Dec

Growing Down

“I’ve watched my friends and peers hopscotch across the world,” says Fitz Cahall. “Some of them have reached the top of their craft, authored ridiculous lines up mountains, followed rivers into wrinkles of the deepest canyons, found the edge of human endurance.

“If I look back on the last ten years, I’m often surprised that I didn’t end up on their trajectory. Something inside, quiet and steady, called me in a different direction–one that I struggled against, at first.”

How you grow varies for each person, and it can differ depending on your stage of life. Some people reach upward and outward; others root down.

Please consider a donation to the Bears Ears Education Center Kickstarter.

Music: If Walls Could Talk by Jacob Bain & Nis Kotto • Blowback Blues by Canyon Kids • Revival by Jason Tyler Burton • Lost Forever by Little Glass Men • Sonic Roads by Cleod9

Tracks provided by Free Music Archive and with permission from the artists.

Dec

The Shorts — Zarsian Adventures

Zarsian Adventures

“My dad started whistling. That was the first bad sign,” Cordelia Zars remembers. “Then walking around the cabin and straightening things. The second. When he tromped up the ladder, rummaged around in the loft, and hollered down at me, ‘Oh say, Cord…’? I knew it was over. Some ridiculous idea had sprouted in his brain; negotiation was futile, all hope of rationality lost.”

In this particular instance, the idea involved strapping on cross country skis and dragging a ninety pound keyboard ten miles through the snow on a nine degree Colorado evening.

Now, Cordelia reflects on how much these hair-brained excursions–postholes, shivers, sweat, tears and all–shaped the people her and her siblings became, and left them with a deep sense for what they’re capable of.

Find Cordelia’s music here.

Donate to our Bears Ears Education Center Kickstarter Campaign here!

Music: If Walls Could Talk by Jacob Bain & Nis Kotto • The Channon by Josh Armistead • Decade of Upsets by Doctor Turtle • Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata performed by Cordelia Zars

Tracks provided by Free Music Archive and with permission from the artists.

Nov

The Shorts — T-Day

T-Day

There’s a light-hearted joy in friend holidays. Thanksgiving in Indian Creek or slaying powder for Christmas may sound like more fun than going ‘home’ for holidays fraught with family dynamics. At least it felt that way for Katie Wallace.

“Thanksgiving had always been a tough holiday for me,” says Katie. “It meant days of pre-cleaning, followed by a day of wearing scratchy sweaters and enduring endless hours of adultness. Hemmed in by tradition, social convention, and trying hard to be nice, we endured Thanksgivings with extended networks of acquaintances that none of us particularly enjoyed spending time with.”

But over the past years, Katie has come to see family holidays as a privilege, not an obligation.

You can find more of Katie’s writing here.

Music: If Walls Could Talk by Jacob Bain & Nis Kotto • Warm of a Mechanical Heart by Kai Engel • I Believe That People Can Change by Publish the Quest • Our Time is Short by Publish the Quest • Original Scores from Jacob Bain & Nis Kotto

Tracks provided by Free Music Archive and with permission from the artists.

Nov

Over the Line

“It’s like the Iditarod with a chance of drowning,” says Jake Beatty, one of the organizers of a bizarre, crazy race called the Race to Alaska. The course traces 750-miles of Alaska’s Inside Passage through complicated currents and tides, busy shipping channels and bear-ridden coastlines from Port Townsend, WA to Ketchikan, AK. In June. The most unpredictable month of the year for weather. There are two rules: no support and no motors. First place wins $10,000. Second place gets a set of decent steak knives.

What’s crazier than trying to race from Washington to Alaska on a boat without a motor? Karl Kruger’s decision to enter the race on a stand up paddleboard.

We’ve got one for you today about a ridiculous goal, about stepping over ‘the line’ and the unexpected places you can wind up physically and mentally.

Want to learn more about the Race to Alaska? Visit r2ak.com

Want to sail with Karl? Check out krugerescapes.com

Music: If Walls Could Talk by Jacob Bain & Nis Kotto • Harbor by Kai Engel • Somnolence by Kai Engel • Barrel Eyes by Canyon Kids • Blowback Blues by Canyon Kids • Loops to Aviemore by The Freeharmonic Orchestra • Dybbuk Box by Sergey Cheremisinov • Numb by Cleod9 • novocaine by fog lake • On the Brink by Jason Tyler Burton

Tracks provided by Free Music Archive and with permission from the artists.

Oct

Tales of Terror Vol. 8

For our eighth annual Tales of Terror episode, we have not three, but five stories that span the range of things to fear–from angry men with shotguns, to bears and mountain lions, to things that really don’t have any explanation in the world of science.

First, we visit an abandoned Pennsylvania town with Joe Shearer. Then, we’ll wander the overgrown Forest Service roads of the Sierras with Drew Villeneuve, join Maria DeBari on a spooky descent from Washington state’s Mt. Stuart, jumpstart a dead car battery at a trailhead on the edge of Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness with Sam Whitley and, finally, travel off the map in Iceland with Sal Zullo.

Happy Halloween!

Download Episode

Music: Live at Bazillus by Aidan Baker • If Walls Could Talk by Jacob Bain & Nis Kotto • Daemones by Kai Engel • The Meadow by Little Glass Men • No Longer The Damaged One (Rebirth Mix by Christopher Alvarado) by Ars Sonor • Original Score by Amy Stolzenbach • No Longer the Damaged One (Original Mix) by Ars Sonor • Halloween by Steve Combs • Thru the Americas by Little Glass Men • A Ghost in My Own House by Schemawound • Oneiri by Kai Engel • paranoiaXII by The F*cked Up Beat • The Magic Bullet by Little Glass Men • Somnolence by Kai Engel • All too human. By Coin Locker Kid • If You Can’t Be The Sun, Be The Sun by Schemawound • She Wolf in my Heart by Sergey Cheremisinov • Dark November #1 by Wayne Kinos • We’ve Given Up On Love by Schemawound • paranoia XVI by The F*cked Up Beat • Portal by Evan Schaeffer