Dec

Bedtime Stories for Wanderers

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99569286″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]If stories are the currency of travel, then writer Ryan Nickum is a very wealthy man. By the time he turned 30, Nickum’s passport was chock full of the brightly colored patchwork of entry and exit stamps from dozens of distant countries. He was consumed by a desire to travel and haunted by the inability to sit still. The gaps in his resume developed into oceans between jobs. Cynicism grew. The overwhelming urge to quit the job and pack a bag sprang up every six months like a song that would not leave his ears. With his career stalling and idealism flat lining, Nickum looked into his past to search for the seed of the travel affliction. There was only one person to blame–his father.

What makes the traveler’s feet restless? Is it nature or nurture? Writer Ryan Nickum presents Bedtime Stories for Wanderers.

Music: Freibad by Hauschka • Old Old Fashioned by Frightened Rabbit • Backrow Politics by Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band • Tight Rope by The Coast • Orion Town 2 by Frontier Ruckus • Viva la Vinyl by Twilight Hotel • The Movemeant by The Tones

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Dec

O Tannenbaum

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99569007″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]Warning: This episode contains radio nudity and Christmas carols.

Christmas trees are a massive business. Americans spent $2.5 billion on Christmas trees in 2007. For the last five years, I have been stingier than Scrooge when it comes to a Yule Tree. In 2008, I’m a changed man. Armed with a handsaw and empowered by a National Forest permit, I wandered out into the Cascades to search for the perfect Christmas tree. Sometimes in the darkest days of winter, a little light isn’t a bad thing.

Music: Silent Night by Mahalia Jackson • Snowblind by =/- {Plus/Minus} • Christmas is Coming Soon by Blitzen Trapper • Connjurr by School of Seven Bells

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Nov

The Shorts — Friendship is a Used Bicycle

Friendship is a Used Bicycle

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99568528″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]“’You should get a bike. It will change your life,” my friend Nick said. “I heard this over and over again like a nagging brake pad rubbing on the one wobbly spot on a dented wheel,” writes Colorado-based writer Brendan Leonard.

Leonard wasn’t a believer until his friend showed up his doorstep with a gift–a 1989 red Trek bicycle. As he began riding, Leonard found his life falling into the smooth order of a finely tuned bike. To find a center, some people practice Yoga. Others meditate. All Leonard needs is a dark road and no particular destination. As he says, “There is rhythm and with the rhythm comes a clear line of thought.”

Oct

Fear Squared

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/171260662″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]What scares dirtbags? Global warming? Nine to five? Johnny Law? The unequivocal answer: bears. After sifting through the entries for the “Night of the Living Dirtbag,” it became clear–bears scare the daylights out of you all.

To celebrate Halloween, we bring you two tales of terror. Contest winner Chris Peters explains why it pays to listen to the safety talk and a very special guest remembers a family vacation to the Alaskan wilderness gone wrong. Fear is a funny thing. Whether the threat is real or imagined, the emotion of fear–heart-pumping terror–is just as powerful.

Music: Chariots of Pumpkins by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth • Welcome to Frankfurt by Charlie Hunter • And Who Could Love a Man She Couldn’t See? by adcBicycle • For Your Love by Marching Band • Snowblind by +/- {Plus/Minus}

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Oct

The Shorts — Balance

Balance

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99568211″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]The Bohrer clan isn’t your average Idaho Falls family. “Our neighbors have trampolines to break neighborhood children’s ankles and wrists. We’ve installed a slack line for that purpose,” writes father of five, Steve Bohrer. Juggling goals in the mountain with parenting is no simple task. Sometimes balancing competing passions requires combining them into a lifestyle. After all, whether you’re old or young, everyone likes to play hooky if there is snow on the hill.

Music: Seven Hillsides by Walk Wilkins • Oh, Alberta by Elliott Brood

Music provided by IODA Promonet.