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 Spectrum Health a…

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, her commitment t…

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 official should…

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 members, it maint…

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 Nuremberg, it was Josie…

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 National Parks Conserv…

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 exercise physiologist,…

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 is a federally…

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 including the Oxford…

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 30 years old, …

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 more than 20 years…

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 classes starting Tue…

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 early 80s and led …

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 degree from Stanfor…

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 years of first-…

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 take his seat. We …

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 appearance) Jessica Co…

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 Development Coordinato…

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 & state grants, a…

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 local partners …

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 council by cli…

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, Jane Angvik who …

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 stop suing eac…

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 Anchorage borough…

Community activist Dr. Cal Williams was born on November 30, 1941, in Monroe, Louisiana. A college graduate, Williams served in the United States Air Force during the early 1960s and participated in the Civil Rights Movement through his affiliation with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). In 1965, following the advice of Charles and John LeVieg…

Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa was born and raised in the islands of Samoa in the the South Pacific. She moved to Anchorage 20 years ago to join the rest of her family who were already here. Ms. Toleafoa serves as Executive Director at the Pacific Community of Alaska. She serves as co-chair for the board of directors for the National Association of Pasifika…

University of Alaska Anchorage Economics Professor Kevin Berry returns to the podcast to discuss the Alaska economy. For a deeper dive into his personal story, listen to his episode from November 2022 (click here). Today we talk about the way the private sector and the public sector economies interact with each other in typical states and how Alask…

In honor of Juneteenth 2024, I am airing an interview I conducted with Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson from 2023 for my previous podcast, "East Anchorage Matters." Last month the Alaska State House and Senate passed Sen. Gray-Jackson's bill making Juneteenth an Alaska State Holiday. Juneteenth commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States and bega…

intérprete: Israel Portilla Gomez La información de este episodio se basa en una entrevista que realizó en 2024 con Jeremy Applegate, jefe de la división de Salarios y Horas del Departamento de Trabajo del Estado de Alaska. Todos los trabajadores en Alaska tienen derecho a un salario y un trato justos según la ley. Muchos trabajadores desconocen su…

Перекладач: Катерина Клименченко Інформація в цьому епізоді базується на інтерв’ю, яке він провів у 2024 році з Джеремі Епплгейтом, керівником відділу оплати праці та робочих годин Департаменту праці штату Аляска. Відповідно до закону, усі працівники на Алясці мають право на справедливу оплату праці та ставлення. Багато працівників не знають своїх …

See on eestikeelne versioon taskuhäälingusaate intervjuust Jeremy Applegate’iga – Alaska tööministeeriumi palga ja tunni osakonna juhatajaga. Kui arvate, et teie õigusi on rikutud, helistage numbril 907-269-4900. Te ei pea inglise keelt rääkima. Interpreter assistance: Leino Mandre.توسط Andrew Gray

Zoo siab txais tos txhua tus los rau Tsab Ntawv East Anchorage; Hnub no lub xov tooj cua luv luv no yuav piav qhia txog Alaska cov neeg ua haujlwm txoj cai hauv lus Hmoob. Kuv lub npe yog Emery Yaj , kuv yog tus txhais lus Hmoob rau tus tuav thiab coj xov tooj cua Andrew Gray. Andrew Gray yog tus sawv cev rau East Anchorage hauv Alaska State House.…

Ito ay isang Filipino na bersyon ng isang nakaraang podcast episode. Ang layunin ay upang turuan ang mga manggagawa tungkol sa kanilang mga karapatan. Ang interpreter ay si Elsie Janes. Kung naniniwala ka na ang iyong mga karapatan ay nilabag, makipag-ugnayan sa Alaska Department of Labor sa statewide.wagehour@alaska.gov o tumawag sa 907-269-4900. …

이번 팟캐스트 에피소드는 송명숙 번역가가 참여한 한국어 버전입니다. 알래스카의 모든 근로자는 공정한 임금과 안전한 근무 조건을 누릴 자격이 있습니다. 귀하의 권리가 침해되었다고 생각되면 907-269-4900으로 전화하십시오. 불만사항을 제기하기 위해 영어를 구사할 수 있을 필요는 없습니다.

This short episode is largely based on information gathered from the podcast interview with Jeremy Applegate, the chief of the Wage and Hour division for the State of Alaska Department of Labor, from May 6, 2024. To listen to the whole interview, click here. The plan is to release this short guide in Spanish, Tagalog, Hmong, Ukranian, and other lan…

Amber Batts is a founding member of the Community United for Safety and Protection (also known as CUSP), an Alaska-based group of current and former sex workers, sex trafficking survivors, and allies working towards safety and protection in Alaska’s sex industry. Amber began working as sex worker at the age of 30 to escape an abusive marriage while…

Rebecca Braun of Juneau moved to Alaska about 30 years ago initially to work for the forestry service. She then taught math and science at Juneau-Douglas High School before randomly applying for a journalist position with The Alaska Budget Report. The Alaska Budget Report, which no longer exists, was a nonpartisan publication that covered state gov…

Donna Arduin is most well known in Alaska as Governor Dunleavy's 2019 director of the Office of Management and Budget. She is currently staff for representative Ben Carpenter of Nikiski. As Dunleavy's OMB Director, she advised major cuts to the state budget including eliminating the state ferry system, dismantling the University of Alaska, and dras…

Jeremy Applegate is the chief of Wage and Hour for the State of Alaska Department of Labor. The goal of today’s episode is to inform workers, particularly seasonal workers who may have never worked in Alaska before, of their rights. Important things to know up front: workers are entitled to a written contract at the start of their employment which …

Municipal attorney of Bethel Libby Bakalar is today's guest. Libby became famous in Alaska for her blog, One Hot Mess, and then her social media presence as One Hot Mess Alaska. Her outspokenness led to her unlawfully firing by the Dunleavy administration when she was working there as an assistant attorney general. Today, we discuss all of that as …

Today is the final episode in our series on Transgender Rights. I, Rep. Andrew Gray, explain the purpose of this series and broadcast the special order that I gave on the Alaska State House floor on April 17, 2024. It provides an olive branch to folks who may be on the other side with regards to these issues. It is my sincere belief that the vast m…

Dr. Marci Bowers is a pelvic and gynecologic surgeon with more than 32 years’ experience. She is the president of WPATH – the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Her gender diverse work has been highlighted through appearances on Oprah, CBS Sunday Morning, Discovery Health and the TLC reality series, “I am Jazz." She was intervie…

Dr. Joshua Safer is the executive director of the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York. He is the founding medical director of the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Boston University School of Medicine, and he was the inaugural president of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health…

Becca Bernard is a former environmental lawyer and a Unitarian Universalist community minister based in Anchorage. She is also mom to two children, one of whom is trans. This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls…

David Leslie is an Inupiaq Sipiniq (Two-Spirit) living in Fairbanks. He is a frequent testifier against the anti-trans bills moving through the Alaska State House. We discuss his specific perspective as a queer Alaska Native man. To check out the book recommended by our guest, Yuuyaraq: The Way of The Human Being, by Harold Napoleon, Click here. Th…

Henry is a 15 year old trans boy. He and his mother are the guests today discussing their experience in Alaska. No last names will be given in the interest of their safety. This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans gi…

Jessica Kalarchik was an Army First Sergeant who deployed with me and the Alaska Army National Guard’s 1-297th infantry battalion to Kosovo 2019-2020. 1st Sergeant Kalarchik presented as a very masculine man, and I never suspected that she was a trans woman. She was medically retired after 31 years in the military during her next deployment to Pola…

The Banning family consists of: Lindsey, clinical psychologist, mom Charlie, age 15, non-binary trans masculine Ezzy, age 12, sister Earl, neuropsychologist in the Air Force at Elmendorf, dad This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 …

Aaron Poe has been a wildlife biologist in Alaska since 1998. He is the father of a trans daughter in the Anchorage School District, and today we discuss that experience. This episode is the first in a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans…

Alaska State Senator James Kaufman represents the Abbott Loop and Hillside areas of Anchorage. Although in his teens and 20s he was a guitar player & song writer for several successful rock bands, James began earning real money as an aircraft mechanic in Houston, Texas. He quickly found himself taking on bigger and bigger management positions which…