Northern Soundings: Alaska in Conversation

This episode, I’m joined by Bil Paul, author of Awaiting the Sun. Paul’s book considers the often-overlooked Aleutian Campaign of World War II. With his father having served in this conflict, he brings a personal connection to the story, viewing it from the service-members perspective. As a seasoned freelance writer, he also drew from historical … Continue reading Awaiting the Su...

In the three months following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Anti-Defamation League reports Anti-Semitic incidents in our country leapt 360%. Despite the rising tensions and their past experiences of anti-Jewish riots in Libya, my guests this episode, Penina Solomon and Dr. David Gerbi, insist they are hopeful for a more peaceful future. … Continue reading If I Forget You, Libya:...

My guest this show is University of Alaska Fairbanks historian Tyler C. Kirk. His book After the Gulag: A History of Memory in Russia’s Far North, was recently published by Indiana University Press. Kirk will be talking about the people and policies featured in his book Thursday evening. 

You are what you eat. Just ask Dr. Matthew Wooller, a paleoecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The eating habits of a mammoth some 14 millennia ago allowed Wooller and his colleagues to map the animal’s journey across Alaska. Wooller also shares how his concerns for student mental and emotional health stirred him to … Continue reading Matthew Wooller: A Life’s Subtle...

I continue my conversation with Jon Holmgren. Besides being an inventor, machinist, geophysicist and mountaineer, Jon is something of a philosopher. So says his friend and colleague Matthew Sturm in his book Finding the Arctic. Jon’s shop is the site for great discussions. To stimulate the conversations, one of the books Jon often hands out to … Continue reading Jon Holmgren Pt.2

My guest in the next two shows is Jon Holmgren. I’ve known about Jon ever since I first talked with snow scientist Matthew Sturm years ago. Matthew in his book Finding the Arctic describes Jon as a machinist, miner, geophysicist, traveler and arctic philosopher. As you’ll discover, that’s a pretty fair description

As part of this past UAF Summer Session’s Tall Timber series, I spoke with Tom Bundtzen. Many know him as a research geologist as well as an avid mining historian. After retiring as Senior Economic Geologist for the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Survey (ADGGS), Tom formed Pacific Rim Geological Consulting, Inc. The state … Continue reading Mining History: Tom Bundtzen

Each summer I talk with fascinating Fairbanksans through UAF Summer Sessions‘ “Tall Timber” series. One of those figures this past summer was Wendell Shiffler. Wendy, as he is known, has spent a lifetime relishing life and the outdoors. He’s also spent a good deal of time communicating those passions to young people. In 1981 he … Continue reading Sharing Resilience: W...

Banning books has a disturbing history in our country. Greg Hill is probably best known locally through his weekly columns in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Parents may know of Greg’s work starting the Guys and Gals Read program in the elementary schools, which engages young readers with books that combine vivid images with exciting plots, … Continue reading The Right to Read: Greg Hil...

On this show I talk with psychologist Stephen Parker. Parker has been a practicing therapist in Fairbanks for decades. More than twenty years ago, in response to a series of coronary troubles including a massive heart attack, he built a series of stone structures on his property as therapy. Perhaps the most striking of these is … Continue reading Finding One’s Way: Stephen Parker