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Episode 30: Mike Machowiak; What Survival Teaches About Love And Faith

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2560124/fan_mail/new]  A home birth in a ham radio room on a Fairbanks-area homestead is only the opening scene of Mike Machowiak’s life, and it explains more than you’d think. Mike grew up around improvisation, cold mornings, and the kind of grit you don’t learn from a manual. From there, his family history stretches back to WWII Europe: the Polish underground, a POW camp and escape, Switzerland’s mountain culture, and the long, complicated ways trauma can echo into the next generation.  We follow Mike’s path through welding, shipyards, commercial diving, and the early, cowboy days of Dutch Harbor where marine work is equal parts skill and hazard. He breaks down what underwater welding actually looks like, why maritime refrigeration becomes his niche, and how the Bering Sea fishing boom changes everything. Then the story pivots to adventure on purpose: he and Martha buy a steel sailboat, build real offshore competence, and spend years sailing the Pacific, balancing the romance of the sea with the realities of risk, fatigue, and loss.  The most gripping chapter comes later with aviation. After Mike finally earns his pilot license, a fuel loss after departing Juneau forces a ditching in Lynn Canal. What follows is raw, specific, and unforgettable: cold water, hypothermia, rescue, and the medical decisions that save Martha’s life. If you care about Alaska, survival, seamanship, aviation safety, faith, and how people keep going after the worst day, this conversation stays with you.  Subscribe for more long-form stories, share this with someone who loves Alaska and hard-earned life lessons, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. What part of Mike’s journey hit you the hardest?

Episode 29: Harriet Brouillette; From Boarding Schools To Tribal Leadership In Southeast Alaska

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2560124/fan_mail/new]  A family story can be entertaining, but it can also explain why a community looks the way it does. Sitting down with Harriet Brouillette, lifelong Haines resident and Alaska Tribal Administrator of the Year, I hear how one family line stretches from France to Louisiana to Southeast Alaska and then collides with some of the hardest chapters in Alaska Native history. The details are vivid: a grandmother sent to boarding school at age five, relatives lost to distant institutions, and the way paperwork and prejudice tried to rewrite identity. We also get practical about what tribal leadership looks like when it is not a slogan. Harriet talks about building stability at the Chilkoot Indian Association, leveraging funding to run programs, and using tools like 105(l) leases with the Department of the Interior. We dig into the difference between a sovereign tribal government and an ANCSA Native corporation, why some Southeast Alaska communities became “landless,” and what it takes to move landless legislation forward when the Tongass National Forest becomes the battleground. The conversation stays grounded in everyday life too: growing up at Three Mile without electricity, huge gardens, the realities of food security, and even a Prohibition-era potato still that helped families survive. We close on what it means to lead under scrutiny in a small town, why transparency matters, and what Harriet wants most for the future, including tank farm cleanup and a healthier path for the next generation. If this meant something to you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. What part of Harriet’s story hit you the hardest?

Episode 28: Tod Sebens; What If You Treated Your Life Like A List

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2560124/fan_mail/new] Something is off about a guy who can casually mention getting lifted by a humpback whale and then move right along to the next story. Tod Stevens has spent decades stacking real adventures the hard way, through mechanical skill, odd jobs, and a stubborn willingness to try things most of us only talk about. We sit down and follow the thread from growing up between Virginia and California to joining the US Army as a marine diesel mechanic, including the pride of helping train the first woman to become a senior marine diesel mechanic in his track. From there, the conversation veers into the kind of lived history you can’t fake: basic training incidents that still haunt him, a cross-country breakdown that turns into a lesson in human kindness, and a surprising stint promoting country music shows that puts him face-to-face with famous performers in unfiltered backstage moments. Then Alaska takes over with Talkeetna bush life, small-town stories, and a six-month sail around Mexico where boat repairs pay the bills. We also get into the Haines years: starting Denali Boatworks, directing community theater, upgrading DMX stage lighting at the Chilkat Center, and doing special effects work on the film White Fang before heading south again. Tod’s Antarctica seasons with the National Science Foundation bring the scale up to eleven, from McMurdo to remote camps, deep ice cores, and the weird reality of color deprivation. Along the way, we talk risk, recovery, shark conservation, solo bicycle travel, side-scan sonar and ROV work, whale disentanglement, and the wake-up call of surviving sepsis and double pneumonia. If you like Alaska stories, Antarctica jobs, whale watching, hands-on trades, and travel that doesn’t gloss over the danger, this one is for you. Subscribe for more conversations like this, share it with a friend who loves a good true story, and leave a review with the moment that surprised you most.

Episode 27: John Svenson; A Mountaineer Artist Explains How Adventure Becomes A Life In Art

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2560124/fan_mail/new] Denali is the easy part compared to the people. That’s one of the clearest lessons we pull from our conversation with John Svenson, a Haines, Alaska mountaineer and working artist whose life somehow spans Yosemite dirtbag years, Alaska state surveying by rope, high-altitude guiding, and a studio full of watercolor, fused glass, and beadwork. We talk in John’s Extreme Dreams Gallery as spring ramps up in Haines and the season starts to feel like controlled chaos.  John walks us through the long arc: growing up in Southern California, getting pulled north through Alaska Indian Arts, and finding mentors who taught him what real expedition travel looks like. From there we get into Denali guiding and the hidden job of leadership: team psychology, acclimatization, risk calls, and the moments when a guide has to protect the whole group from one person’s spiral. If you’re curious about Denali climbing, mountaineering training, or what guiding actually demands, this part is packed with real-world detail.  Then we shift into the art and the economics. John breaks down how an adventure life becomes subject matter, why galleries shape what artists can afford to make, and how glass art and watercolor each pull you in different directions. He also shares two deeply human threads: making memorial beads by fusing cremated remains into glass, and how surviving cancer reshaped his urgency around early screening and paying attention to timing. We wrap by talking about mentoring younger artists, what “mastery” really means, and why Haines still feels like one of the best places on earth to build a life.  If this conversation hits you, subscribe, share it with a friend who loves mountains or art, and leave us a review with your biggest takeaway.

Episode 26: Lee Heinmiller; A Lifelong Haines Local Explains How A Community Gets Built

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2560124/fan_mail/new] A town can start with a big dream, but it survives on unglamorous details: heat that actually works, water that keeps running, and neighbors who show up when the plan falls apart. We talk with lifelong Haines resident Lee Heimiller, president of the Port Chilkoot Corporation, about the unlikely chain of events that helped turn Fort Stewart from a postwar military site into the heart of Port Chilkoot. Lee shares the inside story of veterans trying to buy surplus equipment, the scramble to finance a fort purchase, and what it meant to build a community in Southeast Alaska when money was tight and winter was not forgiving. From there, the conversation opens up into a deep, practical history of Haines and Tlingit cultural work through Alaska Indian Arts and the Chilkat Dancers. We get into how scouting, statehood-era promotion, and federal manpower training programs helped launch artists and carvers, and why the value of a totem pole is measured in hours, risk, and responsibility as much as dollars. Lee also tells stories about shipping major carvings, projects that ended up across the country, and the way cultural pride grew when public performance was not always welcomed. We also take on the question people argue about the most: Fort Stewart’s barracks buildings. Lee breaks down why “save it” can mean $30–$40 million, how landmark rules shape what’s even allowed, and why a seasonal tourism economy makes big redevelopment plans so hard to sustain. If you care about Haines Alaska history, Fort Stewart, Port Chilkoot, Alaska Native art, and what preservation looks like when budgets get real, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves local history, and leave us a review telling us what part of Haines you want us to record next.