On October 10th, one of the greatest big-mountain snowboarders of all time came to Western Colorado University for another installment of our Blister Speaker Series. But Jeremy isn’t simply one of the best to ever ride a board, by founding Protect Our Winters, Jeremy has had a massive impact on the broader snowsports world, and is working to address one of the biggest issues of our time: climate change. So we talked to Jeremy about filming, snowboarding, founding POW, the ‘outdoor state’; and more.
TOPICS & TIMES:
- When were you last in the Gunnison Valley? (3:56)
- Relevance today of Jeremy’s film, Purple Mountains (6:41)
- Size of the ‘Outdoor State’? (8:30)
- Starting Protect Our Winters (10:34)
- How has the mission of POW stayed the same or evolved? (16:55)
- The road not taken (20:39)
- Social media attacks (22:35)
- How much are you snowboarding these days? (24:50)
- Clarify POW’s position on Individual Behavior vs Policy & Voting (28:07)
- Will individual behavior ultimately move the needle? (32:59)
- Hilaree Nelson (36:58)
- Have you talked to a legislator who made you reconsider a position? (40:47)
- Pessimism and the Future (42:40)
- Scariest moment snowboarding? (46:07)
- How does POW decide which objectives to tackle? (49:05)
- Are you seeing funding coming in to support climate action? (50:16)
- How do you feel about ‘carbon neutrality’? (52:48)
- How to convince officials to care about climate action if they are funded by parties against it? (55:26)
- How were you thinking about climate while filming Art of Flight? (58:12)
- Climate Leadership: federal government vs small communities (1:00:18)
- Upcoming elections (1:01:55)
- What’s your favorite place to snowboard? (1:03:04)
- Jeremy’s new book The Art of Shralpinism: Lessons from the Mountains (1:04:06)
RELATED LINKS:
Great interview. Jeremy Jones is a gift to the snow and outdoor industry – and just humanity.
Interesting convo on policy vs individual action. One area (maybe) where POW could kind of promote both is on snow-pooling (ie, carpooling to the resort). There are two apps in CO that provide this – Caravan & TreadShare. Haven’t tried them yet. But better to see a monster truck with a POW sticker and 4-5 people pile out vs 5 individual cars! And BTW, save money on gas, save precious parking spots, non-partisan, etc. (And no affiliation with either app BTW).
Also, how bout CB & Gunnison’s representative Lauren Boebert? How many ski areas are in her district?!
@Jonathan Ellsworth: Refreshing to finally listen to a Blister podcast not purely biased in progressive political ideology (conservatives=bad, liberals=good) and more focused on an issue and how to solve it. If Blister truly wants to make a positive impact and sway opinions with more independent, common sense, free-thinking individuals who can help drive change, more open conversations like this that don’t strictly follow outdoorsy Democrat party-line talking points will go a long way. It would be great to hear more dialogue like this and consider differing viewpoints or play devil’s advocate during podcast conversations rather than consistently hosting them with individuals on only one side of the political spectrum telling people how to live or vote (i.e. “Rural Runners” podcast, previous “Reviewing the News” segments, etc)