Rural Remix

Tony Pipa is part policy wonk, part story teller. He focuses on connecting with policy makers, local leaders, and community members to reimagine federal policy to fit the needs of rural America. He uses his wide range of expertise to uplift stories of progress and success in rural communities.We talk with the native rural Pennsylvanian about the diversity of rural America, his new podcast, and bringing the rural story to Washington D.C. Tony Pipa is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution. Tony launched and leads the Reimagining Federal Rural Policy initative, which seeks to modernize and transform U.S. federal policy to enable community and economic development in underserved rural places across the U.S. He hosts the Reimagine Rural podcast, which profiles rural towns across America that are making progress on their efforts to thrive amid social and economic change. Tony serves as the vice-chair of the board of directors of StriveTogether; as a senior associate research fellow in the Global Cities program at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies; and as a member of several task forces and advisory committees. He grew up in rural Elysburg, Pennsylvania, in the heart of anthracite coal country and attended Stanford University, graduated from Duke University, and earned a Master of Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School.  

Whitney Kimball Coe talks with Brother Hill (Brett Hill), folk musician, singer, songwriter, and humanitarian volunteer from southern Ohio, known for his dynamic voice, insightful lyricism, and engaging stage presence. Brother Hill performs as frontman in Appalachian folk-quintet “Hill Spirits” and also as American representative of the Ukrainian-Belarusian-American folk project “Slavalachia”, which has allied representatives of Slavic and American folk traditions together since 2019 to promote cultural solidarity and forge new bridges for creative cultural expression. Hill visited eastern Ukraine delivering donations of medical supplies and performing for Ukrainian troops fighting on the frontlines as part of the “From Ohio With Love” campaign, which he founded with colleague Benya Stewart within the first week of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. To date the grassroots campaign has raised over $86,000 for Ukrainian causes, primarily through folk concerts in Ohio. Funds raised support the hand-delivery of CAT tourniquets and Advanced Bleed Control Kits to mobilized units across Ukraine. Hill will be returning to Ukraine in May for another delivery of supplies, and to continue fortifying long-standing cultural support through performances across the country and collaborations with Ukrainian artists. Besides his work abroad, Brett Hill is an active partner with United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary in Meigs County, Ohio, as member of their Deep Ecology Fellowship. Since receiving this fellowship in 2020, Hill and United Plant Savers have collaborated with West End Distillery in Athens, Ohio to craft Hill Spirits Elder Gin- a sustainably and locally sourced botanical gin, the proceeds of which ($5000 since July 2021) go to benefit American Ginseng preservation in southeast Ohio. Hill has self-released three albums under the Brother Hill moniker (the Summoning of Brother Hill [2017], the Dereliction of Brother Hill [2019], and Blackfish [2021]) as well as two albums with Hill Spirits (Omens EP [2020], Hill Spirits [2020]) and a full length self-titled album with folk alliance Slavalachia [2022]. Released this Spring will be compilation album Three Gardens, featuring Slavalachia counterparts Benya Stewart and Siarzhuk Douhushau (of Belarus). The three began recording the compilation within two months of the invasion as a means of coping with the realities of war and separation from their Ukrainian bandmates who remained in Ukraine. It is a compilation of content varying from songs learned during their time in Ukraine, to original songs written about the war, to traditional Appalachian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian folk materials.

As we reach the end of a monumental year for reproductive justice, we talk with Rebecca Stern, a student activist and former Rural Assembly intern who spent her summer in Whitesburg, Ky. at The Center for Rural Strategies headquarters. Becca interviewed rural young people about their thoughts and concerns about reproductive justice following the reversal of Roe v. Wade. We talk with Becca about what she heard and we will be sharing those interviews and stories at www.ruralassembly.org. Rebecca Stern is a second-year Robertson Scholar at UNC Chapel Hill studying Public Policy and Global Gender Studies. This past summer, she interned at the Center for Rural Strategies, mainly working with the Rural Assembly on rural policy and writing a bit for the Daily Yonder. Her main project was interviewing rural youth about reproductive health and access to contraceptives and sex education following the overturn of Roe vs. Wade. At UNC and Duke, Rebecca is the Campus Outreach Coordinator and Advocate at the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF), a Bryan Fellow, Penny Pilgrim George Women's Leadership Initiative Cohort Member, and the Tour Manager of the UNC Loreleis.

We talk with Xandr Brown, producer of the new exhibit "Free Hill: Renewal and Rememory,"  about the story of Free Hill, a community of free Black residents of Athens, Tennessee that was established before the 1840s and later demolished as part of urban renewal. Families that lived in the Free Hill area were displaced after phases of urban renewal, spearheaded by the City of Athens, which demolished their homes in the 60’s and 70’s to the benefit of Tennessee Wesleyan University. Through video, oral histories, and portraits, the exhibit "explores the relationship between place, personal memory, and identity as a way to challenge collective assumptions about democracy, freedom, and equality."  The exhibit is hosted by the Athens Area Council for the Arts (AACA) through December 12, 2022. An online multimedia version of the exhibit will be available soon at ruralassembly.org. Sign up for newsletters at www.ruralassembly.org/newsletters for more.  Xandr Brown is currently a multimedia producer with the Center for Rural Strategies. In 2018, she graduated from the University of Rochester in upstate New York with a BA in History and Communications with a minor in Environmental Humanities. Before reporting for the Daily Yonder she previously reported with hyperlocal newsrooms in Flint, Michigan. While trained as a journalist, she aspires to continue to do community engaged, multimedia exhibits based in the intersection of oral history, ethnography, and documentary.

As a rural health care reporter, Liz Carey has spent much of the past two years writing about the pandemic. But one day, she received a press release about something other than Covid ... Big Foot. We talk with Liz about how that led to her new e-book "Rural Monsters, Myths, and Legends," an exploration of not only the cryptids themselves, but the impact they've had on communities and people — and how some rural towns are using these tales of alien encounters, lake monsters, and other legends as economic development strategies. About the book Across rural America — in its forested woods, its remote lakes, and its sprawling fields — there is plenty of room for the wild and weird to take root. Just beyond the gaze of “normal” existence, strange sightings and odd encounters have lingered in the minds and memories of many rural communities. Contrary to what you might think, these stories are not simply silly or scary. Call them foolish or farfetched if you must, but they offer a valuable window into the unique culture and community life of places often unseen and under-appreciated. Originally published in the Daily Yonder, we invite you to join us in this closer look at the cryptids of rural America. Let your imagination roam, welcome feelings of wonder or dread, and, if only for a moment, ponder the possibilities beyond what’s proven and known. Rural Monsters, Myths and Legends takes a look at not just the tales from these remotes areas of the country, but what kind of an impact they've had on their communities and the people who experienced them. From alien encounters to tales of water dancing nymphs to evil witches set on revenge to beasts hiding in the mountains of Appalachia, walk with us through the farmland, the swamps, the desert roads and the chilly lake waters where the unknown and mysterious lurks just out of sight. About Liz Carey Liz Carey is a journalist, author and writing teacher living in Central Kentucky. A graduate of Miami University, she worked as a reporter for 20+ years and earned more than 30 awards for her writing and reporting before setting off on her own as a freelance writer. Currently, she writes about rural health, Appalachian culture, the transportation industry, workers’ compensation and Kentucky arts and entertainment. She started working for the Daily Yonder in 2018 writing a story about cast iron Dutch ovens before convincing them to give her more newsy stuff. Today, she serves as one of the Daily Yonder’s rural health reporters and on the growing rural mental health crisis, the rural opioid crisis, the rural health care system and rural electric vehicle systems.

Jessica Shelton and Katie Myers have been on the frontlines of responding to the flooding disaster in Eastern Kentucky in a variety of roles. We talk with them about their work and the region's recovery. Jessica Shelton is the director of the Appalachian Media Institute at Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky.  We talk with her about her work as an organizer with the grassroots organization EKY Mutual Aid, which has been helping those directly impacted by the devastating floods that hit southeastern Kentucky in late July by meeting needs in real time and offering direct cash assistance. Katie Myers is the economic transition reporter for the Ohio Valley ReSource and WMMT 88.7 FM in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Her work has also appeared on NPR and Inside Appalachia, and in Belt Magazine, Scalawag Magazine, the Daily Yonder, and others. We talk with Katie about reporting on the flood and her own experience waking up to the disaster.  To get these podcasts and more rural stories in your inbox, register at www.ruralassembly.org/newsletters

When we can work from anywhere, does place matter? That's the question award-winning writer Melody Warnick poses in her latest book, If You Could Live Anywhere: The Surprising Importance of Place in a Work-from-Anywhere World.  We talk with Warnick about the book, her own life in Blacksburg, Virginia, and how to you choose where to live — and how to make a community feel like home. More about Melody Warnick Melody Warnick is the author of This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are, a book that explains the concept of place attachment and helps people fall in love with their town. Her second book,  If You Could Live Anywhere: The Surprising Importance of Place in a Work-from-Anywhere World, helps location-independent people find the right place to achieve success and happiness. Warnick has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Reader's Digest, Fast Company, The Guardian, Slate, Quartz, CityLab, Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, O: The Oprah Magazine, Medium, Livability, and many other publications. Learn more about melodywarnick.com

Whitney talks with Tim Lampkin, co-founder and CEO of Higher Purpose Co, a 501(c)(3) economic justice nonprofit that works with Black residents to build wealth across Mississippi, specifically by supporting Black ownership and financial, cultural, and political power. Whitney and Tim discuss his return to Mississippi more than a decade ago, closing the racial wealth gap, and the powerful benefits of ownership. Lampkin has over a decade of community development and entrepreneurship experience. He previously managed the racial equity program for the Mississippi Humanities Council, which won the National 2018 Schwartz prize. He also worked for Southern Bancorp Community Partners to implement multimillion dollar community initiatives and has advised rural entrepreneurs in several counties.  Learn more about the Rural Assembly by getting our newsletters in your inbox: https://www.ruralassembly.org/newsletter-subscribe 

We welcome Lyndsie Bourgon, author of "Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods" to Everywhere Radio.   Bourgon wanted to know more about how tree poaching affects forests like the one in her front yard. Her research led her to stories about our human quest for dignity and identity in the face of displacement and poverty.  (Find the transcript and more on our episode page.)  Lyndsie Bourgon is a writer, researcher, oral historian, and 2018 National Geographic Explorer. She writes about the environment and its entanglement with history, culture, and identity, and her features have been published in The Atlantic, Smithsonian, the Guardian, the Oxford American,  Aeon, The Walrus, Hazlitt, and elsewhere. Her first book, Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s Woods, came out in June 2022.    Everywhere Radio is a production of The Rural Assembly. Get this podcast in your inbox, along with stories and news from rural leaders, allies, and their communities in our weekly Rural Assembly newsletter: https://www.ruralassembly.org/newsletters-subscribe.

We're taking a short break for the summer. Everywhere Radio will be back in August with more of the good, scrappy, joyful ways rural people are building a more inclusive nation. Until then, keep following The Rural Assembly's other work at https://www.ruralassembly.org. A new episode of our video series Everywhere Extra drops next week. It explores Native American representation in the media. We’ve got clips and interviews with some searing voices including writer and actor Bobby Wilson of Rutherford Falls and the hit series Reservation Dogs.  You'll find that, plus video episodes of this season's podcasts, on our Youtube Channel. See you in August!  Transcript Hi everyone, it’s Whitney, checking in to let you know that Everywhere Radio is taking a summer break. You know what I’m talking about—we’re pausing our program in June, July, and early August to catch our breath, lean into new projects, travel to conferences and events and hopefully score some vacation time, too. I hope all of you are getting the same opportunities to reconnect, recreate, and maybe recalibrate your work a little. Our staff also plans to use these summer months to reflect upon the work we’re doing in the world. We’re setting aside time to wrestle with questions like “What is ours to do in this season?” and “Why do we think building an inclusive nation is essential to the future of rural and urban places?” It feels important to sit with these big questions every so often, to make sure that everything we put out into the world—from Everywhere Radio to our virtual events to our email newsletters is responsive and true to the spirit of our call to be caring and courageous right now. Just because we’re not in the recording studio however does not mean we aren’t creating spaces and content for you: There are lots of things to look forward to on the Rural Assembly platform this summer, especially, the premier of our newest episode of Everywhere Extra. The latest video drops the week of June 27. It’s a sort of mini documentary that explores Native American representation in the media. We’ve got clips and interviews with some searing voices including writer and actor Bobby Wilson of Rutherford Falls and the hit series Reservation Dogs.  We’ll also continue sending the latest news, stories and rural advocacy opportunities that you’ve come to expect via our email newsletters. If you’re not yet signed up, head over to ruralassembly.org and click the subscribe button. If you’re looking for more video content, you can access all the videos from Rural Assembly Everywhere on our YouTube channel. There are hours there of  programming featuring artists and poets, civic leaders and experts. If you are looking for another podcast, check out The Yonder Report, a weekly podcast rounding up the latest rural news, produced by The Daily Yonder and public news service. You can listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

On this episode of Everywhere Radio, a group of neighbors from McMinn County, Tennessee, discuss book banning and how it played out in their own community when the school board pulled Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize winning novel "Maus" from the 8th grade curriculum. They talk about the book ban in McMinn as indicative of a broader national trend, how their community is addressing it, and what they feel is truly at stake in this moment. Join Whitney Kimball-Coe, Vice President of National Programs Center for Rural Strategies, and her McMinn County, Tenn., neighbors: Stephen Dick, Austin Sauerbrei, Alex Sharp, Liv Cook, Cynthia McCowan and Dr. Patricia Waters. Everywhere Radio, hosted by Whitney Kimball Coe, features rural leaders and allies and spotlights the good, scrappy, joyful ways rural people are building a more inclusive nation. New episodes of the podcast release every other Thursday. Everywhere Radio is a production of the Rural Assembly, a program of the nonprofit Center for Rural Strategies, which also publishes the Daily Yonder. Everywhere Radio: https://www.ruralassembly.org/podcasts Subscribe to Rural Assembly: https://www.ruralassembly.org/newsletter-subscribe #rural #bookbans #libraries #bookchallenges #ALA #rurallibraries #Maus #McMinn #ruralassembly #everywhereradio #ruralpodcasts #schoollibraries #publiclibraries #artSpiegelman #books

We talk with Anthony Flaccavento about his work in bridging the rural-urban divide, coming from Baltimore to Appalachia, and why farming keeps him humble. Listen to Everywhere Radio wherever you stream podcasts. Flaccavento is the co-founder of RUBI, the Rural-Urban Bridge Initiative.  Flaccavento is also farmer and rural development consultant from Abingdon, Virginia in the heart of the Appalachian Coalfields.  The Founder of Appalachian Sustainable Development, Flaccavento has focused most of his work over the past four decades on building healthier food systems and more diverse, locally rooted economies in Appalchia and around the world.  His consulting firm, SCALE, Inc, works with communities across the nation to evaluate, plan and build healthier farm and food systems and local economies. Flaccavento is the author of Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up:  Harnessing Real World Experience for Transformative Change (University Press of Kentucky, 2016), along with “Healthy Food Systems:  A Toolkit for Building Value Chains” (self-published) and scores of articles and op-eds.  He writes and speaks regularly on rural development, bottom up economics, overcoming the rural-urban divide and and a range of political and cultural issues.  He has taught course on these topics at Future Generations University, Emory & Henry College and community colleges. Flaccavento was the Democratic Candidate for the U.S. House in 2018, and remains involved in trying to impact politics and the public debate.  He is the co-founder of RUBI, the Rural-Urban Bridge Initiative, through which he works with colleagues to lead public forums and trainings designed to help people understand and begin to overcome the rural-urban divide.  He has also compiled The Rural-Urban Divide:  A Guidebook to Understanding the Problem and Forging Solutions.  He is married to Laurel, a retired public school teacher, and has three terrific grown children.

Our guest on Everywhere Radio is Cynthia McCowan, a community activist and connector. She's an advocate for black lives in Athens, Tennessee, and is spearheading a project to ensure black histories and experiences are acknowledged in this small rural town.

Our guest Teri Carter writes about rural politics, and now she's living them. Carter talks with Everywhere Radio about why she's a progressive running as a Republican for magistrate in her Kentucky county, how she stays in relationship with neighbors, and how she became a political writer. About the guest: Carter lives in Anderson County, Kentucky, where she writes about rural politics. You can find her work at the Lexington Herald-Leader, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Daily Yonder. She has a BA in English from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from San Jose State University. She teaches at The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, Kentucky, and is working on a book about stepfamilies. About the podcast: Everywhere Radio, hosted by Whitney Kimball Coe, features rural leaders and allies spotlighting the good, scrappy, joyful ways rural people are building a more inclusive nation. Everywhere Radio is produced by the Rural Assembly. All the links: 🔔 Subscribe to our Youtube channel: https://bit.ly/TheRuralAssemblyYT 🎧FIND all podcast episodes: www.ruralassembly.org/podcasts Subscribe: https://www.ruralassembly.org/newsletter-subscribe About this episode: https://www.ruralassembly.org/podcasts/everywhere-radio-teri-carter

On this episode of Everywhere Radio, we talk with Starre Haas, an advocate for women’s leadership and empowerment, mother, wife, and entrepreneur. We talk with Starre about her journey from accounting to women’s empowerment and politics and what it has meant to build a new community and life with her family in Hope, Alaska. Formerly with VoteRunLead, Starre is the founder and CEO of Community Connections Now, a company that focuses on empowering women through networking and leadership development and of the nonprofit, The Everyday Bold Woman, formed to spotlight and provide leadership training and financial resources to women, particularly mothers and homemakers, women who have been suffering as a result of the pandemic. Everywhere Radio is a production of the Rural Assembly. Learn more at rural assembly.org/podcasts.

Skylar Baker-Jordan is a freelance writer from Appalachia, covering topics from British politics to LGBTQ culture in rural America. Skylar and Whitney talk about Skylar's journey as "an upwardly mobile and openly gay" person who chose to return to rural America to make a difference in his own community.

Everywhere Radio returns for season two! Host Whitney Kimball Coe talks with Daily Yonder Editor Tim Marema about the role news journalism plays in a democracy, how the pandemic has affected Daily Yonder coverage, and why Reservation Dogs is one of the best shows, ever.

On this episode, we're sharing a conversation with author Diane Wilson (Dakota). Wilson sat down with Rural Assembly Program Associate Tyler Owens during Rural Women Everywhere to talk about Wilson’s most recent book "The Seed Keeper," which follows a Dakota family's struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most. During this conversation Owens and Wilson explore where Wilson finds her inspiration, the importance of continuing a tradition of storytelling, and the importance of connection to the earth.  Diane Wilson is a writer, speaker, and editor, who has published two award-winning books, as well as essays in numerous publications. Her new novel, The Seed Keeper, was published by Milkweed Editions in March. Find the transcript and a full video of this interview at ruralassembly.org/podcasts/everywhere-radio-diane-wilson. 

This week on Everywhere Radio, Whitney welcomes Nikiko Masumoto, organic farmer,  memory keeper, and artist. Nikiko is Yonsei, a fourth-generation Japanese American, and works the same soil her great-grandparents worked in California. In an agricultural world where 86 percent of farmers are men, most landowners are white, and few are queer, she employs art and creativity to access her power as an organic farmer. Whitney and Nikiko discuss making art, family history, farming, and seeking wholeness rather than perfection.

This episode of Everywhere Radio features a conversation between Gladys Godinez and Norma Flores López, Chief Programs Officer for Justice for Migrant Women. From working in the fields at the age of 12 to advocating for Immigrants, Latine/x/os and migrant farmworkers in Washington D.C. today, Norma's story is inspiring. This episode, which first aired during Rural Women Everywhere, is brought to you by the Rural Assembly, Justice for Migrant Women, and United by Culture Media. Godinez recorded this interview for both Everywhere Radio and her own podcast, Courageous Mujer.