[00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's the We Are Chaffee podcast and I'm Adam Williams. Here we are again, another year deeper into this podcast and with more exciting things ahead of us. And because I don't want any of our guests to potentially get lost in the hubbub and hullabaloo of a holiday, I'm going to do what I've done in the past here and do what many of us do in our personal lives at this time of year. I'm going to look back a bit and then point forward, giving you a glimpse of what's ahead. I really enjoy when I get the chance to look back through who's been on this podcast. People have asked me from time to time which episode is my favorite, and I give probably what feels like a cop out kind of answer, but it's also the truth. My favorite episode on any given day usually is the one I most recently recorded. I seem to have a recency bias there, I admit, but it's a functional one in part, because even as the guy who is having all of these conversations with people, I lose track of where we've been, who I've talked with. I'm more or less always looking ahead to where we're going, and I want to make sure that the schedule keeps flowing. But that also makes a moment like this really fun for me when I occasionally pull up a bit and take some time to scroll back through the archive and see who it is that has shared their incredible stories and insights with all of us here.
[00:01:30] You know, I want to ask you, have you ever done that? Have you ever gone down through the We Are Chaffee podcast lineup, scrolled down, looked through the episodes, checked out? Who is there? Because if you haven't, or if you haven't in a while, I do encourage you to give it a go. It's easy to do on the podcast website. That's we are chavypod.com or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. By the way, if you don't follow the show on either of those platforms, in the words of Matthew McConaughey, it'd be cooler if you did.
[00:02:01] But I digress. There's a great chance that you will recognize a friend or a neighbor if you check out the archive or somebody else you know or you know of, and maybe somebody you've been curious about but have never had the chance to talk with them for yourself.
[00:02:15] I cannot tell you how many times I've been told by listeners. Oh, I've known so and so for many years. But when I listened to their episode. I still learned things about them. I love hearing that, and it's a great reason to dig into those episodes even when we think we know all there is to know. On the flip side, well, let me use this as an example. Several months ago, I posted a series of portraits of guests from the show on Instagram. Someone commented that they only recognized one of the maybe 20 or so people that were shown. He might not have realized this, but he was kind of making our point for us. This podcast is a great way to get to know each other in the community and to make connections that you otherwise might not.
[00:02:59] So if you scroll back through the archive and you see names and faces you don't know, then I encourage you to jump in and get to know them. We all live, work and play here. The water's warm, it's safe. Come on in.
[00:03:11] Back to my recency bias. I have to scroll back in the archive a bit each month when I put together the podcasts. Each email newsletter, which you can subscribe to on the website by the way, I scroll and I see. Where did I leave off for this last month's newsletter? Who have I talked with in the weeks since that I need to include now?
[00:03:30] As a listener to others podcasts, I don't catch every episode right away. Sometimes I have to go looking for what or who I've missed. That's why I also share these icymi the in case you missed it kinds of posts and stories on Instagram at wearechaffeepod. We all get busy. We miss things. But I want this to be like a no drop group run. Nobody gets left behind.
[00:03:57] Overall, for the past two and a half years of this podcast, I feel really good about the collection of folks who have been on the show. I feel excited about the prospects of who will be on the show in the future because we have an amazing collection of people in this community. If you've listened to very much of this podcast, or you've read the monthly newspaper column I write related to the podcast, then you know I gush about this from time to time. And that's because I think it's worth celebrating and repeating that we are part of something here.
[00:04:29] Maybe you've heard me say before that I grew up in a rural area in the heart of the Midwest, in a town similar in size to Salida, and I cannot say enough for those who need the reminder that Chaffee county is extraordinary. That's probably what drew most of us here, right? Or if you grew up here, it's what drew your parents or your grandparents.
[00:04:51] Sure, it's the mountains and the river and the valley that's what gets us. We love all that. But we could have a version of that in a lot of places, couldn't we?
[00:04:59] I think the people are a big part of things here too, at least for why we stay and keep being part of this community.
[00:05:08] I talked with more than 30 people on we Are Chaffee this past year. We evolved into being a weekly podcast starting in September.
[00:05:16] So keeping on with that, the ambition for the year ahead is to Talk with around 50 more folks from our community.
[00:05:22] I've talked with entrepreneurs and innovators, experts on mental health and affordable housing, authors and poets, visual artists and musicians, athletes and organizational leaders and all kinds of other individuals about all the things that make the human experience what it is and what makes our community what it is.
[00:05:43] There's a common thread of resilience that runs through many of these life stories that guests share here. And I'll say yet again, the personal is universal. We've all got that same courage and vulnerability and resilience in us to overcome and to thrive. We have those stories of our own and we relate to them in others.
[00:06:02] In looking back, we kicked off the year with Jed Selby of South Maine and Buena Vista and then Zach Baird, who was part of the metal band Korn for a decade and he had just come off tour with Beyonce when he and I sat down for the podcast. We had our first live audience podcast recording at the Salida Film Festival in May. I talked on stage at the Steam Plant with Emmy Award winning filmmaker Julie Speer Jackson. She directed and produced the We Are Chaffee documentary A Home in paradise, which by the way, you can download that documentary for free through wearechaffee.org two of the most popular episodes this past fall were with Reed McCullough of the Chaffee Housing Trust and Paul Andrews, the visionary behind the Crossing in bv. Both conversations included talk about affordable housing solutions in the Valley.
[00:06:50] A personal all time favorite for me was my conversation with Rama, Yeet of Rama's Bread. He's a shepherd and baker from Kurdistan with a big story that might inspire some heartache, but also joy and hope.
[00:07:03] I could go on, of course. We now have more than 70 episodes that include around 80 people in the podcast archive, but for now let's have a peek at who lies ahead.
[00:07:14] We are wrapping up 2024 with Matt Allen on the last day of the year. Matt is a dentist by trade, but he's become a tech entrepreneur focused on making healthcare more human.
[00:07:25] Interestingly, many years ago he was valedictorian of his high school class. But then he almost quit college after one semester to go all in on his band. They were gigging around LA and even played the famed, or maybe it's infamous, Viper Room. But lucky for us in Chaffee county, he didn't quit. That episode with Matt Allen comes out next week.
[00:07:48] Then we have Gina Lucrezzi. She'll kick off the New year. She's our first episode of 2025. She's a newly elected Chaffee County Commissioner. You probably know she also founded Trail Sisters, the largest women's trail running organization in the country, if not the world. Then onward we go with artist Krista Jarvis, who grew up in communist Czechoslovakia, where she witnessed the Velvet Revolution there as a child, and the division of her country into two nations as a young teenager. And then it's onward into the shiny New Year, where I'm sure there will be more evolution of the podcast and dozens more incredible guests sharing their stories and insights. A new episode comes out each Tuesday.
[00:08:29] We Are Chaffee keeps growing and connecting community through conversation. That's thanks to you and it's thanks to our community. So here's to the 2024 that was and the 2025 that will be. Thank you all for being here for it with me. As always, all of this
[email protected] we can connect on Instagram at WeAreChaffeepod. I'd love it if you follow the streams on Spotify and Apple podcasts. And if you want to reach me, email
[email protected] till the next episode. Happy Holidays, Happy New Year. And as we say it at We Are Chaffee, +Share stories, make change."
