Jackson Unpacked

One organization is trying to ease the stress for pet owners dealing with after-hours emergencies. Parenting in the age of AI. And a deep dive on how part-time Jackson Hole resident Yvon Chouinard built a fortune with his company, Patagonia, and gave it away.  Featuring the song “Control” by Francis Ambrose.  David Gelle’s book is “Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fo...

Congresspeople from Wyoming and Utah and the Trump administration have announced goals to dismantle the 25-year-old National Forest “Roadless Rule.” That protects some 3 million acres around Wyoming from additional road-building.  Any one of three threats could open up nearly 60 million acres across the nation to timber extraction and other degradation, according to the Wyoming Wilderness Associat...

Volunteers at a Hoback ranch pull up the remnants from decades of cattle ranching. This July 4th marks the 45th anniversary of an event that has helped spur tourism and a sense of wonder west of the Tetons. As the United States of America approaches its 250th anniversary, we ask Jackson residents about what this milestone means to them. And we hear from residents at a mobile home park in Colorado...

Hundreds of public comments from Grand Teton and Yellowstone reflect tension over how federal public spaces tell history. We get to know the challenging candidates in Jackson Hole’s election. As hardline immigration policies get adopted in the state, some immigrants are choosing to leave. And a western Wyoming conference taps into the momentum and the money of the budding birding movement.  Featur...

A KHOL data analysis finds the majority of Teton County’s ICE holds were arrested for driving-related charges. Across the state, during a single week in mid-April, the Laramie County Sheriff Office says it had the highest number of immigration arrests of any local or state enforcement agency in the country. We get up close and personal to some critters helping prevent fires with new technology. An...

Businesses in Jackson could benefit from public money for homeschooled students. A study of trails near Snow King shows bikers and bears can coexist. We talk with Jackson filmmaker and pro skier Vanessa Chavarriaga Posada about her own ambivalences with a majority-white sport. And we get inside the mental, emotional calculations for an age-old Jackson question: Do I deserve to live here?  Featured...

  When folks in employee housing change or lose their jobs, their housing goes, too. How is Jackson Hole grappling with that tradeoff? There’s regional controversy around the same surveillance cameras that towns like Jackson use to fight crime. And Republicans of all stripes reflect on the future of the state's Freedom Caucus.  Featuring song “Pale Moonlight" from Oregon-based band dadweed.   Jack...

  Infighting in Teton Valley over wastewater management goes back 20 years but has reached a tipping point. Tim Sandlin fans remember the late Jackson-based novelist who helped the valley understand itself. A Colorado housing expert talks solutions from other mountain towns. And we hear what it was like in the courtroom for the sentencing of the man who brought a live, injured wolf into a bar two...

The hidden homes of the super-wealthy help and strain the Jackson Hole workforce. How plow drivers and Teton Pass patrollers hold up a culture of collaboration and safety. The airport shuttle might end with a whimper, but begs bigger questions about transit goals. And how abortion bans impact a state’s workforce and economy.  Featured music from Michael Batdorf and Michelle Dickson.  Jackson Unpac...

Strict limits on abortion access have prompted questions for the state’s few providers. We hear from a staunch immigrant advocate in east Idaho and west Wyoming who has voted for President Trump three times. And Mark Engel brings us original tunes and creativity wisdom. He’s an Olympic skier-turned-full-time Jackson Hole musician.  Jackson Unpacked airs locally at 89.1 FM or via live-stream Monday...

Scientists and citizens search together for some mangy mammals that have struggled in recent years. What a particularly warm winter means for the regional ski economy. What we can learn from a few of the Wyoming women featured in a new book from Jackson-based photographer Lindsay Linton Buk. And why, every two years, states such as Wyoming put on the pressure to balance a massive budget.  Featured...

Where to turn as cancer and autoimmune treatments dwindle in east Idaho. On the open slopes of Grand Targhee Resort, Jaelin Kauf remembers skiing the same run over and over with her family to create bumps like the ones she’s now shredding at the Olympics.  Why a bar in Lithuania keeps tight tabs on Jackson Hole’s downtown webcam. And in a Colorado ski resort town, what began as a labor dispute has...

With recent Teton protests mirroring national frustration with immigration enforcement, we ask advocates about what’s effective. We get on the slopes with Teton Village Olympian Anna Gibson, whose meteoric rise in the debut sport of ski mountaineering has been a long time in the making. And what Wyomingites are asking their lawmakers before a hotly anticipated legislative session.  Featured music...

We remember Max Martin, a Jackson native turned professional skier and trainer, whom friends say never let a day go to waste. Mental health professionals share the network of resources that understand grief in a mountain town. Why Wyoming lawmakers are considering doing away with all taxation on land used for housing. And how Wyoming’s coal performed in 2025 after the Trump administration threw it...

A cowboy suddenly finds himself at-odds with Grand Teton National Park. Ski patrollers across the Mountain West fight for better pay. And why Wyoming’s Supreme Court upheld abortion access.  Music from The Buckskin Boys, recorded at KHOL.  Jackson Unpacked airs locally at 89.1 FM or via live-stream Mondays at 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and Fridays and Sundays at 12:30 p.m. Support Jackson’s only no...

A theater educator checks her new healthcare premium estimates for the first time. With Affordable Care Act price hikes around the corner, Jacksonites and their healthcare providers wonder what to do.  Ski and music legend Bill Briggs shares some wisdom learned over 93 years.  And the United States Forest Service is building affordable workforce rentals on public land on Jackson’s eastern edge. To...

In the midst of war, Ukrainian civilians are redefining the meaning of van life. After his death, a Cody-based country star lives on through newly-released music and the mental health work of his family, including Jackson’s former mayor. A leading state lawmaker takes us to church, a place that inspires his political vision and that of many fellow Freedom Caucus members.  Music is “The King is Bac...

One Jackson woman shares the aftermath of her husband's detention and three-month stay in ICE custody. A group of men over 57 talk about friends and how to find them. We remember former Vice President Dick Cheney, who lived in Teton County for over 30 years, with an archived interview from 1989. Two friends reflect on how they came to run a 45-year-old balloon rally in Teton Valley.  StoryCorps co...

We learn about the work of a mental health therapist in town supporting community members struggling with the increased presence of ICE in town. A public record request shows voter complaints about the state’s election laws. The longest land-based migration route in the lower-48 is at odds with the state’s energy goals. And we hear another conversation from our collaboration with Storycorps betwee...

Dual-seasonal workers are among those facing diminishing healthcare options and potentially triple-digit price increases. We talk to a climbing and ski guide wondering what to do and seek some practical advice from experts. As Israel and Hamas take steps toward ending a two-year war, we hear from people in Jackson who are celebrating, mourning and wondering what's next. Novelist Tea Obrecht and po...

A novel workforce housing project just outside Jackson is slated for construction next spring on leased land within the Bridger-Teton National Forest. We hear from one of the project’s leaders at a time when public land and housing are at the forefront of national land use debates. A local legend, Jay Pistono, recently died at 67. We remember the man who preserved skiing on Teton Pass. Plus, we ge...

When the state cut property taxes this year, it hit organizations doing some pretty gritty work. We head to the banks of the Snake River to meet up with a team that’s still sniffing out weeds… literally. No shade on wildlife art, but we hear from artists working to bring work to Jackson Hole that’s a little weirder. Jaelin Kauf is the region’s top hope for Olympic gold in Italy this winter. We hea...

The hottest party invite in Jackson this summer is a quinceañera; we have the last in a series following one 15-year-old on her journey to this coming-of-age milestone. In Rock Springs, a community reckons with the memory of a 19th-century massacre of Chinese immigrant workers. We also share a snippet of a StoryCorps conversation with Jackson resident Curt Parker about resilience after tragedy. La...

This week we have another bonus episode from “The Modern West,” a production of PRX and our friends over at Wyoming Public Media. In the podcast’s 10th season, “The Gray in Between,” reporters tackle stories from a wolf incident in Sublette County last year that gained worldwide attention, to creative solutions to the affordable housing crisis, to the inevitable death of elk in the Jackson Herd, r...

Some would box sailing in, say there’s no way the sport could exist in landlocked Wyoming. We travel to Fremont Lake south of town and find that’s not the case at all. Also, the evolution of a town-wide group chat that shows Jackson’s good, bad and at times, downright ugly. We take a tour of a Jackson nonprofit lab working on brain disease research and we check in on the state of journalism in the...