Doug Has Questions
Doug Has Questions is a podcast dedicated to thoughtful conversation that leads to better understanding, connection, and inspiration. Host Douglas Olerud draws on his life experience to explore the stories of the people he’s met along the way.
Episodes
46 episodes
Episode 46: Susie McCartney; From A Deadhead to Chilkat Guide to Hypnotherapy
You can hear the exact moment a life story turns into a healing practice. Susie McCartney grew up outside Philadelphia in a family shaped by Vietnam-era fallout, alcoholism, and the kind of “everything is fine” chaos that looks normal until you...
Episode 45: Nicole Holm; Hard To Kill! What Does Resilience Look Like!
A nine-year-old gets hit by a stray bullet while playing second base. A 30-year-old nursing student hears the words “you have cancer” and still has to get dinner on the table for three boys. A seasoned Alaska RN crashes an airboat into a sweepe...
Episode 44: Matt Jones; From Kansas Prairie To Coast Guard Storms
A kid from flat Kansas farm country ends up on the open ocean, clinging to a mast in a storm and wondering if he will make it back down. That is where Matt Jones’ story gets real, and where mine as a listener shifted too. Matt walks us through ...
Episode 43: Jim Stanford; A Life Built On Hard Work
One minute Jim Stanford is a farm-country kid outside Cleveland pushing a mower across five-acre lawns. The next he’s caddying at a U.S. Open, running track and football at Kent State, and watching campus tension build until the Kent State shoo...
Episode 42: Shelby Steiner; How A Fashion Designer Builds Gear That Works
A great-looking jacket is the end of a very long chain of decisions and most people never see the chain. We talk with fashion designer Shelby Steiner about what actually happens between a sketch and a product you can buy, from pattern making an...
Episode 41: Randy Simmons; What Would David Do When Life Breaks
Click here to watch this Interview on YouTube.Click this link for more information on David Simmon's book, "50 Countries, 50 Stories."We’re talking w...
Episode 40: Christine La Vonna; How A Cruise Ship Creator Built Her Global Travel Community
A cruise ship can be a vacation, a workplace, and sometimes a lifeline. From a room next to an aeroponics grow at Skagway Brewing Company, we talk with Christine Kessler, a former cruise director turned full-time travel creator, about the real ...
Episode 39: Kim Clune; What If Being Here Is The Lesson?
A last minute email pulls Kim Clune from a normal life and drops her into Haines, Alaska, guiding photography tours through bears, whales, wildflowers, and northern lights. That leap becomes the start of a bigger story about what happens when y...
Episode 38: Kim LeDuc; Spam, Cockroaches, And A Call From God
A sore tongue that wouldn’t heal turns into a cancer diagnosis. A small-town Minnesota kid winds up leading in Mongolia. A long-distance dating message turns into a marriage and another cross-cultural leap. Kim LeDuc’s story keeps forcing the s...
Episode 37: Scott Rossman; What It Really Takes To Keep A Town Warm in Alaska
A lot of people talk about “ending up” in Alaska. Scott Rossman actually did it, and the reason is almost ridiculous: a roadside lunch stop, a broken moving van, and a young mechanic who thought he could fix anything. Scott walks us through the...
Episode 36: Nicole Bringsli; When People Stop Hiding Their Pain Change Starts
The hardest part about trauma is not always the moment itself. It is what happens after, when we go quiet, try to “be fine,” and carry the story alone. We sit down with Nicole Bringsli, owner of Creative Works Psych Services, to get honest abou...
Episode 35: Craig Parry; Kissing Frogs For Copper And Finding Epidote
Copper is the metal that makes modern life work, yet new supply can take nearly two decades to bring online. That mismatch is why I wanted to sit down with Craig Parry, president of Vizsla Copper, to talk about what mineral exploration really l...
Episode 34: Michael George; What If Listening Is The Real Medicine
He grows up between Montana and Germany, studies volcanoes and geology in Europe, and then hits a breaking point: the “right” path feels like a box. Michael George walks away from academia, follows a pull north, and eventually lands in Haines, ...
Episode 33: Shannon McPhetres; How Volunteer Hospice Helps Families Through The Hardest Days
Hospice can sound like a single frightening word, but what we’ve learned is that it’s really a promise: you don’t have to do the hardest part alone. I sit down with Shannon McPhetres, director and volunteer coordinator for Hospice of Hain...
Episode 32: Charlie DeWitt; A Life Built In Alaska
You can hear a whole era of Southeast Alaska in Charlie DeWitt’s voice: Salvation Army roots, moving from post to post, then landing in Haines and deciding it is home for good. Charlie walks us through the early days, from small boats and canne...
Episode 31: Lee Robinson; What If Your Detours Are The Point
Dropping a signed contract into a FedEx box and immediately searching “how to recall a package” is a special kind of panic, and it’s exactly where Lee Robinson found himself after agreeing to buy The Rusty Compass in Haines, Alaska. Lee’s journ...
Episode 30: Mike Machowiak; What Survival Teaches About Love And Faith
A home birth in a ham radio room on a Fairbanks-area homestead is only the opening scene of Mike Machowiak’s life, and it explains more than you’d think. Mike grew up around improvisation, cold mornings, and the kind of grit you don’t lea...
Episode 29: Harriet Brouillette; From Boarding Schools To Tribal Leadership In Southeast Alaska
A family story can be entertaining, but it can also explain why a community looks the way it does. Sitting down with Harriet Brouillette, lifelong Haines resident and Alaska Tribal Administrator of the Year, I hear how one family line str...
Episode 28: Tod Sebens; What If You Treated Your Life Like A List
Something is off about a guy who can casually mention getting lifted by a humpback whale and then move right along to the next story. Tod Stevens has spent decades stacking real adventures the hard way, through mechanical skill, odd jobs, and a...
Episode 27: John Svenson; A Mountaineer Artist Explains How Adventure Becomes A Life In Art
Denali is the easy part compared to the people. That’s one of the clearest lessons we pull from our conversation with John Svenson, a Haines, Alaska mountaineer and working artist whose life somehow spans Yosemite dirtbag years, Alaska state su...
Episode 26: Lee Heinmiller; A Lifelong Haines Local Explains How A Community Gets Built
A town can start with a big dream, but it survives on unglamorous details: heat that actually works, water that keeps running, and neighbors who show up when the plan falls apart. We talk with lifelong Haines resident Lee Heimiller, president o...
Episode 25: Sean Brownell; From Ski Bum To Heli Ski Pioneer In Southeast Alaska
A fishing boat flips in the dark in a 60-mph blow, and a 23-year-old stays calm enough to get everyone into a life raft. That same steady nerve shows up again and again in our conversation with Sean “Sean Dog” Brownell, a longtime Haines reside...
Episode 24: Stuart DeWitt; From Trapping Lines To Fishing Grounds In Southeast Alaska
He grew up in Haines, Alaska with a bike, a beach, and more wilderness than rules and it shaped everything that came after. My guest, longtime local Stuart DeWitt, walks me through the moments that built his edge: early hunting trips, learning ...
Episode 23: Kim Larson; Eight Kids, Nine Hours, Zero Quiet
A licensed daycare in a small town sounds simple until you hear what it actually demands: nine-hour days, strict ratios, constant trust from parents, and almost no margin for error. We sit down with Kim Larson, a longtime in-home child care pro...
Episode 22: Thom Andriesen; What Does A Small Town Owe Its Volunteers?
A Disney crew, a Gold Rush story, and a tiny Alaska town that had to pull off big-league logistics in the dead of winter. We’re joined by longtime Haines resident Tom Andriesen, a familiar face to anyone who’s spent time around town, and he wal...