When Bea Burnham walked up to her house one day, she saw her husband of 30-plus years lying dead in the lawn. That stopped her world from spinning for a while, but she pulled herself up, fixed what needed to be fixed and got on with life, eventually outliving three more husbands. She worked hard and taught her daughters about women’s rights. She took care of her friends in their grief. She was buried in her fur coat and shaved her legs one swipe at a time, so that it was always in progress. After her dearth, her daughters come to a new understanding about a mom who carved her own way.

Clifford Marion was a jokester and a lover of card games and gambling. He was a force where he worked for a decade at the Town Pump. And then he got sick. At the end, surrounded by his family, it was his wife who had to make the decision about when to let go, a moment at the heart of this story.

Lauren Korn speaks with Kevin Asselin, the Executive Artistic Director of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. The two chat about the company’s 54th season, which begins June 10, 2026, in Bozeman, and includes sixty-four stops across five states: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, and North Dakota.

Wayne Boyes was the de facto mayor of the unincorporated town of Tarkio off Interstate 90, though he’d never want that title. He was too busy with his cows. Wayne was born in Tarkio, he married his neighbor, and he died on his land with a list of chores. His family picked up that list in his honor and because some chores just need to get done. It’s what Wayne would have wanted.Reported and narrated by Kathleen Shannon, alum of UM Journalism’s graduate program

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ for NPR’s “Climate Solutions Week,” in 2026 leaning into local lessons, the TWQ team returns to Lauren Korn’s conversation with ecologist Mark Easter, author of ‘The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos’ (Patagonia Books).