On Step Alaska

How does a student from Ketchikan High School measure up against students from the Lower 48? Pretty well. I talk with 2018 Ketchikan High School Valedictorian Largim Zhuta. As a senior Largim was part of the 2018 High School Academic Decathlon Division III National Championship team and just finished his freshman year at Santa Clara University. We talk academic transition, Alaska stereotypes, social media's impact on being homesick, learning from failure and starting to figure out the meaning of success.

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I've always liked reading and listening to hunters and anglers who tell stories with their audience, not their ego, in mind. A good hunting story is about a little bit of suffering, a little honesty and just the right embellishment. With blacktail deer season 11 days old, hunters have some great stories that I love hearing, and others with simple, chest thumping tales that tell you more about their need for validation than their skill as hunter. This happens a lot in podcasts and outdoor writing and I hope I don't fall into that.

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Opening Day in the alpine did not disappoint, but it didn't exactly go as planned for Fairbanks resident Steve Shannon and myself. We recap our hunt, but thanks to a lack of specifics and more closing thoughts, I recorded a preface which comes before the recap. In that preamble I talk about why doing hard things is step one for self-confidence and the hypothetical that acts as justification for choosing a 4-point over a forkie rarely happens (never for me) and if someone just wants to shoot 4-points, he or she should just say it.

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Steve Frith from The Heart of Hunting and I talk filming hunts, how to get started, the importance of a good eye rather than expensive gear and the importance of a solid, safe hunting program. Steve recently released the short film of Harrison Gottschling's Dall sheep hunt. Harrison told the story of his hunt on Episode 58 of this podcast.

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After fishing 7 rivers in 4 states over the last 15 days, Trout Fest 2019 is over and it's time to get into the alpine for blacktail bucks. In this short episode I talk about the importance of always having something to look forward to, and why it's impossible to say one is better than the other.

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My buddy Danny Lehr went from high school teacher and CrossFit gym owner to full-time business owner as co-founder of Caffeine and Kilos. We talk about some of the keys for individual and business growth, the importance of mindset and practice, as well as the need to grow as life changes otherwise one is doomed to stagnancy.

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Though we identify as hunters and anglers, we are hunting and fishing only a fraction of our lives. We have to make sure we take care of ourselves in the off season too. If we are lucky enough to be outdoors 100 days out of the year, that's less than a third of our annual days. What are we doing with the rest of our lives? And if we are totally at the mercy of success so we can tell other people how awesome we are as anglers or hunters, we run the risk of being too dependent on success for fulfillment. The better shape we are in emotionally and physically for our hunt or trip, the better the experience.

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In the last three weeks I've been able to camp on the banks of some excellent rivers in Wyoming and Colorado. I talk about my favorite trout flies, why catching "the fish" each river isn't always a good thing and why meeting locals makes the experience better.

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