Lori Townsend, Alaska Public Media

The list of Alaskans with notable adventures is long, but Lowell Thomas Junior’s accomplishments are impressive by any standard. A former 12-year State Senator and Lieutenant Governor, an author, filmmaker and world traveler who visited the Dalai Lama and desert nomads, Thomas has logged more than 10,000 hours flying, much of it in a single-engine airplane with his wife. Tay. as his navigator. A new book co-authored with Lew Freedman chronicles Lowell Thomas Junior’s amazing life and is out now, just a few days before his 90th birthday. Lowell and Tay tell us with so many adventures, it’s tough to pick a highlight. Download Audio

An Alaska based non-profit that does international aid work is running a school for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Nate York is Executive Director of Solace International. He founded the small organization after the September 11th attacks and started building girls schools in Afghanistan. Now the non-profit works on a wide range of small projects in South and Central America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Download Audio

Athletes at East High in Anchorage highlighted some positive statistics about teens earlier today at the homecoming pep rally. Like the fact that 89 percent of Anchorage high school students don’t smoke. The campaign is called “Strength of our Youth.” The idea is to debunk the myths that “everyone” in high school is making bad choices. Download Audio

An Anchorage immigration attorney is a MacArthur Genius grant winner. Margaret Stock was named today along with 23 other recipients across the country. The honor comes with a $625,000 award over the next five years. Download Audio

In the summer of 1937 A Russian plane en route from Moscow to Fairbanks crashed in the Arctic. A headline that day in the Anchorage Daily Times blared- Soviet Fliers Stranded in Arctic; Distress Call Heard in Anchorage. The aircraft, and the 6 Russians on board have never been found. Efforts through the years to locate the plane have taken Alaskan pilot Ron Sheardown and Russian filmmakers and relatives of the crew to the Canadian Arctic and Alaska. Sheardown has been flying in the arctic for 60 years. He says they have reason to believe three Inupiaq hunters at Oliktok Point, northwest of Prudhoe bay, may have seen the plane go down on August 13th, 1937 in between Spy and Thesis Island. Download Audio

This year’s University of Alaska Anchorage Journalism department’s Atwood chair is a man who has covered Alaska stories in the past. A member of the Shoshone Bannock tribe of Idaho, Mark Trahant is the first Native journalist to hold the position. Trahant has been covering federal budget cuts, the Affordable Care Act and the impact of both on tribes. He says he wants to encourage more native people to become reporters. Download Audio

Minnesotan Bob Vollhaber has just accomplished what many Alaskans said wasn’t possible. He paddled a canoe, 5000 in 5 months, alone, through Alaska. He left the Washington coast in March and arrived in West Chester Lagoon in Anchorage on Sunday. Download Audio

The U.S Attorney's office announced indictments against four Anchorage men for drug conspiracy, kidnapping involving sexual torture and using firearms during the crimes. The indictment alleges the men conspired to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine as well as heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine. The men are also charged with organizing home invasions of other drug traffickers to obtain drugs.

The Inuit Circumpolar Council met in Kotzebue last week. It was the first meeting there since a general assembly in 1986. Members from Russia, Greenland and Canada joined their Alaskan counterparts to discuss ongoing concerns for indigenous people in the north. Listen Now