The Ranch Podcast

Brett Wilder is an Agricultural Economist for University of Idaho and a local producer at Boise River Lamb. He came in to talk about the tariffs being placed on our imports and what that means for Idaho’s industries, its producers, its imports and exports. As Brett points out, these are not all good or all bad, and more than anything, if you have a “Buy Local” bumper sticker on your car and you DO...

Susie Keller is the CEO of the Idaho Medical Association and came in to speak about many things that came up in the legislative session. One in particular was the problem with Parental Consent laws that have issues when considering emergency situations found within recreation, foster care, and even assaults. We also spoke about the state of medical schools within Idaho and finished off with women’...

Dr. Phil Gore is the Chief Learning Officer for the Idaho School Board Association and works nationally with school boards and leaders to improve public education. He came in to speak about the problems with school boards, the structure, the election process, and what to consider. As Dr. Gore points out, most people do not think about school boards until there are huge problems in the community, a...

Alexis Pickering is the executive director of the Conservation Voters of Idaho and a huge public lands advocate and educator. Idaho received statehood in part because of a deal we struck with the federal government and land that was inside our state borders. This land was in part designed to compensate the existing states for wrapping us into the union. Alexis did a masterful job of explaining wha...

Alexis Morgan is the Idaho State PTA President and is helping build and promote a community summit on April 26th. The More Social Less Media event will bring experts from across the field and country that are all dedicated to improving the relationship with tech and youth in our community. Tech safety experts, community building experts, tech companies and more will attend the event to present, an...

Marco Erickson is a District 33 Representative and program director at the LIV Teen Center. He’s incredibly engaged with Idaho youth and cares deeply for the health and welfare of our young people. He has also worked in other states dealing with the homeless crisis that has swept the west, and his explanations of programs, ROIs to taxpayers, and general strategies around youth and drugs were aweso...

Luke Ankeny is the manager at Marsing Ag Labor and works with agriculture employers to fill labor needs. Our ag system is dependent on a patchwork labor force made of foreign, domestic, and everything in between. Ag labor in particular has come under fire in the state of Idaho with some accusing ag employers of impropriety during the hiring process, but the employer side of the issue is not black...

Ben Gillenwater is a former Chief Tech Officer and current cyber security expert who has turned his focus onto the child tech world. There are many programs and pieces of tech that are marketed to parents and children as safe, fun, and generally innocuous. However, as Ben took a deep dive into the world of child facing tech, he realized how damaging and dangerous it really is. He has committed his...

Paul Arrington is the President of the Idaho Water Users Association and came in to discuss the future of water in Idaho. Gov. Brad Little requested a $30 million line item for ongoing water research and analysis to ensure the availability of this incredibly scarce and valuable resource in our arid, agricultural state. Paul came in to discuss where we’re headed, what the legislature did, and what...

Lauren Necochea is the leader of the Democratic Party in Idaho and came in to speak about the legislative session, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Enjoy! The Ranch Podcast is supported by Truth In Media Foundation, a non-profit media organization committed to unbiased, Idaho focused media.  www.theRanchPodcast.org The Ranch Podcast is the premier source for long format interviews and information...

Brian Jagger is the founder of GuardRailz AI, an AI company that helps integrate safe, effective AI tech with education systems. His insights about what AI can and can’t do, along with what schools are actually looking for in education was amazing. Enjoy! The Ranch Podcast is supported by Truth In Media Foundation, a non-profit media organization committed to unbiased, Idaho focused media.  www.th...

Jonathan Oppenheimer works for the Idaho Conservation League, and we spoke extensively about the timber industry in Idaho. Some have blamed the destruction of the timber industry on environmental preservation and also blamed the increased fuel load for the massive fires we are experiencing. Jonathan sees things differently, specifically from the lens of changing consumer needs with lumber and long...

Brandy Furiani is the Executive Director of the Eagle Chamber of Commerce. We were blessed to enjoy two vanilla lattes from the new Form and Function coffee spot on Eagle at Hill and 55 while we talked some trash and schemed for the summer months. Thank you Heather Ferguson Realty for helping bring this fun, informative, community episode to the people! www.theRanchPodcast.org The Ranch Podcast is...

Dr. Emily Wakild is a BSU professor, historian, and beaver expert. The beaver has an amazing and incredibly functional history in Idaho, which comes as no surprise considering our extensive network of rivers and creeks. This amazing creature helped in the past but is also currently still helping by creating surface water storage systems that our state desperately needs to continue capturing our pr...

Chris Danley is a civil and traffic engineer in and out of the state of Idaho. He has worked on projects in almost every major area of the state and came in to speak about the interesting trend of state legislation that is designed to control local traffic design. In Ada County, for instance, we have a highway district that has commissioners that are elected by the residents of Ada County, but the...

Cory Stambaugh is the Garden City Chief of Police and very concerned about the state of our Department of Corrections. He brought in lots of pieces of information that gave me pause, ranging from things like state owned and paid for vehicles for inmates to drive around to bounce houses and family parties in prisons. I am obviously not in corrections and know nothing about the systems in place, but...

Jon Weber is a District 34 Representative concerned with the ever increasing stranglehold that the developer controlled HOA systems in Idaho have over residents. In current law, HOAs are under the control of the developer until the development is all but completed. In some areas of the Treasure Valley, for instance, there are developments that will take decades to complete, so the residents who ow...

Tracy Basterrechea is a current chief of police and former president of the Idaho Police Chief Association. He came in to speak on several bills that have either passed or failed in this legislative session, including the Bolter-Stall bill, the mandatory minimum for a second DUI involving a death, and child predators. Crime in Idaho is incredibly low, especially when compared to our surrounding st...

Monica Church is a District 19 Representative and recently attended a rally for public lands put on by the Conservation Voters of Idaho. She spoke at the engagement on the origins of Idaho’s public lands and why they’re so important to the state. Every time I speak with someone about public lands, I learn more about how fundamental they are to our state from an industry, identity, and individual c...

Jeff Simmons is the Superintendent for the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance, a state funded organization offering digital education to Idaho students. This is an incredible resource for people looking to supplement their existing public education, for homeschool families, for private school families, or those looking for alternative education models. This is yet another program provided by the stat...

Megan Egbert is a District 17 Representative and came in to speak on the SNAP program modifications and restricting illegal immigrant services. She is concerned that making it more difficult for stores to work with the SNAP program will reduce options for Idahoans who use the program, and she’s also worried about young people and soon to be born Americans that will be removed from social help, lik...

Jeff Ehlers is a District 21 Representative and came in to speak about the Gangster Tax and reducing licensing roadblocks for service providers. The Gangster Tax is in response to the BLM introducing projects into the state of Idaho that do NOT fit with our state, do NOT have public backing, and are NOT wanted by anyone living here. It would levy an excise tax onto those projects that could double...

Josh Lustig is an Idaho grown success story. After dropping out of college in four months, he went to work in the insurance field, but he inserted innovation and leveraged social media marketing to become a decamillionaire before 30. This type of out of the box thinking is what we will fundamentally need in our upcoming generations as technology shifts the employment landscape. More than anything,...

Rick Naerebout is the CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association and came in to speak on the bird flu that is wrecking the poultry industry. The bird flu can infect many mammalian species, including cattle and humans, but it has a drastically different effect on us than it does in poultry. It is also very easily killed in the pasteurization process. For any dairy consumer, this was important informat...

Jeff Cornilles is a District 12 Representative, which includes the Nampa area where the infamous Pride Festival was held last year. There was a problem at the festival with two specific individuals who appeared to be males with plastic surgery to give them female breasts. The existings laws in Idaho at the time prevented police or other law enforcement from charging these two individuals with lewd...