On the next Outdoor Explorer, we’ll be talking with Conor McDonald and Miranda Sheely. Conor is known as Bucky to his friends. A few years ago, Miranda and Bucky moved to Alaska for college from out of state, but they seem to have found their home here, and they decided not to leave after graduating. Miranda has found her passion exploring Alaska’s wilderness by raft during the summer, and with a dog team during the winter. Bucky recently presented his college thesis paper at the Alaska Snow Safety Summit. In it, he researched the relationship between social media and avalanche safety. Please join us for what’s sure to be an interesting conversation with Bucky McDonald and Miranda Sheely. Thanks for listening!

Women and people of color have traditionally been underrepresented in outdoor activities. That is changing quickly. On the next Outdoor Explorer, Lisa will be talking with women and men who are in the vanguard of the movement to open the outdoors to all people. Thanks for listening!

For our first show of the year, something completely new on Outdoor Explorer. Charles Wohlforth is leaving as the program's host. On the episode, we’ll be introducing four new hosts who will carry it onward, and make it better, with more diverse perspectives and deep knowledge about the Alaska outdoors. Charles has hosted the show for 6 years and will still be listening and taking part and we look forward to where the show goes in the future. Thanks for listening!

Paul Souders wanted see and photograph polar bears for himself, by himself, in a new way, and he did something to accomplish that no one else would have thought of. He put a 22-foot boat on a trailer and drove to the Arctic, voyaging north, through Hudson Bay, to the pack ice. The photographs he came back with are stunning, showing bears in a way I’ve never seen them. Thanks for listening!

Felipe Leite rode a horse from Calgary to Brazil, unsupported. He crossed deserts and mountains and he says he nearly starved and he saw men killed by drug lords. Leite is my guest on the next Outdoor Explorer to tell about his horseback adventures, and his next big ride, from Fairbanks to Calgary, which will complete a journey spanning the length of the America’s. Thanks for listening!

In 2017, Jen Johnston and Sam Hooper hiked the length of the Alaska Range, 1000 miles from Port Alsworth to McCarthy. It’s a tremendous accomplishment, but their story is not one of hardship and heroism. They love it out there, and on the next Outdoor Explorer, Jen and Sam talk about the privilege and pleasure of getting deep into Alaska with one another. Thanks for listening!

On the next Outdoor Explorer, we spend a full hour sitting with Roman Dial, one of Alaska’s greatest adventurers, to learn about his extraordinary life, and the tragic disappearance of his son, and how that ordeal was horribly exploited by reality TV. We’ll also get into many other tales, including how he helped start wilderness racing and developed the pack raft as a tool for Alaska travel.  Thanks for listening!

This week we’re checking in with the outdoor community here in southcentral Alaska, which is all about getting ready for the coming winter and being involved in the positive stuff that so many of our neighbors do for one another. We’ll have segments on reviving fish runs in the Eklutna River, getting your skis ready for winter, and volunteering to help girls in Guatemala stay active through puberty.  Thanks for listening!

On the next Outdoor Explorer, we have an interview with one of the world’s top professional snowboarders, Jeremy Jones, who has made more than 50 films about his exploits in Alaska alone. But that’s not all Jeremy is about anymore. As he saw winter eroding, he has become an activist to do something about climate change, and recruited other top skiing and boarding pros to become activists as well. Thanks for listening!

The spruce beetle has changed the forests of southcentral Alaska, and it’s not done. On the next Outdoor Explorer, we’ll examine the forest changes driven by a warming climate. The most important factor has been these beetles. We’ll learn about their life cycle, impact, how to fight them, and what their explosion means for the places we recreate. We’ll also go deeper, learning what the best science predicts is next. Thanks for listening!