps the most striking part of Brandon's story is how little resentment he carries. He doesn't deny frustration. He doesn't pretend recovery is easy. But he refuses to live in constant rumination. Instead, he adopted a simple principle: one problem at a time. That mindset reshaped his lifestyle. He stopped drinking, smoking, and using marijuana. He slowed his pace. He became more deliberate with relationships, finances, and health decisions. He grew closer to his adult daughter than ever before. The stroke didn't erase his identity, it refined it. Taking Ownership of Craniotomy Stroke Recovery A turning point came when Brandon realized he couldn't rely solely on the medical system. Insurance changes, rotating doctors, and long waits forced him to educate himself. He turned to what he jokingly calls “YouTube University,” learning from other survivors and clinicians online. That self-directed approach extended to major medical decisions, including choosing monitoring over immediate invasive heart procedures and calmly approaching a newly discovered brain aneurysm with information rather than fear. His conclusion is clear: Recovery belongs to the survivor. Doctors guide. Therapists assist. But ownership sits with the person doing the living. A Message for Others on the Journey Toward the end of the conversation, Brandon offered advice that cuts through fear-based recovery narratives: Don't let timelines define you. Don't rush because someone says you should. Don't stop because someone says you're “done.” Every stroke is different. Every brain heals differently. And recovery, especially after a craniotomy, continues far longer than most people are told. Moving Forward, One Intentional Step at a Time Craniotomy stroke recovery isn't just about regaining movement. It's about rebuilding trust with your body, reshaping identity, and learning how to live with uncertainty without letting it dominate your life. Brandon's story reminds us that even after the most extreme medical events, calm is possible. Growth is possible. And a meaningful life, though different, can still unfold. Continue Your Recovery Journey Learn more: https://recoveryafterstroke.com/book Support the podcast: https://patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke Disclaimer: This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your health or recovery plan. Brandon's Story: Surviving a Craniotomy, Redefining Identity, and Recovering on His Own Terms He survived a stroke and craniotomy, then calmly rebuilt his identity, habits, and life one deliberate step at a time. Research shortcut I use (Turnto.ai) I used Turnto.ai to find relevant papers and sources in minutes instead of hours. If you want to try it, here’s my affiliate LINK You'll get 10% off, it's about $2/week, and it supports the podcast. Highlights: 00:00 Introduction and Background01:52 Life Before the Stroke03:32 The Stroke Experience11:03 Craniotomy Stroke Recovery Journey17:09 Adjusting to Life Post-Stroke28:46 Living Independently After Stroke35:09 Facing New Challenges: Aneurysms and Uncertainty42:13 Support Systems: Finding Community After Stroke47:06 Identity Shift: Life Changes Post-Stroke58:39 Lessons Learned: Insights from the Journey Transcript: Introduction and Background Brandon (00:00)next morning was still in the driver’s seat with my head on the steering wheel. and I couldn’t make either of my arms work I had been bleeding into my brain for 12 hours overnight they had to go ahead and do a, craniotomy. And so they took this whole side. It was a big craniotomy. They took that whole section of my skull out, put it in the freezer Bill Gasiamis (00:27)Before we begin today’s episode, want to take a moment to speak to you directly. If you’ve had a stroke, you already know this part. The hospital phase ends, but the questions don’t. You’re sent home expecting to get on with it. And suddenly you’re left trying to work out recovery, mindset, fatigue, emotions, sleep and motivation all on your own. You shouldn’t have to. That’s why I wrote my book, The Unexpected Way That a Stroke Became the Best Thing That Happened. Not to tell you what to do, but to walk beside you and show you the tools real stroke survivors use to rebuild their lives when the system stopped helping. and now with this book, you won’t have to figure it out alone. You can find that at recoveryafterstroke.com/book. All right, let’s get into today’s episode. Today, you’re going to hear from Brandon Barre. Brandon was 46 years old, active, independent and living an unconventional life when he had a stroke that led to a craniotomy. where part of his skull was removed to save his life. What stood out to me immediately about Brandon wasn’t just the severity of what he went through. It was the calm grounded way he approached recovery, identity and rebuilding his life. This is a conversation about stroke recovery. Yes, but it is also about mindset, ownership and what happens when you decide to take recovery into your own hands. Life Before the Stroke (01:52)Brendan Barre, welcome to the podcast. Brandon (01:54)Thank you, man. (01:56)You struggled a little bit getting here. There’s a couple of little things that caused a bit of a challenge for you. What are those things? Brandon (02:05)Well, I mean, first of all, I’m, I’m, I’m, even before my stroke, I was never very computer-y. Um, so using my phone for more than just making phone calls is kind of new to me. Um, so yeah, a new microphone, that was fun. And then I had made a bunch of notes, not realizing that I probably wasn’t gonna be able to see those notes. Um, you know, so that was also a little bit of a issue, but uh, but yeah, other than that, man. Not much, you know, I mean I’m here. (02:37)Yeah. I remember receiving your emails about, I’m not sure what day we’re on. I need to reschedule all that kind of stuff. Stuff that I used to do heaps. I remember in the early days of my kind of stroke recovery, I used to make appointments, put them in my calendar, get reminders about my appointments and still be confused about the day, the time and the location of the appointment. Brandon (03:04)Yes, absolutely. That’s a big thing for me too. know, and I mean even just, you know, remembering from minute to minute where of what day, what month and everything I’m in right now is a little bit tricky still. It’s getting better, but ⁓ but yeah, I still have a lot of trouble. I can always think of every month except for the month that we’re currently in. (03:24)Okay, so you have like a short term memory thing, is it? Or… The Stroke Experience Brandon (03:28)Yes, yes, have short-term memory issues. ⁓ A lot of times ⁓ I struggle to find, like I said, the date and everything else. ⁓ But I don’t know, man. It’s kind of like I’m in this perpetual day ever since the stroke, and I have trouble keeping track of exactly what that is on everybody else’s time frame. (03:53)Like a, like a groundhog day. Brandon (03:55)Yes. Yeah. You know, I mean, if I really work hard and think about it, I can figure out what day it is, but it takes a while generally to get the month. The day of the month isn’t quite as difficult anymore, but at the beginning I had trouble with the whole thing. (04:11)I hear you man, I totally hear you. I reckon there’s been a ton of people that relate to what you’re saying. ⁓ Tell me, day like before stroke? What’d you get up to? What type of things did you involve yourself with? Brandon (04:23)Well, ⁓ you know, I was, I was really involved in, ⁓ production of music festivals and, ⁓ doing that kind of work. ⁓ I’ve always kind of freelanced. Well, you know, I actually, ⁓ left traditional life in 2000 and ⁓ January 1st of 2012 and started traveling and, you know, living out of an RV and whatnot. Before that, I was in the oil field. I’ve worked as an MWD specialist on a drilling rig, which means that I used to ⁓ take down all the information about where the actual drill bit was underground and send that off to all the geologists and everybody else so they can make sure that the well was going in the right direction. And, ⁓ you know, I just really didn’t feel happy in life, man. So I decided to take off and see the states out of my RV. And that started about 10 years of travel. And then In 2019 I bought some property and started to kind of slowly come off the road and started to be on my property more often but you know it just yeah I don’t know man my life has been a lot of different transitions one thing to another I move around a lot in life. (05:25)you Yeah, so the RV was kind of just exploring seeing the country Doing that type of thing or was it going somewhere with a purpose say to get work or to? Hang out there for a little while. What was that all about? Brandon (05:57)A little bit of all of it. A little bit of all of it. I’ve always been able to find work where I go, you know, doing different things. But I kind of fell into music festival work, like setting up and tearing down for music festivals and building art installations, doing like mandalas out of trash and stuff like that. And just kind of always did kind of the artist thing, I guess you could say. Even before, while I was still in the oil field doing the traditional life thing, I was always very art motivated. (06:30)Yeah, when you talk about traditional life, you’re talking about nine to five kind of routine and working for the man type of thing. Is that what you mean by traditional life? Brandon (06:43)Yes, except mine was a little bit different. My work in the oil field involved me being on site on the drilling rig for up to six weeks sometimes. So it wasn’t really nine to five. I would stay gone for a lot more than that. But then when I would go home, I’d be off for three weeks, a month. So yeah, just ⁓ doing that. (07:07)Where were these oil rigs? Were they in the middle of a desert? Were they in the ocean? Brandon (07:13)No, they were all onshore and I worked a lot in like Pennsylvania, but also a lot in Texas ⁓ Just you know anywhere where they were doing natural gas drilling (07:27)And is that a remote kind of existence in that if you’re on the rig for six weeks, are you getting off it? Are you going into town? Are you doing any of that stuff? Brandon (07:38)Usually the rigs are within an hour of some type of small town usually a Walmart that type of thing So I would go and get groceries a couple of times a week You know me and the other guys would go out and get you know dinner times and whatnot but ⁓ but yeah, basically just sitting in a little trailer a directional trailer is what they called it because it was me and ⁓ Two two other three other guys two more ⁓ directional drillers and then one other MWD hand which is what I was and so there was a night shift and a day shift of two guys each. (08:16)12 hour shifts. Brandon (08:17)Yes. (08:18)Dude, hard work. Brandon (08:21)Yeah, I mean on paper it was hard work. In real life, I mean there were those really problematic jobs where you know everything went wrong but in most cases it was just you know taking a bunch of measurements on the computer whenever they would add another link of pipe to the drilling string and drill down further so every time they would add another length of pipe I would have to take more measurements. (08:47)I hear you. So not physical, but still mental. And you’ve to be on the go for a long amount of time. Brandon (08:56)Right, but yeah, I mean it did when I would have to go up on the rig floor to like change the tool out or to put something You know together or what not so there was a little bit of that but still not as physical as like a traditional drilling rig roughneck (09:04)Uh-huh. I hear you. Yeah. Everyone’s seen those videos on YouTube with those guys getting covered in that sludge and working at breakneck speeds so that they can make sure that they put the next piece on. Brandon (09:24)Yeah, yeah, no, I, you know, and I mean, I wore my share of that mud, but not near as much as a floor hand would. (09:34)I hear, I feel like you’re, ⁓ you’re toning it down and you’re making it sound a lot more ⁓ pleasant than what it might be. But I appreciate that, man. like the way you talk about things. I couldn’t imagine myself doing that, that level of physical labor. Maybe I’m just a bit too soft myself. Brandon (09:54)Yeah, no, I don’t know, man. I consider myself soft in a lot of ways, too, man. You know, it’s just, we’re all different in our softness. (10:02)yeah. ⁓ tell me a little bit about, ⁓ your stroke, man. Like what was that particular week? Like the day? Like how did the lead up happen? Bill Gasiamis (10:12)Let’s pause for a moment. If you’re listening to this and thinking, I wish someone had explained this part to me earlier. You’re not alone. One of the hardest parts of stroke recovery isn’t the hospital. It’s what comes after when the appointments slow down, the support fades and you’re left trying to make sense of what your life looks like now. That’s exactly why I wrote the unexpected way that a stroke became the best thing that happened. It’s not a medical book. It’s a recovery companion built from real experiences. real mistakes and real breakthroughs that stroke survivors discovered along the way. If you want something that helps you think differently about recovery and reminds you that you’re not broken, you can find the book at recoveryafterstroke.com/book. Let’s get back to the conversation with Brandon. Craniotomy Stroke Recovery Journey Brandon (10:59)Okay, so I was helping a friend in Northern California to clean a property that was owned by an artist who had died and we went on to his 10 acre property and we’re just cleaning up for his family. But he had like all kinds of art stuff everywhere and so it was kind of right up my alley and ⁓ We were just trying to get the property clean for these people and we decided to take off and go and do a little bit of rock climbing. so we took off early one morning and drove to a town called Willets, California where there’s good rock climbing and we spent the day doing rock climbing which was a fairly new thing to me but the guys that I was with were very experienced lifelong climbers. And so I was kind of the new guy and they were showing me the ropes and we climbed all day. I did really well, I thought, and didn’t really notice anything. No problems. ⁓ Got back in the car. We’re headed back to the house about an hour away, a friend’s house where we were all going to stay the night. And on the way there, I noticed that I was really thirsty and I stopped and I got two 40 ounce bottles of Gatorade and I drank them both immediately and like just downed them and still didn’t notice anything was a problem was in the truck by myself with my two dogs and eventually I guess about an hour later we got to the house And I went inside to hang out with everybody. And one of my friends said that my arm wasn’t working well. I didn’t notice it at all, but he said that my arm wasn’t working very well. ⁓ so ⁓ I just kind of went on with my life. a couple of, I guess about an hour later, I decided that I was really tired. and I could not quench my thirst so I just grabbed a whole bunch of water and went out to my truck and I was gonna go and lay down and sleep in the back of my truck for the night and ⁓ when I got out to my truck ⁓ by this time my friend had said that my arm was working fine again and he noticed that I he felt like I had gotten over whatever it was and so I went out to my truck got into the driver’s seat of the truck And that’s about the last of my recollection that night. next morning when I wasn’t up making breakfast before everyone else, they realized there was a problem because I was usually the first one up making breakfast and doing all that stuff and I wasn’t there. So my friend came out to my truck to check on me and I was still in the driver’s seat with my head on the steering wheel. I never even fell over. (14:05)Hmm. Brandon (14:17)And so this is 12 hours later. And so ⁓ he tried to wake me up and I was only halfway coherent and I couldn’t make either of my arms work and only one of my legs could I get any response from. So he realized there was a problem immediately, pushed me over into the passenger side of the truck got in and drove me an hour to the closest hospital, just a small little regional hospital. And they were pretty quick about realizing that I was having a stroke. And they didn’t even, I don’t even remember them putting me in a room. They brought me straight up to the roof and put me in a helicopter and helicopter and helicoptered me to UC Davis hospital in Sacramento. (14:59)Wow Wow Brandon (15:15)And I got into the hospital and within, I think about an hour and a half, they had called my mom and my brothers who were all in Louisiana at the time. And they had gotten permission to start treatment and they brought me into the surgery. at first they just (15:25)The The following is a video of the first year of Brandon (15:45)removed a three millimeter blood clot from my main artery on the right side. But then the swelling was so bad because I had been bleeding into my brain for 12 hours overnight that they had to go ahead and do ⁓ a, what do you call it? The craniotomy. Yeah, craniotomy. And so they took this whole side. It was a big craniotomy. (16:05)Craniotomy Brandon (16:12)They took this whole side, everything to the center of my forehead, above my eye, down to just above my ear, front to back. ⁓ They took that whole section of my skull out, put it in the freezer so that my brain had room. then I spent 10 days in intensive care recovering from that. And then they moved me to a rehab hospital where I spent four weeks. And yeah, so in that rehab hospital, yeah, immediately after the surgery, I couldn’t walk and I had pretty much no function on my left side, know, arm or leg. But by the time I got to the rehab hospital, I had gotten some control back, but I still couldn’t walk. ⁓ (16:44)Wow, man. Adjusting to Life Post-Stroke Brandon (17:10)And that about a week after I was in the rehab hospital is when I started to walk again without assistance. So that came back fairly quickly, but I still had really bad foot drop and my left arm wasn’t working. It was hanging, you know? And then, so they kept me in there, ⁓ you know, going through, I guess, regular rehab. (17:24)Thank Yep. Brandon (17:36)They the series of lights on the ground in front of me and I’d have to like run around and touch the different lights as they would activate and you know, I don’t know I mean, I guess it’s the same type of rehab stuff that most people go through and ⁓ (17:51)Yeah, it’s probably similar. Mate, ⁓ this is what I really want to know is what’s it like to experience having half of your skull removed? Can you somehow paint a picture of what it’s like to go through that process and how aware were you of it? Because you just had a stroke, right? So you’re in a bit of a challenged sort of healthy health state. Brandon (18:14)Right. No. Yes. ⁓ well, I think that that deliriousness was actually kind of helpful. First of all, I have not experienced any pain through the entire process. From the stroke, no pain from the craniotomy, no pain through rehab. I have not experienced any pain through this entire experience. None whatsoever. Now the doctors say that I might have lost some of that ability to sense it But you know, I mean whatever it took I Really, you know, I didn’t you know, whatever the reason was The effect of it was that I had a pretty fame pain free experience, you know (19:07)and you’re like looking in the mirror and seeing yourself and you know, like experiencing your head and how do you kind of deal with all of that? Brandon (19:21)Well, ⁓ I couldn’t feel a whole lot. I still have a lot of, or not so very much sensation on my scalp on that side. So, you know, but as far as looking in the mirror, that was kind of interesting. You know, it took a little while to get used to it, you know, and, it, ⁓ was definitely not something that I would recommend. Anybody else going through if they don’t have to you know, but ⁓ But I don’t know man. I mean, I’ve always tried to stay pretty positive about things and so, you know, I just Kept going, you know, I mean they shaved my head. I had dreadlocks for a very long time I had dreadlocks and And so this is all the hair that I’ve gotten since they put my skull back together, which was January or it’s actually It’ll be one year tomorrow since they put my skull back together. So, ⁓ my hair is coming back, which I’m really grateful for. About this time next year, I’m gonna start trying to put my dreadlocks back in. you know, but yeah, it’s, I don’t know, man. It’s really been an interesting ride. ⁓ You know, ⁓ learned a lot more about stroke than I ever thought I would need to. You know, I mean, I’m 48 right now. I was 46 when the stroke happened. So it wasn’t even on my radar, man. I wasn’t paying any attention at all. I didn’t know the anagrams or whatever. I didn’t know the symptoms of stroke. So I just kind of rolled with the punches as they came. I took it one step at a time. And that’s kind of the way it’s been with my recovery too. is I try to address one problem at a time so I don’t overwhelm myself. So after I started to get my leg back, I started to shift my influence to my shoulder and my arm. And at this point, I’ve got almost full range of motion back to the left side. I still can’t write. ⁓ Well, actually, technically, I can make my whole alphabet and all of my numbers with (21:16)Yep. Brandon (21:37)both hands at this point. trained myself to use the other hand and then about the time I was able to get that back the other hand started to come back online. So now I can do all that with both hands but words I’m word blind and numbers and letters don’t make a lot of sense to me. So even though I can make the shapes I have a lot of trouble associating the sounds of certain letters and the functions. of different numbers and letters, you know? That’s where a lot of my trouble is now, and that’s where most of my work is at the moment. (22:14)I hear you. So you sound like you’re very cool, and collected. How do you remain positive when you wake up from a stroke? You’re missing half of your skull. Your body doesn’t work on half the side. Is it your default? Do you have to work on that? Have you been working on being positive over? the decades that you’ve been on the planet, give us a bit of an insight into that part of you. Brandon (22:47)Okay, so yeah, I think I’ve always maintained a pretty positive demeanor, you know, I mean I’ve gone through some rough stuff in life, but I’ve just kind of kept going, you know, rolling with the punches. So I really don’t think that I have had much difficulty remaining positive through it. You know, there’s ⁓ definitely, you know, ⁓ days that I don’t feel as good as other days, you know, and you know, I definitely have… ⁓ things that I have to work through. have to, you know, I have to make an effort to remain positive, you know, at times. But my default has always been to be a pretty positive and happy person. So I think that that was really the majority of it is that I’ve always even in the light of extreme adversity, I’ve always been able to remain positive. You know, ⁓ so that that’s always been, you know, key even before the stroke. But (23:39)Yeah. Brandon (23:46)Yeah, I mean definitely waking up and realizing that half of my body didn’t work anymore was not fun, but it’s what I was given. I couldn’t change it, you know, only time and work was gonna change it. So I just kinda accepted it, you know, I mean, ⁓ one of the biggest things that helped me out was by the time I got out of surgery and started to get coherent, My mom and my brother had already flown from Louisiana to be with me in California at the hospital. And that was huge just to know that my family was there. And they stayed with me for the whole time that I was ⁓ in the hospital for the 10 days. And then when I went to the rehab hospital, they went home. ⁓ But yeah, so that was ⁓ just really, that was a big part of it too, you know, I mean. My mom and my brothers are pretty much the most important people in my life. Of course, my daughter as well. yeah, so, you know, to have them all there and just to have that support and have them there to help me because when I first came out, from the time I came out of surgery, I could still speak very clearly. So I did not know what I was saying. (24:56)Mm-hmm. Brandon (25:15)Nobody could tell like I wasn’t making a lot of sense, but I never lost my voice They think that that’s because of my left-handedness Because I’m left-handed I store things like that differently in my brain So because of that I was able to keep my speech even though I cannot write I can’t do you know I mean I can write my letters, but if I try to (25:32)Okay. Brandon (25:44)make a word this was yesterday (25:48)Aha! Lux- Brandon (25:50)But I can, yeah, it’s just scribble. It’s just scribble. Yeah, but, you know, if I try to like draw a letter or a number, I can do it, but I have trouble assigning it to its value. (25:53)Yeah. Understood. So before that, were quite capable of stringing sentences together, writing things down, doing all that kind of stuff. So that’s a very big contrast. Brandon (26:14)I have always been known. Huge contrast. (26:22)Is it frustrating that you can’t write in the way that you did before? it matter? Brandon (26:27)Yes, yes, I used to write all the time, know, poetry, things like that. I’ve always been considered, you know, a good writer, a good orator, public speaker, you know, that kind of thing was a big part of my life, for my whole life. And so to go from that to not being able to write a sentence on a piece of paper or even a word is really a big change for me. You know, and I mean I do use my phone for voice to text. If I wouldn’t have had voice to text, I really don’t know where I would be right now. (27:06)Is that how you communicate most things? Brandon (27:09)Yes, absolutely. it’s- if I can’t say it, like speak it, I have to use voice to text. I can’t spell- I can’t- I can’t spell my own name half the time. (27:17)Dude, I love that. Yeah, I hear you. I love voice to text. So I was told by a friend of mine about a product called Whisper Flow. I’m gonna have links in the show notes and in the description on the YouTube video, right? And it’s spelled W-I-S-P-R-F-L-O-W, Whisper Flow. And what you do is you program one key on your keyboard. And then what you do is you press that key and it activates Brandon (27:36)Yes. (27:52)the app and then you speak and it types beautifully. It types at all. And I’m a terrible like typist. I could never be one of those really quick secretary kind of people and take notes because I’m not fast enough, but it can type for me by speaking like beyond 99 words per minute, which I think is crazy fast. Living Independently After Stroke And I do it because it just saves a heck of a lot of time, me looking down at the keyboard and all that kind of stuff. My left hand does work, but I can type with it, but often my left hand, you know, we’ll miss the key and I’ve got to go back and do corrections and all that kind of stuff. So voice to text, this comes such a long way and everyone needs to know, especially if they’ve had a stroke and one of their limbs is affected, especially if it’s their… they’re riding limb or if they have a challenge like you, everyone needs to know about the fact that technology can really solve that problem. I’m pretty sure, I know this sounds like an ad for Whisper Flow, it probably is, but I’m not getting paid for it. I think they cost, it costs about hundred bucks a year to have this ⁓ service. So it’s so affordable and it does everything for you just at the touch of one button on your computer. And for some people you can also use it on your phone. But I think phones are pretty awesome at doing voice to text already. So you don’t really need ⁓ it for the phone, but you definitely need to check it out for the computer. Brandon (29:27)Okay, yeah, well, you know, I pretty much have my phone. I don’t have a computer, so… But, ⁓ it does sound like an amazing product, and I am looking to get myself a computer because I really, ⁓ like, I haven’t touched a keyboard since my stroke. So, it would be nice to get myself a laptop with a keyboard so that I could start working on trying to see how that interface works for me. (29:33)Yeah. Yeah. How was the transition out of hospital and rehab back to your place? and how long after the initial strike did you end up back at home? Brandon (30:04)Okay, so, when I, I left the hospital after, or I’m sorry, after 10 days in intensive care, they put me in the rehab hospital and I was there for four weeks. After that, they still didn’t think that I was ready to live by myself yet. So I had to, ⁓ rent a house in Joshua tree from a friend of mine who lived on the property in another house. And so I had a whole house to myself still which allowed me to keep my independence. But I still had somebody close enough to holler if I needed anything. And so I kind of, you know, baby stepped by renting a house, you know, for a while. And, And I have property in Northern Arizona where I normally would take my off time when I wasn’t traveling. But, ⁓ But, ⁓ because of the stroke, I wasn’t able to go back to that property for quite a while. And only about Christmas of last year did I start to be able to spend some more time on my property, you know. But at this point, I’m still renting the house in Joshua Tree and starting ⁓ to branch out a little bit more, do a little bit more traveling, things like that. Now with that said… I have been ever since the stroke happened about two months after the stroke I went back to my first music festival. So I didn’t have half of my skull. I had to wear a helmet for six months. And so here I am at a music festival with all of my friends and I’m in a helmet with half of my skull missing. But I still was able to be there and then ⁓ you know, be a part of the festival. So I got back to the activity that I enjoyed pretty fast. (32:07)What genre of music? Brandon (32:09)Well, it’s actually the Joshua Tree Music Festival in particular, which is the only music festival that I’m really involved with anymore. ⁓ They do world music. We get artists from all over the world in. And that’s kind of one of the reasons I’ve continued to be a part of this music festival and really haven’t been that big of a part of the other ones is because I’m always learning about new music when I go there. And that’s a big important part of it to me. (32:40)Understood. So your transition back to living alone took a little bit of time. You’re renting a place. Are you alone there? Are you living with anyone else? How is the home set up? Brandon (32:55)I have a home all to myself but there is a shared home on the other or on the property that a friend of mine lives in and he’s actually the one that I’m renting from so yeah (33:09)So you have access to support to help to people around you if necessary. Brandon (33:15)if I need it. also another big part of one of the symptoms of my stroke is that I don’t recognize my own disabilities. I have a lot of trouble with that. So I generally do not ask for help with things, which in a lot of cases has made me a lot stronger and I think been a big part of a speedy recovery. But at the same time, I can put myself in some kind of sketchy situations at times. (33:43)It’s not, are you sure it’s not just your male ego going, I can do this, I don’t need help. Brandon (33:49)I mean, I’m sure that that does tie into it, I’m certain. But yeah, that’s one of the things that I’ve struggled with from the beginning. And I didn’t recognize the left side of my body as my own. I thought it was somebody else’s. That wasn’t very long, just for maybe the first couple of weeks. But that was a very interesting sensation, that I felt like there was somebody else there. (34:06)Wow. Yeah, it just feels like it’s my, I kind of describe my left side as if it’s because my star sign is Gemini, right? So now I describe it as being the other twin, like the other part of me, which is me, but not me. And it’s so strange to experience 50 % of my body feeling one way and then 50 % of my body feeling a completely different way, which is Brandon (34:25)Yeah. Facing New Challenges: Aneurysms and Uncertainty (34:44)the only way I remember and then tying them together, like bringing them together has been a bit of a wild ride, like just getting them to operate together. When they have different needs, my left side has different needs than my right side. And sometimes one side is getting all the love and the other side is missing out. And I’m always conflicted between where do I allocate resources? Who gets… how much of my time and effort and who I listen to when one of them’s going, my left side’s going, I’m tired, I’m tired. My right side’s going, the party’s just started. Let’s keep going. Don’t worry about it. Brandon (35:25)I have to deal with that. Of course, my left gets a lot tighter than my right side, but I don’t know. think I’ve done a pretty good job of giving it that care. And a big part of where I measured my success was getting my shoulder back online and being able to pronate and go above my head. It took months to get my hand over my head. But But at this point, you know, I’m pretty much back to physically normal except for the fine motor skills on my right, on my left side. You know. (35:59)Sounds like things are going really well in really small increments. And if you’re only, what, two years post stroke, sounds like recovery is gonna continue. You’re gonna get smaller, more and more small wins and they’re gonna kinda accumulate and make it pretty significant in some time ahead. Brandon (36:17)Right. It’s a year and a half. So my stroke was on the 4th of November of 2024. (36:32)Yeah. Do you know in this whole time, did you ever have the… like, this is too hard, I don’t want to do this. Why is this happening to me kind of moment? Did you ever have any of that type of negative self talk or thoughts? Brandon (36:50)no, I mean, I suppose there probably were moments, but I don’t pay a lot of attention to those kinds of moments. You know what I mean? I do kind of even without the stroke, maintain a pretty positive mental attitude, you know, and I think that that’s been one of my biggest blessings through this. ⁓ yeah. So yeah, that’s never really been a good emotion. (37:12)I get a sense that you have those moments, but you don’t spend a lot of time there. Is that right? Is that what you just sort of alluded to that you have those moments, you just don’t give them a lot of time. Therefore they don’t really have the opportunity ⁓ to sort of take up residence. And then you just move on to whatever it is that you’re getting results with or makes you feel better or… ⁓ supports your project which is ⁓ recovery or overcoming or… Brandon (37:48)Yes. No, I completely agree. ⁓ You know, I mean, speaking of which, four days ago, I got ⁓ a phone call from the doctors. ⁓ They found an aneurysm in my brain. So I have to go and meet with a neurosurgeon on Tuesday to discuss what we’re going to do about a brain aneurysm. So I thought, you know, I was just about back to normal. And here I go into another situation. But again, until I know what’s going on, there’s no point in worrying about it, you know? So I’ll know more about it on Tuesday, but until then, I’m not spending a whole lot of time wondering, you know, am I just going to have an aneurysm and collapse tonight? You know? (38:36)that tends to be my default as well. I was really good as a kid. ⁓ When I was being cheeky and not doing my homework for school, I would go to bed and I would remember, I haven’t done my homework. And then I’d be like, yeah, but you can’t solve that problem now. Now you got to sleep, right? So you got to worry about that in the morning after you’ve had a good night’s sleep and you wake up and then deal with it. And that was a strategy to help me forget about that. minor problem, which back then, if you haven’t done your homework as a teenager, that was a big problem. If your teachers found out, if your parents found out, but the idea was that, don’t I just pause all of the overthinking? Why don’t I just pause all of the rumination and all the problems and all that stuff that it could cause for now. And I’ll worry about it when there’s a opportunity to have the resources to do something about it. And the classic example was in the morning, I would have an hour before school where I could reach out to one of my friends, take their homework, copy their homework, and then hand in my homework. Brandon (39:46)Absolutely. Yep, that was very much like me in school. (39:51)Yeah, not much point worrying about things you can’t change or control in the moment. Just pause it, deal with it later. I had a similar situation with my bleed in my brain, because I had a number of different bleeds and it was kind of in the back of my mind a little bit. What if it happens again? But it actually never stopped me from going about life from bleed one through to bleed two. was only six weeks, but like through blade two to blade three, it was about a year and a half. But I got so much done. I was, we were just going about life. was struggling with memory and all different types of deficits because of the blood clot that was in my head. But I never once kind of thought about what if something goes wrong, unless I was traveling. to another country, because we did go to the United States when I was about almost a year after the first and second bleed, we went to the United States. And then I did worry about it from a practical sense. It’s like, if I have a bleed in Australia, I’m near my hospital and then they can take over from where they left off previously and healthcare is paid for here. So there was no issue. But if I’m overseas and something goes wrong, I’m far away from home, we got to have the expensive insurance policy. Cause if something goes, I want to be totally covered when I’m in the United States, we don’t know the system. don’t know all these things. So that was a practical worry that I had, but I didn’t worry about my health and wellbeing. Do you know? I worried about the practicality of having another blade in the airplane because then I’m in the middle of the ocean. over halfway between Australia and the United States. And that’s eight hours one way or another or something. And I thought about that, but I didn’t think about how I would be personally ⁓ negatively impacted by the medical issue. I just thought about the, do we get help as quickly as possible if something were to happen? So I know a lot of people have a stroke and they, Brandon (41:55)Right. Support Systems: Finding Community After Stroke (42:18)⁓ They overthink about what if it happens again and they’re constantly kind of got that on their mind, but I was dealing with just the moments that made me feel like perhaps I should do something about this headache that I’m getting. I dealt with things as they appeared, as they turned up, I didn’t try to plan ahead and solve every problem before it happened. Brandon (42:24)Yeah. Yes, I agree. I’m very much the same way. You see, before my stroke, I didn’t have medical insurance. I hadn’t seen a doctor since my early 20s. just, I was, I was, I had always been extremely healthy. You know, I’ve always been very physically active, you know, and, so it just, I never really, I never really ⁓ went out and looked for medical. I just didn’t need it, you know? And so, When the stroke happened, I was very lucky to get put on California’s healthcare plan. And they’ve taken care of all of my medical bills. ⁓ You know, I’ve never pulled a single dollar out of my pocket for all the rehab, all the doctors since. And I mean, I have doctors still once every week, two weeks at the most, doctor visits, you know? And so I’m extremely fortunate. that it happened to me where I was, you know, because not all states here are like that, but California is extremely good. So, you know, I’m really grateful that it worked out the way it has because it could have been a whole different situation, man. (44:00)I have heard some horror stories about medical insurance for people who are not covered, have a stroke and then they leave hospital with like a $150,000 bill or something. Is that a thing? Brandon (44:13)Yes, it really is. I mean, I was extremely fortunate. By the time I got out of that first 10 days with the helicopter ride and everything else, I was close to $2 million in bills. (44:25)Dude, that’s mental. Brandon (44:26)Yeah. And, ⁓ yeah, I mean, it just doesn’t really, I mean, you know, I mean, I’m not a big fan of, the way that the medical system works money wise. think it’s all just paper or fake money, just fake numbers, you know, but yeah, I don’t know. I just, ⁓ I was extremely fortunate that it all happened the way that it did and that California is so good and they really do take care of their citizens, you know, so. (44:54)Yeah, I love that. Brandon (44:55)Yeah, very fortunate. (44:57)You know, in your recovery, did you have somebody that you kind of leaned on for support that was a confident, ⁓ that was like a mentor or did you have somebody like that in your life that was really helpful in your recovery? Brandon (45:15)Actually in about the year before my stroke I lost the three gentlemen that I had always considered my mentors, older guys that I’ve known for years. They all three passed away the year before my stroke. So I really kind of felt on my own. You know, I have a lot of friends, you know, but ⁓ but after my stroke I really don’t have the brain space for like Facebook or anything like that. So I really, closed down my very active Facebook account and when I did that, I lost so many people that would have been my support because I just, they weren’t there, you know, in real life. They’re only there on the computer, you know? And so, but luckily, you know, I’m a part of the community in Joshua Tree. So I had a lot of support from people there and… ⁓ Then I have probably four or five other friends that are scattered around the United States that I keep in touch with pretty closely. But I went down from talking to hundreds of people a month and all of that on the internet to really a very small closed social circle, you know? And then in addition to that, surprisingly, people that I’ve known for years just are not very good at accepting the differences in who I am as a person since the stroke, you know? And so, you know, I hate to say it, but a lot of friendships have kind of gotten a lot more distant since the stroke. you know, it’s just, I mean, it is what it is. You know, people have to do what they feel is right for themselves, you know? But yeah, I really… ⁓ Identity Shift: Life Changes Post-Stroke (47:06)Yeah. Brandon (47:07)I don’t have a very large support network. You know, I just basically kind of take care of a lot of it myself. You know, I mean, I did two and a half months of outpatient rehab with a occupational therapist. And what’s the other one? Occupational and physical therapy. (47:33)Mm-hmm. Brandon (47:33)So I did occupational and physical therapy for about two and a half months after I got out of the hospital. And that was all really good and helpful. And ⁓ I’m really grateful for those therapists that worked with me. And they helped me get ⁓ basically back to a normal cadence because I was having trouble putting one foot in front of the other. And they really helped me work on my cadence and getting my walk back to fairly normal. ⁓ My arm. has been mostly me. It has never been able to be rushed. It takes its own time. So even with the physical therapy, my hand coming back, it works at its own pace. That was never really influenced that much by physical therapy. And then my actual use of my hand, I was balled up. I was curled up and balled up to the wrist. after the stroke and eventually I got to where I could hold it out flat and I still tremor a lot there but it’s a lot better than it was and but yeah all of that had to come back at its own pace the physical therapy and stuff was helpful for a lot of other aspects of my recovery but that was all just taking its own time and coming back as I guess as it did my brain learn to re-communicate (48:58)Yeah, it sounds, it sounds like you’re kind of really well made up somehow, like you picked up the skills early on in your life to be able to deal with this situation. The way that you do is just amazing. Like it’s seems like it’s second nature, the way that you go about approaching the problems, the challenges, the difficulties, know, the missing half your skull, all that thing. It just seems really innate that you have that within you. you, people are listening and going, you know, that’s not me or I didn’t experience that or I’m overthinking things. Do you think that’s the way that you’re approaching things is teachable, learnable? Can people change the way that they’re going about ⁓ relating to their stroke or dealing with their stroke or managing it. Brandon (49:53)⁓ you know, I think that that you’re going to find that a lot of people, can be taught and a lot of people, can’t be taught. You know, some people’s nature just is not going to be able to handle that. But other people, you know, I think that you can go through very real processes to gain, ⁓ knowledge base, you know, to be able to start working with it. You see another big aspect of my recovery. is that I immediately after my stroke and getting out of the hospital moved eight hours away from UC Davis Hospital where my original care providers were. So I had to go through a whole new medical plan, a whole new set of doctors and everything else. And that changed on me like three times over the first six months. So I really couldn’t rely on the doctors for support either. because they were changing so often I would just meet one and the next thing I would know I would have a new doctor coming in or a new healthcare plan and so it took about six months for me to start seeing the same healthcare providers routinely so I went to YouTube University man I found you I found several other people that had these just these huge amounts of information you know, on how to handle my own recovery. So I took a lot of my own recovery into my own hands. And actually, ⁓ a week ago, I was talking to my neurologist, who is a really amazing lady, and, you know, and had to tell her pretty much that same story that, you know, I couldn’t leave it up to the doctors to fix me. I had to take care of myself. because of my situation and switching insurance and everything else that I went through, there was just not that much option. ⁓ so, you know, and she was like, I wish that all of my patients had that kind of an outlook. You cannot rely on the medical system to fix you. You know, we were talking about what can help people. I think that’s a really big thing that could help a lot of people is to realize that you have to take care of your health care decisions. You know, they found a PFO in my heart, a ⁓ Framon Parabot. (52:24)A patent for Ramen Ovali. Hole in your heart. Brandon (52:28)Yes, yeah, they found that and they wanted to fix it and I was like, you know, I’m 47 years old. This is a one-time thing. So I opted to have a loop recorder installed, a loop recorder to measure my heart rhythm and everything and send messages to the doctors at nights about my heart. So that because I thought that was a little bit less invasive. For my age, the last thing I want is for later in life, my body to start having problems with an implant that’s in my heart. So I decided not to go with that and to go with the less invasive loop recorder, which is still implanted under the skin in my chest, but it doesn’t affect my heart. (53:08)Thank you. Brandon (53:21)It just sends the information about my heart rhythm to the doctors so that they can keep track. (53:26)and it can be easily accessed and removed. Brandon (53:30)Exactly, exactly. So, you know, I mean, if I have another stroke or if I find through the little device that I’m having trouble with that PFO, you know, then I’ll get the PFO closure done. But until then, I didn’t want to just jump straight to that, you know, three months out of my out of my stroke. You know, I want to make sure that that’s the problem. because they did pull a 3mm blood clot out of my brain. So there’s a good chance that that went through the PFO and into my brain. But I was also way outside of my normal activity range trying to rock climb the day before. So there’s just, there are too many variables about the experience for me to just want to go and have something installed in my heart permanently, you know? (54:28)I hear you. What about the aneurysm? Where is that? What’s the long-term kind of approach to that? Brandon (54:35)Don’t know yet. I do not know anything about it. I’ll find out more information on Tuesday They said it’s not it’s not in the same part of my brain that my stroke was So that’s a good thing and there’s a good chance that it may have been there for a long time before the stroke So we just don’t know I don’t know anything about it So that I’m gonna go and meet with this neurosurgeon and decide what we’re gonna do about it (54:42)that’s right. Brandon (55:03)I think the most likely option, as long as it’s not big, is that they just wait and they monitor it. But there’s also a process where they coil it. They put a coil of platinum into it and pack it off so that it can’t become a problem later. And then the third scenario is that they take another piece of my skull off and go in and actually put a clip on it. to stop the blood from going into it. So I may actually have to have my skull open back up again. But, again, there’s no point in thinking about it now. I’ll think about it after Tuesday when I figure out where this thing is, what size it is, and all the details of it, you know? (55:46)Yeah. I love it. I love it. I love that man. That’s a great way to approach it. Also, ⁓ I love your comment about YouTube University. I love the fact that people find my podcast sometimes when they’re in hospital because clearly they realize I need to ⁓ learn more about this, understand it and ⁓ straight away they’ve got answers because of YouTube. it’s such a great service. It’s free. If you don’t want to pay for a paid service and all you got to do is put up with ads that you can skip through most of the time. So I think that’s brilliant. ⁓ What about your identity, man? People have a lot of kind of ⁓ examples of how they have a shift in their identity, how they perceive themselves, how they fit into the world. Did you feel like you have a shift in your identity or the way that you fit into the world? What’s that like for you? Brandon (56:46)Well, I mean, I definitely do feel like there was a big shift. Now at the core, I feel like the same person. know, mentally, I still feel like I know who I am, but it definitely has shifted my priorities in life a lot. ⁓ I did not raise my daughter and I developed a much closer relationship to her since the stroke. and we’ve been spending more time together and just really working on our relationship together. She’s 28 years old. So, you know, that has really been an amazing aspect of my stroke recovery is that I’m closer with my daughter than I ever was. But yeah, I mean, you know, I do things a lot differently. I was a heavy smoker, a heavy drinker, and a heavy marijuana user. I don’t smoke marijuana, don’t smoke cigarettes, and I don’t drink alcohol anymore. So huge change in my lifestyle as well. ⁓ But you know, I just I’m not as much of a hurry as I used to. I was always accused of my mind working on too many levels at one time, you know, and had too much on my plate, too much going on in my brain all the time. Now. My brain doesn’t keep up as well. So I struggle to stay on one subject, much less juggle multiple things in my brain. So it’s really kind of slowed down my whole mental process. But I think that again, that’s in a good way. I think that ⁓ I needed to slow down a little bit in a lot of ways. Lessons Learned: Insights from the Journey (58:31)I hear you. With the alcohol, marijuana and the smoking. So you might’ve been doing that for decades, I imagine, smoking, drinking. Brandon (58:43)Yes. (58:44)how do you experience your body differently now that it doesn’t have those substances in it anymore? Like, cause that’s a mass, that’s probably one of the biggest shifts your consumption of, we’ll call them, I don’t know, like harmful ⁓ things, you know, like how, so how do you relate to yourself differently now that those things are not necessary? Brandon (59:12)You know, I never really had like an addictive aspect. So I really don’t, I don’t feel like, ⁓ I mean, I don’t feel like it’s changed me a whole lot. I just had to take the daily habits out. But after spending a month in the hospital, all of the physical wants, all of the physical aspects of it were already taken care of, you know? So I just had to kind of maintain and not go back to old habits. So really, I mean, I don’t feel like it was that big of a difference. But now physically, I’ve always been an extremely skinny person. You know, I’m six foot one and I’ve always weighed 135 to 145. Now I weigh 165. So I did put on some weight after stopping all that. But other than that, really don’t notice a lot of ⁓ physical differences. Now, I have not coughed since my stroke. I used to wake myself up at night coughing, but for some reason, like literally when I had the stroke, I have not coughed since. Now I clear my throat a lot more and I have a lot of, we’re trying to figure out why, but I have a lot of problems with my sinuses. and stuff like that all on the side that I my injury was on this side but on the side the mental side like where it’s all mental stuff that changed the you know all of that I have problems with my sinuses and drainage and things like that so right now I’m seeing an ear nose and throat specialist and we just did a cat scan of my sinuses so I’ll see on the 13th of this next month I’ll get more information on about what’s going on there. ⁓ really, if that’s all I have to deal with is a one-sided sinus infection, I’m okay with that, you know? (1:01:23)Brandon, you’re all over it, man. I love your approach. It’s ⁓ refreshing to hear somebody who’s just so all over getting to the bottom of things rather than kind of just letting them kind of fester, which kind of leads me to my next question is you seem to have gained a lot of learning and growth from all of this. So what… ⁓ What are some of the insights that you gained from this experience that you didn’t expect? Brandon (1:01:54)⁓ No, I’m really not sure, man. I’m really not sure. I mean, again, I feel like pretty much going back to the same person. I mean, I have, I think, a little bit more respect for the human lifespan. You know, I was one of those people that always felt like, since I’ve never died, I can’t tell you that I’m going to die. Even though everybody else on the planet has to die, I never necessarily felt like that. I definitely feel mortal now, you know? I used to tell everybody that I still felt 25, but as soon as I had my stroke, felt 48. I felt every bit of my age. So it kind of cured me of that. You know, I pay a lot more attention to like, you know, things like, setting up my daughter for the future, you know, and like, Purchasing property for her and things like that to make sure that she’s gonna be taken care of when I’m not here anymore Things that I never paid attention to beforehand, you know, I always just lived in the moment Really didn’t care about the rest But now I’m more prone to put the work into my vehicle before it breaks down Instead of just waiting for it to be on the side of the road to fix it You know, I just I I think that I handle my life responsibilities more like a grown up than I used to, you know, but ⁓ but really, I don’t know, I’d say overall though, it’s still really difficult question to answer, man. I don’t I don’t feel like I live a lot differently. I feel like I’m still the same person, you know. (1:03:35)You nailed it, man. You answered it beautifully, especially the part about mortality. That’s a hap that happened to me. I realized at 37 that, ⁓ I actually might not be around in 12 months, six months, three months. So who knows like tomorrow. And that made me pay attention to my relationships and make sure that they were mostly mended healed. Reach. I reached out to people who I needed to reach out to. cut off people who I didn’t need to continue connecting with. Brandon (1:03:51)Right? (1:04:05)You know, like I realized that this, I’ve got to attend, attend to certain things that I hadn’t been attending to because if, ⁓ if the shit hit the fan, if things go really ugly, then I wouldn’t be able to attend to those things. And I, now that I had the ability to do it, was my responsibility to do that. Brandon (1:04:28)Absolutely, absolutely. I completely agree. I did the same thing. I cleared out a lot of the people that really weren’t being, you know, or that weren’t adding benefit to my life and causing problems in my life. I cleared all of that out. I started to focus more on the core group of people that were a big part of my life and, you know, my recovery and just, you know, who I am as a person. And just, you know, it really made me take a better look at the life that I had created for myself and and ⁓ and Just take care of the things that I should be taking care of and don’t pay as much attention to the things that weren’t serving me (1:05:12)Yeah, it’s a great way to continue moving forward. Your daughter, does she live nearby or does she live in another state? Brandon (1:05:21)She lives in another state. She lives in Alabama right now, but we’re starting to consider her coming out here to Arizona. Her and her boyfriend have lived there for several years, but the only reason she was living there is because her grandparents lived there on her maternal side, and she was very close to them for her whole life. But they passed, both of them, over the last several years. And, you know, she enjoys her work. She enjoys her friend group. But she also feels like she might need to go and explore a little bit more and move out of her comfort zone. So she might be a little bit closer sooner. Her and her boyfriend might actually move out here. we’ll just, know, only time will tell, but it’s just, it’s a fun thought, you know? (1:06:08)Yeah, I hear you. So we’ve shared a whole bunch of amazing things on this episode right now. The last question I want to ask you is there are people watching and listening that had either been listening for a little bit of time. They’ve just started their stroke recovery or they’r

Scott Courtright is a state archaeologist at USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service and a brother of Phi Sigma Kappa from Northern Arizona University. The most unique thing about Scott is that he was struck by lightning on a hike and survived! He's here to tell us all about it. In episode 637 of the Fraternity Foodie Podcast, we find out why Scott chose Northern Arizona for his undergraduate experience, what was special about Phi Sigma Kappa that made him want to join, what happened on the day he was struck by lightning on a hike, how that event impacted his relationship with fear, what shifted for him after the lightning strike, how that event reshaped his patience, humility, and long-term thinking, what he wants students to understand about vulnerability, how he views legacy today, how students should think about decision-making when the consequences aren't always visible in the moment, and what he would tell student leaders about responsibility, safety, and looking out for one another. Enjoy!

AP's Lisa Dwyer reports on a suspected hazing death.

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Join us as we kick off Season 7 of the Gill Connections podcast as we welcome newly named Univ of Texas throws coach Mo Saatara to the show. From surviving a revolution to shaping world champions — Mo Saatara's story is one of resilience, reinvention, and relentless pursuit of excellence. In this episode, Mo shares how his journey from Iran to Northern Arizona, Michigan, Cal Berkeley, and now Texas has shaped him as both coach and person. He reflects on losing his job through no fault of his own, guiding world champion hammer thrower Camryn Rogers, and now leading the throws program for one of the nation's premier track & field teams.

It's that time of year when every state kicks off the new year with its own "ball" drop. North Carolina has the pickle drop. Florida has the shrimp drop. Arizona is no different. The pinecone drop has been an annual tradition in Flagstaff since 1999, but why a pinecone? Valley 101 investigates this unique tradition with the help of its founder, Sam Green. Find out why the pinecone is the staple of Northern Arizona's new year, why it's lasted so long and how a trash can scandal changed the celebration. Submit your question⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ about Phoenix! Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Guests: Sam Green Host: ⁠⁠Bill Goodykoontz⁠⁠ Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amanda Luberto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I'm joined by Todd Blue, Dealer Principal of Mercedes-Benz of Northern Arizona and CEO of LAPIS. We break down how luxury dealerships can truly differentiate in a crowded market and why direct customer engagement still drives outsized loyalty. Todd opens up about leverage, market cycles, and why he exited his business at its peak. We also explore what it really takes to elevate underperforming stores and thrive even when the economy turns. This episode is brought to you by: 1. fullthrottle.ai® - fullthrottle.ai® is a next-generation AdTech powerhouse. The Automotive DSP™ is built specifically for the auto industry, combining advanced programmatic targeting, real-time bidding, and analytics tailored to drive dealership and OEM performance. With fullthrottle.ai®, marketers can reach the right car shoppers at the right moment and optimize toward real business outcomes like test drives, leads, or sales. fullthrottle.ai® bridges the gap between auto media buying and results-driven marketing. Check out http://fullthrottle.ai 2. Uber for Business - With Central, you can request a ride on behalf of your customers even if they don't have the Uber app. If you're ready to reduce the costs associated with maintaining shuttles and limit the liability of loaner vehicles, it's time to partner with Uber. Visit @ http://t.uber.com/CDGauto today 3. CDG Circles - A modern peer group for auto dealers. Private dealer chats. Real insights — confidential, compliant, no travel required. Visit @ https://cdgcircles.com to learn more. Check out Car Dealership Guy's stuff: For dealers: CDG Circles ➤ ⁠https://cdgcircles.com/⁠ Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dealership recruiting ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgrecruiting.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Fix your dealership's social media ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.trynomad.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For industry vendors: Advertise with Car Dealership Guy ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgpartner.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Topics: 00:15 How did Todd Blue's early life shape him? 00:41 Vanity plates: funniest or most memorable? 02:57 Why re-enter the car business? 13:54 Key to building a luxury empire? 20:22 How to handle ultra-wealthy clients? 25:03 Delivering a premium experience: how? 28:52 Secret to building a successful team? 32:29 Why sell a successful business? 46:35 Navigating economic uncertainty: best strategy? Car Dealership Guy Socials: X ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠x.com/GuyDealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/cardealershipguy/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tiktok.com/@guydealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Threads ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠threads.net/@cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Everything else ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠