Municipal attorney of Bethel Libby Bakalar is today's guest. Libby became famous in Alaska for her blog, One Hot Mess, and then her social media presence as One Hot Mess Alaska. Her outspokenness led to her unlawfully firing by the Dunleavy administration when she was working there as an assistant attorney general. Today, we discuss all of that as well as her complicated feelings about the conflict in Israel as a Jewish woman and descendant of Holocaust survivors ..read more

Dr. Marci Bowers is a pelvic and gynecologic surgeon with more than 32 years’ experience. She is the president of WPATH – the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Her gender diverse work has been highlighted through appearances on Oprah, CBS Sunday Morning, Discovery Health and the TLC reality series, “I am Jazz." She was interviewed in 2021 by Leslie Stahl for “60 Minutes.” Dr. Bowers is recognized as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people on the Guardian’s World Pride Power List. She has performed more than 2250 primary Male-to-Female Vaginoplasties and 3900 Gender Aff ..read more

Dr. Joshua Safer  is the executive director of the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York. He is the founding medical director of the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Boston University School of Medicine, and he was the inaugural president of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH).  He serves on the Global Education Initiative for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Dr. Safer was a co-author of the Endocrine Society Guidelines for the medical care of transgender patients. Th ..read more

Becca Bernard is a former environmental lawyer and a Unitarian Universalist community minister based in Anchorage. She is also mom to two children, one of whom is trans. This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans youth ..read more

David Leslie is an Inupiaq Sipiniq (Two-Spirit) living in Fairbanks. He is a frequent testifier against the anti-trans bills moving through the Alaska State House. We discuss his specific perspective as a queer Alaska Native man. To check out the book recommended by our guest, Yuuyaraq: The Way of The Human Being, by Harold Napoleon, Click here. This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids ..read more

Henry is a 15 year old trans boy. He and his mother are the guests today discussing their experience in Alaska. No last names will be given in the interest of their safety. This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans you ..read more

Aaron Poe has been a wildlife biologist in Alaska since 1998. He is the father of a trans daughter in the Anchorage School District, and today we discuss that experience. This episode is the first in a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans ..read more

Alaska State Senator James Kaufman represents the Abbott Loop and Hillside areas of Anchorage. Although in his teens and 20s he was a guitar player & song writer for several successful rock bands, James began earning real money as an aircraft mechanic in Houston, Texas. He quickly found himself taking on bigger and bigger management positions which ultimately led to him transitioning to the oil and gas field which eventually brought him to Alaska with BP.  He was elected to the state house in 2020 where he served in the Republican minority, and then to the Senate in 2022 where he now ..read more

Reggie Joule of Kotzebue is a former Alaska State House Representative and the former Northwest Arctic Borough Mayor. He is listed in the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame as: “the greatest practitioner of the blanket toss in the long history of the World Eskimo Indian Olympics.” His skill in that Alaska Native sport led to his appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson twice. He ran for the Alaska State House the first time in 1988, but it he lost. Eight years later he ran and won and represented the North Slope in the state house for 15 years before running for mayor.  ..read more

Judge Sharon Gleason is the Chief Judge of the United State District Court for the District of Alaska. She was appointed by Barack Obama in 2012 after serving 11 years as a judge on the Alaska Superior Court. She is the first woman to serve as a federal judge for Alaska. On March 29, 2024, she released a 29-page decision against the fishing of the Kuskokwim River by urban fishermen, reserving subsistence fishing only to rural Alaskans. Read more here. Her fame as a federal judge stems from important environment rulings including her 2015 ruling that fined Greenpeace $2500 per hour that they ..read more