Search results for

For many Montanans, the Badger-Two Medicine is synonymous with one of the most significant grassroots conservation successes in recent decades. That story is about Blackfeet tribal traditionalists, political leaders, and conservation groups coming together to defeat oil and gas leases in one undeveloped expanse of wilderness in Montana. Now, the coalition faces thorny questions — what does long-term protection and management of the Badger look like, and who gets to decide?

It’s not surprising for Montanans to have plenty of political disagreements. What’s more uncommon? Neighbors whispering about each other at grocery stores and disrupting entire public meetings with passionate tirades. Welcome to the era of COVID-19, when debates about public health, personal liberties and science have reached a fever pitch. Those disagreements are tugging at tightly-knit towns and counties, making some residents wonder how their communities will survive in more ways than one.

Whitefish has a reputation as a charming ski destination in Montana’s northwest corner that welcomes wayward strays, whether that’s for a season or a lifetime. That attitude has helped grow small businesses and local watering holes, and keep friendly faces on the slopes and behind the bar. But in recent years, more and more people have been drawn to the good thing Whitefish has going on. Locals fear that surging popularity — and skyrocketing cost of living — could push out the very characters that make this place so special.

For decades, housing affordability has been a hot-button issue in Bozeman politics, a clear community pain point where the city’s elected leaders haven’t managed to deliver significant relief. As insider and outsider candidates campaigned for city offices in 2021, housing policy became the election’s key issue. The solution, some residents argued, was to elect working-class advocates to positions of power. Key to getting the job done, others countered, is experienced, incumbent leadership.

Join us for an encore broadcast of Sarah Aronson’s 2019 conversation with Missoula-based novelist Casey Charles, author of ‘The Monkey Cages.’

This week, we revisit Lauren’s conversation with Missoula-based author Deirdre “Dee” McNamer. The two talk about ‘Aviary,’ Dee’s novel based in an unnamed mountain town (a town a lot like Missoula) and a neglected retirement community, Pheasant Run.

TWQ host Lauren Korn spoke with Marina Richie about her memoir, ‘Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher,’ in June of this year, of 2022, before it won the 2022 National Outdoor Book Award in the “Journeys” category.

In June, Terry Tempest Williams visited Missoula, Montana, to take part in the 2022 “In the Footsteps of Norman Maclean” literary festival, which was held at the Wilma Theater. In the second of a two-part conversation, host Lauren Korn and and Terry, a beloved writer and activist, talk about the festival—but also about sisterhood and Terry’s preoccupations with fragment, fracture, and beauty.

In June, Terry Tempest Williams visited Missoula, Montana, to take part in the 2022 “In the Footsteps of Norman Maclean” literary festival, which was held at the Wilma Theater. In this conversation, host Lauren Korn and the beloved writer and activist talk about the festival and the discussions it provoked: on hope and engagement; on building communities of care; on how the overturning of Roe v. Wade speaks to broader issues of human and non-human relationships.

In this episode of ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Great Falls, Montana-based novelist Leigh Ann Ruggiero, author of ‘Unfollowers,’ a tale of religious angst, unrequited love, and the upheaval of racial and economic privilege.