Dante Filpula Ankney recently joined the KHOL newsroom. Though new to Jackson he is a lifelong resident of the Mountain West, having grown up in the eastern Montana prairies. He majored in journalism and wilderness studies at the University of Montana in Missoula and had a stint as a radio host at Montana Public Radio. Most recently, he spent a year teaching English in Bulgaria through a Fulbright Fellowship. When he isn’t reporting, you can find Dante outside scaling rocks, sliding across snow or winning a game of cribbage.
We recently sat down with Dante to introduce him to listeners. Below is a partial transcript, edited for space and clarity.
COHEN: Who or what inspired you to become a journalist?
FILPULA ANKNEY: I’d say my grandpa. He’s always encouraged me to do something that serves the public good. When I was going to college, I wanted to study something where I would be learning about everything and not just one thing. And I think journalism has really done that for me.
COHEN: And speaking of that, you’ve written for a couple of papers, including for the student newspaper at the University of Montana, and you also had an internship at Montana Public Radio. What draws you specifically to radio?
FILPULA ANKNEY: There’s something about hearing somebody’s words come [from] them, from their own voice. I think there’s something really powerful about that. And I love the creativity of it, the honesty of it.
COHEN: Can you tell us about a story that you are particularly proud of reporting?
FILPULA ANKNEY: I interned at this small community newspaper called the Boulder Monitor. It’s in between Butte, Montana and Helena, Montana, the state’s capital. Tiny town. I was hiking one weekend in the mountains, and I ran into this guy in the state’s smallest state park. It’s this old mining ghost town. There’s six people that still live there. And this old man was one of them, and he just caught me.
The story was ultimately about this old man and his incapability to do some of the functions that are required to live off the grid in this remote place. And one of those was cutting enough wood so he could get through the winter, and he was struggling with it. The story was published and a local lumber company ran up cords of wood to him. Enough that he was able to stay up there another year.
I think that’s what is so special about journalism, especially community journalism, is that you’re able to, really put a face to a person to, a real community need. And, you know, people are able to respond. I think that journalism is such a public service. And that was one case where I saw firsthand and it stuck with me.
Email news tips to dante@jhcr.org.
