Bostin Christopher hosts the conversation. Juneau Afternoon airs at 3:00 p.m. on KTOO and KAUK with a rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. Listen online or subscribe to the podcast at ktoo.org/juneauafternoon.
Dr. X̱’unei Lance Twitchell is welcomed home at the airport after his historic Emmy Award win for “Molly of Denali.” (Photo by Xáalnook Erin Tripp)
On Saturday, March 15, 2025, Dr. X̱’unei Lance Twitchell won an Emmy Award for his writing on the episode “Not a Mascot” for the PBS Kids show “Molly of Denali.” It’s the first Emmy for Twitchell and the children’s program after receiving Emmy nominations years prior for his writing on the first national children’s program to feature an Alaska Native child as a lead character.
Juneau Afternoon’s Rainy Day Conversations featured University of Alaska Southeast Professor and Emmy winner Dr. X̱’unei Lance Twitchell the day before the ceremony. This interview aired on KTOO on Friday, March 14.
In the hour-long conversation, Twitchell discusses his time working on “Molly of Denali,” the inspiration for the “Not a Mascot” episode, and how Indigenous storytelling is gaining traction in mainstream media.
Twitchell also discusses his work in language revitalization and decolonization, and he shares two poems from his recently released book, “G̱agaan X̱ʼusyee / Below the Foot of the Sun.”
Twitchell is Lingít, Haida, Yupʼik, and Sami. He is a professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, and he lives in Juneau with his wife and bilingual children. Twitchell is an author of poems, stories, and screenplays, as well as a filmmaker, musician, and Northwest Coast Artist. He has been a writer and cultural consultant for “Molly of Denali,” the Emmy-winning children’s show on PBS that features a female Alaska Native child as the lead character. His first book of poetry, “G̱agaan X̱ʼusyee / Below the Foot of the Sun,” is available from the University of Alaska Press and the University Press of Colorado.
You can find and follow Twitchell online via Facebook and find the references and resources for his language work at tlingitlanguage.com.
Bostin Christopher hosts the conversation. Juneau Afternoon airs Wednesday through Friday at 3:00 p.m. on KTOO and KAUK with a rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. Listen online or subscribe to the podcast at ktoo.org/juneauafternoon. You can view livestreams of the program on the KTOO YouTube Channel.
RAINY DAY OVERFLOW Occasionally, the broadcast lacks enough time to include the full conversation. We will soon post extended portions of the discussion with Dr. Twitchell. Subscribe to the podcast feeds below to be notified.
Bostin Christopher hosts the conversation. Juneau Afternoon airs at 3:00 p.m. on KTOO and KAUK with a rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. Listen online or subscribe to the podcast at ktoo.org/juneauafternoon.
Bostin Christopher hosts the conversation. Juneau Afternoon airs at 3:00 p.m. on KTOO and KAUK with a rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. Listen online or subscribe to the podcast at ktoo.org/juneauafternoon.
Bostin Christopher hosts the conversation. Juneau Afternoon airs at 3:00 p.m. on KTOO and KAUK and is rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. You can listen online or subscribe to the podcast at ktoo.org/juneauafternoon.
Why does one sketch on Saturday Night Live live on forever and the next flops? How do you turn a funny idea into a successful 3-5 minute comedy piece? And most importantly, how can sketch comedy writing improve any writer’s work, even across other genres?
Joanna Castle Miller discusses her background and experience in learning to write sketch comedy. She shares the benefits that sketch writing has brought to her work and why she is eager to share those teachings with Alaska writers via her virtual class with 49 Writers.
Joanna Castle Miller is a NY-based writer, performer, and satirist whose sketches have been featured by Time, Fortune, Funny or Die, WhoHaha, Comedy Cake, and performed at iO West, UCB, and Second City. For four years, she worked as a staff writer for beloved LA political sketch show Top Story Weekly and was a house sketch writer for iO West. Her sketches have been adapted into plays, musicals, and short stories, including The World’s Next Tooth Fairy and Fox News the Musical!
Bostin Christopher hosts the conversation. Juneau Afternoon airs at 3:00 p.m. on KTOO and KAUK with a rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. Listen online or subscribe to the podcast at ktoo.org/juneauafternoon.
