Cowboy Up Podcast Episodes

Jo Mora (1876-1947) was more than just multi-talented. A painter, sculptor, cartoonist and photographer, who settled in California, he also learned to speak Hopi and Navajo, wrote and illustrated children’s books, and published charts and maps. Peter Hiller, an expert on the life and times of Jo Mora, talks with Russell and Alan about the accomplishments of this “renaissance man of the West.”[...]

Two members of Western Writers of America, Bill Markley and Kellen Cutsforth, roll up their sleeves and dig into the truth behind some western legends. Co-authors of the upcoming book “Stand Off at High Noon: Another Battle over the Truth in the Mythic Wild West,” these two historians join Russell and Alan to dish about notorious figures and infamous events of the Old West.[...]

From college professor to award-winning singer and songwriter, that’s Carol Markstrom. Twice named Western Female Vocalist of the Year, Carol saddles up to the ranch, guitar in hand, to speak with Russell and Alan about her career path and many successes including her most recent album “Mile After Mile.”  [...]

It started six years ago in Willcox, AZ and has grown exponentially. Now screening over 60 films during the four-day weekend spectacular, the Wild Bunch Film Festival is a place for western film lovers to gather. Founder Rock Whitehead and childhood actress Dawn Lyn, who starred in the movie “Shootout” with Gregory Peck, join Russell and Alan to talk about this year’s fest highlights.[...]

Those eager to preserve the western way of life and cowboy culture come from all walks of life. This week, Russell and Alan speak with two Arizonans who make change through government channels. Kevin and Joe DeMenna saddle up to the ranch to talk about how they use their public relations and political consulting talents to get things done on the range and even the racetrack.  [...]

Cowboy Jim Liles began his 20-year career as a bareback rider around the age of 13. More than fifty years later, he can still recount stories of the many times those broncs broke his bones, including some bones more than once. And yet, bareback riding has remained his life’s passion, and the broncs have remained the horses he loves most. The founder of the Bareback Riding Hall of Fame and Museum, Jim joins Russell and Alan to talk about his rodeo adventures and his efforts to preserve cowboy culture.[...]

Why tell a tall tale when the truth is so crazy it’s barely believable? In this episode, Russell and Alan confirm that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. When you’re out on the range, on the back of  a horse, in the cockpit of an airplane, you’re living adventures guaranteed to be told around the campfire for decades to come. So, grab a seat, roast some marshmallows, and give a listen as two cowboys tell true tales from the range.[...]

When author and historian Lynn Downey learned about Frederick Loring, she instantly became fascinated. Loring was an up-and-coming author from the East Coast when he ventured west in 1871 at the age of twenty-three. Downey joins Russell and Alan to share her adventures retracing parts of Loring’s journey around the West and what she learned about the man and the beauty and brutality he encountered.    [...]

Kent Reeves packs a lot of interests and talent in his wheelhouse. Land conservation. Photography. Cowboy poetry. And he chats with Russell and Alan about it all from his home in California where he founded Rancher to Rancher (R2R), a network of ranchers and ecologists focused on environmentally sustainable land-management practices. What’s good for the land is good for the earth!  [...]

Shannon Baker lives on the edge of the Tucson desert with her “crazy Weimaraner and favorite human.” She also has lived in Flagstaff for a few years and spent 20 years in the Nebraska Sandhills, where cattle outnumber people by more than 50:1. She joins Russell and Alan to talk about her mystery series, some set in the desert, some in the Sandhills, and how her experiences play out on the page—with added embellishments, of course![...]