Chris White, founder and builder of Yurts at Poncha Pass, grew up in Santa Fe, left to become a marine biologist and oceanographer who studied gray whales in British Columbia and bottlenose dolphins and wave energy in Peru, and has since moved to the mountains of Colorado to build an earthship and a sustainable community.

He talks about all that with Adam Williams in this conversation, as well as his becoming an EMT as a sophomore in high school. Chris has many years of experience on ambulances and as a firefighter, including wildland, and as a ski patroller. He and Adam also talk about time banking, a community-based economic concept that Chris uses at Yurts at Poncha Pass.

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We Are Chaffee's Looking Upstream podcast is a collaboration with Chaffee County (Colo.) Public Health and the Chaffee Housing Authority, and is supported by the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment's Office of Health Equity.

You can see show notes, read the show transcript, and learn more about the Looking Upstream podcast at wearechaffeepod.com and on Instagram @wearechaffeepod.

We Are Chaffee (wearechaffee.org) partners with KHEN radio (khen.org) in Salida, Colo., for local broadcasting of the Looking Upstream podcast.

Credits

Adam Williams, host, producer and photographer; Jon Pray, engineer and producer; Andrea Carlstrom, Director of Chaffee County Public Health and Environment; and Lisa Martin, We Are Chaffee Community Advocacy Coordinator.

Stacey Joslin is executive director of the Chaffee County affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Dr. Elizabeth Ruggiero is a systemic therapist. Both have extraordinary personal experiences that influence their insights on mental wellbeing.

They talk with Adam Williams about what’s missing in how we think about and experience therapy, and why it goes against the grain of conventional perspectives. They talk about stigmas and “normalcy.” And touch on neurodivergence and on the warrior spirit of masculinity. Among other things.

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We Are Chaffee's Looking Upstream podcast is a collaboration with Chaffee County (Colo.) Public Health and the Chaffee Housing Authority, and is supported by the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment's Office of Health Equity.

You can see show notes, read the show transcript, and learn more about the Looking Upstream podcast at wearechaffeepod.com and on Instagram @wearechaffeepod.

We Are Chaffee (wearechaffee.org) partners with KHEN radio (khen.org) in Salida, Colo., for local broadcasting of the Looking Upstream podcast.

Credits

Adam Williams, host, producer and photographer; Jon Pray, engineer and producer; Andrea Carlstrom, Director of Chaffee County Public Health and Environment; and Lisa Martin, We Are Chaffee Community Advocacy Coordinator.

Derek Scott talks with Adam Williams about skateboarding culture, history and music. They talk about the failure and perseverance that’s a necessary part of skating. And about how a kid growing up in Salida, Colo., with not a lot of skating terrain became a competition skater traveling and winning his way to a pro career.

They also talk about Derek’s dad, Michael, who died last November and was a huge part of Derek’s life and skating career. In recent years, Derek was integral to the building of a new skatepark in Salida and bringing a World Cup event to town, with the Heart of the Rockies Rampage.

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We Are Chaffee's Looking Upstream podcast is a collaboration with Chaffee County (Colo.) Public Health and the Chaffee Housing Authority, and is supported by the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment's Office of Health Equity.

You can see show notes, read the show transcript, and learn more about the Looking Upstream podcast at wearechaffeepod.com and on Instagram @wearechaffeepod.

We Are Chaffee (wearechaffee.org) partners with KHEN radio (khen.org) in Salida, Colo., for local broadcasting of the Looking Upstream podcast.

Credits

Adam Williams, host, producer and photographer; Jon Pray, engineer and producer; Andrea Carlstrom, Director of Chaffee County Public Health and Environment; and Lisa Martin, We Are Chaffee Community Advocacy Coordinator.