I first met Chandra Brown through the podcast more than four years ago, and with each passing year, I’ve been more and more inspired by her life and work. You may remember that she’s the founder of Freeflow Institute, a Montana-based organization that curates immersive outdoor learning experiences in Earth’s wildest classrooms. What started with combining summer river trips with writing workshops taught by some of the West’s greatest authors has turned into a year-round, immersive curriculum that incorporates many forms of art and storytelling.
If you’ve listened to a lot of Mountain & Prairie episodes, then you will recognize many past and present Freeflow Instructors– Hal Herring, Bill deBuys, Chris La Tray, Heather Hansman, Anna Brones, Brendan Leonard, Alexis Bonogofsky, and Elliott Woods. And you’ll also recognize the Freeflow classrooms, which include the Salmon River, Green River, Big Blackfoot River, San Juan Islands, and the canyon country of Southwest Colorado. The overlap between what Chandra has built at Freeflow and what we’re all doing here in Mountain & Prairie is significant, so I was excited to have Chandra join me for another conversation.
If you want to hear more about Chandra’s upbringing in Alaska and her fascinating life trajectory, I’d encourage you to go back and listen to our first episode. But also feel free to dive right into this conversation, as we had a wonderful chat about everything from cold water plunges to Freeflow’s growth and evolution to the challenges of running a small business during the pandemic years. We discuss some of the upcoming courses for this calendar year, Freeflow’s scholarship program, the importance of pursuing one’s own creative endeavors, and how Chandra and grown as a person over the past four years.
I’d also be crazy not to mention that I’m leading a Freeflow course late this summer, down the Green River in Utah, through Gates of Ladore and Dinosaur National Monument. We’ll be focused on the power of optimistic storytelling, and how storytelling can be used to effect change here in the West and beyond. You can check out the link in the episode notes to learn more, but my course is limited to 12 people and it’s already filling up. But even if you’re not interested in spending a week with me, I’d encourage you to check out all the courses and the scholarship opportunities. I wish I could go on all the courses!
Thanks for listening. Hope you enjoy!
Photos courtesy of Chandra Brown
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RESOURCES:
Topics Discussed:
- 4:00 – Chandra’s most recent trip with Anna Brones
- 6:15 – How cold water became a part of Chandra’s life and practice
- 9:44 – An overview of Freeflow Institute and how it came to be
- 12:00 – How Freeflow has evolved
- 14:45 – Whether Freeflow’s evolution was more due to Chandra’s planning or her flexibility
- 16:30 – Chandra’s advice for someone thinking of quitting their steady job to build something new
- 19:45 – The business owners and creatives Chandra admires
- 22:45 – How the Freeflow Foundation came to be
- 25:15 – Some available scholarships through the Freeflow Foundation
- 27:45 – Running through some of the currently available Freeflow courses, with a brief tangent into dishwashing habits
- 30:45 – What makes a Freeflow Institute course successful for participants
- 34:00 – Success stories from past courses
- 41:30 – How Freeflow has changed Chandra
- 46:45 – Freeflow’s podcast and creative services
- 50:00 – Chandra’s book recommendations
Information Referenced:
- Chandra Brown
- Freeflow Institute
- Anna Brones
- Puget Sound
- Hillary Oliver
- Brendan Leonard
- Sympathetic nervous system
- William DeBuys
- Hal Herring
- Pam Houston
- David James Duncan
- Alexis Bonogofsky
- Elliot Woods
- “How Ugandans are Saving the Nile with River Sports Culture” by Chandra Brown
- Running to Stand Still – Freeflow course with Brendan Leonard
- Freeflow Foundation
- American Rivers
- American Prairie Reserve
- American Whitewater
- Craig Childs
- Dolores River
- The Desert Eye – Freeflow course with Craig Childs
- Joe Wilkins
- Blackfoot River
- River, Language, World – Freeflow course with Joe Wilkins
- Ana Maria Spagna
- San Juan Islands
- Writing the Nonhuman – Freeflow course with Ana Maria Spagna
- Chris La Tray
- Missouri River
- Rewilding Bodies, Rewilding Writing – Freeflow course with Chris La Tray
- Whitefish, MT
- Sherwin Bitsui
- Rio Grande
- Fort Lewis College
- Byron Aspaas
- Place, Power, and Purpose – Freeflow course with Ed Roberson
- Gates of Lodore
- Green River
- Freeflow Podcast
- The Prop Foundation
- Freeflow’s creative services
- Seth Godin
- This is Marketing by Seth Godin
- Akimbo – a podcast from Seth Godin
- Wintering by Katherine May
- Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
- Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
- Tim Ferriss
- Arctic Dreams by Berry Lopez
Enjoy this episode? Then you might like these too:
- Chris Dombrowski, Part 2 – “The River You Touch”
- Douglas Brinkley – Exploring the Past to Find Inspiration for the Future
- Peter Stark – Tales of Adventure, Exploration, & Epic Battles
- Frances Ashforth – Art, Water, and Wide-Open Spaces
- Nate Schweber – A Forgotten Chapter of American Conservation
- Pete McBride, Part 2: In Search of Silence
- Rick Ridgeway – Purpose-Driven Adventurer
- Riddy Arman – Artistic Authenticity
- Antonia Malchik – Exploring Culture & Complexity
- Nickolas Butler – The Craft of Creativity
Visit the podcast page for a full, searchable list of episodes
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