The AnchorED City

BTS: 31 – The Alaska Myth w/ Kaitlin Armstrong May 26, 2025 Alaskans are serious about who is a real Alaskan and who isn’t. The pursuit of understanding who is a real Alaskan is more often than not tied to a Frontier mentality and the legend that has been created around the 49th State. The mythology of Alaska is the topic of the award-winning podcast The Alaska Myth. On this episode we talk with K...

The Dashboard Diaries #1: Greenville, SC May 19, 2025   Alaska feels a bit removed from the rest of the United States because it is separated from the contiguous 48 states by a minimum of 500 mile. Anchorage is even further away. That distance can leave residents not only distinct and different, but often detached. It can be hard for Alaskans to feel connected to the rest of the country. I recentl...

The Dashboard Diaries – Starting May 19 May 16, 2025   This summer on the AnchorED City Podcast we are proud to present The Dashboard Diaries. During this four-part mini-series we will connect with Anchorage’s soul through her histories, stories, and people by connecting to places along the road from our drive across this vast land of ours. The series starts May 19.].,   #anchoredcity https://anch...

The Dashboard Diaries – Coming Soon May 12, 2025   This summer on the AnchorED City Podcast we are proud to present The Dashboard Diaries. This four-part mini-series connects with Anchorage’s soul through her histories, stories, and people by connecting to places along the road from a nearly coast-to-coast drive across the vast lower 48. #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook....

ACCEE Series #3: w/ Trevor Storrs & Jessica Simonsen April 21, 2025 Last year we talked twice with members of the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education Fund implementation team. During 2024 they were doing research, hearing from the community, and making recommendations to the Anchorage Assembly about how to spend the $5 million dollars of marijuana tax money earmarked for Child Care and Ea...

Back on April of this year I talked with members of the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education Fund implementation team. At that time they were doing research and hearing from the community about how to spend the $5 million dollars of marijuana tax money earmarked for Child Care and Early Education made possible by Proposition 14 in 2023. They have now arrived at their recommendations for the Ma...

There have been a good number of Major Leaguers to have their start in Alaska playing summer college baseball. Only two are in the Hall of Fame – Tom Seaver and Dave Winfield. But before there ever was summer college baseball in the state, one Hall of Fame player spent a part of their early career in Alaska. For that story we need to go back to 1946.   #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https:...

The neighborhood of Fairview, on the Northside of Anchorage, is considered one of Anchorage’s original four neighborhoods along with Downtown, South Addition and Mountain View.  However, what is less known is that Fairview was once its own individual town independent of Anchorage. Today most Anchorage residents don’t think about Fairview too much. In fact most residents only interact with this nei...

Anchorage has its first elected female mayor. In light of the election of Suzaane LaFrance as Anchorage’s mayor we are returning to a previous episode - S2:E10: Anchorage, Boston, Elections and All Male Mayors – which outlines the city’s history of electing only men to the Anchorage’s top office.   #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook.com/AnchorageUTC @AnchorageUTC   Resourc...

In April of 2023 Anchorage Voters passed Proposition 14 by a 12-point margin. That proposition dedicates marijuana tax money to child care and early child care education – estimated to be between $4 & $6 million per year. These funds seem to come at just the right time. Due to the scarcity of programs as well as the cost of care and lack of high-quality child care means that 51% of Alaskan fam...

Fentanyl is a dangerous drug that is killing Alaskans. In a report released in September of 2023 about drug overdose deaths in Alaska it was noted that “Fentanyl was involved in four out of five opioid overdose deaths, and many of these fentanyl-involved overdose deaths involved an additional substance, such as methamphetamine or heroin.” On this episode we hear a series of short talks from paneli...

Fentanyl is a dangerous drug that is killing Alaskans. In a report released in September of 2023 about drug overdose deaths in Alaska it was noted that “Fentanyl was involved in four out of five opioid overdose deaths, and many of these fentanyl-involved overdose deaths involved an additional substance, such as methamphetamine or heroin.” On this episode we hear remarks from an FBI Special Agent r...

St Francis of Assisi is quoted as saying, “Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” On this episode we end season 4 by considering how each of us moves forward into doing the impossible.   #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook.com/AnchorageUTC @AnchorageUTC   Resources Used to Make This Episode: www.brainyquote.com/...

Chef Joe Hickel has created his last gingerbread village and it gives us a way to make our city a better place.   https://www.captaincookchristmas.com/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hotel-Captain-Cook/121352828027525 @thehotelcaptaincook   #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook.com/AnchorageUTC @AnchorageUTC   Resources Used to Make This Episode: https://www.adn.com/alaska-li...

On this episode we ask “What is Possible?” in the area of homelessness and receive two creative, community-based responses from Pastors Undra Parker and Matt Shultz.   https://www.shilohmbcalaska.org/ https://www.facebook.com/shiloh.alaska.5   https://firstpresanchorage.org/ https://www.facebook.com/FPChurchAnch @fpchurchanch   https://christianhealth.org   #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org h...

Driving through the through Anchorage it’s nearly impossible to not see our unhoused neighbors. In light of our current situation I wondered how long Anchorage has had people experiencing homelessness. To answer that question I dove into the Anchorage Daily News archives and began looking for the first reference to homelessness as we understand it today. What I found was interesting.   #anchoredci...

The day after Thanksgiving in 2018 a bullet fired in a drive-by shooting struck Krystal Kompkoff while she was attending a party at a friend’s house. On this episode Krystal shares her journey of healing from violence.   #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook.com/AnchorageUTC @AnchorageUTC

According to US News and World Report Anchorage, Alaska is the #3 most dangerous place to live in the United States. Alaska has had the reputation and reality of violence since the early days of the territory. On this episode we consider a couple of serial killers from Alaska’s past and Anchorage’s most violent year.     #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook.com/AnchorageUTC...

Underground crime is not a thing of the past in Anchorage. One of those crimes is human trafficking. Join me on this episode as I talk with Josie Heyano of Signify Consulting, about what is possible in the area of human trafficking. Heyano is a Presidentially appointed member of the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, a formal platform to advise and make recommendations on federal...

Anchorage has always had an underground of illegal activity. Those activities might have literally taken place underground in tunnels or basement bars, or they could have figuratively been underground thinly veiled behind words like “resort” or “boarding house.” On this episode we explore some of Anchorage’s underground past.   #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook.com/Anchor...

On this episode we consider what is possible in the area of substance misuse as we talk about recovery with Tiffany Hall. She shares with us her story of addiction and recovery. Hall is the Executive Director of Recover Alaska and the vice chair of the board of the U.S. Alcohol Policy Alliance.   https://recoveralaska.org/ https://www.facebook.com/recoveralaska https://www.instagram.com/recoverala...

On this episode we will turn our attention to two different historical stories about mind altering substances…one the legal sale of beer, and the other, Alaska’s long history of semi-legal and legal marijuana.   #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook.com/AnchorageUTC @AnchorageUTC   Resources Used to Make This Episode:   Hear Bill Howell read the section of Alaska Beer: Liquid...

It can often feel like racism and racial bias are impossible to overcome. Rev. Dr. Patricia Wilson-Cone joins us on this episode to help us consider what is possible in the area of racism and racial bias. Wilson-Cone is a pastor, scholar, chaplain trainer, and author. Her book Multicultural Diversity: Opening Our Hearts was released in 2019.   https://www.facebook.com/FirstAmericanBaptistChurch/  ...

When Lin-Manuel Miranda said of his hit musical “This is a story about America then, told by America now” he could not have known how much that connects with the history of Anchorage. When Alaskans packed the Alaska Performing Arts Center to see Hamilton recently many did not know how that building represents the city’s resistance to the diversity of America and Anchorage now.   #anchoredcity http...

Over the past three years we have explored the issues facing Anchorage, the places where things are, or are becoming, the way they are supposed to be for all people, and the hydra that is homelessness. In season 4 we will consider “What is possible?”   #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook.com/AnchorageUTC @AnchorageUTC   Resources Used to Make This Episode: https://www.npr.o...