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.

Debbie Cassidy talks with Adam Williams about generational family trauma that includes violence, tragedy and mental illness. There is great loss, grief and, in Debbie’s words, “a lot of bad decisions,” including drug addiction. But there also is a story of divine epiphany and a triumph of the spirit to overcome those obstacles. It's a remarkable hero's journey.

Adam talks with Debbie about having grace, resilience and empathy, despite the traumas and pitfalls. They also talk about the role of Deepak Chopra in Debbie’s life, first through one of his books and later with the man himself. 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.

Read McCulloch is executive director of the Chaffee Housing Trust. He talks with Adam about housing affordability, how we got this state of housing affordability crisis and deed-restricted housing vs. the community land trust model.

Read also addresses: Are the local building processes and policies we have in place what we need them to be? How do short-term rentals factor into the equation? What’s the impact of a moratorium on construction? 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.

Ryan Short co-founded CivicBrand with his wife Banner during shaky economic times and a pivotal family moment in 2008. He talks with Adam about making such bold and unconventional decisions.

They also talk about CivicBrand's pioneering work in city branding and placemaking, and the "locals first" approach that is about helping communities to become the best version of themselves. Among other things, like the values of travel, parenting teenage sons, fishing and getting people to fall in love with the outdoors.

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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 (and related storytelling initiatives) 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.

Tim Brown probably is most known for his tintype photography these days. But he also had many exciting years of globe-traveling as a rarely skilled kayaker-slash-adventure photographer. He talks about both with Adam. As well as his dive into the mid-19th century techniques of tintype photography after opportunities for adventure photography dried up with the rise of digital technologies.

Tim also shares profound insights on heartbreak and healing, and about his fine art tintype series "Broken."

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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 (and related storytelling initiatives) 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.

Ken Brandon seems to be a kind of philosophical Stoic, Buddhist, absurdist Spartan, who is known for riding a bicycle around Salida, Colo., while wearing a giraffe head and a three-piece suit. And yet he describes himself as "boring." Ken also is a designer, a painter and a screenwriter, and he's the creator of Box of Bubbles in Salida, Colo.

Adam talks with Ken about his “boring” approach to life and his appreciation of the surreal. They dabble in Dalí and da Vinci, Taosim and Dadaism. And talk about Ken’s astonishing collection of American idioms, which is 20+ years in the making. 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 (and related storytelling initiatives) 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.