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Journalist Tom Hewitt is the former opinions editor of the Anchorage Daily News from 2018 to 2024. He previously was editorial page editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and news director of KTVF and KXDF in Fairbanks. He is currently special assistant to Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins. 

This interview is part of a series regarding the media landscape in Alaska in 2025.

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Dr. Mara Kimmel is the Executive Director of the ACLU of Alaska and former first lady of Anchorage. Prior to taking the helm of the ACLU of Alaska, She had a long career in Alaska public policy focused on rights and justice in northern communities. She has served on the faculty at the Seattle University School of Law, the University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University.

Most relevant to our conversation today, Dr. Kimmel worked for over a decade as an immigration attorney and as an advocate for tribal subsistence rights. In her role as first lady of Anchorage, as wife to Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, she led the development of Welcoming and Resilience initiatives at the Municipality of Anchorage. 

She serves on the national board of directors for Welcoming America, the regional advisory board for the Anti-Defamation League, and is a board member and co-founder of the Alaska Institute for Justice. Mara received her law degree from the University of Minnesota School of Law and her Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She earned her PhD in Environmental Science and Policy from Central European University in Budapest in 2014.  

To listen to the Alaska State House Judiciary Committee hearing on ICE detainees in DOC custody, click here.

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Rose O’Hara-Jolley is the Alaska State Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. Planned Parenthood is a network of 600 health clinics across the country -- Alaska has two (one in Fairbanks and one in Anchorage) --  that provide reproductive and sexual health care including birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, cancer screenings, well-woman exams and mental health care.  Planned Parenthood is the only provider of abortions in Alaska. Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates is separate from the health care clinics; it is an advocacy organization tasked with keeping the Planned Parenthood clinics open and accessible. As head of that organization, Rose directs all of their advocacy including legislative lobbying, electoral engagement, endorsed candidate programming, local organizing, and youth leadership development. 

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 JJ Harrier is the 2025 chair of the Anchorage Pride Parade. After a childhood in Girdwood, he traveled around the lower 48 and Europe trying to find himself ultimately ending up homeless on the streets of Portland in his early 30s. His mother got him into rehab in Alaska and from there his life took a different direction. JJ is the former Vice President of Marketing for the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the former Director of Development for Alaska Addiction Rehabilitation Services at Nugent’s Ranch, and is currently the Director of Development at Denali Family Services.

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Alaska State House Representative for Downtown Anchorage Zack Fields explains the budget reconciliation bill recently passed in the US House by a single vote. That bill is now in the US Senate, where if it is not substantially amended, it would adversely affect Alaska in many ways. One is cutting funding for SNAP – which is the federal food stamp program.  About 70,000 Alaskans receive SNAP benefits. The bill would also significantly affect Medicaid – which is government health insurance for low-income people and families. About 250,000 Alaskans are enrolled in Medicaid. The bill offers significant tax cuts that primarily benefit the ultra wealthy. Ultimately, if the 2025 budget reconciliation bill passes as is, it would massively increase the federal deficit which is already alarmingly high and has contributed to a reduction in America’s credit rating. 

To listen to Rep. Zack Field's previous episode on the podcast (where we discuss him and his life), click here.

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Tessa Hulls is the 2025 Pulitzer prize winner for her graphic  memoir Feeding Ghosts. Tessa is only the second graphic novelist to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize, the first being Art Speigleman for Maus in 1992. Tessa was kitchen staff for this past legislative session in Juneau. She worked in the legislative lounge every day making legislators' breakfasts and lunches. No one knew she was an author and certainly no one expected the woman serving us our soup to be announced as the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner. 

We discuss her incognito lounge staff role and how it helped her cope with her newfound international fame. Here is a description of Hulls' book which we will be discussing today:

"Feeding Ghosts is a powerful graphic memoir that explores the enduring impact of history and generational trauma on three generations of Chinese women. The memoir follows Hulls' grandmother, Sun Yi, a journalist who fled Shanghai after the 1949 Communist victory, and the ways her experiences shaped her daughter and granddaughter. The book delves into themes of love, grief, exile, identity, and the haunting legacy of trauma."

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Alaska State House Representative for South Anchorage, Girdwood & Whittier Ky Holland was born and raised in Anchorage. He is the eldest son of Federal Judge Russ Holland who was the judge in the case against Exxon after the Exxon Valdez Oil spill. Ky left Alaska for college in Oregon and stayed away for over a decade. Returning in the late 90s, he continued his work as a mechanical engineer, but expanded into academia and eventually into entrepreneurship. Lack of state investment in the private sector has motivated his legislation during his freshman session in Juneau. But it was a fear that we wouldn't properly fund our schools that led him to run for office for the first time in 2024. We talk about all of that and the case against ten American Samoans in Whittier who have been charged with voter misconduct.

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Alaska State House Representative for West Anchorage Carolyn Hall got an internship with the Boston Red Sox during her senior year of college in New Hampshire. This led to her dream job working for the team as a videographer during their World Series win in 2004. In 2008 she branched into TV journalism getting her first job with a small local market: KTUU in Anchorage. She covered the Iditarod, Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. Ted Stevens' trial from DC, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski's 2010 write-in campaign. Hall then worked for a larger TV market in Seattle where she earned an Emmy for her coverage of the Oso Landslide in 2014. After returning to Anchorage, she left broadcast journalism and branched into politics working as communications director for Governor Bill Walker, and at the start of the Covid pandemic, for Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz. We talk about all of that and how she ended up running for office in today's episode. 

Watch the video of Carolyn Hall and Ethan Berkowitz leaving Anchorage Assembly Chambers, Aug 12, 2020.

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Former Alaska State Senator and Iraq war veteran Josh Revak was born and raised in Minnesota. While serving in the Army in the early 2000s, a mortar blast in Iraq blew a quarter-sized hole through the back of his foot. He then got his first job in politics back in Minnesota working on John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. Then, while visiting the Alaska family of a fellow soldier who had been killed in Iraq, Revak met Congressman Don Young's staff who suggested he apply for a job in the congressman's office. After 8 years working for Don Young and Senator Dan Sullivan, Revak ran for the Alaska State House in 2018 defeating incumbent Charisse Millett in the Republican primary and was elected to represent the Abbott Loop Area of Anchorage. When State Senator Chris Birch suddenly passed away, Revak was appointed to that seat by Governor Dunleavy. In 2022 with the sudden death of Don Young, Revak ran for that seat with the endorsement of Don Young's widow. After Mary Peltola ultimately won the seat, Revak went to work for Peltola's office. He is now lobbying for the drone program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Watch Josh Revak perform on Governor Mike Huckabee's Fox talk show in 2010 here.

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Deko Harbi, Shannon Smith, and Tali Stone are former Alaska foster youth. All three recently visited the Capitol in Juneau as part of a trip organized by Facing Foster Care in Alaska. Facing Foster Care in Alaska is a nonprofit organization that provides foster youth and alumni opportunities to share their lived experience about life in foster care to raise community awareness and promote improvements in the system. This is this podcast’s third episode featuring former foster youth; the first from 2023 was with FFCA co-founder Amanda Metivier and former state house representative Les Gara. The second was from 2024 with six former Alaska foster youth. 

The Alaska foster system depends on listeners like you becoming foster parents. To learn more about becoming a foster parent, click here or call 1-800-478-7307. 

Working for Alaska’s office of children’s services is an extremely challenging job, and that organization is filled with good people doing good work. The purpose of this podcast is not to demonize OCS, but rather to give these former foster youth the opportunity to share their stories from their own perspectives.

Warning: today’s episode contains frank discussions about child abuse, drug abuse, and suicide. If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call Alaska's suicide hotline: 988.