A New Angle

This week’s guests are Alex Few and Jared Beaver, the creators and hosts of Working Wild University, a new podcast about the interaction of science and culture playing out on working lands across the American West. In this conversation, Justin wonders why starting Working Wild U with wolves in Season One was so compelling and asks both Alex and Jared how they describe the problem surrounding wolve...

This week is the February edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend Bryce Ward about some of the broader issues facing our society. Justin and Bryce talk about changes in Montana’s demographics and culture and the effects on the Montana economy and community cohesion, and to best do that, are joined by executive director of the Missoula...

This week’s guest is Mariah Gladstone. Mariah grew up in northwest Montana and is Blackfeet and Cherokee. In 2016, she launched in IndigiKitchen, an online platform dedicated to re-indigenizing diets and food systems. IndigiKitchen reaches a wide audience with a food based message of education, empowerment and activism. In this episode, Justin asks Mariah what her relationship with food was growin...

This week is a conversation Justin moderated for City Club, featuring Bryce Ward and the director of UM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, Pat Barkey. City Club aims to bring Montanans together to inform and inspire citizens on issues facing the community. In this episode, Justin asks Pat how Montana's economy has changed over the past decade and if this is a good time to be an entreprene...

This week’s guest is Marcel Huijser. Marcel is a road ecologist with the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University. He studies the interaction between wildlife and transportation infrastructure, something anyone who’s spent time on Montana’s roads has likely thought about. In this conversation, Justin asks Marcel about the impacts of transportation on wild ecosystems and how big...

This week is the January edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend Bryce Ward about some of the broader issues facing our society. Today, Justin and Bryce look back on the predictions they made for last year and make a few for 2023. In this episode, Justin and Bryce recap on their predictions about Covid, remote work, the economy, colleg...

This week’s guest is Adam Peterman. This year, Adam put together one of the finest seasons the trail running world has ever seen, including a win in his debut 100 miler, the hallowed Western States. In November, Adam won the World Mountain and Trail running championship. At only 27 years old, his future looks bright. In this episode Justin asks Adam about his formative years as a runner, what made...

This week’s guest is Dr. Lerone Martin, associate professor of religious studies and director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. Dr. Martin will be visiting the University of Montana on January 26th as part of the President’s Lecture Series. And since this event is a key part of the university’s Martin Luther King Day celebrations, Justin is also...

This week’s guests are Kris Boyd and Shawna Kelsey, the founders of Pink Bench Distilling in Troy, Montana. This story is one of community investment, engagement and revitalization. Justin asks Kris and Shawna how they came together around grizzly bears and apples, what is actually needed to make booze and what apple brandy even is. Kris offers that the forest nearby has between 35-40 botanicals t...

This week’s guest is Michael Dubin, founder and former CEO of Dollar Shave Club, a business that revolutionized direct to consumer marketing and created ripple effects throughout the global economy. Michael tells Justin the key insight that led to the creation of Dollar Shave Club and gives insight into what it was like being CEO. Justin asks about Michael’s priorities for making an impact outside...

This week is the December edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend, Bryce Ward, about some of the broader challenges facing our society. To close out the year, Justin and Bryce talk about some of the good things that have happened this year. Making it on that list include a relatively seamless midterm election season, a decline in the p...

This week’s guest is Eric Dietrich, deputy editor at Montana Free Press, where he leads the Long Streets Project, an initiative that conducts in depth reporting on Montana’s economy. Eric’s recent reporting has focused on housing, and in particular, Governor Greg Gianforte’s Housing Task Force. In this conversation, Justin asks Eric about the state of play of housing in Montana and what the key ba...

This week’s guest is Lesli Allison, founding member and executive director of Western Landowners Alliance. WLA seeks to advance policies and practices that sustain working lands in the West. Many of the most contentious and consequential issues here in Montana are right in the wheelhouse of this important organization. In this conversation Lesli says that if farms and ranches go out of business, w...

It's the most wonderful time of year here in Montana. And to chat all about it, Justin is joined by Michael Legg, executive director of the Montana Repertory Theater, and Stephanie Nolan from Missoula's Poverello Center. These two great organizations have partnered in the production of Hearth: A Yuletide Tale, a story about homelessness and community. In this episode, Stephanie gives a run down of...

This week’s episode is the November edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which I speak with economist and friend, Bryce Ward, about some of the broader issues facing our society. This episode is about the youth sports industrial complex and joining Justin and Bryce is University of Montana head men’s basketball coach, Travis DeCuire. Justin starts the episode asking Travis and...

This week is part two of Justin’s conversation with Jeff Shapiro, a professional adventure athlete whose many pursuits include climbing, hang gliding, paragliding, and wingsuit base jumping. Justin and Jeff discuss risk, uncertainty, the seasons of life and many other matters of consequence. In this episode, Justin and Jeff go deep. Jeff talks about how what he’s learned from flying translates to...

This week’s guest is Jeff Shapiro, professional adventure athlete whose many pursuits include climbing, hang gliding, paragliding, and wingsuit base jumping. Jeff and his family lived in Montana for many years and recently relocated to the Oregon coast. In this episode, Jeff talks about the difference between passion and obsession and gives listeners a run down on the various ways he flies. Justin...

This week’s episode is the October edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend, Bryce Ward, about some of the broader problems facing our society. It is election season here in Montana and across the country. To navigate some big questions, Justin asks Bryce and guest Rob Saldin, University of Montana political science professor, if our de...

This week’s guest is Ami Vitale, an award-winning National Geographic Photographer and Nikon Ambassador. Ami has visited over 100 countries, documenting the horrors of war and the good work being done to protect endangered species. In this conversation, Ami attributes her curiosity as a child to getting her out in the world as a photographer. She tells Justin about her early experience in journali...

Justin and Montana Public Radio's Lauren Korn from The Write Question talk about MTPR’s pledge week and the importance of public radio. Donate to MTPR during Pledge Week here: https://www.mtpr.org/tags/pledge-week Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y9bg4FIfh1uv1rNISKO9prVGlovW5001oD8DKw682kw/edit This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or ge...

This week’s guest is Nick Mott. Nick is an award winning journalist and podcast producer based in Livingston, and the editor of this podcast. Over the last several months he’s published a series of articles with High Country News documenting the catastrophic Yellowstone floods that occurred in June 2022. In this episode Justin and Nick talk about the varying devastation of the floods, the politics...

This week is the September edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend, Bryce Ward, about some of the broader challenges facing our society. In this episode, Justin and Bryce focus on our public school system. Bryce opens the conversation looking at the big picture and explains that public school is in a pretty good place. Justin and Bryce...

This week’s guest is Jeff Immelt, former CEO of General Electric and current venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. Jeff will be speaking at the University of Montana on September 27th as part of the Baucus Center’s Stockman Bank Speaker Series. He was kind enough to join Justin for a conversation in advance of his visit. Justin and Jeff speak about shocks and crises and a course at Stanfor...

This week is part two of Justin’s conversation with acclaimed journalist and writer Hal Herring. Hal is a contributing editor at Field & Stream where he writes the Conservation blog. He’s interested in complex topics central to life in the American West, and is currently working on a deep exploration of public lands. In part two of this conversation, Justin and Hal talk about the conflicts that st...

This week’s guest is acclaimed journalist and writer Hal Herring. Hal is a contributing editor at Field & Stream where he writes the Conservationist blog. He’s interested in complex topics central to life in the American West, and is currently working on a deep exploration of public lands. Since this topic is so big, we’re bringing you this conversation in two parts. In part one, we hear about Hal...