SEASON I: INTRODUCTION

 

SEASON I: INTRODUCTION

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“It’s a good place to become who you’re trying to be instead of being who the world is trying to turn you, is trying to make you.”
— MARTIN MORRISON

EPISODE NOTES

Out Here tells the stories of people who've dared to live life differently.

Focused on the end-of-the-road community of McCarthy, Alaska, it explores off-the-grid living, raising children in the wilderness, bucking the 9-to-5 and living off the land. It's easy to romanticize, but what's it really like living at the end of a 60-mile dirt road in Alaska surrounded by the country's largest national park?

Here you'll find grizzly bears, a rugged landscape, a community of individuals, self-reliance and self-governance. Here you'll learn about the boundaries of freedom and what happens when a community of transplants tries to make a go of it living in the woods. You'll hear stories of tragedy, triumph and a whole lot of floundering. And you'll hear about my own journey to make a life out here.

The podcast comes from my own experiences and those of 18 residents of the McCarthy area. You can learn more about the project and about me here. 

Music from Galen Huckins and Blue Dot Sessions / Slate Tracker, Ultima Thule, The Kennicott, ZigZag Heart / Episode artwork from Ian Gyori / Financial assistance from the Duffy Fund and the University of Missouri / Guidance and support from Scott Swafford, Sara Shahriari and Dr. Cristina Mislan / Featured in this episode: Tony Tengs, Ali Towers, Martin Morrison, Greg Fensterman, Stephens Harper, Tamara Harper and John Adams

 

I.III LIVING IT

 

EPISODE III: LIVING IT

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“I’ve had scary moments. There’s been a bear that visited the cabin once. When it’s 30 below, you definitely question your sanity a little bit. But those experiences just amount to living a full life, in my opinion.”
— KARLA FREIVALDS

EPISODE NOTES

Ali Towers and Scott Anthony first came to McCarthy in the summertime. When a couple needed a caretaker for their cabin, they traded in a winter in Hawaii for cold weather gear, a generator, a chainsaw and a snow machine. They decided to stay through the winter together in a tiny cabin, and they'd only just met a few months before.

The odds were against them. They didn't know how to run a chainsaw or how to get water. They didn't know how to go grocery shopping for four months at a time.

They didn't know how to live life out here in the wintertime.

On this episode of Out Here, hear how they fared their first winter. Then, Mark Vail, a 30-year resident of the McCarthy talks about day-to-day life. He'll answer the question that resident Greg Fensterman says he gets all the time from summertime tourists.

"What do you do all winter?"

And several residents share how and why they live off-grid and have decided against a 9-to-5 lifestyle. Hear how they make money in a place without a wintertime economy, and hear the nitty-gritty of life in a cold weather climate. 

 Things like to break here all at once. And everything always takes longer than it should. Life out here takes patience. And a whole lot of floundering.

Music from Galen Huckins and Blue Dot Sessions / Winter Theme, Ultima Thule, Rapids, Hammer and Damper / Also music from Martin Morrison and Pete Seger / Episode artwork from Ian Gyori / Financial assistance from the Duffy Fund and the University of Missouri / Guidance and support from Scott Swafford, Sara Shahriari and Dr. Cristina Mislan / Featured in this episode: Ali Towers, Scott Anthony, Ian Gyori, Malcolm Vance, Mark Vail, Karla Freivalds, Gary Green, Greg Runyan and John Adams