About

Bonus Episode: Post-Mortem

My name is Madison Knutson and I am a bachelor’s student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and at Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University with an expected graduation in Spring 2025. I am also working on completing my minor in Spanish.

I grew up in Eagle River, Alaska, just 20 minutes north of the state’s biggest city. Journalism has been my goal since middle school after I decided creative writing wouldn’t be my “big break.” I’ve always been a storyteller though. I grew up surrounded by audio journalism thanks to my Dad, who would blast “All Things Considered” in the car after picking me up from school. I decided to pursue audio work when I joined a podcast nonprofit Alaska Teen Media in the Fall of 2021. That interest blossomed into an obsession that has brought me here.

This podcast stems from an interview I did in 2022 with Kyle Hopkins after the first “Alaska Daily” episodes came out. As an Alaskan resident and journalist, I am always interested in seeing how television and film media perceive me. Fast forward to 2024 when I began work on my thesis for Barrett, and I thought up this idea of analyzing meta-adaptations of Alaska and journalistic work.

I am proud to be able to share the months of work that has gone into this project and I sincerely hope that you learn a lot from this podcast, because I certainly did. While it can seem like living in one place for 18 years can make you an expert, this project has certainly proven me wrong. Many aspects of Alaska are incredibly beautiful like our numerous mountain ranges, animals and interesting dietary choices (I will never deny my love for reindeer sausage, sorry Rudolph!) However, as this podcast addresses there are still a lot of issues.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me on this journey including my thesis director Roddy Nikpour and second reader Celeste Sepessy. Thank you to my family and friends, especially my mom for always listening and encouraging my ideas.