Crude Conversations

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks to Dr. Danny Mindlin about getting the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Dr. Mindlin is an emergency room doctor in Anchorage, Alaska

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks with Dr. Danny Mindlin about where Alaska is with Covid-19. Danny is an emergency room doctor in Anchorage, Alaska. Currently, Alaska is diagnosing between 700 and 800 daily statewide Covid-19 cases. This interview took place on December 8, 2020.

In this episode, I talk with my uncle, Jay Liska, and Richie Fowler about King of the Hill. Jay and Richie are both former pro snowboarders, and King of the Hill was a legendary snowboard competition held in Thompson Pass back in the 1990s. Three days and three disciplines. There was Extreme Day, where riders competed for the most challenging, but stylish line down a mountain; There was Downhill D...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with artist and musician Robi Gonzalez. Robi’s had an affinity for music since he was a kid, back when his uncle taught him how to sit on the drums and play a basic beat. In 2006, that took a more tangible shape in the form of two projects. One was Robi’s solo project called Robot, where he produced ambient music that, he says, would fit a sci-fi movie. The...

Tiffany Shaw-Collinge is an artist, curator and architect based in Alberta, Canada. She says that place and climate contributes to her work in a way that can’t be understated. It’s as integral to her craft as much as it is to her identity. In Part 2 of this conversation, Tiffany talks about her preference for working in a collective—that the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts—and th...

Tiffany Shaw-Collinge is an artist, curator and architect based in Alberta, Canada. She says that place and climate contributes to her work in a way that can’t be understated. It’s as integral to her craft as much as it is to her identity. Her lineage is Métis, a fact that became more and more part of her professional life after she realized how little indigenous voices and identity are covered. T...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with retired pararescueman Jimmy Settle. Jimmy details his arduous journey to becoming a pararescueman, or PJ, in his book “Never Quit.” He talks about the endless hours of training and everything it took to become a PJ. All of that training ultimately led him to a heavy firefight in the Watapur Valley in Afghanistan in 2010. He was part of a military opera...

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks with Meghan Barker about the ongoing Pebble Mine controversy. Meghan is the Bristol Bay Organizer at Trout Unlimited, a non-profit dedicated to conserving the habitats of aquatic species and people.

Aaron Leggett is the president of the Native Village of Eklutna. He is also the Senior Curator or Alaska History and Indigenous Culture at the Anchorage Museum . In both of those responsibilities, he’s been a champion and an educator of the Alaskan identity. He’s found that critical thinking is key to understanding how Alaska’s history can help us navigate the present and the future. In this conve...

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks with author Jered Mayer about depression. Jered was clinically diagnosed with bipolar depression around 25. More recently, he has made a point of talking openly about living with depression in order to destigmatize it and normalize the importance of mental health.

Acacia Johnson  is a photographer focused on human relationships to the environment. She spent most of her twenties traveling around Scandinavia and the polar regions, working on ships. Today, she has over 50 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica. In Part 2 of this conversation, Acacia talks about creating a record of stories, of people and place. About how, through photography, she has the opp...

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks with Kathleen Parker about managing addiction during the pandemic. Many in-person meetings have transitioned to virtual meetings, and that has resulted in new challenges and opportunities. Kathleen has been sober for nine years.

In this special conversation, Cody talks with Dan Cannon, the Tongass Forest Program Manager at the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council . Dan explains how exempting the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule will affect the forest, its inhabitants and the economy in Southeast Alaska. The Roadless Rule is a federal safeguard that restricts logging and road building on roughly 58 million a...

In this episode of Chatter Marks, Cody talks with  Acacia Johnson,  a photographer focused on human relationships to the environment. She spent most of her twenties traveling around Scandinavia and the polar regions, working on ships. Today, she has over 50 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica.  In part one of this conversation, she talks about subverting the stereotype of what it means to be...

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks with wildland firefighter Micah Booze, better known as Booze. Booze has been a firefighter for over 15 years, five of which have been spent in Alaska. Fighting wildland fires in Alaska, he says, involves more than just putting water on the hot stuff. It involves strategic thinking.

Introducing Chatter Marks, a podcast of the Anchorage Museum, hosted by Cody Liska. Chatter Marks is dedicated to exploring Alaska’s identity through the creative and critical thinking of ideas—past, present and future.  In this episode, Cody talks with Sebastian Garber, the Senior Designer at the Anchorage Museum. Sebastian has been a graphic designer for about 12 years now, and in that time he’s...

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks with Joshua Albeza Branstetter about the controversy currently surrounding Anchorage Christian Schools (ACS). At the time of this recording, 180 alumni had shared their experiences of racism at ACS. Joshua is one of those alumni.  Follow Anchorage Christian Schools alumni speaking out against the historical racism at ACS on Instagram @a.christian.school .

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with his mom, Sharon Liska. For the past 13 years, she has worked as a nurse at a neonatal intensive care unit at an Anchorage hospital. While she worked as a nurse, she continued her education and eventually moved to a Clinical Nurse Specialist position. To her, it’s more than a job. It’s a calling and a privilege to be welcomed into those sacred places of...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Mike Ward, the co-owner of The Pioneer Bar. The Pioneer Bar, better known as Pio, is a classic Alaskan bar located in downtown Anchorage. It’s been around since the 1950s, before Alaska became a state. Back then, it was a working class bar with a regular crowd of blue collar workers and barflies. It eventually began to attract a younger crowd in the la...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Julie Decker, the Director and CEO of  The Anchorage Museum . When she took the job, Julie made a radical shift in the way museums typically function. Rather than just collecting and displaying artifacts, she decided to transform the Anchorage Museum into a living museum, focused on local issues by examining present themes in order to look at Alaska's...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with tattoo artist Deb Yarian . Deb started tattooing in New York in 1979. Back when tattoo culture was reserved for outsiders, or what Deb calls “carnival people.” The tattoo culture then was predominately male, and women usually found their way into the culture through a man, because men were the gatekeepers. More recently, those barriers have been broken...

In this episode, we look at crime from the perspective of a retired police officer. Aaron Roberts was an officer for the Anchorage Police Department for over 20 years. He patrolled downtown Anchorage, was a detective in robbery, assault, and metro with a focus in narcotics. At the time of his retirement, he was the team lead negotiator and worked closely with SWAT.

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks with Tim Davis about teaching during COVID-19. Tim has coached high school football for 20 years, and has taught at West High School in Anchorage, Alaska for 12 years.   Full disclosure: Cody and Tim are friends.

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Alaskan artist Duke Russell . Growing up in Anchorage in the 1970s, Duke would draw everything he could in downtown Anchorage. At that time, he and his dad were living in an apartment above a bar called Ruthie’s 49er—which would later become Darwin’s Theory. Duke would sell his paintings in downtown Anchorage for a dollar, in addition to working and go...

In this Special Conversation, Cody catches up with Dr. Andy Elsberg for an update on where Alaska is with COVID-19. The last time they talked, Alaska had been in quarantine for over a month. Since then, many businesses have re-opened and many non-essential employees are back at work, but social distancing and wearing masks is encouraged. Andy is an emergency room doctor in Anchorage, Alaska.