In this one, Cody talks to Kaitlin Armstrong. She’s the host of The Alaska Myth, a podcast that deconstructs the stories created during the Russian settlement and European colonization of Alaska that began in the mid-1700s. Utopian settler stories, stories of the rugged outdoors, ones of monetary opportunity and ones of lawlessness. These stories — often embellished or completely fabricated — have informed the Alaskan identity and sense of place for generations. Meanwhile, overlooking or ignoring the history and the lifeways of the many Alaska Native cultures. Kaitlin says that she’s been thinking about all of this for years, about how the idea of The Last Frontier is subtle and insidious because of what it hides. On the surface, these stories are ones of can-do spirit and gritty individualism, stories that reinforce our idea of Alaskan pride. But underneath all of that, there’s violence, resource extraction and the erasure of Native peoples and their cultures.
Kaitlin grew up in Homer, Alaska. There, she says she had an idyllic upbringing in the small, tight-knit community. But her understanding of what goes into creating this idyllic place changed over the years. That the land had to be conquered first and then it could be made into the place she grew up in. That knowledge and curiosity extended to her own Honduran heritage, of which she knew little about as a kid. Because, for so long, it was just too difficult for her mom to talk about. But every summer, Kaitlin’s grandma would visit and she would connect with her heritage through her. But, Kaitlin says, she always felt more Alaskan than anything else.
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EP 086 King of the Hill Part 2 with Competitors Julie Zell and Steve Klassen
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EP 085 with Alaskan Author Don Rearden
Chatter Marks EP 011 Indigenous traditions of healing and coming-of-age, with traditional healer Meda DeWitt
Chatter Marks EP 010 The importance of diverse voices in media, with photojournalist and documentary photographer Ash Adams
EP 084 with comedian Matt Collins
EP 083 with Anchorage Assembly member and Anchorage mayoral candidate Forrest Dunbar
Chatter Marks EP 009 The duality of storytelling: Balancing journalism and nuance, with photographer Jeroen Toirkens
EP 082 The legacy and fate of Arctic Flow, the legendary Alaska rap group, with Jerremy Santacrose
2020 Recap: EP 070 Long Live Larson
2020 Recap: lost anchorage EP 07 with Joe Rambur
2020 Recap: EP 061with John Stallone
2020 Recap: Special Conversation: Micah Booze on Fighting Wildland Fires in Alaska
2020 Recap: EP 078 with Mike Ward
Chatter Marks EP 08 with Francesca DuBrock
Chatter Marks EP 007 with Thomas Chung
Special Conversation: Dr. Mindlin Gets the Covid-19 Vaccine
Special Conversation: Covid-19 Update with Dr. Danny Mindlin
EP 081 King of the Hill Part 1
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