Mitsu Iwasaki – Adventure, Advocacy, & Alpinism
Mitsu Iwasaki is the CEO of the American Alpine Club (AAC), a historic and storied organization whose mission is to “share and support our passion for climbing and respect for the places we climb.” Founded in 1902, the AAC began as a social club for east coast elites who shared a passion for climbing, adventure, …
Jason Gardner – A Life of Purpose & Service
Jason Gardner is a father, homesteader, leadership instructor, and regenerative agriculture devotee who lives with his family on a remote property in the mountains of northeastern Washington State. Jason is also a retired Navy SEAL Master Chief who spent nearly thirty years in the SEAL teams and is a recipient of the Silver Star, two …
Juanita Vero, Part 2 – A Deep Desire to Serve
If you’re a long-time listener, then surely you remember Juanita Vero. Juanita is a fourth-generation Montana rancher, conservationist, community leader, and all-around inspiring woman. She’s also a devoted public servant, serving as a Missoula County Commissioner, where she gets her hands dirty with the critical and often not-so-glamorous work of county government. Juanita’s name will …
Jessica Wahl Turner – Outdoor Recreation & Rural Economies
Jessica Wahl Turner is the Executive Director of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), America’s leading coalition of outdoor recreation trade associations and organizations. Currently, ORR is comprised of 31 national association members that serve more than 100,000 outdoor-related businesses, which is an amazing feat considering that the organization is less than three years old. Jessica …
Chris Castilian – Community, Conservation, and Colorado
Chris Castilian is the Executive Director of Great Outdoors Colorado (also known as GOCO), an organization that has committed more than $1.2 billion toward preserving and enhancing Colorado’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers, and open spaces. Founded in 1992, GOCO is truly a one-of-a-kind conservation funder—the organization invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds into a …
Carlos Fernández – The Power of Partnerships
Carlos Fernández is the State Director for the Nature Conservancy in Colorado, where he and his team build alliances that advance conservation outcomes both in Colorado and around the world. Building on his formal training as an attorney, Carlos has had a long and successful career in conservation that extends far beyond the American West. …
Becky Edwards – Amplifying the Power of Women in the West
Becky Edwards is the Executive Director of the Mountain Mamas, an organization whose mission is to amplify women’s voices into a movement to ensure that kids grow up in a healthy climate with clean air and access to public lands. Operating out of both Montana and Colorado—and currently expanding throughout the West—the Mountain Mamas harness …
Gabe Vasquez – Advocate for Equity in the Outdoors
Gabe Vasquez is the founder of the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project and currently serves as a city councilor in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Gabe has devoted his entire career to advocacy and conservation, specifically for the people and places in the border region of New Mexico. He’s worked for Senator Martin Heinrich, the New Mexico …
Rachel VandeVoort – Harnessing the Power of Outdoor Recreation
Rachel VandeVoort is the Director of the Montana Office of Outdoor Recreation, an office that advocates for the outdoor recreation industry and works to leverage its numerous benefits to the state. The office was created in 2016 by Montana Governor Steve Bullock, and he tapped Rachel to be its first director, where she built the …
Dan Prenzlow – Generous Service, Humble Leadership
Dan Prenzlow is the Director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), the agency charged with managing wildlife, lands, natural resources, and outdoor recreation throughout the great state of Colorado. Dan started with the agency back in 1986 as a District Wildlife Manager and steadily worked his way through the ranks, assuming the role of Director …
Rebecca Jewett, Part 2 – Conservation’s Role During Challenging Times
Rebecca Jewett is President and CEO of Palmer Land Trust, a conservation organization that works to conserve land and water resources in southeastern Colorado. Palmer Land Trust is one of the twenty largest land trusts in the nation based on acreage conserved, with over 135,000 acres of land protected in perpetuity. Rebecca has led the …
George Hodgin – Mission-Driven Entrepreneur
George Hodgin is the founder and CEO of Biopharmaceutical Research Company (BRC), a California-based business with the mission of providing federally legal cannabis for approved researchers in the United States. Prior to starting BRC, George served as a US Navy SEAL officer, leading counterterrorism operations in combat zones such as Afghanistan. And to top it …
Daniela Ibarra-Howell – Healing the Land Holistically
Daniela Ibarra-Howell is the CEO and a co-founder of the Savory Institute, an organization whose mission is to regenerate the world’s grasslands through holistic management. By restoring and protecting grasslands– both in the American West and around the globe– Daniela and her team at Savory effectively address pressing issues such as climate change, economic well-being, …
Duke Phillips III – A Vision for the New West
Duke Phillips III is the founder and CEO of Ranchlands, a Colorado-based, family-owned ranch management company. If Ranchlands sounds familiar, that’s because last week’s episode was with Duke’s son, Duke Phillips IV. You may remember that the younger Duke referenced his father’s philosophies around business and leadership several times, so I thought it would be …
Duke Phillips IV – Living with the Land
Duke Phillips IV is the Chief Operating Officer of Ranchlands, a Colorado-based ranching and ranch management company that is widely celebrated for its deep conservation ethic. Duke oversees all operations across Ranchlands’ properties, which include the renowned 87,000-acre Chico Basin Ranch and the 103,000-acre Medano Zapata Ranch. Working closely with his father Duke III and …
Mike Phillips – Audacious Goals, Relentless Action
Mike Phillips is the Director of the Turner Endangered Species Fund (“TESF”), an organization that he co-founded in 1997 with Ted Turner. Mike is also a Montana state senator representing District 31, which encompasses parts of his hometown of Bozeman and the surrounding area. In his work as an ecologist, Mike has spent much of …
James Decker – Inspired Leadership for the New West
James Decker is a farmer, attorney, and the Mayor of Stamford, TX, a tight-knit agricultural community located about 45 minutes north of Abilene. James grew up in Stamford, left for college and law school, but immediately returned home to begin his career– his love of his hometown and desire to contribute to its success far …
Len Necefer – Indigenous Advocate
Len Necefer is a scholar, entrepreneur, and outdoor adventurer who is also a proud member of the Navajo Nation. Academically, Len holds a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy, and he is currently a professor of both Indian Studies and public policy at the University of Arizona. In business, he’s the CEO of NativesOutdoors, a …
Auden Schendler – The Optimistic Pragmatist
Auden Schendler is Senior Vice President of Sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company, where he focuses on finding large-scale solutions to climate change, specifically through clean energy and activism. Aspen Skiing Company has long been at the forefront of sustainable business practices, and Auden is one of the main forces behind the scenes driving those efforts—efforts …
Chandra Brown – Fostering Creativity Through River Adventures
Chandra Brown is an educator, writer, and river guide who has worked on the West’s most iconic rivers, including many seasons below the rim of the Grand Canyon. She’s also the founder of the Freeflow Institute, a unique Montana-based program that offers multi-day river trips for writers and creatives that combine immersion in the natural …
Jay Kleberg – True Dedication to Conservation, Adventure & Texas
Jay Kleberg is a conservationist and Associate Director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation. He’s also the co-founder of Explore Ranches, a new company that connects outdoor enthusiasts to some of the most iconic private ranches in Texas and beyond. Jay has built his career and life around a deep respect for land and …
Daniel Anderson – Finding Common Ground
Daniel Anderson is a Montana native and founder of The Common Ground Project, a nature-based retreat, hiking, and camping experience in which small groups of people from around the world share adventure, education, and conversation. Located on Daniel’s family ranch in the heart of Montana’s renowned Tom Miner Basin, The Common Ground Project seeks to …
Alexis Bonogofsky – Taking a Stand for the West
Alexis Bonogofsky is a rancher, conservationist, and community organizer who is fiercely committed to protecting the landscapes and communities of eastern Montana. While much of Alexis’s career has been devoted to environmental issues in the West, the 2011 Exxon oil spill in the Yellowstone River brought the fight to her doorstep—her family’s pastures were inundated …
Juanita Vero – A Deep Love of Place
[Fall 2020 Update: To listen to Juanita’s most recent Mountain & Prairie podcast appearance in which she discusses her campaign for Missoula County Commissioner, please visit this webpage. Thanks!] Juanita Vero is a partner at the E Bar L Ranch, a family-owned dude ranch located on the Blackfoot River, about an hour east of Missoula, …
Stephen Smith, Part 2 – Evolution & Reinvention
Those of you who have been listening to the podcast since the early days probably remember my first conversation with Stephen Smith. We talked for an hour and a half about his career as a professional photographer, his motorcycle adventures around South America, his time working on farms and ranches, surfing, and more. Since that …
Rebecca Jewett – Big Ideas for the New West
Rebecca Jewett is the executive director of Palmer Land Trust, a conservation organization committed to protecting southern Colorado’s recreational open space, working agricultural land, and stunning scenic vistas. Under Rebecca’s leadership, Palmer has moved away from traditional, decades-old land conservation methods and into a more proactive model, pursuing audacious and outside-the-box conservation strategies across a …
Sarah Wentzel-Fisher – Conservation in the Radical Center
Sarah Wentzel-Fisher is the Executive Director of the Quivira Coalition, an innovative conservation organization devoted to building soil, biodiversity, and resilience on western working landscapes. Quivira was founded over twenty years ago by two conservationists and a rancher, all three of whom were exhausted by the divisive nature of the relationships between the agricultural and …
Chris Eyer – Montana’s Mindful Mule Packer
Chris Eyer is a true Western polymath. He is probably best known for his work as a mule packer, in which he uses mules to transport supplies into some of Montana’s most remote wilderness areas—he documents the adventures on his extremely popular Instagram account @muledragger. But as you’ll hear in our conversation, mule packing only …
Sarah Calhoun – Community Building Through Commerce
Sarah Calhoun is the founder and owner of Red Ants Pants, a Montana-based apparel company that makes high-quality, American-made workwear for women. But Sarah’s business ventures are just the tip of the iceberg—she also started the Red Ants Pants Music Festival, which attracts world-class musicians like Dwight Yoakam and Lucinda Williams. The proceeds from the …
Christine Su – The Business of Healthy Grasslands
Christine Su is an entrepreneur and CEO of PastureMap, a Silicon Valley startup that creates cutting-edge ranch management software. PastureMap helps ranchers plan grazing, track forage, monitor herd performance, manage record keeping, and much more, all with the goal of saving ranchers time and making their operations more profitable. In the business of ranching—one that …
