East Anchorage Book Club with Andrew Gray

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1875228/open_sms]  Dermot Cole is a longtime Fairbanks newspaper reporter, columnist and author who began his career at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in the late 70s while he was still a student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He stayed with that paper until 2013 when he became a columnist at the Alaska Dispatch, an online news blog funded by Alice Rogoff, the former CFO of US News & World Report. In 2014 Rogoff purchased the Anchorage Daily News and merged it with the Alaska Dispatch. Dermot stayed on as a columnist until 2017 when the ADN declared bankruptcy and was sold to the Binkley family. Dermot was let go and shortly afterwards started his own blog which continues to this day: "Reporting from Alaska." [https://www.dermotcole.com/] He is the author of 6 books including, North to the Future: the Alaska Story 1959 – 2009.

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1875228/open_sms] James Devens is the director of KCHU public radio which serves the communities around Prince William Sound and Wrangell-St Elias National Park.  At the time he became director five years ago, he was the youngest director of a public radio station in America. Jimmy was elected to Valdez city council in 2020 and re-elected in 2023. He unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2024, but he remains an active member on the council and is a founding member of their housing committee. Although Jimmy and I discuss the absolute destruction that cuts in federal funding will have on KCHU, much of the first part of today’s episode will be about Jimmy’s late grandfathers: John Devens Sr. who gained national fame in 1989 as mayor of Valdez during the Exxon Valdez oil spill and Jim Robison who was the president of the Alaska AFL/CIO and served as the Alaska Labor Commissioner from 1982 to 1987. We conclude our conversation with a discussion of housing policy. This interview was recorded while I was in Valdez on a walk with Jimmy, so you will hear occasional background noise including a very angry raven.

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1875228/open_sms] Sen. Löki Tobin (D-Anchorage) discusses the resolutions up for a vote today, August 22, 2025, by the Alaska State Medical Board.  The first, listed on the agenda as "Board Statement/New Regulation Project: Late Term Abortion," is a statement drafted by board member and Republican candidate for governor Dr. Matt Heilala that would seek to limit access to abortions later in pregnancy. The second makes up the bulk of Sen. Tobin’s and my discussion today. It is also a statement drafted by board member Heilala declaring practitioners who prescribe gender affirming care in minors as “grossly negligent and therefore subject to disciplinary sanctions.”  Gender-affirming care for adolescents, when indicated and provided in partnership with families, is evidence-based medicine. It is recognized by every major medical association—including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Endocrine Society—as the standard of care.  There are currently less than 100 youth in Alaska prescribed hormonal treatment as part of gender affirming care. There are no gender affirming surgical procedures being performed on minors in Alaska.  Here are links to the Transgender series on the podcast from 2024: 1. Wildlife biologist Aaron Poe discusses being a father to a trans daughter in Anchorage [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1875228/episodes/14924452] 2.  Retired Army 1st Sergeant Jessica Kalarchik on being trans [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1875228/episodes/14925168] 3.  A 15-year-old trans boy and his mom [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1875228/episodes/14928658] 4.  David Leslie, an Inupiaq Sipiniq (Two-Spirit) [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1875228/episodes/14929128-trans-rights-david-leslie-an-inupiaq-sipiniq-two-spirit.mp3?download=true] 5.  Becca Bernard, a lawyer, minister, and mom to a trans girl [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1875228/episodes/14929485] 6.  Dr. Joshua Safer, author of the Endocrine Society Guidelines for the medical care of transgender patients [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1875228/episodes/14958710] 7. Dr. Marci Bowers, president of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1875228/episodes/14962404] 8.  Rose O'Hara-Jolley, AK state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1875228/episodes/17350284] To learn more about Sen. Löki Tobin, listen to her first appearance on the podcast [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1875228/episodes/12127412]. To learn more about today's resolutions, read Iris Samuel's ADN article. [https://www.adn.com/politics/2025/08/19/alaska-medical-board-set-to-vote-on-restricting-treatment-of-transgender-minors/] Alaska Provider Sign-On Letter: Defending Evidence-Based Care Open Letter from Alaska Health Professionals to the Alaska State Medical Board Re: Proposed resolution labeling gender-affirming care for minors as “unprofessional conduct”  To the Alaska State Medical Board,  We, the undersigned Alaska health professionals, write to strongly oppose the Board’s proposal to classify gender-affirming care for minors as “unprofessional conduct.” Earlier this year, the legislature declined to act on similar recommendations from the Board—rejecting interference in standards of care as inappropriate. By now advancing a resolution, the Board is disregarding that decision and overstepping its proper role. Even more concerning, in the same discussion the Board raised abortion as another area for punitive action, signaling an alarming trend of politicizing medicine across multiple domains. Gender-affirming care for adoles

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1875228/open_sms] Jeff Landfield is the founder and editor of The Alaska Landmine Blog and podcast. Since the Landmine’s founding in 2017, Jeff, with no formal training in journalism, has written and published investigative new stories often providing close coverage of municipal and state government. He was a state Senate Candidate in 2012 and 2016, and was appointed to the commission on judicial conduct by Governor Bill Walker, but that appointment was withdrawn due to a scandal involving photos of Jeff in a speedo. As you heard at the start, he is considering a gubernatorial run in 2026. This is Jeff’s second appearance on the podcast – on his previous appearance in 2022 we discussed his early life and journey to Alaska. You can find a link here. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1875228/episodes/11767717]  Note: this episode contains profanity.

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1875228/open_sms] Alaska Public Media Reporter Wesley Early moved to Anchorage in 2008 and began his freshman year at Bartlett High School. He stayed in Anchorage for college earning a degree in journalism and public communications at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He started working in public radio his senior year of college and has never left. In 2019 he became the news director at KOTZ, the public radio in Kotzebue, and spent two years covering arctic climate change, subsistence,  Iñupiaq culture, and the region's response to Covid 19. Since returning to Anchorage in 2021, he has covered city government. Today we discuss the devastating impacts to public radio, particularly to rural stations, of the elimination of federal funding.