Kristin Spack

Just like hanging lights, wrapping gifts and baking cookies, holiday programming on KSKA is a time honored tradition and it starts on Saturday Dec. 21, Winter Solstice. Look forward to all of your holiday favorites, including Winter Solstice Celebration, Tinsel Tales 1 and 2 with David Sedaris and Christmas with Spelman and Morehouse Glee Clubs. Here's the full holiday line-up:

Vice Chancellor for Administrative Service at University of Alaska Fairbanks, Pat Pitney was recorded speaking on ”Making the Golden Connection: An Olympian's Experience Carrying the Torch on the North Pole” at the Alaska World Affairs Council on December 13, 2013. Listen Now

Most places, bikes get put away in the fall, but Alaskans are using their bikes year round, including in places where only skis or snowshoes used to be able to go. We’ll talk about the many kinds of winter biking-- commuting, recreation and racing in town, and expeditions, including distances that boggle the mind. One of my guests biked to Nome and then to Fairbanks. Tune in to learn how we started biking in winter, and why. KSKA: Thursday, 12/19 at 2:00 and 9:00 pm Listen Now

80 percent of Anchorage's water supply comes from Eklutna Lake, which is fed by the Eklutna Glacier. Unlike other glaciers in Alaska, the melting of the Eklutna glacier is expected to continue regardless of climate conditions. So what does a shrinking Eklutna glacier mean for Anchorage residents who depend on it? Read More. KSKA: Tuesday 12/17 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm Listen Now

We all know those people. People who insist that life is a bowl full of cherries and that it rains dandelion kisses. People who practice gratitude despite great suffering and who choose charity and humility over self gain or glorification. Those among us who make us feel better when we are around them, who inspire us to be kinder, gentler, and more humane. On the next Line One, we will be exploring the connection between gratitude and positive thinking, and our physical and emotional health with Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Jennifer Beathe. CANCELLED

They say the most important piece of safety equipment outdoors is your brain, and that is particularly true with staying alive in avalanche country. We'll address the most dangerous backcountry hazard with an avalanche prediction expert and an educator who specializes in tuning up that safety gear inside your head. We’ll talk about how to recognize danger, how to prepare for winter travel in the backcountry, and when to stay home. KSKA: Thursday 12/12 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm Listen Now

Educate girls and you will change the world. This is the message of Girl Rising, a film that tells the stories of nine different girls around the world. Following a screening of Girl Rising, the Alaska World Affairs Council hosted a panel discussion on the power of educating girls with members of Anchorage's academic community and Brian Callahan from the Global Campaign for Education. KSKA: Tuesday 12/10 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm Listen Now

For the next Outdoor Explorer we’re in Fairbanks for a kind of adventure that is uniquely arctic and Fairbanks hard-core: long range expeditions by snow machine. We'll be joined by UAF scientist Matthew Sturm, whose studies of snow led to a career of traveling the breadth of North America on snowmachines with a team of very tough motorheads. We’ll learn about those trips, and how to prepare for motorized travel in some of the most remote spots on the globe. KSKA: Thursday 12/55 and 2:00 and 9:00 pm. Listen Now

Since it was published in 2012, The Snow Child by Alaska's own Eowyn Ivey from Chickaloon has been published in many different languages and nominated for the Pulitzer prize. Following a international book tour, Eowyn returned home and met with the Anchorage Friends of the Library. This week on Addressing Alaskans, listen to her talk about how books and libraries shaped her life as a writer. KSKA: Tuesday 12/3 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm Listen Now

Can early childhood adversity and stress determine the lifelong risk for mental and physical health? On the next Line One, Dr. Woodard and his guest Josh Arvidson of Anchorage Community Mental Health Services discuss the evidence for, and mechanisms of how, the environment from conception until about age 3 years can interact with biology to affect health over a lifetime. KSKA: Monday 12/2 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm Download Audio

Dr. Jay Butler of Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium was recorded speaking on "Health: Is It an Personal, Public or Social Issue?" at the Alaska World Affairs Council on November 22, 2013. Listen Now