Kelsey Johnson is a Bozeman-based artist whose work highlights the epic wildlife, people, and landscapes of the American West. Using graphite pencils and oil paints, Kelsey creates stunning, life-like artwork-- works that you would assume were created by a full-time artist with decades of experience. But in reality, Kelsey is new to professional art-- she balances her artistic endeavors with a full-time job, and she actually started her art business only a few years ago, back in 2018. While Kels...
Feb 23, 2021•58 min
Iris Gardner is a writer, horse wrangler, mother, and former organic farmer who lives with her family on a homestead in northeastern Washington State. After many years of living and farming in southern California, Iris, her husband Jason, and their two children moved to their current home-- a rural property located close to the Canadian border and more than two hours from the nearest city. As you’ll hear in our conversation, Iris and Jason have chosen to live and raise their children deliberatel...
Feb 16, 2021•1 hr 16 min
This episode is a little different than normal-- it's me being interviewed on the Off the Couch podcast by my friends Jonathan Ellsworth and Brendan Leonard. Brendan is likely familiar to many of you long-time listeners-- he joined me on the podcast a few years ago to discuss his writing career, his film "How to Run 100 Miles" and his blog Semi-Rad. Jonathan is the creator of Blister, an amazing online resource that includes outdoor gear reviews, a podcast network, and much more. Jonathan will b...
Jan 29, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Chris Douglas is a Montana-based photographer and creative director who is one of the most sought-after visual storytellers in the American West. Chris is a go-to photographer for iconic brands such as Filson, Stetson, and Mossy Oak, and his editorial work appears regularly in publications including Modern Huntsman and Men’s Journal. In a world flooded with iPhone photography and armchair creatives, Chris’s work stands out as being artistically stunning and of the highest professional caliber. -...
Jan 18, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Monte Burke is a journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and contributing editor at Forbes, Garden & Gun, and The Drake. His most recent book is Lords of the Fly: Madness, Obsession, and the Hunt for the World-Record Tarpon, which was one of the best books I read in 2020. He’s also the author of Saban: The Making of a Coach, which also happens to be one of my all-time favorite books. Whether he’s writing about fly fishing, Colorado conservationists, elk hunting, or football, Monte’s w...
Dec 28, 2020•1 hr 8 min
Malcolm Brooks is a Montana-based author best known for his epic novel "Painted Horses," a sweeping, large-scale tale of life in the American West in the 1950s. Published in 2015, Painted Horses has quickly become a classic among those who love Western literary fiction. Even more impressive, "Painted Horses" was Malcolm's first published novel-- a truly remarkable feat when you consider the story's breadth and depth and its characters. - Malcolm's obsession with writing began at age fourteen whe...
Nov 30, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Mike Foote is a Montana-based professional ultrarunner and ski mountaineer who is best known for his inspiring performances in 100-mile ultramarathons and multiday endurance expeditions through wild landscapes. In 2018, he set the world record for the most vertical feet climbed and skied in 24 hours-- a mind-blowing 61,200 feet. And in addition to his impressive athletic career, Mike is also a committed conservationist, serving on the board of directors of the Five Valleys Land Trust, an innovat...
Nov 16, 2020•1 hr 10 min
If you’ve listened to the podcast for a while, then you’re probably familiar with each episode’s general format: I have a long-form conversation with an interesting person who is doing important work in the American West. We usually spend about half of the time discussing their work and the other half discussing their personal backstory—a format that I thoroughly enjoy and seems to have struck a chord with a surprisingly large audience of listeners. The episodes are designed to be evergreen—whet...
Nov 02, 2020•1 hr
If you’re a long-time listener, then surely you remember Juanita Vero. Juanita is a fourth-generation Montana rancher, conservationist, community leader, and all-around inspiring woman. She’s also a devoted public servant, serving as a Missoula County Commissioner, where she gets her hands dirty with the critical and often not-so-glamorous work of county government. Juanita’s name will be on the ballot in Missoula County this November, where she is hoping to win a six-year term to continue her s...
Oct 16, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Jessica Wahl Turner is the Executive Director of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), America's leading coalition of outdoor recreation trade associations and organizations. Currently, the ORR is comprised of 31 national association members that serve more than 100,000 outdoor-related businesses, which is an amazing feat considering that the organization is less than three years old. Jessica and her team bring together all sectors of the outdoor economy to harness the industry's collective p...
Oct 13, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Steve Casimiro is the founder and editor of Adventure Journal, an online and quarterly print magazine devoted to outdoor adventure in all its forms. AJ began as Steve's personal blog back in 2008—a project he created on the side while writing for National Geographic Adventure. Steve's unique perspective and devotion to adventure writing struck a chord with the outdoor community, and AJ's audience grew and grew. When National Geographic Adventure closed its doors in 2009, Steve decided to pursue ...
Oct 06, 2020•1 hr 18 min
Chris Castilian is the Executive Director of Great Outdoors Colorado (also known as GOCO), an organization that has committed more than $1.2 billion toward preserving and enhancing Colorado’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers, and open spaces. Founded in 1992, GOCO is truly a one-of-a-kind conservation funder—the organization invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds into a wide variety of critical projects, with a current emphasis on issues including equitable access and community vitality. ...
Sep 20, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Anna Brones is a freelance journalist, author, artist, and producer who is prolific in all of her creative endeavors—she’s published four books, produced documentary films, is currently publishing a quarterly print journal about food, and much more. One of her most recent projects was the Women’s Wisdom Project, in which she showcased the wisdom of inspiring women by creating 100 papercut portraits. All of Anna’s work is authentic and enlightening, and her personal commitment to cultivating crea...
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr 13 min
Carlos Fernandez is the State Director for the Nature Conservancy in Colorado, where he and his team build alliances that advance conservation outcomes both in Colorado and around the world. Building on his formal training as an attorney, Carlos has had a long and successful career in conservation that extends far beyond the American West. He has worked extensively in his home country of Argentina, both as the Nature Conservancy's Southern Andes Conservation Strategies Manager and as the Patagon...
Aug 24, 2020•1 hr 14 min
David Gessner is back for his third appearance on the podcast, and this time we are discussing his brand new book "Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness." Most long-time listeners will remember David's past two episodes-- we discussed everything from Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner to his daily writing rituals and his hand-built coastal writing shack. If you haven't listened to those first two episodes, I encourage you to do so—they are chock-full of wisd...
Aug 10, 2020•1 hr 7 min
Becky Edwards is the Executive Director of the Mountain Mamas, an organization whose mission is to amplify women's voices into a movement to ensure that kids grow up in a healthy climate with clean air and access to public lands. Operating out of both Montana and Colorado—and currently expanding throughout the West—the Mountain Mamas harness the power of mothers to advocate to solve some of the West's most pressing conservation and environmental challenges. Whether helping to garner support for ...
Jul 30, 2020•1 hr 9 min
Ivan McClellan is a professional photographer and the creator of the Eight Seconds Project, a storytelling project with the goal of extending the cowboy icon to include people of color. Ivan started the project back in 2015, after a series of chance encounters led him to an all-black rodeo in Oklahoma. Over the course of photographing the event, he became enamored with the black cowboy way of life and obsessed with documenting this unique subculture. In the years since, the Eight Seconds Project...
Jul 17, 2020•1 hr 10 min
Gabe Vasquez is the founder of the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project and currently serves as a city councilor in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Gabe has devoted his entire career to advocacy and conservation, specifically for the people and places in the border region of New Mexico. He's worked for Senator Martin Heinrich, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, and recently drafted New Mexico's Outdoor Equity Fund legislation, which was the first of its kind in the nation. - Growing up in Ciudad Juarez,...
Jun 29, 2020•1 hr 18 min
Chris La Tray is a writer, poet, and musician, as well as the author of the award-winning book "One Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large." Chris is also an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe—a Native American tribe that was just recently recognized by the United States government, and prior to the recognition was known as the "landless Indians of Montana." Chris's immense talents as a storyteller combined with his unique personal perspective allow him to offer ...
Jun 25, 2020•1 hr 9 min
Rachel VandeVoort is the Director of the Montana Office of Outdoor Recreation, an office that advocates for the outdoor recreation industry and works to leverage its numerous benefits to the state. The office was created in 2016 by Montana Governor Steve Bullock, and he tapped Rachel to be its first director, where she built the office from the ground up. Since then, the office has experienced amazing growth in influence and effectiveness, and it has served as a shining example for other states ...
Jun 01, 2020•1 hr 8 min
Chris Burkard is a world-renowned photographer, filmmaker, and storyteller whose work captures the beauty and rawness of some of the earth's wildest places. Whether documenting iconic climbs in Yosemite or frigid surf trips deep in the Arctic Circle, Chris has established himself as a committed artist who is willing to suffer extensively to get the perfect shot. And because of his love and respect for these wild places, Chris is also a committed conservationist, using his artistic skills to show...
May 26, 2020•1 hr 9 min
Dan Prenzlow is the Director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) , the agency charged with managing wildlife, lands, natural resources, and outdoor recreation throughout the great state of Colorado. Dan started with the agency back in 1986 as a District Wildlife Manager and steadily worked his way through the ranks, assuming the role of Director in the spring of 2019. Born and raised in Colorado, Dan has had a lifelong love of recreating in the state's open spaces and wild places, and he has de...
May 11, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Callan Wink is a writer, novelist, fishing guide, and surfer who currently splits his time between Livingston, Montana and Santa Cruz, California. He’s the author of the newly released novel August , as well as the highly regarded short story collection Dog Run Moon , books that I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed. Callan’s writing speaks for itself, but if you’re looking for credentials, he’s got those too—he’s been published in The New Yorker , Men’s Journal , The Best American Short Storie...
May 08, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Rebecca Jewett is President and CEO of Palmer Land Trust , a conservation organization that works to conserve land and water resources in southeastern Colorado. Palmer Land Trust is one of the twenty largest land trusts in the nation based on acreage conserved, with over 135,000 acres of land protected in perpetuity. Rebecca has led the organization since 2014, expanding and diversifying its conservation initiatives and building Palmer into a national force in the land conservation sector. If Re...
Apr 24, 2020•1 hr 5 min
George Hodgin is the founder and CEO of Biopharmaceutical Research Company (BRC), a California-based business with the mission of providing federally legal cannabis for approved researchers in the United States. Prior to starting BRC, George served as a US Navy SEAL officer, leading counterterrorism operations in combat zones such as Afghanistan. And to top it all off, he’s a graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the University of North Carolina, where he was a More...
Apr 08, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Kyle Richardson is a Colorado-based professional runner and mountain athlete who is best known for his high-stakes, high-speed endurance feats in the Rocky Mountains. Over the past two years, Kyle has set several Fastest Known Time (“FKT”) records in the Colorado mountains—most notably on Boulder’s First and Third Flatirons, as well as the renowned LA Freeway route that stretches from Longs Peak to Arapahoe Peak. Away from his endurance feats, Kyle is a formally trained musician, and he composes...
Mar 26, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Daniela Ibarra-Howell is the CEO and a co-founder of the Savory Institute , an organization whose mission is to regenerate the world’s grasslands through holistic management. By restoring and protecting grasslands-- both in the American West and around the globe-- Daniela and her team at Savory effectively address pressing issues such as climate change, economic well-being, and food and water insecurity. Through inspiring leadership, masterful storytelling, and cutting-edge research, Savory is s...
Mar 12, 2020•1 hr 17 min
Andrew Ramiro Tirado is a Colorado-based artist who is best known for his award-winning large-scale sculptures and paintings of human hands. Using wood, metal, or traditional paint and canvas, Andrew combines his unique artistic eye with decades of experience as a craftsman to create remarkable pieces that are stunning in both their size and presentation. His hand sculptures can exceed ten feet in length and are sometimes displayed hanging from the ceilings of galleries or buildings—when you see...
Feb 19, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Jessica Ilalaole is a New Mexico-based artist who specializes in handcrafted jewelry inspired by the natural world and the landscapes of the American West. Through her online store CobraCult Jewelry , Jessica has built a loyal following of customers and admirers who are drawn to her uniquely stunning designs, as well as her authentic and unconventional lifestyle. Jessica’s personality is a unique mix of confident yet humble, social yet solitary, fiercely independent yet fully devoted to her frie...
Jan 29, 2020•1 hr 13 min
Kate Kavanaugh is an entrepreneur and regenerative agriculture advocate who co-owns and operates Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe in Denver, Colorado. Along with her partner Josh Curtiss, Kate sells fresh, local, grass-fed and pasture-raised meats that are all raised and harvested within 150 miles of Denver. Although she has been featured in such notable publications as “The New York Times” and “Forbes,” Kate is most proud of the deep connections she has formed with regenerative ranchers and far...
Jan 14, 2020•1 hr 14 min
