East Anchorage Book Club with Andrew Gray

Send us Fan Mail

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.  

Send us Fan Mail

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. 

Send us Fan Mail

Author Amy Wallace was the ghostwriter for Virginia Roberts Giuffre's, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice. Virginia Giuffre was an American advocate and survivor of sex trafficking who became widely known for accusing financier Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, including Prince Andrew, of sexual abuse. She died by suicide in April 2025 at her home in Australia. At the time of her death, her book was complete and slated for publication. As you will hear us discuss, Amy needed to come forward at that time to provide a bridge to the manuscript in light of public details about Virginia that came to light just before her death, namely the abusive nature of her marriage which had not been detailed in the book. 

Amy Wallace splits her time between books and magazines. Her magazine work has appeared in GQ, Wired, The New Yorker, New York, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Details, The Nation, the New York Times Magazine, Elle, and other national publications. Two of her profiles – “Hollywood’s Information Man” (Los Angeles, 2001) and “Walking Time Bomb” (New York, 2019) – have been nominated for a National Magazine Award. 

She has collaborated on two other books, 2021's Hot Seat: What I Learned Leading a Great American Company, by Jeff Immelt, the former CEO of General Electric and 2014's Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration with Ed Catmull, then the president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation. 

Call 988, if you or someone you know is having thoughts of self-harm.

Send us Fan Mail

Stephen J. Cox is the acting Attorney General of Alaska since August 29th, 2025. He was appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy after the previous Attorney General Treg Taylor resigned to begin his gubernatorial campaign. Stephen Cox previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, which is headquartered in Beaumont. He was appointed to that position by US Attorney General Bill Barr during the President Donald Trump's first administration. Cox graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in 2006 with his Juris doctorate degree, summa cum laude. After law school, he was a law clerk to Judge James Larry Edmondson of the US Court of Appeals for the 11th circuit based in Atlanta, Georgia. Stephen Cox has also spent time in private practice dealing with white collar investigations, ethics and compliance, and regulatory matters. He and his wife moved with their children to Anchorage in 2021. 

To listen to Stephen Cox's appearance on the Hillsdale College Podcast, entitled, "Starting a Classical School in Alaska," click here.

Send us Fan Mail

The  Executive Director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (ANDVSA) is Brenda Stanfill. She moved to Fairbanks from Utah when she was 16 years old as a newlywed. Within a few years of arriving she had two children and realized that she had to escape her abusive marriage. It was that experience surviving her own domestic violence that led to a lifetime of advocacy, including 25 years as executive director of the Interior Alaska Center for Non-Violent Living where she supported survivors across Interior Alaska. Although we discuss Brenda's own story, we also discuss Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, whose book Nobody's Girl was published after her death by suicide in 2025. 

Visit ANDVSA.org for resources regarding sexual assault and domestic violence. If you are thinking of taking your own life, Call 988. 

Send us Fan Mail

Aubrey Wieber is the founder and executive director of the 907 Initiative. The 907 Initiative is an Alaska-based government watchdog organization working to increase public transparency for state and local government. Aubrey grew up mostly in Portland, Oregon, but his youth took a dramatic turn when he and his mother joined a cult, Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, while he was in middle school. That experience had profound repercussions, and he dropped out of high school at 15. But after getting his GED, he earned a degree in journalism and made his way to Anchorage in 2019 for a job at the Anchorage Daily News. He quickly grew disillusioned with the limits placed on him as a reporter and left journalism altogether. We discuss the origin of the 907 Initiative and its place in the Alaska political ecosystem, specifically its coverage of former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson.

Article about the media and Eric Swalwell from The New Yorker, "What Brought Down Eric Swalwell," by Jon Allsop.

Send us Fan Mail

Author Keri Ladner, PhD, is an expert on fundamentalist politics in America and the radicalization of the conservative movement. She specializes in the religious beliefs of the American right, and her work illuminates how those beliefs have become part of American power structures. Today she discusses her newest book: American Dominion: The Rise and Radicalization of a New Christendom. This is her second appearance on this podcast. Her first was two years ago after the publication of her book, End Time Politics: From the Moral Majority to QAnon. 

Previous episodes regarding fundamentalist Christianity in Alaska and America:

Send us Fan Mail

Samu El Bayani Neek was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. At 12 his parents divorced, and he had to drop out of middle school to begin working as a barber. During this tumultuous period in his life, he discovered a church in Tehran and converted to Christianity. Under Iran's Islamic Regime, a Muslim who abandons Islam can be punished by death. At 20, Sam fled to Turkey where he lived for about 5 years waiting for his refugee application with the United Nations to be processed. In 2009 he was relocated to Anchorage as a refugee where he had to learn English, his sixth language, and where he has remained ever since. 

This interview took place on Sunday, April 5, 2026, in Anchorage, and was recorded with a phone. The quality is therefore suboptimal.

Send us Fan Mail

The Alaska State House Representative for East Fairbanks is Will Stapp. This is his second appearance on the podcast. To learn more about Will's early life and military service (including his Purple Heart), check out his first appearance. Today, Will and I talk about the chance for increased public education funding this year, Alaska's therapeutic court system, and the elections bill (Senate Bill 64) that just passed the Alaska State House and Senate.

Send us Fan Mail

Wil Courtney is a Political Reporter and Multimedia Journalist for KTUU Channel 2 Alaska's News Source and host of the station's Political Pipeline podcast. This interview is part of the Alaska Media series. Wil never planned to work in Alaska but in less than a year's time our state has had a profound impact on him, particularly his reporting from Kipnuk and Kwigillingok shortly after Typhoon Halong.