East Anchorage Book Club with Andrew Gray

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Lisa Weissler is the author of the 2025 book, Capitol Crude: the Impact of Oil on Alaska Politics. The book was the recipient of a 2025 Alaska Historical Society award for its promotion and understanding of Alaska history. Lisa began working in the Alaska State Capitol in 1981 where she staffed for Rep. Sam Cotten of Juneau. She later worked for Representatives Fred Zaroff of Kodiak, Ethan Berkowitz of Anchorage, and Beth Kertulla of Juneau, and Senator Hollis French of Anchorage. Interspersed between legislative staffing gigs she worked for the Department of Natural Resources, went to law school at the University of Oregon, clerked for Judge Bud Carpeneti, worked for Alaska's Coastal Program in Governor Knowles Administration, and worked for Department of Law in the Oil & Gas Division in Governor Palin's administration. Finally, in Governor Walker's Administration, she was tasked with writing a paper on the history of Alaska's oil and gas tax credit system. That paper eventually became the book we are talking about today. 

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Willie Iġġiaġruk Hensley was born in 1941 in Kotzebue, Alaska, and was raised to live the traditional way that his Iñupiaq ancestors had lived for thousands of years. As a young adult away at college, his family home in Kotzebue was sold for a bottle of whiskey and then bulldozed. This lit a fire in him to fight for Alaska Native land claims, and Willie was instrumental in the creation and passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. The story of ANCSA is front and center in Hensley’s 2008 book, Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People. The year the book came out it was a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Willie was a founder of NANA Regional Corporation, where he served as a director for 20 years and concluded his career there as president. He also was a founder of Maniilaq, the regional non-profit representing the Tribes in the Kotzebue region. He was essential in the formation of the Alaska Federation of Natives where he has served as executive director, president, and co-chair. He spent 10 years in the Alaska legislature, serving in both in the House and the Senate.  He served as manager of federal government relations in DC for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. Willie is currently the chair and a founding member of the First Alaskans Institute. He and his wife Abbe Hensley live in Anchorage.

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Reverend Matt Schultz is the pastor for First Presbyterian Church in downtown Anchorage. He was the Democratic candidate for Alaska's lone US House seat up until he suspended his campaign on July 17. With his departure, there are still 14 candidates in that US House race, but the incumbent Republican Nick Begich and challenger Independent Bill Hill are the only ones who have raised significant campaign funds. Hill has raised more than $1 million so far and Begich more than $5 million. Schultz had raised less than $900,000 at the time of his withdrawal.

• Read Matt's editorial in the Anchorage Daily News explaining his exit from the race: "The campaign is over but the mission is not."

 This is Matt Schultz's third appearance on this podcast. Here are the links to his previous appearances on the podcast.

• Rabbi Abram Goodstein & Reverend Matthew Schultz: progressive clergy (April 12, 2022)
• Rev. Matt Schultz: Pastor of Anchorage's First Presbyterian Church on the dangers of Christian Nationalism (Sept. 20, 2024)

Listen to Bill Hill's podcast episode: 

• Bill Hill: former superintendent of Bristol Bay Borough School District

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Spencer Perry, PhD, is an assistant professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Before earning his PhD in Economics at Arizona State University in Tempe, he worked for three years at the Federal Reserve. He moved to Anchorage a year ago when he began his job at ISER where he focuses on topics in health and public economics.

This episode was recorded on January 30, 2026.  

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Former Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz moved to Alaska in 1990 after he finished law school in San Francisco. In 1996 he ran for an open state house seat in west Anchorage, and he served in the state legislature for 10 years, 8 as minority leader. In 2006 he ran for Lieutenant Governor with Tony Knowles at the top of the ticket, but they lost to Sarah Palin and her Lt Gov Sean Parnell. In 2008 he unsuccessfully challenged Don Young for the US House seat, and in 2010 he ran as the democratic candidate for Governor losing to Republican Sean Parnell. In 2015 he was elected Anchorage Mayor after defeating Republican Amy Demoboski by the largest margin in municipal history, and he was easily re-elected in 2018. In October 2020 he resigned from office after a consensual but inappropriate texting relationship came to light between him and an Anchorage Television News Anchor. Recently, Ethan has been a frequent co-host on Andrew Halcro's podcast, "With All Due Respect," and he has also been working on developing a fiber optic cable that would connect Asia to Europe via the Arctic.

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Julia Lurie is a senior reporter at Mother Jones, a nonprofit American magazine that focuses on news, commentary, and investigative journalism. In 2023, Julia wrote a story entitled, "Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals where foster kids are Gold Mine." The article was largely an exposé of the horrible history in Alaska of foster children being placed at our short-term psychiatric facility for far too long and sometimes when they did not need to be there at all.  Her reporting lit a fire under me to file a bill to prevent this harm from happening in the future. And last week, my House Bill 36 became law. This bill requires foster kids placed in a short term psychiatric facility to have a court hearing within 7 days to ensure that they actually need to be there. But Julia's reporting hasn't just led to new laws in Alaska. Her PBS News Hour report on Utah's adoption system along with her Mother Jones piece, "Cradle and All: the devastating cost of Utah's thriving adoption industry," spurred the Utah legislature to implement a massive overhaul of their adoptions statutes this year. Finally, today is July 1, and my multi-year quest to raise the age of consent in Alaska was realized. Julia and I finish our talk today discussing her 2025 article, "The unflinching courage of Taylor Cadle," which tells the story of a 12-year-old girl in Polk County Florida who reported to police that she was sexually assaulted by her adoptive father. Police took the adoptive father's side, Taylor was charged with making a false accusation, and was forced to write a letter to her father apologizing to him. The next time he sexually assaulted her, Taylor recorded it with her phone. This time law enforcement believed her. 

Warning to listeners: we will be discussing child abuse on today's episode. 

Listen to these previous episodes featuring former Alaska foster youth:

2024

2025

2026

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Heather Doncaster leads three different lives. The first is the one she is most famous for and that is as master of ceremonies for Mad Myrna's weekly Diva Variety Show. She has held this job for over 10 years, but not as Heather. She hosts the drag show in drag as Hank Van Dickerson; we learn Hank's origin story. Her second life is as a public school teacher in Anchorage for over 20 years: first as a high school/middle school science teacher, and now as a middle school art teacher. Finally, for the past two decades, she has worked in some fashion for the Alaska Zoo. That work is born from her lifelong love of animals which also manifests itself by her taking in of older animals with disabilities.

This episode is in honor of Pride Month. Click here to learn more about Alaska Pride festivities.

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The Majority Leader in the Alaska State House is Representative Chuck Kopp of South Anchorage. After a childhood in Iliamna and Kenai, he began a 23-year career in law enforcement, the last six as Chief of the Kenai Police Department. In 2010 he moved to Anchorage and began work as a legislative staffer, first to Senator Fred Dyson of Eagle River and later to Senator Peter Micciche of Kenai. In 2016 he successfully ran for the state house where he served for four years before losing the 2020 election to Rep. Tom McKay. Kopp did not run in 2022, but in 2024 he returned to the House with the primary goal of re-establishing a defined benefit retirement system for Alaska's public sector employees. 

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Ken Alper served as the director of the Tax Division for Governor Bill Walker. After earning a master's degree in Urban Planning at the University of Washington, Ken and his wife Jill relocated to Juneau in the early 90s where they bought the Silver Bow Inn which they still own. Once their business was thriving, Ken took a job with the department of Fish and Game at the tail end of Governor Tony Knowles' administration, a position he kept during the Gov. Frank Murkowski administration. In 2006 he went to work as a legislative staffer for former Representative (and current chair of the Alaska Democratic Party) Eric Croft. He has since worked for a total of 12 different legislators over 17 sessions. He is currently staff to Representative Andy Josephson, co-chair of the House Finance Committee.  

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Bruce Botelho is the former Attorney General for the state of Alaska under Republican Governor Wally Hickel and under Democratic Governor Tony Knowles. Bruce also served as Mayor of Juneau from 1988-1991 and from 2003-2012. His paternal grandparents first moved to Juneau in 1897, and really since his birth here in 1948, Juneau has been Bruce Botelho's home. 

Today we discuss his start in the Alaska government in Governor Jay Hammond's administration, how he saved Wally Hickel from impeachment and, thus, paved his way to become AG, and finally, how he decided as a former AG to testify in multiple hearings against Governor Mike Dunleavy's nominee to be the next Attorney General Stephen Cox. Stephen Cox was a guest on this podcast on April 30.