Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

My guest today is Kelsey Morris, and this is her second time on the podcast—which feels long-overdue, because a lot has happened since we last talked. When Kelsey first joined me nearly five years ago, she was balancing a full-time job while building her art career on the side. Shortly after that conversation, she did something many creative people dream about and very few actually do: she quit he...

Jason Gardner is a retired Navy SEAL who now works as a top-level leadership instructor with Echelon Front. Over his thirty-year career in the SEAL teams, he served in combat operations in Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, later becoming Command Master Chief of SEAL Team Five and Training Detachment. Since retiring from the Navy, Jason has worked with hundreds of organizations as a leadership instru...

Todd Ulizio is the co-owner of Two Bear Farm, an organic vegetable farm in Whitefish, Montana, that's quietly become a cornerstone of the Flathead Valley's local food community. Alongside his wife Rebecca, Todd has spent nearly two decades growing food, building soil, and figuring out how to make a small, values-driven farm work in a world that doesn't always make it easy. Todd's path to farming w...

Sammy Matsaw Jr. is the Director of the Columbia Basin Program at The Nature Conservancy, where he works at the intersection of salmon recovery, tribal sovereignty, and large-scale river restoration across one of the most complex watersheds in North America. In this role, Sammy helps guide conservation strategies that span state lines, political boundaries, and cultural histories—while keeping peo...

Today's episode is a bit of a departure from the usual format. I'm re-sharing a recent conversation I had on my friend Brendan Leonard's new podcast, My Favorite Things . I'm sure most of y'all are already familiar with Brendan's work, but for those of you who aren't, he's an author, illustrator, filmmaker, and creator of Semi-Rad .  Brendan's new podcast is built around a simple but fascinating p...

Mike Schaedel is the Western Montana Forest Restoration Director for The Nature Conservancy, where he leads some of the most ambitious and collaborative forest restoration work happening anywhere in the West. Based in Missoula, Mike works at the intersection of science, community partnerships, and land stewardship—helping restore fire-adapted forests, reduce wildfire risk, and improve the health a...

This month marks ten full years of my bimonthly book-recommendations project—a decade of weird little paragraphs about the books that grab my scattered attention. Whether you've been here since the beginning or signed up five minutes ago, thank you. I'm still baffled anyone reads these things, but I'm grateful all the same. To mark the occasion, I recorded a late-night solo episode from The Shed,...

Devon O'Neil is a journalist, author, and longtime friend of mine whose new book "The Way Out: A True Story of Survival in the Heart of the Rockies" is one of the best pieces of outdoor nonfiction I've read in years. The book tells the harrowing true story of a backcountry ski trip near Leadville, Colorado, that turned tragic—and the years-long process of understanding what really happened, and ho...

Carli Kierstead is the Forest Program Director for The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming, where she leads efforts to understand and restore some of the West's most critical—and often overlooked—ecosystems. From beetle kill and wildfire to drought, Wyoming's forests face a range of challenges that ripple far beyond the state's borders. These high-country forests are the headwaters of several major rive...

Bex Frucht is a force of nature—a storyteller and community builder whose work blends performance, land, and small-town life in the American West. Based in Livingston, Montana, she's the founder of TMI Live, a storytelling series that celebrates vulnerability, humor, and human connection, and for the past three years, she's been the "vibe steward" of the Old Salt Festival, where her talent for bri...

Yvon Chouinard needs no introduction. The founder of Patagonia, pioneer of clean climbing, co-founder of 1% for the Planet, and lifelong advocate for simplicity and wildness, he's one of the world's most influential environmental leaders. Now in his mid-80s, Yvon continues to live, work, and fish by the same principles that have guided him since his dirtbag climbing days: live simply, take respons...

Chris Keyes is the Executive Director of RE:PUBLIC and the former longtime Editor in Chief of Outside magazine. During his decades-long career in journalism, Chris helped guide Outside through some of its most iconic years—publishing award-winning stories, mentoring top writers, and keeping the magazine's adventurous spirit alive in an era of massive change across the media landscape. Earlier this...

Brad Johnson is the Senior Regenerative Agriculture Advisor for The Nature Conservancy, where he helps farmers across Idaho and beyond explore new ways of working the land that build healthier soils, stronger operations, and more resilient communities. Brad's path into this work is deeply personal—he grew up on a multi-generational farm in northern Idaho, where as a teenager he saw firsthand how n...

Paul Hendricks is the Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance, a coalition of more than 270 businesses working together to protect wild places across North America. Founded nearly four decades ago by Patagonia, REI, The North Face, and Kelty, The Conservation Alliance has grown into one of the most important forces in conservation—pooling dollars, influence, and a collective business voice...

Kate Williams is the CEO of 1% for the Planet, the global nonprofit that has turned a simple idea into a worldwide force for good: businesses committing 1% of their annual revenue to environmental causes. If you've ever spotted that little 1% for the Planet logo on a favorite brand, you've seen Kate's work in action– under her leadership, the organization has grown to more than 4,400 members acros...

Nicholas Triolo is a writer, endurance athlete, and educator whose life and work sit at the crossroads of ecology, activism, and storytelling. For years, he's been exploring what happens when we stop charging toward the summit and start paying attention to the circuitous paths that wind around it. His new book, "The Way Around: A Field Guide to Going Nowhere," is the culmination of that exploratio...

Kelly Beevers is the Grazing Lands Partner Strategy Lead with The Nature Conservancy, where she helps guide collaborative efforts to support ranchers, strengthen communities, and conserve some of the most threatened ecosystems in North America. Based in Montana, Kelly has built her career at the intersection of real estate, land stewardship, and community-driven conservation—first working in comme...

This episode was recorded live on stage at the 2025 Old Salt Festival in Helmville, Montana, where I had the honor of sitting down with two of the people at the center of this ambitious experiment in food, land, and community: Cole Mannix who is the President and co-founder of the Old Salt Co-op and Andrew Anderson who is the manager of the J Bar L Ranch. If you've been following Old Salt, you kno...

Brady Robinson is a lifelong climber, conservationist, and educator who currently serves as Director of Philanthropy for the Freyja Foundation. His career has spanned outdoor education, nonprofit leadership, and global conservation philanthropy, with past roles including Executive Director of both the Access Fund and the Conservation Alliance. These days, his work focuses on supporting high-impact...

Celene Hawkins is the new Colorado River Program Director for The Nature Conservancy, stepping into the role after years of impactful work in tribal water policy and place-based conservation across the basin. She's taking the baton from Taylor Hawes, who led the program for nearly 17 years and is now serving as the Colorado River Program's Special Advisor. It's a leadership transition at a critica...

This conversation with Helen Rebanks was recorded live and on stage at the 2025 Old Salt Festival, held on the Mannix Family Ranch in Helmville, Montana. If you were there, you know how special the moment was. If you weren't—well, I'm glad you're here now. Even though we were on a stage, in front of a crowd, the conversation had the quiet, reflective feel of two friends talking over a kitchen tabl...

Brendan Leonard is back for his third appearance on the podcast—this time recorded in person at his house in Missoula. Brendan's the creative mind behind Semi-Rad, and over the years, he's become a good friend and one of my most trusted advisors when it comes to creativity and building a life around the things you care about. He's a writer, illustrator, filmmaker, ultrarunner, teacher, and all-aro...

Sean Claffey is the Southwest Montana Sagebrush Conservation Coordinator at the Nature Conservancy, a role that places him at the center of one of the West's most overlooked but critically important ecosystems: the sagebrush steppe. Based in Dillon, Montana, Sean works across public and private lands to protect and restore this sprawling, foundational landscape that serves as habitat for countless...

Adam Cramer is the CEO of the Outdoor Alliance, a coalition that brings together human-powered outdoor recreation groups to protect public lands and waters. With a deep understanding of both policy and recreation, Adam has helped position the Outdoor Alliance as a powerful voice in the national conservation movement—bridging the gap between grassroots outdoor communities and high-level decision-ma...

Tony Bynum is a conservation photographer, scientist, and advocate who's spent decades working at the intersection of public lands, Indigenous rights, and environmental storytelling. Based in Montana, his images have helped shape national conversations around energy development, landscape protection, and the cultural importance of the Northern Rockies. His work has been published widely and used b...