Send us a text Alaska State House Representative for West Anchorage Carolyn Hall got an internship with the Boston Red Sox during her senior year of college in New Hampshire. This led to her dream job working for the team as a videographer during their World Series win in 2004. In 2008 she branched into TV journalism getting her first job with a sm…

Send us a text Former Alaska State Senator and Iraq war veteran Josh Revak was born and raised in Minnesota. While serving in the Army in the early 2000s, a mortar blast in Iraq blew a quarter-sized hole through the back of his foot. He then got his first job in politics back in Minnesota working on John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. Then, w…

Send us a text Deko Harbi, Shannon Smith, and Tali Stone are former Alaska foster youth. All three recently visited the Capitol in Juneau as part of a trip organized by Facing Foster Care in Alaska. Facing Foster Care in Alaska is a nonprofit organization that provides foster youth and alumni opportunities to share their lived experience about life…

Send us a text Alaska State House Representative Kevin McCabe of Big Lake landed in Kodiak with the Coast Guard in 1981. He raised his three sons there before he began work as a pilot. That work took him to East Anchorage and eventually to Big Lake. He and his wife Linn entered politics as supporters of Sarah Palin for governor in the mid-2000s. Du…

Send us a text Mindy O’Neall is the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly Chair and the Executive Director of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center. CCHRC is a non-profit organization located near the Univerity of Alaska Fairbanks that for the past 25 years has advanced building solutions for healthier, more resilient homes in cold climates. Pri…

Send us a text Rep. Andrew Gray is the usual host of this podcast, but in this episode he is the guest. He is interviewed by his Legislative Aide Kyle Johansen at the request of his other legislative aide Claire Bredar in honor of her birthday. Gray was first elected to the Alaska State House in 2022 to represent the U-Med district. Outside the leg…

Send us a text Legislative Lobbyist Reed Stoops moved to Alaska in 1971 after his youth on the East Coast. He worked as a Committee Aide to Kay Poland in the State Senate and then took a job in the Department of Natural Resources in Gov. Jay Hammond's Administration. During Gov. Bill Sheffield's Administration, he began legislative lobbying, and in…

Send us a text Alaska State House Representative Jubilee Underwood of Wasilla lost the August 2024 primary to the incumbent Representative David Eastman. Few folks thought that she had a chance of winning that race, but come November, Underwood defeated Eastman. She is now here in Juneau forging a new path for her community. Prior to running for th…

Send us a text Michael Rovito is the deputy director of the Alaska Power Association (APA). The Alaska Power Association is the statewide trade association that represents the electric utilities that supply power to more than a half-million Alaskans. As part of his duties with APA, Michael hosts a podcast called, "Alaska Powerline," which talks abo…

Send us a text Alaska State Senator Rob Yundt was born and raised in Wasilla and stumbled into wrestling as a 7th grader. Little did he know that wrestling would change his life ultimately leading to a career as a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter with a professional record of 9 wins and five losses – his UFC match against Ricardo Almeida in …

Send us a text Alaska State Senator Matt Claman first laid eyes on Alaska while working as a cook for a mining company the summer before his senior year of college. After law school, he made his way back to Alaska settling in Anchorage. In the mid 2000s he was elected to the Anchorage Assembly and was elevated to Chair at the start of his second ye…

Send us a text Dr. Brock Wilson is the newest faculty at UAA’s Institute of Social And Economic Research (ISER). Brock recently earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Oregon where his primary area of study was labor economics. His most important published work is on pension generosity and its effect on hiring and keeping workers. It was…

Send us a text Alaska State House Representative Bill Elam of Kenai and Nikiski served for almost six years on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly before running for the open House seat created when former Rep. Ben Carpenter ran for the Alaska State Senate. It wasn’t an easy race: Carpenter endorsed Elam’s opponent, and Elam lost the August primar…

Send us a text Representative Frank Tomaszewski of Fairbanks got his start in local politics opposing a plan by North Star Borough Mayor Luke Hopkins to build a parking lot near Frank’s home. He ran for the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly in 2019 and served until 2022. He then ran against Luke Hopkins' son Grier Hopkins who was serving in the…

Send us a text Anchorage Attorney Pat Galvin grew up in southern California and hoped to be a sports agent. He never intended to be an attorney, to live in Alaska, nor work in state government. But as a relatively young lawyer he got a job in Governor Tony Knowles'’s administration as the Director of Governmental Coordination in the Office of the G…

Send us a text Sarah Vance spent her early life in north Texas and Oklahoma before moving to Homer, Alaska, at age 10. She had not paid much attention to politics until a 2017 Homer City Council resolution to make Homer a sanctuary city for immigrants. Sarah helped mobilize against the resolution and led a recall election against the three city cou…

Send us a text Alaska State Refugee Coordinator Issa Spatrisano does her work through Catholic Social Services' Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services (RAIS), which is the resettlement agency for the state of Alaska. RAIS connects newly arrived refugees with housing, jobs, and other services that weave them into the Alaska community. A refugee…

Send us a text Former Alaska State Senate Minority Leader Hollis French moved to Alaska from Colorado when he was 20 to work in the oil industry. After earning a law degree, he worked as a prosecutor and then, when the opportunity presented itself, ran for the state Senate, winning on his second try in 2002. He unsuccessfully ran for governor in 20…

Send us a text Bronson Frye is the Alaska representative for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, local 1959. At age 19, he apprenticed in Anchorage with the union as a painter after growing up in Homer. Bronson became the union rep in 2007 and has remained deeply involved in workers' rights and politics ever since, which is a sur…

Send us a text Dr. Mimi Benjamin has been a family practice physician for over 35 years, the last 14 in Juneau. She is the former Medical Director and creator of the Bartlett Regional Hospital Hospitalist program, which started in 2017. She is the 2018 recipient of the Golden Stethoscope award from the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Associa…

Send us a text After 29 years at the Alaska Literacy Program, Lori Pickett recently retired and handed off the executive director responsibility to Deepika Ramesh Perumal. Both women are interviewed on the show today where we discuss their lives and what brought them to ALP. The Anchorage Literacy Program started 50 years ago in 1974 as an all-volu…

Send us a text Megan Edge is the Prison Project Director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska. At age 19, Megan got her first job in a newsroom, and she worked as a journalist for seven years covering local Anchorage issues, state politics, military affairs, the Iditarod, and most relevant to today’s conversation, crime and courts. In 20…

Send us a text Writer and former Anchorage Assembly member Charles Wohlforth is the author of more than ten books and numerous articles about science and the environment, politics and history, medicine, travel, and as-told-to biography including his 2012, To Russia with Love, with Vic Fischer. His book, The Whale and the Supercomputer, won the L.A.…

Send us a text Former Alaska State House Representative Kyle Johansen was first elected to represent his hometown of Ketchikan in 2006. Two years later he became the Majority Leader in the Republican-led House. After being re-elected as Majority Leader in 2010 he left the caucus in protest of a committee leadership decision which he now sees as a h…

Send us a text Michelle Macuar Sparck is the director of strategic initiatives of the organization Get out the Native Vote. Get out the Native Vote is a non-partisan effort in Alaska to mobilize Alaska Native and American Indian Voters. Michelle Sparck is a member of the Qissunamiut Tribe of Chevak but grew up in Bethel. After graduating from Bethe…

Send us a text Michelle Turner is an environmental scientist who serves as the president of the Anchorage Democrats. Her day job is as a Principal Scientist with over 25 years of professional experience providing analysis and strategic advice under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for a local environmental consultancy firm. Her work inc…

Send us a text Tom Pittman is the new Executive Director of Identity Inc. which was established in 1977 as the Alaskan Gay Community Center. Over the years, Identity has had different roles and purposes within the Alaska LGBTQIA2S+ community but has always sought to provide a safe haven for the queer community. In 2021, Identity merged with Full Sp…

Send us a text Maija Katak Lukin served as Mayor of Kotzebue in 2015 when President Barack Obama visited. She later became superintendent of the National Park Service’s Western Arctic National Parklands. She is now the Native Relations Program Manager for the National Park’s Service’s Region 11 which encompasses Alaska. We discuss her early life, h…

Send us a text Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal is the author of the 2017 book, An American Sickness: how healthcare became big business and how you can take it back. The Washington Post describes the book as: “An authoritative account of the distorted financial incentives that drive medical care in the United States . . . Every lawmaker and administration …

Send us a text Ron Hoffman is the lead pastor of Mountain City Church, formerly known as the Anchorage Baptist Temple. Anchorage Baptist was founded in 1956 by Pastor Don White under the name Baptist Bible Church. The church by whatever name has been a launching pad for conservative Republican politicians in Alaska for decades, and with its 2500 me…

Send us a text Writer Tom Kizzia's eight-part series on the first white settler girl born in American Alaska concludes today in the Anchorage Daily News. “Josie’s Story" tells the story of the life of Josie Rudolph who was born in Sitka in 1869 to German Jewish parents but moved back to Germany when she was still a child. 69 years later in Nurember…

Send us a text Today our guest is former Lieutenant Governor Fran Ulmer. She moved from Wisconsin to Alaska over 50 years ago and has spent much of that time in public service at the local, state, and national levels. She is the former chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, appointed by President Obama in March 2011 and serves on the Nationa…

Send us a text Jenny Fayette is the immediate past president of the Alaska Academy of Physician Assistants. She is a graduate of the only physician assistant training program in Alaska, the MEDEX program which is a partnership with the University of Washington and the University of Alaska Anchorage. Prior to going to PA school, Jenny was an exercis…

Send us a text Lisa Aquino is the CEO of the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center (ANHC). Before taking over that organization in 2021, she was the Executive Director of Catholic Social Services for seven years. She has a Masters in Health Sciences degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center…

Send us a text Dr. Bill Sage is the Assistant Vice President of the Texas A&M Health Science Center, a professor of Medicine at the Texas A& M University School of Medicine, and a professor of Law at Texas A& M University School of Law. He has published hundreds of papers over the decades on health law and policy, and he has edited four books inclu…

Send us a text Retired Alaska Superior Court Judge Elaine Andrews moved to Alaska in 1976 immediately upon graduating from law school. Her first job as a lawyer was with the Alaska Judicial Council, which is tasked with vetting new judges and with deciding whether or not to recommend sitting judges for retention. In Alaska, a judge must be at least…

Send us a text Kendra Sticka, PhD, RDN, is the Executive Director of healthEconnect Alaska, the state-designated health information exchange (HIE). In this role, she spearheads the HIE's strategic growth and operations, including its continued expansion into underserved rural and urban communities. Dr. Sticka has worked in Alaska healthcare for mor…

Send us a text Rev. Matt Schultz has been the Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in downtown Anchorage for eleven years. We discuss what Christian Nationalism is and why it’s dangerous. We also talk about Matt’s childhood, what brought him to the ministry, and how he came to be a liberal in both politics and theology. Rev. Schultz is leading class…

Send us a text Dr. Lawrence Weiss founded the Masters in Public Health program and was instrumental in starting the Alaska Native Studies program at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He has a PhD in Sociology from SUNY Binghamton, but it was his postdoctoral Masters degree from Harvard in Occupational Health that moved him to Anchorage in the ear…

Send us a text Dr. Anne Zink served as the Chief Medical Officer for the state of Alaska in Governor Dunleavy’s administration from 2019 until the Spring of 2024. She is a practicing emergency room physician who served as the emergency department medical director of the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center from 2010 to 2018. She received her medical degr…

Send us a text Rep. Jennie Armstrong of West Anchorage was first elected to the Alaska State House in 2022 but is not running for re-election. Instead, she will continue running the two companies that she founded and dedicate more time to her young family. In this Labor Day episode, she shares insights into managing staff that she has gleaned from …

Send us a text Tom Begich is a former Alaska State Senate Minority Leader. After a life-long career as a singer-songwriter and political advisor, he first ran for office in 2016 to for the state senate seat held by Johnny Ellis representing downtown Anchorage. Tom did not run for re-election in 2022, but instead set up his staffer Löki Tobin to tak…

Send us a text The Alaska Delegation to the 2024 Democratic National Convention consisted of 19 voting delegates, but also party officials, pages, and others, who all traveled to Chicago last week. This episode is an attempt to capture their impressions of the convention immediately upon their return to Alaska. The guests (in order of their appeara…

Send us a text Representative Zack Fields has represented downtown Anchorage in the Alaska state house for the past 6 years. He began his work in Alaska in 2012 doing political work first through the AFL/CIO and later as communications director for the Alaska Democratic Party. In Governor Bill Walker's administration, he served as Workforce Develop…

Send us a text Jenna Wright is the president and CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation. AEDC exists for three reasons: to encourage economic growth and diversity in Anchorage to promote a favorable business climate to raise Anchorage residents’ standard of living. The corporation is funded through private contributions, municipal & …

Send us a text Erin Baldwin Day is the founder of the Mutual Aid Network of Anchorage (MANA) and an organizer of the Anchorage Housing Club. Mutual aid is collective coordination to ensure that the basic needs of all of our neighbors are met, acknowledging that our existing social support systems are not enough to meet those needs. MANA works with …

Send us a text Arianna Bellizzi is the new Executive Director of Anchorage’s Federation of Community Councils. We talk about her background, how she came to this job, and the history of Anchorage’s community council system. We also discuss the current state of community councils in our city and potential ways for improving them. Find your community…

Send us a text Soldotna City Council member Lisa Parker became at the age of 19 the youngest person in Alaska to achieve elected office when she won her election to the Anchorage Charter Commission. In 1975 that commission unified the City of Anchorage with the Borough of Anchorage into the municipality that it is today. Like our guest last week, J…

Send us a text Anchorage Charter Commission member Jane Angvik ran for the Anchorage Charter Commission not too long after she had moved to Anchorage in 1973. What she had learned during her time working for the Greater Anchorage Borough Planning Department was that the City of Anchorage and the Borough of Anchorage hated each other – they couldn’t…

Send us a text Jane Angvik was an Anchorage Charter Commission member who drafted the founding document that unified the city and borough of Anchorage in 1975. On July 1, 2024, she administered the oath of office at the inauguration of Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance. Jane has spent her life in service to Alaska whether at her first job for the An…