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PODCAST

Awe, Nice!

Short interviews from people who work outside, about a moment of wonder they experienced. Wonder at Work.

society & culture wilderness

All Episodes

08:02

Beau Gaughran

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/07/31

Welcome to Awe Nice, that’s a-w-e-n-i-c-e, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, I interviewed Beau Gaughran of Berwick, Maine. Beau directed A Brutal, Beautiful Life, a short documentary about ranching for which I served as writer and producer. It’s done well at film festivals and is now online. Almost all of Beau’s work is outside, often in the backcountry. I’ve learned from him that you need athleticism as well as creative talent to excel at this kind of

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08:16

Kim Kerns

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/07/29

This week, I interviewed Kim Kerns. Kim is a fourth generation rancher in eastern Oregon. The country is remote. No Man’s Land. Services are distant, which is why her family and their neighbors banded together to organize a rural fire fighting entity, which you’ll hear about. I met Kim several months ago and we talked about dogs, mostly. Kim and her family have about a thousand sheep and hundreds of cows. They have eight guardian dogs, several stock dogs – those are mostly kelpies and border

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07:02

Sisto Hernandez

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/07/24

This week, I interviewed Sisto Hernandez. Sisto lives in Arizona and I met him at a training for range riders. Range riding is a successful strategy for deterring wolves from predating on cattle and Sisto was teaching, sharing his insights from work with the reintroduced Mexican wolves. A few notes on some things Sisto mentions: - Traps aren’t metal contraptions, they’re fenced off areas of between five to twenty acres, built for holding cattle. - Tapaderos are leather fittings, sometimes

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08:24

Sara Lowe

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/07/11

This week, I interviewed Sara Lowe. Sara lives in central Wyoming where she’s a livestock investigator and a detective for Fremont County. Fremont is about 9,200 square miles, about the size of Vermont and has about 40,000 residents. At a mental health forum last year, I got to hear Sara and a few other officers talk about the on-the-job stresses that bleed into their off hours. Sara’s moment of awe didn’t happen during her work, but because of her work. Because of her work, she’s spent years

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07:54

Summer Peterson

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/07/11

This week, I interviewed Summer Peterson. Summer lives in Colorado now, but up to recently she’s been in central Utah as a farmer, a horse vet, and a competitive rider. By competitive, I mean, really accomplished. She was for years a semi-professional three-day eventer. Three-day eventing is dressage, cross country, and showjumping. The sport was originally conceived as a test for cavalry horses and riders, to gauge bravery, endurance, discipline. Summer calls it the triathlon for horses and

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05:25

Mini-Awe-Polis 2

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/06/25

We all are capable of experiencing moments of wonder. They are not reserved solely for creative or religious people. Moments of awe cross the political spectrum. They cross the livelihood spectrum. Awe is a positive force that can be felt by everyone. Nonetheless, I carry a fair amount of skepticism around with me. It’s a journalistic thing. Like. I tend to think moments of awe actually happen with ho-hum regularity. It’s since we’re humans – distracted, in our heads, with dulled-down

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05:19

Mini-Awe-Polis 1

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/06/25

I developed AweNice with the notion that we all are capable of experiencing moments of wonder. They are not reserved solely for creative or religious people. Moments of awe cross the political spectrum. They cross the livelihood spectrum. Awe is a positive force that can be felt by everyone. This project specifically seeks out interviews with those who work outside and work with animals, people I feel aren’t heard from often and whose daily life is relatively quiet and disconnected. I should

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09:41

Andrew Clements

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/06/20

This week, I interviewed Andrew Clements, of Cortez, Colorado. Drew works for the state, but the program also does work for the US Forest Service in Wyoming, New Mexico, and Utah. Here, he shares an encounter with a grizzly bear in the Yellowstone National Park, while he was part of a team collecting forest health data near the confluence of the Thorofare and Yellowstone Rivers. Drew told me that a fair amount of logistical work goes into planning for his field season. He tends to hit locations

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08:45

Scotty Calhoun

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/06/20

Scotty Calhoun is a fourth generation horticulturalist, raised in Rochester, New York, now living in Cortez, Colorado. He talked with me about the knowledge he's gained from his forefathers. His great grandfather came over from Holland with seeds in his pockets. That man, then his son (Scott's grandfather), and Scott's father and, of course, Scott himself, all worked the farm in upstate New York. It's a business that still exists today, run by Scotty's uncle and cousin. Scotty continued his

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08:01

Ben Longwell

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/06/03

I interviewed Ben Longwell of Pendleton, Oregon. Ben grew up in Colorado, but has cowboyed all around the western US. For many years, he worked in New Zealand, where his wife, Natalie, was born and raised. Here, Ben shares a moment way up in the Big Horn mountains of northern Wyoming and southern Montana. The Big Horns are remote and wondrous, but also daunting, with their own weather and terrain. This particular moment unfolds along the Molly Crospey livestock trail, just east of Shell,

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08:46

Aidan Gaughran

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/06/02

Aidan Gaughran lives right here in Montezuma County, but for five years he worked in Panama. First, he was in the Peace Corps, then he returned to manage an eco-lodge. As a PCV, Aidan worked in the community environmental conservation sector on the Azuero Penisula and helped bring sustainable cook stoves to his community. He also helped develop a fruit orchard. While his moment of awe stemmed from a recreational outing, he told me that similar events have unfolded closer to where he worked, near

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07:12

Mike Ewing

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/05/04

This week, I interviewed Mike Ewing. While Mike doesn’t work outside all the time, he’s committed thousands of hours to service work on the Appalachian Trail, that’s the legendary 2200-mile route that runs through 14 states, from Georgia and Maine. About 300 of those trail miles are in Maine. I’m from Maine and, as a kid, I spent lots of time camping and hiking. The 8-, 10-, 12-year old me thought those were vacations, but they were actually us doing service work on sections of the Appalachian

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09:17

Nina Fuller

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/04/24

Nina Fuller lives in my native state of Maine where she raises a small flock of sheep on her farm in Hollis. I grew up in Harpswell which is about 60 miles up the coast. In fact, she mentions Harpswell in this segment. Nina also is an accomplished photographer. Check out her brilliant work here. Nina's is a true explorer and lifeling learner. Who gets into sheep farming in her 60's? Nina does. Oh, and, she also has a master's degree in counseling pschology. Farms and ranches vary in scale. My

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07:23

Chuck Haraway

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/04/13

For decades, Chuck Haraway worked as a Colorado lineman, mostly in the area west of Denver. The country there is mountainous and rugged. Ten thousand foot peaks abound. Much of the line work for him was in the backcountry, where lines were maintained by hiking to and then climbing up the 40-foot utility poles to service them. This segment actually has two stories I think you'll enjoy. It happens that our interviewee is an exceptional athlete. He’s competed in many triathlons, including the full

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07:52

Doug Wilkerson

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/03/27

I interviewed Doug Wilkerson. I met Doug at a ranch roping event and just thought he had a great way of connecting with his horse, and, of course, he’s a heckuva hand. Here he is to tell us a bit about himself, his livelihood, and a moment he’ll remember forever. Little unsuspecting moments of epiphany can end up being pivotal in our journeys, can’t they? It’s like they are waiting out there in the brush, ready for you if you’re ready for them. Doug and his wife Haley and their infant son came to

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06:55

Daniel Dauphin

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/03/27

I interviewed Daniel Dauphin, a Louisiana horseman and expert in bits and horse mouth anatomy. Here he is to tell us a bit about himself, his livelihood, and a moment he’ll remember forever. Maybe you can tell from Daniel’s voice, that he’s kind of a big Teddy Bear built guy. We are both writers and we joke often about word count. If I write a hundred words, I’ll try to get it down to half that. If Daniel writes a hundred words, count on it ultimately being, hmm, maybe a thousand. AweNice welcomes

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08:09

Dan Flitner

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/03/27

I interviewed Dan Flitner. Dan is a Wyoming native who now ranches in Oregon. Here he is to tell us a bit about himself, his livelihood, and a moment he’ll remember forever. There’s nothing like a big storm to reminds us of our smallness. Dan knows folks who’ve been hit by lightning. Some lived. Some did not. His dad’s buddy had his quarters and dimes melted right in his pocket. That happened to a friend of mine here in Montezuma County, too. Smells are pungent after a storm. Yes, there is the smell

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07:49

Caitlyn Taussig

Awe, Nice! ·

2025/03/27

I interviewed Caitlyn Taussig, a longtime rancher in northern Colorado and a talented singer-songwriter with a beautiful voice. Here she is to tell us a bit about herself, her livelihood, and a moment she’ll remember forever. Caitlyn and I worked together on a short documentary, A Brutal, Beautiful Life, about ranching women, their dogs, horses, and cows. I’m so grateful to Caitlyn and her mom, Vicki, for their participation, their generosity and insights. A Brutal, Beautiful Life is screening now

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38 results

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