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.

 

On the one-year anniversary of a 100-year flood, Vermont experienced another devastating flood. This is the story of one Plainfield, Vermont resident, who lost everything.

 

Thank you Vermont Public for letting me run this show on Rumble Strip.

What Class Are You is a periodic series I make for Vermont Public. Thank you Vermont Public for letting me share the series on Rumble Strip.

Hi all,

My father died a couple weeks ago. He died peacefully at the UVM Medical Center in Burlington. My mother and sister and I spent six days and nights with him, the last 4.5 in comfort care. It was quiet. We had a room we could all camp out in together. The death was a surprise but not a shock.

I’m putting out this announcement because work on the show is going slowly at the moment. Also because the show is very personal and it would seem odd not to tell you all.

My father was a brilliant, curious, funny man of enormous integrity. He taught me that everyone is an expert in their own life, and knows something you’d be better for if you knew it too. He was my first teacher in interviewing. He was also a terrible eavesdropper in restaurants.

Here’s his obituary if you want to read it.

Thanks for your patience everyone,
Erica

Susan Randall is a private investigator here in Vermont and she’s been my friend for twenty five years. If you listen to the show, you already know that I interview her periodically for Rumble Strip. We talk in her car, in her backyard…mostly we talk about her work as a private investigator, but lately we’ve been talking about all the complicated things that seem to start happening when you turn fifty. In our last conversation, she was just finishing treatments for breast cancer. And on New Year’s Day this year, she had a terrible medical incident that was a reaction to her cancer medication. So I went over to her house and we lay on the brown couch in her living room. We talked about her work, and some of the benefits of getting older.

Credits

For more information about Susan and her work, visit her site here.

Music for this show is by the excellent Brian Clark

Sponsor!

This show is sponsored by the excellent people at Honey Road, making the best food in Burlington on the corner of Church and Main. Click on the picture and check out the menu…

People often assume the Joslyn House is a nursing home, probably because a lot of old people live there. But it’s not a nursing home. It’s not assisted living. There’s no anonymous art on the wall. It’s not licensed by the state. It’s a house. It’s a a place where up to twenty older people live independently together…in a huge, elegant house furnished with their own things. There’s socializing when you want it, silence when you don’t, there’s sociable silence… there are three beautiful meals served a day. Residents are given a room, and rent is 1500 dollars a month.

I can’t believe every town doesn’t have a Joslyn House…a place in your own town where you can help each other as you get older. Where you don’t have to worry about cooking, where if you’re lonely at night there‘s someone to talk to, or sit with. In other words, a civilized place. A place where love is evident…

Credits

Thanks to all the residents who talked with me, and the beautiful Arlene and Becky Wright, managers of the house.

My friend Kelly Green produced this show with me. She’s great at this PLUS she’s a great defense attorney! If you’re in trouble, call Kelly!

Click here for more information on the Joslyn House

The song for this show is A Wave in the Air by The Imperfectionists, from their latest album, Universal Consent.

More of their music

And my frickin ALL TIME FAVORITE IMPERFECTIONIST SONG: Astroplane.

Sponsor!

This show is sponsored by the excellent people at Honey Road, making the best food in Burlington on the corner of Church and Main. Click on the picture and check out the menu…

An outtake with bear biologist Ben Kilham, about living with dyslexia, and how it informs the way he thinks about bears.

Ben Kilham and his sister Phoebe are the only licensed bear rehabilitators in the state of New Hampshire. For over twenty-five years, the Kilham Bear Center has taken in orphaned or injured black bear cubs and successfully released them back into the wild. And Ben has conducted arguably the longest scientific study of black bear behavior in history.

Until Ben Kilham, black bears were studied mostly using tracking collars. But Ben has spent decades following bears in the woods, sometimes for nine hours at a time. As his orphan cubs acclimate to their natural environment, he watches them. He naps when they nap, he moves when they move, and he studies their complex social behaviors. One of his very first cubs, Squirty, is twenty-four years old this year. She lives in woods near his home, and he’s watched her become a mother, and now a grandmother. Bear biologists have generally assumed that black bears were solitary animals. Ben Kilham has proven them very wrong.

Links

Kilham Bear Center: the place for all information on the rehabilitation program, Ben’s research, videos and books for sale….

Cubs Video: I could not figure out how to attach more video. For more, go to Ben’s website above…

The photos below are lent to Rumble Strip by Ben. Please don’t copy. Thank you!….:

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For many years I have privately loved the song Total Eclipse of the Heart, by Bonnie Tyler. I started to love it when it came out in 1983, when I was fourteen.

This month I’m turning fifty. And for some reason, every time I think about turning fifty, I think about singing this song that I’ve loved for over over thirty years, and making other people listen to me sing it. I guess in a way it’s a kind of phoenix moment I’m hoping for. That I’ll burn up in some exquisite shame and then I’ll be born again into the second chapter of a century.

So I asked my friends Mike and Brian and Tobin to record the song with me in the  East Calais community center at the back of the post office.

I knew they didn’t like the song and they didn’t really want to do it, so I felt really bad asking them to do it, which in a way seemed like part o the phoenix moment I was looking for.

I feel ambivalent about turning fifty. I don’t know what’s supposed to happen next. So I recorded conversations with some friends about getting older. I talked with my son Henry, who’s 16. Bianca Giaever is 29. Scott Carrier is 60-something. And Clare Dolan is around my age.

Here’s a show about turning fifty and recording Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Credits

Thank you to Scott Bassage for helping me secure the best recording studio in central Vermont at the back of the East Calais post office

Thank you to the band: Brian Clark, Mike Donofrio and Tobin Anderson (pictures below)

Thank you to my friends who talked with me for this show: Scott Carrier, Clare Dolan, Bianca Giaever and Henry Heilman

Sponsor!

This show is sponsored by the excellent people at Honey Road, making the best food in Burlington on the corner of Church and Main. Click on the picture and check out the menu…

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Patrick Soniera has been hunting and tracking bobcats in Vermont for fifty years, and he has a diary entry about every single hunt–the weather, the birds or the bears, the behavior of the cat tracks he followed–his diaries fill one whole wall of his office. And for the majority of those days out in the woods, Patrick never even saw a bobcat. You almost never see them, which is why Patrick is so fascinated by these cats.

Last year Patrick went out tracking cats with his hounds a hundred and fifty times and he shot one bobcat. He says it isn’t about the killing. And that’s what all good hunters say. And when you ask, ‘Well then why not just take a camera?’, the answer is always the same.

‘Because I’m a hunter.’

After years of interviewing good hunters, I’m beginning to understand the tautological logic of this. Part of Patrick’s love for bobcats is the fact of the hunt. And part of why he’s able to share years’ worth of knowledge with Vermont Fish and Wildlife is because now and then he kills one.

Thank you to Louis Porter of Vermont Fish and Wildlife for recommending Patrick to me. I love the state where I live…

This show is sponsored by Honey Road, my all time favorite restaurant in Vermont. Make a reservation. Go. Eat. Report back. And click on the image below for more information.

This is the fifth episode of Problems, a radio drama about Pam and Joel, two old friends who support each other through their problems. In this episode, Joel’s just come back from a long vacation in British Colombia, where he had a lovely time mountain biking with friends. But…there were some problems.

This show is sponsored by Honey Road, my all time favorite restaurant in Vermont. Make a reservation. Go. Eat. Report back. And click on the image below for more information.

Garret Keizer and I stood together in a field, in the late summer, in the Northeast Kingdom, and he read poems from his new book, The World Pushes Back.

I first heard of Garret a few years ago when I read his book, Getting Schooled, about his years as a high school teacher up here in the Kingdom. He described this place more honestly and more humanely…than anything I’d ever read about the place before. And his stories about his own experience teaching are almost brutally honest. I’ve never read an account of teaching quite like it.

Garret’s one of the only writers where I find myself copying whole passages down from his work, as if I’ll need them later. They’re not always easy or nice things I copy down. Garret Keizer is one of the most critical and also most contemplative people I’ve ever met. I write these passages down because they remind me of something fundamental about being human that I don’t want to forget.

He’s just come out with his first book of poetry, so we drove around and talked in his car until we found the perfect field to read poetry in. It was some of the best, and most surprising conversation I’ve had in a long time.

Links and Credits

For more of Garret’s work, visit his site here.

One of my favorite articles he’s written for Harper’s is called Requiem for the Private Word….

Garret will be the headlining reader at the opening ceremony of the Burlington Book Festival on September 27th at 7:00. For more information, go here.

Music for this show is by Vermont musician Brian Clark

And thanks also to my wonderful sponsor, Honey Road. The best restaurant in Burlington. Click below to read about the menu…

It’s the summer musical in Randolph, Vermont…one day before showtime. It’s been an annual event at Chandler Music Hall for over twenty years, and this year they’re putting on Footloose. And honestly? It feels like the whole town is involved. Like it takes every last person in Randolph to pull this thing off…again. To put on a full musical with up to 120 kids, in three weeks? It’s a miracle.

I spent an afternoon talking with some of the kids backstage, about their lives in musical theater. And even though we were sitting on the floor in a Xerox room, they were willing to sing songs from the show…from their hearts. This is theater magic. Welcome.

Thank you SO MUCH to Kelly Green, associate producer on this show. Also Ramsey Papp for her help and guidance. And thanks also to my wonderful sponsor, Honey Road. The best restaurant in Burlington. Click below to read about the menu…

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Toj Marceau as Cranston

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Reagan Papp as Willard

Many of you got in touch with me after Isaac's story aired in the first week of What Class Are You. Isaac's on his way to Columbia in the fall, on a full scholarship, and you came up with amazing ideas for how you might be helpful, so I went back up to Newport to discuss it all with Isaac. And it turned into a really interesting conversation on a number of fronts. 

Leland lives over the hill from me in East Calais. We’ve been friends since he was in first grade, and every year around this time we get together and he tells me what he’s thinking about, worried about, what his plans are. He got his driver’s permit two weeks ago so he drove me over to Number 10 Pond and we sat and talked about the ups and downs of his first year of high school, about girls, about avocado toast…

Credits

Music for this show is by Vermont musician Brian Clark, who is the lead singer and songwriter for the band Anachronist. Which is awesome.

Rumble Strip is sponsored by the best restaurant in Burlington, Vermont. It’s called Honey Road. Click on the image below to read about their menu of Eastern Mediterranean small plates…

If you drive around rural Vermont, you see logging skidders parked in people’s dooryards. You see them working in smaller woodlots and residential woodlots, felling trees with a chainsaw at twenty below zero, dragging cables through waist deep snow. It’s dangerous work, and they’re a resilient lot. And they prefer logging by hand.

This story is about them.

Credits

This show is part of The Resilient Forest series produced by Northern Woodlands and first aired on NEXT, a weekly radio show and podcast about New England. The Resilient Forest Series is supported by the Davis Conservation Foundation and the Larson Fund. Most of the loggers you heard are part of the landscape of the vast working forest of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, the subject of a special report in the Summer 2019 issue of Northern Woodlands magazine. You can find that reporting HERE.

Rumble Strip is sponsored by the best restaurant in Burlington, Vermont. It’s called Honey Road, and I ate there a couple weeks ago and honestly it was the best meal I’ve had in years. Plus the place is wicked fun. Ask for the drink that comes in two glasses….you won’t regret it.

Original music for this series is produced by Vermont musician and Rumble Strip collaborator and friend Brian Clark. In fact, here is a picture of his band, Anachronist, looking very serious:

Gamelan Sulukala is a group of fifteen people in central Vermont who come together at the dead end of a dirt road in the basement of the Goddard College library, to play Indonesian music on an ornate, court gamelan made on the island of Java.  There is no harmony. Instead, each sound is part of an intricate layering of patterns. No one instrument, or musician stands alone.

Except the people in gamelan are people who very much stand alone. Writers and strawberry farmers and scientists and Renaissance music lovers…I guess what I’d say they have in common is they all seem to need to be alone a lot…which describes most central Vermonters I know. Also…they come here with a common purpose….to get lost in something that’s more than the sum of their parts…

Thanks so much to Steven Light and Kathy Light, who lead and inspire this group. Thank you Tobin for all your help on this show. And thanks also to all the gamelan players who talked with me.

Here’s a great article in Seven Days about Gamelan Sulukala.

This show is sponsored by the best restaurant in Burlington, Honey Road, at the corner of Church Street and Main Street. It is amazing. Go eat there and tell them I sent you! And click below to learn more….

When I was in high school I remember being amazed by how much grownups seemed to forget about being young. But as it turns out….you do forget. A lot of it. And a lot of it’s important, and funny, and sometimes scary.

I do remember that I hated high school graduation. Not because I didn’t want to graduate, but because I knew I was supposed to be excited but I didn’t know how to be excited about a future that didn’t exist yet and that I couldn’t imagine.

So a couple weeks before graduation, I went to St. Johnsbury Academy and I talked with nine high school seniors…about what they’re afraid of, what they’re excited about….and also, prom. We talked about prom.

Credits

Thank you to the students: Jack Luna, Fiona Sweeney, Hope Reeve, Riley Taylor, Grace Nadeau, Ce Ce Jones, Shawn Guckin, Lucas Masure and David George.

Music is by Vermont musician Brian Clark.

Thanks to Phoebe Cobb and Melissa Burroughs for their help and patience setting all these interviews up!

Sponsor!

This show is sponsored by the excellent people at Honey Road, making the best food in Burlington on the corner of Church and Main. Click on the picture and check out the menu…

The criminal justice system is not designed to answer to the needs of crime victims. It’s designed to figure out if there’s enough evidence to bring a case. If there is, a defense attorney builds a case for the defendant and a prosecutor builds a case for the state of Vermont. The alleged victim in the case becomes a witness in their own story. They may have felt the impact of a crime, but they play no direct role in how the crime is adjudicated. For most people brand new to the system, this comes as a shock.

In every Vermont prosecutor’s office, in the Vermont State Police, in the Department of Corrections, there are people who see to the needs of these victims, from the time a crime is reported until long after the attorneys have gone home. It’s not their job to build cases or determine guilt or innocence. Their job is to support the victims in their cases. And that can mean a million different things. But always it’s complex and deeply personal.

This is a story about the victim advocates.

This show features:

Kate Brayton, victim advocate for Vermont’s Major Crime Unit

Amy Farr, victim advocate for Vermont’s Attorney General’s Office

Val Gauthier, victim specialist at the FBI covering Vermont and the Plattsburgh area

Aimee Stearns, victim witness coordinator at Vermont’s U.S. Attorney’s office

Danielle Levesque, victim service specialist at Vermont’s Department of Corrections

Kelly Woodward, victim advocate at the Franklin County State’s Attorney’s Office and victim advocate at the Northwest Unit for Special Investigations

Big Thanks to Toni Monsey for introducing me to these women, and to Jessica Dorr, Corrections Services Director.

Music for this show by Vermont musician Brian Clark and Kai Engel

This show is sponsored by Honey Road, the best restaurant in Burlington, Vermont. Click below for menu and accolades….

Welcome to the fourth episode of Problems, a radio drama about Pam and Joel, two old friends who support each other through their problems…because no problem is too small to complain about.

In this episode, Joel pays a visit to Pam at her house and brings her a small gift. Joel’s daughter, Whitney, has started at public school. Pam’s daughter River had a harder time at public school, and now she’s back at the local private school.

Welcome.

Captain JP Sinclair has been at the center of over five-hundred death investigations and a hundred-and-one homicides in the state of Vermont. He served as the state’s chief criminal investigator and he led the Vermont State Police’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations. He was also instrumental in forming a major crime unit in the state of Vermont to handle the state’s most egregious cases.

And we used to play little league together.

JP and I went to Charlotte Central School together from Kindergarten through eighth grade. And when you go to a school as small as ours, you remember each other. And what I remember about JP is just that he was just a decent kid. He helped Mrs. Atkins clean up the cafeteria after lunch.

JP retired from the Vermont State Police in September, 2018.

We talked about his life in the VSP. We don’t get into the explicit details of homicides, but I do want to warn people that we talk about the Melissa Jenkins case. Jenkins was a mother and teacher here in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and she was raped and murdered by a married couple in 2012. So if you don’t want to be reminded of this story, you might want to skip that section.

JP Sinclair now runs a mill and works as a logger in the Northeast Kingdom. You can find him at Sinclair Millworks and Timber Harvesting

Credits and Sponsors

Thank you to writer and editor Mark Davis for his excellent feedback on this show.

Thanks also to Brian Clark who wrote the music for this show.

This show is sponsored by Honey Road, the best restaurant in Burlington, Vermont. Click below for menu and accolades….

I interviewed T.O. back in the summer of 2017. He’d just gotten out of prison, where he’s spent the majority of his adult life, and he was trying to figure out what to do next. After we met, he found employment and he enrolled at the Community College of Vermont. Things were going well. But what does it feel like to start a brand new life? It’s hard. And it’s complicated.

Credits

Music by Brian Clark

T.O.’s Poetry

Patience

Peep dis…
What’s patience??
What’s life w embracing trials and TRIBULATIONS without…
Patience???
Like…ppls ignorance… judgements…n gossiping…
Without patience.. there is no
Betterment!!!
I can’t reach my goals(10 folds)..
Until I reflect or resurrect..”my new from my old!!”
Looking back only seems
To subtract..&..
I find myself on da WRONG tracks..
Blinded by what..
I COULDN’T KEEP INTACT!!!
I initiate All I make…
Bcause it’s a fact…
“ONLY WEAKLINGS BREAK!!!”
God disciplines…
So with each reprimand…
Im grow into thicker skin..
Which brings into existence…
A GREATER MAN!!!
My physical is living proof…
How PATIENCE..is da key
which could ONLY..
Strengthen me..
2 b a wiser me!!!
So PATIENCE…
How I love thee…
I’m not single..
But damn bitch..
“Would u marry me??”

Peace…
Triple OMEGA

What’s Love?

What’s love?
Y is it so much pain??
Y does it shone lite on my soul..
Regardless 2 my darkest rains???
Y can’t I c past it??
Y won’t it allow me 2 4 get?
Y do I admire it as if..it’s my twin bastard??
How can it tug on my mind??
Y do it give me visions..when I think I’m blind?(what am I??)
Y do I continue to bust thru shittyations?
Y does it give me strength..n all I’m facing?
Beauty b the name!!!
Victorious n all life’s Lane’s..
But 1 thing…will always remain..
Dis motherfucka… won’t Eva get tired of GAIN..
It will make a sane person turn..INsane.
It’ll also mend a ..dats been crushed & broken..ova n OVA again…
It’s ONLY 1 rule 2 dis game..
Which is Neva/EVA rush…
Or u will find yaself in da repetitive position…!!!!!!!

P.e.a.c.e.!!!
I’m TripleOmega

It’s EZ

It’s EZ..2 have friends..
When ur tricking..or spending dividends!!
It’s EZ…2 smile@ life..
When it’s breezy, smooth or nyce!!
It’s EZ…2 have sights..
When Ur tunneled visioned..
Thru what U swore defined..
Da right life!!!
It’s jus EZ…to say..I Love U!!!..
When U don’t reflect on da issues..
Or da shit dat made u!!
So…if U ask me..
PERSONALLY… I don’t agree…w Any1
Or Anything dat respects…EZ!!!
TRIALS N TRIBULATIONS…
bring mental n spirit-u-all..
PERSEVERANCE..
Bcause da True key to being PROSPEROUS..is when Ur @
Peace…w PATIENCE!!!
What dey eat… WON’T…
make u SHIT!!!
SO…what dey drink..
CAN’T make u piss!!(get it?)
It’s a lesson…(less w/n)
Jus ask yaself a question…
WHO DROPPING U JEWELZ
4 DA PROPER DIRECTION?
All hugs n smiles.. don’t come w blessings…
So..b on point w who u have in close sections!!!
Ya enemies..are truly ya friend…
Bcause they teach u 2 manifest…morals..like..HOW?? WHERE?? WHEN??
So..I ask u my FRIENDS…(lol)..
Is having it EASY…
Defining a win????
If so..u Betta think 3x again..

Peace n blessings…T.O.

I spent the night before deer season at Jim Welch’s deer camp in Chelsea, Vermont. His camp is an old school bus, outfitted with a woodstove and a couple pallets in the back for sleeping. To get to it you have to drive through Mr. Bradshaw’s barnyard and then about a half mile across a field. The bus has been there for as long as Jim can remember and Mr. Bradshaw lets him use it.

So a bunch of Jim’s friends were coming out to the bus to do what they always do the night before deer season, which is mostly drink beer, tell deer stories, eat burned hamburgers, bitch about hunting permissions and land use and give each other a hard time. And no surprise, there was plenty of profanity. And since there’s no movie theater, no bowling alley or much cell service in this valley, fun is something you have to make up together as you go along….

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A lot of you who listen to the show regularly already know Susan Randall. She’s a private investigator and an old friend and I interview her now and then for the show. A couple months ago Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer. It’s important to say right off that I think Susan’s going to be fine. The cancer hasn’t spread. She doesn’t need chemotherapy, and she’s almost done with her radiation therapy. But the diagnosis has made her think differently about her life. We got together at the hospital and talked about parenting, about aging, and mortality.

Credits:

Thank you to the great people at Radiation Oncology at The University of Vermont–Kate and Lena, Heather and Dr. Nelson. Also thanks to the University of Vermont Breast Care Center and to Michael Carrese and Annie Mackin. To read more about Susan’s private investigation business, go to vtprivateye.com. And for more shows with Susan on Rumble Strip, just go to the episodes listed below.

Susan’s private investigation business is called VTPrivateye

Music: Ticket to Ride, by the Carpenters.

What Class Are You is a periodic series I make for Vermont Public. Thank you Vermont Public for letting me share the series on Rumble Strip.

I spent a day riding around with game warden, Jeff Whipple, on the second weekend of deer season…just when some hunters are getting frustrated they haven’t got their deer yet.

Exciting things happened.

Game wardens are like nature’s cops. They’re trained in law enforcement, but they’re also conservationists. Their job is to look after the wilderness areas and forests that make up 75 percent of Vermont. They’re spread thin across the state, so in order to respond quickly to calls, they have to work in the districts where they live. That means that their neighbors are also their constituents.

What’s most interesting to ME about game wardens is they come into contact with just about every kind of Vermonter, and they have to be able to talk with anyone. I love people like that.

Jeff lives in Chelsea, Vermont. His district includes areas of Orange and Windsor counties. His district is crazy beautiful.

What most people outside Vermont know about Christine Hallquist is that she was the country’s first transgender gubernatorial candidate. But it’s not what she ran on–and it’s not even what was most interesting about her campaign.

The day before election day, Christine and her team had just finished a fourteen-county Road to Victory Tour,  which involved going to places like Lunenburg, Vermont, population 1302. And this wasn’t her first visit to Lunenburg. Christine’s campaign focused on rural Vermont, on people in small towns in far flung places, and many of the towns she visited over the course of the campaign had never even seen a gubernatorial candidate before.

In my book, that’s what made her candidacy special. Not to mention the fact that the odds were against her–no ones beaten a gubernatorial incumbent in VT in 56 years.

I asked her if I could follow her around in the days leading up to the election. She said yes. And I did. I watched her planting Christine signs along Route 2. While she was at it, she righted a few sandwich board signs for Sunday night bingo that had blown over. She made countless calls and took credit card numbers from donors on the phone.

I guess it’s possible that other gubernatorial candidates do all this. But I doubt it.

Here’s Christine Hallquist in her final push for governor. Welcome.

Thank Yous

Thank you Teddy Waszazak, David Glidden, and Cameron Russell.

Thank you Mark Davis for producing this show with me.

Thank you John Van Hoesen for giving me the idea for this story.

Phone by Cameron Russell.

Welcome to another episode of Problems–a series about Pam and Joel, two old friends who support each other through their problems. Because no problem is too small to complain about.

This is a special episode, featuring special celebrity guest, Steve McFadden. McFadden is an acclaimed performance artist from Chicago, and old friend of Pam’s. His work is extreme, and always dangerous. Pam was conducting the interview on behalf of her daughter River, who was uncomfortable conducting the interview herself, which was a problem.

Sarah Holland had no history of mental illness. She was a full-time R.N., she had three kids and a small farm. She was busy. Then suddenly she started to experience symptoms of depression. She didn’t have a name for it. No one in her world had ever talked about mental health. But pretty soon Sarah was having a hard time working, and parenting.

This is a story of one woman’s struggle with major depression, and her recovery.

This show is the first in a seven-part series I produced for Vermont Public Radio called They Are Us, which features personal stories from inside the state’s mental healthcare system.

Comments: Please make a comment or share a story if you’ve got one. Comments and conversation are part of the point!

Credits:

Series Advisor: Dillon Burns, mental health services director at Vermont Care Partners

Series Associate Producers: Clare Dolan, Mark Davis

Series Executive Director: Sarah Ashworth

VPR Advisors: Franny Bastian and John Dillon

Mixing: Chris Albertine

Digital Producer: Meg Malone

Series Logo: Aaron Shrewsbury

Music for this series is by two excellent Montreal-based bands:

Godspeed You! Black Emporer and Esmerine. Special thanks to the awesome Bruce Cawdron

Sarah Holland’s awesome landscape company: River’s Bend Design

For more information about the series, visit VPR. You’ll find the series schedule and resources.

Very big thanks to the following people for their knowledge, time and advice: M.T. Anderson, Melissa Bailey, Gretchen Brown, Seleem Choudhury, Anne Clement, Jimmy Dennison, Isabelle Desjardins, Laurie Emerson, Deb Fleischman, Laura Flint, Al Gobeille, Alix Goldschmidt, Gary Gordon, Keith Grier, Heather Houle, Jenniflower, Karen Kurrle, Lt. Maurice Lamothe, Sabrina Leal, Fran Levine, Martie Majoros, Jack McCullough, Mark McGee, Megan McKeever, Betsy Morse, Bess O’Brien, Roxanne Pearson, Julie Potter and her beautiful daughter, Malaika Puffer, Michael Rousse, Marla Simpson, Montpelier Senior Activity Center, Sandy Steingard, Tony Stevens, Cindy Tabor, Gloria Vandenberg, Konstantin von Krusenstiern.

How should people live long-term in our state if they have a serious mental illness? The hope is that they’ll find ways to integrate into their communities with support, but that’s proven tough to accomplish. In this show we look at the challenges in our community mental health care system.

Featuring:

• Ken Libertoff, former director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health
• Anne Donahue, state representative from Northfield and Berlin, editor of Counterpoint
• Greg Mairs, operational director of adult services at Counseling Service of Addison County
• Mary Moulton, executive director of Washington County Mental Health Services
• Michael Hartman, adult mental health director at Lamoille County Mental Health
• Connie Stabler, mother and Howard Center board member
• Louis Josephson, president and CEO of Brattleboro Retreat

This show is part of a seven-part series I produced for Vermont Public Radio called They Are Us, which features personal stories from inside the state’s mental healthcare system.

Comments: Please make a comment or share a story if you’ve got one. Comments and conversation are part of the point!

Credits:

Series Advisor: Dillon Burns, mental health services director at Vermont Care Partners

Series Associate Producers: Clare Dolan, Mark Davis

Series Executive Director: Sarah Ashworth

VPR Advisors: Franny Bastian and John Dillon

Mixing: Chris Albertine

Digital Producer: Meg Malone

Series Logo: Aaron Shrewsbury

Picture: Anne Donahue knockin it out of the park

Music for this series is by two excellent Montreal-based bands:

Godspeed You! Black Emporer and Esmerine. Special thanks to the awesome Bruce Cawdron

For more information about the series, visit VPR. You’ll find the series schedule and resources.

Very big thanks to the following people for their knowledge, time and advice: M.T. Anderson, Melissa Bailey, Gretchen Brown, Seleem Choudhury, Anne Clement, Jimmy Dennison, Isabelle Desjardins, Laurie Emerson, Deb Fleischman, Laura Flint, Al Gobeille, Alix Goldschmidt, Gary Gordon, Keith Grier, Heather Houle, Jenniflower, Karen Kurrle, Lt. Maurice Lamothe, Sabrina Leal, Fran Levine, Martie Majoros, Jack McCullough, Mark McGee, Megan McKeever, Betsy Morse, Bess O’Brien, Roxanne Pearson, Julie Potter and her beautiful daughter, Malaika Puffer, Michael Rousse, Marla Simpson, Montpelier Senior Activity Center, Sandy Steingard, Tony Stevens, Cindy Tabor, Gloria Vandenberg, Konstantin von Krusenstiern.

Both Alexis and Steve were diagnosed with schizophrenia. This is the story about how meaningful, paid work plays a role in their recovery.

Featuring:

• Paul Miller, co-coordinator of the Green Mountain Workforce, Washington County Mental Health
• Louis Josephson, president and CEO of Brattleboro Retreat
• Alexis Kyriak, artist
• Steve, culinary worker

This show is part of a seven-part series I produced for Vermont Public Radio called They Are Us, which features personal stories from inside the state’s mental healthcare system.

Comments: Please make a comment or share a story if you’ve got one. Comments and conversation are part of the point!

Credits:

Series Advisor: Dillon Burns, mental health services director at Vermont Care Partners

Series Associate Producers: Clare Dolan, Mark Davis

Series Executive Director: Sarah Ashworth

VPR Advisors: Franny Bastian and John Dillon

Mixing: Chris Albertine

Digital Producer: Meg Malone

Series Logo: Aaron Shrewsbury

Music for this series is by two excellent Montreal-based bands:

Godspeed You! Black Emporer and Esmerine. Special thanks to the awesome Bruce Cawdron

Photo of Alexis by Diana Gonsalves

For more information about the series, visit VPR. You’ll find the series schedule and resources.

Very big thanks to the following people for their knowledge, time and advice: M.T. Anderson, Melissa Bailey, Gretchen Brown, Seleem Choudhury, Anne Clement, Jimmy Dennison, Isabelle Desjardins, Laurie Emerson, Deb Fleischman, Laura Flint, Al Gobeille, Alix Goldschmidt, Gary Gordon, Keith Grier, Heather Houle, Jenniflower, Karen Kurrle, Lt. Maurice Lamothe, Sabrina Leal, Fran Levine, Martie Majoros, Jack McCullough, Mark McGee, Megan McKeever, Betsy Morse, Bess O’Brien, Roxanne Pearson, Julie Potter and her beautiful daughter, Malaika Puffer, Michael Rousse, Marla Simpson, Montpelier Senior Activity Center, Sandy Steingard, Tony Stevens, Cindy Tabor, Gloria Vandenberg, Konstantin von Krusenstiern.

Leslie Nelson has heard voices for as long as she can remember. She sees things other people don’t see. This is a conversation about what it’s like to be normal, from Leslie’s point of view, and the incredible power of finding people like herself to talk with about their normal lives with mental illness.

Featuring:

• Leslie Nelson, START Team Leader, Howard Center

This show is part of a seven-part series I produced for Vermont Public Radio called They Are Us, which features personal stories from inside the state’s mental healthcare system.

Comments: Please make a comment or share a story if you’ve got one. Comments and conversation are part of the point!

Credits:

Series Advisor: Dillon Burns, mental health services director at Vermont Care Partners

Series Associate Producers: Clare Dolan, Mark Davis

Series Executive Director: Sarah Ashworth

VPR Advisors: Franny Bastian and John Dillon

Mixing: Chris Albertine

Digital Producer: Meg Malone

Series Logo: Aaron Shrewsbury

Music for this series is by two excellent Montreal-based bands:

Godspeed You! Black Emporer and Esmerine. Special thanks to the awesome Bruce Cawdron

For more information about the series, visit VPR. You’ll find the series schedule and resources.

Very big thanks to the following people for their knowledge, time and advice: M.T. Anderson, Melissa Bailey, Gretchen Brown, Seleem Choudhury, Anne Clement, Jimmy Dennison, Isabelle Desjardins, Laurie Emerson, Deb Fleischman, Laura Flint, Al Gobeille, Alix Goldschmidt, Gary Gordon, Keith Grier, Heather Houle, Jenniflower, Karen Kurrle, Lt. Maurice Lamothe, Sabrina Leal, Fran Levine, Martie Majoros, Jack McCullough, Mark McGee, Megan McKeever, Betsy Morse, Bess O’Brien, Roxanne Pearson, Julie Potter and her beautiful daughter, Malaika Puffer, Michael Rousse, Marla Simpson, Montpelier Senior Activity Center, Sandy Steingard, Tony Stevens, Cindy Tabor, Gloria Vandenberg, Konstantin von Krusenstiern.

Connie’s son was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was nineteen, just as he was becoming independent. He didn’t believe there was anything wrong with him. He did not want to seek treatment. And since he was legally an adult, his parents stood by and watched his life fall apart.

Ron’s story was much the same.

One in 100 adults is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and for most, the onset is around this time, in late adolescence, and parents often play a critical role in their care. As caregivers, crisis responders, money lenders…and often they end up having to figure out for themselves which services are available to them, in the complex network of programs that make up the community mental health system.

This is a story about what it’s like, day to day, year to year, to be the parent of an adult child with schizophrenia.

I’d love to hear your comments. Just go to the show page and scroll to the bottom and you’ll find a comment box there.

Featuring:

• Connie Stabler, a mother and Howard Center board member
• Ron, a father (note: we are only using Ron’s first name)

This show is part of a seven-part series I produced for Vermont Public Radio called They Are Us, which features personal stories from inside the state’s mental healthcare system.

Comments: Please make a comment or share a story if you’ve got one. Comments and conversation are part of the point!

Credits:

Series Advisor: Dillon Burns, mental health services director at Vermont Care Partners

Series Associate Producers: Clare Dolan, Mark Davis

Series Executive Director: Sarah Ashworth

VPR Advisors: Franny Bastian and John Dillon

Mixing: Chris Albertine

Digital Producer: Meg Malone

Series Logo: Aaron Shrewsbury

Music for this series is by two excellent Montreal-based bands:

Godspeed You! Black Emporer and Esmerine. Special thanks to the awesome Bruce Cawdron

For more information about the series, visit VPR. You’ll find the series schedule and resources.

Very big thanks to the following people for their knowledge, time and advice: M.T. Anderson, Melissa Bailey, Gretchen Brown, Seleem Choudhury, Anne Clement, Jimmy Dennison, Isabelle Desjardins, Laurie Emerson, Deb Fleischman, Laura Flint, Al Gobeille, Alix Goldschmidt, Gary Gordon, Keith Grier, Heather Houle, Jenniflower, Karen Kurrle, Lt. Maurice Lamothe, Sabrina Leal, Fran Levine, Martie Majoros, Jack McCullough, Mark McGee, Megan McKeever, Betsy Morse, Bess O’Brien, Roxanne Pearson, Julie Potter and her beautiful daughter, Malaika Puffer, Michael Rousse, Marla Simpson, Montpelier Senior Activity Center, Sandy Steingard, Tony Stevens, Cindy Tabor, Gloria Vandenberg, Konstantin von Krusenstiern.

There are Vermonters who experience psychiatric crises for years — and repeated visits to emergency rooms and psychiatric hospitals. Where do they go when they leave the hospital? And why do they keep coming back? This is a story about the role housing plays in mental health.

Featuring:

• Ken Libertoff, former director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health
• Louis Josephson, president and CEO of Brattleboro Retreat
• Brian Lincourt, night charge nurse at Brattleboro Retreat
• Connie Stabler, mother and Howard Center board member
• Karl Jeffries, unit chief for adult inpatient unit at Brattleboro Retreat

This show is part of a seven-part series I produced for Vermont Public Radio called They Are Us, which features personal stories from inside the state’s mental healthcare system.

Comments: Please make a comment or share a story if you’ve got one. Comments and conversation are part of the point!

Credits:

Series Advisor: Dillon Burns, mental health services director at Vermont Care Partners

Series Associate Producers: Clare Dolan, Mark Davis

Series Executive Director: Sarah Ashworth

VPR Advisors: Franny Bastian and John Dillon

Mixing: Chris Albertine

Digital Producer: Meg Malone

Series Logo: Aaron Shrewsbury

Music for this series is by two excellent Montreal-based bands:

Godspeed You! Black Emporer and Esmerine. Special thanks to the awesome Bruce Cawdron

For more information about the series, visit VPR. You’ll find the series schedule and resources.

Very big thanks to the following people for their knowledge, time and advice: M.T. Anderson, Melissa Bailey, Gretchen Brown, Seleem Choudhury, Anne Clement, Jimmy Dennison, Isabelle Desjardins, Laurie Emerson, Deb Fleischman, Laura Flint, Al Gobeille, Alix Goldschmidt, Gary Gordon, Keith Grier, Heather Houle, Jenniflower, Karen Kurrle, Lt. Maurice Lamothe, Sabrina Leal, Fran Levine, Martie Majoros, Jack McCullough, Mark McGee, Megan McKeever, Betsy Morse, Bess O’Brien, Roxanne Pearson, Julie Potter and her beautiful daughter, Malaika Puffer, Michael Rousse, Marla Simpson, Montpelier Senior Activity Center, Sandy Steingard, Tony Stevens, Cindy Tabor, Gloria Vandenberg, Konstantin von Krusenstiern.

A story about Vermont’s only permanent, supervised housing for people with serious mental illness.

Featuring:

• Anne Donohue, state representative from Northfield and Berlin, editor of Counterpoint
• Graham Parker, MyPad director
• Connie Stabler, mother and Howard Center board member

This show is part of a seven-part series I produced for Vermont Public Radio called They Are Us, which features personal stories from inside the state’s mental healthcare system.

Comments: Please make a comment or share a story if you’ve got one. Comments and conversation are part of the point!

Credits:

Series Advisor: Dillon Burns, mental health services director at Vermont Care Partners

Series Associate Producers: Clare Dolan, Mark Davis

Series Executive Director: Sarah Ashworth

VPR Advisors: Franny Bastian and John Dillon

Mixing: Chris Albertine

Digital Producer: Meg Malone

Series Logo: Aaron Shrewsbury

Music for this series is by two excellent Montreal-based bands:

Godspeed You! Black Emporer and Esmerine. Special thanks to the awesome Bruce Cawdron

For more information about the series, visit VPR. You’ll find the series schedule and resources.

Very big thanks to the following people for their knowledge, time and advice: M.T. Anderson, Melissa Bailey, Gretchen Brown, Seleem Choudhury, Anne Clement, Jimmy Dennison, Isabelle Desjardins, Laurie Emerson, Deb Fleischman, Laura Flint, Al Gobeille, Alix Goldschmidt, Gary Gordon, Keith Grier, Heather Houle, Jenniflower, Karen Kurrle, Lt. Maurice Lamothe, Sabrina Leal, Fran Levine, Martie Majoros, Jack McCullough, Mark McGee, Megan McKeever, Betsy Morse, Bess O’Brien, Roxanne Pearson, Julie Potter and her beautiful daughter, Malaika Puffer, Michael Rousse, Marla Simpson, Montpelier Senior Activity Center, Sandy Steingard, Tony Stevens, Cindy Tabor, Gloria Vandenberg, Konstantin von Krusenstiern.

What Class Are You is a periodic series I make for Vermont Public. Thank you Vermont Public for letting me share the series on Rumble Strip.

We didn’t have cheerleading at my school. Or pep rallies. I think we would’ve made fun of cheering and cheerleaders at my school. Because we were scared and cruel and had no idea what we were missing.

My son just started high school and I snuck into the gym for his first pep rally. I almost wept. Seeing all those kids—the freshmen and the seniors and the football players and the shy kids—kids at a stage in life that can be so self conscious and horrible—seeing them all clapping and cheering together and ‘moving to the left and shaking to the right’….it was ridiculous and beautiful and unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

And right at the middle of all of it were the cheerleaders. So I went and talked with them. They talked about why they love cheerleading and what they’re afraid of and what they’re proud of and what they want to be with they grow up. And school spirit…

Thanks to all the girls on the St. Johnsbury Academy Cheerleading team for talking with me, and coaches Deb Priest and Chrissy Carr. For more pictures and info on the team, click here.

Thanks also to Mark Davis for his great advice. As always.

Our Generous Sponsor:

This show is sponsored by Honey Road, one of Burlington’s most popular restaurants down on Church and Main. It serves Eastern Mediterranean small plates. And it’s the kind of restaurant where you want everything on the menu. You share, you eat, they take away the finished plates and bring new ones. In other words, it’s episodic and fun. It’s also woman owned, woman run, and Allison and Cara have made a sane and happy work environment. You can even buy the kitchen staff a bucket of beer…

Steve Grody has dedicated his life to his passions. He’s an accomplished swing dance teacher. He’s a self defense instructor. And in the last twenty-eight years, he’s taken tens of thousands of photographs of graffiti in his hometown of Los Angeles. This is a conversation about the decades he’s spent wandering alleyways, climbing under bridges and through tunnels,  documenting this ephemeral art.

This program is produced by Bianca Giaever. She’s a writer, filmmaker, artist and radio producer, and recently I heard a story she made with Jay Allison that was sublime. It’s called Two Years with Franz, about the Pulitzer-winning poet Franz Wright. It’s beautiful and I highly recommend it. Her college film, the Scared is scared was named Web Video of the Year by USA Today but more importantly, it’s awesome.

More about Steve

You can see Steve Grody’s photos in his book,  Graffiti L.A., Street Styles and Art, and he has curated and contributed to graffiti art shows at MOCA LA and the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

Steve Grody’s blog

Ted Talk with Steve

Music

A Day At The Racetrack, by the musician Julian Lynch

Additional music by Zubin Hensler and Jacob Blumberg

This is a show about women running for office. It’s not about issues or policies. You won’t learn where these women stand on public education or healthcare. It’s just about being a woman…running for office.

The truth is I’m tired of hearing about women running for office. I think there’s a liberal assumption that I already understand why that’s a good thing. But we’re not really supposed to talk explicitly about how being a woman, and not being a man, can be a value in and of itself.

So I figured it would be interesting to talk explicitly about it with some women running for office in Vermont. And it turns out they had plenty to say. It also turns out they’re all people I’d want to have a beer with…that gold standard of good male political candidates.

In this program you’ll hear from:

Kathleen James, running for the Vermont House in the Bennnington-4 District.

Becca White, running for the Vermont House in Hartford.

Christine Hallquist, the Democratic nominee for governor in Vermont.

Ruth Hardy, running for State Senate in Addison County. She is also the executive director of Emerge Vermont, which recruits and trains women to run for office in Vermont.

This show is sponsored by Honey Road, one of Burlington’s most popular restaurants down on Church and Main. It serves Eastern Mediterranean small plates. And it’s the kind of restaurant where you want everything on the menu. You share, you eat, they take away the finished plates and bring new ones. In other words, it’s episodic and fun. It’s also woman owned, woman run, and Allison and Cara have made a sane and happy work environment. You can even buy the kitchen staff a bucket of beer…

Thank you to my excellent and smart journalist friend Mark Davis.

I want to thank The Athanaeum in St. Johnsbury for allowing me to conduct an interview in their beautiful building.

Music for this show by Blue Dot Sessions from the Free Music Archive

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Becca and Christine

https://rumblestrip.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Kathleen-20181.jpg

Kathleen James

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Becca White

Daphne Kalmar was a school teacher for over twenty years. She taught in California, Massachusetts and then in a small school in Vermont. She was one of those teachers. One of the exciting and inspiring ones you never forget…one of the teachers who sees every kid.

Daphne is now a children’s book author and she’s just published her first book, A Stitch in Time. We sat in her kitchen by an open window. It had that late summer sound to it, the sound I associate with the beginning of school in Vermont. We talked about her new book, but mostly we talked about what it’s like to fall in love with a new batch of kids every September, and then let them go.

Credits

Daphne Kalmar’s Website

Music by Esmerine

More Esmerine

Esmerine Facebook

Additional music by Brian Clark and Mike Donofrio

I picked Amelia up at The Shelburne Museum the other day. It was a few hours before her soundcheck so she had some time to kill and we took a slow drive down by the lake. She drove. She’s a good driver.

Amelia is one half of the band Sylvan Esso. Nick Sanborn is the other half. I’m not great at music genres but I’ve heard their music described as ‘electro-pop’, as ‘glitchy metropolitan folk’ (what??). Anyway, their music is incredibly fun, bent, smart, and they can turn the end of the world into a dance party. Their show moves like a train. Non-stop dancing and a stunning light show.

Last time I talked with Amelia was about a year and a half ago. Since then, Sylvan Esso has entered the drinking water. It’s everywhere. They’ve gotten famous, which I figure must be a really strange thing to be. Amelia and I drove around and I asked her what it’s like to be famous, which is one of those things that you’re not really supposed to talk about, but I wanted to know what it feels like, and how fame affects her life. And also we talked about other things…and she sang a little.

Here’s a show. It’s driving around with Amelia. And lots of great music.

And there’s some swearing.

Sylvan Esso’s latest music video: Parade.

Sylvan Esso official website

Thomas Caswell has autism. Which doesn’t tell you very much about him.

Autism doesn’t describe a person. If you’ve met one person with autism, then you’ve met one person…with autism. But over the last couple years Thomas has been coming out of the closet, in stages. And along with the common difficulties of coming out, there are some special difficulties if you’re a person with a disability. In this show, Thomas talks about growing up with autism, and growing into his life as a gay man.

Credits and Links

Thank you to the amazing Emily Anderson, the advocacy facilitator and Bridging coordinator, at Champlain Community Services, which focuses on career development for people with intellectual disabilities and autism. The Bridging Program helps students negotiate the transition from high school to adulthood. Thomas is working on a Sartac fellowship through Green Mountain Self Advocates. Champlain Voices encourages people to express themselves through self-advocacy.

Music for this show is by Brian Clark and Mike Donofrio.
Also, Blues Arrangement for Toy Piano and Piano Margaret Leng Tan

Reviews
Here’s a lovely review of the show by my favorite podcast reviewer, Ben Cannon.

It’s time again for another conversation with my neighbor Leland. He’s fourteen now. He just finished eighth grade. He’s got big plans for the summer.

This is the fourth year I’ve interviewed Leland about what he’s doing and what’s on his mind, and what’s on his mind is always pretty interesting.

This year he took me out to his fort, in a pine forest about a half mile from his house. It’s a tarp held up by two beams, and covered with brush piles. There’s a firepit. We sat in a couple lawn chairs and talked about his year, about cow skulls and bear turds and North Korea…

Credits

This show is sponsored by Honey Road, one of Burlington’s most popular restaurants down on Church and Main. It serves Eastern Mediterranean small plates. And it’s the kind of restaurant where you want everything on the menu. You share, you eat, they take away the finished plates and bring new ones. In other words, it’s episodic and fun. It’s also woman owned, woman run, and Allison and Cara have made a sane and happy work environment. You can even buy the kitchen staff a bucket of beer…

Music for this show is by Brian Clark, Mike Donofrio and Peter Cressy, my talented friends here in central Vermont.

Welcome to the second episode of Problems, an occasional mini-series of  Rumble Strip. Problems. Because no problem is too small to complain about.

Problems stars Pam and Joel, old friends who support each other through their problems. We left off with Joel, who was in the midst of a pretty inconvenient bathroom renovation in his house, and Pam, who’s been dealing with some issues with her daughter River. River’s been biting other kids at school.

Here is a very special addition to the song from listener James Roggenbeck. So many of you don’t understand River and what she goes through as a sensitive child. But James? He does. Here is his tribute.

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It’s almost summer here in central Vermont, and as it gets hotter, it seems to get more dangerous. Law enforcement is working hard behind the scenes to keep people safe. Also to keep cows safe. Here’s the police log, read by Scott Carrier.

Depending on who you talk to, The Shaggs were either one of the best bands from the ’60s, or one of the worst bands of all time.

Helen, Betty and Dot Wiggin grew up in Fremont, New Hampshire. They had no interest in music, no natural talent for music, and in the late ’60s, their father forced them to drop out of school and start a rock band. In their living room. And then he forced them to record an album.

Decades later, The Shaggs became a cult classic….beloved by the likes of Frank Zappa, Sonic Youth and Kurt Cobain. And the sisters were suddenly in a spotlight they never expected, or desired.

In this show, The New Yorker’s Susan Orlean talks about her reporting on the origins of The Shaggs.

This show was produced for a FANTASTIC series out of KCRW, called Lost Notes. I highly recommend checking it out.

I produced this show with:

Susan Orlean of The New Yorker

Nick White of KCRW

Myke Dodge Weiskopf of KCRW

The present day interview with The Shaggs was by Avishay Artsy

What Class Are  You is a periodic series I make for Vermont Public. Thank you Vermont Public for letting me share this series with Rumble Strip. 

Directions to Carl Blaisdell’s house: Go about seven miles down this road. Then there’s a road that kind of goes up to a Jersey farm on the left and then there’s a pond. But there’s no sign to the pond. So after the pond, drive past the pull-off and Carl’s trailer sits way up in a field at the top of that hill. There’s a lot of pipes. And a lot of cars and trucks. And lots and lots of hounds.

But Carl wasn’t home. And so I went back the next day and we sat in his truck and talked. Carl’s trailer looks out over the farm he ran for most of his life, then sold. After farming, Carl seemed to make a smooth transition to being a mountain man, which is how he described himself, and the name pretty much fits. He’s private. He only goes to town to get something he needs. His life is close to the ground, to his dogs, and to the outside.

Larry Massett was inspired by the hounds and made this short piece. It’s called Where’s Carl.

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Credits

This interview was conducted while I was reporting for an episode about the Northeast Kingdom, by Brave Little State, which you can find HERE.

Music for this episode is by Emily Kueppers

And here’s a link to Caplan’s Army Store, where I have bought a LOT of socks.

This is a show I made back in 2008. I’m running it as a tribute to my friend Greg Sharrow. Greg was one of the first people I met when I came back to Vermont in 2003. I didn’t have many friends, I didn’t have a job or really any plans, and it was the middle of winter. And then I met Greg at his office in the old Vermont Folklife Center building in Middelbury. It was crammed with books, and we sat down and talked for two hours, and it was that kind of talk where you’re almost gulping each other down. And he became one of the funnest, and maybe one of the most important friends of my life.

Greg Sharrow died two days ago at his home in North Carolina, with Bob and their dear friend Brian at his bedside.

This is a story about Greg, and his husband Bob, and Greg’s mother, Marjory. Marjory had dementia in the years before her death. This is a show about what remained for them, after the forgetting. Welcome.

For a longer version of this show, and an additional interview with Greg, click here

Photos by Evie Lovett

Music by Karinne Keithley Syers and Doris Day

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.

–Rumi

This winter Susan Randall worked with the defense on a sentencing case for a high profile multiple-murder here in Vermont. A sentencing is the time for considering the pain caused by a crime. It’s also a time to ask, How did we get here? What happened in the life of this person that led her to do what she did?

For months, Susan worked closely with the woman who committed these murders, creating a profile of her life, her history, and her family. It’s a story of almost unimaginable, multi-generational abuse…abuse which started two generations before her birth. In the end, the perpetrator received a sentence of life without parole. I’m not going to name her here because it’s a very sensitive case in Vermont, and this story is not about her. It’s about what it’s like to work closely on cases like these as a private investigator, and what happens after the cases are closed.

Susan’s private investigation business is here.

The music for this show was made by Emily Kueppers. Thank you Emily!