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Dr. Michael Livingston is an Unangax̂ historian. The Unangax̂ are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, also known by the Russian-given name Aleut. For many years it was thought that Benny Benson designed the Alaska state flag when he was 13 and that, because he had been born in Chignik, that he was Alutiiq. But thanks to the research and persistence of our guest today, Benny Benson’s birth certificate was posthumously corrected; we now know he was 14 when he designed the Alaska state flag. We also know that Benny’s maternal ancestors are from Unalaska making Benny Unangax̂, not Alutiiq. We discuss Dr. Michael Livingston’s own story, Unangax̂ history, and Benny Benson.

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Today, New Year’s Eve 2025, I thought I’d take a look back at a few episodes from the last year. I am in my 5th year of the East Anchorage Book Club podcast and last year I released 78 episodes. This podcast is extremely meaningful to me as both as a legislator and as a person: I learn about issues that I am unfamiliar with, I create relationships with unexpected people, and it really is through editing the conversations that I internalize them and come out of them changed. 

Alaska needs foster families. Click here to learn how to become one.

Today's episodes includes excerpts from the following interviews:

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Today's episode is part of a series called "Leaving America," about folks who have decided to move outside the country and how they did it. 

Our guest is Joanna Keenan. Jo and I worked together in Santa Cruz, California. We were both physician assistants in the same emergency department at the local hospital there. Eight years ago Jo and her spouse Kelly retired to Mexico. Five years ago, Joanna came out as a trans woman. We discuss our shared experience working in American healthcare, and her and Kel's decision to retire to Mexico and the logistics of that move. We also talk about her experience coming out as a trans woman in Mexico, and her and Kel's move back to the United States this year in large part because they have turned 65 and now qualify for Medicare which gives them access to better health care than what they had in Mexico.  

Other episodes in the "Leaving America" series:

Aaron Poe (Ireland)

Tashina Duttle (Spain)

Daniel Gundlach (Germany)

Kathy McCue (New Zealand)

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As a 13-year-old, former Alaska State House Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins headed Vermont Governor Howard Dean's 2004 Presidential campaign in Alaska. He immersed himself in all things political as a high school student, but gave up politics when he got to college at Yale. During his junior year, he was contacted by several people encouraging him to return home to Sitka to run against the incumbent Republican serving in the state house seat, co-chair of the powerful House Finance committee Bill Thomas. Jonathan ran, won, and served for 10 years in the House where his proudest achievement was getting his HB 216 signed into law in 2014 which made 20 Native languages official Alaska state languages. Much of this interview draws from a 2018 Politico story that profiled three young Alaskans: Forrest Dunbar, John-Henry Heckendorn, and our guest Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins.  

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This Christmas morning US Senator Lisa Murkowski discusses her book that came out last summer, Far From Home: An Alaskan Senator Faces the Extreme Climate of Washington, DC. And, although much of what we speak about is from the book, we also discuss her vote on HR 1 (referred to by President Donald Trump as the "One Big Beautiful Bill"), her concerns about the use of the National Guard, and the insurrection that happened on January 6, 2021. 

The co-writer of Far from Home is Charles Wohlforth; listen to his podcast episode here.

Listen to Beth Kerttula's podcast episode here.

Listen to Andrew Halcro's podcast episode here.

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After a childhood in east Anchorage, Andrew Halcro worked his way up in his family's Avis Rental Car business eventually becoming CEO in 2002 after leaving the state house where he had served for four years representing the Sand Lake district of west Anchorage. After an unsuccessful gubernatorial run in 2006, he continued a popular political blog until he became the president of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce in 2012. In 2015 he unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Anchorage losing to his friend Democrat Ethan Berkowitz. Mayor Berkowitz appointed Halcro to be director of the Anchorage Community Development Authority. Through a collaboration with the Anchorage Daily News in 2021, he started a podcast called "With All Due Respect," which became extremely popular for its biting criticism of Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson. Andrew continues to host "With All Due Respect," which you can find wherever you listen to podcasts. 

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Minnesota State House Representative Rick Hansen was first elected to represent South St. Paul in the Minnesota State House in 2004 along with his colleague Melissa Hortman who represented northern Minneapolis and went on to serve as Speaker of the Minnesota House for 6 years. On June 14, 2025, Melissa and her husband Mark were assassinated when they opened their front door to a man impersonating a police officer. The man had come from Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman's home where he had shot Senator Hoffman and his wife multiple times; their daughter called 911 and saved her parents. The assassin had a list of lawmakers to assassinate, and our guest was on that list. We discuss his experience and his thoughts about the future.  

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John Heilman is a West Hollywood city council member and former mayor. West Hollywood was incorporated as a city in 1984, and John was elected to the first city council and has been serving almost continuously ever since. He is a lecturer at the University of Southern California's law school where he was voted adjunct professor of the year in 2008, 2010, and 2016. He is also a professor at Southwestern Law School where he has been elected a professor of the year for the past 5 years. I met John at the 2025 Victory Institute LGBTQ+ International Leadership Convention held in Washington, DC, where he was inducted in to the LGBTQ+ Hall of Fame. In 2026, he will become mayor of West Hollywood for the 9th time.

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Laura Norton-Cruz is a licensed master social worker, former teacher & victim advocate, artist, and mother of two elementary-aged children. Over the past two years, she has co-produced three documentaries with filmmaker Joshua Albeza Branstetter. The first, “At Home/In Home: Rural Alaska Childcare crisis,” was based in Kotzebue and highlighted the dire lack of childcare in that community. The second, released in April 2025, was called, “ILP,” and focused on the infant learning program in the Mat-Su Valley. Her most recent, “Growing the Kenai: childcare licensing,” illuminates the obstacles to licensed childcare in Alaska. Last week she published an op-ed in the Mississippi Free Press entitled, “Raising teens in the era of the Epstein Files,” and that will frame our discussion for the second half of today’s interview. Laura supports my House Bill 101 which would raise the age of consent in Alaska from 16 to 18 helping prevent the sexual victimization of young people by predators who take advantage of our low age of consent. 

For a timeline of all sexual misconduct allegations against President Donald Trump, click here.

This is the Politico article I referenced about Katie Johnson, "Woman suing Trump over alleged teen rape drops suit, again."

To watch Megyn Kelly’s full comments about Jeffrey Epstein, click here.

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Dr. Kathy McCue is an emergency medicine physician who first visited Alaska as a medical student in 1999. For 2 decades she staffed Anchorage ERs, mainly at the Alaska Native Medical Center but also at Providence, where she famously took care of Dan Bigley, author of Beyond the Bear, after a mauling left him blind and unlikely to survive. Dr. McCue moved her family in 2021 to New Zealand for an 18 month adventure. Then, in August of 2025, she and her family moved back to New Zealand permanently. They live in a small town on the northeast coast of the North Island where they are renovating an old farm house and growing their own vegetables. We discuss why they moved, the challenges involved, and their thoughts on their decision.