Cowboy Up Podcast Episodes

This year, we celebrate the 17th annual National Day of the Cowboy. Last year, we interviewed founder Bethany Braley, who is dedicated to preserving cowboy culture and heritage. Here’s the special reprise of our interview with her. Hats off to you, Bethany![...]

Russell and Alan continue exploring Tombstone, Arizona, where they chat with longtime resident Steve Goldstein, owner of Big Nose Kate’s Saloon. If you spend enough time in the town, you’ll most likely meet Goldstein, otherwise known as “Mr. Tombstone.”  So how did a guy from the Bronx find his way to this best-of-the-West setting? Bet you’ll never guess!  [...]

Actor and playwright Craig Hensley knows the West, old and new. Born and raised in Arizona, he was headed toward a career as a forest ranger when he heard the call of  “show biz.” Hensley has accumulated acting credits in film, television and theater from New York to Los Angeles and numerous locales in between. He also wrote and starred in the stage production, “Wyatt: Last Words.” Hensley speaks with Russell and Alan from historic Tombstone, AZ, where he lives with his wife Gina and Golden Retriever, Coosa.[...]

Many of us have heard about the Pony Express, founded in 1860. But did you know this “start-up” mail delivery service only operated for 18 months? Expert Jim DeFelice, author of “West Like Lightning,” joins Russell and Alan to sort through the fact and fiction associated with the legendary Pony Express. [True or False: Buffalo Bill Cody rode for the Pony Express. Listen for the answer!][...]

No cowboy is without a saddlebag or two of horse stories. And Russell and Alan are no exception. Joining in with his own share of tales about horses ridden and loved and wrecks survived is lifelong cowboy Mac Mackenny, who hails from Calgary in Alberta, Canada. If you want to hear some wild, western adventures that not even the best fiction writer could concoct, then give a listen, right here, right now.  [...]

You may know bestselling author Michael Punke from his blockbuster novel “The Revenant,” also an Academy award-winning film starring Leo DiCaprio. Well, Punke has picked up pen again and this time turned out “Ridgeline,” a riveting story set in 1866 Wyoming. He joins Russell and Alan to talk about the true events and characters behind this new novel already optioned for the silver screen.[...]

Carolyn Neithammer has been writing ethnobotanies, cookbooks, and biographies about the Southwest for her entire career. Her most recent book, “A Desert Feast,” explores how Tucson came to be honored as the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the U.S.. Caroline, Russell and Alan dig into the culinary heritage of the Sonoran Desert—and just what parts of the prickly pear cactus are edible.[...]

Artist Thom Ross has had a lifelong love of American history, storytelling and painting. Not surprisingly, his art focuses on the “folk hero,” like Billy the Kid, rather than on the mythical “folk hero,” like Paul Bunyan. Thom chats with Russell and Alan from Due West, his studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[...]

When he was sixteen years old, Mark Paul snuck into the Santa Ana racetrack and was smitten. Over decades, Paul traveled the world attending horse races and placing bets. But no bet was bigger and more dangerous than the one placed in Tijuana on the Derby. Paul joins Russell and Alan to share his Seabiscuit meets Narcos adventure.[...]

The West endures in the archives of museums and libraries. It also endures in novels and movies. Historian Stuart Rosebrook chats with Alan and Russell about some of the great writers and film makers, as well as the real characters and events, that inform us about the West then and now.  [...]