Libsyn Directory

Cassidy Randall – The Untold Story of Denali’s First All-Women’s Ascent

Release Date: 05/08/2025

Jason Gardner Returns – Fire, Leadership, and What Really Matters

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Jason Gardner is a retired Navy SEAL who now works as a top-level leadership instructor with Echelon Front. Over his thirty-year career in the SEAL teams, he served in combat operations in Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, later becoming Command Master Chief of SEAL Team Five and Training Detachment. Since retiring from the Navy, Jason has worked with hundreds of organizations as a leadership instructor and strategic advisor, helping teams apply high-stakes leadership principles to business and life. He now lives in a remote corner of northeastern Washington with his wife, Iris, and their two...

Todd Ulizio – Farming, Attention, and a Life Well Rooted

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Todd Ulizio is the co-owner of Two Bear Farm, an organic vegetable farm in Whitefish, Montana, that’s quietly become a cornerstone of the Flathead Valley’s local food community. Alongside his wife Rebecca, Todd has spent nearly two decades growing food, building soil, and figuring out how to make a small, values-driven farm work in a world that doesn’t always make it easy. Todd’s path to farming was anything but direct. He grew up in Connecticut and followed a traditional educational and career path, eventually becoming an accountant at a prestigious Big 6 Firm. Experiencing success...

Sammy Matsaw Jr. – Salmon, Sovereignty, and the Long Work of Healing

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Sammy Matsaw Jr. is the Director of the Columbia Basin Program at The Nature Conservancy, where he works at the intersection of salmon recovery, tribal sovereignty, and large-scale river restoration across one of the most complex watersheds in North America. In this role, Sammy helps guide conservation strategies that span state lines, political boundaries, and cultural histories—while keeping people, relationships, and responsibility at the center of the work. Sammy grew up on the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation, surrounded by salmon stories, land-based learning, and a deep sense of...

Ed’s Appearance on “My Favorite Things”

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Today’s episode is a bit of a departure from the usual format. I’m re-sharing a recent conversation I had on my friend Brendan Leonard’s new podcast, . I’m sure most of y’all are already familiar with Brendan’s work, but for those of you who aren’t, he’s an author, illustrator, filmmaker, and creator of . Brendan’s new podcast is built around a simple but fascinating premise: conversations about the books, films, art, and creative works that have helped shape a person’s life and career. In this conversation, we spend less time on what I do, and more time on what’s...

Mike Schaedel - Restoring Balance to Fire-Adapted Landscapes

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Mike Schaedel is the Western Montana Forest Restoration Director for The Nature Conservancy, where he leads some of the most ambitious and collaborative forest restoration work happening anywhere in the West. Based in Missoula, Mike works at the intersection of science, community partnerships, and land stewardship—helping restore fire-adapted forests, reduce wildfire risk, and improve the health and resilience of landscapes across the region. Mike’s career path is super interesting and anything but traditional. He grew up in Portland, fell in love with the mountains through rock climbing,...

SHED SESH: September & October 2025 Book Recommendations

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

This month marks ten full years of my bimonthly book-recommendations project—a decade of weird little paragraphs about the books that grab my scattered attention. Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or signed up five minutes ago, thank you. I’m still baffled anyone reads these things, but I’m grateful all the same. To mark the occasion, I recorded a late-night solo episode from The Shed, diving deeper into each of my September & October picks: why I chose them, what stayed with me, and the sometimes-unexpected lessons I gleaned from each of them. Or you could just describe...

Devon O’Neil — On Nature’s Power and the Price of Adventure

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Devon O’Neil is a journalist, author, and longtime friend of mine whose new book "The Way Out: A True Story of Survival in the Heart of the Rockies" is one of the best pieces of outdoor nonfiction I’ve read in years. The book tells the harrowing true story of a backcountry ski trip near Leadville, Colorado, that turned tragic—and the years-long process of understanding what really happened, and how a mountain town wrestled with loss, resilience, and the complicated relationship we all have with risk and wild places. It’s gripping, deeply reported, and beautifully written—equal parts...

Carli Kierstead – Wyoming Forests and the Work of Keeping Water Flowing

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Carli Kierstead is the Forest Program Director for The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming, where she leads efforts to understand and restore some of the West’s most critical—and often overlooked—ecosystems. From beetle kill and wildfire to drought, Wyoming’s forests face a range of challenges that ripple far beyond the state’s borders. These high-country forests are the headwaters of several major river basins, providing water to millions of people across the American West. In this conversation, Carli and I dig into the past, present, and future of Western forests—how management...

Bex Frucht — Story Wrangler! Vibe Steward! One of a Kind!

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Bex Frucht is a force of nature—a storyteller and community builder whose work blends performance, land, and small-town life in the American West. Based in Livingston, Montana, she’s the founder of TMI Live, a storytelling series that celebrates vulnerability, humor, and human connection, and for the past three years, she’s been the “vibe steward” of the Old Salt Festival, where her talent for bringing people together has become legendary. Whether she’s hosting a show, coaching storytellers, or emceeing a fundraiser, Bex radiates generosity, intelligence, and positivity in a way...

Yvon Chouinard – The Perpetual Pursuit of Simplicity

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Yvon Chouinard needs no introduction. The founder of Patagonia, pioneer of clean climbing, co-founder of 1% for the Planet, and lifelong advocate for simplicity and wildness, he’s one of the world’s most influential environmental leaders. Now in his mid-80s, Yvon continues to live, work, and fish by the same principles that have guided him since his dirtbag climbing days: live simply, take responsibility for your impact, and keep finding meaning through deep, direct engagement with nature. His newest book, “Pheasant Tail Simplicity: Recipes and Techniques for Successful Fly Fishing,”...

More Episodes

Cassidy Randall is a journalist and author whose work explores the intersections of adventure, history, and the natural world. Her new book, “Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women’s Ascent of Denali,” tells the gripping true story of six women who, in 1970, became the first all-female team to summit North America’s tallest mountain. It's a meticulously researched, beautifully written account that brings long-overlooked voices to the forefront of mountaineering history.

As someone with a deep personal interest in Denali, I was especially excited to read this book and speak with Cassidy. In our conversation, we talk not only about the origins of “Thirty Below” and the individual women at the heart of the story, but also about Cassidy’s career as a journalist— how she got started, the path she’s carved through the world of longform storytelling, and how she approaches writing with such clarity, depth, and purpose. She also shares insights into her research process, the challenge of shaping complex narratives, and the broader importance of telling stories that have too often been overlooked or dismissed.

Whether or not you’ve ever set foot on a glacier, Thirty Below offers a deep dive into universal themes— resilience, purpose, and the human desire to explore. It’s a story about ambition and endurance, but also about complexity, contradiction, and the ways women have long carved space for themselves in places that often excluded them. Cassidy brings these histories to life with nuance and empathy, honoring the individuality of each woman while raising timeless questions about legacy, belonging, and what drives us to push beyond our limits.

Thanks to Cassidy for writing the book and for taking the time to chat. I hope you enjoy.

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Cassidy Randall
"Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women’s Ascent of Denali"
Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/cassidy-randall/

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TOPICS DISCUSSED:

2:06 – Intro, how did Cassidy get into Denali?
8:28 – Getting to know Grace
13:08 – Landscape of women in climbing
18:16 – Margaret and her journey with multiple sclerosis
22:39 – Why do people climb mountains?
25:38 – Grace at 88, any discontent?
28:08 – Ed on his experience climbing Denali
31:02 – The process of climbing
37:39 – Adventure for the sake of adventure
42:23 – Writing advice on structure
45:41 – Source change
47:07 – Book writing compared with magazine work
50:36 – Early creativity threads
53:28 – Shifts in the writing industry
55:24 – What is journalism’s role anymore?
1:00:17 – It’s alive! (The content we’re consuming.)
1:01:19 – Denali or McKinley?
1:04:37 – Writer recs
1:08:03 – Pro tips on being a writer
1:10:17 – Wrapping it up

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