A New Angle

Nick Mott is an award-winning journalist and host of a new podcast The Wide Open. The first season, Threatened, explores the complex legacy of the Endangered Species Act and new episodes are dropping weekly right now. Mott discusses the Act’s history, its powerful legal teeth, and the social and political challenges surrounding species protection, particularly with predators like grizzly bears in Montana. He shares insights into the ethical and practical debates about wildlife conservation, the social question of what constitutes species recovery, and how the Act has become such a contentious issue in modern politics.

Listen to The Wide Open here: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1254361510/the-wide-open

Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qUoJLIlgD0hjwDrXz3ndxLu7-X7Xr1EyAYTQDBmXgkw/edit?usp=sharing

Mallory Phillips and Nathan Dugan co-founded Shelter WF, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating housing options for low to middle-income earners, in 2022. In this episode, they discuss the housing challenges in the Flathead Valley, the history of zoning and its implications on class and race, the state of housing legislation in Montana, and the barriers to affordable housing development.

Learn more about Shelter WF here: www.shelterwf.org

Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-jMxFSdZXgFFNU409lH0p84e6M9OBxlEBNfl_bkQuj0/edit?usp=sharing

In a previous episode of Incentives & Instincts, Justin and economist Bryce Ward discussed a concerning rise in the need for chaos — a mentality in which individuals across the ideological spectrum, feeling disaffected by the system, seek its destruction. This week, they attempt to square that trend with the rise of a productive form of centrism in Wash…

Here’s part two of our conversation with Heidi Wallace and Rajiem Seabrook of EmpowerMT, an organization dedicated to creating a more just and inclusive world through leadership development and education. Heidi serves as executive director and Rajiem is director of equity and impact. In this episode, they discuss the challenges of systemic oppression, the impact of social media on youth, and grapple with whether or not our society is actually making progress.

Learn more about EmpowerMT here: https://www.empowermt.org/

Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13baFFSE4sXeFS6gtuzdY-mrUdY9y6UaHvCdKJqPkNTg/edit?usp=sharing

This week we’re bringing you an encore presentation of Justin’s conversation with Mara Silvers about Shared State, a collaborative reporting effort between the Montana Free Press, Montana Public Radio, and Yellowstone Public Radio. Shared State explores the strange political moment we’re living through, and as we approach this next election, this conversation seems like a good reminder that truth – whatever version of it we can find – usually lies in the middle.

Access the Shared State archive here: https://www.mtpr.org/podcast/shared-state

Episode transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O8G3b6912AvHufml849rfc9YJ5HnZD4DMwk2LrU0SS4/edit?usp=sharing

Today Justin interviews Heidi Wallace and Rajiem Seabrook of EmpowerMT, an organization dedicated to creating a more just and inclusive world through leadership development and education. Heidi serves as executive director and Rajiem is director of equity and impact. They delve into the work they do to build more cohesive communities, the power of self-reflection, and the critical role of curiosity in understanding diverse experiences. Tune in for part two of this conversation next week.

Learn more about EmpowerMT here: https://www.empowermt.org/

Episode transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1POLikCEkwPNljPNf_Krc4v8fNveCuNeqhh5xNdrgprk/edit?usp=sharing

On Independence Day, Justin sits down with Anne Fogel of Missoula, Montana, to discuss the plight of her brother, Marc Fogel, who has been imprisoned in a Russian labor camp since 2021 for attempting to enter the country with 14 grams of medical cannabis. Justin and Anne discuss Marc’s love of teaching history in classrooms across the world, the details of his arrest at a Russian airport and the frustrations of trying to obtain action from the Biden administration to designate Marc as wrongfully detained.

Send a message to the White House here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11vY8NM8Wr19zxRp4kPlTV9OcCUa11BJajjnKvgTTcoE/edit?usp=sharing

This week we’re re-airing a favorite episode from last year with Jeffrey Funk, a blacksmith from Bigfork, Montana, who’s been crafting public sculpture and architectural metalwork for over 30 years. Jeffrey is the director of the New Agrarian School, an organization that teaches blacksmithing and other traditional rural crafts.

In this episode, Jeffrey talks about how being interested in everything led to his blacksmithing career and provides some history of the profession. He also brings up how he deals with certain contradictions in his work — like the fact that the backbones of blacksmithing are destructive to the Earth. Justin asks how blacksmithing fits into the context of other themes of local economy, like CSAs or farmers’ markets, and how Jeffrey brings diversity into the New Agrarian School.

Learn more about the New Agrarian School here: https://www.newagrarianschool.org/

Transcript available here.

Our Incentives & Instincts series with economist Bryce Ward continues with a discussion of homelessness in Missoula. Bryce recently published an illuminating report in collaboration with Missoula Economic Partnership that describes the state of homelessness in Missoula, why it’s happening, and what we can do about it. Bryce and Justin are also joined by…

Tracy McNew is executive director of the Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD) in Libby, Montana, and LeRoy Thom is the clinic board president. The CARD clinic provides critical services to the Libby community as they recover from the legacy of vermiculite mining.

In this episode, Tracy and LeRoy discuss how the CARD is addressing the health impacts of asbestos exposure, the Affordable Care Act’s provisions to fund care for asbestos-related diseases, and the clinic’s legal battles with BNSF Railway.

Transcript available here.