Arts & Culture

I first visited Glacier National Park in June. Though winter had only recently loosened its grip on the Crown of the Continent, there were blue skies and sunshine as I hiked up a high-elevation glacial basin. The temperature was a balmy 60 degrees.

Walking through the woods recently, I saw a red squirrel digging in the litter of the forest floor. I assumed it was burying a pine cone, but on closer inspection I found a piece of mushroom. Little did I know I was witnessing a process critical to the survival of a forest.

Empanadas. Panzerotto. Samosas. Knishes. According to The Food Guys, Jon and Greg, you can close your eyes, spin the globe, and wherever you land, there's another turnover. Chinese dumplings and jiaozi (pot stickers), Russian piroschki, Welsh pasties, Italian calzone, and American moonpies: whether it's savory or sweet, made with yeast dough or pastry dough, baked or fried, Greg recognizes its essential turnover-ness.

"Creating employment for musicians is one of my passions," says Erica von Kleist. In 2013, this New York City jazz player, arranger, composer, bandleader and teacher made a life-changing move to Whitefish, Montana. With a bang, Erica began creating opportunities for fellow musicians and music teachers, demonstrating first-hand how an artist can think like an entrepreneur.

On this week’s Can Do: Lessons from Savvy Montana Entrepreneurs, von Kleist lays out her vision for a "biodome" of employment for musicians, and makes the case for teaching young artists how to synchronize their creative and entrepreneurial grooves to build lasting careers. Learn more now from Erica von Kleist.

Renowned animal behaviorist Fred Provenza spent his academic career researching how animals respond to an intricately tuned system of flavor-feedback relationships at the cellular level—a nutritional wisdom that guides them to eat the appropriate combinations of foods to meet their dietary needs. But what about us? Do humans still possess the wisdom to select nourishing diets?

You won't catch The Food Guys, Jon and Greg, curbing their enthusiasm for "the lordly avocado," as Jon calls it. What other fruit's versatility, taste, and high fat qualifies it as a "super food?" They're amused but not surprised by its sudden hipness among throngs of Millennial avocado toast-eaters.

The Moth Mainstage is coming to Missoula April 4 for an evening of stories shared live at The Wilma. Five storytellers take the stage and share true, personal stories involving Occasional Magic. Stories of deception and redemption, sparkly interventions and divine introspections. Abracadabra, kismet and beyond.

Executive Producer Sarah Austin Jenness talks with MTPR's Michael Marsolek about the personal stories that make up the event.

The shocking death of a young woman leads Detective Dave Robicheaux into the dark corners of Hollywood, the mafia, and the backwoods of Louisiana in this gripping mystery from “modern master” (Publishers Weekly) James Lee Burke.

Bobcats are relatively common in patchy habitats all across the U.S., but we don’t see them often because they are crepuscular or nocturnal and well camouflaged. But after a recent bobcat sighting, I'll be on the lookout for bobcats much more than I have before.

The Food Guys, Greg Patent and Jon Jackson, discuss a 2013 New York Times article by Kenneth Chang titled "More Helpful Fatty Acids Found in Organic Milk." Chang writes: "Whole milk from organic dairies contains far more of some of the fatty acids that contribute to a healthy heart than conventional milk...Nonorganic cows that graze in pastures also produce milk with greater amounts of omega-3s."