Northern Journal

Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has been in the news in recent weeks for her decisive vote on President Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill." She's also been featured prominently on national t…

This episode delves into a secret corner of Alaska's oil and gas industry — an obscure, complicated but important realm where there are billions of dollars at stake. Our two guests have written a new…

If you live in Alaska, you likely have some awareness of Captain James Cook — at least because his name is on one of Anchorage's largest hotels, along with the body of water just offshore of the city…

It's been a rough few years for Alaska's fishing industry. Oversupply, competition from farmed and Russian salmon, inflation and rising interest rates — all of these things have combined to put a rea…

We're excited to revive the Northern Journal podcast for its second season. Have ideas for guests and subjects? Email host Nat Herz at nat[at]northernjournal.com.

If you like what you hear, please con…

Anchorage's new mayor, Suzanne LaFrance, has pledged to fix what she describes as a broken city hall. 

The team that she's hired so far is a group of technocratic policy nerd all-stars, and their thre…

There may not be any subject as serious as the one the last episode of this podcast covered — the emotional issue of salmon bycatch. So, now it's time to balance out that seriousness with frivolousne…

If you listen to this podcast, you probably know about "bycatch," the accidental harvest of fish that aren't boats' target species. The issue — specifically, of salmon bycatch by Bering Sea whitefish…

For the past two years, we've been hearing about the impending shortage of the locally produced natural gas that we use to heat our homes and generate our electricity in Southcentral Alaska. But ther…

Last month, we heard outrage from conservation advocate Brad Meiklejohn and tribal leader Aaron Leggett; those two guests thought utilities' new proposed plans to fix the Anchorage-area Eklutna hydro…

Alaska regulators first said it was time for the Spurr platform, offshore from Anchorage in Cook Inlet, to be removed in 1992. Then, they backed down, and 30 years later, it remains in the water, whe…

This episode features Pete Chelkowski, one of the two directors of One with the Whale — a new documentary that features the story of Chris Apassingok, a Yup'ik whale hunter from St. Lawrence Island i…

Eklutna Lake is a jewel of Anchorage recreation. It's also the source of some of the electricity used by city residents. A major policymaking process has been underway for the past several years to a…

Brooke Woods is a longtime Yukon River salmon advocate. She is Koyukon Athabascan and a tribal member of the community of Rampart, which is on the Yukon in Interior Alaska, about 80 miles northwest o…

Researchers Paul Denholm and Marty Schwarz just published a new study that says urban Alaska could save a lot of money by using much more wind and solar power to generate its electricity. The interes…

Bathsheba Demuth is an environmental historian. Her book Floating Coast explored the Bering Strait region from both the Alaska and Russian sides. Now, she's writing a book about the Yukon River, and …