Chandra Brown - Fostering Creativity Through River Adventures

Chandra Brown is an educator, writer, and river guide who has worked on the West’s most iconic rivers, including many seasons below the rim of the Grand Canyon. She’s also the founder of the Freeflow Institute, a unique Montana-based program that offers multi-day river trips for writers and creatives that combine immersion in the natural world with instruction from some of the West’s most well-known, prolific outdoor writers. By combining creativity with adventure in some of the West’s most spectacular landscapes, Freeflow helps to "eliminate the barrier between artist and environment," resulting in creative inspiration and an increased desire to preserve our wild places. Growing up in Alaska, Chandra has always had close connections to the land and life in the outdoors. It was during a family trip to Montana during high school that she fell in love with rivers; since then, rivers have played a foundational role in both her personal and professional lives. She attended college in Bozeman, studied in Ecuador as a Fulbright Scholar, and spent extensive time on rivers in both places. Currently she burns the candle at both ends-- teaching high school Spanish during the school year and guiding rivers in the summer, all while working as a freelance writer and building the Freeflow Institute from the ground up. Thanks to her love of books, writing, adventure, and conservation, Chandra is a perfect guest for this podcast. We cover a lot in just over an hour, including the genesis of the idea for the Freeflow Institute and how she turned that idea into reality. We discuss some of the well-known writers who teach on Freeflow trips, including Hal Herring, Chris Dombrowski, and past podcast guests Alexis Bonogofsky and Brendan Leonard. We talk about lessons learned from her time in Ecuador, her creative process for writing, and her own writing heroes and mentors. We discuss conservation, adventure, and, of course, favorite books, films, and locations in the West. Chandra is an amazing woman who is pursuing her passions with an inspiring amount of focus and determination, and she’s created something very special in the Freeflow Institute. Check out the episode notes for links to everything, including a short film that gives an excellent overview of the project. Enjoy! http://mountainandprairie.com/chandra-brown/ https://freeflowinstitute.com TOPICS DISCUSSED: 3:40 - Chandra describes her work 5:00 - Freeflow Institute explained 7:00 - Taking Freeflow from idea to reality 9:15 - Hal Herring 11:30 - Importance of open-mindedness 14:00 - Wilderness breaking down barriers 17:40 - Growing up in Alaska 19:00 - Outdoor experiences as a kid 22:00 - Falling in love with rivers 23:30 - College in Montana 26:30 - Fulbright Scholar in Ecuador 28:00 - Lessons learned from international living 35:40 - Writing as a focus of her life 38:40 - Life in Missoula and teaching 40:50 - The Grand Canyon 42:40 - Lessons from guiding 44:15 - Talent versus hard work in writing 47:30 - Chandra’s writing routine 52:00 - Heroes and mentors 57:30 - Conservation challenges 1:02:30 - Favorite books 1:05:00 - Favorite films 1:06:00 - Hobbies 1:07:50 - Most powerful outdoor experience 1:10:30 - Favorite location in the West 1:11:15 - Best advice ever received 1:12:00 - Request of the listeners 1:13:10 - Connect with Freeflow online