Hometown, Alaska - Alaska Public Media

HOST: Justin Williams GUESTS: Dr. Elizabeth Whitney , executive director, Alaska Museum of Science and Nature Dr. Kristine Crossen , president, board of directors, Alaska Museum of Science and Nature LINK: Alaska Museum of Science and Nature ]]>

Host: Anne Hillman GUESTS: Gail Fenumiai , Division of Elections Jeannette Lee , Sightline Institute Links: Division of Elections website Make a Plan to Vote Learn about ranked choice voting Candidate Comparison Tool Alaska Public Media elections coverage PARTICIPATE: Call 550-8433 (Anchorage) or 1-888-353-5752 (statewide) during the live broadcast (10-11 a.m.) Send e-mail to hometown@alaskapublic...

HOST: Justin Williams GUESTS: Tiffany Hall, executive director of Recover Alaska Dr. Vivian Gonzales, professor of psychology at the University of Alaska Anchorage LINKS: Recover Alaska Rethinking Drinking : Website created by National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Provides information on drinking to help people assess their drinking and tools to change drinking habits. Checkup and Ch...

This week Hometown Alaska hosts three writers telling significant parts of Alaska’s story. The idea for our show began with the hope of bringing Alaska’s current writer laureate, Heather Lende, to the mic, and picking her brain for what we should be reading this winter. We called, she agreed, but we have ended up with so much more. Since Heather took the state writer mantle for 2021-23, she has ma...

The Last Frontier is known for its appreciative beer subculture. The craft has been honored here and its processes mimicked in garages and storefronts alike. Alaska Beer Broads is an all-female, Alaska-based group consisting of beer enthusiasts from all over the state who connect and meet up at beer events to support local businesses and talk beer. D’Lany Nichols is their creator, and between podc...

Business and the economy are ever-changing in Alaska. As life becomes more expensive and old models of creating revenue streams are met with apprehensive resolve, two local entrepreneurs set out to change the business landscape of the Last Frontier. Sourdough Dan Morris is the owner of Alaskan Footprints food tours. He offers historical insight, humor and delicious delicacies in his treks, setting...

With winter coming on, maybe you need a cozy, creative activity you can do with friends that adds up to something beautiful? Poster for this year’s Great Alaska Quilt Show, their first after a 2-year absence. Photo courtesy of ALCQ. Today’s Hometown Alaska introduces the Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters Guild. Their unjuried annual Great Alaska Quilt Show is Sept. 17-18. With something like 100 quilts...

So, here’s one new thing: This fall, UAA, our hometown university campus, is offering its first marijuana information class, open to students and community members. How and why did the university decide now was the time to bring this topic to campus? We’ll meet the professor who successfully made the case. She’ll curate the course, using local subject experts to do the teaching. We’ll also meet a...

The night of Soviet killings of January 13, 1991 in Vilnius, Lithuania. An unarmed Lithuanian citizen stands against a Soviet tank. Wikimedia Commons image by photographer Andrius Petrulevicius, Lithuanian Central State. Svaja Worthington was only five years old in 1944 when her family walked away from their Lithuanian home in the face of Russian brutality. During World War II, Lithuania had been...

The Spenard area of Alaska is known for its eclecticism and diversity amongst its people, businesses, and artistic sensibilities. Long has it been the host of Tommy’s Burger Stop, Chilkoot Charlies, Center Bowl, and more currently The Drip, the city’s first black-owned coffee hut. It’s no wonder that this area specifically also openly celebrates American jazz culture, and has instituted an event t...

Used with permission from Anchor Gardens, a free mentoring service for gardeners aimed at building tighter neighborhoods and folks who know how to grow food. Depending on where you live, the snow is finally mostly gone. The sun is back, the earth is warming, we’ve had a little rain. The seed starts on the dining room table are about to climb out of their tiny four-packs and walk to your back yard...

Photo via Pexels The fight against youth homelessness oftentimes feels like an invisible war. We see adults commonly wandering the streets in makeshift families, on the path to survival and, ideally, long-term aid and access to shelter. Rarely, however, will we see teenagers on those same streets, as a lot of cases of homeless individuals under the age of eighteen go untracked and unreported. In A...

Graphic from World Health Organization in its public campaign against disinformation. Here’s a new word for you: infodemic. The World Health Organization coined the term and centered a recent global conference around coming to terms with a glut of mis- and dis-information that is harming public health. Click here for a full-size version of the poster . From the News Literacy Project. While this is...

Image from Flickr The month of April is many things to many people: Aries season, Easter eggs, spring cleaning. To a lot of people in Alaska, though, April is also Sobriety Awareness Month. Alaska’s history with alcoholism and recovery runs deep, and three local recovery heroes join host Justin Williams to share their encouraging experiences. HOST: Justin Williams GUESTS: Wes Brewington Blaze Bell...

Community Health Workers with the Alaska Primary Care Association are deeply involved in the communities where they work. As such, they can be trusted guides to help under-served communities find better access to healthcare. With each client, CHWs educate and offer information and access to Covid vaccines. (Photo courtesy of Alaska Primary Care Association) Community Health Workers are relatively...

The Fairview Community Recreation Center recently opened an indoor playground (Photo courtesy of Anchorage Parks and Recreation). The Fairview Community Recreational Center has been a community staple in the city for many years. The team behind the center bring a shining light into Fairview, and the recent inclusion of a new indoor playground is sure to leave an even brighter legacy for its reside...

Book cover of “Black History in the Last Frontier” by University of Alaska Anchorage history professor Ian Hartman. It’s February and Black History month is in full effect in Alaska. But what if educators here emphasized Black achievements and observed our darker history all year around? How would that affect economic diversity in Alaska, and raise the standard for how we observe and celebrate bla...

Former high school seniors Kayden King, Shaun Peter, and Thomas Phelan in Bethel. (Katie Basile/KYUK) On this week’s Hometown Alaska, Anchorage teens describe how they have suffered, endured, and even grown through living under the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll hear from teens at the Alaska Teen Media Institute, Covenant House and MHATS, which stands for Mental Health Advocacy Through Storytelling, a s...

Seawolf, logo for UAA athletics,courtesy of UAA. The UAA Women’s basketball program is elite. Conference champs, sweet 16 appearances, perennial national championship contender, and of course – mayhem! What makes them so successful? How much attention are they getting locally, and nationally? Should they be getting more attention given their success? And what does the future hold for UAA basketbal...

Andrea Noble, executive director of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, has one word for the Alaska artists and arts organizations now tackling Year Three of life under Covid: “Resilient. They just don’t quit.” On today’s Hometown Alaska, we’ll hear from five arts groups on how they have adapted and persisted. What lessons did they learn? How did they change their process? What worked, what didn...

Anchorage-based entrepreneur LeeAnna Chronister is a mother and artist who has operated several small businesses and community projects (Image provided by LeeAnna Chronister) The gig economy isn’t exactly a new income stream for individuals, but the paradigm shift of the market due to COVID and other factors have launched gig work and entrepreneurship into an undeniable macrolevel behemoth. One ar...

The opening image to a slideshow in Spanish aimed at providing accurate information to the Latin community on Covid and vaccinations. Find the full slideshow here . January 2022 marks the world’s third year working to overcome the Coronavirus pandemic. For many different and valid reasons, people hesitate to get vaccinated. Yet broad and successful vaccination rates are necessary to avoid giving t...

In this 2007 photo, a sailor shares his Thanksgiving meal with his baby son at a special event aboard the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan in San Diego. Storekeeper 1st Class Andy Zhang serves his son alongside 500 of his fellow crew members and their families during the special holiday event. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Camarynn Miller. Arguments over mandates, pandemic...

Red Cross nurses in the Philippines. (Photo via WikimediaCommons) If you’ve ever been to a hospital or a medical clinic or some type of medical facility, which most of us probably have, you may have noticed that a lot of health care workers are Filipino. They can be doctors, or home care providers, or some type of health care worker, but most of them are nurses. This is not just your imagination,...

The Anchorage landfill countdown on the municipality’s web page shows less than 50 years of capacity. Recycling and composting keeps reusable items out of the landfill. What do you need to know, and where can you find out? UPDATE: Since the recycling/composting program aired Monday morning, here’s a bit of useful info for Mat-Su Valley residents interested in curbside recycling. Alaska Waste began...