Crude Conversations

In this episode, Cody and guest host Mike Dempsey have a conversation with John Stallone. John comes from a military family—his grandfather served in World War II, and his dad and his uncle served in Vietnam—so enlisting in the military was a no-brainer for him. He joined the US Air Force at 18. From 1998 to 2002, he served as a security forces member and was deployed four times in support of Oper...

In this episode of "lost anchorage," we look at addiction through the perspective of a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. Joe Rambur took his first drink of alcohol at 13. Although his first experience getting high on opiates was at 14, it wasn't until adulthood that he became addicted. He smoked heroin for 12 years. He's been sober for the last 9 months, and for that he credits a program and t...

In this one, Cody has a conversation with chef Laura Cole. Laura grew up with a strong sense of duty to community, and a refined palate. Both were instilled in her by her parents, and continue to influence her taste and her actions to this day. In 2019, Laura was a contestant on Top Chef, an experience that she says gave her some of her closest friends. Today, she splits her seasons between her re...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with professional skateboarder turned videographer Micah Hollinger. Micah grew up skateboarding with a tight-knit crew in Anchorage, Alaska. At the same time, he was learning his way around a camera—filming everything he could. From skateboarding to parties to neighborhood fights, nothing was off limits. Micah’s 40 now, he’s a videographer, and as far as sk...

This week, Crude is revisiting the top 5 most popular podcast episodes of 2019. Tied for the number 1 spot is with Cody's dad, Scott Liska, the founder of Boarderline, an Alaskan snowboard and skateboard shop that nurtured, represented and influenced the Alaska snow and skate scene in the late 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. They talk about a lot of firsts: how Boarderline began and what it turned into...

This week, Crude is revisiting the top 5 most popular podcast episodes of 2019. Tied for the number 1 spot is EP 033 with Jason Borgstede, owner of the Anchorage-based snowboard and skateboard shop Blue & Gold Boardshop . Cody and Jason talk about how he went from being a professional snowboarder to a professional poker player to a waiter and now the owner of a local snow and skate shop. Jason's h...

This week, Crude will be revisiting the top 5 most popular episodes of 2019. Number 2 on the list is with retired marine and pararescueman Roger Sparks. In 2010, Roger was part of operation Bulldog Bite 2 Charlie , a heavy firefight with insurgents in the Watapur Valley in Afghanistan. The fight was, as Roger puts it, surreal. He talks about how, after the fight, he was in such disbelief that he c...

This week, Crude will be revisiting the top 5 most popular episodes of 2019. Number 3 on the list is with Cody's uncle, Jay Liska. Jay was the first professional snowboarder from Alaska to get his own pro-model. He also started Boarderline Alaska Snow and Skate with his brother, Scott Liska, and went on to start his own shop, Northern Boarder. They talk about the snowboard scene in the 80s and 90s...

This week, Crude will be revisiting the top 5 most popular episodes of 2019. Number 4 on the list is "lost anchorage" episode 05 with Claude "Muff" Butler. Muff ran a crackhouse in the late '80s. After he gave that up, he made deliveries all over town. Between dealing drugs, prison and tragedy, Muff's past was a turbulent one. Today, he is an ideal example of someone who turned their life around....

This week, Crude will be revisiting the top 5 most popular episodes of 2019. Number 5 on the list is with Andy Elsberg, an emergency room doctor at Providence Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Cody and Andy talk about how he went from being a ski bum to an ER doc, the idea of wilderness medicine, the pervasiveness of alcohol and opiate addiction in Anchorage, what a gunshot actually does to a h...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with photographer Brian Adams. Brian originally got into photography by way of videography. When he was a kid, growing up skateboarding with his friends, he would film everything. The motivation back then was getting a shot in one of the local skate and snowboard videos. In high school, he took a photography class because it was the closest thing to a video...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Dan Redfield, the creator of Alaska Photoventures , a television series that explores Alaska through photography. Although Dan grew up in the outdoors, he didn’t start documenting it for himself until about three years ago, after he decided that this was how he could scrapbook his adventures and family memories. As he puts it: “Instead of opening up a...

In this episode of "lost anchorage," we look at how the colonization of Alaska has and continues to affect Alaska Natives through the perspective of Aaron Leggett, the Curator of Alaska History and Culture at the Anchorage Museum, and the President of the Alaska Native Village of Eklutna . Aaron explains how the effects of colonization didn't happen overnight, that it was a gradual chipping away a...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Anchorage comedian John Norris. John’s parents were pastors for the Salvation Army, so a good portion of his upbringing was spent moving around. He says that in order to make friends in these new places, you could either be good at sports or be funny. John chose to be funny. He says that he doesn’t exactly remember a defining moment that really pushed...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with professional snowboarder Ben Bogart. Ben grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, he played hockey for Bartlett high school, but mainly he snowboarded. Cody has known Ben for most of his life, and has always known him to be a fast learner. So, it wasn’t long after he started snowboarding that he was getting shots in JB Deuce snowboard and skateboard videos in the...

In this one, Cody has a conversation with Stranger Things staff writer and story editor Kate Trefry. When she was a kid growing up in Anchorage, Alaska Kate says she was an obsessive reader and writer. That those two things have always been part of who she is. The need to express herself and to leave a mark was imprinted on her at a young age when her parents took her to Italy and she saw all the...

In this episode, Cody and guest host Whitney Branshaw have a conversation with retired marine and pararescueman Roger Sparks. In 2010, Roger was part of operation Bulldog Bite 2 Charlie , a heavy firefight with insurgents in the Watapur Valley in Afghanistan. The fight was, as Roger puts it, surreal. He talks about how, after the fight, he was in such disbelief that he checked Wikipedia for proof...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Kyle Clayton, the owner of Chilkat Valley News . To understand how Kyle ended up in Haines, he starts with the four years he served in the army. He explains that his upbringing in Indiana instilled in him a feeling of isolation, like the rest of the world and the experiences it held always felt out of reach. That was, until the army opened up the world...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with professional snowboarder and Olympian Rosie Mancari. Rosie began snowboarding at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska at 3-years-old. At 15, she was competing in local competitions, and at 17 she moved out of state to begin training full-time. At 21, she began racing for the U.S Ski and Snowboard Team. Her sport is boardercross, probably the closest disc...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Philippa Hughes , the founder of Curiosity Connects Us , an organization that connects people who would not typically associate with each other. Specifically democrats and republicans. The idea came about after the 2016 election didn’t turn out the way Philippa had hoped. So, she came up with an idea to learn why. She decided to host a dinner at her ho...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Anchorage public historian David Reamer. A public historian is concerned with including a public audience, while an academic historian is generally concerned with including an audience of their peers. Academic historians, David says, have a tendency to create an echo chamber of ideas that perpetuates and builds off of old and often prejudiced narrative...

In this episode of "lost anchorage," we look at the Anchorage drug trade through the perspective of an ex drug dealer. Claude "Muff" Butler ran a crackhouse in late '80s. After he gave that up, he made deliveries all over town. Between dealing drugs, prison and tragedy, Muff's past was a turbulent one. Today, he is an ideal example of someone who turned their life around. He now teaches kids how t...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Libby Bakalar, the creator of the One Hot Mess blog . Libby’s One Hot Mess originally began as a mommy-blog, where she wrote about things like recipes, make-up, and the trials and tribulations of parenting. She says it transformed into what it is now—a social justice blog—after President Trump was elected and especially after Alaska Governor Mike Dunle...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Sean Sullivan, better known as Joker the Bailbondsman. Joker is, without a doubt, the most commercially successful rapper from Alaska. His music videos were in heavy rotation on BET: Uncut, a late-night, uncensored music video block on BET back in the early 2000s. Back then, Joker was fully in it, he was living the stereotypical rap life—selling drugs...

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Gus Engle, a former professional snowboarder turned musician. Back when he was a snowboarder, rather than taking to the mountains, Gus headed to more urban locations to ride. He ollied sidewalks, slid on corrugated pipes, rode down cement ledges, and jumped off overpasses. Altogether, he helped change the definition of what it means to go snowboarding....