End of The Road

This episode tells stories of injury, embarrassments and debacles all with a comedic twist. Why are injuries and mistakes so funny? Maybe we'll never know for sure, but in the meantime, we'll keep laughing.
We hear from Julie Truskowski, Monte Montepare and Jon Erdman.
Special thanks to Cole Pampe for contributing his original music. 

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Throughout this episode we take a look at the ways in which we experience being in relationships- with ourselves and with others. These stories and poems speak to the good, the bad, the ugly, and the in between of what it’s like to be in love, to be a friend, to be a first date and to be broken-hearted. We hear from Owen Mozen, Laura (a visitor from Talkeetna), Sabrina Simon and Mike Murphy.

Special thanks to Cole Pampe a...

We have an amazing line-up of well-known McCarthy residents including Barb Rice, Mark Vail, Mike Murphy, Michelle Latvala and Wendy Pollock featured in our second episode, McCarthy Made.

This episode speaks to the many ways in which McCarthy residents experience their home, from their discovery of this eccentric place, what it means to be a neighbor, to the meaningful ways in which they reflect on their experiences here.

Sp...

 This episode features hand-picked stories and poems told by McCarthy locals and visitors throughout our 2023 summer programming including our Wrangell Mountain Storytelling Festival and our bi-weekly Word Jam events. These poems and stories speak to the profoundly integral relationship we humans each have with mother nature. We hear from Katy about her love of the natural world; from Mike about his relationship with mountains; fro...

Episode 5 is our last episode of the season in this storytelling series and features two stories told at the West Side venue. Madz shares a poignant, vulnerable story about a friend, and Nik Merlino, our host and sponsor for the West Side event - the owner of McCarthy River Tours & Outfitters and The Glacier View Campground - tells a story about a sitcom-like moment in life with Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Productio...

This season's podcast series features handpicked stories from the 2022 Storytelling Festival in Kennicott-McCarthy.

Episode 4 features two stories from the west side during the twilight time of night as the light was starting to dim on that glorious evening in August at the Glacier View Campground. Folks began stepping up to the mic and sharing stories about sex, love, romance…and Justin Bieber. It was quickly dubbed...

Everyone loves a good Alaska bear story, and local McCarthy resident Dianne Milliard delivers a series of short stories that speak to the theme of Carnivore Karma. And also in this episode, Madz  opened the storytelling festival at the Old Hardware Store with a story about her father and the San Fransisco Zoo, setting the tone for the entire 3-day event.

Produced by:
Jon Erdman - Producer, host, episode writer, and Wra...

This podcast series features handpicked stories from the 2022 Storytelling Festival in Kennicott-McCarthy - three days of grassroots stories, from local and visiting storytellers. This series explores some of the magic of that in-person event, from the Old Hardware Story in historic downtown McCarthy, and the Glacier View Campground on McCarthy’s west side. 

The first story comes from  Amy Holonics whose telling is a tribu...

Season 3 of our End of the Road Podcast Series features handpicked stories from the 2022 Storytelling Festival in Kennicott-McCarthy. The Wrangell Mountains Center hosted 3 days of grassroots storytelling that summer, featuring local and visiting storytellers.

In this episode, storytelling contest winner Bill Mann brought the house down and had us in stitches with his animated rendition about a Copper River fishing trip w...

Dr. Margot Higgins, Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse shares thoughts and ideas from her research and writings challenging our conventional story about the presence or absence of the Ahtna-Athabascan people in the Kennicott River Valley. She explains why radical empathy may be the way forward to relating with this story in a new way.

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Steve Edwards tells the story of his mom’s pride and joy 49 Chevy, and the epic journey it took getting it to McCarthy in 1963. His father, Jim Edwards, was renown for his feats of daring, but the story of Jim getting this car to McCarthy when there was only a railroad bed, is truly one for the history books! 

Visit our website at wrangells.org, or stay connected to us through facebook.com/wrangells or Instagram @wrangellmountainsce...

Professional storyteller Jack Dalton talks about The Other Side of Storytelling with WMC’s Executive Director, Jon Erdman. This is Part Two of a lively discussion on the inner experience of being a storyteller, the power stories have to deliver tough messages in difficult places, and the wider definition of storytelling. 

Visit our website at wrangells.org, or stay connected to us through facebook.com/wrangells or Instagram @wr...

In this episode, professional storyteller, Jack Dalton, talks with WMC’s Executive Director, Jon Erdman, about the art of storytelling and the power of story. Jack has traveled the world telling stories and competing in storytelling events. In this interview, he discusses what makes a good story, how stories come to him sometimes right as he’s walking on stage, and shares his perspective on our town and Tall Tales event. His hearty...

In this episode, Tom Kizzia takes us into the 1983 shootings in McCarthy that killed six of the town’s 22 residents. He focuses on Amy Ashenden, a lesser known victim of the shootings. We continue our conversation with author, Tom Kizzia, discussing his new book titled, Cold Mountain Path: The Ghost Town Decades of McCarthy-Kennecott, Alaska. In his book, Tom preserves the  “Lost Years” of 1938-1983, and creates an opportunity to t...

In our first episode of Season Two we explore the Ghost Town decades of our Kennecott-McCarthy community in remote Alaska by way of an interview with author Tom Kizzia and his new book, Cold Mountain Path: The Ghost Town Decades of McCarthy-Kennecott, Alaska. We discuss ghost towns and what that means as a metaphor, not just about the past but about how we process the past. Along the way we explore the harrowing stories and reflect...

When Papa Pilgrim came to town, back in the early 2000s, tensions flared, bringing to a head decades of conflict between the National Parks Service and the community of private land holders in the Wrangell Mountains. With SWAT teams descending on the tiny town of McCarthy, the Pilgrim fiasco grabbed national headlines and ignited a nation-wide political mobilization. 

Behind the scenes, though, Sally would work with patien...

In the face of great personal loss, Irish photographer Paul Scannell leaves London behind and eventually finds his way to the Wrangells in remote bush Alaska. Skipping his flight home, Paul is drawn to the crumbling, abandoned places in the Wrangells and the stories that these remains suggest.

We discuss Paul’s journey. We talk iPhones and photography, and we hear Paul reading from his new book, Abandoned Alaska: Copper, Gold, and R...