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(Jul 20, 2026) A future day care center in Plattsburgh aims to help close that gap and promote workforce development; the governor is defending her executive order that bans data center development in New York for the next year; and we have a conversation about President Teddy Roosevelt's status as a political outsider and why his visits to the North Country were so significant ahead of an event in North Creek.
(Jul 17, 2026) Jefferson County has launched its long-awaited public transit system, the final piece of a regional bus network connecting the western half of the North Country; we head to the southern Adirondacks for a short hike up Stewart Mountain for big views of the Chestertown area; and we preview a Shakespeare in the Park performance in Peru.
(Jul 17, 2026) The North Country has slowly been building a public transportation network to help people without cars get around. The latest piece is a new bus system connecting Watertown to small towns across Jefferson County. Also: Emily Russell sends an audio postcard from Stewart Mountain in Chestertown.
(Jul 17, 2026) A new historical novel was inspired by the author's time in the Adirondacks, and one very special guide boat
(Jul 16, 2026) A community ceramics studio in Keeseville is opening for the first time this weekend, and its owner says it's a way to bring people together; volunteers in Long Lake run the book nook, a way to raise money for the public library; and Kitty O'Neil joins Northern Light for a closer look at how the heat affects livestock in the North Country.
(Jul 16, 2026) New arts venues can become hubs of the North Country's small towns. A community ceramics studio is opening in the Champlain Valley town of Keeseville Saturday, part of the Keeseville Community Arts Festival. Also: A new report finds changes to federal food assistance in President Trump's massive policy bill will put New York taxpayers on the hook for more than $160 million.
(Jul 10, 2026) Food insecurity is a real challenge in the North Country. The food bank in Albany is helping families over the summer when school's not in session. Also: An audio postcard from the Paddle for Betterment, a charity cruise for canoes and kayaks in the Thousand Islands. The 25th annual event is Saturday.
It wasn't intentional, but I'm glad I did it. Over the last couple of seasons, I put out my usual summer trail cameras to gather pre-season intel. Some, I re-upped on batteries, while others just ran until they couldn't. A few, built with solar panels, kept a charge through the North Country winter. What those year-round cameras did for me was change how I view whitetails, particularly bucks. One of the most interesting takeaways involves...
(Jul 8, 2026) President Trump says he plans to abandon his own trade deal with Mexico and Canada. We talk with North Country officials about what the end of the USMCA would mean for our business ties with Canada. Also: A pending bill in Albany would provide a boost to New York State's pharmacies.
July 3, 2026- We check in with Assemblymember Michael Cashman, a Plattsburgh Democrat, who reflects on his first legislative session. We discuss his legislative approach, partnerships he developed and expectations for the 2027 session.
(Jul 6, 2026) The blood donor center in Plattsburgh is scheduled to close on Friday. It's raising concerns about regional health care networks consolidating operations and reducing services in the North Country. Also: Opponents of a potential new nuclear reactor in St. Lawrence County rallied last week in Massena.
(Jul 2, 2026) North Country officials hope the recently completed state energy transmission upgrade will help boost the regional economy; ahead of the nation's 250th birthday, the curator from Fort Ticonderoga shares recent discoveries of artifacts from the American Revolution; and we take a look at a St. Lawrence County family's unique 4th of July tradition.
On June 30 and July 1, events were held in nine communities to express opposition to Governor Hochul's proposal to build 5 nuclear power plants. Ann Heindenrich of the Campaign for a Nuclear Free North Country talks to Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine. about why they feel nuclear is too expensive, too slow, and too toxic.
(Jul 1, 2026) Since the COVID-19 pandemic, rising rent and the cost of living have been driving up homelessness in the North Country; a business owner in Alexandria Bay has turned a former motel into seasonal worker housing to help boost the Thousand Islands' tourism economy; and Chef Curtiss Hemm joins us this morning for a fresh recipe to spice up your summer.
(Jul 1, 2026) Homelessness has been on the rise in the North Country over the last several years, with the unhoused population doubling in some counties since 2022. We talk with some people who have been without homes, and their advocates, about the causes and what's being done to help. Also: Environmental advocates want Gov. Hochul to sign a bill that would require the state to track heat-related deaths.
(Jun 30, 2026) A North Country lawmaker is calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto a statewide moratorium on data centers; we head to the Southern Tier, where a group is trying a new approach to helping unhoused people in rural areas; and we meet a mother and son in Edwards who are taking on a new challenge by caring for a litter of puppies.
(Jun 30, 2026) A proposed data center project in Massena could be put on hold if Gov. Hochul signs a one-year moratorium on data centers in New York. Assemblyman Scott Gray is calling on Hochul to veto it, but activists against the project say a year isn't long enough. Also: Homeless outreach teams who usually work in New York's cities are increasingly working in more rural areas like the North Country.
We're back with our recaps from race weekend in Duluth! The guys had a blast in the North Country and they share their best memories, the highs and lows of race day, and learnings for the next marathon. Thanks to ASICS and Columbus Running Company for supporting our Road to Grandma's Marathon series! Have you enjoyed our spring marathon training diary? Please consider leaving a 5-star review on Spotify / Apple Podcasts secondsflatpodcast@gmail.com columbusrunning.com
(Jun 29, 2026) A research lab at Paul Smith's College was awarded a million dollars in state funding to study Adirondack lake and stream health; Lawmakers and policy analysts are reacting to primary results last week, including how the candidate who President Trump endorsed beat a fellow Republican in the North Country; and a religious order that was founded nearly two hundred years ago is coming to an end.
Todd Almond is an actor, songwriter, and playwright currently performing his riveting show I'm Almost There at BAM Fisher. His many credits include the Bob Dylan musical Girl from the North Country and the HBO series Gossip Girl. He also wrote three Public Works musicals for the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, is currently the orchestrator and music supervisor on Girl Interrupted and has collaborated with countless artists, including Martyna Majok, Aimee Mann, Laura Benanti, Sarah Ruhl, Courtney Love, Judy Kuhn, Kelli O'Hara, and Andrew Rannells. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
(Jun 24, 2026) Democrat Blake Gendebien and Republican Anthony Constantino won their respective primaries in New York's 21st Congressional District; we hear from voters around the region on what their top priorities are for new representation in Congress; and as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, we take a historic look at the job of finding and mapping places.
(Jun 23, 2026) The end of this year's legislative session saw the departure of more than a dozen state lawmakers, including some longtime Upstate lawmakers who have left their mark on the Capitol; a new documentary tells the story of the oil spill on the St. Lawrence River in the words of those who lived it; and we have a preview of today's North Country at Work event in Ticonderoga.
(Jun 22, 2026) State officials say large-scale batteries are key to stabilizing the power grid and transitioning to carbon-free electricity. But when battery storage projects have been proposed in the Adirondacks, local residents have been pushing back. Also: The Republican primary for the North Country's congressional district, which is tomorrow, is turning into a test of President Trump's political clout.
(Jun 19, 2026) On this Juneteenth, we'll take a look at the abolitionist movement in St. Lawrence County. Also: we hear from a North Country woman who collects Schlitz memorabilia and says she has a tough decision to make as the company ceases production.
Author Sam Sussman and Cantor Dan Singer reflect on Sussman's novel, "Boy from the North Country" and the unexpected ways Bob Dylan connects their stories, with Cantor Singer weaving Dylan's lyrics and melodies into the conversation on guitar.
(Jun 16, 2026) The two Democrats running to represent New York's 21st Congressional District talked about how they'd get things done for the North Country in Congress in a debate last week; the United Way of Northern New York is hosting its first community food drive in St. Lawrence County tomorrow, amid a rise in food insecurity in the North Country; we're days away from the longest day of the year. Astronomer Aileen O'Donoghue will guide us through what to look for when the stars come out.
(Jun 16, 2026) On today's Story of the Day, we hear about tomorrow's community food drive in St. Lawrence County. It comes amid rising food insecurity in the North Country. Also: highlights from the NY-21 Democratic debate.
Rennae Gruchalla discusses the nearly 5,000-mile North Country National Scenic Trail and upcoming hikes across the state, while also sharing details about a musical storytelling program celebrating Theodore Roosevelt's "strenuous life" ahead of the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora.
In the summer of 1906, a young factory worker named Grace Brown disappeared during a romantic getaway to the Adirondacks with her secret lover, Chester Gillette. Days later, her body was pulled from the depths of Big Moose Lake, launching one of America's first media frenzies. More than a century later, the mystery, the trial, and the ghostly legends surrounding the lake continue to haunt New York's North Country. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
(Jun 12, 2026) Anthony Constantino, a businessman from Amsterdam, is running as a Republican to represent the North Country in Congress; we stop by the neighborhood of the only member of the Knicks who is a born-and-raised New Yorker ahead of another NBA Finals game; and John Warren checks on trail conditions ahead of this weekend in the Adirondacks.
(Jun 11, 2026) Assemblyman Robert Smullen is running as a Republican to represent the North Country in Congress; a husband and wife in Keeseville are serving up free dinners at a local church; and we hear from some of our most frequent contributors to NCPR's Photo of the Day.
(Jun 9, 2026) Stuart Amoriell, a restaurant owner in Lake Placid, is running as a Democrat to represent the North Country in Congress; a new program connects soldiers who completed their service at Fort Drum with local jobs, in the hopes of keeping them in the region; and NCPR book reviewer Betsy Kepes shares a book review of Canadian writer Miriam Toews' new memoir.
(Jun 4, 2026) We join a birdwalk in Lake Placid, where organizers say the second annual Black Birders Week celebration is helping more people of color feel welcome in the outdoors; a foster dog in Ogdensburg is in the national Pet Lovers Choice Awards competition; and we remember North Country musician Dan Duggan, who died last week at 69 years old.
(Jun 3, 2026) Now that the Adirondack rail trail is complete, crews are working on adding amenities, including to the parking area on the Lake Placid end of the trail; high school students in Saranac Lake launched a weather balloon into the atmosphere earlier this spring; and as fresh strawberries will soon appear at farmers' markets across the North Country, Chef Curtiss Hemm shares a recipe that will make them shine.
(Jun 1, 2026) The two Republicans hoping to represent most of the North Country in Congress faced off in a debate last week. While they agreed on multiple issues, they verbally sparred throughout the live forum. Also: Tupper Lake was awarded more than $12 million in this year's state budget to help fix its water system.
(May 28, 2026) Kitty O'Neil breaks down how North Country farmers are coping with rising costs due to the war in Iran; the North Country's newest assemblyman says the delayed budget will mean a less productive year for Albany; and we visit a small dairy in Keeseville. North Country Creamery has become one of the Champlain Valley's leaders in environmentally-conscious farming.
Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer. While many might be tempted to jet set off to a foreign country or another city this season, there are plenty of great options to visit around New York state in the summertime, from the Hudson Valley, to the Catskills, the North Country and the Finger Lakes. Where would you stop if you were to plan a road trip around New York? Ross Levi, Empire State Development Vice President and Executive Director of New York State's Division of Tourism, helps plan your New York State summer road trip and listeners share their favorite destinations. Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images: A landscape view of the Taconic Parkway, looking southbound, as it winds its way through the rural landscape between the Hudson River Valley and the Catskills, August 18, 2023. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
(May 19, 2026) New safety protocols are in place this year for assistant forest rangers. The changes came after the DEC lost track of an assistant ranger who was later found dead in the wilderness. Also: Democrats say they're bullish on flipping a North Country congressional seat because Republicans are in the middle of a bitter primary.
(May 14, 2026) Researchers are using drones and laser-mapping technology to search for traces of a long-lost Black pioneer settlement in the Adirondacks; a New York non-profit is tackling teacher burnout through collective mental health programming; and a new anthology showcases the poems, short stories and memoirs of many of the North Country's young writers.
(May 14, 2026) The 19th-century settlement of Black pioneers near Lake Placid called Timbuctoo is now largely lost under dense Adirondack forest. A team of researchers is using drones and laser-mapping technology to search for archeological remnants to recover its history. Also: A new bill in Albany would give school districts in the North Country and across the state more time to transition to electric buses.
(May 8, 2026) The North Star Health Alliance has secured a $60 million loan from the state amid its ongoing financial turmoil; ahead of Mother's Day, we hear about the special bond between drag mothers and daughters; and one of the mainstays in the North Country music scene is out with a new EP today.
(May 7, 2026) We hear from small farmers and advocates about a Farm Bill the U.S. House passed last week; a civil engineer who works on water systems across the North Country is building a network of young professionals in Lewis County; we'll visit the Fish and Game club in Saranac Lake for an archery lesson with a master archer.
(May 5, 2026) In the coming weeks, thousands of international college students will pour into the Adirondacks to staff local businesses through the federal J-1 visa program; housing advocates want New York to expand its state law that ensures tenant protections to renters; and we'll go birdwatching in St. Lawrence County ahead of a couple of birding events in the North Country.
Veteran investigative reporter Jim Odato knows the history, controversies and problems of New York's Adirondacks region better than almost anyone, and he talks with podcast host Rosemary Armao about preserving the wild North Country while also building world-class Olympic sports facilities and redeveloping closed prisons in the vast and remote area.James M. Odato is a correspondent and former editor of the Adirondack Explorer. He has spent a long career as an investigative reporter and is recognized as one of New York's top journalists covering state government, gambling, and waste of public money. He has written thousands of articles, his byline has appeared in numerous national publications and his investigative stories have spurred reforms. As a staff reporter for five daily newspapers, including the Albany Times Union and Buffalo News, Odato has received more than 30 state and national awards. He has also taught at the University at Albany and authored a book, This Brain Had a Mouth, Lucy Gwin and the Voice of Disability Nation.
(Apr 29, 2026) Both Prison guards and inmates say New York's correctional system is broken; scientists are predicting an early and heavy tick season; Kitty O'Neil joins us in the studio to explain how North Country farms are preparing for the growing season.
(Apr 29, 2026) Staffing levels at New York's prisons are low while the rates of violence and drug exposures are on the rise. Both guards and inmates are pleading with the state to fix what they say is a broken system. Also: Residents in Canton and across the North Country have been shocked by property reassessments that haven't kept up with actual property values.
(Apr 28, 2026) The Republican running to be New York's Governor was in the North Country over the weekend; we go to SUNY Canton, where students are learning the art of blacksmithing in a new club; and NCPR book critic Betsy Kepes reviews "Before I Forget," a novel set in the Adirondacks.
Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Leslie Fine about three audiobooks that circle around questions of identity, family, and belonging. In Kin by Tayari Jones, dual narrators Angel Pean and Ashley J. Hobbs give distinct voices to two lifelong friends shaped by maternal absence as well as the racial and class realities of the 1950s South. Boy From the North Country, written and read by Sam Sussman, blends autofiction and grief as a son returns home to his dying mother, while My Other Heart by Emma Nanami Strenner, narrated by Joy Ozymanski, follows two teenagers navigating questions of heritage, class, and family. Three very different audiobooks, each asking—through story and performance—how we come to understand where we belong. Audiobooks Discussed: Kin by Tayari Jones, read by Angel Pean and Ashley J. Hobbs (Random House Audio) Boy From the North Country written and read by Sam Sussman (Penguin Audio) My Other Heart by Emma Nanami Strenner, read by Joy Osmanski (Penguin Audio) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Prison Break, the Manhunt, the Inside Story In June 2015, two vicious convicted murderers broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, in New York's North Country, launching the most extensive manhunt in state history. Aided by prison employee Joyce Mitchell, double murderer Richard Matt and cop-killer David Sweat slipped out of their cells, followed a network of tunnels and pipes under the thirty-foot prison wall, and climbed out of a manhole to freedom. For three weeks, the residents of local communities were virtual prisoners in their own homes as law enforcement from across the nation swept the rural wilderness near the Canadian border. The manhunt made front-page headlines—as did the prison sex scandal involving both inmates and Joyce Mitchell—and culminated in a dramatic and bloody standoff. Now Charles A. Gardner—a lifelong resident of the community and a former correction officer who began his training at Clinton and ultimately oversaw the training of staff in twelve prisons, including Clinton—tells the whole story from an insider's point of view. From the lax ethics and sexual hunger that drove Joyce Mitchell to fraternize with Matt and Sweat, smuggle them tools, and offer to be their getaway driver, to the state budget cuts that paved the way for prison corruption, to the brave and tireless efforts to bring the escaped killers to justice, Dannemora is a gripping account of the circumstances that led to the bold breakout and the twenty-three-day search that culminated in one man dead, and one man back in custody—and lingering questions about those who set the deadly drama in motion.https://amzn.to/41KqkUbBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.
A gang of burglars come a cropper in a Northumbrian country house, in this strange tale from the North Country. It's basically an 18th century Home Alone, with a trigger-happy teen, a put-upon parlour maid and a haunted backpack. Alasdair is back from his tour, with a fresh stack of pamphs in hand! This tale of thwarted crime comes from the legendary Ettrick shepherd, James Hogg. Come see us in Oxford on the 1st July 2026 Join the LoreFolk at patreon.com/loremenpod ko-fi.com/loremen Check the sweet, sweet merch here... https://www.teepublic.com/stores/loremen-podcast?ref_id=24631 @loremenpod youtube.com/loremenpodcast www.instagram.com/loremenpod www.facebook.com/loremenpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices