I Am Interchange

With farming and ranching moving to an industrial scale and model worldwide, the mechanization of all things edible, and the ready availability of foods imported from across the globe, our relationship with our food has become more complex than ever before. Add to that the mind-melting array of different diets espoused as the best (or only) option and deciding "what's for dinner?" has become a question of health, environmental concerns, and ethics. As with anything this complicated, no one side is ever 100% right, so we had to take a closer look.

This is not a discussion of the broad strokes of agriculture and how we get our food—it is a close look at how people find themselves engaging with the massively complex systems that come between the food on our plates and the farms from whence it came. It's about personal ethics and cultural philosophies. It does get a little heated when the question of ethics comes up, but that only serves to show how deep, how meaningful the whole enterprise of feeding ourselves actually is.

Former MT Cattle Rancher, Animal Rights Activist and Interchange X-Change Panelist, Howard Lyman sat down with Tate Chamberlin. His background, one in a million surgery success story, and his ordeals being sued with Oprah by the Cattle Industry for $180 million four times gave Howard the right to voice his opinion on the strength it takes to accomplish lofty dreams. In today's episode Howard and Tate search for the answer, are our food systems sustainable. This while exploring why farming is the way it is, how hard change can be, and why we need to keep fighting to improve life for generations to come.

I Am Interchange hosted a controversial & provocative dialogue on Machismo and the Male Identity in an age when society is coming out of the closet, and women are finding their voices. This thought-provoking conversation fosters curiosity on ideas that include, how much of your identity is entwined in your sexuality? Can a Leather Daddy be submissive? Do abuse survivors ever fully recover? Can a man be a man without being Machismo?

The Machismo Panel features fresh and diverse perspectives. Sasha Joseph Neulinger a Filmmaker / Public Speaker, Timothy Tate an Archetypal Psychotherapist, Erin Schattauer a domestic violence survivor, Mick Burling a Leather Daddy, Rodrigo Martinez Diaz a Zen practitioner, Bobbie Zenker a Trans Activist and Paola Torres a Spanish teacher.

Senate Candidate, Activist, Alliance for the Wild Rockies Board Member, and Interchange XC Change Panelist, Steve Kelly sat down with me, Tate Chamberlin. Steve's love of the outdoors and drive to protect it grants the Green Party Candidate an interesting perspective on the question, Can Forest Fires Be Managed? As I search for a deeper understanding of how wildfires should be managed, I discover Steve's theory on the hidden objective of the Forest Service and their famous mascot Smokey The Bear. This when asking the questions, do we even need to manage forest and forest fires? And why is Montana sending its national resources, the main reason behind our booming tourism industry, across national borders?

Tate Chamberlin sat down with Dave Atkins, a forest ecologist turned publisher who has worked across the western US for the past 40 years. Dave strives to find the balance between environmental protection and function, economic sustainability, and social needs when thinking about how to create a better world. He'll be joining us again in May to lend his expertise surrounding wildfires, which we begin discussing during this podcast. How do we live with fire and use it effectively? How do we bear in mind the necessity to fulfill our individual and most basic needs, while also understanding our actions affect our community and environment? Can we achieve a balance?

In this episode, Tate Chamberlin sat down with Mick Burlington, a crisis counselor and life coach specializing in trauma. Mick has also been a part of the Leather Community since 1991, and has become a pillar of guidance for gay and bisexual men struggling with identity. According to Mick, there is a separation between macho, machismo, and masculinity. Stick around as he guides us through the gray area between the separation, recalling his own journey of identifying as a gay man and the role that masculinity has played throughout his life.

Produced by: Tyson Lunn & Tate Chamberlin Music by: Nintendeaux Writing by: Neel Sharma

Joining us today is Timothy Tate, an archetypal psychotherapist based out of Montana. Building from our previous podcast, Timothy takes us on a journey of understanding how we can both leverage and abuse machismo. Using the blending of a matriarchy and patriarchy as a model, Timothy believes the tension of opposites drive both creativity and destruction. Can we use this archetype to better understand the human experience and unshackle machismo as being a mere gender stereotype?

This episode is a precursor to a larger panel we have coming up in February. Seven people from different backgrounds will be discussing Machismo, what it means to them, and how it can be both a negative and positive tool. Hope to see you there.

Joining us in this episode is the very multi talented Erin Schattauer out of Montana. We'll be discussing machismo, using Erin's experience as a domestic violence survivor to shed insight on how we can shatter gender stereotypes. Promoting emotionally aware development during children's most formative years is a part of this process, which is something Erin both teaches and practices; she's not only a domestic violence activist, but also a mother of a young son.

Photo by: Ben Johnson

Produced by: Tyson Lunn & Tate Chamberlin

Writer(s): Neel Sharma

Broadly speaking, the term cultural appropriation focuses on instances where elements from a minority culture are adopted by a dominant cultural and re-used outside of their traditional, historical, and native cultural contexts. In this episode of the I Am Interchange podcast, a diverse panel of artists, activists & entrepreneurs examine whether cultural exchange can happen in a way that honors unique cultures and identities, or if the history of using other cultures for financial gain makes it more difficult for an exchange to happen in an intentional and respectful manner.

Tate Chamberlin sat down with Jordan Fuller, a performance artist based out of Bozeman. From shedding the confines of his past, to retracing his roots, we'll be exploring Jordan's performance art as a vehicle to promote positivity. Stick around to hear more about the early stages of his latest project - using multi media to highlight living conditions on reservations across Montana.