Word of Mouth

Certain towns in northern New Hampshire are becoming destinations for artists. But why? And can music fuel community development and growth? Jason Tors thinks so. He’s the owner and artist behind the Loading Dock in Littleton. It’s an unlikely space for music. “I was instantly attracted to it because it was super raw, had brick walls and exposed ceilings and felt like something that I would find in New York City or Brooklyn,” said Tors of the former newspaper storeroom that now houses his business. In the past four years, Tors and a handful of volunteers have created a place for up and coming artists to perform. He's also tried to encourage more people to move north. Inspired by a 1960s ad campaign that read "Nebraska Needs You," Tors made buttons with an image of Mount Lafayette and the words "The North Country Needs You." "And the idea is to try and draw out some of these younger folks with, you know, horizon broadening experiences and bring them into rural areas," he explained. Arts

Two years ago, VA employees blew the whistle on what they called bad care for veterans at the Manchester VA , kicking off a scandal that made national news. This week, we’re taking a look at what happened in New Hampshire’s only VA Medical Center after the scandal. Thirty years ago, Joseph Maloof underwent spinal surgery after rupturing a disk in his lower back. The procedure left him with back pain whenever he stood straight. “I was never the same after that,” he says. “My back never really regained my vertical posture.” He began to walk with a hunch, as though scanning the ground for a lost contact. “I bought a couple of things you see on TV, back braces and whatnot, which helped me walk a little bit straighter,” he says. “But the more I tried to straighten out my spine, the more it hurt.” Maloof, a sixty-six-year-old Army veteran, lives in Conway. In 2014, he met a doctor named Ed Kois at the Manchester VA Medical center. Kois had recently been hired as a physiatrist and recommended

During our reporting, some conversations don't make the final cut because they don't quite fit the subject at hand – but it's often the meandering moment and quiet stories that bring a place to life. Here's a few too good not to share: we're calling them "Tiny Stories from the North Country."

This week on Word of Mouth, we're continuing our series on the North Country by answering a listener's question about access to high-speed internet. You can send us your questions about New Hampshire by emailing us or submitting a question online . Steve Knox stood in his driveway, craning his neck at a telephone pole connected to his house in Albany, NH. The wire at the very top of every telephone pole carries electricity, while the lowermost wire is owned by whoever owns the pole, usually a telephone company. In between those two lies everything else: cable, internet, and competing phone companies. “See the orange?” Steve points to a black cable marked with orange paint. “It’s the third line up. That’s the fiber.” Fiber is the type of line that can handle blindingly fast internet. Neither Steve nor his neighbors, though, can sign up for a fiber connection to their home. “I don’t believe it goes to any homes here,” Steve says, “but there it is! Somebody ran that line up there. So why

What's nearly triangular, fiercely litigated, and often just rivers? The state border, of course. This week, we look at how New Hampshire fought for its borders. And how the borders inside the state determine how we are represented.

The dream of waking "the sleeping giant." This audio postcard is part of Word of Mouth's series on the North Country.

Is the North Country moving towards an ATV-based economy? And if it is, what does that mean for residents who aren't sold on the idea?

Is the North Country ready, willing, and able to shift from a timber-based economy to a tourism-based economy?

Running for office in NH is more than kissing babies and shaking hands. There are qualifications to meet, paperwork to be filed, yard signs to be placed… and town dumps to visit. Then, we'll head into the woods to discover the department that manages the state's forests.

Over the last few months, here at Word of Mouth, we've asked listeners to send us their questions about northern New Hampshire. In the first episode of our North Country Series answering those questions, we cover the basics: Where exactly does the north country begin, how has the economy adjusted to the decline of paper mills, and what makes this part of New Hampshire so unique?

When you think about civics and government, you probably think about voting and politicians, but the government touches every part of your life from birth to death. Today, we look at birth. What does it take to be born an American citizen? And then, once you are, how do you prove it? Then, the story of how tourism on Mount Washington became a model for mountain tourism nationally.

The Executive Council is a peculiar New Hampshire institution made up of five “citizen” councilors that, together with the governor, make up the executive branch. Why do we have one? And how does it work? Then, o verpopulation was one of the biggest environmental issues of the 60s and 70s, arguably bigger than saving the whales, planting trees, and acid rain. But then it seemed to disappear from the conversation.

When workers at the American embassy Cuba claimed to have been attacked by a mysterious weapon that left no trace, it led to a major shift in American diplomacy toward the Caribbean socialist state. But the story has also led to a split in journalism, stemming from the sources different kinds of journalists rely on. Today, a story of weapons, nature, and truth from Outside/In.

Over 100 years ago, in 1909, Edwin Grozier, publisher of the Boston Post, had an idea for a publicity stunt. He would send out an ebony cane with a gold top, complete with inscription, to 700 New England towns. The cane was to be given out to the town's oldest male resident (the tradition has since included women). And after that resident passed, it would find its way into the hands of the next oldest resident. As time passed, the cane has taken on a life of its own. In some towns, the cane is bestowed as an honor. Other towns have literally locked their canes away for decades fearing its impending doom. On today's episode we answer a listener's question about this cane: Is the 110 year tradition still going? And if so, when people receive the cane, is it an honor, or an omen?

Counties are the "forgotten" part of government, but why do they matter?

Here begins the story of a flower, a tale of identity, pride, and hubris.

New Hampshire like every other state has its own Supreme Court. It’s not the all-powerful arbiter of justice that the name would imply. A primer on the New Hampshire Surpreme Court from Civics 101: NH. Then, the controversial start to our Constitution.

This week for our ongoing series Only in New Hampshire, we answer a listener's question about gun laws in New Hampshire.

In the early 1940s, an inventor from Berlin created a container made of refined polyethylene, an odorless, non-toxic plastic that would revolutionize food storage. Then, a mystery in the woods involving a beloved New Hampshire product from Outside/In .

This is the fourth and final episode of “The Rules Are Different Here,” a four-part series on mass incarceration in New Hampshire. Listen to the full series here. Annie Wrenn is middle-aged with blond hair she wears with bangs. She’s a little over 5 feet tall. And on first sight, you’d never guess she’s a prison guard. “One of our nicknames is floorwalker because that’s what we do we walk the floors of the prison. Cell to cell, unit to unit, tier to tier, however you wanna explain what the living quarters are like,” says Wrenn. She’s currently a correctional officer at the Men’s State Prison in Concord, a job she’s had for 17 years. “And there are the dangerous parts too, like cell extraction, and dealing with inmate fighting, or arguments. You know sometimes even staff arguments you have to deal with,” Wrenn says. “It’s endless. It’s endless what we do.” It’s also something she never expected she would do. As a single mom looking for work, she saw an ad for officers in the paper. The