What's Your Why?

As a foreign correspondent for the past 30 years, Mark Jenkins has explored the most remote, difficult and dangerous places on the planet. He will do whatever it takes to get the story. On assignment in Afghanistan, he was arrested by the Tajik KGB and interrogated for a week. On assignment in Burma, he was arrested by the military junta multiple times. On assignment in eastern Congo, he was captu...

Welcome to the Global Speaker Series. a podcast partnership between the Wyoming Humanities and the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs ( www.jhcga.org ). Lars Hallstrom is a political scientist by training, with a long-standing combination of teaching and research interests in comparative politics, environmental policy, environmental health, public health and natural resource management. He is...

“Education will help our people; children, grandchildren for our future, even our adults,” Marlin Spoonhunter, Arapahoe Tribal Leader  He is president of the Wind River Tribal College. Realizing that it was a cultural shock for many native students to attend colleges away from the reservation, tribal colleges started to form around 1972 in the United States to meet the needs of their community. Sp...

Welcome to the Global Speaker Series. a podcast partnership between the Wyoming Humanities Council and the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs ( www.jhcga.org ). Lukas Haynes is a member of the Center for Climate and Security’s Advisory Board, and Executive Director of the David Rockefeller Fund. Previously, he was Vice President of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation where he was responsible since 20...

Scotty Ratliff is a member of the Eastern Shoshone tribe on the Wind River Reservation. Scotty grew up on his family’s horse ranch north of Pavilion, Wyoming. He served in the Wyoming State House as a legislator from 1980 to 1992. In 1990 he received the Human Rights Award from the Wyoming Counseling Association. He co-authored a school textbook with Janet Flynn on “Tribal Government at the Wind R...

Two Native American Students from the Wind River Reservation are sharing their journey to continue their education at Central Wyoming College in Riverton, Wyoming. They are both members of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe. They speak of their desire and passion to help others achieve their dreams and goals on the reservation. They also discuss breaking down the barriers and stereotypes that Native Ameri...

Dr. Tarissa Spoonhunter, professor of American Indian Studies at Central Wyoming College, is focused on sharing Native knowledge in order to increase understanding and build relationships—something that resides deep in her roots growing up on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Her Nation Building classes introduce Federal Indian law and policy classes to help American Indians learn about contempora...

Willard Gould grew up on the Wind River Reservation. He is former member of the Northern Arapahoe Business Council and a member of the Northern Arapahoe Language Commission. His work has been in substance abuse counseling, domestic violence and family services.  “This journey has been wonderful, to see that people can change especially my people who have had problems identifying themselves with ou...

What does it mean to be a citizen of an American Indian tribe and the history behind it? What does Blood Quantum mean to tribal citizens of the Wind River Reservation? Tune in and listen to Ivan talk about his experiences while growing up on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Ivan has been a member of the Eastern Shoshone Business Council and is the Tribal Education Coordinator for Central Wyo...

"Hearts of Glass" documents the early beginnings of Vertical Harvest and its employees with disabilities. Vertical Harvest is one of the world’s only multi-story hydroponic greenhouses, provides year-round produce in a rural mountain town and meaningful employment to community members with disabilities. Jennifer Tennican describes her new documentary film as a once-in-a-lifetime story about innova...

In 2009, Nona started work on Vertical Harvest of Jackson Hole. Following her passion for local food and experiences growing up with a brother with developmental disabilities, Nona conceived of a three story hydroponic greenhouse that employs people with developmental disabilities while producing local food for the community year round. In 2016 Vertical Harvest opened its doors as a 'for profit bu...

"Watching individuals, adventurous daring intrepid individuals, go through life without limb function, spoke to me of a huge moral need to restore their function." Chris Duncan Dr Chris Duncan's research is focused on the restoration of movement and sensation for amputees through the development of advanced neuroprosthetic's that can tap into and communicate with the nerves and muscles. Photo cour...

Taylor Rees, is a filmmaker and photojournalist. She is driven by an insatiable curiosity to explore and tell the stories beneath the surface. Her work in environmental and humanitarian issues brings new perspectives and deeper public understanding to challenging topics such as climate change, indigenous food systems, land use and water. For example, Indigenous people and their cultures have been...

Kealoha is the first Poet Laureate of Hawaii and the first poet to perform at a Hawaii governor’s inauguration. He is an internationally acclaimed poet and storyteller who has performed throughout the world from the White House to ‘Iolani Palace. His latest work "The Story of Everything" is a creation story (in epic poem format) that traces our origins from the big bang to now using science, poetr...

Dr. Devra Davis founded non-profit Environmental Health Trust in 2007 in Teton County, Wyoming to provide basic research and education about environmental health hazards and promote constructive policies locally, nationally and internationally. She has also authored more than 200 publications in books and journals ranging from the Lancet and Journal of the American Medical Association to Scientifi...

Jon Parrish Peede, the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), is a native of Mississippi who moved to Washington D.C. 15 years ago when President George W. Bush appointed him to a position at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Founded in 1965, NEH is an independent grant-making institution of the U.S. government dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv...

Ali Milburn moved to Jackson in 2012 and soon found herself climbing into local grocery store dumpsters looking for edible food. Day after day she returned to the dump, finding high-quality, fresh produce, day old bread, outdated dairy and other food items that had been discarded. After a few months, Ali became overwhelmed with the amount of waste she encountered in the trash, so she set out to fi...

" I love writing history. I love writing about places and people's narratives. I love history for getting at the core of the human soul." Samuel Western has served in the Swedish Merchant Marine, worked as a commercial fisherman, a longshoreman, logger, and a hunting guide. He has published in the Economist, LIFE, and Sports Illustrated. A two-time recipient of the Wyoming Literary Fellowship for...

"Ultimately our goal is to give people the opportunity to really listen to one another and to honor each other by asking questions of the people in their lives." StoryCorps’ mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.

Canyon Kids is the creation of Dusty Nichols and Bo Elledge. Forged on the banks of the Snake River, with an unwavering love of the American West, Canyon Kids are students of Americana, rock, and folk, but also pioneers of something entirely new. And NOW they are the new music for the What’s Your Why podcast. The music is from their song Out Where The West Begins. Listen to their journey and story...

Can bringing poems to the masses be an antidote to our toxic civic culture? US Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith, believes we can break down barriers with poetry. In 2017, Smith was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States. She is the director of Princeton University’s creative writing program and lives in New Jersey. Listen to her passion and inspiration for poetry and writing. Smith’s first coll...

Ryan Burke is an endurance mountaineer and full time addictions therapist who lives in Jackson, Wyoming. He is currently developing The Mindstrength Project which works with athletes and survivors of addiction in risk composure education. He teaches his clients at Curran-Seeley - "...with addiction it’s about getting through the next day and reminding one’s self you have gotten through similar day...

Chas Marsh, co-owner Jackson Hole Still Works, discusses his journey into the business, how and why he came to Wyoming and his love for traveling the state. Jackson Hole Still Works’ handcrafted spirit roster includes vodka, gin and whiskey distributed throughout the Cowboy State. Along with his partner Travis Goodman, they practice and implement on a day to day basis "grain to glass" which means...

"This game can't create world peace but my goal is to create a classroom environment where everyone feels heard" Tory Victoria (Tory)Sanders is a game designer who believes that history can and must be harnessed to inform sustainable policy into the future. Ms. Sanders has a BA in Comparative Politics, and a MA in Peace Education from the UN’s University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica. She has...

The 2016 U.S. presidential election highlighted the ability of Russian intelligence to exploit social media to target fragmented social communities and amplify its propaganda efforts within them. Former FBI counterintelligence agent Asha Rangappa examines how Russia took advantage of an already existing vulnerability in America's social fabric, and its implications for the future of democracy. Ash...