VPR News Podcast

Last week the students of Calais Elementary held their first town meeting, during which they made a momentous decision about an end-of-year field trip.

It is unusual for pro tems who aren't seeking higher office to announce their retirement mid-session. Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth said he wanted to give his colleagues time to choose his replacement.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Marc Mihaly, D-Calais, would allow faster evictions but also limit the size of security deposits and rent increases for tenants.

State regulators have struck a deal with environmental groups and the utility that owns the Green River Reservoir Dam that they say allows the facility to be relicensed.

Forced school district consolidation isn't the only obstacle to reform this year, because Vermont lawmakers will also have to poke the hornet's nest that is school choice.

For many married couples, when one partner is diagnosed with dementia, there's often no question that the other will become the caregiver. It's the hard part of the "for better or for worse" marriage vow.

In 2016, Liz Harris' teenage daughter, Mary, was killed in a car accident alongside four of her friends. Liz says that the ripple effect of her daughter's empathetic love has come out in all the people around her ever since.

In the latest installment of a four-part series on love, Dan and Laura Sudhoff reflect on their 58-year relationship.

A special docket aimed at reducing a backlog of low-level offenses in Chittenden County has cleared just over 700 cases. The governor is pushing to expand the initiative to other counties.

In the first of a four-part series on love, 7-year-old Winooski resident Theo describes what love means to him.

Dee Christie is an artist and former art teacher in Milton. She specializes in making colorful collages out of old books.

Listener audio recorded almost exactly a year ago has interesting resonance now. Here's episode 3 of What Now Sounds Like.

The state has begun funding pop-up shelters in four additional locations this year, a formidable effort that materializes and evaporates based on the weather.

Bill Barbot discusses what he's learned about class perceptions since moving to Vermont, and the value of living in a place where towns are not divided starkly by class in this latest episode of "What Class are You?"

Even though Kaye Phipps sometimes works multiple jobs, she often comes up short. In this episode, she talks about how having limited income can make her feel like a child, long into adulthood.

Three weeks into a legislative session that's supposed to produce one of the most consequential school-governance overhauls in state history, lawmakers are knee-deep in the “inherent contradictions” that make meaningful reform so elusive.

Jordan Hepburn talks about the challenges of starting a farm in Vermont without land or capital in the next installment of "What Class Are You?"

Siblings Arwa Mint Meiloud and Habib Ould Meiloud share their perspectives on the roles that race and class have played in their lives so far for the latest installment of "What Class Are You?"

When you work in the trades, your income depends on your body's ability to do the work. In this installment of "What Class Are You," Jules Guillemette talks about the challenges of having income that relies on good health, and difficult questions about holding onto a valuable farm that has passed down through generations.

Trudy Richmond worked all her life, then realized she'd never save enough money for a comfortable, private retirement. In this latest episode of What class are you?, Trudy talks about how she planned a future where she could qualify for subsidized housing and health care in her old age so she could retire with security.

T.O. has been in and out of jail his whole adult life and before that, he was in Spofford, a juvenile detention center in the Bronx.

Under the Scott administration's proposal, all of the state lottery's games, including Megabucks, Powerball and even instant scratch-off tickets, would be available on a person's phone.

Stone carver Heather Milne Ritchie is mentoring a new generation of women artists at her central Vermont studio.

SabrinaJoy Milbury has led meditative drumming circles, called moon circles, for nearly two decades. But, she says, “It's OK if you think this is a bunch of hooey.” Here's an audio postcard.

This is part two of a three part series about one man's experience creating a new life after years in prison.

Thetford Academy regularly sends teams to the VEX Robotics World Championship.

Gov. Phil Scott urged lawmakers during his State of the State address Wednesday to defy political headwinds and follow through on sweeping education reform legislation that passed last year but is now in jeopardy.

The critical first phase of Act 73 — mandatory school district mergers — has ignited fierce opposition in communities across Vermont. And lawmakers now have to confront the possibility that the reform law, enacted just six months ago, no longer has the political support needed to move forward as originally envisioned.

When I first met T.O., he'd just gotten out of federal prison. We sat in my car, and talked about what it's like to get out of prison with no housing, no job and no prospects.

NPR Morning Edition host Leila Fadel recently sat down with Vermont Public Morning Edition host Jenn Jarecki to talk about the show, working in daily news, and Fadel's reporting visit to Vermont this past April.

In the months after they got a puppy, Chris and Beth in Birmingham, England, sent me voice recordings. Which were amazing. And I made a story with them.

Since there's no movie theater or bowling alley or much of any formal entertainment in Chelsea, you have to make your own fun as you go along.

Janice Lange has been sailing for most of her life. She's an 86-year-old athlete, coach and teacher, and she teaches sailing lessons on Lake Champlain.

This year I asked listeners to send me recordings from their Thanksgiving holiday, and I made a story with these recordings.

In the last 10 months, federal agents have arrested more than 100 people in Vermont. Those arrests have upended the lives of individuals and the families they support, and sent shockwaves through their communities.

Peter farmed, mostly alone, for nearly 40 years. We sat at his kitchen table and talked about what it's like to farm for a whole life, then see it go fallow.

Grab your popcorn — daily movies are back in Burlington. The city hasn't had a dedicated movie theater since Merrill's Roxy Cinema closed last year.

Land owners and enthusiasts are creating connections through Women and Our Woods Vermont, a women-led network.

Sheila LaPoint wrote a post in Front Porch Forum back in the fall of 2022, asking if there was anyone in town who could turn her grandmother's fur coat into a teddy bear.

Chepe Cuadra is an artist and a chef in St. Albans. For almost a decade, he's been selling Nicaraguan and Spanish food at farmers markets across Vermont.

Andrew Wyslotsky is a chef in Winooski and an avid fly fisherman. He started fly fishing in 2020, and it quickly became an essential part of his mental health.

Milton arborist Kris Dulmer keeps a lookout for healthy black ash trees. When he finds one, he volunteers to inject it with a dose of insecticide.