We Are Chaffee Podcast

Angie Jenson was brought up in the Mormon church and, when she was a young woman, she sought excommunication from The Church. She talks with Adam Williams about why she felt that was necessary and about the formal exit interview that she went through to make it happen. They talk about her 20+ years of solo international traveling, and how that traveling has influenced her spiritual growth, includi...

This crossover episode features Adam Williams, host of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream, as a guest on Ryan Short’s (co-founder of CivicBrand) Eyes on the Street podcast. ( Ryan was a guest on Looking Upstream recently .) In this episode from Eyes on the Street, Ryan and Adam talk about community storytelling and how it can be a catalyst for change. Adam shares insights about Looking Upstream and...

Dr. Erica Gift is a professor of psychology at California State University in Northridge. She also informally is a botanist, and is a community educator on wild foods and bioregional herbalism. She talks with Adam Williams about how she weaves her knowledge and passions for nature, food and psychology together. They also talk about rewilding, the science behind meditation and Erica’s “pathological...

Ryan Heckart talks with Adam Williams about barbering history, the fall of barbershops through the late 20th century (thanks Beatles!) and the rise again in more recent years.  He tells the story of his barber shop, which he recently opened in Cockeyed Liz’s old brothel, and why he named the shop Green Street when it’s actually located on Main Street in Buena Vista, Colo. And why when he opened hi...

Chris White, founder and builder of Yurts at Poncha Pass, grew up in Santa Fe, left to become a marine biologist and oceanographer who studied gray whales in British Columbia and bottlenose dolphins and wave energy in Peru, and has since moved to the mountains of Colorado to build an earthship and a sustainable community. He talks about all that with Adam Williams in this conversation, as well as...

Stacey Joslin is executive director of the Chaffee County affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Dr. Elizabeth Ruggiero is a systemic therapist. Both have extraordinary personal experiences that influence their insights on mental wellbeing. They talk with Adam Williams about what’s missing in how we think about and experience therapy, and why it goes against the grain of conventiona...

Derek Scott talks with Adam Williams about skateboarding culture, history and music. They talk about the failure and perseverance that’s a necessary part of skating. And about how a kid growing up in Salida, Colo., with not a lot of skating terrain became a competition skater traveling and winning his way to a pro career. They also talk about Derek’s dad, Michael, who died last November and was a...

Debbie Cassidy talks with Adam Williams about generational family trauma that includes violence, tragedy and mental illness. There is great loss, grief and, in Debbie’s words, “a lot of bad decisions,” including drug addiction.  But there also is a story of divine epiphany and a triumph of the spirit to overcome those obstacles. It’s a remarkable hero’s journey. Adam talks with Debbie about having...

Read McCulloch is executive director of the Chaffee Housing Trust. He talks with Adam Williams about housing affordability, how we got to this state of housing affordability crisis and deed-restricted housing vs. the community land trust model. Read also addresses: Are the local building processes and policies we have in place what we need them to be? How do short-term rentals factor into the equa...

Ryan Short co-founded CivicBrand with his wife Banner during shaky economic times and a pivotal family moment in 2008. He talks with Adam Williams about making such bold and unconventional decisions. They also talk about CivicBrand’s pioneering work in city branding and placemaking, and the “locals first” approach that is about helping communities to become the best version of themselves. Among ot...

Tim Brown probably is most known for his tintype photography these days. But he also had many exciting years of globe-traveling as a rarely skilled kayaker-slash-adventure photographer. He talks about both with Adam.  As well as his dive into the mid-19th century techniques of tintype photography after opportunities for adventure photography dried up with the rise of digital technologies. Tim also...

Ken Brandon seems to be a kind of philosophical Stoic, Buddhist, absurdist Spartan, who is known for riding a bicycle around Salida, Colo., while wearing a giraffe head and a three-piece suit. And yet he describes himself as “boring.” Ken also is a designer, a painter and a screenwriter, and he’s the creator of Box of Bubbles in Salida, Colo. Adam talks with Ken about his “boring” approach to life...

Anna Heinauer is an integrative nutrition health coach and she’s co-owner of The Lettucehead Food Company. Host Adam Williams talks with Anna about many things nutrition. Like, what is it, really? And why should we care about it? They talk about the value of local food sources and the costs of short- versus long-term nutritional choices. They also talk about why the food pyramid chart that so many...

In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Jon Pray and Ken Matthews join host Adam Williams for half-interview, half-coffee chat. Ken hosted a radio show called Chaffee Housing Report for several years. Jon was the radio engineer behind the scenes on that show as he often is for Looking Upstream. Adam pulls back the curtain to learn more about each of these guests and to get th...

In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Julie Speer Jackson, Emmy Award-winning documentary director and producer. Julie talks about how she went from studying biochemistry in French, while a college student in Brussels, Belgium, to theater and eventually a career in filmmaking. She and Adam talk about her innovative DocuReach approach to making films...

In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Michael and Carrie Fox, a married musical duo that perform as Known Odyssey. Michael also is a poet and video artist. Carrie also is a writer, music therapist and grief counselor. Carrie has published writing about grief and loss. She was a music therapist for hospice patients for years, and she lost her dad to...

In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Thuy Nguyen, a poet, writer and speaker on self-empowerment. Thuy came up in a cult-like religious environment. When she was a teen, she was preyed upon by a church leader and, ultimately, shunned by that community. Adam talks with Thuy about those experiences, how she broke free from the church, and what she’s...

In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Mahting Putelis. Mahting grew up in a Latvian community in Kalamazoo, MI. It was extraordinarily formative, and is a source of great pride for Mahting. Adam talks with him about that upbringing and community, and its influences on him. They also talk about Mahting’s history with photography, the realities of try...

In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Jason Marsden, executive director of the Greater Arkansas River Nature Association (GARNA). Adam talks with Jason about his early years growing up on a farm, his studying post-WWII poetry at Harvard, and his time as an environmental reporter at the Casper Star-Tribune. They also talk about the state of journalis...

In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Silvana Montero. Silvana, a road cyclist, recounts the harrowing experience of when she was hit from behind by a motorist driving more than 45 miles per hour – and the seemingly divine instruction she heard in that instant that might have saved her life. That accident led to the first of two traumatic brain inju...

In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Jennifer Dempsey, founder of the Salida (Colo.) Circus and former director of the Belfast Community Circus in Northern Ireland. They talk about what a social circus is and the good it serves in a community. They talk about what it was like for Jenn to live in Belfast for 12 years, using the circus as a tool for...

In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Shane McNeil, singer-songwriter-guitarist, auto mechanic and jack-of-all-trades. In this conversation, Adam talks with Shane about tattoos and Shane’s autobiographical song, “Guy with the Chevy Tattoo.” They talk about the early influences in Shane’s life, including straight-edge punk rock music and the ethos...

n this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Gloria Esparza, an 18-year-old high school senior and a youth advisor through Chaffee County (Colo.) Family & Youth Initiatives. Adam talks with Gloria about her upbringing in a home with three generations and two languages, teen mental health, loss of identity as an athlete due to significant injuries and...

In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Thordis Simonsen, the founding director and curator of the Museum of Authenticity in Salida, Colo. Thordis is a painter, photographer, writer and curator. She’s the author of three books, including “You May Plow Here.” In this conversation, Adam talks with Thordis about how she came to leave a career as a sch...

In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Ray Nypaver. Ray is a nature-based psychotherapist and running coach, essayist and poet whose newest book is “Light & Dark: Reflections on the Human Experience.” Ray studied at Naropa, a Buddhist-inspired university in Boulder, Colorado. She and Adam delve into matters of spirituality, and how to live as...