A New Angle

Leigh Greenwood is the Forest Health Program Director for North America at The Nature Conservancy. Armed with a biology degree from Williams College, Leigh worked as a field researcher for several years before enrolling in the renowned Masters of Wildlife Biology program at the University of Montana. Leigh now works in policy and gets to think about things you perhaps never considered – like why it’s bad to move firewood and the complicated dynamics of wood pallet inspection. She makes these topics interesting and you’ll definitely learn a thing or two in this episode.

This week’s episode was recorded live at the recent innovateUM conference. InnovateUM brings together community leaders, entrepreneurs, policy makers, researchers, students and more for an annual celebration of the incredible innovation happening within the University of Montana orbit. A New Angle recorded in front of a live audience for the first time, capturing two micro-panel conversations. The first features previous podcast guest Brigitta Miranda-Freer of the Montana World Trade Center and MonTEC, along with Nicole Rush of the Missoula Economic Partnership in a discussion of the Montana Bioscience Cluster. The second features another previous guest – Erin Switalski, now at the Headwaters Foundation – along with UM Professor of Social Work Ryan Tolleson-Knee in a conversation about early childhood education.

Doug Mitchell is the Executive Director of the Glacier National Park Conservancy. The Conservancy is dedicated preserving the park, educating current and future stewards of the park, and supporting world-class research that explores the park’s amazing ecosystems. In this conversation, we discuss why organizations like the Glacier National Park Conservancy are vital and how they fill critical gaps in funding for some of our most precious national treasures. We also explore how the organization sets priorities and makes decisions that affect the resource and all of our experiences with it.

In this fourth edition of the S.E.A. Change series we feature Susan Hay Patrick, CEO of United Way of Missoula. Susan is a renowned leader in Western Montana and she has a lot to say about many of the challenges facing our region, especially when it comes to the pillars of her organization – education, income, and health. We discuss how these issues affect women and mothers and the persistent challenge of hidden homelessness.

Dave Franke is a Principal at Franke & Company and the son of Bill Franke, founder of Indigo Partners. In 2016 the Franke family made the single largest gift in University of Montana history, naming both the WA Franke College of Forestry and Conservation as well as the Franke Global Leadership initiative. Dave’s work involves finding places where the family can invest to create both impact and access and you’ll hear those two themes throughout the conversation. We discuss the concept of philanthropic investing and how it differs from the traditional charitable giving model. Dave cites some compelling reasons to invest in higher education, reasons that certainly resonate with me and likely many of you.

Adam Wolf is the founder and Chief Scientist at Arable Labs, a firm that brings data science to agriculture. Arable produces a set of sensors and a suite of software and analysis services that allow farmers to make data-informed decisions. Our conversation ranges from the role data plays in both industrial as well as small-scale agriculture, to how anyone who eats can “come into integrity” with their consumption choices.

Anne Helen Petersen is a Senior Culture Writer at Buzzfeed News, based in Missoula, MT. She earned her Ph.D. in Media Studies from the University of Texas and is the author of two books – “Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Women” and “Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema.” Anne’s reporting covers an incredibly wide range of topics, but her recent focus on millennial burnout is the focal point of this conversation. We also discuss how burnout affects men and women differently, as well as her experience in academia, and her observations of the goings-on here at the University of Montana.

Joe Anderson might just be the most interesting man on earth, and the conversation we had on this episode of A New Angle is that sort that gives you hope in our society’s ability to solve seemingly intractable problems. After a long and varied career in both law and rock & roll, Joe returned to his native Montana and landed with Reflex Protect, the creators of a non-lethal self-defense spray. Their amazing product can both save lives and get people engaged in a conversation about safety and self-defense that they were previously unwilling to entertain.

Brigitta Miranda-Freer is the Executive Director of the Montana World Trade Center and the Director of Operations at MonTec. If you think that sounds like two jobs, well, you’re right. So we ask Brigitta how she does it all in this 3rd installment of the S.E.A. Change series. As a prominent leader in the Montana economy, Brigitta is known for getting things done. We talk about her experience leading two important organizations in the Montana economy and her perspective on gender equity in the workplace and on campus.

Peter Giannascoli grew up in New Jersey, studied economics at Princeton, worked in management consulting and then…went to film school. That’s right - film school. In this conversation we explore how Peter broke free of the traditional career path to pursue his dreams in the movie business. Now Co-President of Domestic Marketing for Paramount Pictures, Peter helps make movies come to life. He is also a passionate teacher and generously visits the University of Montana Entertainment Management Program each year to share his knowledge and experience with our students.

Eric Becker is an Emmy Award-winning director and documentary film maker. He is interested in social justice, conservation and human rights and tries to illuminate these issues by capturing emotional connection on film. He recently visited Missoula to show his beautiful, Return to Mount Kennedy, at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. The film tracks the sons of the famed climber Jim Whittaker and the late Senator Robert Kennedy as they recreate their fathers’ historic climb of Mt. Kennedy, a remote peak in the Yukon. Eric discusses the highs and lows of a career in film, where it has taken him, and how he views his responsibility as a story teller.

Scott Jurek is an ultramarathon legend and arguably one of the greatest runners of all time. Mired in semi-retirement from professional racing and late career stagnation, he set his sights on the Appalachian Trail speed record in 2015. Scott and his wife Jenny approached this project as relative novices and their collaborative narrative account, North, tells the amazing story of their 46-day, 2,189-mile AT adventure. The book is about so much more than running, and in this conversation we interrogate some of those larger topics – relationships, communication, loss, triumph and community. (Photo by Luis Escobar)

In this second installment of the S.E.A. Change series, we catch up with two amazing women in the Missoula community. Christine Littig is a serial entrepreneur in the restaurant space, having opened the Old Post, the Red Bird and Bernice’s Bakery. Morgan Slemberger is the Associate Director of the Blackstone Lauchpad at the University of Montana and the leader of the Pursue Your Passions program. Christine serves on the board of Pursue Your Passions and in this conversation we explain that program, what it’s trying to accomplish and how we should assess its success.

Brian Kahn is a Montana radio legend. As host of the long-running (23 years!) and award-winning “Home Ground Radio,” Brian has interviewed hundreds of influential Montanans, asking who they are, what they think and what they are doing about it. Today we flip the mic and ask Brian about his approach to storytelling, activism, collaboration and problem solving. We also discuss his new book, "America: Rediscovering my Country," which documents a 50-day trip across the United States aimed at exploring diversity along many dimensions. His inquisitive spirit and Montana roots teach us how community can be built and appreciated in the most, or least, diverse environments.

Marc Moss is the creator, producer and host of Tell Us Something, a live storytelling event that began in Missoula and is expanding across Montana. Marc is a master at telling stories and teaching others how to do the same. In this conversation, we discuss how Tell Us Something came to be, the five “beats” of a good story and the big plans Marc has for this amazing platform.