In this month’s installment of Incentives & Instincts, our recurring series with economist Bryce Ward, Justin and Bryce question the effectiveness of our current election system in helping us to choose the candidates whose policies will best reflect our perception of problems and priorities. Bryce introduces the concept of deliberative polling as a pote…

Scaling Montana works to accelerate Montana’s technology innovation community, and we are joined in this episode by Jenni Graff, the executive director, and Philip Brittan, who chairs the board. They discuss Montana’s emerging tech and entrepreneurial landscape and the upcoming Scaling Montana summit, which will be held on October 23rd and 24th in Bozeman. The conversation touches on the unique challenges of scaling businesses in Montana’s rural setting, the rise of various tech clusters across the state, and the value of networking and knowledge sharing in fostering innovation.

Learn more about Scaling Montana here: https://scalingmt.org/

Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mP_HSz-gQHJFzJT1IE3W98le4dRB-w86AcGh6hiUagA/edit?usp=sharing

Mark Kreider is a recent Ph.D. graduate in forestry from the University of Montana whose research focuses on wildfire suppression and its unintended consequences on forest ecosystems. In this episode, he explains the concept of “suppression bias,” where the easier-to-control fires are successfully suppressed, leaving the more severe and dangerous wildfires to dominate. Mark discusses how this bias, along with climate change and fuel accumulation, contributes to the growing severity of wildfires in the western U.S. In addition to his academic work, Mark is a talented science communicator who uses music, film, and photography to engage broader audiences, and he shares insights into how art and science can intersect to inspire deeper conversations about environmental issues.

Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vqrYQycF1QrE3nbc94kJk8C6Jf_a2yX1RcPVWriuN3s/edit?usp=sharing

Zach Green is the president of BeAlive Studios in Bozeman, Montana, and the co-founder of Rivers are Life. He began his career on CBS’s Survivor and oversaw production of the hugely successful survival series Alone. In this episode, Zach shares his experiences navigating the entertainment industry, emphasizing the importance of persistence, risk-taking, and passion-driven work. He also discusses the importance of storytelling in conservation and how multimedia can inspire outdoor adventure and environmental stewardship, highlighting his projects’ focus on brand-funded content and partnerships with organizations to protect and preserve global river systems.

Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QhJODqZD4Kb3pOYnY53ML8rAhn28KzcidY66dMzpJV0/edit?usp=sharing

In this month’s installment of Incentives & Instincts, our recurring series with economist Bryce Ward, Justin and Bryce dive into the changing perceptions of the teaching profession over the last 50 years. They explore how the status, prestige, and public perception of K-12 teachers have shifted, focusing on the decline since the Great Recession. The co…

This week we’re re-airing a conversation with John Adams, executive director at Montana Free Press. With Adams as its founder, Montana Free Press launched in 2016 as an independent nonprofit. In this episode Justin and John talk about the Montana Free Press model, the state of journalism in general, and its future here in Montana. Justin asks John how the rise of Facebook and Google changed the business model for online newspapers.

Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KWQkKNw2tQI_7y596hVCR3mIIfyH6RyFjHSpqgCX-MA/edit?usp=sharing

Nick Mott is an award-winning journalist and host of a new podcast The Wide Open. The first season, Threatened, explores the complex legacy of the Endangered Species Act and new episodes are dropping weekly right now. Mott discusses the Act’s history, its powerful legal teeth, and the social and political challenges surrounding species protection, particularly with predators like grizzly bears in Montana. He shares insights into the ethical and practical debates about wildlife conservation, the social question of what constitutes species recovery, and how the Act has become such a contentious issue in modern politics.

Listen to The Wide Open here: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1254361510/the-wide-open

Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qUoJLIlgD0hjwDrXz3ndxLu7-X7Xr1EyAYTQDBmXgkw/edit?usp=sharing

Mallory Phillips and Nathan Dugan co-founded Shelter WF, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating housing options for low to middle-income earners, in 2022. In this episode, they discuss the housing challenges in the Flathead Valley, the history of zoning and its implications on class and race, the state of housing legislation in Montana, and the barriers to affordable housing development.

Learn more about Shelter WF here: www.shelterwf.org

Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-jMxFSdZXgFFNU409lH0p84e6M9OBxlEBNfl_bkQuj0/edit?usp=sharing