This week's episode is the November edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend Bryce Ward about some of the broader challenges facing our society. Justin and Bryce discuss the crisis in the political labor market, where fewer people seem interested in running for office, and those who are elected have less experience in government. The pair talk about why this crisis is occurring, including the role of media, money and a shrinking labor supply. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14XLNNCxeGEJNt2Q9GnppNZsNb_ePbrQRnc-U9t-99IM/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guests are Dylan Cherrulo and Wendy Owens. Dylan is an economics student at the University of Montana and a program assistant at the Blackstone Luanchpad. Wendy is the founder and CEO of Hexas Biomass, and she's also Dylan's mom. In this episode Dylan and Wendy discuss their paths into entrepreneurship and what about this choice of career path is so appealing to them both. Justin asks Wendy and Dylan about why the notion of doing good by people and the planet is important in the work that they do, and they discuss Hexas, Wendy's most recent entrepreneurial venture. Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y55VLHoXJVDtdeK4UoILvJk2lqgggnsTbJha2hXfOts/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guest is Josh Olsen, co-founder and program director of the Montana Wilderness School, a Bozeman based organization that offers expeditionary wilderness courses for youth that foster personal growth and a conservation ethic. In this episode Justin asks Josh about his motivation for starting MWS and why the school focuses specifically on Montana kids. Josh talks about the power of kids from diverse backgrounds coming together on immersive backcountry experiences and the importance of trusting and communicating with each other. Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wcZDXdX9c5eniagQ9jZR5qXYUMQSqDR0ee3nSmqZYFc/edit?usp=sharing

This week is the October edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend Bryce Ward about some of the broader challenges facing our society. This week, Justin and Bryce continue discussing A.I. and creativity with Justin's colleague at the College of Business, Professor Erik Guzik. Erik is an expert on creativity and entrepreneurship and recently published a study finding that generative A.I. can score in the top percentile of creative thinking. In this episode Justin asks Bryce and Erik how we as a society should manage A.I. and how happy accidents play a role in creativity. Bryce asks Justin and Erik to talk about how they are using A.I. in their roles as educators at the university. Transcript available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18ecd_c_WV39tVAtyYMMjx6xNy0xfC4OWer7MbNfOaQY/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guest is Ken Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate. He's also an award winning author, scholar and attorney. Ken has argued before the Supreme Court and testified in front of Congress. Ken will be visiting the University of Montana community on November 6th as part of the President's lecture series. This conversation was recorded prior to the recent eruption and violence between Hamas and Israel. In this episode Justin asks Ken to define hate and whether anti-Semitism operates differently than other forms of hate. They briefly discuss the Israel-Palestine debate and how universities should approach exposing students to a variety of viewpoints and ideas. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Crbsdvky8dxCvXiLGOJKvwsIY06FUeIa6A1bD0nq8Vk/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guest is Shaun Radley, purveyor of all things at MTCX and master of bike race organizing in western Montana. There is something special happening right now with the sport of cycling in Montana, and Shaun is a big reason why. In this episode Justin and Shaun talk about the upcoming 2023 and 2024 Pan American Cyclocross Championships, which Missoula has been selected to host in large part due to Shaun's efforts and connections. Justin asks Shaun about the application process to host that event and why bikes and biking are so special to so many people in this part of the state. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Oag-gX2YeVWaQhmJeZFLNfkJdVDSvSetfgH1kKH_Fwo/edit?usp=sharing

After some thoughtful listener questions, Justin reached back out to Nic de Castro, founder of LandTrust — a new venture seeking to connect landowners and recreationalists — to ask a few more questions, particularly about how LandTrust works with the state’s block management program. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11FLTb07QVU7hAkqH5DCKlTdSKhGEFAbFkuZTXp8RfZg/edit Check out part one here: https://soundcloud.com/anewangle/91423-decastro-sc-final

This week's guest is Molly Kruckenberg, director of the Montana Historical Society, an organization charged with protecting and sharing Montana's past. The Historical Society is in the midst of building the Montana Heritage Center and Molly and Justin discuss the project in this episode. Molly describes the role the Historical Society plays in the state of Montana, how exhibit space in the new Heritage Center will be thoughtfully curated, and how she and her team highlight multiple perspectives to tell a story with as much accuracy as possible. Justin asks Molly about how the Historical Society is engaging with young people throughout the state. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZUP7HFnZHZ_C0r0wsOkklERt19xvB1i9TrTZOSDTyj4/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guests are Latisha Buck Elk Thunder and Dacia Red Thunder Griego, founders of Indigenous Made Missoula, a platform created to empower and propel Indigenous artists. In this episode, Justin asks about the inspiration behind Indigenous Made Missoula, the importance of representation and Indigenous spaces, as well as how non-Indigenous consumers can be more thoughtful and intentional in the way they engage with Indigenous art and artists. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Rru-vHQCBH4xb-C1-5H3JyPvpd7vvfImBLB0o9Oxa0/edit?usp=sharing

This week is the September edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend Bryce Ward about some of the broader challenges facing our society. This week Justin and Bryce are joined by Justin's colleague at the College of Business, Professor Erik Guzik. Erik is an expert on creativity and entrepreneurship and recently published a study finding that generative A.I. can score in the top percentile of creative thinking. Erik talks about his definition of creativity and shares the method he and his fellow researchers used to conduct their study. The trio discuss what these findings mean for society and the future implications of a disruptive technology like generative A.I.. Stay tuned for part two of this conversation in next month's Incentives & Instincts episode. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ln8SkRLks1xW6pvtnsElnPRN8u7NQR7ihKZZC0ePDLI/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guest is Peter Stark, bestselling author of Astoria, Young Washington, and now the newly released Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation. Peter's new book explores a critical period of early U.S. history overlooked and not well understood. In this episode Justin asks Peter about his career transition from adventure journalism to history books, Peter describes a forgotten, yet formative part of American history, and ruminates on his approach to telling the nuanced, messy, complicated stories of our nation's history. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C5JHzl3t1PFWqitTwWdHZpUJWywSaSKO8__NSXPlULQ/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guest is Nic de Castro, founder of LandTrust, a new venture seeking to connect landowners and recreationalists. LandTrust creates new revenue streams for landowners and enables access to lands previously difficult or impossible for the public to access. In this episode, Justin and Nic discuss the pressure on private lands, particularly working lands in the American West, how LandTrust incentivizes conservation, and the challenges the company has faced as an innovative tech platform launching in the state of Montana. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o4V9hHmHfib99Rz6bjAMcznbixrncLzcWBcJOwaZUPc/edit?usp=sharing

This week is the August edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend Bryce Ward about some of the broader challenges facing our society. This week, Bryce takes on the role of host to talk with Justin and Nick Mott about their brand new book, This is Wildfire: How to Protect Yourself, Your Home, and Your Community in the Age of Heat. Justin and Nick share their earliest experiences with wildfire and how their perceptions and understanding have changed since then. Bryce asks what the co-authors want the individual reader to take away from the book and also what our broader responsibility is to engage with policy makers on the subject of wildfire. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OzrVUhEGaaeIzXgGku8kTgMEoDmNlog9LsstYfQfhBs/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guest is Colin Hickey, senior vice-president of operations at VidCon - a conference that brings together up to 75,000 online creators each year. Colin is a Montana entrepreneur and community leader and has grown the VidCon program across the globe. In this episode, Colin tells the story of how he got involved with VidCon and its rapid growth over the course of a few short years. Justin asks Colin a series of lightening round questions about streaming media, regulation in big tech, content abundance and more. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V8_fK8lOcOULnoZrOVJhmZnmWN-5v69PBn8sUsA3Yb8/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guest is Jeff Batton, a principal at HomeStake, a fund that pursues a variety of business models, all designed around connecting more local investors with more local companies. In this episode, Justin and Jeff talk about the trend towards consolidation in business and some solutions HomeStake is pursuing to avoid the problems created by continuous consolidation, how investors can rethink how they invest in order to support the biodiversity of their local business ecosystem, and how you can contribute to a healthy local economy even as an everyday consumer. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JimYxknJ-1I8NGKed-hnKmTAztcaQqjH1nKOqOYEFiw/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guest is Dr. Pardis Mahdavi, an Iranian-American professor, administrator, outgoing provost at the University of Montana, and the newly named president of the University of La Verne. Pardis is the author of multiple books and served in leadership roles in several prominent universities. In this episode Justin asks Pardis about her path into academia, what changes to the University of Montana and higher ed more broadly she would like to see and her goals for the new role as president of the University of La Verne. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WXbFyw5yg9sg_R4VSGkiiIzlUCNT2oY_xIyGWXp1t5U/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guest is Dr. Jay Erickson, a family medicine doctor in the Flathead Valley and assistant clinical dean of the University of Washington's WWAMI Program, a residency track for doctors to practice in Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. In this episode Justin and Dr. Erickson discuss the challenges and opportunities in rural health care, how the WWAMI program provides access to publicly funded medical education for the residents of Montana and how to recruit more young people into the practice of rural medicine. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YgovokKr6-U5tMM3m5x_M7ofBuQZdbVrlSAE4X83z-k/edit?usp=sharing

This week's guest is journalist Sally Mauk, senior news analyst and news director emerita at Montana Public Radio. Sally has covered Montana politics and other topics for over 30 years and is the host of MTPR's Capitol Talk. In this episode Sally talks about the factors that brought her to journalism, her perspective on the 2023 Montana Legislative session and the future of political coverage in Montana. Justin asks Sally about friend and colleague Chuck Johnson, and about her current objectives now that she has semi-retired. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HRVBLQ1smR9DBJCgeXqKEyuFzJ6y_g0Uz6P_yUJOKqg/edit?usp=sharing

This week is the July edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend Bryce Ward about some of the broader challenges facing our society. This week the two discuss some of the more encouraging signals in the economy. They cover declines in violent crime, inflation and increases in labor force participation rates over the last year or so. Justin and Bryce also dig into a recent study which found people across the world tend to believe things used to be better in the past and discuss why this might be and why that idea isn't actually accurate. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KeXOkMce66kq4VSpa_fl8XQIQ8WNKWlTAjh1mV06Mdg/edit?usp=sharing

This week Justin returns to his conversation with Emmy Award winning production designer and art director John Shaffner about his career designing some of the most iconic sets in television, including Friends and Two and a Half Men. In part two of this two-part episode, they discuss the transition from network television to today's streaming services, the inner-workings of license deals and why the number of sitcoms produced each year continues to decline. Justin asks John about his connection to the University of Montana and continued dedication to the college. Transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lf61TK02ugiUAY1TUf0pRJHU2lwtwrLstWVJKm-Nisg/edit?usp=sharing