Rumble Strip

Leland is my neighbor and for the last seven years, we’ve been getting together in the spring to talk about his year, and things like God and space and pork shortages. This year Leland graduated from high school and I figured it was time to hear pieces from all of the years with Leland, all together, and all at once.

A couple weeks ago on Hardwick's Front Porch Forum, someone called Tiana asked if there was anyone who could help her with her hair and makeup for an important date with her boyfriend. Front Porch Forum is an online, daily community forum, which is like a bulletin board at a local general store. You can find secondhand tires there. Or read complaints about the Selectboard. Every Vermont town’s got a Front Porch Forum and you have to be from that town to be on it.Since Tiana's new to town, she thought she might have luck finding someone to help her get ready for her date through the Forum. And she did. Here is her original posting:Makeup for Special OccasionTiana• HardwickI'm looking for someone who'd be willing to do my makeup (and possibly hair?) on the 23rd of this month.Just something simple with my eyes and something to hide some red spots. Is there a way to make an illusion of a skinner face? I think thats a thing, right?I understand it's a long shot and I don't have much money.I usually don't like anything thats considered "girly". However I want to surprise my boyfriend for our first anniversary.I have a nice dress picked out with matching press on nails.The issue is I have no clue how to do makeup. YouTube tutorials have never done me any good considering I don't own any makeup and I have a very round, chubby face.Thank you for reading! CreditsMusic by Brian ClarkThanks to Tara Reese for finding the postingThanks to Tobin and Mike and RoseWelcome the Civic Standard!Thanks to Aubrie St. Louis at the Rehair Shop

Ira Karp lives on a farm in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, surrounded by music, puppets, and a family of incredible storytellers. Over his brief lifetime, he has become a ‘story keeper’ himself, collecting epic tales from his everyday life.This is a story I made for THE BIG PONDER, a podcast series produced by the Goethe-Institut. They work with radio stations and independent producers in the U.S. and Germany, and the programs reflect on abstract ideas and phenomena through hyper-local stories. They also explore dynamics between the the United States and Germany. I loved working with them, and I encourage you to subscribe to the show. You can find THE BIG PONDER wherever you get your podcasts.For more information about this show, and a transcript, visit THE BIG PONDER.

This show is a kind of coda to Finn and the Bell....At long last, the bell is in its tower at Hazen Union High School. The final installation happened right before the Hardwick Memorial Day Parade. I stopped by and recorded some of the volunteers as they constructed the tower, hoisted the bell, and rang in its new life up on the hill over Hardwick.

Tara Wray is a photographer. And a dog person. She takes pictures of dogs which are haunting and beautiful, and every bit as distinctive as pictures of individual people. I interviewed her shortly after the death of her beloved dog, Nighthawk. Then my friend Tobin’s dog died, and he told me that he sometimes felt ashamed for feeling so much about the death of a dog--a dog who had been his only companion throughout the pandemic. It seems that a lot of people feel like they have to hide the amount of grief they experience when their dogs die. But the death of a dog can be just as painful--sometimes more painful--than the death of a human family member. This is a show about dog love...and grief at their loss. And there is absurd singing. More about These PeopleLearn more about Tara Wray and her beautiful work.Learn more about Tobin AndersonLearn more about musician Brian Clark's band, The Anachronist

I've been thinking of getting a dog for years but even though I have an eighteen-year-old son, I've never felt mature enough to have a dog. So when my friend Chris told me he and his partner Beth were getting a puppy, I asked if he'd chronicle the event, and for the next seven months, he sent me recordings of what it was like to have a puppy. It was hilarious and weird and harrowing. Here are the Puppy Diaries.

Forrest Foster is a farmer in Hardwick, Vermont. It’s an organic dairy farm, seventy cows total and about forty milking at any given time. I spent an afternoon following Forrest around the barn, his sugarshack, we took a long ride in his tractor, out past his deer camp. He took me to the place where he cuts cedar and hemlock boughs for deer in the winter, and dispatches his old animals to feed the bear and the deer and the coyotes and the ravens. Forrest would rather trade services than exchange money. He’ll give you meat if you can’t afford it, and he’ll expect you’ll do some chores in exchange. What I love about Forrest Foster is that he’s always practical and always generous, and these things are always the same thing. #ftg-2323 .tile .icon { color:#ffffff; }#ftg-2323 .ftg-items .loading-bar i { background:#666; }#ftg-2323 .ftg-items .loading-bar { background:#fff; }#ftg-2323 .tile .icon { font-size:12px; }#ftg-2323 .tile .icon { margin: -6px 0 0 -6px; }#ftg-2323 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-2323 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-2323 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-2323 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-2323 .tile { background-color: transparent; }#ftg-2323 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2323 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2323 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2323 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2323 .tile .ftg-social a { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2323 .tile .caption-block { transition-timing-function:linear; }#ftg-2323 .tile .caption-block { transition-duration:0.25s; }#ftg-2323 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: #000000; }#ftg-2323 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }DSC08124DSC08137(1)for galleryIMG-3335IMG-3336(2)IMG-3338jQuery('#ftg-2323 img.item').removeAttr('src');jQuery(document).ready(function () {setTimeout(function () {jQuery('#ftg-2323').finalTilesGallery({minTileWidth: 250,margin: 10,loadMethod: 'sequential',nonce: '78b426ba1e',galleryId: '23',setupFilters: true,layout: 'final',debug: false,gridSize: 25,disableGridSizeBelow:800,allowEnlargement: true,imageSizeFactor: [ [4000, 0.3],[1024, 0.3],[768, 0.2],[640, 0.3],[320, 0.2]],selectedFilter: 'n-a'});jQuery(function () {(function () {var rel = '';jQuery('#ftg-2323 .ftg-lightbox').click(function (e) {rel = jQuery(this).attr('rel');jQuery('#ftg-2323 .ftg-current').removeClass('ftg-current');jQuery('#ftg-2323 [rel="'+rel+'"]').addClass('ftg-current');});})();});}, 0);});

Helena de Groot grew up in Belgium and is now a radio producer living in New York City. When I found out she was about to take her citizenship test, I asked if she’d be willing to record herself talking about what it feels like to become an American…and she agreed. Helena is the host and producer of the Poetry Foundation podcast Poetry Off the Shelf and senior producer of The Paris Review Podcast, and she teaches at Columbia University and the University of Michigan. Once a year she goes home to Belgium, and then comes back home to New York. Ten years after they first met, she still thinks David is the most beautiful man on the entire planet.

I am home alone on New Years, cleaning and listening to music, and suddenly I remembered Grant Owen, a kid I interviewed at the beginning of the pandemic, and I realized he is exactly the company I needed. So as you’re getting ready for your dinner party or dance party or if you are stuck in a cab or a subway on the interminable trip to The New Years Place, I think you will find that Grant Owen is good company.

It’s been another challenging year of the pandemic, and families across the nation are trying to figure out how to be together for the holidays. For some, this is hard. Really hard. Welcome to Problems, a series about comfortable, upper middle class people who have a lot to complain about. This year, sisters Andrea and Amanda have managed to get to their childhood home in Massachusetts to spend Christmas with their parents, but sister Pam and her daughter River are unable to get there. This is disappointing, and challenging. On Christmas Eve, the sisters get together for a zoom call, and to share their yearly tradition of New Years Noticings. Credits Sarah Miller is a writer in Nevada City, California. Here is her biomass article in the New Yorker and here is her substack. Amelia Meath is one half of the band Sylvan Esso, which has been nominated for a Grammy for best electronic/dance album. They will win if I have anything to say about it. Which I don’t. But they will. Sedsel is my son Henry’s sister and she lives on a small farm in a place that is hard to get to. Thanks to her mother Stacey for coaching her on some spectacular whining. Sedsel and chicken

Will Staats worked for both Vermont and New Hampshire for forty years as a wildlife biologist. He’s also a passionate hunter. He knows the back country of the Kingdom right up through Maine and into Labrador. One day in October he took me bird hunting deep in the unorganized town of Ferdinand. We talked about birds. And we talked about the growing divide between traditional hunting culture and people who don’t like certain kinds of hunting here in Vermont. But it was more interesting than that…it was also about how people harden against each other then alienate each other…something we do a lot of these days. Here is a recent article from Will that ran in VTDigger.

Finn Rooney killed himself on January 3, 2020 in the afternoon after school. No one predicted it. There were no signs. All that can be said for sure is that there was a flash of high emotion that comes with youth, and there was a gun nearby, and bullets. This isn’t a story about suicide. It’s a story about a boy called Finn who loved to fish and play baseball and write poetry and embroider…and what happens to a small Vermont community as it staggers forward after an unspeakable tragedy. Make comment at bottom of this page. Because we really want to hear from you. And we want you to be able to hear from each other. An interview with Rob Rosenthal for How Sound, on the making of Finn and the Bell Thanks My profound thanks to Tara Reese for her insights, her candor and her time. Thank you to my friends: Amelia Meath, Tobin Anderson, Clare Dolan and Mark Davis. I also want to thank every single person who talked with me for this show. You didn’t really want to but you did anyway. Thank you to Arron and Alleigh and Butch and David and Illia and Mike and Kim and Mirko and Alex and Mac and Allison and Dave and Jack and Dante and Bob and Ben and the Bread and Puppet Band. #ftg-2222 .tile .icon { color:#ffffff; }#ftg-2222 .ftg-items .loading-bar i { background:#666; }#ftg-2222 .ftg-items .loading-bar { background:#fff; }#ftg-2222 .tile .icon { font-size:12px; }#ftg-2222 .tile .icon { margin: -6px 0 0 -6px; }#ftg-2222 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-2222 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-2222 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-2222 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-2222 .tile { background-color: transparent; }#ftg-2222 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2222 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2222 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2222 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2222 .tile .ftg-social a { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2222 .tile .caption-block { transition-duration:0.25s; }#ftg-2222 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: #000000; }#ftg-2222 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }#ftg-2222 .tile:hover img {-moz-transform: ;-webkit-transform: ;-o-transform: ;-ms-transform: ;transform: ;}Screen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.15.48 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.14.49 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.14.07 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.12.57 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.12.33 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.11.53 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.11.12 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.10.49 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.09.23 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.07.59 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.07.27 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.06.43 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.06.16 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.05.42 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.03.36 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.03.11 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.02.38 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.01.39 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 5.59.51 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 5.58.57 PMScreen Shot 2021-11-01 at 5.55.12 PMIMG_0420IMG_0709Screen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.08.45 PMScreen Shot 2020-01-17 at 10.28.44 AMMay List(1)Finns Xmas 2014(1)bucket list(1)jQuery('#ftg-2222 img.item').removeAttr('src');jQuery(document).ready(function () {setTimeout(function () {jQuery('#ftg-2222').finalTilesGallery({minTileWidth: 250,margin: 10,loadMethod: 'sequential',nonce: '78b426ba1e',galleryId: '22',setupFilters: true,layout: 'final',debug: false,gridSize: 25,disableGridSizeBelow:800,allowEnlargement: true,imageSizeFactor: [ [4000, 0.3],[1024, 0.3],[768, 0.2],[640, 0.3],[320, 0.2]],selectedFilter: 'n-a'});jQuery(function () {(function () {var rel = '';jQuery('#ftg-2222 .ftg-lightbox').click(function (e) {rel = jQuery(this).attr('rel');jQuery('#ftg-2222 .ftg-current').removeClass('ftg-current');jQuery('#ftg-2222 [rel="'+rel+'"]').addClass('ftg-current');});})();});}, 0);});

I heard recently that Peter Dunning died. I want to play this again, in tribute. He was an amazing man. Peter Dunning’s farm was a Vermont hill farm. A hundred and thirty-six acres of forest and orchards and wet spots and steep, rocky pasture, picked over by farmers for hundreds of years. Peter farmed here, mostly alone, for nearly forty years. When he was getting done, we spoke at his kitchen table, as the farm was growing up around him. Credits I learned of Peter Dunning from a documentary, Peter and the Farm. It’s stunning. Watch it if you can…. Music for this show by David Schulman and Quiet Life Motel Thank you Geof Hewitt for your help with the poetry! This show also features the last verse of a remarkable poem called Marshall Washer, by Vermont poet Hayden Carruth. Here’s the full text.

In cases where a defendant seems unjustly accused, the defense attorney is our hero. But if they seem guilty…or if it’s an especially violent crime, we look at these lawyers and wonder…how can they do that? This is a show about the people who stand with the accused. You’ll hear five perspectives on the art of criminal defense, and you’ll hear some great stories. Which makes sense because telling great stories is part of the job description. Hear the Full Interviews Here are the (relatively) unedited interviews with the attorneys. I’ve removed redundancies, overly personal material, and questions of my own that were too wandering and obtuse. Sadly, the interview with Scott Williams was too damaged to include. I salvaged small sections for the show, but most of the interview suffered from ‘faulty microphone.’ Dan Sedon: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_1').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); Kelly Green: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_2').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); Kerry DeWolfe Part 1: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_3').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); Kerry DeWolfe Part 2: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_4').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); Richard Rubin Part 1: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_5').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); Richard Rubin Part 2: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_6').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); The Lawyers Richard Rubin Esq., Rubin, Kidney, Meyer & Vincent Kerry B. DeWolfe, Esq., Appellate Division, Office of the Defender General Dan Sedon, Esq., Sedon and Ericson, P.C., Chelsea, Vermont Kelly Green, Esq., Staff Attorney, Prisoner’s Rights Office, Office of the Defender General Scott R. Williams, Esq., Williams Law Group, LLC Special Thanks This show was mixed by the wonderful Colin McCaffrey. The featured photo is another great contribution by Josh Larkin. Thanks too to David Schulman for his music! And thanks to Colin Dickerman, G, RSH, Larry Massett and especially Tamar Cole for all the help and feedback.

In cases where a defendant seems unjustly accused, the defense attorney is our hero. But if they seem guilty…or if it’s an especially violent crime, we look at these lawyers and wonder…how can they do that? This is a show about the people who stand with the accused. You’ll hear five perspectives on the art of criminal defense, and you’ll hear some great stories. Which makes sense because telling great stories is part of the job description. Hear the Full Interviews Here are the (relatively) unedited interviews with the attorneys. I’ve removed redundancies, overly personal material, and questions of my own that were too wandering and obtuse. Sadly, the interview with Scott Williams was too damaged to include. I salvaged small sections for the show, but most of the interview suffered from ‘faulty microphone.’ Dan Sedon: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_10').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); Kelly Green: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_11').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); Kerry DeWolfe Part 1: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_12').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); Kerry DeWolfe Part 2: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_13').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); Richard Rubin Part 1: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_14').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); Richard Rubin Part 2: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_15').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); The Lawyers Richard Rubin Esq., Rubin, Kidney, Meyer & Vincent Kerry B. DeWolfe, Esq., Appellate Division, Office of the Defender General Dan Sedon, Esq., Sedon and Ericson, P.C., Chelsea, Vermont Kelly Green, Esq., Staff Attorney, Prisoner’s Rights Office, Office of the Defender General Scott R. Williams, Esq., Williams Law Group, LLC Special Thanks This show was mixed by the wonderful Colin McCaffrey. The featured photo is another great contribution by Josh Larkin. Thanks too to David Schulman for his music! And thanks to Colin Dickerman, G, RSH, Larry Massett and especially Tamar Cole for all the help and feedback.

Susan is a private investigator and I interview her a lot for my show. Last week she hit an owl with her car and it died. She didn’t want to leave it on the side of the road so she took it home and put it in the freezer and started calling around the state to see who could use a dead owl and it turned out the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury could. So she drove up. The owl joined its raptor brethren in the museum cooler and then Susan came over to my house to eat sandwiches and talk…mostly about Covid, and about how it has changed us utterly. Music for this show is by Brian Clark and Mike Donofrio Susan’s private investigation business is called VTPrivateye

At the onset of Covid in March, 2020, the Vermont Supreme Court declared a judicial emergency, suspending all non-essential court hearings. Hearings have resumed, but many are still being held remotely, including arraignments, which are ground zero for all criminal cases. An arraignment is the first time that defendants appear in front of a judge. They’re informed of their charges and they enter a plea. And for defendants working with a public defender, it’s often the first time they meet their attorney, or even see their attorney. But since Covid, nobody’s seeing much of anyone in person. The judge might be at home, the defense attorney’s in his office, the state’s attorney’s in another office, and the defendant on the phone, or lodged in jail, as the case may be. Instead of appearing in court, they meet on a scratchy channel called WebEx. So what does justice lose when human contact is lost? Credits Attorneys Dan Sedon and Mike Shane, Sedon and Ericson George Contois, court officer at Orange County Courthouse Music by Brian Clark Thanks Thanks to Kelly Green and Tobin Anderson

Zeno Mountain Farm is a camp for people with and without disabilities, which is a super reductive way to describe it. Most other camps are places where people with disabilities are not. They’re missing. Zeno is a camp where everyone…is. And a camp that includes everybody is way more fun. Exponentially more fun. At Zeno, everyone is a camper and everyone is a counselor and nobody pays to be there and nobody gets paid. It’s just friends who come back year after year to this mountain in Lincoln, Vermont, which looks out over the Champlain Valley. I spent a day talking with people there and capturing the sound of a day at Camp Zeno. Credits and Links Thank you Laurel Sager for introducing me to Zeno!!! Link to Zeno Mountain Farm Zeno’s latest film, Best Summer Ever #ftg-2020 .tile .icon { color:#ffffff; }#ftg-2020 .ftg-items .loading-bar i { background:#666; }#ftg-2020 .ftg-items .loading-bar { background:#fff; }#ftg-2020 .tile .icon { font-size:12px; }#ftg-2020 .tile .icon { margin: -6px 0 0 -6px; }#ftg-2020 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-2020 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-2020 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-2020 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-2020 .tile { background-color: transparent; }#ftg-2020 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2020 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2020 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2020 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2020 .tile .ftg-social a { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-2020 .tile .caption-block { transition-timing-function:linear; }#ftg-2020 .tile .caption-block { transition-duration:0.25s; }#ftg-2020 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: #000000; }#ftg-2020 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }IMG_2294bus shotwinooski 1winoos 2w3ALKY4232jQuery('#ftg-2020 img.item').removeAttr('src');jQuery(document).ready(function () {setTimeout(function () {jQuery('#ftg-2020').finalTilesGallery({minTileWidth: 250,margin: 10,loadMethod: 'sequential',nonce: '78b426ba1e',galleryId: '20',setupFilters: true,layout: 'final',debug: false,gridSize: 25,disableGridSizeBelow:800,allowEnlargement: true,imageSizeFactor: [ [4000, 0.3],[1024, 0.3],[768, 0.2],[640, 0.3],[320, 0.2]],selectedFilter: 'n-a'});jQuery(function () {(function () {var rel = '';jQuery('#ftg-2020 .ftg-lightbox').click(function (e) {rel = jQuery(this).attr('rel');jQuery('#ftg-2020 .ftg-current').removeClass('ftg-current');jQuery('#ftg-2020 [rel="'+rel+'"]').addClass('ftg-current');});})();});}, 0);});

Chris and Beth sing a lot. You’ve heard them before, if you listened to the show Sing your Job. They were the ones singing Game of Thrones, which I could not stop listening to. When I wrote to Chris to say that I couldn’t stop listening to them sing Game of Thrones, he told me that he and Beth sing a lot. They make up songs about whatever they’re doing at the moment, and lucky for us, they record themselves periodically. Nobody really knows a marriage except for the two people in it. It’s a very private institution. I’ve never been married but I’d like to think that this is what marriage sounds like. Some of the time… Credits: Chris Attaway and Beth Lewis are moving to Birmingham in August and they want to get a dog. Beth is a writer and performer and Chris makes a podcast called Left of the Dial The music video for Squash in My Shop – https://www.instagram.com/p/CMAipXznoCg/ Beth Tapes: https://anchor.fm/bethlewis Beth’s Tiny Letter – https://tinyletter.com/BethLewis/archive

Alexis Harte is out biking on a chilly afternoon last November when a new song pops into his head and mesmerizes him. It doesn’t seem strange at first — he’s a musician, after all. But when he discovers what was happening to a cherished relative at the moment the song sprang into his brain, he begins to wonder if he’s the target of a practical joke from the hereafter. Herschel’s Song is one part tribute to a dear friend, and to a life well-lived, and one part meditation on the songwriting/creative process. Producer Bio: Producer Alexis Harte is a singer-songwriter and composer and is the co-founder and creative director of Pollen Music Group. His latest musical short film, Thirsty, premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. This is his first audio story. Credits: Story, narration, song, and sound design: Alexis Harte The Bonobo Band: Alexis Harte: Guitars/Vox/Harmonica Jon Evans: Upright Bass Matthias Bossi: Drums Additional music: “Wedding Waltz” | “Bandon” by Gunnar Madsen (respectively, from the albums “Spinning World: 13 Ways of Looking at a Waltz” and “Two Hands” “This Old House” by Jayme Pohl “Sunrise” | “Different Farm” | “The Story” by Pollen Music Group “Nocturne” Opus 27 no. 2 in Db Major (Lento sostenuto) by Frédéric Chopin. Performed by Frank Levy (…with my humble thanks to Sir Paul McCartney, who can always be counted on for a good “perfect example”)

Irfan Sehic grew up in Bosnia and spent most of his childhood living in a civil war. One day the kids across the street were his best friends, the next day they were enemies. His father would fight in the war a few days a week and then be back for dinner. It was complicated. He told me I couldn’t understand war because I had not experienced it, which is true. But I kept asking him to explain it to me anyway. Here’s a link to the Robby and Irfan show, wherein I admit that I do not know who Joe Rogan is. Credits Irfan owns an insurance agency and you’d be super lucky to have him as your insurance agent because he is radically honest and loves to save you money but he doesn’t need more clients. But you can read about his agency here. Episode Sponsor! This episode is sponsored by Dobbs Maple, making small batches of locally sourced granulated maple sugar, which happens to be the best maple sugar in the world. I know this because I eat a lot of maple products even in the middle of the night.

My friend Bryan Pfeiffer is a writer, educator and field naturalist. He used to be a professional birding guide. He knows all about birds and dragonflies and moths. He knows where they live and what they eat and what it smells like where they live and eat. And even though we’ve been friends for a long time, Bryan has never taken me birding because I’ve never been interested in birds. Then I turned fifty and became interested in birds and I think that my sudden interest has more to do with my growing desire to know these places where birds live–and be absorbed in them. So Bryan took me birding. Some writing by Bryan: The Extinction of Meaning On Bogs Butterflies and Joy Bryan’s website: where there is much good writing and many amazing pictures of flying things #ftg-1818 .tile .icon { color:#ffffff; }#ftg-1818 .ftg-items .loading-bar i { background:#666; }#ftg-1818 .ftg-items .loading-bar { background:#fff; }#ftg-1818 .tile .icon { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1818 .tile .icon { margin: -6px 0 0 -6px; }#ftg-1818 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1818 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1818 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1818 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1818 .tile { background-color: transparent; }#ftg-1818 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1818 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1818 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1818 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1818 .tile .ftg-social a { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1818 .tile .caption-block { transition-timing-function:linear; }#ftg-1818 .tile .caption-block { transition-duration:0.25s; }#ftg-1818 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: #000000; }#ftg-1818 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }bryan-guiding-1280x853bryan-shooting-colias-1440Bryan-Pfeiffer-Pelee-1500 x 1000american-redstart-tx-17apr2009-bryanBaltimoreOriole-BryanPfeiffer(1)song-sparrow-680x869swamp-sparrow-vt-4may2018yellow-warbler-vt-20may2005jQuery('#ftg-1818 img.item').removeAttr('src');jQuery(document).ready(function () {setTimeout(function () {jQuery('#ftg-1818').finalTilesGallery({minTileWidth: 250,margin: 10,loadMethod: 'sequential',nonce: '78b426ba1e',galleryId: '18',setupFilters: true,layout: 'final',debug: false,gridSize: 25,disableGridSizeBelow:800,allowEnlargement: true,imageSizeFactor: [ [4000, 0.3],[1024, 0.3],[768, 0.2],[640, 0.3],[320, 0.2]],selectedFilter: 'n-a'});jQuery(function () {(function () {var rel = '';jQuery('#ftg-1818 .ftg-lightbox').click(function (e) {rel = jQuery(this).attr('rel');jQuery('#ftg-1818 .ftg-current').removeClass('ftg-current');jQuery('#ftg-1818 [rel="'+rel+'"]').addClass('ftg-current');});})();});}, 0);});

Jane Lindholm recently left her position as host of Vermont Edition, VPR’s midday public affairs show. In her fourteen years on the show, Jane interviewed governors, senators, authors, wildlife biologists…she interviewed me once, which was awful because I couldn’t think fast enough. I have no idea how she does it, which is why I wanted to talk with her. What is it like to be live every day with a different person? And what is it like to be a regular fixture in the lives of Vermonters every day? And then…not? Mostly this is a show for those of you who’ve been listening to Jane for fourteen years. To hear about what’s actually going on in that studio, and in her mind during Vermont Edition. We sat in her garage, in foldout chairs, between her husband’s bee keeping equipment and her kids old bikes. Where is Jane now?? She’s focusing on her podcast, But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids, which she produces with Melody Bodette, and plans to produce special projects with VPR. And that will be awesome. Music for this show is by my excellent friends Brian Clark and Mike Donofio. Thanks to Tobin Anderson for his help, as always. #ftg-1717 .tile .icon { color:#ffffff; }#ftg-1717 .ftg-items .loading-bar i { background:#666; }#ftg-1717 .ftg-items .loading-bar { background:#fff; }#ftg-1717 .tile .icon { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1717 .tile .icon { margin: -6px 0 0 -6px; }#ftg-1717 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1717 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1717 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1717 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1717 .tile { background-color: transparent; }#ftg-1717 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1717 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1717 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1717 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1717 .tile .ftg-social a { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1717 .tile .caption-block { transition-duration:0.25s; }#ftg-1717 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: #000000; }#ftg-1717 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }#ftg-1717 .tile:hover img {-moz-transform: ;-webkit-transform: ;-o-transform: ;-ms-transform: ;transform: ;}IMG_0472Sanders and Zupan Debate at VPRPHOTO BY HERB SWANSON- October 29, 2018- The VPR Senatorial debate between Senator Bernie Sanders, (Independent) and challenger Lawrence Zupan (Republican) Monday in Colchester, Vermont.IMG_6990IMG_5860IMG_1059jQuery('#ftg-1717 img.item').removeAttr('src');jQuery(document).ready(function () {setTimeout(function () {jQuery('#ftg-1717').finalTilesGallery({minTileWidth: 250,margin: 10,loadMethod: 'sequential',nonce: '78b426ba1e',galleryId: '17',setupFilters: true,layout: 'final',debug: false,gridSize: 25,disableGridSizeBelow:800,allowEnlargement: true,imageSizeFactor: [ [4000, 0.3],[1024, 0.3],[768, 0.2],[640, 0.3],[320, 0.2]],selectedFilter: 'n-a'});jQuery(function () {(function () {var rel = '';jQuery('#ftg-1717 .ftg-lightbox').click(function (e) {rel = jQuery(this).attr('rel');jQuery('#ftg-1717 .ftg-current').removeClass('ftg-current');jQuery('#ftg-1717 [rel="'+rel+'"]').addClass('ftg-current');});})();});}, 0);});

It’s been too long since I’ve reported on police activity here in Vermont and it’s been a challenging time for law enforcement. Calls to police are countless, and complex. I asked Scott Carrier to read from recent police logs, as reported in the Barre Montpelier Times Argus, and the Lamoille County News and Citizen. Scott Carrier is the producer of my favorite podcast, Home of the Brave.

Vaughn Hood was a 118-pound barber when he was drafted into the Vietnam War. And in Vaughn’s war, most men didn’t survive their first three-month tour. Now Vaughn Hood runs a hair salon in St. Johnsbury with his wife, Bev. For a couple days, I sat and talked with him in the back of his salon. We talked about war, about hard work, about survival, and hairdressing. Here is the story of an extraordinary American life. This story we featured here was co-produced by Erica Heilman and Larry Massett. Some Kudos: Click here for an interview with Erica about the show, by the excellent people at The Third Coast 50 Best Podcasts of 2015, The Atlantic Monthly…#16

I met Leland when he was in school with my son Henry at Calais Elementary. I interviewed him when he was over playing at our house when he was in fourth grade, and I’ve been interviewing him every spring ever since. We’ve talked about deep space, death, girls…sometimes we don’t talk much at all. Leland’s a junior in high school now. He spends most of his time at a technical school working on carpentry. He has his license and his own truck, which doesn’t have much of a muffler. We sat and talked out by his barn, which overlooks a field and a vernal pool full of spring peepers which is there because of a stuck culvert.

Here is a little musical about the beautiful minutia of your lives. And I just keep adding to it because our lives just keep going on and on and on. So just keep sending songs and now and then I’ll add them to the Longest Song.

The first time I meet Han MeiMei, we were standing on my deck in Vermont. She looked at the fields around my house and she said, ‘That’s a lot of fields. Have you ever thought of writing messages to airplanes?’ I had not thought of this. Han is a brain scientist. She studies the nature of memory, and she’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. She grew up in a state-run factory compound in Guilin, in southeast China’s Guangxi province. Everyone who worked there lived there, and shopped there, and the children were educated in schools there. Han was born in 1984, soon after China had decided to open itself to more economic engagement with the international economy. But she was also a second child when second children were not allowed in China. We talked about growing up in China, and what she learned about China after she left. And why she’s chosen to spend her life asking questions that may never be answered in her lifetime. Notes Thank you as always to Tobin Anderson. Music credits I cannot pronounce: jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('#wp_mep_7').mediaelementplayer({ m:1 ,features: ['playpause','current','progress','duration','volume','tracks','fullscreen'] ,audioWidth:400,audioHeight:30 }); }); An excellent Little Tiger Team video that you must watch:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7hbYLaD-FY Han is not her real name. A lot of what she says in this conversation would be considered censorable in China, and she wanted to protect her privacy. Playlist from show: 1. “Fly, butterfly!” by The Little Tigers Team 2. “Our life is full of sunshine” by Yu Shuzhen 3. “Songs and smiles” by The Milkyway Youth Art Troupe 4. “Flowing water ” by Guan Pinghu 5. “The waters and clouds of Xiaoxiang” by Wu Jinglue 6. “For ten years, the river runs east; for ten years, the river runs west” by Wutiaoren

Rose Friedman and some friends decided to start making free meals on Wednesday nights for anyone who wants them. They set up outside the East Hardwick Grange Hall. A lot of people around here are making food for neighbors during Covid. But Rose isn’t making food because of Covid. Or not exactly. She wants to see what will happen. Who will come and get the food and what will it be like when they come to get the food and if a lot of really different kinds of people come to get the food, what will they all talk about in front of the grange hall? It’s like a combination of science project and putting on a show, which is one reason why I like Rose, and why I wanted to watch her make soup. VPR show about Rose and Justin and Modern Times Theater Modern Times Theater Music for this show by Brian Clark Thanks to Tobin Anderson and Amelia Meath

We’re a year into Covid and in Vermont we’re almost into the last stretch of winter and I’ve been thinking a lot about married people, or people partnered with other people living in houses and apartments day after night for days and months and now a year. I wonder what goes on in those houses and what they talk about and how they get on day after day, night after night. I found a young couple willing to talk with me about how they’re doing. They live in an old farmhouse in central Vermont that they’re renovating… (((Note: This is not ‘real’. Some people get really mad if they don’t know in advance. So here I am to say it’s not real. Not ENTIRELY real. I mean there’s a lot here that is real. But not all of it.))) Credits Thank you Jesse and Serena for excellent cocktails and your insights about condiments Thank you Brian Clark for your music. And your beautiful woodwork. Thank you Tobin Anderson for your constant help A link to Jesse’s work. Here are some pictures of Jesse and Serena and their awesome house in Plainfield: #ftg-1515 .tile .icon { color:#ffffff; }#ftg-1515 .ftg-items .loading-bar i { background:#666; }#ftg-1515 .ftg-items .loading-bar { background:#fff; }#ftg-1515 .tile .icon { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1515 .tile .icon { margin: -6px 0 0 -6px; }#ftg-1515 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1515 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1515 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1515 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1515 .tile { background-color: transparent; }#ftg-1515 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1515 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1515 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1515 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1515 .tile .ftg-social a { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1515 .tile .caption-block { transition-duration:0.25s; }#ftg-1515 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: #000000; }#ftg-1515 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }#ftg-1515 .tile:hover img {-moz-transform: ;-webkit-transform: ;-o-transform: ;-ms-transform: ;transform: ;}20191109_18473620191208_15322720200101_12422720200228_19575820200319_19502720200324_08464520200522_06540320200720_224021SONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSC20200720_22402120190728_160923banner mnowsnow featurebannerjQuery('#ftg-1515 img.item').removeAttr('src');jQuery(document).ready(function () {setTimeout(function () {jQuery('#ftg-1515').finalTilesGallery({minTileWidth: 250,margin: 10,loadMethod: 'sequential',nonce: '78b426ba1e',galleryId: '15',setupFilters: true,layout: 'final',debug: false,gridSize: 25,disableGridSizeBelow:800,allowEnlargement: true,imageSizeFactor: [ [4000, 0.3],[1024, 0.3],[768, 0.2],[640, 0.3],[320, 0.2]],selectedFilter: 'n-a'});jQuery(function () {(function () {var rel = '';jQuery('#ftg-1515 .ftg-lightbox').click(function (e) {rel = jQuery(this).attr('rel');jQuery('#ftg-1515 .ftg-current').removeClass('ftg-current');jQuery('#ftg-1515 [rel="'+rel+'"]').addClass('ftg-current');});})();});}, 0);});

In most of New England, town citizens become legislators for one day a year. They get together in school gyms and town halls and vote in person, and in public. This centuries long practice of towns doing the slow and hard work of disagreeing and arguing and compromising on how to govern themselves—this has a profound impact on a place, and what it means to be from a place. Sometimes it’s contentious. Sometimes it’s boring. But it’s always the most interesting and authentic and civilized social event of the year. Always. This is a show about where I live, which is maybe not where you live, but we’re all living through a time of awful division. There aren’t a lot of opportunities anymore to disagree civilly, in public, or to make decisions with people who are hugely different from ourselves. And maybe there should be. So I made this show to inspire us all. And you’ll hear a lot about trash removal. Credits Music by Brian Clark. In addition to being a fine musician, he is also a fine woodworker. Featured photos by Terry J. Allen Endless thanks to Tobin Anderson, Kelly Green and Amelia Meath for their help on this show. Susan Clark is the co-author of Slow Democracy, a wonderful book on self governance and rediscovering community. Thanks to Brattleboro Community TV and Mount Mansfield Community TV for their recordings of town meeting and all the brave people who get up and talk in those meetings Moderators in this show are: Stephen Magill, Moretown. Paul Doton, Barnard. Gus Seelig, Calais. John McLaughry, Kirby. Bobby Starr, Troy. Susan Clark, Middlesex. Kelly Green, Randolph Click on images below for better view. Most of the good pictures here are by Terry J. Allen of East Montpelier. #ftg-1414 .tile .icon { color:#ffffff; }#ftg-1414 .ftg-items .loading-bar i { background:#666; }#ftg-1414 .ftg-items .loading-bar { background:#fff; }#ftg-1414 .tile .icon { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1414 .tile .icon { margin: -6px 0 0 -6px; }#ftg-1414 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1414 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1414 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1414 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1414 .tile { background-color: transparent; }#ftg-1414 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1414 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1414 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1414 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1414 .tile .ftg-social a { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1414 .tile .caption-block { transition-duration:0.25s; }#ftg-1414 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: #000000; }#ftg-1414 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }#ftg-1414 .tile:hover img {-moz-transform: ;-webkit-transform: ;-o-transform: ;-ms-transform: ;transform: ;}Calais Town MeetingEast Montpelier Town Meeting, Photo: Terry J. AllenCalais Town HallPhoto by Scott BassageCalais Town MeetingThe guys who always stand at the back and never take their coats off.Calais Town MeetingDessertsEast Montpelier Town Meeting, Photo: Terry J. AllenKelly GreenKelly Green, Randolph Town ModeratorEast Montpelier Town MeetingPhoto: Terry J. AllenEast Montpelier Town Meeting, Photo: Terry J. AllenEast Montpelier Town Meeting, Photo: Terry J. AllenEast Montpelier Town Meeting, Photo: Terry J. AllenEast Montpelier Town Meeting, Photo: Terry J. AllenEast Montpelier Town Meeting, Photo: Terry J. AllenEast Montpelier Town Meeting, Photo: Terry J. AllenCalaisScott Bassage, Calais Town MeetingTown Meeting East Montpelier, Photo: Terry J. AllenJohn McLaughry, Kirby Town ModeratorKirby Town MeetingCalais Town MeetingPhoto by Scott BassageSusan Clark, Middlesex Town ModeratorMiddlesex Town Meeting, Photo Mark BushnelljQuery('#ftg-1414 img.item').removeAttr('src');jQuery(document).ready(function () {setTimeout(function () {jQuery('#ftg-1414').finalTilesGallery({minTileWidth: 250,margin: 10,loadMethod: 'sequential',nonce: '78b426ba1e',galleryId: '14',setupFilters: true,layout: 'final',debug: false,gridSize: 25,disableGridSizeBelow:800,allowEnlargement: true,imageSizeFactor: [ [4000, 0.3],[1024, 0.3],[768, 0.2],[640, 0.3],[320, 0.2]],selectedFilter: 'n-a'});jQuery(function () {(function () {var rel = '';jQuery('#ftg-1414 .ftg-lightbox').click(function (e) {rel = jQuery(this).attr('rel');jQuery('#ftg-1414 .ftg-current').removeClass('ftg-current');jQuery('#ftg-1414 [rel="'+rel+'"]').addClass('ftg-current');});})();});}, 0);});

This is a FUN show to celebrate FRICKIN’ INAUGURATION DAY which we’ve been waiting for for 1000 years!!!!!! It’s from the Shaking Out the Numb, a series I made with Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn of Sylvan Esso. The show is called Party Is Everything. It’s about being young and getting ready to go to parties and then going to parties. And all of the things you think about when you’re getting ready to go to a party and then when you’re at a party. The song you hear is Ferris Wheel, from Sylvan Esso’s new album, Free Love. In this show you’ll hear Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, Amelia Meath and Molly Erin Searle, who together have a band called Mountain Man, which is an amazing band. There’s some swearing. A lot of young people swear. They’re good at Instagram and they swear a lot.

It’s been a challenging year. Families are trying to figure out how to be together for the holidays when they can’t be together physically. Welcome to Problems, a Christmas special. Problems is a series about comfortable, upper middle class people who have a lot to complain about. This year, Pam and her two sisters, Andrea and Amanda, are planning a Christmas caroling zoom call to their parents. In a series of zoom calls they plan and practice. But it’s just really hard. Credits Amanda is played by writer Sarah Miller, of Nevada City, California and a reasonably regular contributor to this show. You can find a link to her essay, Why Cooking Sucks…below. Andrea is played by Amelia Meath of Durham, NC, singer/songwriter in Sylvan Esso and Mountain Man. I’ve done a bunch of shows for and with Sylvan Esso, some of which are below. Pam is me.

Daniel Kirk is a children’s book author and illustrator and he lives with his wife in New Jersey, about twelve miles outside of Manhattan. They were both infected with COVID last March, before it had spread in the United States. They still don’t know where they got it. By now we know a lot more about COVID. We know the symptoms. We can recite the symptoms. But what does it actually feel like to struggle to breathe? And for those who become deathly ill–who slip into some state between waking and dreaming–where do they go? As Daniel’s wife recovered, Daniel’s temperature climbed to 104, and eventually he ended up in the hospital. Here is his story. Credits Information about Daniel Kirk Music for this show is by Mike Donofrio and Brian Clark, two excellent people. As always, my thanks to Tobin Anderson who helps me with all things.

Bill Schubart is a writer and a cultural and political commentator. He’s chaired a lot of important boards here in Vermont. He’s really smart and he talks a lot and a lot of people listen to him. What he talks less about is that he’s struggled with being fat his entire life. He’s not averse to talking about it. In fact he wrote a brilliant collection of stories called Fat People in 2010. But it’s not the sort of thing that comes up in conversation. In this show, we talk about it. For more about Bill Schubart A link to Bill’s book, Fat People Credits: Music for this show by Brian Clark, who is awesome. Thank you Tobin Anderson, as always Headshot by Bill’s brother, Michael Couture Biker photo by Erik Borg

I first interviewed them when they played in Vermont in 2017 and we became friends. In fact Amelia is the only person with whom I have two-hour phone conversations that start like this: ‘Hey. What are you doing?’ ‘Nothing. What are you doing?’ ‘Nothing.’ This podcast was an experiment. The interviews were all recorded over the phone during Covid….on back porches at night, by rivers, in fields, and sometimes in closets. Nick and Amelia weren’t interested in a standard set of questions about how they make their songs or what their songs are about. Instead…they told stories that cause songs. The series is called Shaking Out the Numb. I love them. I hope you will too. Photo Credits: Above picture by Nick and Amelia. Banner picture by Shervin Lainez. More Information about Sylvan Esso Sylvan Esso has unveiled a new podcast today called Shaking Out The Numb. The experimental six-episode series is a revealing exploration of the creative heartbeat of this duo, and the impulses and experiences that led them to make their new album Free Love. Sylvan Esso has partnered with NPR Music to share the episode entitled “Make It Easy,” and all six episodes of Shaking Out The Numb are available now via all major podcast distributors and YouTube. The podcast was created from hours of unadorned conversations that Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn of Sylvan Esso had with their friend, Rumble Strip producer Erica Heilman, shortly after completing Free Love. Both focused and freewheeling, each episode has a different scope, mixing together found sounds, reflections and discussions that celebrate the sheer thrill of the very essence of creativity. From a visit to a decommissioned particle collider to the electric feeling of getting ready for a party, Shaking Out The Numb opens a window into the soul of Sylvan Esso. The podcast was produced by Erica Heilman and Sylvan Esso. This past weekend, Sylvan Esso performed three songs from Free Love on CBS Saturday, from a roof in their home city of Durham, NC. Watch them perform “Ring,” “Ferris Wheel,” and “Rooftop Dancing.” Since May they’ve also performed for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, where Amelia sang “Ferris Wheel” from the bed of a moving flatbed truck. Last week, Sylvan Esso also shared a remix of their summer bop “Ferris Wheel,” transformed into a “woozy headtrip” (Stereogum) by celebrated producer/multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin (Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Travis Scott) and featuring Robert Glasper (Kanye West, Erykah Badu, JAY-Z). The duo has also been hosting a virtual concert series throughout the fall called FROM THE SATELLITE – which will conclude December 1 at 9PM ET with a performance titled WITH LOVE.

François Clemmons was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1945 on the plantation where his great great grandmother Laura May’s family had been slaves, then he moved with his mother and siblings and aunts and cousins to Youngstown, Ohio during the Great Migration. Youngstown is where he started singing, and he never stopped singing. He sings in the middle of sentences, he sings on the way to the bathroom, he sings like the world depends on it, which maybe it does. But you know him already. Or those of you who are of a certain age. For twenty-five years François played Officer Clemmons on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. And recently he wrote a book about it, called Officer Clemmons. Now he lives in Middlebury, Vermont. I drove over there to talk with him about his life in the South and about Mr. Rogers, one of the great loves of his life. Credits and More François Clemmons’ Website Clemmons’ memoir, Officer Clemmons Additional music by Brian Clark Article in Seven Days about François Clemmons by Dan Bolles. Thank you Dan for writing it.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/230694656″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] Mark Utter was born with a form of autism that makes it impossible for him to say what he’s thinking. For the first thirty years of his life, Mark did not have access to the world of words, except as a listener. An observer. When he was thirty, he was introduced to supported typing, and for the first time in his life, with the help of a facilitator and a typing pad, Mark started his life as a writer of words. This is an interview about what it’s like inside the life and mind of Mark Utter. Kudos and Credits 50 Best Podcasts of 2015, The Atlantic Monthly…#38 Mark Utter lives in Colchester, Vermont. He receives services that assist his day to day ventures with negotiating a world that functions differently than he does. The more you read about him the more you will realize that we are more alike than different. Emily Anderson is trained to support people who type to communicate. She was the producer of “I am in here.” She has a background in social/political theater and uses it to assist creative projects that bring odd people more positively into the limelight. Mark’s Web site: www.utterenergy.org To view the “I am in here” trailer or purchase the DVD: http://www.utterenergy.org/iaminhere/ Mark’s Blog: http://www.utterenergy.org/blog/ For more information on the form of communication Mark uses: http://www.utterenergy.org/supported-typing/ Music for this show by Podington Bear, and the Free Music Archive Kudos Best in Show from The Timbre!

I’ve been doing a couple freelance jobs for extra money. One requires a great deal of video conferencing. I have learned that I do not excel at video conferencing and at the moment I knew this with certainty, my recorder was close by, so I recorded some thoughts on the subject. Then an audio producer in London heard it and did a remix version of it. So here is a short dip into my state of mind during this election season, this world burning, this age of video conferencing. There is some justifiably strong language. Credits Arlie Adlington, Audio producer for podcasts and radio Maya Goldberg-Safir, an excellent person who also happens to be the artistic director of The Third Coast Festival

Karl Hammer is the founder and president of the Vermont Compost Company in East Montpelier, right up the hill from Montpelier, the state capital. I first heard about Karl from my friend Rosana, who used to be married to him. She told me about how they had puppies one winter, and Karl decided to compost their poop on the floor in the house, which he sweetened with donkey manure and hardwood bark and hay. Karl started as a vegetable and dairy farmer on a hill farm in Vershire Vermont. He had a business card that said, ‘Have fun. Make money. Save the world.’ How do you make more land better land to make more food for more people? I think it was that question that finally made him leave farming and get into compost production, long before composting was a virtue. Recently, Karl’s been running a donkey cart into town to pick up food scraps at restaurants and the local coop. Karl has always had donkeys. He loves donkeys, especially the American Mammoth jackstock, which is endangered. And Karl figures the only way to protect them is to give them a useful job to do…to make them indispensable. I tried to interview Karl a few years ago and failed. He has a mind that connects politics and history and feces and he talks about them all at once and he’s impossible to corral into any one subject at a time. I figured this time I could keep him on the subject of donkeys. But I couldn’t. But it didn’t matter. Karl knows a lot of things I wish I knew. Pictures and video by Sid Hammer, except the less good pictures, which are mine. #ftg-1313 .tile .icon { color:#ffffff; }#ftg-1313 .ftg-items .loading-bar i { background:#666; }#ftg-1313 .ftg-items .loading-bar { background:#fff; }#ftg-1313 .tile .icon { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1313 .tile .icon { margin: -6px 0 0 -6px; }#ftg-1313 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1313 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1313 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1313 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1313 .tile { background-color: transparent; }#ftg-1313 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1313 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1313 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1313 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1313 .tile .ftg-social a { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1313 .tile .caption-block { transition-duration:0.25s; }#ftg-1313 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: #000000; }#ftg-1313 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }#ftg-1313 .tile:hover img {-moz-transform: ;-webkit-transform: ;-o-transform: ;-ms-transform: ;transform: ;}XT3A2354XT3A2363XT3A2371XT3A23772020-09-19 13.13.562020-09-19 14.04.03img_1078-1img_1076-1img_1077jQuery('#ftg-1313 img.item').removeAttr('src');jQuery(document).ready(function () {setTimeout(function () {jQuery('#ftg-1313').finalTilesGallery({minTileWidth: 250,margin: 10,loadMethod: 'sequential',nonce: '78b426ba1e',galleryId: '13',setupFilters: true,layout: 'final',debug: false,gridSize: 25,disableGridSizeBelow:800,allowEnlargement: true,imageSizeFactor: [ [4000, 0.3],[1024, 0.3],[768, 0.2],[640, 0.3],[320, 0.2]],selectedFilter: 'n-a'});jQuery(function () {(function () {var rel = '';jQuery('#ftg-1313 .ftg-lightbox').click(function (e) {rel = jQuery(this).attr('rel');jQuery('#ftg-1313 .ftg-current').removeClass('ftg-current');jQuery('#ftg-1313 [rel="'+rel+'"]').addClass('ftg-current');});})();});}, 0);});

A GUEST SHOW from one of my favorite radio producers….Bianca Giaever. During a period of personal loneliness, radio-maker Bianca Giaever set out into New York City, hoping to connect with another lonely stranger. She began visiting Catholic churches, and eventually, she met Sophia — a school crossing guard. In this piece, Bianca documents Sophia’s life for many months… weaving between the ordinary life of a school crossing guard, and larger themes of loneliness, God, and the quest to live a meaningful life. This piece is the first episode in a new podcast by Bianca and The Believer Magazine called Constellation Prize, which you can find in the iTunes store or wherever you get your podcasts. In this series, Bianca talks to subjects about their daily existential problems, both big and small. If you like Rumble Strip, you will like Bianca’s show. It never fails to surprise me. Music in this episode is by Zubin Hensler and Stellwagon Symphonette. It was written and produced by Bianca Giaever, and edited by Hayden Bennett. Special thanks to Andrew Leland and Laura Irving. Artwork by Sludge Thunder

Winnie Wilkinson is originally from Jamaica but she spent half her life in New York City before moving up to St. Albans, Vermont, where black people make up 2.52 percent of the population. Winnie has family all over the country, and she has a lot of family members who’ve been harassed by the police, which is what I went to talk with her about. But it’s not what we talked about. Instead, we talked about God and about slavery–two things that have a profound impact on how Winnie thinks about everything else, including police brutality. Thank you David Glidden for introducing me to Winnie. And thank you Winnie for going to look for my glasses. And thank you Tobin for bearing with me. To learn more about Winnie’s seasonings, spices, hot pepper sauce and African products, visit her here.

Clare is the curator of the Museum Of Everyday Life, which lives in a barn on Route 16, about eight miles from Glover, Vermont, population 2000. Over the years, the Museum of Everyday Life has given us the toothbrush, the mirror, bells and whistles–celebrations of objects we use everyday in our unglamorous everyday lives. This year’s exhibit features the knot. It’s not quite finished, because as Clare was preparing the exhibit, she was also working her other job as a nurse at a small rural hospital, in the middle of a pandemic. She showed me the exhibit, which is not quite done but which is already strange and brilliant, and we talked about knots, and about her work as a nurse, in a pandemic and beyond… THANK YOU to Bianca Giaever for her insights on this show. She just launched a podcast and it’s really frickin good… More Visit the Museum of Every Life Images from the new exhibit: #ftg-1212 .tile .icon { color:#ffffff; }#ftg-1212 .ftg-items .loading-bar i { background:#666; }#ftg-1212 .ftg-items .loading-bar { background:#fff; }#ftg-1212 .tile .icon { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1212 .tile .icon { margin: -6px 0 0 -6px; }#ftg-1212 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1212 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1212 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1212 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1212 .tile { background-color: transparent; }#ftg-1212 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1212 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1212 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1212 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1212 .tile .ftg-social a { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1212 .tile .caption-block { transition-duration:0.25s; }#ftg-1212 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: #000000; }#ftg-1212 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }#ftg-1212 .tile:hover img {-moz-transform: ;-webkit-transform: ;-o-transform: ;-ms-transform: ;transform: ;}IMG_9292IMG_9348IMG_9328IMG_9297IMG_9283IMG_9369IMG_9356jQuery('#ftg-1212 img.item').removeAttr('src');jQuery(document).ready(function () {setTimeout(function () {jQuery('#ftg-1212').finalTilesGallery({minTileWidth: 250,margin: 10,loadMethod: 'sequential',nonce: '78b426ba1e',galleryId: '12',setupFilters: true,layout: 'final',debug: false,gridSize: 25,disableGridSizeBelow:800,allowEnlargement: true,imageSizeFactor: [ [4000, 0.3],[1024, 0.3],[768, 0.2],[640, 0.3],[320, 0.2]],selectedFilter: 'n-a'});jQuery(function () {(function () {var rel = '';jQuery('#ftg-1212 .ftg-lightbox').click(function (e) {rel = jQuery(this).attr('rel');jQuery('#ftg-1212 .ftg-current').removeClass('ftg-current');jQuery('#ftg-1212 [rel="'+rel+'"]').addClass('ftg-current');});})();});}, 0);});

I met my friend Leland when he was in first grade and he came over to play with my son Henry. For six years now, we’ve been having a yearly conversation about how he’s doing and what he’s thinking about. He just finished his sophomore year at the Central Vermont Career Center in Barre, which is a technical education school. He was never big on regular school, even though he knows more about geography than I’ll ever know. Leland lives in an old farmhouse on a dirt road looking down over Pekin Brook in Calais. I drove over and I sat in my car and he sat in his truck and neither of us had a lot to say, in that way that a lot of us don’t have a lot to say right now, with so much that’s so uncertain…

Last month a friend of mine sent me a picture of miles and miles of cars lined up waiting for food that was being distributed by the National Guard here in Vermont. Nineteen hundred cars. I’d never seen anything like it, and it took me a minute to even believe it. And when I told a friend about it…a perfectly smart and thoughtful friend…he said, “Well, they probably don’t really need it. I mean, those are pretty nice cars…” It turns out there are lot of ways to be food insecure, and they’re all invisible, and they’re growing all the time. I went and talked with some people working on the front lines of hunger about this big federal food distribution program that’s all over the news, and we talked about the chronic problem of stigmatizing people who don’t have to enough to eat. ((Check out a gallery of pictures from this event below…)) In this show Robert Ostermeyer, Director of Franklin/Grand Isle Community Action at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity Nicole Whalen, Vermont Foodbank Faye Longo, Vermont Foodbank Music Brian Clark, Calais, Vermont Links to Information about Food How to find your local Foodbank Vermont Foodbank How to find your local food pantry The following pictures were taken by Terry J. Allen of East Montpelier, Vermont, at the Newport food distribution event in June, 2020. She’s great, and you can see more of her work here. #ftg-1111 .tile .icon { color:#ffffff; }#ftg-1111 .ftg-items .loading-bar i { background:#666; }#ftg-1111 .ftg-items .loading-bar { background:#fff; }#ftg-1111 .tile .icon { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1111 .tile .icon { margin: -6px 0 0 -6px; }#ftg-1111 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1111 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { font-size:12px; }#ftg-1111 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1111 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { font-size:14px; }#ftg-1111 .tile { background-color: transparent; }#ftg-1111 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1111 .tile .caption-block .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1111 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.text { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1111 .tile .caption-outside .text-wrapper span.title { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1111 .tile .ftg-social a { color: #ffffff; }#ftg-1111 .tile .caption-block { transition-duration:0.25s; }#ftg-1111 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: #000000; }#ftg-1111 .tile .tile-inner:before { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }#ftg-1111 .tile:hover img {-moz-transform: ;-webkit-transform: ;-o-transform: ;-ms-transform: ;transform: ;}jQuery('#ftg-1111 img.item').removeAttr('src');jQuery(document).ready(function () {setTimeout(function () {jQuery('#ftg-1111').finalTilesGallery({minTileWidth: 250,margin: 10,loadMethod: 'sequential',nonce: '78b426ba1e',galleryId: '11',setupFilters: true,layout: 'final',debug: false,gridSize: 25,disableGridSizeBelow:800,allowEnlargement: true,imageSizeFactor: [ [4000, 0.3],[1024, 0.3],[768, 0.2],[640, 0.3],[320, 0.2]],selectedFilter: 'n-a'});jQuery(function () {(function () {var rel = '';jQuery('#ftg-1111 .ftg-lightbox').click(function (e) {rel = jQuery(this).attr('rel');jQuery('#ftg-1111 .ftg-current').removeClass('ftg-current');jQuery('#ftg-1111 [rel="'+rel+'"]').addClass('ftg-current');});})();});}, 0);});

Here’s our last show, which also happens to be show number seven. In this show you heard Cheering healthcare workers in Barcelona and Toronto Greg’s son practicing trumpet on a rainy night in Plainfield, VT Brooke in Denver Colorado Rob on the accordian in Adamant, VT Bianca in Brooklyn, NY Gideon and his mother Kathryn in High Falls, NY Liv singing in Los Angeles, CA Toria in Boulder, CO Edward and his daughter in Forth Worth, TX Shane singing about dinosaurs in Minnesota The 5pm one song concert in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn Ali cheering the healthcare workers on her porch in Putney, VT And this is Mary and her dad Ted in Lincoln, VT The incomparable associate producer for this series is Samantha Broun. Thank you to Larry Massett and Scott Carrier and Tobin Anderson. Our Show is made in collaboration with Transom, the birthplace of excellent radio. I think this is our last show everybody. I’m not getting the same volume of recordings as I was a month ago. I think maybe we’re into a new stage of this pandemic experience, and maybe it’s more internal, where people don’t want to talk as much. If that changes again, and people suddenly have lots they want to say, and the recordings start building up again, then I can always make more. But for now I think we should congratulate ourselves for making an amazing thing together. Thank you ALL for the remarkable privilege of listening to your recordings from all over the world. It has carried me through this time and I am so grateful.

This is Our Show, number six. Your recordings about the pandemic. In this show you heard from: Alicia and Liv in Los Angeles, CA Ada in Marfa, Texas Anna in Bennington, Vermont The sound of rain in a woodstove from Bruce in Montreal Bill in New York City Morten in Southampton, United Kingdom Eli in Philadelphia, PA Katz in Amsterdam, The Netherlands Shana in Auchterarder, Scotland Samantha, somewhere in South Africa Jen in East London Bev and her mother Marj and her father Bill, in Toronto. Samantha Broun is the associate producer for this series, and she’s producing an amazing series right now about an ER nurse in Queens. You can find the latest episode here. The picture above is Morten’s beautiful daughter in their garden in Southampton, UK. Transom is my partner in this series, for which I feel extremely lucky. Keep sending your stories, from wherever you are. Sing a song. Record a phone call, or an argument, or your thoughts in the middle of the night. Say the location and the date at the beginning. And tell your friends to send their tape too. I’m hoping we make something that sounds like what’s happening. Send me your recordings at [email protected], and if you cant figure out how to do it, just email and we’ll figure it out together. Katz in Amsterdam Jen and kids in East London Anne Frank’s church bells in the distance, in Amsterdam

Here’s Our Show, number five…your recordings about the pandemic. In this show you hear from: Niels in Copenhagen, Denmark Thomas singing in El Cerrito, CA Rachel in Olympia, Washington Rob and his kids from Olympia, Washington Louisa in Brittany, France Another meditation from Cali in Florida Tomas in Berlin, Germany Molly’s bells in Las Cruces, NM Esther in Amsterdam, The Netherlands Ada and Mathew in Marfa, TX Carlos, in Bethesda, MD The Associate Producer for this series is the excellent, gifted Samantha Broun. The partner for this series is Transom. Above is a picture of Tomas’ plant. Keep sending your stories, from wherever you are. I listen to every one of them. And I love them. Sing a song. Record a phone call, or an argument, or your thoughts in the middle of the night. Say the location and the date at the beginning. And tell your friends to send their tape too. I’m hoping we make something that sounds like what’s happening. Send me your recordings at [email protected], and if you cant figure out how to do it, just email me and we’ll figure it out together. This pandemic is changing. In a lot of places, it’s becoming more dire. There are more people who are sick. More people have loved ones who are sick. Healthcare workers are overworked and scared and tired. And a lot of us are really worried about paying our bills. And in order to do as much justice to as many people as possible, we need to hear from these people on the front lines. If you know someone who is struggling, and may find it USEFUL to talk about it in a recording, tell them about the project. We want to hear from them. We’re making this show together, and it’s for all of us. Thank you for doing this with me.

Here is Our Show 4, your recordings during the pandemic. Thank you for sending me remarkable recordings from all over the world, and the intense privilege of making shows with them. In this show you hear from: Bill in New York City Clive in Toronto Tim in Durango, Colorado Bianca in New York City Andrew’s son reading Pi in Northhampton, Mass. Kelly in New Braunfels, Texas Ralph in North Wolcott, Vermont Amelia in Durham North Carolina Music by hand habits and Amelia Meath. Your Recordings! Keep sending your stories, from wherever you are. I listen to every one of them. And I’m pulling from ALL of them to make these new shows. Sing a song. Record a phone call, or an argument, or your thoughts in the middle o fthe night. Say the location and the date at the beginning. And tell your friends to send their tape too. I’m hoping we make something that sounds like what’s happening. Send me your recordings at [email protected], and if you cant figure out how to do it…. I’m happy to say that Transom is now a collaborator on Our Show. Transom is sort of where new radio gets born, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have become a radio producer if they didn’t exist back when I started. Thank you so much to Jay Allison and to Scott Carrier for support, and to Samantha Broun for support and editing.

This is Our Show number three…made from your recordings during the pandemic. Keep that tape coming. Let’s keep making damn shows. In this show you hear from: Elliott in Brooklyn and his mother Roberta who’s outside of Chicago Carlos in Bethesda Ryan in West Virginia Katy in New York City Darren in the middle of the south coast of England Silvia in Barcelona Jessica in Minneapolis Alicia and Liv in Los Angeles Scott in Streatham, London Greta in Los Angeles Karen on an island near Stockholm Sarah and Hannah in Essex, Vermont THANK YOU to Samantha Broun at Transom for all her help on this project. Picture above from Silvia in Barcelona. Recordings Send me your stories, from wherever you are. Sing a song. It doesn’t have to sound good. Record a phone call, or an argument, or whatever you like. Say the location and the date at the beginning. And tell your friends to send their tape too. Send it to me at [email protected], and if you cant figure out how to do it, email me at that address and we’ll figure it out. Jay Allison at Transom has posted ideas about how to record, and why. They are great, and more articulate than what I’ve written. Have a look and send to friends if they’re interested in recording. And better at communication than me. Darren, England Simone, San Francisco Sarah and Hannah, Vermont