The Ranch Podcast

Tracy Basterrechea is the Chief of Police in Meridian, Idaho. He has been in public service for several decades and is a champion for continuous officer training. He and the Chief of Police Association are also advocating for a revision in the law regarding searches of felons in the absence of a parole officer. Enjoy! The Ranch Podcast Legislative Session episodes are supported by Truth In Media F...

Jeremy Kitzhaber is a vet, cancer survivor, and advocate for medicinal marijuana in Idaho. In his extensive medical procedures, he has found marijuana to be the best assistance for things related to diet and weight gain. He also believes there are ways we can regulate it to minimize cross over problems with underage and non-medical use. Idaho as a state has been staunchly against any legalization...

Ron Nate is the President of Idaho Freedom Foundation. In this conversation, we spoke extensively about the Grocery Tax, School Choice, Foreign labor, the fundamental drivers of economics, and more. He always provides an exciting conversation for sure. Enjoy! The Ranch Podcast Legislative Session episodes are supported by Truth In Media Foundation, a non-profit media organization committed to unbi...

Megan Egbert is a District 17 Representative and sits on the Health and Welfare Committee. The difficulties with staffing rural hospitals and providing adequate medical specialists for the citizens of Idaho are profound. We fundamentally do not have enough education options to grow our own professionals within the state, and attracting them from other parts of the country is exceedingly difficult...

Dean Cameron is the Director of Insurance in the state of Idaho. Property insurance and access to such is a huge concern in this age of wildfires, and nationally we can see heartbreaking examples of states and insurance companies at odds, which ultimately results in losses for individual citizens. Idaho is working extremely hard to make sure that insurance companies have good reason to voluntarily...

Brian Brooks is the former executive director of Idaho Wildlife Federation and the current VP of Advocacy & Threats Program for American Bird Conservancy. The Bird Flu is a big concern nationally, both from a scientific standpoint and from a consumer standpoint as we see our supply of eggs and chicken decreasing alongside prices rising. There’s also the ever looming threat of the disease succe...

Rick Naerebout is the Director of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association. The Dairy Industry nationally has been in a horrible bind since 1986, which was the last time there was a meaningful reform made to unauthorized workers in the United States. Because dairy is an agricultural industry, BUT it requires year round labor, the only real mechanism to get a foreign employment base is to have those indivi...

Luke Mayville is a northern Idaho native and has been at the center of three recent citizen lead initiatives: Medicaid Expansion, School Funding, and last year’s Prop 1. He came in to speak about his experience with the initiative process as well as why he feels that increasing the voter threshold from a simple majority to pass to 60% voter approval to pass is a mistake. Voter initiatives have a r...

Lauren Necochea is the head of the Democratic Party in the state of Idaho. This is her second visit in the legislative session, and we talked extensively about different tax issues, flags in public schools, energy production, and more. Enjoy! The Ranch Podcast Legislative Session episodes are supported by Truth In Media Foundation, a non-profit media organization committed to unbiased, Idaho focus...

Charlie Lyons is a multi-decade Idaho rancher who found himself at odds with BLM over fire management for almost two decades. In a heart breaking and awe inspiring story, Charlie told me about being at odds with government agencies and what it took to find a way to both work with the establishment and also be an instrumental part of protecting his property and other Idaho ranchers’ properties. I f...

Doug Pickett is a District 27 Representative and sits as Chairman of the House Education Committee. He was formerly on the Revenue and Tax Committee and does not have a background with the Ed Committee. We spoke at length about what he sees in education, what Idaho does with tax dollars, what he sees as the value of small rural schools vs larger, urban schools, and more. Enjoy! The Ranch Podcast L...

Lori Den Hartog is the District 22 Senator in Idaho and is bringing the first School Choice Bill of the 2025 Legislative session forward this coming week. This is structured as a refundable tax credit and would be available to anyone who educates their children outside of the public school setting. There are a lot of details involved, and Lori and I spoke about many, including what accountability...

Codi Galloway is the District 15 Senator in Idaho and served one term in the same district as a representative from 2020-2022. She has a background in education and business and deeply cares about children, both on an education front as well as prosperity front. There is an increasing population of homeless individuals and children and increasing cost of living in Idaho and especially the Treasure...

Rob Gillis is a law enforcement advocate and president of the organization Idaho Tough on Crime. He works with many legislators advocating for bills and revisions in law to support law enforcement, and we spoke specifically in this interview about enhanced sentencing for a criminal who murders a police officer with the Bolter-Stall Bill as well as a bill that would deliver the possibility of capit...

Mike Miraglia is a former Boise PD detective and the current legislative chairman for the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police. We spoke extensively about the utility and value of license plate readers in detective and police work. The value spans immediate use for things like bank robberies or in the pursuit of the would-be assassin on the golf course that targeted our president elect as well as longe...

Lori Wolff is the Administrator of Division of Financial Management for Gov. Little's office, which means she is intimately aware of what is in Gov. Little's proposed budget. There are pages of key points of the budget, but we spoke specifically today about the Labor market (a topic where Idaho leads the nation in many places) and about Law Enforcement. This was definitely the first of m...

Melissa Wintrow is the District 19 Senator for and has been in the legislature for 10 years. She came in to speak about human rights issues in Idaho as they pertain to same sex marriage and discrimination based on sexual preference. This was an eye opener for me for many reasons, but specifically I did not know that it is 100% legal in the state of Idaho to fire someone from a job or evict them fr...

Steve Berch is the first democratic representative for District 15. He has historically sat on many committees, and when he came in we spoke extensively about taxation and school funding. He brought up considerations that I had never heard expressed about Idaho, like questioning the plan of borrowing to fund schools while cutting spending at the same time. Enjoy! The Ranch Podcast Legislative Sess...

Justin Webb is the director of the Foundation For Wildlife Management (F4WM). He grew up in rural Idaho and has enjoyed everything Idaho has to offer, but he has fundamental concerns about the carrying capacity of the state and its natural resources as it relates to reintroduction of predators, specifically wolves. In order for hunters to enjoy a stable population of accessible big game, there nee...

Steve Stuebner is an independent journalist and filmmaker who has worked with Idaho's Ranching and Farming communities for over a decade. He is the writer and producer of the Life on the Range series that was commissioned by the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission. He was also awarded the Friend of the Industry award by the Idaho Wool Growers association in 2024 and has worked closely with ma...

Jeff Raybould is the chairman of the Idaho Water Board, an eight member board directly appointed by the Governor. In the Governor’s there is a new, $30 million annual allotment to invest in our water resource. This includes things like recharge sites for our aquifers, more research on water quality, and research on addressing issues like Moscow’s failing aquifer and Mountain Home’s water scarcity....

Brandy Furiani is the Executive Director of the Eagle Chamber of Commerce. She started coming in to do ridiculously fun shows on The Ranch at the beginning of 2024, and we decided to kick 2025 off with a look back at all the fun we've had. 2025 surely has a lot of awesome in store with good food, good drinks, and good fun! Enjoy! The Ranch Podcast Legislative Session episodes are supported by...

Lauren Necochea is a former legislator and head of the Democrat Party in Idaho. She came to speak with me about the democrat priorities for the session, and as we discussed property tax, we both realized we barely scratched the surface of what makes the party similar and unique. We’re already lined up for a second show at the end of the month. Enjoy! The Ranch Podcast Legislative Session episodes...

Chris Mathias is the District 19 Representative. He is working to shore up problems with public school safety, but on the prevention and response sides, as well as working towards tech safety in schools. We spoke about these issues as well as the concept that is gaining steam with funding private schools with public money as an alternative to public schools. If you’re watching education issues thi...

Alex Adams is the Director of Health and Welfare in the State of Idaho. He made it his immediate mission in the state to reduce the number of children needing foster care, increase the number of available foster care families, decrease the state’s tax dollars going to foster care needs, and increase the number of intact, thriving families. He is, amazingly, succeeding in all areas. There are many...