Outlaw Beat
“Outlaw Beat: Stories from the West” scans the horizon for anything worth mentioning. Hosted by Joe Borden & Michelle Veale Borden
Superintendent Cam Sholly on Leaving Yellowstone National Park
Recorded live at the Wildlands Festival in Big Sky, Montana on July 31, 2026 — six weeks before Cam Sholly announced he was stepping down as superintendent of Yellowstone National Park after nearly eight years.
Watch full interview: ExploreBigSky.com/episodes/CamSholly
Outlaw Beat host Joe Borden sits down with Sholly, PERC CEO Brian Yablonski, and Outlaw Partners founder Eric Ladd to talk about an eight-year partnership between the world's first national park and a Bozeman conservation think tank: the new international visitor fee, Yellowstone's $1.5 billion maintenance backlog, employee housing, the 2022 fl...
Bobcat Big Show: We've Got Spirit | Keaton Gillogly, Brian Gilman, MSU Spirit squad and more
Joe Borden and Flint Rasmussen are live from the Rocking R Bar in Bozeman, previewing No. 3 Montana State vs. Cal Poly on Halloween.
Watch the show: ExploreBigSky.com/episodes/bbs205
Keaton Gillogly, the voice of the Bobcats and 2024 Montana Sportscaster of the Year, on the 38-33 win over Weber State, why this defense leads the Big Sky in every major category, how he preps 18 radio stations' worth of Montana listeners, and the Vin Scully rule about radio versus television. Plus Spirit Squad head coach Nicola Norris — a former Oa...
Bobcat Big Show Parents Weekend: Ken & Holly Eiden, Track Coach Lyle Weese, Matt Pierson, Austin O'Neill & Actor Philip Wincheste
Joe Borden and Flint Rasmussen are live from the Rocking R Bar on Main Street in Bozeman for Parent & Family Weekend, previewing No. 3 Montana State against No. 22 Weber State.
Ken and Holly Eiden — parents of 2025 national champion Kenny Eiden IV — on a father who won 14 games in four years and a son who won 14 in one, the night Kenny laid every recruiting hat on the kitchen table, never missing a single game from kindergarten through college, and what nobody understands about being a football parent.
Watch it here: Expl...
A Rabbi and a Pastor Walk into Big Sky Chapel
How do religions of all stripes share one sacred space in a Montana ski town? Outlaw Beat host Joe Borden sits down in the Big Sky Chapel with Pastor Miriam Schmidt of All Saints in Big Sky, a shared Lutheran-Episcopal parish, and Rabbi Sonja Keren Pilz of Congregation Beth Shalom in Bozeman.
Full interview: https://www.explorebigsky.com/episodes/bigskychapel
They cover the history of Big Sky Chapel and why it has no permanent cross, the weekly “set change” between various worship services, and what it takes to lead...
Ascend Movement Training | The Bozeman Gym for Posture, Pain, and Longevity
Ben Bese runs a Bozeman gym that doesn't behave like a gym. Ascend Movement Training blends powerlifting, mobility work and breathwork to help people get out of chronic pain and stay strong for life, and Ben is neither a personal trainer nor a physical therapist. He's somewhere in the middle, and he explains exactly where that line is.
Full interview: https://www.explorebigsky.com/episodes/ascend
In this episode: why cold plunging right after a strength workout may undo the work you just did, why you absolutely can...
The “A River Runs Through It Act” Explained: Rep. Ryan Zinke & Wild Montana's John Todd
Representative Ryan Zinke (MT-1) is leaving Congress in January. But before he goes, he's trying to pass a 430,000-acre public lands bill in the Blackfoot with an unbelievably broad coalition that includes loggers, environmentalists, motorcyclists, and outfitters.
Congressman Zinke and Executive Director of Wild Montana John Todd join Joe Borden to break down the A River Runs Through It Act: what's actually in it, what each side gave up, who's still going to fight it, and whether a bill 20 years in the making can clear Congress in four months.
Watch th...
Bobcat Big Show's Homecoming: Pete Heim, Dean Matt Caires, ASMSU | Live from the Rocking R
Joe Borden and Flint Rasmussen are live from the Rocking R Bar in Bozeman for Homecoming week, previewing Montana State's Big Sky opener against Northern Arizona.
Watch it here: https://www.explorebigsky.com/episodes/bbs203
Senior associate athletic director Pete Heim on coming to Bozeman from Alabama, Duke, Tennessee and Arkansas, how Brent Vigen compares to Nick Saban and Mike Krzyzewski, the completed Bobcat Stadium feasibility study, alcohol sales, and why he says Montana State is "a wanted entity" nationally.
Dean of students Matt...
Bobcat Big Show Pink Week: Rick & Brandon VanCleeve, MSU Women's Golf & EJ Daws | Live from the Rocking R
Joe Borden and Flint Rasmussen are live from the Rocking R Bar on Main Street in Bozeman, previewing Montana State's Pack the Place in Pink game against Central Connecticut State.
Watch it here: https://www.explorebigsky.com/episodes/bbs202
Rick VanCleeve, 1976 national champion and chairman of the Bobcat Quarterback Club, on what he got paid to win a title, why the club's mission statement is four words, and the 15-0 vote to keep it. Bobcat Collective president Brandon VanCleeve announces the collective is merging into the Quarterback Club...
Seth Bodnar (I) for U.S. Senate - MT | Public Lands, Chuck Schumer, and Making Politics Boring Again
Independent US Senate candidate Seth Bodnar joins Outlaw Beat to talk about the seat Steve Daines is leaving behind and doesn’t mince words about the way Daines is trying to hand it off… “It’s garbage.”
Bodnar is a West Point valedictorian, Rhodes and Truman scholar, former Green Beret, GE executive, and the former president of the University of Montana. He's running against Republican Kurt Alme, Democrat Alani Bankhead, and Libertarian Kyle Austin for an open Montana Senate seat — and he says he won't caucus with either party.
We get into pub...
Gold Rush Week on the Bobcat Big Show: Brent Vigen, the 1976 Champs & Mike Hope | Live from the Rocking R Bar
Joe Borden and Flint Rasmussen kick off the Bobcat Big Show live from the Rocking R Bar on Main Street in Bozeman, previewing Montana State's Gold Rush home opener against the Butler Bulldogs.
Head coach Brent Vigen on why his stars stayed, how he'd attack his own team, and a blunt message for fans who don't come back after halftime. Three members of the 1976 national championship team, Tom Powell, John Close and Bert Markovich, on Sonny Holland, the Hawaii trip, the team meeting after Fresno State that changed their season, and the parallels to...
Remembering Andrea Eastman (1940-2026)
A sad look back at a special conversation.
Our friend Andrea Eastman passed away August 26 and we wanted to remember her in her own distinctive words. Andrea was a legendary casting director (The Godfather, Love Story) and longtime Gallatin Valley local.
Health issues ultimately forced her to leave her beloved home in the Patterson Ranch area of Bozeman and return to sunny Southern California.
Enjoy this all-too-short chat with her from May 2023 and, if you’re so inclined, order her children's book (ba...
The “Roadless Rule” Repeal - Scott Christensen, Greater Yellowstone Coalition
The USDA has proposed repealing the 2001 Roadless Rule — the policy that's kept roads, logging and mining out of 45 million acres of national forest for 25 years. Nearly 10 million of those acres are in Montana and Wyoming.
The public comment period closes September 21, 2026. Thirty days. No public meetings. For comparison: the original rule took years, 600 public hearings and 1.6 million comments.
Greater Yellowstone Coalition Executive Director Scott Christensen joins us to explain what's actually in the proposal, what the government admits in its own filing, and what a public comment does when everyone as...
Lone Peak Film Festival 2026: Why This Big Sky Festival Flies Out Every Filmmaker | Daniel Glick & Dr. Shane Doyle
The second annual Lone Peak Film Festival hits the Waypoint Theater in Big Sky, Montana, September 17–20, 2026 — and this year it's four days instead of three, with 20 films and a teepee in the park.
Outlaw Beat sits down with Emmy-winning filmmaker and festival director Daniel Glick and Dr. Shane Doyle — Apsáalooke scholar, educator, singer, and new LPFF board member.
Daniel explains why Lone Peak flies out a filmmaker for every single film and refuses to stop. He gets into Bring Them Home, his Lily Gladstone–narrated documentary about returning wild buffalo t...
Taco & Caden Dowler on Montana State's National Title, the Transfer Portal, and “the Stick Incident”
Taco and Caden Dowler are twin brothers from Billings who became the faces of Montana State's first national championship in 41 years — Taco caught the title-tying touchdown in overtime, Caden won Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year.
They sat down with Outlaw Beat to break down the final fourth-down play snap by snap, explain why they turned down transfer portal money to stay in Montana, and settle a few things about growing up as each other's toughest competition.
Plus: the family bloodline that runs through the first Super Bowl, the Taco...
Jamie McLean & Willie McMillon on Wildlands 2026, the First-Ever Free Family Jam, and the Worst Gigs of their Lives
Two very different musicians, one festival weekend under Lone Peak. Jamie McLean — former guitarist for New Orleans' legendary Dirty Dozen Brass Band, with stages from Madison Square Garden to Japan's Fuji Rock — plays Wildlands Music Festival on Saturday, August 1 alongside Carrie Underwood and Kaitlin Butts, plus a free solo acoustic set at the first-ever Wildlands Family Jam that morning. Willie McMillon of Fader Magavin & the Risky Livers brings underground basement warehouse country from Jackson, Wyoming to Friday night's bill with Riley Green and LeAnn Rimes — and explains why his band keeps writing checks to a festival they're already losing...
The Guitar Fighting to Save a Forest - Rick Bass on the Yaak Valley’s Last Hope
Rick Bass — petroleum geologist turned Montana Project director — explains how a 315-year-old spruce, felled during a Forest Service clearcut in Montana's Yaak Valley, became the Black Ram Guitar.
Jeff Bridges heard it once and commissioned six more. Now it's touring with a busload of MFA students trying to get the Black Ram region of the Yaak designated as America's first Climate Refuge. We talk old-growth forests, grizzly habitat, the politics behind a proposed 800-acre clearcut, and whether a guitar can actually stop a chainsaw.
Watch the full interview: Explo...
Meteorologist Mike Heard - What’s in his Forecast after 38 Years in Local News
For 38 years, Mike Heard was the most trusted voice in southwest Montana weather — chief meteorologist for KBZK and KXLF, the forecast an entire region planned its week around. In June 2026, his position was eliminated in a statewide downsizing. He didn't see it coming: "0% chance," in his words.
Mike joins Outlaw Beat to talk about growing up in Butte, getting hired with zero TV experience, and why forecasting Bozeman is so hard (southwest Montana is a radar desert). We cover the super El Niño threatening this ski season, why there's been no snow on Chr...
Epilepsy Foundation & Making Montana Schools Seizure Safe
What does a seizure actually look like? What do you do when one happens in front of you? And why is Montana one of the states still without a law requiring teachers to know the answer to that question?
On this episode of Outlaw Beat, we sit down with Jessica Veach — Regional Executive Director of the Epilepsy Foundation covering Montana, Nevada, and Utah — and Dr. Karla Mora Rodriguez, neurologist with Billings Clinic, to talk about one of the most common neurological conditions most people know almost nothing about.
Nearly 11,000 Montanans are...
Ornithologist Jeff Marks: The Guy Who Wrote the Book on Montana Birds
Meet Jeff Marks, senior author of “Birds of Montana” - the first comprehensive state bird reference since 1921. Jeff is the executive director of the Montana Bird Advocacy, a former editor of The Auk, and has spent decades studying everything from Long-eared Owls to Bristle-thighed Curlews in the Pacific.
We met Jeff in Grant, Montana to talk about the best places to birdwatch in the state, the worst bird in Montana (his answer might surprise you), how birds can literally see Earth's magnetic field, the controversial ethics of using bird call playback apps like Merlin Bird...
Building Montana with SWMBIA - Bozeman Housing, Trades Training & the Future of Work
We’re talking home building and AI-proof trades for Gen Z with President of Southwest Montana Building Industry Association slash owner of Rivers Landscaping Riley Rivers and Career Outreach Coordinator for Bozeman and Gallatin High Schools Karl Schwartz, architect of the new Bozeman Construction Academy.
Riley breaks down the real inputs driving building costs in the Gallatin Valley: materials, labor, land, fuel, permit delays, government regulation, and the cost of holding land while projects wait for approval. Karl explains how the Construction Academy gives high school students hands-on trades experience, college credit through Gallatin Co...
YES Compost & Big Sky Resort Tax
Big Sky, Montana is technically unincorporated — no town council, no mayor — yet it generates $25 million a year in resort tax revenue and just became the most taxable community in the state. We sat down with Daniel Bierschwale, Executive Director of Big Sky Resort Area District (BSRAD), to break down how resort taxes work, what the new hospital district means for residents, and why Big Sky is essentially funding two teachers per school district across all 391 Montana school districts.
And while we’re talking dirty details, Karl Johnson, owner of YES Compost, joins to explain what v...
Big Sky’s Vet & New Headmaster
Residents of Big Sky, Montana have an increasing number of options and opportunities, and on this episode, we’ll feature a couple of great examples.
Dr. Syd Desmarais of Lone Peak Veterinary Hospital and Jeremy Harder, head of school at Big Sky Community School, join us to talk about what it actually takes to serve a resort town of pet owners with active, sporty kids.
We cover some serious ground here: pet acupuncture, why dental powders are a waste of money, what a brand new hybrid K-12 school actually looks li...
Big Sky PBR 2026: Elite Rodeo Food with Chefs Eduardo Garcia and Emily Hahn
Big Sky PBR, recently crowned 12-time event of the year, will ride again this July 16-18. And I hope you’re hungry, because the lineup of chefs is a murderers row: event organizer and Top Chef alum Emily Hahn, James Beard Award winner Eduardo Garcia, plus some of the most acclaimed chefs in the Mountain West and beyond: Sheldon Simeon (Top Chef, touring his second cookbook), Jamie Lynch (Top Chef), Josh Adams of Livingston’s Campione (James Beard nominee), and Jarrett Wrisley of Shan (James Beard nominee). Plus local skybox chefs Joel Gil of BRAZA and Kenan Anderson of P...
Congressional Candidate Aaron Flint on Public Lands and Affordability in Montana
Aaron Flint is a retired Army lieutenant colonel with two Bronze Stars, a former conservative talk radio host who spent a decade taking calls from Montanans for four hours a day, and the Republican frontrunner for Montana's open House seat in the western district. And even if he’s qualified, he’s not particularly excited about going to Washington.
We sat down with Flint in Bozeman to talk about why he's running anyway — and what he actually plans to do once he gets there. We covered public lands and whether he'll pick up where Ryan Z...
Ranchers Stewardship Alliance: Protecting Land, Wildlife, and a Dying Industry
On this episode, we head deep into Montana ranch country with the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance to figure out how an industry built on horses and grit is now running on GPS collars, data uploads, and conservation science. It’s part cowboy, part tech startup—and somehow still hanging on.
We get into the real pressures threatening ranching today: skyrocketing land prices, outside development, environmental shifts, and the uncomfortable reality that most ranchers are pushing 60. What happens when the people feeding the country start aging out?
At the same time, ranchers are...
2026 Wildfire Season Preview: What Montanans Need to Know
After the winter that wasn’t, we’re all wondering how extreme wildfire season will be this summer. On this episode, Outlaw Beat is joined by a fire behavior analyst who is qualified to give us answers to all our burning questions.
Jon Trapp is the Division Chief of Wildland Fire at Big Sky Fire Department and he is fresh off a regional planning meeting for western wildfires, so it’s a great time to find out what he knows so we’re all prepared for what’s in store.
Jon talks...
The Great Salt Lake Is Dying - Here's How to Save It
The Rocky Mountain area isn’t known for its lakes, but there’s one we’re all pretty proud of. It’s everyone’s favorite terminal saline lake: Utah’s Great Salt Lake that, sadly, is getting less and less great every year.
To find out why it’s shrinking, why that matters, and what we can do to turn things around, Outlaw Beat talks to lake expert Eric Edwards, senior fellow at PERC (the Property and Environment Research Center) and associate professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Davis.
Eric dispels...
Cody Dieruf Foundation - Supporting Montana’s Cystic Fibrosis Community
May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month, so it’s time to become aware of cystic fibrosis (and what it is) with Bozeman’s Cody Dieruf Foundation, named in honor of a 23 year old woman who passed away due to CF in 2005.
Outlaw Beat gets a crash course in CF thanks to Foundation Board President Janel Shamblin and Executive Director Pam Western. And with Give Big Gallatin Valley 2026 coming up in a couple weeks, there’s never been a better time to show your support.
Watch the full interview: Explor...
Konnor Ralph: Montana's Olympic Freestyle Skier on Milan 2026
The 2026 Winter Olympics had it all: triumph, heartache, filthy cheating Canadian curlers, and a delightful clean-cut 23 year old freestyle skier from Helena, Montana named Konnor Ralph.
Konnor joins Outlaw Beat to talk about his experiences in Milan where he did us proud by finishing 5th in Big Air and 9th in Slopestyle. He answers all your burning questions about the Olympic Village, getting mentally prepared to leap hundreds of feet in the air, and making the transition from terrain park rat at Great Divide to the largest stage in winter sports.
Big Sky Housing Crisis: Blue Ribbon Builders on the Fix
We’re talking about building Big Sky on this episode with help from a couple of locals who are doing the heavy lifting… JoDean Bing of Blue Ribbon Builders and Becky Brockie of Big Sky Community Housing Trust. Blue Ribbon Builders has been building well-known Big Sky infrastructure and homes since day one in the early 1970’s and the Housing Trust is doing important work to accommodate an increasingly large and precariously housed workforce.
We cover a lot of ground in this interview: Chet Huntley, geothermal activity, the “Good Deeds” and “Rent Local” programs, the first fax m...
MSU's 50th Annual Powwow: A Guide with the American Indian Council
To oversimplify, powwows are big, colorful Native dance competitions. And if you’ve never been to one, have we got a doozy for you…
Montana State University’s 50th annual powwow is coming up March 27th & 28th at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, and who better to preview the massive milestone event than the co-presidents of the student-led organization responsible for putting it together, the American Indian Council.
Titan Brockie and Michaiah Pease join us to chat about traditions old and new that they oversee while also providing a beginner’s guide to...
Umvelt Bozeman: Inside the New Sauna & Bathhouse
Strip down to your skivvies! We’re getting hot and cold with Bozeman’s new rejuvenation destination, Umvelt (pronounced OOHM-velt) Bathhouse, where owner Paul Byrne shows off the luxurious sauna/steam/soak experience he has created in a 1936 Frank Willson building just off Main Street.
Paul also helps us understand the history and health benefits of the ‘Slavic banya’ style spa and the way that ‘Umvelt’ delivers on its German definition: “the world as you experience it.”
Check out Umvelt at 22 South Grand Avenue (behind the Lark Hotel) or bu...
Bridger Ski Foundation's New Bozeman Home: The Base
For 90 years, the Bridger Ski Foundation has promoted, organized, and created opportunities for skiing as an activity in the Gallatin Valley. And up to this point, it has done so without a building to call a homebase. Just schlepping gear from van to storage closet to garage to ski-swap like Nordic nomads.
But that changes now. Board President Natalie Flowers and Board Member Peter Belschwender host Outlaw Beat at the worksite on Gold Ave that is soon to be BSF’s permanent home – “The Base” – to discuss the countless lives that have been touched and trails...
True West: Myth & Extremism in the West
We’re talking about what makes the American West different (for better and for worse) in this episode with help from local historian and author Dr. Betsy Gaines Quammen. Her latest book “True West: Myth & Mending on the Far Side of America” explores how myths of the American West fuel modern polarization, extremism, and conflict over land and identity.
Betsy’s area of expertise is extremism and land disputes in Western communities, so the conversation touches on Ruby Ridge and the Bundy family all the way to January 6 and beyond. You might be surprised by what w...
Heathers in Bozeman: BCT's Dark Musical
Bozeman Children’s Theatre is a machine that churns out 8 live productions a year, but their upcoming dark comedic musical “Heathers” both cuts deep and helps the wounds heal. Thanks to partnerships with Bozeman Health and Howlers Ridge, all the performances will feature a mental health-focused talkback immediately to follow.
Based on the 1988 movie and featuring a cast of high schoolers from across the Gallatin Valley, “Heathers” explores the complexities of teen relationships, identity, and peer pressure, all through the lens of dark comedy and 1980s pop-inspired music. Shows are at the Willson Friday Feb 27 at...
Mayor Joey Morrison on Bozeman Housing, Camping & Immigration
Joey Morrison was elected Mayor of Bozeman in November 2023 so naturally he was just sworn in last month. We talk to arguably the youngest mayor in city history about that unique systematic oddity. We also discuss another of his triumphs, the creation of a local tenants union, plus the hollow victory of banning urban camping, and the small-town challenges presented by federal efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.
Then we put him through his paces in a very realistic press conference.
Watch the full interview: hoarymarmot.net/e...
Story House Montana: Missoula's 47-Acre Film & TV Studio
We’re putting the “wood” in Hollywood this episode as Outlaw Beat visits a shuttered particle board factory that is the new home of Story House Montana, Missoula’s new 47-acre film and TV studio with deep-rooted connections to affordable housing efforts in the Rocky Mountains.
Co-founder/CEO Sean Higgins joins us to talk about the new endeavor and its potential creation of over 400 Montana jobs. We also delve into AI’s increasing impact on the entertainment industry, plus Netflix, Yellowstone, The Madison, and all the other thre...
Bozeman's Retired FBI Agent on Cartels, RICO & Roblox Dangers
On this episode, the interrogator becomes the interrogated as retired FBI Special Agent Dan Brunner stops by to let Outlaw Beat ask the questions here. Dan lives in Bozeman, but you might recognize him as a frequent guest expert on national news.
Dan draws on his 20 year career as a SWAT Tactical Operations Team Leader specializing in RICO cases involving skinheads and cartel gangs to discuss ground operations in Montana, satanic online groups lurking on Roblox, and a new local golf tournament to support the FBI Agent Association.
Watch the...
Williams Plumbing Bozeman: Trade School & the Blue-Collar Future
Williams Plumbing began in Bozeman as a one-man pipe-wrench operation in 1979 but it has grown into a 350 employee residential/commercial behemoth that’s one of the largest job creators in Montana plus a growing trade school training tomorrow’s blue collar professionals to work in an AI-proof field.
Williams’ Chief Business Officer Josh Montanye joins Outlaw Beat to discuss the origin and future of the Williams family of companies – Williams Plumbing, Williams Civil Contracting, and Williams Academy – along with the cutting edge technology, willingness to take risks, and sense of humor that helps them not only i...
Eagle Mount Bozeman: Therapeutic Recreation for All Ages
Outlaw Beat has emerged from the hibernation of focusing exclusively on Montana State Bobcat football and we are ready to learn all about Eagle Mount, Bozeman’s longtime nonprofit that provides therapeutic recreation for people with disabilities & young people with cancer.
We’re talking skiing, horseback riding, aquatics, climbing… flying planes? Yeah we’ll get to that one. Board President Christine Baker joins us from Eagle Mount’s campus in South Bozeman that has recently added some acreage.
It all started with therapeutic skiing, but these days they’re offering 2,000 experiences a...
