Crude Conversations

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.

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with radio and podcast host Alexis Sallee. Alexis has worked in radio for about ten years now. She started right out of high school at 90.3 KNBA in Anchorage, Alaska. She was a sound editor on a radio program called Earthsongs. She now hosts and produces INDIGEFI . Both of those programs feature modern music by indigenous artists. In addition to INDIGEFI, s...

In this episode, Cody and Dustin H James talk to Fairbanks Ladies of Wrestling, better known as FLOW. Two summers ago, FLOW gave Crude access to the green room before their event at Williwaw Social in Anchorage on July 20. Cody and Dustin talked with event organizer and FLOW co-founder Donald Crocker, and wrestlers Leslie Dope, TJ Rocks Rivera, Thunder Thighs and Freya the Slaya.  The following in...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Fairbanks-based rapper Josh Silva, better known as Alaska Redd. Redd is one of the pioneers of Alaska hip hop. He’s been pursuing it for over 20 years. And in that time, he’s had to learn what a successful career in hip hop looks like in Alaska, that it can’t follow the conventional route of radio-play and touring because many times local radio station...

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks with Jasmin Smith, an entrepreneur and community activist. On May 30, Jasmin hosted the "Icantbreathe Social Distance Rally" in Anchorage following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Thousands of people gathered at the rally to protest against police brutality and systemic racism. 

In this episode, Cody talks with three prominent black voices in the Alaska community to understand the conversations and the perspectives of Alaskans in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Floyd’s death has sparked worldwide protests and rallies against police brutality and systemic racism in the United States. Alaska has seen a number of these rallies, including in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Pal...

In this Special Conversation, Cody catches up with Cliff Groh, who raises some important questions about Alaska's economy during COVID-19, including short-term and long-term solutions to current and ongoing issues. Cliff is a former Alaska Revenue Department official and longtime advocate for the Permanent Fund Dividend, and a board member of Alaska Common Ground , a non-profit that focuses on Ala...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Anchorage-based photographer Kerry Tasker . Kerry says that to be a freelance photographer in Alaska, your skillset has to be versatile. Because Alaska is such a small market, there’s not a whole lot of consistency in the type of work you do. Meaning, one day you might be taking headshots for a business and the next day you might be shooting video for...

In this Special Conversation, Cody and his wife, Carrie Hambach, talk about being in quarantine for eight weeks together. There's a lot of scary news out there right now, so they decided to highlight some of the positive outcomes of the quarantine.

In this episode, family and friends share some of their favorite memories of professional snowboarder Chris Larson. About a month ago, Larson took his own life. Without speculating on reasons why he did it, this episode focuses on the life of Larson.   If you didn’t know Larson, then the best way to understand him is that he was someone who came from a loving family, he had loyal friends and he wa...