Bordertown

Cara Robechek is the Executive Director of the Vermont Energy Education Program, whose mission is to build a deep understanding of energy through education, encouraging choices that result in sustainability in our communities, economy and environment. Cara has been with VEEP since 2014. Cara has worked in nonprofit development and managemen at the Center for While Communities in Waitsfield, served on the board of Planting Hope, as an elected Parks Commissioner for the City of Montpelier, and as a member of the Montpelier Energy Advisory Committee. She has a BA in Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College, and an MS in Renewable Natural Resources and Development form the University of East Anglia. She lives in Montpelier with her husband and two children.

Skyler currently worksin Washington DC as Project Manager for the Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy. He joined that organization in June, 2018, following his completion of his Masters program in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont. Skyler also received a certificate in Ecological Economics from the Gund Institute at UVM. Skyler’s research focused on ecological economics and sustainable food systems.

Libby is the Montpelier / Roxbury School District’s superintendent. Prior to that, she was Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Franklin Northwest Supervisory Union. She also has experience as a consultant, adjunct professor, teacher development coordinator, co-principal, principal, and teacher. She holds master’s degrees from Michigan State University and Columbia University’s Teachers College and a bachelor’s degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She resides in Jericho with her family.

Michele Braun is the Executive Director of the Friends of the Winooski River. Michele has a Master of Science in Natural Resources Planning from the University of Vermont. She has worked as an environmental policy analyst, responsible for managing projects, designing and facilitating multi-stakeholder meetings and workshops for city and state governments, US EPA, watershed organizations, environmental health associations, and multi-partner collaborative environmental planning projects.

Tom is an award-winning high school teacher, leading sustainability educator, prominent local food activist, and most recently the founding executive director of the Center for Sustainable Systems. He is a chief architect of a model of service learning that integrates curriculum through a school greenhouse and gardens that provide food for the school system’s lunch program, using soil derived from the cafeteria food scraps.

David Zuckerman is the co-founder of Full Moon Farm, a NOFA-certified organic farm in Hinesburg, Vermont. Inspired by then Congressman Bernie Sanders, David first ran for the Vermont House in 1994 while enrolled at the University of Vermont. David served for fourteen years (1997-2010) in the Vermont House of Representatives. David served in the Vermont Senate as a Progressive/Democrat since his election in 2012. In 2016, David was elected as the 80th Lt. Governor of Vermont.

William Alexander writes fantasy, science fiction, and other unrealisms for young readers. His novels include Goblin Secrets, Ghoulish Song, Ambassador and Nomad. His latest novels are the companion set A Properly Unhaunted Place and A Festival of Ghosts. He currently serves as the faculty chair of the Vermont College of Fine Arts in the program in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

Jim Birmingham is the Food Service Director of the Montpelier Roxbury School District. He is a graduate of Johnson State College and attended culinary school at Le Cordon Blue, London, UK. He is an American Culinary Federation Certified Executive Chef who spent several years working in resort hotel kitchens around Stowe, VT and more than a decade as a Chef Instructor at New England Culinary Institute in Essex and Montpelier. Jim lives in Waterbury with his wife and two teenage sons. He enjoys gardening, hiking and is an avid alpine and backcountry skier.

Walt Poleman is a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Ecological Planning Program at the University of Vermont. He specializes in natural history, place-based landscape analysis, and education for sustainability. He teaches courses in natural history and human ecology, landscape inventory and assessment, and conservation science.

Ryan Geary is the owner the of The Hive, and co-owner of Rabble-Rouser. He works in a variety of mediums and disciplines, including wood carving, furniture making and painting, but his preferred art form and main focus over the past 5 years has been 2D and 3D collage.

Janice Walrefen co-creates AllTogetherNow!, Community Arts Center in East Montpelier, with Ellen Leonard. Together they teach summer camp and produce our community seasonal pageants, parades and puppet shows. Janice has her Art Tiles clay studio, classroom, puppets and shares community gardens at AllTogetherNow! Ellen is the director of the awesome preschool at AllTogetherNow! and teaches family music classes. Their mission is to be an inspiration and model for sustainable living and celebration.

Matthew Binginot is a designer producer, and lover of all forms of media creativity. He is especially drawn towards photography, music, film and graphic design. When not producing his own media art, he teaches a program called Digital Media Arts at the Central Vermont Career Center. Every day he inspires young artist to be creative and show them new ways to practice their passion.

This week our guest is Bennett Shapiro of Madtch Sound. If you go to a live music event in this area, you are bound to see Bennett, walking around with his magic tablet, making things sound good. We talk to Bennett about his journey as a sound engineer, the music scene in central Vermont and his ideas about integrating our live podcast into the Rabble-Rouser Chocolate Factory and Community Center.

This episode is a conversation about how the Bordertown podcast aligns with the Rabble Rouser creative vision. Our guest is the founder of Nutty Steph’s and one of the visionary’s behind Rabble Rouser, Jaquelyn Rieke. She will provide background on the formation of the Rabble Rouser, collaboratively-owned Chocolate Factory and Community Center, and discuss the creative vision. Vic Guadagno will discuss ecomedia and the goals of the Bordertown Podcast. Music Director Rob Meehan discusses our musical ideas, and offers insight as a long-time advocate for food justice.

In this episode we join the Rabble Rouser community at their launch party. We hear from Jaquelyn Rieke (aka Nutty Steph), the visionary behind this undertaking. We also hear from Bill Kaplan, forward thinking landlord with a strong commitment to community. We speak with just a few of the folks behind the building renovation, architect Tolya Stonorov, woodworker Eyrich Stauffer painter/artist Hans Stewart. We chat briefly with Montpelier Alive’s Dan Groberg and wrap up with a chat with owner of the Hive, and now Rabble Rousers, Ryan Geary. This episode represents a new format for the Bordertown podcast as we are recording live, in a public setting. This is the first of a long-discussed format, in hopes to better achieve our goal of creating conditions for relationships building and enriching communication in our region.

Chuck Collins is a Senior Policy Analyst for the Institute for Policy Studies. He is the author of many books including "Born on Third Base", "The Community Resilience Reader" and "Is inequality in America irreversible?". He is the co-editor of the "Inequality.org" website. Chuck has dedicated his life to understanding the basis of economic inequality in the US, and has pioneered countless efforts to connect investors, business leaders, and one-percenters to the common wealth of their place in the world. He is an organizing force behind "Patriotic Millionaires", a united network of high-net worth Americans, business leaders and investors who are united in their concern about the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in America. Chuck’s story of wealth inequality is a first hand account…His great grandfather was the meat-packer, Oscar Mayer and Chuck grew up with the inherited wealth from his family fortune. He realized in his mid-twenties that the “mountain of privilege” that had defined his life so far…did not resonate with him…and he gave away his inheritance, to several foundations that funded “change, not charity”. He has been advocating for solutions to the ever-increasing wealth inequality in our country ever since. And as Chuck describes, "you can’t have community without real need and vulnerability". He speaks of the “invitation home” to wealthy people in our country...to bring their wealth back to community and invest in place and people. Chuck proposes that, “People are waiting to be invited to something bigger than consumption….and that is community”.

Sherri Mitchell speaks and teaches around the world on issues of Indigenous rights, environmental justice, and spiritual activism. Sherri was born and raised on the Penobscot Indian reservation. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maine, and received her Juris Doctorate and a certificate in Indigenous People’s Law and Policy from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law. Sherri is an alumna of the American Indian Ambassador program, and the Udall Native American Congressional Internship program. In 2010, she received the Mahoney Dunn International Human Rights and Humanitarian Award, for research into Human Rights violations against Indigenous Peoples. In 2015, she received the Spirit of Maine Award, for commitment and excellence in the field of International Human Rights. In 2016, Sherri’s portrait was added to the esteemed portrait series, Americans Who Tell the Truth, by artist Robert Shetterly. . Her work is featured in a documentary film on transformational change, by New Story Film, and her book Sacred Instructions; The Heart of Spirit Based Change was published this year..

Christine Hanna is the Executive Director of YES Media. She grew up in Virginia, received her bachelors degree in economics from UVA and her MBA from the University of Washington. She spent the early part of her career swept up in the dot.com revolution. She ultimately entered the non-profit arena and founded Go Next Door in Seattle, a web-based network dedicated to supporting local businessess and building community. After that, she went on to cofound the Seattle Good Business Network in 2010. Christine and her colleagues grew the organization from a small startup to an influential Seattle player, strengthening the region's locally owned retail, manufacturing and food sectors. She is a passionate advocate for a sustainable, inclusive local economy, with a great track record for putting that passion into action. Christine joined YES in March 2017 and says the role couldn't be a better fit.

Jacqueline Fernandez Rieke has been the owner/operator of Nutty Steph’s for the past 14 years. Born and raised in Suburban Chicago, Jacqueline made her way east after college. Spending a bit of time in Baltimore, she ultimately made her way to central Vermont where she’s been ever since. Jacqueline is currently transitioning Nutty Steph’s to a worker owned coop. She is dedicated to building a more civil society.

Alex Chernomazov and his wife Ella are the co-founders of Greenspark, an Interactive Sustainability Park in development on Route 100 in Waterbury Center, Vermont. Their mission is to inspire local and global communities to adapt current green technologies through interactive hands-on experiences. Alex and Ella’s goal at Greenspark is to make it easy for our guests to experience all aspects of sustainable living – renewable energy, green building and pollution-free transportation – in one place.