Pati Jinich Explores Panamericana: Juneau and Whitehorse — Sister Cities

Tuesday, May 6 at 8 p.m.

Pati Jinich explores the sister cities of Alaska’s capital, Juneau, and the capital of Canada’s Yukon Territory, Whitehorse. Pati greets Juneau over the airwaves where she’s invited to take over a radio show and interview members of the city’s thriving Filipino community who are documenting their history. Afterwards, they take her to try traditional foods at a Filipino community center.

Then Pati visits artist Crystal Worl, who is bringing Indigenous art to the modern world, and meets her brother, athlete Kyle Worl, who found his identity through Arctic Sports and dreams of getting them into the Olympics. She shares a meal and an emotional conversation about Native adoptions with activist Jennifer Quinto.

Before heading west to Yukon, Pati visits the historic Taku Lodge, once owned by outdoorswoman Mary Joyce, who completed a legendary dogsledding feat nearly 100 years ago. In Whitehorse, Pati gets her bearings at the local market with food writer Miche Genest before foraging in the Mt. Logan foothills. Then she connects with artist and fellow Mexico City native Anick Fernandez who finds inspiration in family roots and a connection to nature.

Pati meets a former police officer who found an alternative way to promote safety in indigenous communities, and she ends in the hottest place in Whitehorse: the studio of glassblower Luann Baker-Johnson, who uses her art to give back.

In these remote cities, she finds a pioneering culture of artistry and entrepreneurship and small, tight-knit communities producing big characters who forge unique lives adjacent to the unforgiving wilderness.