Journalist Tom Hewitt is the former opinions editor of the Anchorage Daily News from 2018 to 2024. He previously was editorial page editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and news director of KTVF and KXDF in Fairbank...

Dr. Mara Kimmel is the Executive Director of the ACLU of Alaska and former first lady of Anchorage. Prior to taking the helm of the ACLU of Alaska, She had a long career in Alaska public policy focus...

Rose O’Hara-Jolley is the Alaska State Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. Planned Parenthood is a network of 600 health clinics across the country -- Alaska has two (one in Fairbanks and one in Anchorage) --  that p...

 JJ Harrier is the 2025 chair of the Anchorage Pride Parade. After a childhood in Girdwood, he traveled around the lower 48 and Europe trying to find himself ultimately ending up homeless on the streets of Portland in his early...

Alaska State House Representative for Downtown Anchorage Zack Fields explains the budget reconciliation bill recently passed in the US House by a single vote. That bill is now in the US Senate, where if it is not substantially amended, i...

Tessa Hulls is the 2025 Pulitzer prize winner for her graphic  memoir Feeding Ghosts. Tessa is only the second graphic novelist to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize, the first being Art Speigleman for Maus in 1992. Tessa...

Alaska State House Representative for South Anchorage, Girdwood & Whittier Ky Holland was born and raised in Anchorage. He is the eldest son of Federal Judge Russ Holland who was the judge in the case against Exxon after the E...

Alaska State House Representative for West Anchorage Carolyn Hall got an internship with the Boston Red Sox during her senior year of college in New Hampshire. This led to her dream job working for the team as a videographer during their...

Former Alaska State Senator and Iraq war veteran Josh Revak was born and raised in Minnesota. While serving in the Army in the early 2000s, a mortar blast in Iraq blew a quarter-sized hole through the back of his foot. He then got his fi...

Deko Harbi, Shannon Smith, and Tali Stone are former Alaska foster youth. All three recently visited the Capitol in Juneau as part of a trip organized by Facing Foster Care in Alaska....

Alaska State House Representative Kevin McCabe of Big Lake landed in Kodiak with the Coast Guard in 1981. He raised his three sons there before he began work as a pilot. That work took him to East Anchorage and eventually to Big Lake. He...

Mindy O’Neall is the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly Chair and the Executive Director of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center. CCHRC is a non-profit organization located near the Univerity of Alaska Fairbanks that for the past ...

Rep. Andrew Gray is the usual host of this podcast, but in this episode he is the guest. He is interviewed by his Legislative Aide Kyle Johansen at the request of his other legislative aide Claire Bredar in honor of her bir...

Legislative Lobbyist Reed Stoops moved to Alaska in 1971 after his youth on the East Coast. He worked as a Committee Aide to Kay Poland in the State Senate and then took a job in the Department of Natural Resources in Gov. Jay ...

Alaska State House Representative Jubilee Underwood of Wasilla lost the August 2024 primary to the incumbent Representative David Eastman. Few folks thought that she had a chance of winning that race, but come November, Und...

Michael Rovito is the deputy director of the Alaska Power Association (APA). The Alaska Power Association is the statewide trade association that represents the electric utilities that supply power ...

Alaska State Senator Rob Yundt was born and raised in Wasilla and stumbled into wrestling as a 7th grader. Little did he know that wrestling would change his life ultimately leading to a career as a professional Mixed Martial Arts f...

 Alaska State Senator Matt Claman first laid eyes on Alaska while working as a cook for a mining company the summer before his senior year of college. After law school, he made his way back to Alaska settling in Anchorage. In the mi...

Dr. Brock Wilson is the newest faculty at UAA’s Institute of Social And Economic Research (ISER). Brock recently earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Oregon where his primary area of study was labor economics. His most impo...

Alaska State House Representative Bill Elam of Kenai and Nikiski served for almost six years on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly before running for the open House seat created when former Rep. Ben Carpenter ran for the Alaska ...

Representative Frank Tomaszewski of Fairbanks got his start in local politics opposing a plan by North Star Borough Mayor Luke Hopkins to build a parking lot near Frank’s home. He ran for the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly in 2019...

Anchorage Attorney Pat Galvin grew up in southern California and hoped to be a sports agent. He never intended to be an attorney, to live in Alaska, nor work in state government. But as a relatively young lawyer he got a job in Governor ...

Sarah Vance spent her early life in north Texas and Oklahoma before moving to Homer, Alaska, at age 10. She had not paid much attention to politics until a 2017 Homer City Council resolution to make Homer a sanctuary city for immigrants....

Alaska State Refugee Coordinator Issa Spatrisano does her work through Catholic Social Services' Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services (RAIS)...

Former Alaska State Senate Minority Leader Hollis French moved to Alaska from Colorado when he was 20 to work in the oil industry. After earning a law degree, he worked as a prosecutor and then, when the opportunity presented itself, ran...