Indie Alaska

Donna-Flor Manalo and her family’s life transformed when they moved from Hawaii to Alaska--cultivating new passions and businesses. With Alaska's abundance of opportunities and Donna Flor's love for Hawaiian and Filipino culture, her and her family established Jeepney Filipino-Hawaiian Fusion Food.

It has been 8 years since Indie Alaska met with Kastle Sorensen, winner of Food Network's Cupcake Wars Season 9. We met with her again in 2022 and Kastle has lots of changes going on and new goodies to share...including lactation cookies!

Michael G. is a black, queer, nonbinary bartender in the tiny, historic town of McCarthy, Alaska. The town has less than 200 people during the busy summer months. Located in the heart of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, it's the last community to exist inside a U.S. national park. Michael's dealt with loneliness, microaggressions, and direct homophobic attacks, but has now grown to love the town.

Tank Hardrick recently became an internet sensation in an Alaska berry-picking Facebook group when his significant other snapped a meme-worthy photo of him picking blueberries. Indie Alaska features Hardrick's story of growing up in the racially divided South and his passion for foraging with his family in Alaska.

Since he was young, Ted Kim dedicated his life to skateboarding and making skateboarding movies - spending almost every day and night perfecting his craft. But at 25, a serious skateboarding injury left him feeling lost, and wondering if he would ever skate again. It was then he turned to art as a way of healing. From there, a new passion blossomed, inspiring him to work with murals.

When a massive, unexpected landslide blocked the only road to Lowell Point, Tom Miller knew his water taxi service was the only way to move residents, school children, and tourists back and forth to the nearby town of Seward. With roughly 6,640 miles of coastline, water taxis are a vital part of the transportation and infrastructure in Alaska. In this episode of Indie Alaska, we hear Tom's story.

Jonathon Sawden normally works in HR but sees the importance to tell the world that his people, the Sugpiaq (Sookh-pee-ahk), and other Native peoples are still here. Here, Jonathon and another young apprentice artist are working with a Master Kayak Builder to learn the techniques to build traditional boats and be the next generation to keep the craft and culture alive.

Bri “Snap1” Pritchard is a b-girl from Anchorage who has competed and won breaking competitions across the country. She dances with the crews, Flooristas and Elements of Rhythm, but she hopes to make it on the national team and represent Team USA at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. She’s doing all of this while balancing her career with the Alaska Army National Guard.

Carol Seppilu describes jogging with a tracheotomy as “trying to breathe through a straw while running.” She's even dealt with her trach freezing shut while running in the frigid winter temperatures in Nome, Alaska where she lives. She's learned to adapt to challenges like this since surviving a suicide attempt in 1999.

Peter Dunlap-Shohl was living his lifelong dream, as an editorial cartoonist for the Anchorage Daily News. But in 2002, when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, he asked himself What else would he be losing besides his craft as an artist? his identity?

Phillip Pryzmont hasn't been to a city in over 4 years. He spends his winters in Nome, Alaska cutting holes in the thick ice in the Norton Sound on the Bering Sea. Each of these holes contains a large crab pot that he regularly checks for Alaska Red King Crab to feed his family and sell to others.

Amelia Simeonoff has been working in traditional healing most of her adult life after taking mentorship with one of Alaska's most prominent Indigenous healers, Grandma Rita. Now she is using the practices of talking circles, drumming, and crafting to help Alaskans heal from trauma, and mental health challenges.

This episode was made possible in part by the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority.