Send us a text Today's episode is part of a series called "Leaving America," about folks who have decided to move outside the country and how they did it. Our guest is Joanna Keenan. Jo and I worked together in Santa Cruz, California. We were both physician assistants in the same emergency department at the local hospital there. Eight years ago Jo and her spouse Kelly retired to Mexico. Five years ago, Joanna came out as a trans woman. We discuss our shared experience working in America...

Send us a text As a 13-year-old, former Alaska State House Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins headed Vermont Governor Howard Dean's 2004 Presidential campaign in Alaska. He immersed himself in all things political as a high school student, but gave up politics when he got to college at Yale. During his junior year, he was contacted by several people encouraging him to return home to Sitka to run against the incumbent Republican serving in the state house seat, co-chair of the powerful Hou...

Send us a text This Christmas morning US Senator Lisa Murkowski discusses her book that came out last summer, Far From Home: An Alaskan Senator Faces the Extreme Climate of Washington, DC. And, although much of what we speak about is from the book, we also discuss her vote on HR 1 (referred to by President Donald Trump as the "One Big Beautiful Bill"), her concerns about the use of the National Guard, and the insurrection that happened on January 6, 2021. The co-writer of Far from Home ...

Send us a text After a childhood in east Anchorage, Andrew Halcro worked his way up in his family's Avis Rental Car business eventually becoming CEO in 2002 after leaving the state house where he had served for four years representing the Sand Lake district of west Anchorage. After an unsuccessful gubernatorial run in 2006, he continued a popular political blog until he became the president of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce in 2012. In 2015 he unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Anchorage losi...

Send us a text Minnesota State House Representative Rick Hansen was first elected to represent South St. Paul in the Minnesota State House in 2004 along with his colleague Melissa Hortman who represented northern Minneapolis and went on to serve as Speaker of the Minnesota House for 6 years. On June 14, 2025, Melissa and her husband Mark were assassinated when they opened their front door to a man impersonating a police officer. The man had come from Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman's hom...

Send us a text John Heilman is a West Hollywood city council member and former mayor. West Hollywood was incorporated as a city in 1984, and John was elected to the first city council and has been serving almost continuously ever since. He is a lecturer at the University of Southern California's law school where he was voted adjunct professor of the year in 2008, 2010, and 2016. He is also a professor at Southwestern Law School where he has been elected a professor of the year for the past 5 ...

Send us a text Laura Norton-Cruz is a licensed master social worker, former teacher & victim advocate, artist, and mother of two elementary-aged children. Over the past two years, she has co-produced three documentaries with filmmaker Joshua Albeza Branstetter. The first, “At Home/In Home: Rural Alaska Childcare crisis,” was based in Kotzebue and highlighted the dire lack of childcare in that community. The second, released in April 2025, was called, “ILP,” and focused on the infant learn...

Send us a text Dr. Kathy McCue is an emergency medicine physician who first visited Alaska as a medical student in 1999. For 2 decades she staffed Anchorage ERs, mainly at the Alaska Native Medical Center but also at Providence, where she famously took care of Dan Bigley, author of Beyond the Bear, after a mauling left him blind and unlikely to survive. Dr. McCue moved her family in 2021 to New Zealand for an 18 month adventure. Then, in August of 2025, she and her family moved back to New Ze...

Send us a text The representative for the northernmost state house district in the United States is Rep. Robyn Frier (D-Utqiagvik). Robyn was born and raised in Utqiagvik. She served on the North Slope Borough School Board for four years, the last two as President. In 2024, she ran to represent House District 40, and won, defeating the incumbent Thomas Baker, as well as the former mayor of Kotzebue Saima Chase who had won the primary. Today we talk about her childhood, her journey into politi...

Send us a text Rabbi Abram Goodstein was raised in Anchorage where he graduated from Service High School. After graduating from Rabbinical School, he moved back to Anchorage where he has served as rabbi at Beth Shalom, home to the largest Jewish community in Alaska, for over 7 tears. Today, we are discussing the Washington Post article republished in the Anchorage Daily News from Thursday, November 20, 2025: “US Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas and nooses as hate symbols,” by Tar...

Send us a text Today, Alaska state house Representative Zack Fields published an op-ed in the Alaska Current called: “Look at the Criminals who Donald Trump is pardoning.” The article explores pardons related to cryptocurrency. In Anchorage we have at least 3 crypto ATMs where folks can deposit cash and purchase crypto or sell crypto and withdraw cash. Cryptocurrencies are essentially digital money. From the very start, crypto has been an attractive investment for drug dealers. This is for se...

Send us a text The Executive director of the Alaska Municipal League is Nils Andreassen. The Alaska Municipal League (AML) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, statewide membership organization of 165 cities, boroughs, and unified municipalities, representing over 97 percent of Alaska’s residents. Originally organized in 1950, the League of Alaskan Cities became the Alaska Municipal League in 1962 when boroughs joined the League. Nils grew up in Washington State, earned a degree in Peace and Developm...

Send us a text Physician Associate Christi Froiland spent a decade as an athletic trainer in the lower 48 before she went to PA school. She then returned to her hometown of Anchorage where she has practiced at both a dermatology clinic and an urgent care for over 18 years. She has also served for the last decade as the PA representative to the Alaska State Medical Association (ASMA). Outside of the legislature I, too, am a PA, and I know Christi through our professional organization the...

Send us a text Libby Roderick is a singer, songwriter, and recording artist, who was born in Anchorage just before statehood. Her father Jack Roderick was the last mayor of the borough of Anchorage prior to the unification of the municipality in 1975. Libby recorded her first album in 1990 which included the song, “How could Anyone,” which has been featured on CNN, CBS, and the Associated Press. Her music has been featured at the U.N. Conference on Women, with Coretta Scott King and Walter Cr...

Send us a text Attorney John McKay has practiced media law in Anchorage for almost 50 years. He has represented Alaskan and national news organizations, photographers, artists, and others on libel, privacy and copyright issues, access to government proceedings and records, subpoenas to journalists, secret settlements by public agencies, cameras in courts, and many other matters. He taught Media Law at the University of Alaska Anchorage for more than 30 years. In 2007, John was the first recip...

Send us a text Chloe Pleznac is a former reporter for the Homer News. After six years working in public radio, Chloe got her first newspaper job at the Homer News in January of this year. After the right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10, the Representative for Homer Sarah Vance co-organized a vigil for Kirk in Homer which was held on Sept. 17. Chloe decided to cover the vigil for the paper and posted her story online along with video of the event to the Homer ...

Send us a text Today's guest is the executive director of Project Alaska, Tetyana Robbins. Project Alaska is an organization that helps Ukrainian refugees find meaningful employment in Alaska. From helping improve their English language skills, to navigating the American immigration system, to helping with certifications and even transportation, Project Alaska does everything it can to make sure Ukrainians fleeing their war-torn country can quickly achieve self-sufficiency here in Alaska. Tet...

Send us a text Several friends and neighbors have moved out of the United States over the past year, and many more Alaskans are talking about it. Today's guest is an opera historian who has been living in Berlin, Germany, for the past 13 years. Daniel Gundlach is a former professional classical singer and accompanist who today hosts a podcast called Countermelody. The Countermelody Podcast is focused primarily on opera singers of the past century that may not have received the attention they ...

Send us a text Margaret D. Stock is an immigration attorney, and retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Reserve. She is a recognized expert on immigration law as it applies to U.S. military personnel and veterans. In 2013, she was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, often referred to as a "genius grant." She has taught law at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. She ran for the United States Senate as an Independent candidate in the 2016 Senate election...

Send us a text Tashina Maasac Duttle is the chief operating officer and co-owner of DeerStone Consulting. DeerStone is a company focused on improving the infrastructure of Alaska's rural and Tribal communities by managing projects that upgrade energy systems, improve water and sanitation facilities, and expand broadband access. Tashina earned her bachelors degree in Sustainable Resources Management from UAF and her masters in project management from UAA. During covid, she started her own comp...