The Obsessed Podcast: Recent Episodes
Logan Hyrkas
On this podcast we visit with folks obsessed with a wide array of interesting endeavors. We hear some awesome stories, and explore the mindsets and psychology of those who are obsessed. Hosted by Logan Hyrkas.
On this episode I give an update of how things are going out west and discuss some thoughts and a debate I have been having about the podcast and it's future. Let me know your thoughts! How would you handle this question?
On this episode I discuss the end of season 1. We also look back at some highlight moments on episodes since episode 89.
Jay Storm is the owner of Storm Insurance Services. He is also passionate about Hockey. He is the author of the book Chasing The NHL: From Pond Hockey To Pro The Trent Daavettila Story.
Check out the book: https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-NHL-Hockey-Trent-Daavettila/dp/0692952551
Jay's Insurance Website: https://shopmichiganinsurance.com/
Dr. Zackary Bowers is a college instructor teaching courses in neuroscience and psychology. He has a PhD in neuroscience from Central Michigan University. His bachelors is in psychology and biology from Saginaw Valley State University. He has extensive lab experience studying traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases.
Troy Ryynanen is an avid hunter, fisherman, and outdoorsman. The peak of his pursuits is archery mule deer hunting. He has had a ton of success archery hunting and it is a large part of his world.
Frank Honkala is a log truck owner operator in Upper Michigan. He is well known for having the cleanest trucks around. He has a long history in the world of trucking starting off with helping his dad during his trucking days when Frank was young. On top of log truck driving he has spent time in the western North Dakota oil fields trucking.
John Dee is a meteorologist that has had a longtime focus on on Upper Peninsula of Michigan weather, particularly snow. He was previously on the podcast on episode 39 where we got into his unbelievable story of how he became a meteorologist, overcoming childhood health concerns, and much more. On this episode we had a philosophical conversation for the first 35-40 minutes, then got into an array of topics including the father's day flood that happened in Houghton/Hancock in Michigan's UP.
Patrick Durkin is a hard working outdoor writer, editor, and columnist. He has a long history in the newspaper world, as editor of Deer and Deer Hunting Magazine, and many other outdoor writing pursuits. Currently he writes a regular column, writes for Meateater, and is an active voice in the outdoor world. Along with hunting, fishing, and outdoor pursuits, he enjoys running and has run many Marathons, including times at the Boston Marathon after qualifying for it twice.
Jack Zwart is the host of the Heartland Revival podcast. Check out this link below. He also writes and shares content on Twitter under the handle @rustbeldkid1. He has a unique journey into the world of trucking and manufacturing and his podcast and twitter explore the magic behind the Midwest, industry, trucking, manufacturing, etc... and celebrates all that these worlds encompass.
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6pxXSE4bPJQ5HHjEwKMyZM
Dr. Jane Summersett had an unbelievably interesting life in the world of ice dancing. She competed at a super high level before going to school to become a dentist. Currently she runs her practice in northern Michigan. She also enjoys fishing and hunting.
Gary Hupp is passionate about quite a few areas of life. We discussed an array of topics including his history in running machinery, working in the logging industry, and now helping with sales and deployment for Waldo Solutions, which describes themselves as "Intelligent Supply Chain Software For The Logging Industry". Gary is the type to get into different hobbies on an intense level and we explored where that comes from.
On today's episode I go over highlights since episode 74 and discuss release rates. Essentially breaking down some thought process shifts on internal deadlines and weighing that variable with family, health, real estate, etc...
Mark Halonen is a cofounder and the CTO of Steelhead Technologies. He has been involved with, created, or been engaged in several startup ventures. His area of passion revolves around the programming and technology side of business.
Josh Rheault, along with his wife, are the founders and owners of Frozen Squid Productions, a comedy production company in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Charlie Klassa is a passionate whitetail hunter. He hunts several different species and helps his own kids and other kids get into the world of hunting, but his personal favorite pursuit culminates with hunting mature whitetails in big woods in the Midwest.
Lance Kangas is the owner of Thrive Chiropractic and Wellness in Houghton, Michigan. Check out his website at https://thrivechiropracticandwellnesshoughton.com/. Lance's website describes: Here at Thrive we utilize the triad of health through adjustments, muscle testing, and soft tissue work for the physical aspect while using nutrition and custom labs to follow the biomarkers of the body for the chemical and mental aspects.
Nathan Ackerman is a cofounder of Chicken Tramper Ultralight Gear, a backpacking company that strives to create lightweight and durable backpacking gear. Check out their website at www.https://chickentrampergear.com/. Nathan is passionate about backpacking and spending time outside. Along with his business partner, Austin, they combined their engineering background and passion for backpacking and turned it into their business.
Charlie Kemppainen is passionate about basketball. He has been involved with the game of basketball for most of his life. Currently he coaches Calumet High School girls varsity basketball. He coached the Finlandia University men's basketball team for nine seasons and assisted with the Michigan Tech University's men's and women's programs. He also coached the varsity boys at Hancock Central High School prior to coaching at Finlandia University.
Jamie Pietila is passionate about food and feeding her family, specifically tasty and nourishing food as it relates to health and wellness. A few aspects of this is operating a minimal waste kitchen, utilizing nose to tail practices on animals, and homemade from scratch meals. Check out her page on Instagram @naturallynourishedhome.
Travis White is the owner of Keweenaw Charters, a Lake Superior trout and salmon charter service. He’s also a cofounder of ProNav Marine. Along with this he’s also an engineer.
Eric Ylitalo is passionate about hockey. He really enjoy playing, including playing in the historic world of Minnesota backyard hockey rinks. He played high school hockey in Minnesota and played for a short stint in the NAHL shortly after high school. After taking 3-4 years off he reentered the world of hockey and played for another 3 years in a combination of the ECHL, SPHL, and some time playing hockey overseas.
Brian Torola is a mechanical engineer. He’s another guy who doesn’t necessarily have an obsession, but is someone I’ve always appreciated. I wanted to bring him on mainly just to pick his brain. A few of the topics we discussed are his brief section hike on the Appalachian trail, people watching, studying social behavior, how much of what we do is rational or irrational, and more.
(Explicit) Seth Waters is the owner of the Dark Waters Fly Shop and Guide Service. Through happenstance he also became the pastor at his church. His fly-fishing videos on his YouTube channel, Dark Waters, are unbelievable.
Kyle Maki's growing passion involves the world of adventure, hiking, and mountain climbing. He just returned from a solo trip in Alaska's mountains, his second solo Alaska trip. He serves in the Army National Guard and works in the finance industry after graduating from Northern Michigan University.
(Explicit) Travis Kunze is a student in his masters program for Psychology. He intends to continue on for his doctorate in this field and working within the world of bringing awareness, reducing, and preventing human trafficking. Lucas Gindl is a month away from graduating from Chiropractic school. His initial school interest was in psychology. In this episode we have somewhat of a psychology round table, which mostly consisted of me picking these two intelligent guys brain's.
Troy Kinnunen is a student at Western Michigan's College of Aviation where he is pursuing a degree in Aviation Flight Science. He currently has his private pilot's license and is finishing up his instrument rating. As part of this degree, he will obtain his commercial pilots license. He also served in the Marines from 2014-2019.
On today's episode I reflect on the first year of the podcast. Also included are some snapshots and moments from each episode since the last time I did this.
Brent Halonen is a cofounder and head of A.I. at Steelhead Technologies, a software that is built for manufacturing job site optimization. Brent is also a founder and lead scientist at Laurium Labs.
Michael Steber was a basketball coach and middle school principle for many years. Prior to his role as principle he was a PE teacher. Currently he is working with Bridges Copper Country, a Portage Health Foundation initiative that will help the local community grow and prosper through personal growth.
Pam and Steve Hecht are super passionate rock, agate, gem, and mineral pickers and collectors. Their knowledge of this world is unreal. They are also the owners of Miners Cafe in Laurium, Michigan.
Stacy Bussiere is a driven fitness and health minded coach and teacher. She just finished, and is continuing, running at least one mile per day, every single day. She is a PE teacher, has history in personal training, and has completed many challenges throughout her fitness trajectory.
Dr. Patrick Flynn is a Chiropractor, and the founder of The Wellness Way, an international network of Health Restoration Clinics that think and act differently to solve individualized health challenges. He is an author, a few of his books are I Disagree: How These Two Words Are the Secret to Thinking Differently and Taking Control of Your Health, and The Hormone Connection.
Ricky Kilpela is a passionate hunter. A lot of his recent hunts have been out west. Incorporated into this world, another thing he is engaged in is horses. He owns a horse, Spitz. Together they have gone on many hunts, rides, and adventures.
Charley Heltunen is a school teacher in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He is also the owner of A-1 Toilets, a portable toilet company in Calumet, Michigan.
Clayton Sayen competes in cross country and track at Michigan Tech University. He holds records in the 1500 and 800 at MTU. Running has been a huge part of his world for a long time. We discuss the trajectory of that world, what that has been like for him, as well as the mental aspect of competing on a high level.
Ben Gray is a philosopher. He taught philosophy as a professor for around 15 years. His degrees are in psychology and philosopher and a masters degree in philosophy.
Dick Storm is a celebrated radio host, past radio show owner and news director. In December he will have been in broadcasting for 60 years. Currently he hosts the Eagle Country Hall Of Fame radio show on Saturday and Sunday mornings on 105.7 Eagle Country.
Jared Steiner is super passionate about Pool. To an immense level, this is something he is engaged in all of the time. He plays pool in different leagues and plays state tournaments in North Dakota.
Jacob Wheeling owns Little Missouri Archery in North Dakota with his business partner Andy. Jacob has been a passionate hunter and he has channeled that passion through the archery shop. Jacob also really gets after it with shed antler hunting.
Caden Kuntz is the owner of a few businesses. Ruckus Sweets & Treats is an ice cream and sweets business. Ruckus Services is a fencing business. He started and operates both of these in North Dakota.
Sue is passionate about traveling. She has visited several countries, and all 49 of the states in the US. Her goal is to visit all of the world's continents. Sue is also an auditor. She may not look at her job as "Fighting Crime Through Auditing", but our discussions around that world were fascinating.
Karla Raasio is highly engaged and passionate about Health and Wellness. Some major trials earlier in her life led her to realizing how important her overall health is. She has completed school with The Wellness Way, and assists others in pursuing a healthier life through their methods and practices.
Jordan Hillstrom was an Army Ranger. He is currently the vice president of business operations at Xeratec Software Development. Throughout his life he constantly found himself asking why, and challenging the status quo.
Ian Anderson is passionate about Fly Fishing. He is also a highly skilled videographer. He will combine these two to create some exciting fly fishing videos that take you on an adventure. His YouTube channel is Transitions Media. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ANDERSONFILMS.
Greta Hillstrom is the owner of Fancy Free, a popup curated resale store in Marquette Michigan. She opens her store for roughly one week per month and travels the rest of the month in search for the perfect items for the store. She is a talented musician and she has tied her passion for creativity, music, thrifting, and travel, all into the world of her store.
John Kramer is a pilot. He flew commercially for many years, he also flew bush planes in Alaska. John has also gone on loads of adventures and mission trips. A few on the wilder side were a 2,000 mile Yukon River boat trip in Alaska. Another was a 1,000 mile Mackenzie River float trip in Alaska. He has flown along with the racers in the Iditarod. He has seen a lot in his many years of flying, and we discuss many of these stories.
Nikki L'Esperance is a massage therapist and the owner of the Encompass Wellness Studio. She is opening up a massage school in Calumet Michigan to train aspiring therapists.
Jon French is passionate about hunting and the outdoors. He served in the Army National Guard. He helps out with the Wounded Warriors In Action Foundation. He founded and builds a product which helps visually impaired individuals shoot a rifle called the French-VISS (visually impaired sighting system). He also played hockey at Michigan Tech University.
Dr. Sean McBride is an anesthesiologist. He served for many years in the Navy in various roles. He has also gone on mission trips to help do good medicine in bad places. In conversing we discussed that one of his strengths is extreme delayed gratification.
Dr. Bryce Johnson is a chiropractor in Minnesota. He is passionate about golf. He is the Golf Biomechanics Specialist at Medina Country Club. His page on Instagram, @mngolfdoctor, is a fun and insightful page to follow for anyone who golfs or appreciates the game.
Bridget Durocher is a passionate and highly impressive ultra runner. She has run many ultra races in the 100-200 mile range. The first summer that she ran a 100 mile race she did four 100 mile races in the matter of four months. Initially she ran her first longer race (50K) because she needed 12 test subjects to complete her PhD study. The 12th runner had to back out last minute, so she ran the race to ensure she could have a legitimate research study.
Mark Korpi is the co-owner of the Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River. This is a fly in only fishing lodge, which focuses primarily on coho salmon. They also specialize in brown bear viewing and remote flyout fishing adventures. Check out their website at https://becharoflodgefishing.com/. Note: I called it the Kenai Peninsula, it is actually located on the Alaska Peninsula. The town of Egegik is set on Bristol Bay roughly 25 miles downriver from the fishing lodge.
Dr. Michael Nakkula is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School. He also taught for many years at Harvard University where he had received his doctorate degree. His work has had a large focus on possibility development in children and young adults, helping them envision and implement strategies to realize their dream future.
John Koski was the founder and long time owner of Aire Care, an HVAC and plumbing company in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He started the company when he was 26 years old, with one young child at home, and another on the way.
Luke Aho is passionate about sheep hunting. He is the owner of Red Mountain Gear, a company who created and sells a super lightweight tripod base and head that utilizes whatever style of leg you would like (such as trekking poles, tent poles, sticks, red mountain gear provided legs). They also sell a binocular adapter for the bottom of your trekking pole. Check out their website at https://www.redmtngear.com/.
On this episode I take a minute to reflect on the process of what I have learned from this podcast experience. Then I share a brief personal highlight from each episode to reflect some engaging, insightful, and fun moments that have happened. I also break down a temporary episode release rate change moving forward.
Mindy Schmidt is super passionate about archery. She got into archery after watching her kids shoot at her local bow shop roughly 6 years ago. Finally she opted to try it out. From the first shot she was hooked, and it has been a major part of her life ever since. We discuss her story about how she got into it, how she started competing, and some recent hurdles she had to overcome to continue in the archery world.
Dr. Stanley Vitton is a geotechnical engineer, civil engineer, and environmental engineer. He taught for many years and recently retired from Michigan Technological University. He is also passionate about glacial geomorphology, especially in relation to the western upper peninsula of Michigan.
(Explicit) Wyatt Behm is the lead vocalist and guitarist for the band Trophy Boy. Their new song, The Pain, is out on youtube, spotify, apple music, etc... He has been engaged and passionate in guitar and music since he was 12 years old.
Joseph Enrietti is 97 year old World War II veteran. He was a tailgunner on a B-24 Liberator Bomber. He grew up in the great depression and was drafted into the military at age 18. After the war he went on to work security for an upper Michigan mining company. After this he owned his own furniture store.
Aaron Persenaire is the captain of the Ranger III, a 165 foot long, 33 feet wide boat that navigates back and forth from Isle Royale to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This huge boat was designed specifically for this purpose.
John Dee is a meteorologist. He has focused on western Upper Michigan weather and snow for many years. His website, johndee.com, has winter snow data and much more. His youtube channel, John Dee's Snow Church, is another avenue of filling people in on our area forecasts and snow data.
Patrick Durkin is an outdoor writer and columnist. His work can be found in many newspapers and magazines. He was the editor of Deer and Deer Hunting Magazine and is a writer for Meateater. He is a Navy Veteran as well. Pat also has gotten into running. He started off light but now has run many marathons in recent years.
Michael Massie has been a life long fisherman. He fishes on Lake Superior as much as he can, trolling for Trout and Salmon.
Mike Rose is passionate about woodcock. He has been hunting woodcock in the Midwest for about 50 years. He also enjoys other hunts such as Pheasant hunting the Dakota's and quail hunting in Arizona. Locally he helps out with the American Woodcock Society, where they help with habitat improvement projects in our area.
Dirk Hembroff has been the Michigan Tech University Hockey broadcaster on Mix 93 WKMJ for 20 years. He also was the host of a radio morning show for many years.
Horses are a huge part of Nels Kilpela's world. Previously on the podcast I had chatted with Nels about his photography and hunting world. In this episode I had him back on to ask him all about Horses and the adventures he has been on.
Cody Rye is a passionate hunter and is pumped about Football. Cody was involved in a major car accident at a young age. At first he was paralyzed from the waist down. Through hard work and therapy he was able to obtain movement to below the knees. He eventually played football for the Ironwood Red Devils. He also has coached middle/high school football in Wisconsin. His story of perseverance and the power of a positive attitude is unbelievably inspiring.
Stan Myaskovskiy is the owner at Keweenaw Jiu Jitsu. He has been passionately engaged in Jiu Jitsu for the last 12 years and is a brown belt in 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu. He also is pumped about fishing for trout and helping others find joy through trout fishing.
Hans Isaacson is a super talented outdoor/nature photographer and videographer. His page, Outdoorpixs, features some awesome photography and video clips. It feels like you go on an adventure with each post.
Larry Lankton was a History professor at Michigan Tech University. He wrote and published several books on the history of The Lake Superior Copper Industry. He also taught classes in other areas of History, including the automobile.
Alexis Dahl is an energetic and engaging science communicator. Her youtube channel can be found at youtube.com/alexisdahl. She shares some awesome stories revolving around science and history.
Nora Anderson is super passionate about minimalizing non necessary material items from her life. She practices this professionally with a cleaning, organizing, and prioritizing business. Her other passion is personal finance.
Ted Mortberg is pumped on the outdoors. He enjoys camping, backpacking, hunting, and anything that allows him to challenge himself physically and to test him mentally.
Robert "Buzz" Johnson built his own boat. It has been roughly a 5 year process and the end result is amazing. He has owned and operated a construction company for most of his life which has been taken over by his sons.
Nick Gedda is the chief marketing officer for Pneuma Media LLC. His marketing approach is honest and engaging. He has helped Pneuma grow exponentially since he started.
Adam Rajala is a passionate upland bird hunter. This has taken him all over the western US and here in the midwest to hunt several different types of birds with his dogs. Adam is also an entrepreneur and business owner in many different ventures.
Bruce Anderson is a Nurse Practitioner. He grew up in his family logging business and in his older twenties decided to go to school for Nursing. He went on to become a Nurse Practitioner and he currently practices in that world.
Margaret Hanson is the owner and founder of Teach To Taste, a cooking school and a cottage bakery company where she teaches others to love and cherish food and food memories.
Matt Riutta is the music education teacher at Calumet Elementary School. He also teaches high school choir. Matt studied music education at Michigan State University. He spent time in their pep band and got to perform at some of MSU's national tournament games.
Jordan Anderson is an electrical and computer engineer. He was a Green Beret in the Army's special forces. He enjoys improving physically, mentally, and being efficient in many areas of life.
Austin Gongos hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. He is the cofounder of Chicken Tramper Ultralight Gear, a durable and lightweight backpacking company based out of Hancock, Michigan. Austin is passionate about ultrarunning, backpacking, and spreading that passion through his business. You can find the company, that he founded with Nathan Ackerman at https://chickentrampergear.com/
John Croze was a football coach at Calumet High School for 31 years. Still currently a high school mathematics teacher. He recently retired from coaching. As a head coach he helped build a hugely successful culture and winning mentality in the program.
Bugsy Sailor has watched and documented over 1,160 consecutive sunrises. Most of them in the UP and most of them over water. He is the owner of Upper Peninsula Supply Co. He is also a co-founder of the Fresh Coast Film Festival. He has been dubbed the Upper Peninsula Ambassador and has created 906 day and Plaidurday. His sunrise work can be found on his social media at @bugsysailor and the website
http://www.yearofthesunrise.com/
Nathan Perreault is an Assistant Professor of Management at Finlandia Univsersity. He is also a passionate powerlifter, or as he might say, powerbuilder.
Brett Massie is a pheasant guide in South Dakota and was a deckhand in the Pacific Ocean out of Sitka Alaska.
Danielle DeRosia is an attorney, with a focus on real estate and business transaction law. She also owns and operates a title company with her husband, Luke.
Derek Tormanen is passionate about hunting with hound dogs. He is also a super talented artist. His company, Outer Agenda Design Co. is where he fulfills his passion for drawing, which often times involves art around dogs.
Tony Oxley is a Crossfit coach at Crossfit Haakapeliitta. He has been passionately engaged in Crossfit for many years. Formally an engineer, he has transitioned out of that role into a full time Crossfit role.
Brita Haapala is a professional photographer. Her focus is on natural light photography. She captures some amazing portraits which can be found on her page, Brita Caroline Photography.
KC Krause lives with his wife, Beth, and their son in an off grid log cabin set on 40 acres in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. They are passionate about living on and utilizing the land around them while being as self sufficient as possible.
Tom Hyrkas is a pilot. He flys frequently out of his airstrip on his land. He has flown to Alaska in his plane, panned for gold, toured, and hunted in Alaska.
Nels Kilpela is a passionate wildlife photographer. His page, Untamed Imagery, is an unbelievable page to follow. He is an avid hunter which aids in his wildlife photography tremendously. Nels also captures amazing landscape photos.
Dieter is a former NHL Goalie, he coaches goalies on the collegiate level, he currently runs a taxidermist shop and is a passionate hunter.
Larry Kangas is obsessed with the outdoors. He worked at Isle Royale for many years in the park service, is an avid outdoorsman, and has been published in Fur-Fish-Game for several of his outdoor adventure articles.
Ross Kinnunen is an avid basketball player. He has been obsessed with Basketball since a young age. He plays basketball consistently and coaches a middle school boys basketball team in the local area.
Kevin Luke played basketball at Michigan Tech, then went on to be the Michigan Tech University men's head basketball coach for 27 years. He retired as the winningest coach amongst Tech's NCAA Division II sports.
Garrett Impola is an engineering student, spent time in the military, and a few years back rode a bicycle from the east coast to the West Coast of the United States.
Tom is a passionate Dog Sledder. We dive into how he got into dog sledding and the neat aspects of dog sledding.