The Claverack Podcast

John Bradley is a friend, a very thorough and thoughtful guy, and someone who I respect for taking the initiative to form the very first town advisory committee in Claverack. And I like how he approached it - form the committee first, then ask the Town Board if it's OK. We talk cycling, countryside, what climate change really means and why that isn't always about the greenhouse gas debate. And we talk about how this community is dealing with the very rapid change of the past...

Mat Zucker is a Claverack neighbor, and creator and host of the Cidiot podcast (Cidiot.com). He's been doing this for a lot longer than I have, but we have a similar interest in how people that live here contribute - in ways ranging from personal to artistic to commercial - so that Claverack and the surrounding county stay lovely and become even better. And in his own words, he's "taking back" the pejorative word Cidiot. We talk podcasts ( check his site for his interview with me!...

David Sokosh is a Claverackian artist, a photographer who works in older photographic chemistries such as tintype, wet collodion, anc cyanotype. If you don't know what those are, don't sweat it - you'll get the picture (see what I did there?). I ran across his work in a book he called "Things that look like the moon (but are not the moon). He's exhibited in many places, but if you're a local you might have seen his work in the Carrie Haddad gallery on Warren St in Hudson.&nb...

Tom and Tracy are close neighbors, and I wanted to talk with them because - like me - they are experimenting with how they manage their land to see if we can increase biodiversity. These days that means focusing on habitat for bugs and birds and a variety of plants, which is challenging on land that's been used for single crop agriculture for many years. Old school farming practices worked to eliminate insects, which we know now has downsides. But the conversation got more i...

Brenda Shufelt was born and raised in Claverack, but left home at a fairly young age for education and career with no particular intention to return. Older, looking toward retirement, and married she found that Columbia County and Claverack were calling her back. There aren't many places like this, are there? We talk about her background and how the things she experienced away from here gave her the self-confidence and drive to not only come home but to find ways to contribute to ...