2025 Project Award

Kaitlin Jade Armstrong is the team lead behind The Alaska Myth podcast. Other members include ward-winning audio storyteller Erisa Apantaku as the story editor, Alice Qannik Glenn, creator of the Coffee & Quaq podcast as the cultural advisor, and UAS graduate Patrick Cashman as the historical consultant. Their goal is to complete Season One (episodes 4 – 7) of the already award-winning podcast investigating how settler myths shape popular ideas about Alaska’s history and identity.

Listen to the introduction to the first episode of The Alaska Myth: The Problem with the Last Frontier. Through narration, archival sound, original recordings and carefully layered music, Armstrong lays out the project’s thesis. This sample reflects her approach to blending historical scholarship, cultural critique and intricate sound design. (2023)

Listen to an excerpt from Episode 1 of The Alaska Myth: The Problem with the Last Frontier. This segment combines an archival firsthand account from survivor Billy Jones in Tlingit with expert interviews, narration, music and an English-language voiceover to examine the 1882 military bombardment of Angoon. (2023)