September 12, 2025 • 33 mins
Today on the show Colin is joined by longtime journalist and former Outside magazine editor-in-chief Chris Keyes to discuss his new venture: RE:PUBLIC, nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to covering the policies, people, and forces shaping America’s public lands.
What we cover:
- How the decline of journalism (75% fewer reporters than 20 years ago) impacts public lands coverage.
- Why RE:PUBLIC chose the nonprofit model and how it differs from traditional outdoor media.
- The role of brands and retailers in speaking up for conservation.
- Why public lands deserve dedicated, investigative storytelling beyond listicles and quick-hit news.
- How RE:PUBLIC plans to partner with outlets to deliver long-form, high-impact stories.
- What listeners and outdoor industry pros can do to support RE:PUBLIC right now.
Public lands are at the heart of the outdoor industry and our way of life but they’re under constant pressure. With journalism shrinking, RE:PUBLIC wants to step in to ensure these stories don’t get lost.
Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.
Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's semi-weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
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(01:11):
truth, slay sacred cows, andsometimes agree to disagree. This
is an outdoor podcast thataims for the head. I'm Colin True
and today we're pulling backthe curtain on the newest media venture
to hit the outdoors as we takea look at Republic with Chris Kies.
But first, some programmingreminders. Be sure to come back to
the Rock Fight on Monday foryour healthy dose of industry scoop
(01:32):
with myself and producer Daveand the outdoor industry insider
Owen Comerford. On Tuesday,Doug Schnitzbahn opens the container
like he always does. His guestthis week, Jordan Campbell. It's
an exciting conversation. Youdon't want to miss that. Next Thursday,
head over to the Gear Abbyfeed for the fourth episode of Gear
Abbey to come out. HostShantae Salibar will be breaking
(01:53):
it all down. You don't want tomiss that. And of course, follow
us here on the Rock Fight.Follow on your favorite podcast app
so you don't miss an episode.Subscribe to News from the Front,
our weekly newsletter byheading to Rockfight Co and send
your emails tomyrockfightmail.com all right, let's
get into today's episode. Andto start, I'm going to post up on
Old Guy Corner here for asecond as I introduce the topic and
(02:16):
the guest for the day. As I'vetalked about a whole bunch on this
podcast, I started myoutdoorsy journey in the mid to late
90s, which means that most ofmy formative outdoor years were spent
reading turn of the centurycopies of Outside magazine. I'm talking
about the days of LanceArmstrong and Laird Hamilton and
the top outdoor towns and justtons of Everest coverage. Not that
(02:37):
Everest coverage has reallydiminished it all, but there was
a lot of it back then, too.And those days also meant that each
issue of Outside magazine camewith an editor's note from Chris
Kies. And my memory of thosedays was that Outside was the top
outdoor magazine that you hadto subscribe to, and that Keys was
the guy that made it happen. Imean, I know the editor in chief
of a magazine doesn't do atall, but the face that you saw on
(02:59):
the inside of each issue wasChris Kai's, which makes Outside's
heyday inextricably linked tohim. Chris stayed with Outside until
this past spring when he waspart of one of Outside's recent rounds
of layoffs. And until thispoint, he and I hadn't spoken ever,
even though I'm sure our pathscrossed more than we'd ever know.
And that is until Chrisreached out to me to chat this past
spring about the new venturehe was starting, and one that is
(03:20):
pretty damn timely. So justthis week, Chris launched Republic.
And per Republic's newlylaunched website, Republic is a,
quote, nonprofit, nonpartisannewsroom dedicated solely to covering
the policies, people, andforces shaping the future of America's
public lands. End quote. Andlike we've talked about on this show
with Paul Hendricks from theConservation alliance and with Tanya
(03:42):
and Adam from the Outdooralliance, public lands are, you know,
the places we all go to to doall the outdoor stuff that our industry
enables us to do with all thestuff that we make. Well, they're
having a tough time right now,thanks to our lovely presidential
administration. But as Chrisexplained to me when we spoke, public
lands deserve this kind ofattention no matter who's sitting
in the White House. And heexplained that to me in the conversation
(04:03):
you're about to hear. So let'sget into it. Welcome back to the
Rock Fight, where today it'sthe launch of Republic with Chris
Kies. And that's coming upright after a few words from our
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Yeah, right. You are on the record.
Exactly.
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everyone. We
are here today with ChrisKies, the founder of the new outdoor
media nonprofit that will befocused on topics and issues surrounding
our public lands calledRepublic. Welcome to the show. Chris.
Kais, not Keys. I'm just. Goahead. And for people who don't know
(07:20):
to say it publicly, it's Kais,not Keys.
I really appreciate that. ThatI didn't have to say eyes.
With a K. It's been your wholelife, right?
It's been my whole life. It'sbeen my whole life. Yeah. I've been
fighting an uphill battle.There was a politician named Alan
Keys who ran for president,and it kind of just describ. Destroyed
our name forever.
Probably. I've endured itmaybe a little bit better than you
because it's the instinct tosay Keys, but Colin Powell was a
(07:43):
bit of a setback for, youknow, for. For Collins everywhere.
You know, I'm sorry. I'm sorryto hear that.
Spelled it correctly,Pronounced it incorrectly. I don't
know what his parents did tothat poor guy.
That's a really good point,Colon. Yeah, yeah. Where did that
come from?
All right, well, let's startjust with the big question. I don't
want to keep anyone waiting.Where this episode's coming out on
Friday the 12th. And earlierthis week, you launched Republic.
(08:08):
It's out there now. We've beentalking about it for a few weeks
behind the scenes, but nowit's a real deal. What is Republic?
Yeah. Well, the short answeris, and you kind of defined it there
at the top, we are anonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom,
and we're dedicatedexclusively to covering the policies
and the forces shapingAmerica's public lands. And the longer
(08:30):
answer is, it's the big careerturn for me after 25 years in journalism.
This is kind of a passionproject for me that I am just getting
off the ground.
So a lot of people would knowyou from your time as editor in chief
at Outside magazine. That's.Obviously, that was my history with
you before we had actualhistory together. But when you look
(08:53):
back on that time, you chosepublic lands that you want to focus
on for your next step, nottracking Killian Journey, you know,
ripping off 14ers in Coloradoand California. So what is it about
the public lands thatinterested you primarily?
Well, I think when I look backat my career, which was mostly at
Outside, I think of myself assort of working at the intersection
(09:14):
of Public lands andjournalism. And you know, the outdoor
industry is much broader thanjust public lands, but it's completely
dependent on these lands andaccess to these lands. And when I
left outside, I actually tooka beat and really thought about whether
I wanted to get back intomedia because it's been 25 years
(09:34):
of disruption and contractionand it's been a rough space. There've
been a lot of signs, Colin,that I chose a bad career choice,
but I can't help myself. Ilove journalism, I love storytelling.
And so it's BrokebackMountain. I just can't quit you journalism.
(09:55):
I. I was really fascinated bythe nonprofit business model. Maybe
that's the 25 years of beingabused by the for profit model. But
there's something reallyintriguing about the independence
that you can have in anonprofit model. And when I thought
about the issue that I wouldmost be passionate about covering,
(10:16):
it was public lands. I knowthat from my time at outside coverage
of public lands, particularlyin the first Trump administration,
when you're talking aboutissues like Standing Rock and Bears
Ears, those are some of ourmost popular stories. So I know that
there's a real audience forit. And I like the idea of sort of
(10:40):
the back half of my career.I'm 51, so I can start talking about
the back half of my career.I'm an old. I like putting it towards
something I'm incrediblypassionate about. And so you mash
up public lands andjournalism, and those are two loves.
So that's why I started it.
Yeah. I mean, it's interestingto consider, like your role over
the last and being informed byall of the changes in media. I mean,
(11:04):
to your point, you started atsort of like probably a golden age
in the early 2000s, late 90s,early 2000s, and then having to live
through the 2010s, and then toyour point, kind of going back to
the well again, but alsoinforming that. I mean, just not
even outside outdoor media,but like media in general. I mean,
there's been so much upheavaland honestly, we've talked a bunch
about on this podcast abouthow it seems that the individual
(11:25):
voices, like podcasts,substacks, whatever it is probably
more the future. Why did youdecide then instead of just kind
of like maybe leaning into ityourself or sort of like, hey, here's
the Kai's blog or whatever youwant to call it about public lands.
Why do you think we need sortof a whole organization that's dedicated
to nothing but news andstories about public lands?
Well, primarily it's justbecause of the incredible contraction
(11:49):
that we've seen in media. Youknow, I cite this statistic all the
time, but I think there are75% fewer journalists than we had
two decades ago. That'sjournalists like individuals, just
individual journalists. Yeah.And now most of that's on the local
level with the decline ofnewspapers. But it's, you know, it's
(12:09):
industry wide. And at the sametime, I think public lands issues
are going to be with us fordecades and decades. But right now
there are unprecedented levelsof threats to our public lands coming
out of this administration.And you have a media ecosystem that
(12:30):
is completely overwhelmed bythe pace of change and the number
of things being proposed. Andfrom a national perspective and national
media perspective, publiclands are kind of number 19 on the
list of topics that they'retrying to stay on top of. And so
I'm really seeing while thereis great coverage out there, there's
(12:51):
three journalists who starteda substack called Public Domain Domain.
And I'm a real fan of what thework they're doing. You know, High
country news has always beenin this space and does a great job
covering public lands. But Iwill argue till I'm blue in the face
with anybody that we do nothave enough journalism journalists
covering this space. And so Iam trying to stand up a news organization
(13:15):
that is solely covering this.And you ask why do we need an organization
covering this solely? I'llgive an example. In my time at Outside
even knowing how popularpublic lands coverage was because
we had a broad mandate tocover the outdoors writ large. If
I have three great killerassignments on public lands and then
(13:39):
I got a fourth one, I mightsay, hey, this is a great story,
but we're kind of, we'vealready flooded the zone with three
public land stories and we'regoing to pass on this one this time
by just being exclusively onthis topic. I won't have to turn
turn those kinds of storiesaway and just can. I think there's
something almost liberatingabout being solely focused on one
(14:02):
topic. It just forces you to,you know, make. It's helpful to know
what we're not covering asmuch as it is what we are covering.
What can readers expect?Because. Because it's a really interesting
point, about 75% fewerjournalists. I kind of wonder how
that plays out going forward,especially when a lot of the content
of the last 10 years or so inthe outdoor space anyway was the
(14:25):
listicle style stuff, whichnow love it or hate it. Honestly,
ChatGPT could write a listicleas good as anybody probably right.
It's like evaluate these sixthings and rank them and it'll probably
read a lot like you would haveseen something in Outside magazine
not that long ago.
Fair. Yep. Right.
No disrespect to anybodyOutside, but it just sort of like
that's kind of the world we'rein now. And it's as it's evolving.
So how are you going toposition, you know, Republic to be
(14:48):
different? Like what kind ofwork can, you know, readers expect
from, from, from Republic?
So those who know me and haveworked for me for a long time know
like I am an, you know, a diehard supporter of long form literary
journalism. And it's what,it's my core competency, it's what
I'm passionate about. It's thekind of storytelling that I know
(15:08):
has the most impact out there.So our first year is really focused
on commissioning 10 to 12investigative pieces that are going
to have high impact out thereand not necessarily covering public
lands on the daily drip ofnews that's coming out of there,
(15:29):
but really focusing on theselong lead time, big impact stories
that we're going to partnerwith existing organizations like
A High Country News to copublish and reach as broad an audience
as we can. So that's the focusof year one. We also want to grow
into being a news entity thatcan cover on the daily. But that's
(15:53):
in order to get this thing offthe ground and be as lean as possible.
We're just going to bestarting off focusing on a newsletter,
eventually a podcast, butreally on those big investigative
pieces.
Why'd you choose the nonprofit route?
Because I spent 25 years infor profit media. It was, I mean,
(16:14):
I'm laughing.
You want to be chasing thatToyota ad or whatever for the public
lands?
I'm laughing, but you can onlylaugh. I mean, it's been a tough,
tough ride. I've had to layoff quite a few people in my career
and that is, if that's evereasy, you better look yourself in
the mirror because it's atough place to be. And I think so
(16:37):
much of it is because the, youknow, the media has become completely
dependent on advertising. Andso whether the entity is doing well
or not really, it depends onwhere's the ad market. And now that
the ad market's beensplintered into a thousand different
places that you can advertise,it's just much harder to capture
(17:00):
those dollars. So why anonprofit? One of the bright spots
in media these days isnonprofit media. There's more than
500 news organizations nowthat are nonprofit underneath this
umbrella organization calledthe Institute for Nonprofit News.
And not all of them arethriving, but a lot of them have
(17:23):
carved out a reallysustainable business model in the
space through a combination offoundation support, individual donors,
and then their readership. Andthat's really attractive to me. I
mean, I've traded ad sales forfoundation sales, essentially. But
I like the idea that I will beresponsible for bringing in the revenue
(17:47):
and that I will never feel theway I do with some commercial advertisers
where there's a. There's atransactional exchange there, and
there's an expectation amongthe advertisers of what they're going
to get and what you're maybenot going to cover. I'll put it that.
That way.
All right, let's take a breakright now and hear from our sponsors.
(18:07):
No, I'm just kidding.
No, I got to make money, soI'm all for it. Have a sponsor.
Don't listen to Kai. Allright, we need your ad dollars here
in the Rock. No, but I thinkit. It. You're. You're right. At
some point, everybody kind of,you have to cross that bridge. And
like, how do you. How do youbalance that out? And then also,
(18:29):
you know, I. It'll beinteresting to see. A lot of things
will be interesting to see,hopefully we survive the Trump administration
and how things shake outafterwards, and the attack on PBS
and all that that's happenedover the last few months. What happens
in media in the coming yearsand decades should definitely be
interesting to track. And Ithink this will be something, hopefully,
that rises to the fore.
Yeah, that's the hope. I mean,I think the pitch I make out there
(18:52):
to potential funders isthere's two main ways to have an
impact on the conservationworld. You can. You can fund, like,
specific programs that aredesigned to protect this. These acres
in the Oregon high desert,say, or you can fund public education.
(19:12):
And that's essentially what weare. And I think to preserve for
the long run the value ofthese public lands, you need an educated
public. You need an agitatedand animated public that is aware
of the issues and armed withinformation about the challenges
(19:32):
that we face and about theimportance of these public lands.
And without a strong media andwith strong journalism out there,
that's not possible. So we arenot going to be an advocacy organization
fighting to protect a specificarea of land, but we are going to
be fighting to keep peopleaware of all the decisions that are
(19:55):
being made so that if theydecide that that's an important enough
place for them to want to savethat they get involved, whether with
an advocacy group or justsimply writing to their congressman.
So it's probably easy to lookat, well, to hear what you're talking
about now. And if you're atall involved in the outdoor industry
or as an outdoor enthusiast orwhatever, kind of immediately see
the need for that. Given whatwe've endured in the first few months
(20:17):
of the second Trump term.Looking beyond that, again, if we
kind of come out of this cleansomehow, you know, what do you, how
do you expect in peacetime?You know, how do you expect your
what's the role of Republic inmore of a normal day to day that
we're not dealing with justovert attacks on our public lands?
I imagine there's gonna be alot of focus on what's happening
(20:38):
right now as you kind of getthings going. Looking beyond that,
what's the kind of content youhope to be doing down the road?
Well, I'm pretty realistic inthinking like, yes, we are facing
more challenges under thiscurrent administration, but to say
that there weren't threats toour public lands under the Biden
administration or the Obamaadministration would be naive to
(21:02):
the greatest degree. So to acertain degree, we are always going
to be playing defense in theconservation movement and the agencies
that are in charge of theselands, they have a broad mandate.
They need to balancerecreation, conservation and the
extractive industries. Andthat's always going to be part of
(21:24):
their mandate. So again, itcomes back to awareness and covering
those stories. Now I thinkthat if you just think about preserving
and conserving public landslike public lands, issues are so
much broader than that. Youcan think about issues of access
and who gets to recreate onpublic lands. You can talk about
(21:45):
issues of policing and thepolice work that's done on public
lands. And sometimes that getspretty dicey. And that's a really
important topic going forward.So I think that broadly speaking,
I'm not concerned with 630million acres to cover, that there
aren't going to be compellingstories even when the threats aren't
quite as dire as they are now.
(22:07):
I guess one of the last bigthings I really want to talk about,
we can get into the nittygritty of the site itself and what
readers should do or potentialreaders should do. But a lot of what
we talk about here in the Rockfight is obviously focus on the business
of going outside. We talk alot about the making of stuff and
the distribution of stuff. Ifyou were advising brands or retailers
how to engage withconversations around Our public lands.
(22:27):
What would you say to them?What would you want? Those folks
who kind of fueled the outdooreconomy in a lot of ways, especially
in the human powered space,May I often refer to our brands as
they're our celebrities. It'slike people care about what our outdoor
brands do. Whether you gooutside or not, you probably own
some of their stuff and haveit in your closet. So what's the
role you would like to see theindustry play as we look at these
(22:49):
more conservation driventopics and public lands in general?
Well, by and large, I thinkthe industry's really used their
voice effectively,particularly in the first Trump administration,
fighting things like eitherdownsizing or elimination of Bears
Ears. You had a lot of brandscoming out in favor of protecting
(23:09):
these national monuments. Iwould say, and this is anecdotal,
but just watching from theoutside, that brands have not been
as brave with using theirvoices this time around and there
are little afraid to putthemselves out there. And if I were
to talk to those brands, Iwould say there's really very little
(23:31):
downside to being vocal aboutthis issue because it's one of the
few bipartisan issues that wehave left. Yes, there's always going
to be, you know, brands,especially large brands, are afraid
of angering anybody. And so ifyou take a position on any issue,
you run the risk of angeringthat constituency. But who is the
(23:52):
constituency for these outdoorbrands? It's the people recreating
on these lands. Like, there'svery little downside. It's mostly
going to be the people whodon't understand the value of these
lands and probably aren'tgoing to be your consumer base. And
then I think about the factlike when Outside was in its heyday
in the 90s, brands reallyneeded outside to reach their audiences.
(24:14):
Now these brands have such adirect way to talk to their consumers
through social media and otherchannels that we really depend on,
depend on them to be anothersource of good information about
what's happening on thesepublic lands. So I think it's really
important that brands usetheir voice if they care about these
places.
Absolutely. And I think. Let'sget back to my question, like why
(24:36):
we need a republic. I mean, itis just how people kind of consume
things these days as well.Right. I wrote in our outline and
you confirmed it by how youused to hand out stories at Outside.
Right. It's like, hey, wewould have public land stories and
that would be how we would geta lot of information through a more
generalist kind of point ofview. And I think this is some of
what outside's probablylearning. These are my words, not
Chris's, but about how hardthat is in the modern era, that when
(24:59):
you do have very focusedtopics, sort of outlets, whether
it is a podcast or a blog or anews outlet. So I think that's the
way people are going toconsume things. It makes a lot of
sense to have on the brandside. Yeah. We had Paul Hendricks
on from the Conservationalliance to talk about the Branch
Republic lands a few monthsago. It's probably time for a check
in because it does seem likethere was a bit of a splash and then
it kind of has quieted down abit on that front. I think probably
(25:23):
tariffs took away from a lotof that conversation on the brand
side, but maybe it's time tosort of start bringing that back
a little bit as well. Youknow, just I saw an op ed by, you
know, Yvon Chouinard not thatlong ago that was being very critical
of California's stance on damsand taking the, you know, the Newsom
administration to task about,about things like fish. And by the
(25:45):
way, I agree with everythingYvon Chouinard said in that article.
But this also was like, isthis the time? Is this really what
we want to be focused on?Like, let's distract from what's
actually happening in theworld because it's, you know, we're
at a very much feels like a, acrossroads as a, as a country. So
I think that unified voice of,like, how do we, you know, come together
is really important to doright now.
(26:06):
Yeah. And I think, you know,looking back at this summer, and
you're right, the brands forpublic lands was a great example
of brands using their voice.And I think it was one of the rare
times that public landsissues, you know, penetrated the
national conversation. And sothat you did have quite a bit of
(26:26):
national coverage of thisissue. And that was great to see.
And there was a lot ofrallying around, you know, opposition
to Senator Lee's proposal.There are larger threats out there
right now that just aren'tbeing talked about to that level.
You know, I look at theroadless rule that could have just
(26:46):
as big of an impact as some ofthese land sales proposals. And it's
hard to tell compellingstories about policy, but.
Right, sure.
And that's our job asjournalists, is to find the way in
that is intriguing and that isgoing to reach somebody. But we need
more entities that are reallyfocused on that and how do we get
(27:09):
people's attention aroundthese issues that are a little bit
dry and not that interesting.And it takes everybody to be doing
that. But that's ourchallenge, Colin, is how do we make
this topic compelling andinteresting on a daily basis so that
people are paying attentionand getting educated versus just
tuning out the noise?
(27:30):
So can brands contribute tothe nonprofit? I feel like they can,
right?
Yeah, absolutely. Anybody cancontribute to my nonprofit right
now. The doors are open.
Pony up.
I mean, I hope to get supportfrom the brands. I mean, that's not
where my area of focus forfundraising is. But I think anybody
(27:53):
that I'm talking to that is inthe outdoor industry, whether they're
going to be a supporter ornot, understands the need for this
and why this is important andthat it can't just be advocacy groups
alone that help us, you know,make sure that these lands are protected
for the long run. So. But yes,I am open to anybody who wants to
(28:15):
support this entity.
All right, so like I said,this is out on the 12th. When will
content start rolling out? Arethings out on the website now?
Yeah. So if you go to thewebsite now, you'll see my newsletter,
which also publishes articleson the site. But mostly what you're
going to see is here's what weare. This is more of a soft launch.
(28:37):
We're announcing that Republicis in the building phase and we are
coming. And here's who we are.Here's our board of directors. I've
got a great team. I've got agreat team of writers who are really
interested in working with us.I've got some assignments in the
pipeline. There's nothing. Idon't want people to be disappointed,
though, you know, when theyvisit now, it's not. This is not
the fully realized vision forRepublic. The actual content and
(29:01):
the bigger storage that Ialluded to earlier are going to start
rolling out this fall. So lateOctober. Look for that.
Readers should now sign up forthe newsletter. Contribute, if you
can, any other social mediafollowing that you want them to do,
or we. Are you going to be onall the standard platforms?
Yeah, that's going to be laterthis fall, too. Right now we're just
promoting on LinkedIn to tryto reach the business community as
(29:22):
far and wide as possible. Yes.So I'm asking people to please sign
up for our newsletter, whichis, you know, you can. It's a great
way to stay informed aboutwhat's happening with public lands
right now. I'm also anincredible writer, Colin, so it's
going to be. It's worth theprice, the free price of admission
to get my newsletter.
(29:43):
I remember Your editor'snotes, they were always very lovely,
you know.
Thank you. Thank you. So Ithink, yeah, but broadly speaking,
sign up for the newsletter andplease contribute. Every dollar makes
a difference. Right now wehave essentially paid our startup
costs. We have our website outup and running, kind of all those
(30:04):
expenses paid. So every dollarthat comes in now is getting plowed
right into journalism. Soplease support us. I can't believe
I'm in this position ofsounding like an NPR pledge drive,
but that's the world I live in now.
Coming up after the break,we're going to hear from the South
(30:24):
African duo. If we can getwhatever music, if.
We can get one more caller, ifwe can get one more caller to pledge
$500, we will turn back toregular programming.
Who doesn't want a republicshopping bag?
Tote bags are coming. Totebags and trucker hats are coming.
Well, are you even a brand ora company? Unless you have trucker
(30:47):
axe and tote bags, but yeah,but Rock Fight army, if you're out
There, follow on LinkedIn.Sign up for the newsletter. Also,
we are planning on havingChris and Republic are now going
to be the public landscorrespondents here on the Rock Fight.
If there are news, we'll stillhave Tanya from Outdoor alliance
on occasion as well. But ifthere's going to be things to report,
news stories happening thatare going to impact public lands
(31:08):
and especially given Chris'sbackground and what he's been able
to do to put that industrybent on why it matters, why the folks
listening to this podcastwould want to hear about this. We're
going to be featuring Chrisregularly going forward as well.
So bit of a partnership.
I love it. Colin was one ofthe first people I talked to about
this project back in April andI'm thrilled to be finally putting
(31:29):
it out into the world.
I lied to you and said being afounder is great.
Yeah.
There'S no downside.
You really did. I thought Iwould be sitting pretty at the this
point. Four months in.
I called all the otherfounders afterwards. I'm like, I
got another one. He's totallygoing to do it. No, man. Hey, listen,
I appreciate you coming on totalk about it. Excited to have you
(31:50):
back on with some regularityhere to talk more about our public
lands and you know, good luck.We're, we're, we're pulling for you.
I think this is great. It'sexciting to get new perspectives
and outdoor media, especiallyon something we never really had
before. So really excited tosee how this unfolds and develops
and we're going to be bigsupporters of you here for sure.
Well, awesome. And I reallyappreciate the chance to reach your
(32:10):
audience and tell them whatwe're up to.
All right, that's the show fortoday. Hey, industry workers, what
should the industry approachbe to public lands? More engagement.
Less engagement. Go subscribeto republic and then hit us up here
at the rock fight by droppingan email to myrockflightmail.com
TheRock Fight's a productionof Rock Fight LLC. For my guest,
Chris Kies. I'm Colin true.Thanks for listening. And another
(32:33):
Chris is here to take us out.Chris demaikz is here, the voice
of the rock fight and he'shere to sing the rock fight fight
song. We'll see you next time,rock fighters.
Rock fight. Rock fight. Rockfight. Rock fight. Rock fight. Rock
fight welcome to the rockfight where we speak our truth Slay
(32:54):
sacred cows and sometimesagree to disagree we touch, talk
about human powered outdooractivities and big bites about topics
that we find interesting likepop culture, music, the latest movie
reviews, ideas that aim forthe head this is where we speak our
(33:14):
truth. This is where we speakour truth. Rock fight. Rock fight
Rock fight Welcome to the rockfight Rock fight Rock fight welcome
to the rock light Rock lightRock fight Rock light Rock light
Rock fight Welcome to the rockfight Rock fight Rock fight Rock
(33:41):
fight.
Breaking news from the IbexOutdoor News Desk. This just in.
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Head to ibex.com welcome tothe Rock Fight, where we speak our
(01:11):
truth, slay sacred cows, andsometimes agree to disagree. This
is an outdoor podcast thataims for the head. I'm Colin True
and today we're pulling backthe curtain on the newest media venture
to hit the outdoors as we takea look at Republic with Chris Kies.
But first, some programmingreminders. Be sure to come back to
the Rock Fight on Monday foryour healthy dose of industry scoop
(01:32):
with myself and producer Daveand the outdoor industry insider
Owen Comerford. On Tuesday,Doug Schnitzbahn opens the container
like he always does. His guestthis week, Jordan Campbell. It's
an exciting conversation. Youdon't want to miss that. Next Thursday,
head over to the Gear Abbyfeed for the fourth episode of Gear
Abbey to come out. HostShantae Salibar will be breaking
(01:53):
it all down. You don't want tomiss that. And of course, follow
us here on the Rock Fight.Follow on your favorite podcast app
so you don't miss an episode.Subscribe to News from the Front,
our weekly newsletter byheading to Rockfight Co and send
your emails tomyrockfightmail.com all right, let's
get into today's episode. Andto start, I'm going to post up on
Old Guy Corner here for asecond as I introduce the topic and
(02:16):
the guest for the day. As I'vetalked about a whole bunch on this
podcast, I started myoutdoorsy journey in the mid to late
90s, which means that most ofmy formative outdoor years were spent
reading turn of the centurycopies of Outside magazine. I'm talking
about the days of LanceArmstrong and Laird Hamilton and
the top outdoor towns and justtons of Everest coverage. Not that
(02:37):
Everest coverage has reallydiminished it all, but there was
a lot of it back then, too.And those days also meant that each
issue of Outside magazine camewith an editor's note from Chris
Kies. And my memory of thosedays was that Outside was the top
outdoor magazine that you hadto subscribe to, and that Keys was
the guy that made it happen. Imean, I know the editor in chief
of a magazine doesn't do atall, but the face that you saw on
(02:59):
the inside of each issue wasChris Kai's, which makes Outside's
heyday inextricably linked tohim. Chris stayed with Outside until
this past spring when he waspart of one of Outside's recent rounds
of layoffs. And until thispoint, he and I hadn't spoken ever,
even though I'm sure our pathscrossed more than we'd ever know.
And that is until Chrisreached out to me to chat this past
spring about the new venturehe was starting, and one that is
(03:20):
pretty damn timely. So justthis week, Chris launched Republic.
And per Republic's newlylaunched website, Republic is a,
quote, nonprofit, nonpartisannewsroom dedicated solely to covering
the policies, people, andforces shaping the future of America's
public lands. End quote. Andlike we've talked about on this show
with Paul Hendricks from theConservation alliance and with Tanya
(03:42):
and Adam from the Outdooralliance, public lands are, you know,
the places we all go to to doall the outdoor stuff that our industry
enables us to do with all thestuff that we make. Well, they're
having a tough time right now,thanks to our lovely presidential
administration. But as Chrisexplained to me when we spoke, public
lands deserve this kind ofattention no matter who's sitting
in the White House. And heexplained that to me in the conversation
(04:03):
you're about to hear. So let'sget into it. Welcome back to the
Rock Fight, where today it'sthe launch of Republic with Chris
Kies. And that's coming upright after a few words from our
sponsors. Just in time forfall, we're happy to introduce a
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I'm excited about having thisas a new sponsor here.
Yeah, right. You are on the record.
Exactly.
You should be very excitedactually about this.
I think there should be somesamples coming my way is what I think.
(05:12):
That's right.
Let's do that again. Just intime for fall, we're happy to introduce
Owen's new closet. That's right.
That's right. Yes.
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That's right.
All right guys, pop quiz. Whatanimals kill the most humans every
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Rhinoceros.
No, no.
Buffalo.
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(06:17):
That's right. They're a killerin the national park system.
Oh, and you got a guess, it'scats. Because just out of pure boredom,
Dave's lived this long. Guysknow it's mosquitoes. That's an actual
true thing. They kill morehumans every year, right? And like
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(06:38):
a difference, try sleepingwith a mosquito. But I doubt the
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the entire MPT collection fromroyal robins and stay bite free in
these waning days of summer.Head to royalrobbins.com all right,
everyone. We
are here today with ChrisKies, the founder of the new outdoor
media nonprofit that will befocused on topics and issues surrounding
our public lands calledRepublic. Welcome to the show. Chris.
Kais, not Keys. I'm just. Goahead. And for people who don't know
(07:20):
to say it publicly, it's Kais,not Keys.
I really appreciate that. ThatI didn't have to say eyes.
With a K. It's been your wholelife, right?
It's been my whole life. It'sbeen my whole life. Yeah. I've been
fighting an uphill battle.There was a politician named Alan
Keys who ran for president,and it kind of just describ. Destroyed
our name forever.
Probably. I've endured itmaybe a little bit better than you
because it's the instinct tosay Keys, but Colin Powell was a
(07:43):
bit of a setback for, youknow, for. For Collins everywhere.
You know, I'm sorry. I'm sorryto hear that.
Spelled it correctly,Pronounced it incorrectly. I don't
know what his parents did tothat poor guy.
That's a really good point,Colon. Yeah, yeah. Where did that
come from?
All right, well, let's startjust with the big question. I don't
want to keep anyone waiting.Where this episode's coming out on
Friday the 12th. And earlierthis week, you launched Republic.
(08:08):
It's out there now. We've beentalking about it for a few weeks
behind the scenes, but nowit's a real deal. What is Republic?
Yeah. Well, the short answeris, and you kind of defined it there
at the top, we are anonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom,
and we're dedicatedexclusively to covering the policies
and the forces shapingAmerica's public lands. And the longer
(08:30):
answer is, it's the big careerturn for me after 25 years in journalism.
This is kind of a passionproject for me that I am just getting
off the ground.
So a lot of people would knowyou from your time as editor in chief
at Outside magazine. That's.Obviously, that was my history with
you before we had actualhistory together. But when you look
(08:53):
back on that time, you chosepublic lands that you want to focus
on for your next step, nottracking Killian Journey, you know,
ripping off 14ers in Coloradoand California. So what is it about
the public lands thatinterested you primarily?
Well, I think when I look backat my career, which was mostly at
Outside, I think of myself assort of working at the intersection
(09:14):
of Public lands andjournalism. And you know, the outdoor
industry is much broader thanjust public lands, but it's completely
dependent on these lands andaccess to these lands. And when I
left outside, I actually tooka beat and really thought about whether
I wanted to get back intomedia because it's been 25 years
(09:34):
of disruption and contractionand it's been a rough space. There've
been a lot of signs, Colin,that I chose a bad career choice,
but I can't help myself. Ilove journalism, I love storytelling.
And so it's BrokebackMountain. I just can't quit you journalism.
(09:55):
I. I was really fascinated bythe nonprofit business model. Maybe
that's the 25 years of beingabused by the for profit model. But
there's something reallyintriguing about the independence
that you can have in anonprofit model. And when I thought
about the issue that I wouldmost be passionate about covering,
(10:16):
it was public lands. I knowthat from my time at outside coverage
of public lands, particularlyin the first Trump administration,
when you're talking aboutissues like Standing Rock and Bears
Ears, those are some of ourmost popular stories. So I know that
there's a real audience forit. And I like the idea of sort of
(10:40):
the back half of my career.I'm 51, so I can start talking about
the back half of my career.I'm an old. I like putting it towards
something I'm incrediblypassionate about. And so you mash
up public lands andjournalism, and those are two loves.
So that's why I started it.
Yeah. I mean, it's interestingto consider, like your role over
the last and being informed byall of the changes in media. I mean,
(11:04):
to your point, you started atsort of like probably a golden age
in the early 2000s, late 90s,early 2000s, and then having to live
through the 2010s, and then toyour point, kind of going back to
the well again, but alsoinforming that. I mean, just not
even outside outdoor media,but like media in general. I mean,
there's been so much upheavaland honestly, we've talked a bunch
about on this podcast abouthow it seems that the individual
(11:25):
voices, like podcasts,substacks, whatever it is probably
more the future. Why did youdecide then instead of just kind
of like maybe leaning into ityourself or sort of like, hey, here's
the Kai's blog or whatever youwant to call it about public lands.
Why do you think we need sortof a whole organization that's dedicated
to nothing but news andstories about public lands?
Well, primarily it's justbecause of the incredible contraction
(11:49):
that we've seen in media. Youknow, I cite this statistic all the
time, but I think there are75% fewer journalists than we had
two decades ago. That'sjournalists like individuals, just
individual journalists. Yeah.And now most of that's on the local
level with the decline ofnewspapers. But it's, you know, it's
(12:09):
industry wide. And at the sametime, I think public lands issues
are going to be with us fordecades and decades. But right now
there are unprecedented levelsof threats to our public lands coming
out of this administration.And you have a media ecosystem that
(12:30):
is completely overwhelmed bythe pace of change and the number
of things being proposed. Andfrom a national perspective and national
media perspective, publiclands are kind of number 19 on the
list of topics that they'retrying to stay on top of. And so
I'm really seeing while thereis great coverage out there, there's
(12:51):
three journalists who starteda substack called Public Domain Domain.
And I'm a real fan of what thework they're doing. You know, High
country news has always beenin this space and does a great job
covering public lands. But Iwill argue till I'm blue in the face
with anybody that we do nothave enough journalism journalists
covering this space. And so Iam trying to stand up a news organization
(13:15):
that is solely covering this.And you ask why do we need an organization
covering this solely? I'llgive an example. In my time at Outside
even knowing how popularpublic lands coverage was because
we had a broad mandate tocover the outdoors writ large. If
I have three great killerassignments on public lands and then
(13:39):
I got a fourth one, I mightsay, hey, this is a great story,
but we're kind of, we'vealready flooded the zone with three
public land stories and we'regoing to pass on this one this time
by just being exclusively onthis topic. I won't have to turn
turn those kinds of storiesaway and just can. I think there's
something almost liberatingabout being solely focused on one
(14:02):
topic. It just forces you to,you know, make. It's helpful to know
what we're not covering asmuch as it is what we are covering.
What can readers expect?Because. Because it's a really interesting
point, about 75% fewerjournalists. I kind of wonder how
that plays out going forward,especially when a lot of the content
of the last 10 years or so inthe outdoor space anyway was the
(14:25):
listicle style stuff, whichnow love it or hate it. Honestly,
ChatGPT could write a listicleas good as anybody probably right.
It's like evaluate these sixthings and rank them and it'll probably
read a lot like you would haveseen something in Outside magazine
not that long ago.
Fair. Yep. Right.
No disrespect to anybodyOutside, but it just sort of like
that's kind of the world we'rein now. And it's as it's evolving.
So how are you going toposition, you know, Republic to be
(14:48):
different? Like what kind ofwork can, you know, readers expect
from, from, from Republic?
So those who know me and haveworked for me for a long time know
like I am an, you know, a diehard supporter of long form literary
journalism. And it's what,it's my core competency, it's what
I'm passionate about. It's thekind of storytelling that I know
(15:08):
has the most impact out there.So our first year is really focused
on commissioning 10 to 12investigative pieces that are going
to have high impact out thereand not necessarily covering public
lands on the daily drip ofnews that's coming out of there,
(15:29):
but really focusing on theselong lead time, big impact stories
that we're going to partnerwith existing organizations like
A High Country News to copublish and reach as broad an audience
as we can. So that's the focusof year one. We also want to grow
into being a news entity thatcan cover on the daily. But that's
(15:53):
in order to get this thing offthe ground and be as lean as possible.
We're just going to bestarting off focusing on a newsletter,
eventually a podcast, butreally on those big investigative
pieces.
Why'd you choose the nonprofit route?
Because I spent 25 years infor profit media. It was, I mean,
(16:14):
I'm laughing.
You want to be chasing thatToyota ad or whatever for the public
lands?
I'm laughing, but you can onlylaugh. I mean, it's been a tough,
tough ride. I've had to layoff quite a few people in my career
and that is, if that's evereasy, you better look yourself in
the mirror because it's atough place to be. And I think so
(16:37):
much of it is because the, youknow, the media has become completely
dependent on advertising. Andso whether the entity is doing well
or not really, it depends onwhere's the ad market. And now that
the ad market's beensplintered into a thousand different
places that you can advertise,it's just much harder to capture
(17:00):
those dollars. So why anonprofit? One of the bright spots
in media these days isnonprofit media. There's more than
500 news organizations nowthat are nonprofit underneath this
umbrella organization calledthe Institute for Nonprofit News.
And not all of them arethriving, but a lot of them have
(17:23):
carved out a reallysustainable business model in the
space through a combination offoundation support, individual donors,
and then their readership. Andthat's really attractive to me. I
mean, I've traded ad sales forfoundation sales, essentially. But
I like the idea that I will beresponsible for bringing in the revenue
(17:47):
and that I will never feel theway I do with some commercial advertisers
where there's a. There's atransactional exchange there, and
there's an expectation amongthe advertisers of what they're going
to get and what you're maybenot going to cover. I'll put it that.
That way.
All right, let's take a breakright now and hear from our sponsors.
(18:07):
No, I'm just kidding.
No, I got to make money, soI'm all for it. Have a sponsor.
Don't listen to Kai. Allright, we need your ad dollars here
in the Rock. No, but I thinkit. It. You're. You're right. At
some point, everybody kind of,you have to cross that bridge. And
like, how do you. How do youbalance that out? And then also,
(18:29):
you know, I. It'll beinteresting to see. A lot of things
will be interesting to see,hopefully we survive the Trump administration
and how things shake outafterwards, and the attack on PBS
and all that that's happenedover the last few months. What happens
in media in the coming yearsand decades should definitely be
interesting to track. And Ithink this will be something, hopefully,
that rises to the fore.
Yeah, that's the hope. I mean,I think the pitch I make out there
(18:52):
to potential funders isthere's two main ways to have an
impact on the conservationworld. You can. You can fund, like,
specific programs that aredesigned to protect this. These acres
in the Oregon high desert,say, or you can fund public education.
(19:12):
And that's essentially what weare. And I think to preserve for
the long run the value ofthese public lands, you need an educated
public. You need an agitatedand animated public that is aware
of the issues and armed withinformation about the challenges
(19:32):
that we face and about theimportance of these public lands.
And without a strong media andwith strong journalism out there,
that's not possible. So we arenot going to be an advocacy organization
fighting to protect a specificarea of land, but we are going to
be fighting to keep peopleaware of all the decisions that are
(19:55):
being made so that if theydecide that that's an important enough
place for them to want to savethat they get involved, whether with
an advocacy group or justsimply writing to their congressman.
So it's probably easy to lookat, well, to hear what you're talking
about now. And if you're atall involved in the outdoor industry
or as an outdoor enthusiast orwhatever, kind of immediately see
the need for that. Given whatwe've endured in the first few months
(20:17):
of the second Trump term.Looking beyond that, again, if we
kind of come out of this cleansomehow, you know, what do you, how
do you expect in peacetime?You know, how do you expect your
what's the role of Republic inmore of a normal day to day that
we're not dealing with justovert attacks on our public lands?
I imagine there's gonna be alot of focus on what's happening
(20:38):
right now as you kind of getthings going. Looking beyond that,
what's the kind of content youhope to be doing down the road?
Well, I'm pretty realistic inthinking like, yes, we are facing
more challenges under thiscurrent administration, but to say
that there weren't threats toour public lands under the Biden
administration or the Obamaadministration would be naive to
(21:02):
the greatest degree. So to acertain degree, we are always going
to be playing defense in theconservation movement and the agencies
that are in charge of theselands, they have a broad mandate.
They need to balancerecreation, conservation and the
extractive industries. Andthat's always going to be part of
(21:24):
their mandate. So again, itcomes back to awareness and covering
those stories. Now I thinkthat if you just think about preserving
and conserving public landslike public lands, issues are so
much broader than that. Youcan think about issues of access
and who gets to recreate onpublic lands. You can talk about
(21:45):
issues of policing and thepolice work that's done on public
lands. And sometimes that getspretty dicey. And that's a really
important topic going forward.So I think that broadly speaking,
I'm not concerned with 630million acres to cover, that there
aren't going to be compellingstories even when the threats aren't
quite as dire as they are now.
(22:07):
I guess one of the last bigthings I really want to talk about,
we can get into the nittygritty of the site itself and what
readers should do or potentialreaders should do. But a lot of what
we talk about here in the Rockfight is obviously focus on the business
of going outside. We talk alot about the making of stuff and
the distribution of stuff. Ifyou were advising brands or retailers
how to engage withconversations around Our public lands.
(22:27):
What would you say to them?What would you want? Those folks
who kind of fueled the outdooreconomy in a lot of ways, especially
in the human powered space,May I often refer to our brands as
they're our celebrities. It'slike people care about what our outdoor
brands do. Whether you gooutside or not, you probably own
some of their stuff and haveit in your closet. So what's the
role you would like to see theindustry play as we look at these
(22:49):
more conservation driventopics and public lands in general?
Well, by and large, I thinkthe industry's really used their
voice effectively,particularly in the first Trump administration,
fighting things like eitherdownsizing or elimination of Bears
Ears. You had a lot of brandscoming out in favor of protecting
(23:09):
these national monuments. Iwould say, and this is anecdotal,
but just watching from theoutside, that brands have not been
as brave with using theirvoices this time around and there
are little afraid to putthemselves out there. And if I were
to talk to those brands, Iwould say there's really very little
(23:31):
downside to being vocal aboutthis issue because it's one of the
few bipartisan issues that wehave left. Yes, there's always going
to be, you know, brands,especially large brands, are afraid
of angering anybody. And so ifyou take a position on any issue,
you run the risk of angeringthat constituency. But who is the
(23:52):
constituency for these outdoorbrands? It's the people recreating
on these lands. Like, there'svery little downside. It's mostly
going to be the people whodon't understand the value of these
lands and probably aren'tgoing to be your consumer base. And
then I think about the factlike when Outside was in its heyday
in the 90s, brands reallyneeded outside to reach their audiences.
(24:14):
Now these brands have such adirect way to talk to their consumers
through social media and otherchannels that we really depend on,
depend on them to be anothersource of good information about
what's happening on thesepublic lands. So I think it's really
important that brands usetheir voice if they care about these
places.
Absolutely. And I think. Let'sget back to my question, like why
(24:36):
we need a republic. I mean, itis just how people kind of consume
things these days as well.Right. I wrote in our outline and
you confirmed it by how youused to hand out stories at Outside.
Right. It's like, hey, wewould have public land stories and
that would be how we would geta lot of information through a more
generalist kind of point ofview. And I think this is some of
what outside's probablylearning. These are my words, not
Chris's, but about how hardthat is in the modern era, that when
(24:59):
you do have very focusedtopics, sort of outlets, whether
it is a podcast or a blog or anews outlet. So I think that's the
way people are going toconsume things. It makes a lot of
sense to have on the brandside. Yeah. We had Paul Hendricks
on from the Conservationalliance to talk about the Branch
Republic lands a few monthsago. It's probably time for a check
in because it does seem likethere was a bit of a splash and then
it kind of has quieted down abit on that front. I think probably
(25:23):
tariffs took away from a lotof that conversation on the brand
side, but maybe it's time tosort of start bringing that back
a little bit as well. Youknow, just I saw an op ed by, you
know, Yvon Chouinard not thatlong ago that was being very critical
of California's stance on damsand taking the, you know, the Newsom
administration to task about,about things like fish. And by the
(25:45):
way, I agree with everythingYvon Chouinard said in that article.
But this also was like, isthis the time? Is this really what
we want to be focused on?Like, let's distract from what's
actually happening in theworld because it's, you know, we're
at a very much feels like a, acrossroads as a, as a country. So
I think that unified voice of,like, how do we, you know, come together
is really important to doright now.
(26:06):
Yeah. And I think, you know,looking back at this summer, and
you're right, the brands forpublic lands was a great example
of brands using their voice.And I think it was one of the rare
times that public landsissues, you know, penetrated the
national conversation. And sothat you did have quite a bit of
(26:26):
national coverage of thisissue. And that was great to see.
And there was a lot ofrallying around, you know, opposition
to Senator Lee's proposal.There are larger threats out there
right now that just aren'tbeing talked about to that level.
You know, I look at theroadless rule that could have just
(26:46):
as big of an impact as some ofthese land sales proposals. And it's
hard to tell compellingstories about policy, but.
Right, sure.
And that's our job asjournalists, is to find the way in
that is intriguing and that isgoing to reach somebody. But we need
more entities that are reallyfocused on that and how do we get
(27:09):
people's attention aroundthese issues that are a little bit
dry and not that interesting.And it takes everybody to be doing
that. But that's ourchallenge, Colin, is how do we make
this topic compelling andinteresting on a daily basis so that
people are paying attentionand getting educated versus just
tuning out the noise?
(27:30):
So can brands contribute tothe nonprofit? I feel like they can,
right?
Yeah, absolutely. Anybody cancontribute to my nonprofit right
now. The doors are open.
Pony up.
I mean, I hope to get supportfrom the brands. I mean, that's not
where my area of focus forfundraising is. But I think anybody
(27:53):
that I'm talking to that is inthe outdoor industry, whether they're
going to be a supporter ornot, understands the need for this
and why this is important andthat it can't just be advocacy groups
alone that help us, you know,make sure that these lands are protected
for the long run. So. But yes,I am open to anybody who wants to
(28:15):
support this entity.
All right, so like I said,this is out on the 12th. When will
content start rolling out? Arethings out on the website now?
Yeah. So if you go to thewebsite now, you'll see my newsletter,
which also publishes articleson the site. But mostly what you're
going to see is here's what weare. This is more of a soft launch.
(28:37):
We're announcing that Republicis in the building phase and we are
coming. And here's who we are.Here's our board of directors. I've
got a great team. I've got agreat team of writers who are really
interested in working with us.I've got some assignments in the
pipeline. There's nothing. Idon't want people to be disappointed,
though, you know, when theyvisit now, it's not. This is not
the fully realized vision forRepublic. The actual content and
(29:01):
the bigger storage that Ialluded to earlier are going to start
rolling out this fall. So lateOctober. Look for that.
Readers should now sign up forthe newsletter. Contribute, if you
can, any other social mediafollowing that you want them to do,
or we. Are you going to be onall the standard platforms?
Yeah, that's going to be laterthis fall, too. Right now we're just
promoting on LinkedIn to tryto reach the business community as
(29:22):
far and wide as possible. Yes.So I'm asking people to please sign
up for our newsletter, whichis, you know, you can. It's a great
way to stay informed aboutwhat's happening with public lands
right now. I'm also anincredible writer, Colin, so it's
going to be. It's worth theprice, the free price of admission
to get my newsletter.
(29:43):
I remember Your editor'snotes, they were always very lovely,
you know.
Thank you. Thank you. So Ithink, yeah, but broadly speaking,
sign up for the newsletter andplease contribute. Every dollar makes
a difference. Right now wehave essentially paid our startup
costs. We have our website outup and running, kind of all those
(30:04):
expenses paid. So every dollarthat comes in now is getting plowed
right into journalism. Soplease support us. I can't believe
I'm in this position ofsounding like an NPR pledge drive,
but that's the world I live in now.
Coming up after the break,we're going to hear from the South
(30:24):
African duo. If we can getwhatever music, if.
We can get one more caller, ifwe can get one more caller to pledge
$500, we will turn back toregular programming.
Who doesn't want a republicshopping bag?
Tote bags are coming. Totebags and trucker hats are coming.
Well, are you even a brand ora company? Unless you have trucker
(30:47):
axe and tote bags, but yeah,but Rock Fight army, if you're out
There, follow on LinkedIn.Sign up for the newsletter. Also,
we are planning on havingChris and Republic are now going
to be the public landscorrespondents here on the Rock Fight.
If there are news, we'll stillhave Tanya from Outdoor alliance
on occasion as well. But ifthere's going to be things to report,
news stories happening thatare going to impact public lands
(31:08):
and especially given Chris'sbackground and what he's been able
to do to put that industrybent on why it matters, why the folks
listening to this podcastwould want to hear about this. We're
going to be featuring Chrisregularly going forward as well.
So bit of a partnership.
I love it. Colin was one ofthe first people I talked to about
this project back in April andI'm thrilled to be finally putting
(31:29):
it out into the world.
I lied to you and said being afounder is great.
Yeah.
There'S no downside.
You really did. I thought Iwould be sitting pretty at the this
point. Four months in.
I called all the otherfounders afterwards. I'm like, I
got another one. He's totallygoing to do it. No, man. Hey, listen,
I appreciate you coming on totalk about it. Excited to have you
(31:50):
back on with some regularityhere to talk more about our public
lands and you know, good luck.We're, we're, we're pulling for you.
I think this is great. It'sexciting to get new perspectives
and outdoor media, especiallyon something we never really had
before. So really excited tosee how this unfolds and develops
and we're going to be bigsupporters of you here for sure.
Well, awesome. And I reallyappreciate the chance to reach your
(32:10):
audience and tell them whatwe're up to.
All right, that's the show fortoday. Hey, industry workers, what
should the industry approachbe to public lands? More engagement.
Less engagement. Go subscribeto republic and then hit us up here
at the rock fight by droppingan email to myrockflightmail.com
TheRock Fight's a productionof Rock Fight LLC. For my guest,
Chris Kies. I'm Colin true.Thanks for listening. And another
(32:33):
Chris is here to take us out.Chris demaikz is here, the voice
of the rock fight and he'shere to sing the rock fight fight
song. We'll see you next time,rock fighters.
Rock fight. Rock fight. Rockfight. Rock fight. Rock fight. Rock
fight welcome to the rockfight where we speak our truth Slay
(32:54):
sacred cows and sometimesagree to disagree we touch, talk
about human powered outdooractivities and big bites about topics
that we find interesting likepop culture, music, the latest movie
reviews, ideas that aim forthe head this is where we speak our
(33:14):
truth. This is where we speakour truth. Rock fight. Rock fight
Rock fight Welcome to the rockfight Rock fight Rock fight welcome
to the rock light Rock lightRock fight Rock light Rock light
Rock fight Welcome to the rockfight Rock fight Rock fight Rock
(33:41):
fight.
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