Rumble Strip

I stopped in to visit with Forrest Foster about his barn project. Here's our conversation.

Williams Family Field of Dreams Tractor Pulls 

A couple weeks ago my friend Susan Randall came to visit. She’s a private investigator and we’ve been friends for thirty years and every  now and then we get together and compare notes on our lives, and on what the hell is going on. Sometimes we talk about her work, sometimes our kids, once we made a show about a dead owl.This has been a very difficult year for Susan. In this  conversation, we talk about her health...and the federal government.

Bryan's substack, Chasing Nature Bryan's article about the zombie snails and some wicked video

Links:Adopt a Station: Where you can donate to your local public radio station or find stations to supportTransom: The place where good radio beginsRecent New York Times interview with Bill Siemering about the fate of public radioInformation on Transom story trainingsRumble Strip episode w Jay called Fishing with Jay

The women in this show are: Clare Dolan, Holly Rae Taylor, Alison Bechdel, Deb Fleischman, Annie Greensfelder, Rosana Vestuti and Tamar Cole. Thanks to all the kids and families and dogs and loons and crows that were there that day on the pond. And the trumpet guy.Huge thanks to Chelsea Edgar for your edits. 

This is the last episode in season 6 of What Class are You?, a periodic series I make for Vermont Public.Susan Ritz grew up in a wealthy family in Minnesota. For the past 36 years, she's lived in central Vermont, where she writes books and is an active philanthropist. In this episode of "What class are you?" we talk about the surprising complexities of having more than most.

Today, episode 4 of season SIX of What Class are You?, a periodic series I make for Vermont Public about living in the American class system. In today’s episode, we revisit Kytreana Patrick, who was a guest from the first class series back in 2022. Back then, Kytreana was working as a cashier at Olney’s general store in Orleans, Vermont. Since then, Kytreana’s gotten a job at a factory that manufactures combat helmets. She’s got a small apartment in Newport, and this past January she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Emberlyn. Thank you Vermont Public!

Dan Sedon has been working as a criminal defense attorney in Vermont, where he works with poor people and rich people and all the people in between. In this latest episode of What Class are You?, reporter Erica Heilman talks with Dan about what this line of work has taught him about the American class system.What Class are You? is a periodic series I make for Vermont Public. Thank you Vermont Public for letting me share this series with the Rumble Strip audience. 

What Class Are You? is a periodic series I make for Vermont Public about our lives in the American class system.Sharon Plumb works for a statewide nonprofit in the outdoor recreation sector. She lives in East Montpelier with her husband and daughter.In this conversation,  Sharon talks about the advantages she sees in the lives of people whose parents are able to help their kids financially all the way into adulthood.

This is a series I make for  Vermont Public. Thank  you to Vermont Public for allowing me to run this series on Rumble Strip.

This is the fourth episode of What Now Sounds Like, a periodic series comprised entirely of your recordings from all over the world, in which we try to capture these strange times in audio. In this show you hear from Bryce in New York City, Stephanie in middle Appalachia, Tobin making eggs in Santa Rosa, California, George in New York City, Allison in Vermont, the Utah symphony warming up, gongs in Tacoma, Washington, a school meeting about AI in the classroom, Early in Arkansas, Jenn in London, coyotes in Middlesex Vermont, Rachel in Tonga, horns celebrating Tibetan New Year in Kathmandu, Marlo in Washington, and Amelia humming in Durham North Carolina. 

This was the inaugural year of Hardwick State, a weekend long university in Hardwick, Vermont, organized by the Civic Standard, and designed to take place during the awfulest time of the year. People from around Hardwick become professors and students. Classes are free, and everyone’s welcome to teach at Hardwick State. Maybe you teach something you do in your regular job. Maybe it’s just something you’re good at. Maybe it’s something you’re not very good at but you love it and you’re better than most.Here are some highlights from Hardwick State.  Visit the Civic StandardPhotos by Terry J. Allen. For a steady stream of great photos and essays, visit Terry's substack here. It's free.

Death in Venice is a story Larry Massett produced in the early 80s. Joe Frank narrates, and Larry wrote and performed all the music.

We're raising money to rebuild Forrest Foster's barn. This is a very short story (plea) about it. And here is the GoFundMe!!  

Larry Massett was driving up through northern California toward Oregon and ended up spending a little more time at Mt. Shasta than he'd had in mind. Thankfully he had his flashlight in his trunk.

This is the second show for LARRY MASSETT TRIBUTE WEEK.Larry Massett owned two Porsches, and he talked about them all the time. His friend, Joe Frank, in addition to being one of the greatest radio producers of all time, was a BMW guy. They decided to argue about this, and then have a drag race that would decide things. 

Larry Massset died last week. He was my mentor and my favorite radio producer. His stories was insane and brilliant and heretical and sublime. I wouldn’t have become a radio producer without his guidance and his stories to inspire me. I’m going to run a series of his shows as a tribute to him. This first show is The Eyes of Sibiu, about a trip to Romania with Romanian-American poet and novelist Andrei Codrescu.

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House was intentionally built to straddle two nations and two communities. Three quarters of the building is in Stanstead, Quebec and one quarter is in Derby Line Vermont, and it's been the local library for both communities for over a century.  The main entrance to the library is in the U.S., and for as long as anyone can remember, Canadians have been allowed to walk the 70 feet of sidewalk around the building to that front entrance.But in late January of this year, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem paid a surprise visit to the library while she was up touring some of the Vermont border crossings, and she did a little show for everyone there. And starting in October, Canadians will no longer be able to visit their local library without passing through a border crossing.This is a show about it. 

This is a show about the challenges of getting health insurance and understanding health insurance and paying for health insurance and using health insurance…even for those of us without major medical challenges. It stars my friends Justin Lander and Kaye.The show is sponsored by East Hill Tree Farm, a tree nursery in Plainfield, Vermont.  The nursery opens on April 18th with bare-root trees and shrubs for sale. They're awesome. Go there.