Outlaw Beat

How do religions of all stripes share one sacred space in a Montana ski town? Outlaw Beat host Joe Borden sits down in the Big Sky Chapel with Pastor Miriam Schmidt of All Saints in Big Sky, a shared Lutheran-Episcopal parish, and Rabbi Sonja Keren Pilz of Congregation Beth Shalom in Bozeman. Full interview: https://www.explorebigsky.com/episodes/bigskychapel They cover the history of Big Sky Chap...

Ben Bese runs a Bozeman gym that doesn't behave like a gym. Ascend Movement Training blends powerlifting, mobility work and breathwork to help people get out of chronic pain and stay strong for life, and Ben is neither a personal trainer nor a physical therapist. He's somewhere in the middle, and he explains exactly where that line is. Full interview: https://www.explorebigsky.com/episod...

Representative Ryan Zinke (MT-1) is leaving Congress in January. But before he goes, he's trying to pass a 430,000-acre public lands bill in the Blackfoot with an unbelievably broad coalition that includes loggers, environmentalists, motorcyclists, and outfitters.  Congressman Zinke and Executive Director of Wild Montana John Todd join Joe Borden to break down the A River Runs Through It Act:...

Joe Borden and Flint Rasmussen are live from the Rocking R Bar in Bozeman for Homecoming week, previewing Montana State's Big Sky opener against Northern Arizona. Watch it here: https://www.explorebigsky.com/episodes/bbs203 Senior associate athletic director Pete Heim on coming to Bozeman from Alabama, Duke, Tennessee and Arkansas, how Brent Vigen compares to Nick Saban and Mike Krzyzewski, t...

Joe Borden and Flint Rasmussen are live from the Rocking R Bar on Main Street in Bozeman, previewing Montana State's Pack the Place in Pink game against Central Connecticut State. Watch it here: https://www.explorebigsky.com/episodes/bbs202 Rick VanCleeve, 1976 national champion and chairman of the Bobcat Quarterback Club, on what he got paid to win a title, why the club's mission statem...

Independent US Senate candidate Seth Bodnar joins Outlaw Beat to talk about the seat Steve Daines is leaving behind and doesn’t mince words about the way Daines is trying to hand it off… “It’s garbage.” Bodnar is a West Point valedictorian, Rhodes and Truman scholar, former Green Beret, GE executive, and the former president of the University of Montana. He's running against Republican Kurt A...

Joe Borden and Flint Rasmussen kick off the Bobcat Big Show live from the Rocking R Bar on Main Street in Bozeman, previewing Montana State's Gold Rush home opener against the Butler Bulldogs. Head coach Brent Vigen on why his stars stayed, how he'd attack his own team, and a blunt message for fans who don't come back after halftime. Three members of the 1976 national championship t...

A sad look back at a special conversation. Our friend Andrea Eastman passed away August 26 and we wanted to remember her in her own distinctive words. Andrea was a legendary casting director ( The Godfather, Love Story ) and longtime Gallatin Valley local. Health issues ultimately forced her to leave her beloved home in the Patterson Ranch area of Bozeman and return to sunny Southern California. E...

The USDA has proposed repealing the 2001 Roadless Rule — the policy that's kept roads, logging and mining out of 45 million acres of national forest for 25 years. Nearly 10 million of those acres are in Montana and Wyoming. The public comment period closes September 21, 2026. Thirty days. No public meetings. For comparison: the original rule took years, 600 public hearings and 1.6 million com...

The second annual Lone Peak Film Festival hits the Waypoint Theater in Big Sky, Montana, September 17–20, 2026 — and this year it's four days instead of three, with 20 films and a teepee in the park. Outlaw Beat sits down with Emmy-winning filmmaker and festival director Daniel Glick and Dr. Shane Doyle — Apsáalooke scholar, educator, singer, and new LPFF board member. Daniel explains why Lon...

Taco and Caden Dowler are twin brothers from Billings who became the faces of Montana State's first national championship in 41 years — Taco caught the title-tying touchdown in overtime, Caden won Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year.  They sat down with Outlaw Beat to break down the final fourth-down play snap by snap, explain why they turned down transfer portal money to stay in Montana, an...

Two very different musicians, one festival weekend under Lone Peak. Jamie McLean — former guitarist for New Orleans' legendary Dirty Dozen Brass Band, with stages from Madison Square Garden to Japan's Fuji Rock — plays Wildlands Music Festival on Saturday, August 1 alongside Carrie Underwood and Kaitlin Butts, plus a free solo acoustic set at the first-ever Wildlands Family Jam that morn...

Rick Bass — petroleum geologist turned Montana Project director — explains how a 315-year-old spruce, felled during a Forest Service clearcut in Montana's Yaak Valley, became the Black Ram Guitar.  Jeff Bridges heard it once and commissioned six more. Now it's touring with a busload of MFA students trying to get the Black Ram region of the Yaak designated as America's first Climate...

For 38 years, Mike Heard was the most trusted voice in southwest Montana weather — chief meteorologist for KBZK and KXLF, the forecast an entire region planned its week around. In June 2026, his position was eliminated in a statewide downsizing. He didn't see it coming: "0% chance," in his words. Mike joins Outlaw Beat to talk about growing up in Butte, getting hired with zero TV ex...

What does a seizure actually look like? What do you do when one happens in front of you? And why is Montana one of the states still without a law requiring teachers to know the answer to that question? On this episode of Outlaw Beat, we sit down with Jessica Veach — Regional Executive Director of the Epilepsy Foundation covering Montana, Nevada, and Utah — and Dr. Karla Mora Rodriguez, neurologist...

Meet Jeff Marks, senior author of “Birds of Montana” - the first comprehensive state bird reference since 1921. Jeff is the executive director of the Montana Bird Advocacy, a former editor of The Auk, and has spent decades studying everything from Long-eared Owls to Bristle-thighed Curlews in the Pacific. We met Jeff in Grant, Montana to talk about the best places to birdwatch in the state, the wo...

We’re talking home building and AI-proof trades for Gen Z with President of Southwest Montana Building Industry Association slash owner of Rivers Landscaping Riley Rivers and Career Outreach Coordinator for Bozeman and Gallatin High Schools Karl Schwartz, architect of the new Bozeman Construction Academy. Riley breaks down the real inputs driving building costs in the Gallatin Valley: materials, l...

Big Sky, Montana is technically unincorporated — no town council, no mayor — yet it generates $25 million a year in resort tax revenue and just became the most taxable community in the state. We sat down with Daniel Bierschwale, Executive Director of Big Sky Resort Area District (BSRAD), to break down how resort taxes work, what the new hospital district means for residents, and why Big Sky is ess...

Residents of Big Sky, Montana have an increasing number of options and opportunities, and on this episode, we’ll feature a couple of great examples. Dr. Syd Desmarais of Lone Peak Veterinary Hospital and Jeremy Harder, head of school at Big Sky Community School, join us to talk about what it actually takes to serve a resort town of pet owners with active, sporty kids. We cover some serious ground...

Big Sky PBR, recently crowned 12-time event of the year, will ride again this July 16-18. And I hope you’re hungry, because the lineup of chefs is a murderers row: event organizer and Top Chef alum Emily Hahn, James Beard Award winner Eduardo Garcia, plus some of the most acclaimed chefs in the Mountain West and beyond: Sheldon Simeon (Top Chef, touring his second cookbook), Jamie Lynch (Top Chef)...

Aaron Flint is a retired Army lieutenant colonel with two Bronze Stars, a former conservative talk radio host who spent a decade taking calls from Montanans for four hours a day, and the Republican frontrunner for Montana's open House seat in the western district. And even if he’s qualified, he’s not particularly excited about going to Washington. We sat down with Flint in Bozeman to talk abo...

On this episode, we head deep into Montana ranch country with the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance to figure out how an industry built on horses and grit is now running on GPS collars, data uploads, and conservation science. It’s part cowboy, part tech startup—and somehow still hanging on. We get into the real pressures threatening ranching today: skyrocketing land prices, outside development, enviro...

After the winter that wasn’t, we’re all wondering how extreme wildfire season will be this summer. On this episode, Outlaw Beat is joined by a fire behavior analyst who is qualified to give us answers to all our burning questions. Jon Trapp is the Division Chief of Wildland Fire at Big Sky Fire Department and he is fresh off a regional planning meeting for western wildfires, so it’s a great time t...

The Rocky Mountain area isn’t known for its lakes, but there’s one we’re all pretty proud of. It’s everyone’s favorite terminal saline lake: Utah’s Great Salt Lake that, sadly, is getting less and less great every year. To find out why it’s shrinking, why that matters, and what we can do to turn things around, Outlaw Beat talks to lake expert Eric Edwards, senior fellow at PERC (the Property and E...

May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month, so it’s time to become aware of cystic fibrosis (and what it is) with Bozeman’s Cody Dieruf Foundation, named in honor of a 23 year old woman who passed away due to CF in 2005. Outlaw Beat gets a crash course in CF thanks to Foundation Board President Janel Shamblin and Executive Director Pam Western. And with Give Big Gallatin Valley 2026 coming up in a cou...