East Anchorage Book Club with Andrew Gray

Send us Fan Mail Former Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz moved to Alaska in 1990 after he finished law school in San Francisco. In 1996 he ran for an open state house seat in west Anchorage, and he served in the state legislature for 10 years, 8 as minority leader. In 2006 he ran for Lieutenant Governor with Tony Knowles at the top of the ticket, but they lost to Sarah Palin and her Lt Gov  Sean Pa...

Send us Fan Mail Julia Lurie is a senior reporter at Mother Jones, a nonprofit American magazine that focuses on news, commentary, and investigative journalism. In 2023, Julia wrote a story entitled, "Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals where foster kids are Gold Mine." The article was largely an exposé of the horrible history in Alaska of foster children being placed at our short-term psyc...

Send us Fan Mail Heather Doncaster leads three different lives. The first is the one she is most famous for and that is as master of ceremonies for Mad Myrna's weekly Diva Variety Show . She has held this job for over 10 years, but not as Heather. She hosts the drag show in drag as Hank Van Dickerson; we learn Hank's origin story. Her second life is as a public school teacher in Anchorag...

Send us Fan Mail The Majority Leader in the Alaska State House is Representative Chuck Kopp of South Anchorage. After a childhood in Iliamna and Kenai, he began a 23-year career in law enforcement, the last six as Chief of the Kenai Police Department. In 2010 he moved to Anchorage and began work as a legislative staffer, first to Senator Fred Dyson of Eagle River and later to Senator Peter Miccich...

Send us Fan Mail Ken Alper served as the director of the Tax Division for Governor Bill Walker . After earning a master's degree in Urban Planning at the University of Washington, Ken and his wife Jill relocated to Juneau in the early 90s where they bought the Silver Bow Inn which they still own. Once their business was thriving, Ken took a job with the department of Fish and Game at the tail...

Send us Fan Mail Bruce Botelho is the former Attorney General for the state of Alaska under Republican Governor Wally Hickel and under Democratic Governor Tony Knowles . Bruce also served as Mayor of Juneau from 1988-1991 and from 2003-2012. His paternal grandparents first moved to Juneau in 1897, and really since his birth here in 1948, Juneau has been Bruce Botelho's home.  Today we discuss...

Send us Fan Mail Author Amy Wallace was the ghostwriter for Virginia Roberts Giuffre 's, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice . Virginia Giuffre was an American advocate and survivor of sex trafficking who became widely known for accusing financier Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, including Prince Andrew , of sexual abuse. She died by suicide in April 2025 at...

Send us Fan Mail Stephen J. Cox is the acting Attorney General of Alaska since August 29th, 2025. He was appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy after the previous Attorney General Treg Taylor resigned to begin his gubernatorial campaign. Stephen Cox previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, which is headquartered in Beaumont. He was appointed to that position by U...

Send us Fan Mail The  Executive Director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault ( ANDVSA ) is Brenda Stanfill . She moved to Fairbanks from Utah when she was 16 years old as a newlywed. Within a few years of arriving she had two children and realized that she had to escape her abusive marriage. It was that experience surviving her own domestic violence that led to a lifetime...

Send us Fan Mail Aubrey Wieber is the founder and executive director of the 907 Initiative . The 907 Initiative is an Alaska-based government watchdog organization working to increase public transparency for state and local government. Aubrey grew up mostly in Portland, Oregon, but his youth took a dramatic turn when he and his mother joined a cult, Ramtha's School of Enlightenment , while he...

Send us Fan Mail Author Keri Ladner , PhD, is an expert on fundamentalist politics in America and the radicalization of the conservative movement. She specializes in the religious beliefs of the American right, and her work illuminates how those beliefs have become part of American power structures. Today she discusses her newest book: American Dominion: The Rise and Radicalization of a New Christ...

Send us Fan Mail Samu El Bayani Neek was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. At 12 his parents divorced, and he had to drop out of middle school to begin working as a barber. During this tumultuous period in his life, he discovered a church in Tehran and converted to Christianity. Under Iran's Islamic Regime, a Muslim who abandons Islam can be punished by death. At 20, Sam fled to Turkey where h...

Send us Fan Mail The Alaska State House Representative for East Fairbanks is Will Stapp . This is his second appearance on the podcast. To learn more about Will's early life and military service (including his Purple Heart), check out his first appearance . Today, Will and I talk about the chance for increased public education funding this year, Alaska's therapeutic court system, and the...

Send us Fan Mail Wil Courtney is a Political Reporter and Multimedia Journalist for KTUU Channel 2 Alaska's News Source and host of the station's Political Pipeline podcast . This interview is part of the Alaska Media series. Wil never planned to work in Alaska but in less than a year's time our state has had a profound impact on him, particularly his reporting from Kipnuk and Kwigi...

Send us Fan Mail Nebraska State Senator John Fredrickson was first elected in 2022 by a margin of only 82 votes. He is the first openly gay man to be elected to the Nebraska state legislature. We discuss Nebraska's unicameral non-partisan legislature and its term limits. We also talk about John's youth, how he and his husband adopted their son, and his journey into politics.  This conver...

Send us Fan Mail The Alaska State House Representative for Ketchikan is Jeremy Bynum . We discuss his childhood growing up in a devout Pentecostal household, his escape to the Air Force, and his struggles being accepted as a newcomer to Ketchikan. We also talk about the drama of the Juneau Capitol, specifically his fraught relationship with my chief of staff Kyle Johansen (a previous Representativ...

Send us Fan Mail Laura Booch and Dr. Ingrid Johnson both appeared at the Alaska State House Judiciary Committee's informational hearing on Civil Protective Orders that happened on Monday, March 9th. Civil protective orders are also called restraining orders and there are several types, but the most common type is the Domestic Violence Protective Order, and that's what today's episod...

Send us Fan Mail Representative Zack Fields of downtown Anchorage explains the Alaska State House's failed vote to draw from our legislative savings account yesterday. In order to receive a 9 to 1 match from the federal government for our state transportation projects -- a potential investment of almost $700 million -- we needed to fully fund the match yesterday. The Alaska State Senate had e...

Send us Fan Mail Edgar Ruiz is the Director of the Council of State Governments West. The Council of State Governments  (CSG), is a nonpartisan national organization that connects and informs all three branches of state government to help bring forth best practices. CSG is divided into four regions, and Alaska is part of the Western region. Edgar Ruiz has been the director of CSG west since 2011....

Send us Fan Mail Eric Croft is the Chair of the Alaska Democratic Party . Erik was born to Chancey and Toni Croft in Anchorage, but he grew up with his two siblings traveling back and forth to Juneau where their father started in the House and later served in the Senate eventually serving as president. Chancey Croft was the Democratic candidate for governor in 1978. Eric would serve in the Alaska...

Send us Fan Mail To learn more about becoming a foster parent, click here . Landen Ryan is a senior at Service High School in Anchorage. Madison Brewer is a sophomore at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Both Landen and Madison have had extensive experience in Alaska's foster system. This interview happened while they were in Juneau with the non-profit organization Facing Foster Care in Ala...

Send us Fan Mail 2024 Alaska Teacher of the Year Catherine Walker teaches high school engineering and marine biology at Dimond High School. 2018 Alaska Teacher of the Year Ben Walker teaches 7th grade science at Romig Middle School. Both are in their 20th years teaching with the Anchorage School District, but this year will be their last. Due to the perpetual budget cuts in ASD, Ben, Cat, & th...

Send us Fan Mail The Executive Director of the Alaska Pharmacy Association is Dr. Brandy Seignemartin . After a somewhat circuitous route, Brandy found herself in Doctor of Pharmacy program at Washington State University in her early thirties. Upon completion of that degree she did an executive fellowship in administration and in 2022 came to Alaska to take on the ED role at the Alaska Pharmacy As...

Send us Fan Mail Clara Baldwin is the assistant special education director for the Anchorage School District and she oversees the Alaska State School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing . She was born in northern California and moved to Anchorage 14 years ago. She has been a lifelong advocate for the rights of the deaf and hard of hearing community and has found her place leading that struggle here i...

Send us Fan Mail   Pat Pitney is the President of the University of Alaska System. Growing up in Montana, she started shooting guns at an early age. At age 18 she won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles becoming the first Olympic champion in air rifle for women. She competed on the international riflery circuit until 1988 when she married an Alaskan, relocated to Fairbanks, and starte...