Crude Conversations

This week, Crude will be revisiting the top 5 most popular episodes of 2020. Number 1 on this list is Long Live Larson, where family and friends share some of their favorite memories of professional snowboarder Chris Larson. In April 2020, Larson took his own life. Without speculating on reasons why he did it, this episode focuses on the life of Larson.   If you didn’t know Larson, then the best way to understand him is that he was someone who came from a loving family, he had loyal friends and he was extremely talented, but he just had a hard time being comfortable. Maybe because he was restless, maybe because he was an old soul, like so many of his friends have said.   Thank you to Mike Dempsey for suggesting the idea for this episode. Thank you to Carrie Hambach for suggesting that Cody dig up an interview he did with Larson back in 2015 and include snippets of it in this episode. And thank you to everyone who told a story for this episode, for being brave enough to record a memory about Larson so close to his passing. Each one is a reminder that life is never just one thing. That it’s made up of all the good and the bad that people do, and together those things create every one of us.

This week, Crude will be revisiting the top 5 most popular episodes of 2020. Number 2 on this list is with Joe Rambur, where we look at addiction through the perspective of a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. Joe took his first drink of alcohol at 13. Although his first experience getting high on opiates was at 14, it wasn't until adulthood that he became addicted. He smoked heroin for 12 years. He's been sober for the last 9 months, and for that he credits a program and turning his will over to his higher power. He says that if telling his story can help somebody else get sober and stay alive, then it's worth telling.

This week, Crude will be revisiting the top 5 most popular episodes of 2020. Number 3 on this list is with John Stallone. John comes from a military family—his grandfather served in World War II, and his dad and his uncle served in Vietnam—so enlisting in the military was a no-brainer for him. He joined the US Air Force at 18. From 1998 to 2002, he served as a security forces member and was deployed four times in support of Operation Southern Watch and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. In 2002, at the age of 22, he joined the Alaska Air National Guard. After he left the Guard in 2009, he took a number of jobs where he was in a position to promote and encourage safety, namely as a safety officer for OSHA, and a bouncer in downtown Anchorage. The common thread that links these jobs is John's sense of duty. He says that one of the core values of the Air Force is, "service before self," which is something he continues to live by. For a good portion of this conversation, John talks about his struggle with depression and PTSD. He talks about the psychological aftermath of spending 8 months in active war zones. How it was a continuous evolution of “hurry up and get ready” or “hurry up and get used to this.” But by the time you acclimated to that environment, it was time to go home. And then once you were home, you were forced to deal with everything you had been through—among civilians who have no frame of reference for war. In 2011, everything kind of came to a head and John had a mental breakdown. He called the Veterans Crisis Line and they helped him work through it and also directed him toward local mental health resources. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and Veterans Crisis Line is 1-800-273-8255.

This week, Crude will be revisiting the top 5 most popular episodes of 2020. Number 4 on the list is with wildland firefighter Micah Booze. Booze has been a firefighter for over 15 years, five of which have been spent in Alaska. Fighting wildland fires in Alaska, he says, involves more than just putting water on the hot stuff. It involves strategic thinking.

This week, Crude will be revisiting the top 5 most popular episodes of 2020. Number 5 on the list is with Mike Ward, the co-owner of The Pioneer Bar. The Pioneer Bar, better known as Pio, is a classic Alaskan bar located in downtown Anchorage. It’s been around since the 1950s, before Alaska became a state. Back then, it was a working class bar with a regular crowd of blue collar workers and barflies. It eventually began to attract a younger crowd in the late 1990s. That trend has continued to this day, where crusty sourdoughs and weekend warriors drink side-by-side. Mike’s relationship with The Pio goes all the way back to his childhood, when his dad was a regular there and he would bring Mike with him. That was around 1980. Mike and his business partner Dave Croffut bought the bar in 2013, and they quickly learned that the idea of owning a bar is much different than the reality of it. In reality, you have to deal with controlling crowds, local politics, and all the repairs that come with owning a 100-year-old building.

Francesca DuBrock is the Chief Curator at the Anchorage Museum, and she recently finished putting the finishing touches on Extra Tough: Women of the North, an exhibit dedicated to exploring how women have shaped Alaska and the circumpolar north. The exhibit was a massive undertaking, it took over 9 months to complete and now occupies the entire third floor of the Museum, which is about 7,500 square feet. It’s not intended to be a comprehensive history of the subject, but rather a multitude of snapshots that help explain how integral women are to the past, present and future of the north.   Francesca says that a large part of unpacking all of this includes subverting cultural myths like ones that depict the brave, masculine explorer conquering landscapes. And, instead, portraying a cultural landscape where Indigenous people have lived for thousands of years.  Chatter Marks is a podcast of the Anchorage Museum, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Just search "Chatter Marks."

Thomas Chung says that he’s always been interested in art, even as a child, but that as he got older it became a means of self-preservation. His upbringing was marked by racism and homophobia, and art allowed him to express the emotions he didn’t consciously understand at the time. Those emotions, he would later realize, focused on cultural awareness and compassion, and would come to define much of his professional art. In addition to being an artist, Thomas is also an assistant professor of Art at the University of Alaska Anchorage. There, he continues to champion diversity, equity and inclusivity.    Chatter Marks is a podcast of the Anchorage Museum, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Just search "Chatter Marks."

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks to Dr. Danny Mindlin about getting the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Dr. Mindlin is an emergency room doctor in Anchorage, Alaska

In this Special Conversation, Cody talks with Dr. Danny Mindlin about where Alaska is with Covid-19. Danny is an emergency room doctor in Anchorage, Alaska. Currently, Alaska is diagnosing between 700 and 800 daily statewide Covid-19 cases. This interview took place on December 8, 2020.

In this episode, I talk with my uncle, Jay Liska, and Richie Fowler about King of the Hill. Jay and Richie are both former pro snowboarders, and King of the Hill was a legendary snowboard competition held in Thompson Pass back in the 1990s. Three days and three disciplines. There was Extreme Day, where riders competed for the most challenging, but stylish line down a mountain; There was Downhill Day, where a race course was set-up and riders competed for the fastest time; And then there was Freestyle Day, where competitors battled for who could land the best tricks. There were helicopters and airplanes constantly landing and taking off, flying competitors to their mark, and other riders to revisit old lines and to pioneer new ones. There was a pervasive feeling of wonder and madness—everyday people pushed the limits of snowboarding and the durability of the human body. The entire event—on hill and off-hill—was characterized by an anything-goes, outlaw attitude. Every day was a party and every night that party intensified. Drugs and alcohol were everywhere and it wasn’t unusual for guns to be added to the mix. Although my dad, Scott Liska, and my uncle Jay were key figures at the event, I wasn’t old enough to experience it firsthand. Instead, the stories and the infamy that surround it have followed me around since I was a kid. And what I’ve found is that the story of King of the Hill is not just the story of the Alaska snowboard scene, but the story of a brave and reckless group of pioneers. Valdez in the 90s represented an era of unmitigated freedom, and that group of pioneers took full advantage of it.