Vermont Edition

Darn Tough. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Ben and Jerry's. Ivy Computer. Verde Technologies. KORE Power Battery Cell Developers. What do all these businesses have in common? They either were, or still are, in the small town of Waterbury, Vermont. Today on Vermont Edition: what makes this one town in Washington County a good home for growing companies? Our guests this hour have their theories. We'll talk with leaders of companies based in Waterbury and the head of the town's business development organization. Plus, we'll talk about how other small towns can attract businesses that bring good jobs to the area.

Lake Memphremagog provides drinking water for around 200,000 Canadians, and recreation for countless Vermonters. It also faces serious environmental challenges. Today on Vermont Edition: the fight to restore and protect the water quality of our region's largest lakes. We'll hear from a Quebec-based group about their effort to designate Memphremagog as a lake in crisis. We'll also talk with a scientist from the Lake Champlain Basin Program, and a shoreline ecologist with Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation. They'll tell us about the biggest threats to these water bodies, like phosphorus runoff.

First up, we're joined by Josh Wronski, the outgoing Executive Director of the Vermont Progressive Party to talk about his tenure there, what he learned in his nine years leading Vermont's third party, and how they should move forward.Then, Rep. Becca Balint joins us to talk about the Big Beautiful Bill, Medicaid cuts, the war in Gaza, impeachment, and U.S.-Canada relations.Lastly, it's our monthly local food segment with Seven Days food writer Melissa Pasanen.Broadcast live on Thursday, May 22, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

In the latest installment of our series, Vermont Edition At Home: The award-winning cartoonist Alison Bechdel chats with us from her home studio in Bolton.Alison Bechdel is one of the country's most renowned cartoonists. Her graphic memoir Fun Home was turned into a Tony Award-winning musical. Her new graphic novel, Spent, is set in Vermont.

Spring is an annual rite of passage, a time of transition and regrowth. Some spend it gardening. Others reconnect with friends. And a few of us, like Vermont Edition's Mikaela Lefrak, derive actual joy from spring cleaning.Two professional home organizers joined Mikaela to share their best spring cleaning tips: Sarah Thompson of St. George and Amie Davis of Georgia, Vt.If you need an extra dose of motivation, you could hire a DJ like Burlington-based Taraleigh Weathers, also known as DJ Cheetahtah. She'll come to your house to play music while you clean. She's also working launching her own YouTube channel that you can watch and listen to as you clean.

Sen. Phil Baruth on the state budget, property taxes, and the Trump Administration

Parts of our region are experiencing a very wet and muddy spring. For some, the rains bring up tough memories of the flooding of recent years. For some towns, the floods of 2023 and 2024 caused immense damage and upended lives. While we all hope 2025 doesn't make this list, it's better to be safe than sorry. Here to to talk flood preparedness is the director of Vermont Emergency Management, Eric Forand. His office is working to improve communication with individual towns when a disaster hits. We also talk with volunteer organizers about their plans to help Vermonters weather this years storms. Megan Mathers of Northeast Kingdom Organizing and the Kingdom United Resilience and Recovery Effort, and Jon Copans of the Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience join us. 

Today is Vermont Edition's annual spring gardening show. Our guest is Charlie Nardozzi – gardening consultant extraordinaire, speaker, and TV and radio host. You can hear him on Sunday mornings right here on Vermont Public for All Things Gardening. This year's show was in front of a live audience at Vermont Public's Colchester studio. 

Three new art and culture offerings in our region

Vermont's only law school is the heart of South Royalton. Many residents wonder if the school will stay there, or if it'll leave town.Today on Vermont Edition, we share a recent episode of Brave Little State. It digs into this listener question about Vermont Law and Graduate School: “Do South Royalton and the surrounding towns actually have to worry about the Vermont law school leaving, or is it just a recurring rumor?” Produce Sabine Poux learns about the law school's footprint in that part of the state.Plus, a live discussion with Vermont Supreme Court Justice Karen Carroll and lawyer Andrew Cliburn on how the law school shaped their careers.

First, Leading arts organizations in Vermont are reeling, after finding out they've lost grant funding from the federal government. The Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Flynn Center, and Northern Stage are just a few of the local groups that face significant cuts. The head of the Vermont Arts Council, Susan Evans McClure,  explains the role of federal funding in Vermont's cultural landscape.Then, The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against Vermont and three other states for legislation that allows them to sue oil companies for damage caused by climate change over the last 30 years. Vermont was the first in the state to pass such a law, called the Climate Action Superfund. Pat Parenteau, a professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School's Environmental Law Center, tells us about this lawsuit and the two other lawsuits coming from outside of the state and how they may play out. Independent State Rep. Anne Donahue tells us why she thinks Vermont's law should be repealed. And Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak explains his office's work to determine the specific amount that the state aims to collect from oil companies. Broadcast live on Monday, May 12, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

We're excited to present a new podcast created by the nonprofit Vermont Folklife. It's called The Arts That Shape Us. It's devoted to exploring the state's cultural heritage and what different local artforms say about the past and present of Vermont. This podcast is one of ten projects funded by Vermont Public's Made Here Fund, created to support Vermont media makers. Vermont Folklife's Director of Education and Media, Mary Wesley, hosts the show.In this first installment, she takes us to Barre. As Mary explains, the city had a booming granite industry, and this industrial tradition birthed an artistic one.Then, we meet a Tibetan musician and dancer who has infused his cultural heritage into Vermont's. Broadcast live on Thursday, May 8, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

There's an effort underway by the Trump administration to defund public media in America. Vermont Public's CEO Vijay Singh will  answer listener questions along with our own to get a clearer view of public media's mission, its message, and future if financial support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is eliminated.Plus, Quebec's Eastern Townships may be overshadowed by the glamour associated with the city of Montreal, but the editors of a new book called "Quebec's Eastern Townships and the World" argue the collection of towns just north of the border have their own historical and cultural footprint that reaches far beyond the province.

Vermont author Bailey Seybolt used marvel at the beauty of one old Burlington building. Her research unearthed a dark history. Seybolt sits down with Mitch Wertlieb to discuss her true-crime novel, Coram House, and the notorious real-life abuses at St. Joseph's Orphanage it's based on.Then; the story of Vermont's founders like Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold has been told ad nauseum. But Vermont State Representative Conor Casey found something inherently funny about these men and their relationship. So, he wrote a satirical take on the events surrounding Vermont's early history, provocatively titled Founding F***ers: The Story of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. It began it's weeks long run at The Greater Boston Stage Company earlier this week and runs until May 18th. Casey sits down with Mitch to talk about why he finds Vermont's founders so funny and how the stage play came together. Broadcast live on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Urban and rural Vermont communities face a primary care shortage

Two local orchestras celebrate music and fight mental health stigma

Today on Vermont Edition, the celebrated cartoonist Harry Bliss discusses his new graphic memoir, You Can Never Die. It's about his life, his relationship with his dog Penny, and his grief over her death. We'll learn about his successful cartooning career with the New Yorker and collaborating with the comedian Steve Martin.Plus: April is National Poetry Month. For the final installment of our April poetry series, we'll talk with Sarah Audsley of Johnson. Her poetry often reflects her experiences as a Korean American adoptee living in Vermont.

Three forestry experts discuss the many uses of Vermont's forested lands, and the potential local impact of an executive order about timber production.

Gov. Scott talks Trump's immigration policy, tariffs, and state budget

Vermont Edition is launching a new series, featuring intimate conversations with noteworthy Vermonters right in their own living rooms. It's called Vermont Edition At Home. For the first installment, Mikaela Lefrak went to the Middlebury home of François Clemmons.. Clemmons is best known for playing Officer Clemmons on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.Clemmons discusses how he came to embrace his Blackness, his homosexuality, and his desire to be a performer.Broadcast live on Thursday, April 24, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

An original indie-folk musical premieres at Northern Stage in White River Junction next month. Set over the course of one working day, "The Vermont Farm Project" tells the stories of eight farmers. It's based on three years of interviews with farmers from Vermont and the surrounding region. Director Sarah Wansley of White River Junction and Hudson Valley-based writer Jessica Kahkoska tell us more about this unique production. Plus, Vergennes native Alexandria Hall is based in Los Angeles, but a lot of Vermont's essence is found in her work. Her poems reflect the daily life and language of rural Vermont.

Vermonters and Quebeckers share much more than a border. We do business together, get our passports out for vacation, and visit family. But this year, the threads that hold us together have frayed.Vermont Edition co-hosted a cross-border conversation in partnership with Radio Noon, a call-in program from the CBC in Quebec. Mikaela Lefrak and Radio Noon host Shawn Apel took calls and emails from listeners on both sides of the border about the current state of U.S.-Canada relations. We also heard about the real-world repercussions of President Donald Trump's “51st state” rhetoric.Vermont Public reporter Peter Hirschfeld joined the conversation as well to talk about the effect the Trump administration is having on Canadian tourism in Vermont, and how the state's lawmakers are reacting to the increased tensions. Broadcast live on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

A new report finds that Americans consume more dairy than they did a decade ago. Vermont dairy farmers are trying to capitalize.

Vermont is at the epicenter of two high-profile arrests by federal immigration officers. Both involve pro-Palestinian university students, Mohsen Mahdawi of White River Junction, and Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk.Our reporters covering these detentions, Sabine Poux and Lexi Krupp share the latest updates. The cases shine a light on changing federal immigration practices, and Vermont's role in them. We also hear from immigration attorney Brett Stokes and state senator Becca White. who represents Mahdawi's district and was present when he was detained.Plus: For our National Poetry Month series, poet Geof Hewitt tells us about building a daily writing practice.Broadcast live on Thursday, April 17, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Made Here Film Festival showcases local filmmakers

A Montreal economist, Burlington financial advisor and Waitsfield money mindset coach share their best advice for this uncertain economic time. 

Today on Vermont Edition, Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas. We'll discuss the SAVE Act, which she opposes, and get her take on Vermont's election integrity in the face of cuts to the federal office that handles election security infrastructure.Then, we'll be joined by the superintendents of two school districts, one from central Vermont and the other in the Northeast Kingdom. We'll hear how their school budgets are shaping up and how they're preparing for education changes from Washington.

Spring bird show: the Bird Diva's favorite migratory species

Today on Vermont Edition, we'll explore the massive changes underway at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A program known as LIHEAP offsets utility bills for more than 6 million Americans. Vermont Public reporter Abagael Giles tells us about the future of the program. We'll also talk with a Head Start supervisor in Windham Southeast school district, and the head of an agency that feeds hundreds of low-income, older Vermonters. Plus: Vermont's poet laureate, Bianca Stone helps us celebrate National Poetry Month.

For some Vermonters, biking is simply a fun form of recreation or exercise. But for others, it's how they get to work or school.Bike advocates across the region are trying to make commuting by bike more accessible and safe for Vermonters. Joining us is Jonathon Weber of Local Motion, Hanif Nazerli of the Capital City Corridor bike share project, and Darren Ohl of the Vermont Bicycle Shop in Barre discussed road safety, to discuss bike infrastructure development, and access to good bikes and gear.Broadcast live on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Programs for careers like welding, construction, and automotive tech are in hot demand. The Central Vermont Career Center, a career technical school in Barre, has more applicants than they have space to admit. A recent report by Vermont Public found that enrollment is up statewide at most of Vermont's 17 career and technical education centers. It's a national trend, and it's earned Gen Z the nickname “The Toolbelt Generation.”We talk with CVCC's director Jody Emerson and Nick Cantrick, a construction technology instructor at the Hannaford Career Center in Middlebury, about their students' career opportunities.We also discuss current labor needs in Vermont with Richard Wobby, Executive Vice President at the Associated General Contractors of Vermont, and Kendal Smith, Deputy Commissioner at the Vermont Department of Labor.Broadcast live on Monday, April 7, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

WCAX sports director Jack Fitzsimmons and Seven Days food writer Jordan Barry share recent exciting stories from their beats.

WCAX sports director Jack Fitzsimmons and Seven Days food writer Jordan Barry share recent exciting stories from their beats.

Herpetologist Jim Andrews discusses what salamanders, turtles, frogs, snakes, and other herps are up to at this time of year.

As the soil thaws, rain falls, and warmer spring days fill up the forecast, the little critters that live in our region are on the move. It is the amphibian migration season and frogs and salamanders have places to be. We talk with herpetologist Jim Andrews of Salisbury who tells us about so-called Big Nights, when humans help salamanders, frogs, and toads cross roads without getting flattened by tires. And he suggests ways to support these species during their migration season, and how to report your own sightings of these travelling amphibians.Broadcast live on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Many Vermonters are frustrated and worried about the high cost of healthcare in the state. One of the main organizations trying to figure out what to do about it is Green Mountain Care Board. It controls the rate of health care costs in the state.Green Mountain Care Board president Owen Foster joins us to talk about the rising costs of health insurance premiums, and the financial challenges facing rural hospitals.Then, Some Vermont-based employers are trying to diversify their hiring pool. But it can be tough to get BIPOC hires to move to a majority white state. We'll hear about a program that helps people of color feel less alone when they move here for work.

Many Vermonters are frustrated and worried about the high cost of healthcare in the state. One of the main organizations trying to figure out what to do about it is Green Mountain Care Board. It controls the rate of health care costs in the state.Green Mountain Care Board president Owen Foster joins us to talk about the rising costs of health insurance premiums, and the financial challenges facing rural hospitals.Then, Some Vermont-based employers are trying to diversify their hiring pool. But it can be tough to get BIPOC hires to move to a majority white state. We'll hear about a program that helps people of color feel less alone when they move here for work.Broadcast live on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

When we file our taxes, we all have a guess as to where our money's going. Education, infrastructure, the military, foreign aid. But for most of us, it's just that – a guess.We break down where exactly our tax dollars go, both at the state and federal level. Vermont's new tax commissioner Bill Shouldice explains where the state's pot of tax dollars comes from, and where it gets allocated He also breaks down how his office estimates property taxes every year.Then, Chuck Marr helps us understand how it works. He's steeped in the minutiae of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He tells us about the biggest programs our tax dollars fund, like Medicare and Medicaid, and how that could be changing with this new Administration and Congress.

When we file our taxes, we all have a guess as to where our money's going. Education, infrastructure, the military, foreign aid. But for most of us, it's just that – a guess.We break down where exactly our tax dollars go, both at the state and federal level. Vermont's new tax commissioner Bill Shouldice explains where the state's pot of tax dollars comes from, and where it gets allocated He also breaks down how his office estimates property taxes every year.Then, Chuck Marr helps us understand how it works. He's steeped in the minutiae of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He tells us about the biggest programs our tax dollars fund, like Medicare and Medicaid, and how that could be changing with this new Administration and Congress.

They hang upside down, fly by night, and some of them drink blood?! Bats get a bad rap – but are they really as scary as they seem?On today's Vermont Edition: Bats! It's the latest installment of our March series, Animal Hour. Bats play a vital role in our ecosystems. But some species are endangered, and others are being threatened by disease. A small mammal biologist with Vermont Fish and Wildlife studies the bat species in our region. She'll share fun facts about bats, and explain why they're so important.We'll also talk with a bat rehabilitator and founder of the Vermont Bat Center. He'll tell us how to help injured or orphaned, or trapped bats.

They hang upside down, fly by night, and some of them drink blood?! Bats get a bad rap – but are they really as scary as they seem?On today's Vermont Edition: Bats! It's the latest installment of our March series, Animal Hour. Bats play a vital role in our ecosystems. But some species are endangered, and others are being threatened by disease. A small mammal biologist with Vermont Fish and Wildlife studies the bat species in our region. She'll share fun facts about bats, and explain why they're so important. We'll also talk with a bat rehabilitator and founder of the Vermont Bat Center. He'll tell us how to help injured or orphaned, or trapped bats.

The museum closed its doors in the fall, but organizers are hoping its collection will find a new home.