A New Angle

This week Justin is joined by DeAnna Bublitz, founder of DEER Camp. DEER Camp is trying to build a more diverse community of hunters by attracting underrepresented groups to the activity. DeAnna grew up in Minnesota and studied infectious diseases, a path that ultimately led her to labs with professors at the University of Montana. In this episode, we learn about DeAnna’s journey to hunting and th...

This week is the August 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 are joined by Bryce’s wife, Maggie, who works in conflict resolution. The trio talk about how much less time people are spending with their friends and the atrophy of ou...

This week’s guest is Craig Cowie, Professor at the University of Montana’s Blewitt School of Law. Craig helps guide us through three of the most significant decisions in this recently concluded term of the US Supreme Court. The first case is Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v Wade in June. Craig explains the five possible ways this could change abortion access in Mon...

This week’s guest is Heather McDowell, Vice President for Legal, Environmental and Government Affairs for the US region at Sibanye-Stillwater, the owner and operator of the Stillwater and East Boulder Mines. Heather works at the intersection of many issues critical to Montana’s future - environmental regulation and sustainability, workers’ rights, diversity, equity and inclusion and many others. A...

This week’s guest is Tim Gordon, master appraiser of art and antiques. Tim has been a leading authority in the appraisal business for over 25 years, working on projects like Princess Diana’s gown collection, the Jim Morrison estate, the Al Capone Family collection, and the collections of Yellowstone National Park. Tim tells us how his beginnings in the appraisal industry stemmed from his mother’s...

This week’s guest is Shannon Hughes, strategic communications manager at RMI, an international organization working to transform global energy production with market-based solutions. Shannon’s purview is supply chain, a significant source of carbon emissions. As a communications expert she is focused on making this complex topic more digestible to a broader audience. Given the pandemic-induced sal...

This week is the July 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. This month is the last in a three-part mini-series on social media, with a focus on solutions. In this conversation Justin and Bryce consider the three R’s of transforming the social media landscape, Bryce...

This week’s guest is Tyler Hamilton. For many years, Tyler raced at the very highest level of professional cycling and was a key figure in the Lance Armstrong doping saga. His story is well documented, told best in Tyler’s powerful book, The Secret Race. Tyler now lives in Missoula, runs a coaching business, works for Black Swift Investment advisors and is a new father. Today we talk about how he...

This week’s guest is Sarah Aswell. Sarah is a writer of many stripes and a stand up comedian. She is a Senior Editor at Scary Mommy and has published her writing in prominent outlets like The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Forbes, MAD Magazine and many others. She lives in Missoula and performs around the country. In this conversation we learn about Sarah’s journey from biology to comedy, the open mic n...

This week’s guest is John Twiggs, host of the award winning Montana PBS program Backroads of Montana. This is John’s 35th year in television journalism and he’s been with Montana PBS for over 25 years. Last year, John was inducted into the Silver Circle of the Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In this conversation we learn about John’s journey to visual sto...

This week is the June 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. This month we continue our social media discussion, with a focus on what social media is doing to our democracy. In this conversation we talk about some of the benefits of social media in politics, the tra...

This week’s guests are panelists from The Faces of Trade panel discussion held at the Montana World Trade Center’s Investment Day Conference. The panel included Heather McDowell, VP of Legal, Environmental and Government Affairs for Sibayne-Stillwater, the South-African owned operator of the Stillwater and East Boulder Mines; Patrick Flanagan, Chief Commercial Officer at Administrate, a software f...

This week’s guests are Dakota Jones and Nate Bender. Dakota is the founder and Executive Director of Footprints Running Camp and Nate is Footprints’ Marketing Director. These two accomplished mountain athletes are working to empower the activist spirit in folks who enjoy spending time in wild places. Footprints not only takes campers on amazing adventures, but connects them with resources and skil...

This week’s guest is Stephanie Wittels Wachs, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Lemonada Media. Stephanie is host of the powerful podcast Last Day. Last Day investigates what’s killing us, and the just released Season 3 takes a hard look at gun violence and suicide in Montana. We discuss America’s complex relationship with guns, the role fear plays on all sides of the gun debate and the nee...

This week is our May edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which I speak with economist and friend Bryce Ward, about some of the broader challenges facing our society. This month we talk about social media: What is it doing to us? Can we — and our democracy — survive it? In this conversation, we discuss emerging science from experts on media addiction, new research that links so...

This week’s guest is Stef Sample, serial entrepreneur and founder of Fundid; an exciting new venture dedicated to getting capital to the nearly 96% of American business generating less than $1 million per year. And most of those small businesses are women-owned. In this conversation, we cover how Stef’s Montana roots has served her well in business, the structural barriers to loans for small busin...

This week’s guest is Mike Morelli, the newly minted Executive Director at Missoula Children’s Theater and Missoula Community Theater. In this conversation, we cover how Mike found his way to the stage, how Missoula Children’s Theater has weathered the pandemic, and how MCT continues to play out its mission in not only making the arts accessible but giving young people a platform and place in their...

Today we bring you a story of a man trying to escape from Afghanistan and the amazing people here in Montana trying to help. This is a live situation and this man and his family currently face grave risk. As a result, we don’t reveal his identity and I spoke with him on an encrypted channel from an undisclosed location. Following our conversation, I speak with Lisa Davey, a colleague of our friend...

This week is our April edition of Incentives and Instincts, a monthly series in which I speak with economist and friend, Bryce Ward, about some of the broader issues facing our society. In this conversation we cover cryptocurrency: what is it and what do you need to know about it? To help answer these questions, we are joined by Gian Volpicelli, senior writer at WIRED and author of Cryptocurrency:...

This week’s guest is Heidi Beck-Heser, manager and Candy Chef at Phillipsburg's legendary Sweet Palace. Heidi is a stalwart advocate for the Phillipsburg community and she and her family have been at the center of the town's transformation following the closure of mines and sawmills. In this conversation, we cover Heidi’s path to running the family business, the unique challenges Phillipsburg face...

This week’s guests are all here to speak with us about an upcoming Montana event: the International Wildlife Film Festival. IWFF’s mission is to promote awareness, knowledge, and understanding of wildlife, habitat, people, and nature through excellence in film. To talk about the 45th edition of the festival, I’m joined today by Carrie Richer, artistic director, Rosh Patel, a Final Juror this year...

This week’s guests are Stephanie Land, author of the NYTimes best-selling memoir Maid; Steph Goble: Executive Director of Mountain Home; and Jill Hope, a young mother working her way through the challenges of creating a stable and secure environment in which to raise her son. In this conversation, we talk about the hard work and deep experiences of these women and discuss how Mountain Home and oth...

This week is our March edition of Incentives and Instincts, a monthly series in which I speak with economist and friend, Bryce Ward, about some of the broader issues facing our society. It's pledge week here at Montana Public Radio, we're going to talk today about the value of public media to a democratic society: the place it holds in society past and present, how it supports political discourse,...

This week’s guest is Mara Silvers of Montana Free Press. Mara and her colleagues have teamed up with Montana Public Radio and Yellowstone Public Radio to produce a second season of the amazing Shared State, a podcast about the strange political moment we're living through. Season one went deep on the meaning of Montana values in the lead up to the 2020 election. Season two, which just released, ex...

This week we speak with Sarah Vowell and Brad Tyer. Sarah is a bestselling author, journalist and doer of many awesome things. Brad is an editor at Montana Free Press and manager of the newsroom. These two have teamed up to produce some special content to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Montana State Constitution and explore some of the amazing stories behind its creation. On March 22, the d...