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Rev. Matt Schultz has been the Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in downtown Anchorage for eleven years.  We discuss what Christian Nationalism is and why it’s dangerous. We also talk about Matt’s childhood, what brought him to the ministry, and how he came to be a liberal in both politics and theology.      

Rev. Schultz is leading classes starting Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 6:30 pm entitled, "The Dangers of Christian Nationalism." Additional classes will be held, Tuesday, Oct. 1  at 6:30 pm, and possibly the Tuesday after that at First Presbyterian Church, 616 W. 10th Avenue, on the Delaney Park Strip.

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Dr. Lawrence Weiss founded the Masters in Public Health program and was instrumental in starting the Alaska Native Studies program at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He has a PhD in Sociology from SUNY Binghamton, but it was his postdoctoral Masters degree from Harvard in Occupational Health that moved him to Anchorage in the early 80s and led to a 35 year career in public health as a researcher, educator, writer, program evaluator and policy analyst. 

For Dr. Weiss's article on Medicare-for-All, click here.

For Dr. Weiss's article on teacher retirements, click here.

For Forbes's ranking of cost of health care by state, click here.

For NPR story on cost of chemo in Juneau, click here.

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Dr. Anne Zink served as the Chief Medical Officer for the state of Alaska in Governor Dunleavy’s administration from 2019 until the Spring of 2024. She is a practicing emergency room physician who served as the emergency department medical director of the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center from 2010 to 2018. She received her medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine and completed her emergency medicine residency at the the University of Utah.

Watch the full clip of Dr. Zink's grandfather, Albert Bartlett, here.

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Rep. Jennie Armstrong of West Anchorage was first elected to the Alaska State House in 2022 but is not running for re-election. Instead, she will continue running the two companies that she founded and dedicate more time to her young family. In this Labor Day episode, she shares insights into managing staff that she has gleaned from years of first-hand experience and thoughtful exploration. Many new legislators are caught by surprise suddenly having employees who answer to them; this conversation is intended to help legislators -- and any new bosses -- run better offices through creating an environments where staff thrive.

To learn more about Jennie Armstrong, listen to her interview from 2023 for, "East Anchorage Matters."

Here is the link to Simon Sinek's TED Talk, "Why good leaders make you feel safe."

Here is the link to Kim Scott's TED Talk, "How to lead with radical candor."

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Tom Begich is a former Alaska State Senate Minority Leader. After a life-long career as a singer-songwriter and political advisor, he first ran for office in 2016 to for the state senate seat held by Johnny Ellis representing downtown Anchorage. Tom did not run for re-election in 2022, but instead set up his staffer Löki Tobin to take his seat. We also discuss his childhood as the son of Congressman Nick Begich whose plane disappeared in 1972 in Southeast Alaska. We end with a contemplation of Tom Begich’s next chapter in Alaska politics.

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The Alaska Delegation to the 2024 Democratic National Convention consisted of 19 voting delegates, but also party officials, pages, and others, who all traveled to Chicago last week. This episode is an attempt to capture their impressions of the convention immediately upon their return to Alaska.

The guests (in order of their appearance)

• Jessica Cook
• Rep. Andy Josephson
• Brenda Knapp
• Rep. Genevieve Mina
• Rozlyn Grady Wyche
• Sen. Bill Wielechowski
• Veronica Slajer
• Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson
• Mike Wenstrup
• Kimberly Metcalfe
• Jacob Begich
• Monica Southworth
• Lindsay Kavanaugh
• Fauna Hunt
• Jasmine Carter
• Sen. Löki Tobin
• Chuck Degnan

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Representative Zack Fields has represented downtown Anchorage in the Alaska state house for the past 6 years. He began his work in Alaska in 2012 doing political work first through the AFL/CIO and later as communications director for the Alaska Democratic Party. In Governor Bill Walker's administration, he served as Workforce Development Coordinator for the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. He is currently a union organizer for the Laborers Union Local 341. We discuss his childhood, how he became an activist, and what got him involved in unions in particular.  

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Jenna Wright is the president and CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation.  AEDC exists for three reasons: 

1. to encourage economic growth and diversity in Anchorage
2. to promote a favorable business climate
3. to raise Anchorage residents’ standard of living. 

The corporation is funded through private contributions, municipal & state grants, and contracts. Jenna took over AEDC last year from recent mayoral candidate Bill Popp who had been the President for the previous 16 years. 

Today we discuss “Choose Anchorage” which is a research project looking at four different areas that Anchorage needs to improve in order to make our municipality more attractive to business. We also talk about "Project Anchorage," an AEDC proposal to institute a 3% sales tax in Anchorage; 2% would go to relieve the property tax burden, while 1% would go to fund capital projects that would make Anchorage a more amazing place to live.

Visit AEDC's website here.

Visit Project Anchorage here.

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Erin Baldwin Day is the founder of the Mutual Aid Network of Anchorage (MANA) and an organizer of the Anchorage Housing Club. Mutual aid is collective coordination to ensure that the basic needs of all of our neighbors are met, acknowledging that our existing social support systems are not enough to meet those needs. MANA works with local partners to tackle big issues that affect the health and well-being of our network neighbors, including capping interest rates on payday loans, developing a worker-owned childcare co-op, and addressing the SNAP benefits backlog. Click here to reach MANA's website. The Anchorage Housing Club is an informal group of folks interested in expanding the available housing in Anchorage. To reach that group, email [email protected]. The focus of today's discussion is housing in Anchorage.

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Arianna Bellizzi is the new Executive Director of Anchorage’s Federation of Community Councils. We talk about her background, how she came to this job, and the history of Anchorage’s community council system. We also discuss the current state of community councils in our city and potential ways for improving them.

Find your community council by clicking here.