Her memoir is called "Lightning Flowers: My Journey To Uncover The Cost Of Saving A Life." “This book will make you feel less alone. Pick it up and you will hear a human voice.” New York Times Eleven years ago, when she was 24, Katherine Standefer was working as a ski instructor and a climbing teacher in Jackson, Wyo., when she suddenly passed out in a parking lot. She later learned that she has long QT syndrome, a genetic heart condition in which the heart can suddenly quiver instead of rhythmi...
May 17, 2023•54 min•Ep. 124
When I first heard of the book, Fault Lines in the Constitution : I was excited for the opportunity to learn the reason and development of writing this book. And basically, their WHY? Many of the political issues we struggle with today have their roots in the US Constitution. Husband-and-wife team Cynthia and Sanford Levinson take readers back to the creation of this historic document and discuss how contemporary problems were first introduced—then they offer possible solutions. Think Electoral ...
May 03, 2023•40 min•Ep. 123
April is National Poetry Month We celebrate and promote the art of poetry and storytelling. We recognize the place and possibilities that poets and poetry have in civic life, including helping communities address issues of importance. Kealoha is the first Poet Laureate of Hawaiʻi. As an internationally acclaimed poet and storyteller, he has performed throughout the world -- from the White House to the ʻIolani Palace, from Brazil to Switzerland. He is the first poet in Hawaiʻi's history to perfor...
Apr 12, 2023•18 min•Ep. 122
Do you know what you truly want from your life? “You can’t have it all but you can have what matters.” Bonnie Wan That’s her motto and mantra. In her interview she talks about where she grew up, her journey and her inspiration. As the creator of “The Life Brief,” Bonnie Wan has crafted a strategy for helping everyday people live with greater clarity, creativity, and courage. “The Life Brief” has grown from an agency talk into a workbook, keynote talks and workshops. Wan has shared her work in a ...
Mar 22, 2023•49 min•Ep. 121
Mat Hames is an Emmy winning Executive Producer and Director, known for his two feature length Independent Lens documentaries What Was Ours and When I Rise (both available on Prime video), as well as award winning documentary series including Power Trip: The Story of Energy (Prime Video, PBS, AppleTV). Mat is currently directing A State of Mind for Wyoming PBS, a series focused on mental health issues for Americans living in the mountain west. What Was Ours, filmed on the Wind River Reservation ...
Mar 08, 2023•34 min•Ep. 120
Tori Murden McClure is no stranger to trail blazing. Tori Murden McClure is the President of Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. Tori may be best known as the first woman and first American to row solo and unassisted across the Atlantic Ocean. Also she was the first woman and first American to travel over land to the geographic South Pole skiing 750-miles from the ice-shelf to the pole. Tori has worked as chaplain of Boston City Hospital, as policy assistant to the Mayor of Louisville, ...
Feb 15, 2023•34 min•Ep. 119
Dr. Gigi Jasper is a retired English teacher living in Rock Springs, Wyoming. In this episode, you'll hear about why Gigi moved to Wyoming, her career as a public school teacher, and her experience with discrimination as an African American woman living in rural Wyoming. Her inspiration, guidance, and resilience as she taught and mentored young people throughout her teaching career, and through that inspiration, she helped young people find tools and paths for their own lives. “And I was told by...
Feb 02, 2023•25 min•Ep. 118
I want to give a warm welcome to Danielle Allen. Danielle's work to improve the world for the youth has taken her from intructing college classes to the helm of a $6 billion foundation, writing as a national opinion columnist, democracy, reform, civic education, and most recently running for governer of Massachusetts. She made history as the first black woman to ever run for statewide office in the state. As well as being the 2020 winner of the library of congress Kluge prize, recieved for her i...
Jan 19, 2023•25 min•Ep. 117
Bronwyn Minton is a multi-disciplinary artist, curator, and arts leader living in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Minton holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is the recipient of the Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award, two Wyoming Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowships, a Wyoming Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowship Honorable mention, and the Cultural Council of Jackson Hole’s Creative Pulse Award. Minton’s work has been shown nationally and inter...
Jan 04, 2023•33 min•Ep. 116
Katy Ann Fox wanders through the West witnessing windblown mountains and sunlight to gather emotion and imagery for her landscape paintings. Her oil paintings host a feeling of peace and respect for her subject as she focuses on texture and color harmony. She grew up in north central Idaho, moved to San Francisco, California for her Masters in Fine Art degree at the Academy of Art University and now makes her art at the foot of the Teton Mountain Range. In addition to painting, she does woodbloc...
Dec 14, 2022•19 min•Ep. 115
Sarah Ortegon is an enrolled Eastern Shoshone and also is Northern Arapaho. She is number 10 in a family of 12 kids. In 2013 she graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art with a concentration in drawing. In August of 2013 Sarah was crowned Miss Native American, USA. Soon after, Ortegon started touring with the Native Pride Dancers, traveling and performing the jingle dress dance in the US and also in Moldova, Europe and Guatemala. In March of 202...
Nov 30, 2022•25 min•Ep. 114
"They each have a different perspective. They each in their own way... And I can say this just based on how I've heard them talk about this and from what I think you'll see in this wonderful video about this project that we have made, each of our five artists is so profoundly connected to the land of Wyoming as their raison d'etre for doing what they do. I think so much of their vision and their work is embedded in the fact that they are connected with Wyoming." - Lisa Fleishman Jennifer Rife is...
Nov 16, 2022•25 min•Ep. 113
Leah Hardy, an amazing artist, is 1 of 5 Wyoming artists selected for Women To Watch . The 2024 exhibit is the National Museum of Women in the Art's biennial exhibition series that features underrepresented and emerging women artists who create in any medium including, but not limited to, painting, sculpture, print, drawing, photography, film, digital, installation, and sound. Wyoming will participate for the first time in NMWA’s Women to Watch exhibition, held in Washington, DC in 2024. Hardy i...
Oct 26, 2022•37 min•Ep. 112
Juan Martinez received the 2022 Rising Leader Award given to outstanding young professionals in the field of conservation. He received his award alongside famed ethologist and global conservation icon Dr. Jane Goodall whose life work demonstrates a commitment to conservation, civility and community. Presented by Teton Science Schools, The Murie Spirit of Conservation Awards is a celebration of conservation leadership and honors individuals who have demonstrated an exemplary commitment to the pro...
Oct 12, 2022•24 min•Ep. 111
Patricia McInroy, a filmmaker, is a former photojournalist who grew up in Wyoming and graduated from Casper College in 1989. After graduating from the University of Missouri, she returned to Wyoming to work as a photographer for the Casper Star-Tribune in the 1990s. After more than 10 years in the newspaper business, she went back to school to earn an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. To date, Patricia has screened her video work in more than 30 film festivals across the United States, Euro...
Aug 31, 2022•23 min•Ep. 110
Travis Helms is the author of Blowing Clover, Falling Rain: A Theological Commentary On The Poetic Canon Of The ‘American Religion’ (Wipf & Stock). His poetry and prose has been published, or is forthcoming, in Image Journal, Poetry Northwest, Slushpile, New Haven Review, The Austin American-Statesman, North American Review, and Book 2.0 among other venues. He was the inaugural William W. Cook Frost Place Fellow, runner-up for the John Kinsella / Tracy Ryan Poetry Prize, and winner of the Ar...
Aug 12, 2022•34 min•Ep. 109
Jason Baldes, an Eastern Shoshone who lives on the Wind River Reservation, is the Tribal Buffalo Coordinator for the Tribal Partnerships Program at the National Wildlife Federation. He works to restore bison back to homelands of indigenous tribes, like his own, as a way to reconnect and celebrate cultural ways, as well as heal from the atrocities of the past and present. As the tribal bison coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, Baldes is recognized nationally for his efforts in an in...
Jun 15, 2022•26 min•Ep. 108
Tyler Rogers is the author of The Marvelous Invention of Orion McBride, and is also the music educator at Big Horn Elementary School in Sheridan, WY. Between piano, percussion, acting, and writing, Tyler has found many homes in the world of the arts. Outside of work, Tyler directs the Sheridan County Boys Choir year round, as well as local community children's theater musicals in the summer. Tyler is committed to being an agent of positive change for youth. His goal is to inspire and enable ever...
May 10, 2022•25 min•Ep. 107
Megan Kate Nelson is a historian and writer, with a BA from Harvard and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. She is the author of Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America (Scribner 2022) and her previous book, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner 2020) was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History. She writes about the Civil War, the U.S. West, and American culture fo...
May 05, 2022•36 min•Ep. 106
Sarah Ortegon was born in Denver, Colorado and is an enrolled Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho. In 2013 she graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver with a Bachelors degree in Fine Art with a concentration in drawing. In August 2013 she was crowned Miss Native American, USA. Soon after Ortegon started touring with the Native Pride Dancers, traveling and performing the jingle dress dance in the US and also in Moldova, Europe and Guatemala. In March of 2020 before the pandemic h...
Apr 06, 2022•20 min•Ep. 105
“When I was young, I always had a mountain range over my shoulder,” he says. “I still come back looking for lost dignity.” We were very fortunate to have Gregory Hinton on for our latest episode of “What’s Your Why!” He is an novelist, filmmaker, lecturer, curator, and playwright. As A Buffalo Bill Center of the West Resident Fellow, Hinton is the proud creator and producer of “Out West”, a national museum program series offering lectures, plays, films, and gallery exhibitions dedicated to shini...
Mar 17, 2022•46 min•Ep. 104
“It’s the simple things” – is what I thought about when I interviewed Willow Belden for our latest What’s Your Why? episode. Her award-winning podcast “Out There” is not only about people who love nature but also about how people discover the outdoors even when they live in a cement jungle in the city. I think it’s why the West has become so popular. People want to escape the hectic grind of the urban city life. Being outside and enjoying nature is for everyone – everywhere - people of all shape...
Feb 23, 2022•22 min•Ep. 103
Mark Pedri is an expedition-based documentary filmmaker and writer from Southwestern Wyoming where he tells stories from off the beaten path. His character-driven style of storytelling is reminiscent of his equally unique upbringing in Wyoming. Mark founded Burning Torch Productions in 2011 as a nimble production company to focus on character-driven stories from the backcountry and backroads of the world. His films have won awards at international festivals, played on national PBS, and in screen...
Feb 03, 2022•47 min•Ep. 102
This latest podcast is with Wyoming historian and professional rock climber Sam Lightner Jr . What an interesting path and journey his life choices have taken him on. His life choices took him on adventures to discover history in other parts of the world, learning about people, culture and their mountains. Sam is our historian for our new podcast from Wyoming Humanities – (shhhhhh….I can’t tell you the name yet until we launch later this month). Sam was raised in Jackson, Wyoming. At different t...
Jan 04, 2022•30 min•Ep. 101
"'I know how to research. I know how to tell stories. I don't know what to do with a microphone or audio editing, but I want to learn,' and they hired me, and that's how my journalism career started in 2005. And it was incredible to start and learn there, because I was in a shop where I was surrounded by really talented editors and reporters who taught me a lot about not just how to find stories and how to report, but also, how to do service-driven, mission-driven journalism, which is something ...
Dec 06, 2021•33 min•Ep. 100
Robert Martinez was born in Wyoming on the Wind River Reservation in the small city of Riverton. His lineage is Spanish, Mexican, Scotts Irish, French Canadian, and Northern Arapaho. He graduated Riverton High School at 17 at age 19, he became the Youngest Native American to graduate from Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design at that time. Living among the hard working people of the West and experiencing their issues deeply influences Robert's creations as well as his native heritage. Much ...
Oct 14, 2021•27 min•Ep. 99
At 9 years old, Robbie heard about the prospect of closing or limiting access to our national parks, and wanted to be sure his and other kids' concerns were heard. He started speaking out, and subsequently founded the organization Kids Speak for Parks , which has been a fantastic vehicle for his message since 2017. Robbie Bond's work to speak out on behalf of national parks caught the eye of Rose Marcario, former CEO of Patagonia. Rose was recently nominated as the recipient of the 2021 Murie Sp...
Sep 30, 2021•21 min•Ep. 98
Darla Worden is editor in chief of Mountain Living magazine and founder/director of the Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris. A Wyoming native and life-long Ernest Hemingway fan, Worden discovered that the author spent summers from 1928 to 1939 in her home state. Her book, Cockeyed Crazy: Hemingway's Wyoming Summers With Pauline, shows Wyoming as an influential place in Hemingway’s life just as Paris, Africa, Cuba, Key West and Sun Valley have anchored past works.And it casts his second wife, Paul...
Sep 24, 2021•27 min•Ep. 97
“I am a product and lifelong resident of Alabama. I was born in Fairfield, Alabama to a father who worked for U.S. Steel and a stay-at-home mom. One of my grandfathers was a steelworker and the other a coal miner. I, too, spent some time working a union job in the steel mill. My parents and grandparents forged my respect for those who work to feed a family while trying to make their childrens’ lives better.” Doug Jones Douglas Jones is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who served as...
Sep 01, 2021•21 min•Ep. 96
Jerry Enzler might just be the best living expert on the famous mountain man, Jim Bridger, and his exploits as a trapper and explorer. Today, we become experts of the expert, as Jerry takes us through his early life and onward to the eventual obsession with the famed adventurer. Thank you for your time, Jerry! Jerry also served as founding director of the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium for thirty-seven years. He has written and curated national exhibitions and films and has pub...
Aug 12, 2021•31 min•Ep. 95
