Michael Livingston, reporter
When the weather gets cold and the snow gets in the way of my outdoors time, I look forward to Sunday afternoons at the Cheboygan Ice Rink Pavilion for open skating.
By no means am I a professional on the ice. As a kid, I couldn't get through lessons without those plastic slide boards. But since moving to northern Michigan I've learned winter hobbies are a necessity to kick cabin fever. So, with an adult's patience and some new motivation, I decided to give it another try.
I fell. Then I fell again. But I began to feel more comfortable and by the end of last season, I could make my way around the rink with some confidence.
As 2024 comes to an end, I'm proud to say I've put in about a dozen Sunday afternoons to learn a new skill. Give it a try in 2025! Meet me in Cheboygan on Sundays or look up open skate times at a rink near you!
Claire Keenan-Kurgan, reporter
My favorite movie of the year was Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers. It’s a fun, exciting watch about three particularly complicated and talented tennis players entangled in a love triangle, racing in and out of each others’ lives while also trying to compete at the highest level of the sport.
It delivers an ending perfect for spirited debate with your friends and family and it inspired me to hit the tennis courts behind the IPR studios in Interlochen all summer long.
You may have heard some of the movie’s signature techno soundtrack I snuck into IPR’s top-of-the-hour breaks. The movie is available on streaming platforms like Amazon and Apple TV and can bring some heat to these cold winter months.
Dan Wanschura, “Points North” host and executive producer
I’ve been a Kacey Musgraves fan for years, so I was excited when she dropped “Deeper Well” in 2024. The whole album is a great listen, but I’ve especially been drawn to her song “The Architect.” Here’s the opening verse:
Even something as small as an apple, It's simple and somehow complex.
Sweet and divine, the perfect design, Can I speak to the architect?
As a dad with small children, my stage of life tends to be cluttered – literally and figuratively. So, I need reminders to simply linger more. To take time to wonder and be awed by the simple, even mundane things I witness on a daily basis. To look beyond myself and behold and delight in that which is greater.
Does it happen by chance? Is it all happenstance? Do we have any say in this mess?
Is it too late to make some more space? Can I speak to the architect?
Here’s to making some more space in 2025!
Max Copeland, “All Things Considered” host and producer
I am sad the weeklong summertime film fest is over, but I have so loved the Traverse City Film Fest in its current form.
That’s in no small part because a recurring weekly event is a great way to build connections in a community. I haven’t gone to every movie, but every movie I’ve seen has stayed with me. Many have moved me deeply. And almost none of them would have crossed my path otherwise.
The Film Fest started this new model last year, making 2024 the first full year of the weekly yearlong festival. The State Theater hosted four 12-week seasons this year, with two screenings every Tuesday.
A season pass runs you $70 which works out to just under $6 a movie. Single tickets are $10. Either way, I hope to see you Tuesday night!
Ellie Katz, environment reporter
My favorite thing of 2024 was an afternoon spent on the Sinkhole Lakes in Pigeon River Country State Forest. We hiked our paddleboards down to one of the lakes (there are several clustered within a section of the State Forest) on a sunny Sunday in August, and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.
It was several blissful hours of jump in, dry off and repeat. The lakes themselves are small, but there are so many nooks and crannies to explore along the shoreline, and fun fish to watch dart into the deep blue water.
My favorites were the crazy cool microhabitats (is this a word?!) on old downed logs. Plus, there’s a stellar visitor center with tons of cool local history on your way in, to boot.
Tyler Thompson, “Morning Edition” host and reporter
It’s hard to get Alaska out of your blood. I realized that when my partner and I moved back to the Lower 48. The Outdoor Boys YouTube channel has been my comfort food for 2024.
The creator, “Luke,” is from Alaska and takes viewers camping with him all over the state. Some trips are more extreme than others, and some remind me of how I spent my years in the town of Dillingham.
In fact, Luke made a stop in Dillingham this year for a video where he combs the beaches of Bristol Bay, collecting beautiful glass Japanese fishing floats that drift across the Pacific. (Japanese fishers stopped using these in the 1970s.) We have the same floats hanging in our home.
Watching these videos scratches an itch that won’t go away and, for you, might provide a nice escape.
Izzy Ross, climate reporter
The Marrow Thieves is a young adult novel by author Cherie Dimaline, a member of the Georgian Bay Métis Council of the Métis Nation of Ontario.
In a dystopian near-future, places like the Great Lakes and their communities have been ravaged by climate change. Indigenous people alone have retained the ability to dream, and are hunted by non-Indigenous “recruiters” for their bone marrow, which can be used to treat dreamlessness and stave off its deadly consequences.
The book follows a Métis boy named French on a dangerous journey north alongside a group of companions. The characters that bring depth, warmth and dashes of humor to a tense, horrifying, beautiful story. Dimaline weaves a narrative of Indigenous families, community, language, genocide, survival and hope. As scholar Debbie Reese, an enrolled member of the Nambé Pueblo nation, writes for American Indians in Children's Literature: “It is about caring, about love, about how people can continue, and will continue.”
You can find The Marrow Thieves online or at your local library. There’s also a sequel.
Ed Ronco, news director
I’ve really become a fan of the BBC show “Escape to the Country.” Am I looking for property in the United Kingdom? No. Do I wish I were? Yes.
And in the last year or so, I’ve made a Sunday morning routine out of coming downstairs, making a pot of coffee and watching as some British couple tries to find the perfect countryside cottage.
Besides enjoying the names of the little towns (Giggleswick? Outstanding.) I love that there’s very little conflict — just nice people walking up on a thatched-roof cottage and saying “Oh, that’s lovely” before touring all of its nooks and crannies.
Streaming in the U.S. on Britbox.
Thank you for listening, supporting, offering feedback and being part of the IPR community. We'll be back in 2025 to tell you more stories from around northern Michigan.
Happy holidays, from all of us at Interlochen Public Radio.
