In this one, Cody talks to Robert Stark. He’s a former army infantryman and the author of Warflower, a book about his upbringing in Alaska and his time in the military. His upbringing was a turbulent one — his dad was absent, his mom struggled with addiction, his brother spent time in prison and his step-dad is serving life in prison for murder. He says he was known as the kid with the family of degenerates — people who drank alcohol, did drugs, stole, and went to prison. Eventually, he found himself struggling with his own alcohol and drug problem. So, he joined the army to travel and to learn more about himself. It was a part of his life that altered his way of thinking and understanding of the world.
It’s been 20 years since he served in Iraq, and he says he’s still working through it. He talks about an experience when one of his fellow infantrymen shot and killed an Iraqi man under questionable circumstances. It was a moment that made him start questioning everything — what were they really fighting for, and how was this man’s act so much different than the one that put his step-dad in prison for life? There was so much to work through after finishing his military service — on top of his family history, he was now thinking about the fog of war. So, he found himself dissociating from his memories and isolating himself for days at a time, smoking weed and drinking.
It took him years to step away from his substance abuse and to gain some clarity and accept the things he had seen and the things that he had done. He spent some time in India and Nepal doing yoga retreats and meditations. He would sit there and visualize the situations he struggled to understand — he would work through them as if he were the people acting them out and then he would embrace them with love and understanding of what led them to making the decisions they made. It’s a technique that helped him understand what he didn’t understand.
Today, in times of personal crisis, he regains his equilibrium by going on walks on his property in Happy Valley, Alaska. Peaceful walks in the woods, among the trees and the birds and the mountains in the distance. He thinks of his wife and his daughters and the man he wants to be — loving, dependable and present.
Chatter Marks EP 45 Revolutionizing how people see and understand Alaskan cuisine with Rob Kinneen
EP 112 The Boarderline Days with Matt Eastman
EP 111 Johnny’s Girl, a neon Anchorage and a life of her own with Kim Rich
Chatter Marks EP 043 Digging for Alaskana with Jimmy Riordan
EP 110 Breaking out the Theraflu with Andre Spinelli
Chatter Marks EP 042 Navigating two different cultures with Nyabony Gat
Chatter Marks EP 041 The things beyond our sensorial understanding with LaMont Hamilton
Chatter Marks EP 40 Infusing life and art with Charles J. Tice
EP 109 A journey of pain and forgiveness with Elishaba Doerksen
Chatter Marks EP 039 Searching for community with Young Kim
EP 108 Overcoming the traps in my mind with Sydney Eubanks
Chatter Marks EP 038 Living Traditional Values and Innovating Indigenous Design with Rico Worl
EP 107 Doing dangerous things as safely as possible with Dane Ferguson
Chatter Marks EP 037 A life of activism with Cal Williams
Chatter Marks EP 036 Atomic Landscapes with Photographer Ben Huff
EP 0105 When a story gives itself to you with James Dommek, Jr.
Chatter Marks EP 034 Building an Alaska-grown business with Jennifer Loofbourrow
EP 104 A career of reporting on Alaska hockey with Doyle Woody
Chatter Marks EP 033 How a lifetime in philanthropy led to archiving the Black experience in Alaska with Julie Varee
EP 103 Music saved my life with Bishop Slice
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