Alaska: Yo-Yo Ma and the Gwich’in play for the salmon

Alaska: Yo-Yo Ma and the Gwich’in play for the salmon

Published: October 29, 2025

Duration: 44:06

This episode begins in Fairbanks, AK.  Yo-Yo Ma is at a house concert with drag queen environmentalist Pattie Gonia, singer/songwriter Quinn Christopherson and Princess Daazhraii Johnson, a writer and filmmaker from the Gwich’in Nation.  They were all performing to help their communities process the negative effects of climate change in Alaska.  Salmon have been disappearing for decades, but now there are laws preventing fishing along the Yukon River, an ancestral practice for many Alaska Native people.  Host Ana travels up to the 2024 Gwich’in Gathering in Circle, Alaska to learn how the Gwich’in nation uses its centuries...