Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 69 "Last Best Stories Podcast" is a bona fide Montana original bringing together a diverse variety of voices to feature stories you couldn't tell in any other state: inspiring stories like "Madmen, Poets and Singers," which tells the story of David Poole, a Townsend na- tive paralyzed in a mountaineering accident who refuses to give up his love of exploring the backcountry — or his mobility. Intimate stories like "Blobs + Heartbreak" about a young man who didn't think he wanted to be a parent and considered running away before seeing his daughter's face and afterward knowing that he had found his purpose. My own favorite story is in the very first episode, "Grandpas + Grenades," which explores an eastern Montana wom- an's evolving sense of Westernness after she moves away for college and begins receiving letters about home from her wily Grandpa. Jule Banville teaches at the University of Montana School of Journalism and produces the show with the help of her students and other reporters. She started recording and releasing "Last Best Stories Podcast" in 2015, with the idea of telling "stories about Montanans, mostly by Montanans." With all respect to people who love or enjoy them, Banville says she "really doesn't want to put out to the world cliché cowboy stuff or boring reports.... We live in a place with so many people you really should hear! is is one place to hear them." Banville's favorite episode of "Last Best Stories Podcast" is episode 8, an ambitious piece of reporting entitled "e Plane Crash." Ask a local with a long enough memory about the crash, and, as Banville says, they're likely to reply "Oh yeah... that plane crash." But for many people, myself included, this was my introduction to the event. By Joseph Shelton M ONTANA'S HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS REALLY ARE PERFECT FOR PODCASTS. ousands of miles are coiled along our beautiful state's long and winding roads. Even with the radio on, and beautiful scenery to distract, our lonesome, dusty roads can stretch interminably into the distance. e right podcast can shorten them for you considerably. Trust me on this. I never drive anywhere, not even the grocery store, without one playing. WILLIAM CAMPBELL Metal debris still marks the area of the B-47 plane crash THE LAST BEST STORIES PODCAST CALLED "THE PLANE CRASH" TELLS THE STORY OF RECENT ATTEMPTS TO FIND AND MEMORIALIZE A 1962 ACCIDENT THAT CLAIMED FOUR LIVES ON EMIGRANT PEAK, IN THE PARADISE VALLEY. by JOSEPH SHELTON

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