A New Angle

This week’s guests are Dakota Jones and Nate Bender. Dakota is the founder and Executive Director of Footprints Running Camp and Nate is Footprints’ Marketing Director. These two accomplished mountain athletes are working to empower the activist spirit in folks who enjoy spending time in wild places. Footprints not only takes campers on amazing adventures, but connects them with resources and skil...

This week’s guest is Stephanie Wittels Wachs, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Lemonada Media. Stephanie is host of the powerful podcast Last Day. Last Day investigates what’s killing us, and the just released Season 3 takes a hard look at gun violence and suicide in Montana. We discuss America’s complex relationship with guns, the role fear plays on all sides of the gun debate and the nee...

This week is our May edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which I speak with economist and friend Bryce Ward, about some of the broader challenges facing our society. This month we talk about social media: What is it doing to us? Can we — and our democracy — survive it? In this conversation, we discuss emerging science from experts on media addiction, new research that links so...

This week’s guest is Stef Sample, serial entrepreneur and founder of Fundid; an exciting new venture dedicated to getting capital to the nearly 96% of American business generating less than $1 million per year. And most of those small businesses are women-owned. In this conversation, we cover how Stef’s Montana roots has served her well in business, the structural barriers to loans for small busin...

This week’s guest is Mike Morelli, the newly minted Executive Director at Missoula Children’s Theater and Missoula Community Theater. In this conversation, we cover how Mike found his way to the stage, how Missoula Children’s Theater has weathered the pandemic, and how MCT continues to play out its mission in not only making the arts accessible but giving young people a platform and place in their...

Today we bring you a story of a man trying to escape from Afghanistan and the amazing people here in Montana trying to help. This is a live situation and this man and his family currently face grave risk. As a result, we don’t reveal his identity and I spoke with him on an encrypted channel from an undisclosed location. Following our conversation, I speak with Lisa Davey, a colleague of our friend...

This week is our April edition of Incentives and Instincts, a monthly series in which I speak with economist and friend, Bryce Ward, about some of the broader issues facing our society. In this conversation we cover cryptocurrency: what is it and what do you need to know about it? To help answer these questions, we are joined by Gian Volpicelli, senior writer at WIRED and author of Cryptocurrency:...

This week’s guest is Heidi Beck-Heser, manager and Candy Chef at Phillipsburg's legendary Sweet Palace. Heidi is a stalwart advocate for the Phillipsburg community and she and her family have been at the center of the town's transformation following the closure of mines and sawmills. In this conversation, we cover Heidi’s path to running the family business, the unique challenges Phillipsburg face...

This week’s guests are all here to speak with us about an upcoming Montana event: the International Wildlife Film Festival. IWFF’s mission is to promote awareness, knowledge, and understanding of wildlife, habitat, people, and nature through excellence in film. To talk about the 45th edition of the festival, I’m joined today by Carrie Richer, artistic director, Rosh Patel, a Final Juror this year...

This week’s guests are Stephanie Land, author of the NYTimes best-selling memoir Maid; Steph Goble: Executive Director of Mountain Home; and Jill Hope, a young mother working her way through the challenges of creating a stable and secure environment in which to raise her son. In this conversation, we talk about the hard work and deep experiences of these women and discuss how Mountain Home and oth...

This week is our March edition of Incentives and Instincts, a monthly series in which I speak with economist and friend, Bryce Ward, about some of the broader issues facing our society. It's pledge week here at Montana Public Radio, we're going to talk today about the value of public media to a democratic society: the place it holds in society past and present, how it supports political discourse,...

This week’s guest is Mara Silvers of Montana Free Press. Mara and her colleagues have teamed up with Montana Public Radio and Yellowstone Public Radio to produce a second season of the amazing Shared State, a podcast about the strange political moment we're living through. Season one went deep on the meaning of Montana values in the lead up to the 2020 election. Season two, which just released, ex...

This week we speak with Sarah Vowell and Brad Tyer. Sarah is a bestselling author, journalist and doer of many awesome things. Brad is an editor at Montana Free Press and manager of the newsroom. These two have teamed up to produce some special content to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Montana State Constitution and explore some of the amazing stories behind its creation. On March 22, the d...

This week’s guest is novelist, journalist and podcaster, Chad Dundas. Chad earned his undergraduate and MFA degrees from the University of Montana and has published two acclaimed novels - champion of the world and the blaze. He’s covered sports for prominent outlets such as ESPN, The Athletic, and the Associated Press. In 2020, Chad and his brother Zack teamed up with another sibling pair Erika an...

This week’s guest is retired Brigadier General Colleen McGuire. Missoula-born and UM educated, General McGuire retired from the US Army in 2012 after an illustrious 32-year career, one in which she accomplished many firsts; the first woman to head the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command and become the Provost Marshal General. Following her critical work in addressing sexual assault and mental he...

This week’s guest is Ross Douthat, opinion columnist for the New York Times and author of several books on various topics including religion, American Decadence, and his experience with chronic Lyme Disease. In this conversation, we cover the change of conservatism and economic interests over the past few decades, and how Trumpism affected the interests of bi-partisan politics. Ross will be joinin...

This week’s episode is our February 2022 edition of incentives and instincts...a recurring series in which I speak with economist and friend, Bryce Ward, about some of the broader issues facing our society. In this episode we are joined by medical ethicist and University of Montana philosophy professor, Mark Hanson, to discuss the transition to a more normal coexistence with COVID-19 and how we sh...

This week’s guest is Andrew Connor, Director of the Center for Community Ownership, and organization that provides legal, financial and strategic help to communities that want to start and save essential local businesses. Andrew also helped launch CrowdFund Montana, a web-based resource that connects Montana businesses and organizations with Montanans who want to make local investments. In this co...

This week’s guest is Dr. Naomi Oreskes, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. Naomi is an internationally renowned earth scientist, historian, and author on the history of earth and environmental science, including most recently, Why Trust Science? and Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean. Dr. Oreskes...

This week’s guest is Dayna Swanson, System Director of Governance at Bozeman Health. Dayna is relatively new to this role after serving as Director of Government Relations for Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and State Director for US Senator Jon Tester. Dayna is passionate about public service and has come home to Montana to work in healthcare during an especially challenging time. In this conversati...

This week’s episode is our January 2022 edition of incentives and instincts...a recurring series in which I speak with economist and friend, Bryce Ward, about some of the broader issues facing our society. To kick off the new year, we’re bringing you our first annual prediction show. In this conversation, we cover our 2022 predictions for education, the economy, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as w...

This week’s guest is Dustin Lind, Director of Hitting and the Assistant Hitting Coach for the San Francisco Giants. Dustin is a graduate of UM’s school of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, and we’re grateful to chat with him in the off season during a visit to his home state of Montana. In this conversation, we cover how the intersection of his passion, ability, and the market- by way o...

This week’s guest is Ryan Busse, former senior executive in the firearms industry. Ryan's new book, Gunfight, is an intimate and revealing account of his experience in that industry, his growing disillusionment with it and his ultimate exit. In this conversation, we talk about rural household gun culture, the symbolism assault rifles take on in political division, and the rights and responsibiliti...

Today’s guest is Tailyr Irvine, a Salish and Kootenai photo journalist from the Flathead Indian Reservation. She is a National Geographic Explorer and her work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, ESPN, CNN and the Smithsonian, among other prominent outlets. Tailyr is especially interested in representing the diversity within Native America and complex issues facing tribal com...

This week’s guest is the one and only J.K. Simmons, Academy Award winning actor and 1978 graduate of the University Montana. J.K. was recently in Missoula to film The Woods, a thriller he stars in, co-written and produced by his wife, Michelle Schumacher. J.K.’s reel of film and television credits is long and distinguished and he currently has two films in theaters: Being the Ricardos and National...