Rural Matters

In this episode, Michael chats with Congresswoman April McClain Delaney, who represents Maryland's Sixth District. They discuss SNAP cuts and their impact on rural food security and agricultural economies; Farm Bill priorities and the need for long-term certainty for farmers; artificial intelligence, workforce development, and economic opportunity in rural communities; Medicaid changes and the future of rural healthcare access; the Rural Health Transformation Program and its potential to offset Medicaid cuts; rural broadband access and its importance to education, telehealth, and economic opportunity; and much more.

In this episode, Michael chats with Morgan Tweet, Co-founder and CEO of IND HEMP. They discuss the trajectory of industrial hemp since the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp's potential value to rural America beyond cannabinoids, the stakes of the current federal hemp policy debate for farmers and industrial hemp businesses, what effective federal hemp policy could look like, the challenges of rebuilding agricultural processing and manufacturing capacity in rural America, the long-term outlook for the U.S. hemp industry, and much more. IND HEMP: www.indhemp.com   The Goodness of Hemp: www.thegoodnessofhemp.org   Goodness of Hemp YouTube: www.youtube.com/@GoodnessofHemp   National Hemp Association: www.nationalhempassociation.org 

In this episode, Michael chats with Meg Taft, Executive Director of the Rural Youth Institute. They discuss rural youth development and opportunity; the development of the Aspirations Incubator model in rural Maine; relationship-driven approaches to youth success; family and community engagement; lessons from implementing and evaluating rural youth programs; the future of rural youth support and leadership; and much more.

In this episode, Michael chats with Angela Galbreath, Director of Partnerships for uFondwa USA, and Lesly Joseph, Agronomist and Statistician specializing in biostatistics. They discuss what the University of Fondwa is and what makes it unique within Haiti and globally; what rural development actually looks like in Haiti; how Fondwa is helping to reverse the trend of brain drain; what draws professors, administrators, graduates to Fondwa; career and livelihood opportunities students at the University of Fondwa are pursuing after graduation; how the university helps students turn family land or local resources into viable economic opportunities; research and innovation coming out of the university that are helping rural communities; the role community, agriculture, and access to natural resources play in quality of life for university students and faculty; how the university is changing the meaning of a "good life" in rural Haiti; and much more. Take a virtual tour of uFondwa in Haiti at www.ufondwa.org/virtual-tour. 

In this episode, Michael chats with Mara Tieken, Professor of Education at Bates College and former Rural Matters host. They discuss school closures, how communities respond to them, common misconceptions about school closures, what the research says about the effects of closure, and much more.