People I Admire

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Adapting the work of mentors and masters

"What is your role in stewarding the Earth for the next seven generations?” Last fall in Vienna, I asked this of investor Felix Porsche. Descendant of the car inventor, this wonderful young leader is now helping drive sustainability in transportation.

“When you start to recognize the gifts from the landscape, you then begin to feel an inherent obligation to help share gifts back to the landscape," said Indigenous food sovereignty leader Mariah Gladstone, when we spoke as part of the Montana Free Press Fest.

Watching Nancy in action during the Master Gardeners Workshop at Christiansen's Nursery was a masterclass in facilitation and light-handed leadership for me.

I'm pulled off on the side of the road near the end of a road trip with my daughter to see friends in Blackfeet Country. Here's what I've been learning: Reciprocity is like a flow of giving, rather than a transaction.

Photographer Jason Thompson's perspective on our fall garden and yard chores, shot on spec for Patagonia.

Follow Graham Zimmerman’s journey from early luck and scary accidents to cutting-edge alpine climbs, from dating foibles to marriage, and from surveying for mining interests to leading climate activism through Protect Our Winters and the American Alpine Club.

Nate Powell-Palm has been working to advance organic ag for most of his life, starting with raising his first 4-H steer at age 9. This fall, he brought the US Undersecretary of Ag to Gallatin Valley for a field day.

"At Patagonia, we make our important decisions based on wanting to be here 100 years from now." Looking back on a story I wrote for Esquire about Chouinard in 2019.

“Corporations have so much power and influence," said Amy Fonte, Big Sky Resort's sustainability specialist. "How do you use that to make a positive impact?

I was already considering stepping away from deadline-driven writing and reporting. Talking to Kristen Rainey nudged me in that direction, helping me realize that to be the person I want to be, I need to sleep. A podcast interview on Northstar Unplugged.

In turns raw, bold, insightful, funny and fiercely loving, More is an important work that I hope will move the conversation forward about parenting, career, our individual and collective wellbeing, and the hidden ties between them all.

Iqra Fund builds sustainable school systems in northern Tribal Pakistan. A decade in, the nonprofit's founder and CEO needed a clear, simple and compelling visual to communicate both the org's model and her vision for long-term impact.

Lessons in vision and leadership from Kris Tompkins, who's protected 13 million acres (and counting). A profile I wrote for Mountain Outlaw in 2019, plus previously unpublished insights on the imperative of changing our agricultural system.

The process of bringing a purpose, vision, mission and set of values to life can be both messy and magical. If you get the chance, do this work in person.

As part of my ongoing study of regenerative food systems, I spent a day with my 6-year-old, Eloise, shadowing soil scientists Latrice Tatsey and Tony Hartshorn at Blackfeet Community College and on a nearby ranch.

People come from all over the country and the world to work at Big Sky Resort's restaurants, each in search of something a little different. And they wind up contributing far more than just their labor: new and diverse ideas, energy, and perspectives.

Dylan is one to watch. Better yet, partner with him and change the world.

“Every one of these farms is a business and a family and a community and an ecosystem. And it's so complex to look at all of those pieces, and it's so necessary. We're not just one giant industrial machine that produces food for the world.”

I helped Iqra Fund founder and CEO create a strategic planning workshop to lead her with her team in Pakistan. The outcome: The team created an entirely new program that has the potential to leverage Iqra's mission many times over.

Fuke mixes the Hawaiian culture of his youth and his military training to create family in the banquet kitchen. His is a story of incredible sacrifice, and of finding friendship and home in unlikely places.

If you’re a curious person with wide-ranging interests and a “jungle gym” of a career, Epstein’s phenomenal book Range is one you don’t want to miss.

Focus on how people are responding to problems, and not the problems themselves.

“Asset-Framing” is a simple, clear and imperative tool for empathetic communication in the 21st century. It is a practical strategy for productive conversation in any part of life.

I've been helping this wilderness guide-turned-therapist build the foundation of a business that melds her two passions.

My daughter's "caring for the Earth" list

Interviewing Chouinard, combined with the love of gardening and food I inherited from my parents, launched my exploration food and agricultural systems in Montana.