Crude Conversations

2020 Throwback: EP 077 A life in the tattoo industry with Deb Yarian

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with tattoo artist Deb Yarian. Deb started tattooing in New York in 1979. Back when tattoo culture was reserved for outsiders, or what Deb calls “carnival people.” The tattoo culture then was predominately male, and women usually found their way into the culture through a man, because men were the gatekeepers. More recently, those barriers have been broken down, making the culture more equitable. Today, Deb and her husband Don own and operate Eagle River Tattoo.
Early in Deb’s career, her mom told her that she didn’t want Deb getting tattoos because she didn’t want people to judge her by the way she looked. Deb responded by saying, “If people are going to judge me by the way I look, then those aren’t the kind of people I want in my life.”
Deb says that the difference between tattooers today and tattooers in the past is that their journey is different. When Deb entered the scene, there was a lot of inequality and even violence. Deb has a history with domestic violence. One that she tries to talk about as openly and honestly as possible. She talks about those seedier origins of the tattoo culture, the sanctity of the tattoo shop and how people with tattoos need to be responsible for their actions if they don’t want to be mislabeled.

Chatter Marks EP 019 Protection and hope through illustration with Ted Kim

Illustrator Ted Kim is known for his unique art style, which includes complex and imaginative scenarios. These scenes have a tendency to depict hope and optimism. He says that this happened naturally—motivated, in part, after he got in the habit of watching documentaries that explored traumatic social issues and events of catastrophic, global failure. His art became his safety net, his method of inspiring self-preservation and hope. 
Recently, Ted has become more introspective about his life and his art. He’s learned that life may not play out exactly how we want it to, but—and this is something that he’s been saying a lot lately—everything happens for a reason.
Chatter Marks is a podcast of the Anchorage Museum, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Just search "Chatter Marks."

Outrun Your Demons Part 3

In third and find part of Outrun Your Demons, Ryan Earp roadtrips his way from Alaska to LA with hopes of pursuing his dream of becoming an actor, but some bad habits have plans of their own.
This episode originally came out in 2016, and Ryan has since turned his life around—he’s clean and sober, happy and recently married.

Outrun Your Demons Part 2

In Part 2 of Outrun Your Demons, Ryan Earp takes another stab at the road to L.A. This time, he brings his buddy Mike Caldarola along.
Back in Ft. Nelson, he reunites with some old friends and makes some new ones.
This episode originally came out in 2016, and Ryan has since turned his life around—he’s clean and sober, happy and recently married.

Outrun Your Demons Part 1

Before Crude Conversations existed, Alaska journalist Ammon Swenson produced a podcast called CrudeCast. It lasted for about four episodes, and among those episodes was a three part series called Outrun Your Demons. In it, Ammon tells a story many of us can identify with. It involves our friend Ryan Earp—a guy with a heart of gold, but at the time had a tendency to get in his own way.
This episode originally came out in 2015, and Ryan has since turned his life around—he’s clean and sober, happy and recently married.

Chatter Marks EP 018 Rethinking art in the Circumpolar North with Charis Gullickson

Charis Gullickson is the Curator and Public Sector PHD Student in Art History at the Arctic University of Norway. Charis has a mantra, and that is: museums are not neutral. They’re institutions of culture and agents of change. This is a relatively new concept because, historically, museums have been repositories of antiquities, often displaying artifacts with problematic pasts. This is an issue because without knowing its past, we may revere certain pieces of art and ignore their origins, which could result in perpetuating problematic ideas. So, a lot of Charis’ work is focused on contextualizing classic art so that it can be used as a tool for change.
Chatter Marks is a podcast of the Anchorage Museum, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Just search "Chatter Marks."

EP 091 King of the Hill Part 4 with Nick Perata, the director and event promoter

In this one, Cody talks with Nick Perata about creating and working at King of the Hill, a legendary snowboard competition held in Thompson Pass back in the 1990s. Perata talks about what it was like being the director and event promoter and how the event came to be. Before King of the Hill, he was a professional snowboarder, pushing the nascent sport into new areas of discipline and filming for the most progressive videos of the ‘90s. He was one of the best snowboarders in the world back when the professionals weren’t considered traditional athletes. They were often dirtbags and drifters with an attraction to rowdy groups and the outdoors.
Perata says that the rate of progression in sports moves quickly, so most athletes have about seven or eight years to be at the top of their game. After that time is up, the next generation of riders are on a higher level of progression. So, to continue his presence in the snowboard industry, Perata made a transition from being a professional snowboarder to an event promoter. It was a move that spawned King of the Hill and also set him down a path that would forever include Alaska.

EP 090 The artistry of snowboarding with Pika Burtner

I this episode of GLOSS, or the Gorgeous Ladies of Shred and Ski—an ongoing series between Crude and Blower Media—I talk with Christina Burtner, better known as Pika, a long-time artist, photographer and graphic designer in the snowboard industry.
Pika grew up watching and studying snowboard videos with the technical eye of an auteur. At 14, she started renting snowboard videos from Fairhaven Bike and Ski in Bellingham, Washington. She would always rewind the videos and return them on time. Fairhaven eventually offered her a job, which is where she worked until she went to college. At 18, she got a photography job at the University of Washington. It came with all the traditional benefits, including a steady paycheck, a 401k and healthcare. Because of that job, Pika—alongside her husband Jesse Burtner and Sean Genovese—was able to help create and fund Think Thank, a snowboard video production company. Think Thank would go on to create a category of snowboarding that focused on riding urban environments rather than backcountry ones. Pika describes Think Thank as an ongoing piece of art.
In 2014, Pika and Jesse had their son Ollie. At that moment, Pika says that she went from working on Think Thank to being a mother. It was a transition that caught her by surprise. So, in response, she began pursuing things she’s always been interested in. She says that as you get older, you feel like there’s less room for error, but that it’s also important to not be afraid to fail.

EP 089 Inspiring you to be better with Preston Pollard

In this one, Cody talks with motivational speaker and celebrity interviewer Preston Pollard. Preston grew up skateboarding in Anchorage, Alaska, and aided by the unwavering optimism he learned from family and loved ones, he pursued it in the same way he pursues everything in his life—with curiosity and passion. Talk to him and he’ll tell you that he’s not great at a lot of things—including skateboarding—but the one thing he is really great at is being himself. He’s tenacious, optimistic and devout. And he has a talent for connecting with people and motivating them to be better. He says that everything he’s doing right now, he envisioned it. He thought about where he wanted to be, prayed about it and doggedly pursued it. And in that pursuit, his dreams became a reality. He says that, “Once you stay true to who you are… everything starts to open up.”
Preston is on a lifelong journey of inspiration, knowledge and understanding. He reads constantly. In fact, among the many people he considers to be his mentors are both living and deceased authors, entrepreneurs and faith leaders. To understand his motivation and faith, all you have to do is look on his bookshelf. He says that these people opened up the world to him, they taught him that there’s more to life than the insulated worlds we generally create for ourselves.

2019 Throwback: EP 038 Telling the truth about her people and other Alaska Natives, with Alice Glenn of Coffee & Quaq

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with Alice Glenn, the host of Coffee & Quaq, a podcast that explores Native life in urban Alaska. If you live in Alaska, then you're aware of racism toward Alaska Native people. It can be casual or it can be abrasive. Either way, it's detrimental to an entire group of people who have lived in Alaska for thousands of years. Long before the Russians or the Europeans came here. And therein lies the heart of this conversation. Not racism specifically, but the effects of colonization to every facet of Alaska Native life. From culture to religion to how local media tends to highlight Native communities by their disparities, which in turn, continues an ongoing narrative about how Alaska Native people can't take care of themselves. This is why Alice started Coffee & Quaq, because she wants to tell the truth about her people and other Alaska Natives. That they're strong, proud and resilient.