Hello there, I'm Mary Brett. Thank you for being here.

Summer of 2022, I took my broken heart to Kodiak, Alaska to work in fish. 2 weeks in I got fired for being overqualified, 4,000 miles away from my home, a bus named Yonderlust back in Texas, and anyone I really knew. One Facebook post, an abandoned condo that needed remodeling work I could do (that happened to be directly across the lake from my previous employer), and a kind heart residing in the chest of an IT worker later,,, I ended up with a weekly radio show on 100.1 fm KMXT Kodiak, Alaska; the public radio station of The Emerald Isle. Not on my radar, at all, when I booked my flight to The Last Frontier. However the best things in life seldom are things we think up all on our own.

Shows 1-9 were recorded in the KMXT studios. Shows 10 and on have been recorded in the lower 48 (Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Arizona, and Oregon so far). Those Kodiak shows were recorded before I even really knew what this thing was going to be; for me or for us. I showed up day one and the old timer, a week away from retirement, basically out the door, opened up the production booth, showed me some buttons and knobs, and that was it. So the first handful of shows are a journey through me learning what to do while playing my music; recorded at a time I was deep in the middle of a hero's journey. I didn't play the songs over and over, nor did I prepare my banter before hand. I treated it as a live show as much as I could, in hopes of making it as organic as possible. Paired, also with, I just didn't know what the heck I was doing; with the show, or my life. These weekly visits to the KMXT station HQ, along with a rag tag cluster of friends I made on the island, really held me together at a time it would have been real easy to fall apart.

While catching SalmonFest on mainland and in preparation for a gig playing the Kodiak Women's Resource and Crisis Center fundraiser, it made sense to do some interviews. So that opened up the game in a big and unforeseen way. When summer's end came, it became clear that everything in Alaska fell apart, so that everything could fall into place. I wanted to see where this thing could go, so I simply and meekly asked if I could keep it. They said yes. So, when I returned to the lower 48, I just leaned into the grander opportunity the show was presenting itself to be. With my newly minted press credentials (and a little bit of money I managed to make getting a job waiting tables, which I quit 5 weeks later using a Todd Snider line), I attended AmericnaFest 2022 in Nashville. It's there where I did a run of interviews, now having an intention to really keep doing interviews. I then came back home to Texas, where I found some progress in learning how to edit, as well as got more comfortable with the format of the show; which leans more into a conversation than a straight interview sometimes. I've sense been conducting interviews with all sorts of doers along my travels in the lower 48.

I’m still not fully sure of what this project is to be, but I at least know I’ve got something here that you might want to hear. Something that deserves more opportunity for consumption than the one and done protocol of the fm radio dial. So here is the journey of me taking baby steps up a hill that turned out to be a mountain. I’m still not certain of the peak's distance from my current footing, but I know the direction. That’s more than half the battle. The other is to just keep blazing the trail up.

I'm sharing these shows in the same version and order they were aired on the radio, editing blunders and all, so you can hear them in their original format. I want to be transparent about the "wins" and the "losses" that have taken place over time; both for myself, so I can witness my growth; and to show those stuck in paralysis by analysis that you don't have to start with perfect; you just gotta start somewhere. This is just me, living and learning out loud. These abridged conversations are FCC/office/kid friendly and each show aired on 100.1fm KMXT. Soon, a podcast will exist that will house a more consistent sound (because I’m finally starting to understand what’s going on in regards to recording and editing...I think) and in their full length, but barely the full story.

The rest of the story is determined by what you do having heard yourself reflected back at you. That’s all inspiration is. That’s all loving any type of art is. That’s all respect for another person is, no matter how different. It's recognizing yourself in the perceived other, because connected we all are. So editing slip ups and first timer ball drops be damned, here is what I put out into the world all the while having no idea what in the world was going on or what was going to happen next.

Thank you for being here to witness yourself, my guests, and to witness me. I hope you love yourself and find gratitude for your journey, just a little bit more, after listening. At the very least, I hope it helps spark the light inside of you and a smile finds your face.

I'm Mary Brett. Thank you for being here.