Radio Boise Podcast

Community radio has a story worth telling — and Wayne Birt has been part of it for decades. In this special episode, we sit down with Radio Boise Program Manager Wayne Birt, who's been with the station since nearly the beginning and has been part of the community radio world since the 1980s. From the roots of community radio in the 1970s, to the Prometheus Radio Project's barn raisings of the early 2000s, to the fight to preserve independent voices amid waves of media consolidation, Wayne has a wealth of stories to share. He's also an absolute blast to talk to! As Radio Boise celebrates 15 years on the air during this season's Radiothon, we look back at where community radio came from, why it matters, and what it takes to keep independent, community-powered media alive.

Business partnerships are far more intimate than most people give them credit for—so why do we enter them without planning how they will end? In this episode, we sit down with Kelsey Jae, founder of Law for Conscious Leadership, a Boise-based attorney with dual degrees in law and public policy from Pepperdine University who helps values-driven leaders navigate legal frameworks with emotional intelligence. Together, we break down why business is fundamentally built on relationships, why every serious joint venture needs a thoughtful exit strategy, and how the core negotiation skills used to structure conscious businesses seamlessly transfer into Kelsey's other work as an amicable divorce attorney. Whether you're launching a company with a co-founder or rethinking how we navigate life's big legal transitions, this conversation exposes the surprising power of learning how to leave well.

Hosted by Esteban Anastasio. The portal to a new and weird world begins with Miles Davis, with his track from his experimental electronic jazz fusion era, the title cut of this episode. Followed by Amina Hocine with ātamōn I . Enjoy and be challenged, both at the same time. music merch community ātamōn I

Hosted by Rebecca Evans. Ken trades his co-host hat for that of a filmmaker, his primary vocation. They talk about their first documentary film Bravo: Common Men, Uncommon Valor.

When we walk through Boise today, we see tree-lined streets, historic homes, familiar neighborhoods, and local shops. But have you ever wondered how those places came to be—and what the city looked like before it was the Boise we know today? In this episode, we’re exploring the history of Boise through the details that make a city feel like home: its trees, its neighborhoods, the transportation systems that helped it grow, and the many little grocery stores that once dotted the streets of Hyde Park and the North End. Our guide is Barbara Perry Bauer, a local historian and founder of TAG Historical Research & Consulting. For more than three decades, Barbara has researched Idaho’s historic places and uncovered the stories behind the buildings, streets, and communities we often take for granted. Her work includes exploring how Boise’s streetcar system shaped neighborhood development and documenting the dozens of small grocery stores that once served the North End—not just as places to buy food, but as gathering…

Hosted by Esteban Anastasio. First off, yon namesake, Why Patterns by Nils Vigeland and Morton Feldman. A work for flute, glockenspiel, and piano you say? This is for you. Followed by Bill Baxter's Ambient Space Drift Music V. Only the choice stuff here. Enjoy.

Hosts Hailee Lenhart-Wees and Leslie Bing go guest-less and riff on signs of aging; if they're at the point in their friendship where they should be sharing location with each other on their phones; Leslie's basic girl phobias; Hailee's executive dysfunction; big regrets; Hailee's complicated family tree; and their unsolicited advice for comics.

Today, we’re talking about a challenge facing rural communities across Idaho and beyond: how to pay for the water infrastructure that keeps small towns running. Whether a community serves a few hundred people or hundreds of thousands, the cost of building, upgrading, and maintaining safe, reliable water systems doesn’t necessarily shrink with the population. In smaller communities, those costs can be especially difficult to manage when spread across a smaller customer base. Joining us is Chelsea Chambers, a Funding Solutions Specialist at Merrick & Company, who helps communities navigate complex funding opportunities and secure and manage financing for water infrastructure projects. A Boise State University graduate with a background in technical writing and communications, Chelsea brings a focus on strategic planning, collaboration, and telling the stories that help communities move projects forward. She also brings a strong commitment to public service and environmental stewardship through her involvement…

8-year-old Creighton joins hosts Hailee Lenhart-Wees and Leslie Bing for a rousing episode of the Boise Comedy Sessions. You'll want to listen to hear a kid completely burn a 31-year-old woman, learn that Marie Antoinette actually actually said "Let them eat cake," and find out what he thought of seeing comedian Brian Regan live.

Boise comic Sophie Hughes joins hosts Hailee Lenhart-Wees and Leslie Bing to talk about filming her special, her insane start in comedy, and how she's feeling about the current political climate in Idaho.

In rural Idaho, your doctor may need to deliver a baby one day—and know how to treat a rattlesnake bite the next. And in a state ranked dead last in the nation for physicians per capita, getting those doctors here matters. In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Alexis Ericsson, a Soda Springs native and Idaho WWAMI graduate now beginning her Family Medicine Residency in Boise. We talk about why WWAMI is so important to Idaho, what makes rural medical training unique, and why rural doctors need to be prepared to care for just about anything—and anybody. We also discuss the importance of rural residency programs, building Idaho's medical workforce, and creating a path for Idaho students like Alexis to train here, stay here, and serve the communities they call home.

Hosted by Esteban Anastasio. The title says it all. This is a piece by minimalist, drone, computer composer and mathematician Catherine Christer Hennix from 2023. Enjoy.

Hosted by Rebecca Evans and Ken Rodgers. Matt Bunk is an interdisciplinary artist obsessed with death, memory, community, and their interplays. He is a founding member of the curated happening collective Address Book and a proud field worker for the Ecogeoglyphic Observatory. His poetry can be found in outlets like Elsewhere: A Journal of Place, Oroboro, and Paper Plane Press. He makes music with bands including All Around Cowboy and Teal's Wedding Band

Jonathan Kuntz returns to take a deep dive into predatory gambling. Moving beyond ethics and morals, this episode brings hard stats and real-world examples to unpack how modern gambling targets teens, drains middle-class savings, and impacts banks. Jon is a professor emeritus at Boise State University's College of Business and Economics. He has studied gambling policy and its economic impacts for decades and serves as chairman of the national board of the Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation. His latest concerns extend into the rapidly expanding world of prediction markets—where billions of dollars can be wagered on everything from elections to sporting events.

Congress, political parties, and elections can seem complicated from the outside. But how did we get here, and what does it actually take to become a candidate? We recently spoke with Charles Hunt, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Boise State University. Hunt earned his Ph.D. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, and his research focuses on Congress, congressional elections, representation, and political candidates. He’s also the author of Home Field Advantage, which examines the role a candidate’s local roots can play in congressional elections. In our conversation, we covered the history of how we became Democrat vs. Republican, dabbled into how Congress and congressional campaigns work, and what it takes for people without political experience, but may be just as qualified, to run for office.

Hosted by Jodi Eichelberger. Porch Night, a collaboration with The Idaho Historical Museum, features three storytellers who do the setup, then come back later in the episode to tell us how they stories all end up. With three terrific stories. From Fort Hall, to the James Castle House to the Boise Soul Food Festival, this episode has you covered.

What does it really take to run a towing company and what happens behind the scenes? In this episode, we sit down with Michael Ellis, the young owner of Longhorn Towing in Boise. Michael started in the towing business at just 18 years old in 2022, when his family chose to invest in him rather than send him down the traditional college path. They helped him get his first tow truck, and from there, he began building a business of his own. I first became interested in the towing profession after I needed a tow myself. On the way to the dealership, I ended up sitting in the cab with one of Michael’s drivers, and that ride gave me a completely different perspective on an industry most of us rarely think about—until we need it. So what does towing actually look like from the inside? In this conversation, we talk about the realities of running a towing company, the ethics and controversies surrounding towing, what a typical day is really like for a tow operator, and the role towing companies play in keeping a city…

👀🔎 THINKING IN THE FUTURE TENSE: PART TWO — READING CHANGE Change rarely sends us an engraved invitation. Usually, it starts quietly. Something shifts at work. Your body feels different. A relationship changes. A new technology suddenly becomes part of everyday life. 🌎📱 The question is: Are we paying attention? This Tuesday on Elementary Watson, Jo-Ellen Watson and Sheepdog continue our three-part series, Thinking in the Future Tense, by exploring how we recognize change—and remain capable of responding to it. We’ll talk about: 🔎 The small signals that may point toward bigger changes 🧩 What happens when several changes collide at once 🧠 Psychological flexibility and staying steady when the answer is still unknown 🤖 What becomes uniquely valuable about human intelligence as AI becomes more capable 💡 Why asking a great question may become more important than simply knowing an answer One of the biggest skills for the future may be surprisingly simple: Accept reality without surrendering agency. 💪✨ 📻 Join us…

🗺️ What if the problem isn’t that you’re lost… but that you’re using an old map? We all carry ideas about how life is supposed to go—career, relationships, family, health, retirement. But what happens when life changes and our expectations don’t? 🤔 This week, Elementary Watson begins a three-part series: Thinking in the Future Tense. ✨ In Part One, Updating the Map, Jo-Ellen Watson and Sheepdog explore how we can become better prepared for an uncertain future—not by predicting what will happen, but by becoming more capable of meeting whatever comes. 🌱🧠 We’ll ask: 🗺️ What has already changed that I’m still treating as though it hasn’t? 🔮 What future am I assuming is inevitable? 💡 Can I imagine several possible futures instead of betting everything on just one? The goal isn’t to know exactly what tomorrow will look like. It’s to exercise our imagination, update our maps, and become increasingly capable of meeting the future. 💛 📻 Join us Tuesday from 4–5 PM on @radioboise for Part One of Thinking in the Future…

What if a window cleaning business could be about something much bigger than clean windows? This week, we sit down with Brian Hoyt, founder of Poor Man Window Cleaning, to talk about a journey that began at one of the lowest points of his life—and ultimately became a lesson in how business can be used as a force for good. After a devastating hit-and-run motorcycle accident left Brian injured, unemployed and struggling to get by, he started knocking on doors with little more than a bottle of window cleaner, some paper towels and a willingness to work. That humble beginning eventually became Poor Man Window Cleaning, a Boise business that has now been serving the community for more than two decades. Brian's story is about building a business that creates relationships, gives people their time back—and creates opportunities to give back to the community. And then there's the soup. Brian has made a remarkably simple commitment: spending $100 a week making and giving away soup as a way of helping people. So how…

Hosted by Ken Rodgers and Rebecca Evans. Diane Raptosh’s collection American Amnesiac (Etruscan Press) was longlisted for the 2013 National Book Award (poetry). The recipient of three literature fellowships (Idaho Arts Commission) and the winner of Idaho Governor’s Arts Award in Excellence (2018), she was Boise’s Poet Laureate (2013) and Idaho’s Writer-in-Residence (2013-2016). Her ninth collection, I Eric America, was recently published (Etruscan 2024). She teaches literature and creative writing as well as courses in criminology at the College of Idaho.

Our trusty retired Idaho hydrologist, Ron Abramovich, is back—and this time he's watching the Pacific Ocean. We're heading into a winter that could be one for the record books, with forecasters predicting an exceptionally strong El Niño—potentially among the strongest events we've seen in decades. So what exactly is El Niño? It begins thousands of miles away, with unusually warm ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific. But those changes in the ocean can ripple through the atmosphere and influence weather patterns far beyond the Pacific—including here in Idaho. Ron has spent decades studying the relationship between snow, weather, water and Idaho's rivers. As Idaho's Snow Survey Water Supply Specialist, he built a career around understanding what the snowpack can tell us about the water year ahead. And he's been looking at historical data long enough to know that when the current conditions resemble some of the big years in the record, it's worth paying attention. So what could this unusually strong El…

Jonathan Krutz has a mission: to stop predatory gambling. But what exactly is gambling—and when does gambling become predatory? Those questions have taken on a new urgency as gambling moves far beyond the casino floor and onto our phones, into sports, politics and even what increasingly look like financial markets. Where does investing end and gambling begin? What happens when a market is built around the human desire to make a quick bet? And what does all of this mean for people who simply can't stop? Jon Krutz is a professor emeritus at Boise State University's College of Business and Economics. He has studied gambling policy and its economic impacts for decades and serves as chairman of the national board of the Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation. His latest concerns extend into the rapidly expanding world of prediction markets—where billions of dollars can be wagered on everything from elections to sporting events. In this episode, we're asking a deceptively simple question: When does a market become a…

The Poetry Show: August 30, 2026 - Maya C. Popa by Radio Boise

Ali Ward is the Sustainability Supervisor for the Boise School District — and little do most of us know what that actually means. Here's a fact that might surprise you: school districts account for one of the largest building footprints of any sector in the country. Nationally, K-12 schools make up nearly half the square footage of the entire commercial building sector. Right here in Boise, the school district manages 52 buildings. And that's exactly what makes Ali Ward's job so important. First an educator, Ali found herself pulled into school green teams — and for the last four years, she's served as the district's sustainability manager. It hasn't been easy. But if you've got a kiddo in Boise schools, or you keep an eye on the news, you know the work BSD is doing in sustainability is making a visible impact: solar panels on the roof at Whittier Elementary, electric school buses on the road, and a push to teach students personal responsibility by putting them in charge of sustainability efforts at their…

💛 Grief touches every one of us—but most of us are never really shown how to move through it. And grief is about more than death. It can follow divorce, losing a job, retirement, a health diagnosis, an empty nest, financial hardship, the end of a relationship, or the loss of trust, identity, hope, and expectations. 🌧️➡️🌤️ Grief is a normal and natural response to loss and change. This week on Elementary Watson, Jo-Ellen Watson and Sheepdog talk about: ✔️ Why grief is so often misunderstood ✔️ The myths about simply “getting over it” ✔️ The difference between short-term coping and real recovery ✔️ What healing can actually look like ✔️ Practical ways to strengthen resilience and keep moving forward One thing worth remembering: ✨ Grief does not mean something is wrong with you. It means something mattered to you. ✨ 🎙️ Join us for a conversation about living with loss without losing ourselves—and discovering how compassion, courage, and hope can help us move forward. 📻 Listen Tuesday from 4–5 PM on Radio Boise.…

🌿✨ What does it really mean to thrive? This week on Elementary Watson, Jo-Ellen Watson and Sheepdog welcome Kaelyn Rogers of Upward Inertia to share the story behind one of the Treasure Valley’s most inspiring community events: THRIVE: Community Wellness Festival! 🎙️💚 📅 Saturday, September 26 ⏰ 10:00 AM–5:00 PM 📍 JUMP in Boise 🎟️ FREE admission! Explore yoga and movement, mental wellness, nutrition, financial wellness, family-friendly activities, local nonprofits, community resources, and more than 70 local wellness vendors! 🧘‍♀️🥗🤝 Even better, proceeds support Upward Inertia, a local nonprofit bringing trauma-informed wellness education and yoga therapy to underserved communities. 🌟 Wellness is not only about feeling better—it is about creating stronger, healthier communities together. One day, one conversation, and one connection can make a lasting difference. 💛 📻 Tune in to Elementary Watson this Tuesday from 4–5 PM on Radio Boise and discover how our community can thrive together! #ElementaryWatson…

💛 Grief is something every person experiences—but few of us are ever taught how to navigate it. And grief isn’t only about death. It can appear after divorce, job loss, retirement, a health diagnosis, an empty nest, financial setbacks, broken relationships, or the loss of trust, identity, hope, and expectations. 🌧️➡️🌤️ Grief is the normal and natural response to change and loss. This week on Elementary Watson, Jo-Ellen Watson and Sheepdog explore: ✔️ Why grief is often misunderstood ✔️ The myths surrounding “getting over it” ✔️ Short-term coping versus true recovery ✔️ What healing can really look like ✔️ Practical ways to build resilience and move forward One of the most important things to remember: ✨ Your grief is not a sign that something is wrong with you. It is evidence that something mattered. ✨ 🎙️ Join us as we talk about carrying loss without losing ourselves—and finding a path forward with compassion, courage, and hope. 📻 Tune in Tuesday from 4–5 PM on Radio Boise. 💬 Listener question: What loss…

AMERICA AT 250: THE GREAT EXPERIMENT & THE POWER OF BOTH/AND 🇺🇸 As America approaches its 250th birthday, we’re asking a different kind of question on this week’s Elementary Watson: What can the story of America teach us about living our best lives? Too often, we’re told we must choose between two extremes: America is either great or flawed. History is either something to celebrate or something to regret. People are either right or wrong. But life—and democracy—are rarely that simple. This week, we’ll explore the power of both/and thinking: ✨ America is both inspiring and imperfect. ✨ A nation of extraordinary achievement and unfinished work. ✨ A story of remarkable progress and ongoing challenges. We’ll discuss: 🔹 Why America has been called “The Great Experiment” 🔹 The ideals that shaped our nation 🔹 Where we’ve succeeded and where we’ve fallen short 🔹 Why psychological maturity requires us to hold complexity 🔹 What each of us can do to help build a stronger future Because democracy isn’t a spectator…

🧠💙 Finding the Right Therapist: A Listener’s Guide to Getting Help 💙🧠 Trying to find a therapist can feel overwhelming. 🤔 Licensed Clinical Social Worker? Counselor? Psychologist? Psychiatrist? Marriage & Family Therapist? Coach? How do you know who’s the right fit for you? And what if you’ve tried therapy before and it didn’t go well? This week on Elementary Watson, Dr. Jo-Ellen Watson and Sheepdog break it all down in plain English. 🎙️✨ We’ll talk about: ✅ Different kinds of therapists and what they do ✅ The difference between therapy and coaching ✅ How to find a therapist ✅ Questions to ask before you start ✅ Red flags 🚩 and green flags 🟢 ✅ How to know if therapy is actually helping Because getting help shouldn’t feel confusing. And one bad therapy experience doesn’t mean therapy isn’t for you. 💚 Join us for a practical, compassionate conversation designed to help you find the support you deserve. 📻 Tune in Tuesday from 4–5 PM on @RadioBoise. #ElementaryWatson #MentalHealth #Therapy #Counseling…

💛 Grief is something every person experiences—but few of us are ever taught how to navigate it. And grief isn’t only about death. It can appear after divorce, job loss, retirement, a health diagnosis, an empty nest, financial setbacks, broken relationships, or the loss of trust, identity, hope, and expectations. 🌧️➡️🌤️ Grief is the normal and natural response to change and loss. This week on Elementary Watson, Jo-Ellen Watson and Sheepdog explore: ✔️ Why grief is often misunderstood ✔️ The myths surrounding “getting over it” ✔️ Short-term coping versus true recovery ✔️ What healing can really look like ✔️ Practical ways to build resilience and move forward One of the most important things to remember: ✨ Your grief is not a sign that something is wrong with you. It is evidence that something mattered. ✨ 🎙️ Join us as we talk about carrying loss without losing ourselves—and finding a path forward with compassion, courage, and hope. 📻 Tune in Tuesday from 4–5 PM on Radio Boise. 💬 Listener question: What loss…

🏳️‍🌈❤️ Pride Month may be coming to a close, but supporting our LGBTQ+ community is a year-round commitment. ❤️🏳️‍🌈 This Tuesday on Elementary Watson, we're honored to welcome Tom Wheeler, a member of the Board of Directors for the Boise Pride Festival ( @boisepride ), to talk about this year's festival, celebrate Pride Month, and explore how we can all continue to support and uplift our community long after the celebrations are over. 🌈✨ Join Dr. Jo-Ellen Watson and Sheepdog for an inspiring conversation about connection, inclusion, community, and the power of showing up for one another every day. 💜🤝 📻 Tune in Tuesday from 4–5 PM on @radioboise and be part of the conversation! #ElementaryWatson #BoisePride #PrideMonth #LGBTQ #CommunitySupport #InclusionMatters #RadioBoise #LoveIsLove #BoiseCommunity #grayintogold

Hosted by Jodi Eichelberger. Event hosted by Alisha Donohue. With stories from concert trips, to sleeping clawfoot bathtubs to weed, weed, and more weed.

What does it mean to build a healthy business, and how does that shape the future of the place we call home? In this episode, we sit down with Nathen Fox—a veteran Idaho entrepreneur and Certified EOS Implementer. We originally crossed paths with Nathen when he was spearheading the Idaho Handbook for Idaho Kind, an inspiring initiative dedicated to preserving modern Idaho culture. But when you combine a business strategist and a community builder, the conversation is bound to break boundaries. In this sprawling, wide-ranging discussion, we go completely all over the board. We bridge the gap between business and culture. From helping businesses scale sustainably to sharing our biggest hopes for the future of Idaho. Whether you’re a local business owner or an Idahoan passionate about our state's cultural landscape, this episode offers plenty of food for thought.

Hosted by Rebecca Evans and Ken Rodgers. Amy M. Hale is an award-winning author who lives and works on Spider Ranch, a 50,000-acre cattle operation in the rough terrain of Central Arizona where the goal is to raise food in a sustainable manner on public land. Amy and her husband, Gail Steiger, cowboy together on the ranch and often hold the stage together, weaving story, poetry, and music. In Hale’s sixth book, Drinking Wild Water, TTUP 2025, Hale writes about the specific places she inhabits, inspiring readers to find and inhabit their place in the world. Hale's distinct voice is infused by flash & slam and her innate ability to distill ideas, appealing to readers who are aspiring to dwell in the sacred everyday, or longing to leave behind that which is safe, but small. photo credit to Jessica Lifland

In this episode, Boise personal wardrobe stylist Laura Tully breaks down why fashion is far more than superficial. Raised in Jamaica and having worked across L.A., New York, and Europe, Laura brings years of industry experience—modeling, styling, and co-founding female leadership initiatives—to her simple mission: helping people show up as their full, authentic selves. Tune in to learn how to ditch fashion burnout, build an intentional wardrobe of daily staples, and use style as a tool for self-expression and personal empowerment.

Jesse Blake Rundle From The Basement June 12 2026 by Radio Boise

In this inspiring episode, we welcome Jodi Peterson-Stigers, Executive Director of Interfaith Sanctuary, and Amethyst Freibott, Co-Founder and Lead Storyteller at People First Communications, to discuss Interfaith Sanctuary's new home on State Street in Boise. We talk about the challenges surrounding the move, the misconceptions that came with it, and the incredible impact the new campus has had on its guests. Instead of waking to the noise of the Connector, residents now hear birds in the morning—a simple but powerful reminder of the peace and dignity a safe environment can provide. Jodi also shares how guests take pride in caring for the new space and how the shelter is building meaningful relationships with its neighbors and the surrounding community. This heartfelt conversation reminds us that compassion, understanding, and community can transform lives, making this one of our most uplifting episodes yet.

The latest episode of the podcast features an in-depth conversation with Boise-based singer-songwriter, film composer, and producer Jesse Blake Rundle. Known for his independent albums Next Town's Trees and Wait, Sky. Jesse also serves as a central figure in the local music community as the owner and operator of Mixed Metaphor Recording Studios. The conversation focuses on the realities of the recording process, specifically detailing what it takes to collaborate with diverse artists, establish trust in the studio, and pull out their best performances. Jesse discusses how his recent stints in art and theater shapes his approach to sound design and the implementation and we also explore the logistical and creative realities of running an independent recording space in the Boise music landscape.

Hosted by Jodi Eichelberger. Pedagogy takes center stage, as the teachers who shaped the speakers of this episode are on full display. Enjoy.

What does it mean to build a truly "good" business? This week on Radio Boise, we sit down with a man who has spent nearly 30 years answering that exact question. Dave Krick is a Boise community powerhouse. As the founding partner of the Just Eat Local restaurant group, Dave redefined downtown dining by putting local farms and sustainability at the center of the plate at Bittercreek Alehouse, Red Feather Lounge, and Diablo & Sons. Now, he’s bringing that same ethos to his newest venture, Woodland Empire Alecraft. But his impact goes way beyond the kitchen. From the Boise Farmers Market board to founding the Dandelion Festival and the non-profit City of Good, Dave is fueled by an undeniable passion for local agriculture, eliminating waste, and lifting up his community. In this episode, we trace Dave's journey back to the beginning, get a sneak peek at what he's building next, and discover what drives one of the city's most dedicated changemakers. Get ready to be inspired!

Caitlin Copple is a former journalist and the Founder of Full Swing Public Relations, an Idaho-based, women- and LGBTQ-owned agency. Full Swing helps underrecognized leaders, diverse founders, and professional services scale their visibility and impact. Caitlin’s work has elevated stories that have won major elections, passed state legislation, and landed clients in CNN, Forbes, Fast Company, TIME, and The New York Times. In this week’s episode, we lean into the messy, fascinating world of modern media. Our conversation with Caitlin ranges everywhere from the foundational basics—like what exactly is PR anyway?—to the ethical dilemmas of the industry, including the ultimate question: Is PR inherently evil? We also dive into the future of storytelling, looking at how AI is actively disrupting newsrooms and changing the way pitches land in an editor's inbox. If you’ve ever wondered how to cut through the noise and finally be seen in a world full of so many competing interests, this is the masterclass you’ve…

Hosted by Ken Rodgers and Rebecca Evans. Michael Archer is the author of several books, including A Patch of Ground: Khe Sanh Remembered; The Long Goodbye: Khe Sanh Revisited; and The Gunpowder Prince: How Marine Corps Captain Mirza Munir Baig Saved Khe Sanh. He has also published two books about his adoptive state of Nevada, A Man of His Word: The Life & Times of Nevada’s Senator William J. Raggio and A House Divided: Nevada Senator Bill Raggio and the Fracturing of the GOP. Michael’s articles have appeared in several periodicals, including the Nevada Review, Political History of Nevada, Naval History Magazine, and Leatherneck. His work has been honored with Foreword Magazine’s INDIES Book of the Year Award and prizes from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in the categories of distinguished biography and feature writing. Michael served for a year in South Vietnam with the Marine Corps, received a B.A. in history from California State University, Sacramento, and worked in both federal and state…

Greg Hampikian is known for a lot of things — my radio show co-host, founder of the Idaho Innocence Project, public speaker, and “American biologist,” according to Wikipedia. But in this week’s episode of Radio Boise’s Do Good Conversation, we dive into a side of Greg most people have never heard about: his unexpected history as a sewer connoisseur of sorts. Tune in to hear how one very obscure fascination helped shape the way biological evidence is tested inside what he affectionately calls the “sewage-ome” — or the “Mega Colon” — our sewer systems, and the surprising role it played in understanding disease spread during the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic.

I don’t know if Greg and I are just getting good at this whole radio interview thing, or if Jared was just an absolute joy to talk to, but this interview was a blast! Jared is the co-founder of Boise Rock School. After spending an hour with him, it became clear why he's the co-founder of Boise Rock School. We discussed everything from finding rhythm in everyday life to why kids are more likely to stick with music when they're learning songs they already love. Along the way, we explored whether rhythm is something we're born with, and settled one very important question: did the movie come first, or did the business? This was one of our best interviews yet!

One of my favorite people joined us on our Radio Boise Do Good Conversations show — Rebecca Weeks, the Education and Outreach Manager of the Ada County Landfill. Her enthusiasm for what she does is absolutely contagious, and the work she does is incredibly vital! Diverting waste from a landfill is no easy task, but Rebecca is exactly the right person to lead the charge. In our conversation, we discussed everything from whether we should call it a "landfill" or a "dump", the historic origins of landfills, how ours stand out globally, and we even swapped a few spooky stories! Rebecca just spear-headed the launch of the brand new Ada County Landfill Education and Outreach Center, which held its grand opening on Earth Day 2026. The center itself is a beautiful masterpiece of a circular economy—featuring a kitchen floor repurposed from an old University of Idaho basketball court (from our friends at Waste Equals), and furniture built entirely from materials discarded right at the landfill. Also, in case you didnt…

The Treasure Valley Community Garden Cooperative was founded as a grassroots response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has since connected dozens of community gardens across the region. Through resource sharing, collaboration, and community building, the cooperative works to increase food access and help people connect with local gardens. We sat down with founder Mary K to discuss shared leadership in community gardens, the roots of modern community gardening in Victory Gardens, edible landscapes, and the many ways gardens help cultivate stronger communities.

This week’s Do Good Conversation on Radio Boise was packed with practical, real-world guidance for business owners trying to stay out of legal hot water without losing their sanity in the process. Guest Pam Howland, founder of Idaho Employment Lawyers, broke down the issues that quietly trip up even well-intentioned workplaces—think workplace relationships, social media boundaries, ADA considerations, and harassment prevention. What makes Pam especially compelling is her ability to translate dense employment law into clear, usable advice businesses can actually act on. With a sharp, no-nonsense approach, she walked through multiple scenarios for how employers can protect both their business and their employees while building healthier, more compliant workplaces. Pam works with employers by training them and their staff to understand the laws in place, and when employers and supervisors know the legal frameworks that protect employees, everyone benefits through clearer expectations, healthier workplace…

Talia Spencer of Duft Watterson joined us at Radio Boise a few weeks back to talk to us about one of our favorite topics: 1% for the Planet Companies. Not all businesses are created equal, and spotting the 1% for the Planet logo is our cue to lean in. Talia gave us a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to build an innovative business that doesn't just do good on the side — it's baked right into how they operate.

Ron Abramovich was Idaho’s state hydrologist for over 30 years — long enough to understand a great deal, and long enough to know how much we still don’t know. Even in retirement, he keeps a close eye on Idaho’s water resources: snowpack, streamflows, and the larger weather patterns that shape both our local conditions and the global climate. In this conversation, we wandered from Idaho’s recent weather, whitewater recreation to volcanoes, ocean temperatures, and even pine martens — the kind of journey that reminds you everything in nature is connected. If you’ve ever wondered how Idaho fits into the bigger picture, this episode is for you.