East Anchorage Book Club with Andrew Gray

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Ryan Buchholdt is the Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Although we talk about his role at UAA including organizing the emergency housing of the residents of Kipnuk following Typhoon Halong, as well as the emergency housing of Russian and American diplomats for the Anchorage summit last year between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, we focus on Ryan’s grandmother Thelma Buchholdt. She was elected to represent West Anchorage in the Alaska State house in 1974 making her the first Asian American elected to the Alaska legislature and actually the first Filipino elected to any state legislature in the country outside of Hawaii. She held office until 1982 and later served in Governor Tony Knowles' Administration. 

This episode is in honor of Filipino American History Month. 

Previous Filipino Episodes:

• Rep. Genevieve Mina
• Anchorage Assembly Chair Anna Brawley
• UAA Faculty EJR David & Gabriel Garcia
• Workers' Rights (in Filipino language): Ang iyong mga karapatan bilang isang manggagawa

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Ecomomist Mike Jones, PhD, of UAA’s Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) focuses his research on food security and food transportation in Alaska. He recently organized the Food Affordability Forum at UAA that brought together some of America and Canada’s experts on Food affordability. We discuss some of the takeaways from that forum on the show today. 

Listen to Mike Jones' previous podcast appearance here. 

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Paxson Woelber is the founder of Ermine Nordic Skates, the only Nordic skate company in North America. Ermine is based in Anchorage where Paxson was born and raised. He started his career doing graphic and web design, often for political campaigns (his graphic and web design clients included former state senator Republican Lora Reinbold, Representative Mia Costello, Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell, Senator Chris Birch, US Senator Lisa Murkowski, Independent Governor Bill Walker, and progressive assembly members Christopher Constant and Sydney Scout). He also was the designer for the No on 2 campaign that legalized recreational marijuana use in Alaska. He then accidentally became part owner of the Alaska Landmine, a political news site, where he found himself engaged in investigative journalism and photography. 

Ermine will hold the grand opening of its storefront on Oct 21, 2026, 6-8 pm, at 520 W. 58th Avenue.

• Read Paxson's ADN editorial: "Anchorage is becoming an international destination for wild ice skating"
• Watch Paxson's viral video from 20 years ago, "Reflection"
• Watch his and Cale Green's award-winning video, "Wild Ice: Backcountry Skating Alaska" 
• Read his and Jeff Landfield's story, "The bizarre story of Campbell Lake, the private lake that isn't"
• Read Paxson's, "One Man's Mountain: How decades of dysfunction on the Anchorage Hillside allowed one man to gate Stewart Trail and sieze control of upper Potter Valley" 

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Eric Wohlforth served as Governor Bill Egan's Commissioner of Revenue from 1970 to 1972 and was responsible for the $900 million in state receipts for the oil lease sales on the North Slope initial investment. He also created the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC). He moved to Anchorage in 1966 with his wife Caroline and their two young sons, one of which, Charles Wohlforth, has been a guest on this podcast. 

In 1966, Eric moved to work on a lawsuit related to the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. In 1967 he helped found the law firm Wohlforth, Brecht, and Cartledge in Anchorage. He sat on the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2006, serving as the president twice. He has also served on the University of Alaska Foundation Investment Committee and on the Alaska Pacific University Board of Trustees. This interview took place in my office in Anchorage with his wife Nancy at his side. 

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Jon Bittner is the Executive Director the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (AEDC). Immediately prior to taking that position earlier this year, he was the Executive Director of the Alaska Small Business Development Center at UAA. Despite his history working with small businesses and economic development, his degree is in geology and before finishing that degree at UAA, he worked as staff in the state legislature for several different Republican House members: Cheryll Heinze, Tom Anderson, and Craig Johnson.  

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Amy Sorrells is the Founder and Executive Director of Reframe Rethink Restore, a nonprofit dedicated to reframing alcohol use beyond the “problem or not” myth and toward a spectrum-based understanding of risk.

The question we explore today is at a time when the science is overwhelmingly clear that alcohol increases the risk of seven different types of cancer even when consumed in moderation, when we know that alcohol has a negative impact on brain health impairing our memory, mood, and ability to cope with anxiety, when it disrupts our sleep, when we know that alcohol consumption is responsible for more deaths globally than for all other drugs combined, and according to the latest research: THERE IS NO SAFE LEVEL OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION, PERIOD, why are so many of us still drinking? 

For over 25 years Amy has worked in media and communications. She has held senior leadership roles at Oracle, CNN, and Fox Cable Networks. She currently serves as a strategic marketing and communications consultant to MERGE, a health and wellness marketing and technology agency. 

Amy holds a master’s degree in psychology. Her graduate research into the psychology of alcohol ultimately led to the founding of Reframe Rethink Restore and the development of The Alcohol Use Spectrum.

This interview is part of a series called Fighting Big Alcohol which started last week with the director of Recover Alaska Tiffany Hall's episode. I met Amy in Washington DC at the US Alcohol Policy Alliance conference in late September 2026. This epsiode was recorded via Zoom from Amy's home in Atlanta, Georgia.

Andrew Hubermen's Huberman Lab podcast episode entitled: "What Alcohol Does to your Body, Brain, & Health."

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Tiffany Hall has been the the CEO of Recover Alaska for ten years. Recover Alaska is a multi-sector action group working to reduce the harm of alcohol use across our state. Tiffany is also the current chair of the US Alcohol Policy Alliance and was the co-chair of the 2026 Alcohol Policy Alliance's conference held in Washington, DC, last week. 

If you need help with alcohol, call (907) 249-6647.

This episode is a re-broadcast of the interview I did with Tiffany in 2023. It has been re-edited with the sound quality improved. It is part of a series called, "Fighting Big Alcohol," about the way alcohol has managed to escape the scrutiny given to other drugs and how alcohol has been marketed to Alaska in a way that causes profound harm.

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Economics professor Dr. Kevin Berry is the chair of the Economics and Public Policy Department at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Today we discuss his upcoming paper quantifying the value of personal use dipnet fishing. Last week he participated in the University of Alaska Statewide AI Symposium so we also discuss the risks and benefits of AI in research, academia, and beyond. Finally, we end by talking about the upcoming Covenant House Corporate Sleep Out taking place on November 19. Kevin will be participating for the fifth year in a row at this annual fundraiser that helps Alaska's center for homeless youth stay open 24/7 365 days a year.

Dr. Berry's Covenant House Sleep Out Account is here.

Listen to his previous appearances on this podcast:

• November 2, 2022
• June 24, 2024

Anchorage Daily News article: "University of Alaska regents weigh AI policy as student misuse increases", by Tim Rockey.

Ezra Klein Show interview with Bill Gates Sept. 29, 2026

Rachel Maddow Show, Sept. 28, 2026

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Jay Brause and Gene Dugan met at the Alaska Gay Community Center in Anchorage in 1978. In 1979 Jay's father, a Lutheran minister, presided over their holy union at Joy Lutheran Church in Eagle River. In 1994 they attempted to register their marriage and were denied. This led to litigation that ultimately was decided in Jay and Gene's favor in 1996, but Alaska changed its constitution in 1998 to only recognize marriages between a man and a woman. 

They were legally married in Portland in 2004, but that marriage was nullified by Oregon shortly afterwards. In 2006, they got married in South Africa; in 2007 in the Yukon Territory; and finally, in 2015 they were legally married in Anchorage. 

Jay & Gene were instrumental in the LGBTQ rights movement in Anchorage for decades. Jay was responsible for changing the name of the Gay and Lesbian Center to Identity, the organization he served as the director of for many years. He was a researcher on the 1985 "One In Ten" study of LGB issues in Alaska and the 1989 "Identity Reports" discrimination study. 

Gene founded Out North in 1985 which is an award-winning progressive multidisciplinary arts organization that still has a footprint in Alaska. 

Jakob Dugan-Brause and Eugene Dugan-Brause (their names today) moved to the UK in 2006. This interview took place via Zoom from their home in Northern Ireland.

Listen to previous episode with Jim Obergefell here.

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Lauree Morton is the Deputy Director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. ANDVSA is a federally funded coalition of all the domestic violence and sexual assault programs in Alaska. Lauree helps facilitate sexual assault response support for the 24 member organizations of the network. She is well known in the state capitol for driving legislative action around sexual assault and domestic violence for over 30 years. 

Listen to previous related episodes here:

• Brenda Stanfill, director of ANDVSA
• Randi Braeger, director of AWAIC 
• Keeley Olson, director of STAR 
• Laura Booch, DV survivor and activist
• Dr. Ingrid Johnson, gender-based violence expert