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Stories have a way of helping us recognize ourselves, and that's exactly what happened in my conversation with Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond. Nana shares what it was like to grow up in Queens, then suddenly move to a boarding school in Ghana, and how that experience shaped her identity in ways she's still uncovering today. As Nana describes her path from writer to author, her years of persistence, and the curiosity that led to books like Powder Necklace and Blue, I felt a deep connection to her commitment to keep creating even when the process feels uncertain. We also explored trust, partnership, and the lessons my guide dogs have taught me—all ideas that tie into the heart of Nana's storytelling. This conversation is an invitation to see your own life with more clarity, courage, and compassion. Highlights: 00:00:10 – Step into a conversation that explores how stories shape courage and connection. 00:01:41 – See how early environments influence identity and spark deeper questions about belonging. 00:02:55 – Learn how a major cultural shift can expand perspective and redefine personal truth. 00:23:05 – Discover what creative persistence looks like when the path is long and uncertain. 00:27:45 – Understand what distinguishes writing from fully embracing authorship. 00:33:22 – Explore how powerful storytelling draws people into a moment rather than just describing it. 00:46:45 – Follow how curiosity about history can unlock unexpected creative direction. 00:59:31 – Gain insight into why treating a publisher as a partner strengthens both the work and the audience reach. About the Guest: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is the author of Powder Necklace: A Novel, the award-winning children's picture book Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky, the collection Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices, and My Parents' Marriage: A Novel.  Tapped for her passion about Africa's rich fashion traditions and techniques, Brew-Hammond was commissioned by the curators of Brooklyn Museum's "Africa Fashion" exhibit to pen and perform an original poem for the museum's companion short film of the same name. In the clip, she wore a look from the made-in-Ghana lifestyle line she co-founded with her mother and sister, Exit 14. The brand was featured on Vogue.com. Every month, Brew-Hammond co-leads the Redeemed Writers Group whose mission is to write light into the darkness. Learn more about it here.Learn more at nanabrewhammond.com. Ways to connect with Nana**:** Instagram, Facebook and Threads: @nanaekuawriter Twitter: @nanaekua  www.NanaBrewHammond.com  ORDER my new novel   MY PARENTS' MARRIAGE Read 2023 NCTE Award Winner & NAACP Image Award Nominee   BLUE: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky   Read RELATIONS: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices , stories, essays & poems by new and established Black writers   Shop Exit 14 , all weather, uniquely designed, 100% cotton apparel sustainably made in Ghana About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson  01:20 And a pleasant, Good day to you all, wherever you happen to be, I would like to welcome you to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Today, we get to have a conversation with Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond And Nana has a lot of interesting things to talk about. She's written books, she's done a variety of different things, and rather than me giving it all away, it'll be more fun to let her tell the stories and get a chance for us to listen to her. She is in Oakland, California, so she's at the other end of the state for me, and we were just comparing the weather. It's a lot colder where she is than where I live down here in Victorville, where today it's 104 degrees outside. And Nana, you said it was like, what, somewhere around 70. Yeah, it's 68 There you go. See lovely weather. Well, Nana, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here, and I want to thank you for taking the time to be with us. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  02:23 I feel the same way. Thank you for having me on your amazing show. And it's so wonderful to be in conversation with you. Michael Hingson  02:30 Well, I'm glad we get a chance to spend some time together and we can, we can talk about whatever we want to talk about and make it relevant and interesting. So we'll do that. Why don't we start with what I love to do at the beginning of these is to talk about the early Nana growing up and all that. So take us back as close to the beginning as your memory allows. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  02:52 Oh gosh, as my memory allows. Um, I so I was born in Plattsburgh, New York, which is upstate near Montreal, Canada. Michael Hingson  03:06 Been there. Oh, cool in the winter. I even crossed the lake in an icebreaker. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  03:12 But yeah, oh my gosh, wow. Okay, yeah. Bring back memories. Well, I was only there for till I was, like two years old. So, but I do, I have gone up there in the winter and it is cold. Yes, it is cold, yeah. So I was born there, but I grew up in New York City and had that really was sort of my life. I lived in New York, grew up in Queens, New York, and then at 12 years old, my parents decided to send me to Ghana to go to school. And that was sort of like a big, the biggest change of my life, like I know that there was a before Ghana and an after Ghana, Nana and so, yeah, wow. Michael Hingson  04:02 So, so when was that? What year was that that you went to Ghana? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  04:06 That was 1990 August of 1990 actually. Michael Hingson  04:11 So what did you think about going to Ghana? I mean, clearly that was a major change. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  04:15 Yeah, you know, I, you know, my parents are from Ghana originally. So when, you know, they would always talk about it. We, you know, back then phones, long distance phone calls to Ghana. I, you know, that was, that was the extent of my sort of understanding of Ghana, the food that we ate at home, etc. So going to Ghana was just sort of mind blowing to me, to sort of be crossing, you know, getting on a plane and all of that, and then being in the country that my parents had left to come to the United States, was just sort of like, oh, wow, connecting with family members. It was just, it was a lot. To process, because life was very, very, very, very different. So yeah, it was just sort of a wild eye opening experience about just the world and myself and my family that ultimately inspired me to write a book about it, because it was just, I just, it was a lot to process. Michael Hingson  05:25 Why did they want you to go to to Ghana to study? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  05:30 Yeah, so in the 90s, in New York City or and in the late 80s, there was the crack epidemic was happening, and we, you know, I mean, I remember, we lived in a house in Queens, and when we would, you know, part of our chores was to sweep in front of the house, you know, rake the leaves, that kind of thing in the fall. And we would, all the time there would be crack files, you know, like as we're sweeping up, and I didn't get there where we were young. My sister was, you know, a teenager. I was 12, and my, you know, my younger brother had just been born. He was just like a, like, a little under a year old. And I think my parents just didn't feel that it was a safe place for us as kids to grow up. And so, yeah, they wanted to kind of give us an opportunity to get out of, you know, that environment for a while. Michael Hingson  06:33 What did you think of it? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  06:35 I mean, you know, as a kid, you never want to leave what to you. So it was, I would say it was, it was, it was interesting. Because initially I loved it. I was like, I actually campaigned, you know, I was like, I really, you know, would like to stay in Ghana, but I didn't want to stay for, you know, the three years, which is what I what happened? I wanted to stay for maybe, like a year, kind of try it, you know, go to school for a year. I found it this really cool adventure, go to boarding school and on all of that. But my parents made the decision that we should just sort of ride it out and finish like I had to finish high school. And, yeah, so, so great for me. Michael Hingson  07:25 So you were there for three years, yes. So by you were 12, so by 15, you had finished high Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  07:32 school, yeah, because the system there is different. It's it was at the time the British system. So it was like a form system where I saw I entered in form three, because it was, it wasn't quite the equivalent in the sense that I probably should have started in form two or form one, but I was also an advanced student, and and they, the way the system there works is you have to take a common entrance exam from primary school to get into secondary school. So it's very difficult to get into school midstream there. So we had to go through all of these hoops. And, you know, there was an opening in form three, and that was higher than my, you know, than where I should have been, but I was advanced, so I was able to get into that school that way. You did okay. I assume I did. I mean, I struggled, which was interesting, because I was a very, you know, good, strong student in the States, but I struggled mightily when I first got there, and throughout, it was never easy, but I was able to manage. Michael Hingson  08:49 Now, did your sister also go to Ghana? She Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  08:52 did, and she was hopping mad. Michael Hingson  08:55 How old was she when you were 12, she was Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  08:59 17, so she Okay, yeah, almost about to go to college. She was really excited about, like, that portion of life. And then it was like, okay, she's in Ghana. She was hopping mad. Michael Hingson  09:13 Well, how long did she stay? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  09:16 Well, so she stayed for two years. Because what Ghana has is sort of like, at the time it was something called sixth form, which is, again, the British system. So it's sort of like a college prep in between the equivalent of that. So she basically did that in Ghana. Michael Hingson  09:38 Okay, well, and your little brother didn't go to Ghana, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  09:44 not yet, not not yet. You Michael Hingson  09:47 mean they didn't send him over at one year? No, okay, well, that's probably a good idea. Well, so looking back on it, what do you think about having spent three years in. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  10:00 Ghana, looking back on it, I think it was actually really, really good for me. I mean, it was that doesn't take away from the fact that it was very difficult. It was very, very challenging, not only academically. It was I was bullied really hard at this boarding school that I went to. The girls just kind of made my life hell. But what was amazing about it for me was that I had, I had exposure to Ghanaian culture in a way that I would never have had in the States. As I mentioned to you, Ghana was sort of that country over there when I lived in America. And you know, it existed as you know, family members coming to visit, long distance phone calls, the food that we ate, that you know, the accents that we had, things that made us different, and at the time, that was not cool. You know, as a kid, you just want to fit in and you don't want to be different. And going to Ghana was my opportunity to learn that, wow, I didn't have to be embarrassed or ashamed of that difference. There was so much to be proud of. You know, my family was, you know, a sprawling family, you know, my my grandmother owned a business, my grandfather owned a business, you know, it was, it was really, it was eye opening, just to sort of be in another environment. People knew how to, you know, pronounce my name, and I didn't have to, you know, just explain things. And that was really affirming for a 12 year old and a 13 year old when you're going through that, you know. So it was really good for me. And in Ghana is where I came to know Christ. I became a Christian, and it was something that spiritually, I was not really, I don't know, I just didn't really think about spiritual. I did on some level. But going to Ghana, it everything just felt so palpable. It was really like we're praying for this. And it happened, you know what I mean, like, yeah. It felt very Yeah. It was just a time in my life when life really felt very the mysteries of life really felt like they were open to me, Michael Hingson  12:37 interesting and so you clearly gained a lot of insight and knowledge and experience over there that you were able to bring back with you when you came Yes, yes. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  12:55 When I returned to the States, I was just, I think of myself, I guess, as a weirdo. Like, when I came back, I just felt so weird because I couldn't really, fully, you know, connect with my friends, because I had missed out on three years of culture, you know. And you You don't realize how much culture means, like, until, like, you know, you don't have those references anymore. I didn't know the songs that were popular. I didn't, you know, know about, I forget, there was some sort of genes that were really popular while I was gone. I didn't know what they were. I didn't have a pair of them. So it was just sort of this, this interesting time. And I was also young, because I had finished high school, and I was 15, yeah, my friends were, you know, sophomores, yeah, you know, and I was beginning the process of looking into college. So it was just a really isolating time for me and I, but also, you know, interesting and I, again, I say it was, it was ultimately in the in the wash of it. I think it was good because it enabled me to sort of, I guess, mature in a way that enabled me to start college earlier. And, you know, sort of see the world in a much different way. Michael Hingson  14:26 So when you went to college, what did you want to do? Or had you had you decided to start laying plans for a major and what you wanted to do post college, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  14:36 I did not know what I wanted to do. I kind of, I mean, I kind of thought I wanted to be a doctor. I thought I wanted to be a doctor. Like, all my life, growing up, I was like, I'm going to be a doctor. And I was a science student in Ghana, but I struggled mightily. But still, I went. I entered college with us. You know, the plans? To become a bio psychology major. And you know, I took two, three classes, well more than that, I did, like, a year of classes. And I was just like, This is not for me, not for me at all. But yeah, yeah. So it was, it was that was a little rough. Michael Hingson  15:21 Things happen. So what did? What did you go off and do? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  15:25 Then I ended up majoring in political science and Africana Studies, and it was, I remember taking a political science class my freshman year, and I, my my professor was amazing, but it was, it was interesting to me. I think looking back now, being able to think about the world in a way that was sort of linking history and politics and culture together. And I think that was interesting to me, because I had just come from Ghana and had been exposed to, like, sort of this completely different culture, completely different political system, and, you know, kind of having that, I that thinking, or that wonderment of like, wow, you can Life can be so different somewhere else, but it's still life, and it's still happening, but also having that connection as an American to America and what's happening there. And so holding both of those things in my hands when I got to college, I think I was, I just what I was really sort of intrigued by the idea of studying politics and studying culture and society, Michael Hingson  16:48 and that's what you did. Yes, I did. So you got a degree in political science. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  16:54 Yes, a double degree political science and Africana Studies. Michael Hingson  16:57 Africana Studies, okay, and again, that that's probably pretty interesting, because the the Ghana influence had to help with the Africana Studies, and the desire to to do that, and you certainly came with a good amount of knowledge that had to help in getting that as a part of your major. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  17:16 Well, interestingly, my focus was on African American Studies, because I really growing up as an immigrant, like with immigrant parents, their understanding or their their thought process wasn't necessarily, I don't know they weren't. They didn't really raise us to think about race or being black, because their consciousness wasn't about that. It was they were immigrants. You know what? I mean, they weren't thinking about that. So I was actually quite curious, because I did grow up in America and I was black, but I didn't understand, you know, the history of America in that way. And I remember, actually, when I was in was it the third or maybe it was the second or third grade, or maybe it was fifth grade. I did a project on the Civil War, and I remember being so interested in it, because I had, I just didn't, you know, it wasn't. I was so fascinated by American history because I really wasn't. I didn't, I didn't understand it in the way that maybe somebody who wasn't the child of immigrants, you know, might, you know, connect with it. So I was just Yeah, so I was really fascinated by African American history, so I ended up double majoring in it and concentrating on African American politics, which was really fascinating to me. Michael Hingson  18:55 Yeah, and there certainly has been a fair amount of that over the years, hasn't there? Yes, there has, but you can, you can cope with it and and again. But did your time in Ghana, kind of influence any of what you did in terms of African American Studies? Did it help you at all? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  19:15 Um, I, I don't know, because I don't because, because I think what, what I what, what Ghana helped me with was, I remember, I'll say this. I remember one time in Ghana, in class, we were reading a book by an author who had we were reading a play, actually by a Ghanaian writer who was writing about a Ghanian man who married an African American woman and brought her to his home. And there was a lot of clash between them, because, you know, they were both black, but they had different sort of backgrounds. Yeah, and I remember the teacher asking, because the. The the wife that he brought home, the African American woman, mentioned certain things about America, and no one in the classroom could answer any questions about America, and I was the only one who could. And I was, you know, very, very sort of shy in that in that school and in that context. But I remember that day feeling so emboldened, like I was, like, I can actually contribute to this conversation. And so maybe, you know, in on some level, when I got back to the states, maybe there was some interest in linking those two things together. But it wasn't as as is in life. It wasn't obvious to me. Then it was sort of just kind of me following my interest and curiosity. And I ended up, I didn't set out to be an Africana Studies double major, but I ended up taking so many classes that I had the credits. And, you know, I was like, Okay, I guess I'm I have two degrees now, or two, two concentrations, Michael Hingson  21:02 yeah, did you go and do any advanced work beyond getting bachelor's degrees? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  21:08 No, I did not. When I graduated, I initially thought I might get interested, get in, go to law school. But this was me again, following my muse. I realized that my real interest was in writing papers when I was in college. You know, give me a 15 page paper, 20 page paper, I was ecstatic. I loved writing papers. And I think that's one of the reasons, too, why I loved political science and Africana Studies, because we were assigned tons of papers, and it enabled me to sort of, you know, writing these papers enabled me to kind of think through questions that I had, or process what I was reading or thinking about or feeling. And so when I graduated from college, you know, I got, you know, a job, and was working, trying to figure out, Okay, do I want to go to law school? But at the time that I graduated, that was also during the time of, like, the.com boom, and there were a lot of online magazines that were looking for writers, and so I started, kind of, you know, submitting, and I got some some things published. And as that was happening, I was like, I think this is what I want to focus on. Michael Hingson  22:30 So when did you really know that you were a writer? Then? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  22:34 I mean, I don't I think that when I got back, when I started working, so I, ultimately, I got a job in advertising, and I was working, you know, as an assistant in the on the account side of things, but there was this whole creative department that, you know, got to, you know, come up with all of the, you know, the the taglines and write commercials and write jingles and all that kind of stuff. And I was, like, so fascinated by that, and that's what I thought, okay, I could if you know, I need a job, I need money, and I want to write, so maybe this is what I need to be doing. And so I ultimately did get a job as a copywriter and and I still, you know, do that work today, but I think I always knew that I needed to write, and I wanted to actually write about my experience in Ghana. So I remember, you know, I started kind of very fledgling. Would began to write into that, and I ultimately started writing that the book that became my first book, powder necklace, on the subway to and from work. Every morning I would wake up very early, write what I could get ready for work, right on the bus, right on the subway, you know, get to work after work. You know, repeat. And it took me many years, but that's what I did. And I wrote my first book, Michael Hingson  24:14 and that was published in 2010 right? Yes, it was, did you self publish? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  24:18 Or I well, I did not self publish. I was published by Simon and Schuster. Simon and Schuster's Atria Books, Washington Square press. And part of my process was I started just kind of, you know, the Internet. The Internet was new. It was something that was available to me. So I started just kind of Googling, how do you get published? And they said you needed a literary agent. So I started looking online for literary agents. And because I lived in New York City at the time, I would literally write my my query letters and like, hand deliver them different agencies. 90s, and one woman, after four years of looking, said, Okay, this sounds interesting. I'd love to meet with you. And I didn't believe. I was like, wow, I've been rejected for four years, and somebody actually wants this, and she was able to sell the book. And I was shocked. I was like, Simon and sister, okay? And at the time they bought it, the, you know, the America, the US, was going through the whole financial, you know, crisis, the recession, in 2008 so they held my book for a year, and then we began the process in 2009 and then they, you know, we were on track to publish it in 2010 Michael Hingson  25:46 Wow. Well, tell me about that book. Yeah. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  25:51 Powder necklace is a novel. It's a fictionalized account of my experience going to high school in Ghana. I when I went to school in Ghana. I went to a girls boarding school in the mountains of Ghana central region, and that school was going through a major water crisis. We did not, I mean, we the short story is that, I guess, because of we were on the mountain, the water pressure was very low, and so it was really difficult to get the water up that mountain. And they didn't have like enough, you know, tanks around the school and what have you. So we had one artificial well, and then we had, like, an underground well, and that was it. And the underground well wasn't always, you know, full of water to service the whole school. It was really difficult. So, you know, we had to bring in our own water, some. And then it became, if you had money, you could bring water. But if you didn't have money, you didn't and it was a very desperate time for for young girls without being not being able to take a shower on demand. And it was, it was wild. Michael Hingson  27:15 Where does the title powder necklace come from? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  27:19 So the title, I named it powder necklace, because, as I mentioned, taking a shower became this like symbol of the haves and the have nots. And, you know, all of this having water, really. And if so, what, what the girls, what we would do is, you know, after you've taken a bath, people would put tons of powder on their necks. And it was sometimes it was okay we didn't take a bath, so we're going to put powder on our necks to scented powder to cover the odor. But it was also a way, like if you had bathed, to sort of, you know, show off that you'd bathed. So for me, it was as I was reflecting on the on this as I was writing this story and reflecting on that whole experience, I thought, wow, it was sort of our way of holding our heads up, you know, in the difficult situation, and kind of making the best of it. So that's why I called it powder necklace, Michael Hingson  28:17 okay? And that was for children. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  28:20 Well, it was for young adults, young adults, but Michael Hingson  28:25 it was more writing than pictures. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  28:27 Yeah, it was a young adult novel. I actually, I mean, this was my first book. I really didn't know what I was doing. I just, I wrote the book and I didn't know that it was a young adult novel, until people were like, Yeah, you wrote a young adult novel. I'm like, okay, Michael Hingson  28:47 works for me. Well, what does, what does being a writer mean to you? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  28:54 Um, I think being a writer means to me being able to articulate. A time, a place, a mood, a moment, being able to articulate it, one for myself, but also to create a record that helps people who don't necessarily have that gift to be able to sort of put words to the experience of living at a time place, having a certain feeling about something. Michael Hingson  29:34 Do you think there's a difference between being considered a writer and being an author, are they the same, or are they really different? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  29:45 I do think that there is a difference, and not in a sort of, you know, highfalutin way. I think the difference is the fact that when you I think, like, when you asked me initially, like, when do you think that you you became. Became a writer. My My instinct is to say that I think I was always a writer, because I think if you write, you're a writer. And whether you're published or not, you're a writer. If you have that inclination, that gift, and you sort of invest in that gift, and invest and develop it. I think you're a writer, but I think with an author, I think then that's to me. I think of it as the business of being a writer, or the business of being, yeah, you are now sort of in business with your publisher. Publisher has invested a certain amount in you, and it then becomes a more sort of public facing thing. The work is not just for you anymore. The work is now being disseminated to a group and hopefully to as many people as possible, and you as the writer now have to figure out, like, how do I get to my audience? How do I maximize or expand the reach of this thing that I wrote? How do I connect with people around the story and build build a readership. And how do I ultimately, you know, the my desire and goal would be to live off of this. How do I make turn this into something that I can, I can do, you know, full time and live off of Michael Hingson  31:38 so you turn from a writer to being an author. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  31:42 I'm, yes, I am an author, and I'm and I'm hoping to get to the to the, you know, the point where I can do it 100% full time, and it be, you know, 100% lucrative in that way. Michael Hingson  31:56 So what are you doing now? In addition to doing books, I Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  32:01 also freelance as a copywriter, so I'm still copywriting, Michael Hingson  32:05 okay, I was wondering what you what you did? So you're doing, still marketing and jingles and all those things, yeah, well, I Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  32:13 I'm my focus. I do do that, but my focus is mainly in the digital space. So I write lots of websites and web ads and social media copy, and, you know, things of that nature, campaign work. Michael Hingson  32:33 Well, that's, is there anything that you've written or copy written that we would all know, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  32:42 yeah, I mean, I did. I've done a lot. I guess the maybe the most recent thing that I've done that people might be aware of, or some people might be aware of, is the Brooklyn Museum in New York, did a an exhibition called Africa fashion. And I, they created a short film to promote it, and I, they commissioned me to write an original piece for it. And so I wrote that piece and and performed it in the film. So, you know, people who are into that kind of thing a museum, that that museum might be aware of it. But I've also written for, I did a lot of work for L'Oreal Paris, USA, and I've just done a lot of beauty work. So many of the beauty brands you might be aware, you know, you might know, I've done some work for them, cool. Michael Hingson  33:45 Well, that, you know, you do have to do things to earn an income to to be able to afford to write until you can do it full time. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  33:53 Yeah, yeah. And I actually really love copywriting. I think it's an it's been an incredible teacher in the sense of how to how to crystallize an idea in very short, you know, in just a few words, how to convey emotion in just a few words. And also that storytelling is not just the words, it's how you deliver the story that's all part of it. So I think it's been an incredible teacher in that way. Michael Hingson  34:28 I know for me as a speaker, it is how you tell the story. And I've learned over 23 and a half years of speaking how to take people inside the World Trade Center and actually have them travel with me and do all the things that, and experience all the things that that I went through, and then come out of the other side and I and I say that because so many people after I speak somewhere, well. Come up and say, we were with you in the building. We were with you with everything that you did. And I appreciate that there is a real significant art to storytelling, and part of it is also, and I'm sure that this is true for you as a writer and an author, that part of it has to be that you have to actually connect with the audience. You've got to understand the audience. You've got to connect with them, and you have to bring them along, because they're not expecting to go with you. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  35:33 Absolutely, absolutely. And I will say that I started one of your books just the beginning of it, and I was just running with Roselle, and I was so taken, so absorbed by the first few pages of it. You really do immerse us. And I think that that's the best kind of of writing. You know, when you're able to kind of present material that people may or may not be familiar with, and make it riveting and really bring us into it, and then have us invest being, feel invested well. Michael Hingson  36:16 And I think the last book that we did last year live like a guide dog. I worked really hard to make sure that we were drawing people into the experiences, because every chapter is actually taking lessons from one of my guide dogs and also from Fantasia, which who is my wife's service dog, but each chapter relates to one of those dogs, and I wanted them to be environments where people again were drawn in and appreciate the dogs for what they are and what they do, not just some dumb Animal that comes along. Yeah. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  37:00 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, so interesting. I think there's, there's so much, I guess. I don't want to use the word, I guess what I want to say, there's a lot of mystery in in the sort of human animal interaction, and people just aren't aware of how powerful it is, and I can, I'm saying that I speak for myself, because growing up, actually, I was really, really scared of dogs and animals, all animals, and I so there's, there's two, there's kind of two stories I'll share. But one is when we were, when we were growing up, my parents, you know, were from Ghana. They wanted to eat goat meat. And at the time, you couldn't just go to a supermarket goat meat. So we used to go to a farm out in New Jersey that had goats, and we would have to go and have the goat, you know, slaughtered and, you know, cut up and all that kind of stuff for the meat. And I remember that whenever the hand would go into, you know, the pen where the goats were, the goats would just were. They would be so stressed out, they would like, you know, part like the ocean walked in, and if he picked, when he picked one out. There would be other people, other goats in the pen that would start screaming in agony, along with the goat that had been picked out. And I was just like, Oh my gosh. That must be his family members, like, or his loved ones. And it was so I remember that was so eye opening to me, like, wow. So I ended up years, years later, I wrote a short story, and I actually did some research on goats and how brilliant they are, and I was just like, wow, oh my goodness, I remember that so well. But I have a cat right now, and my kitty cat is just such a such a joy, like just sort of to build that relationship with, with my with my pet, is just such a beautiful thing, and how she just kind of, because I grew up really scared of pets, and I sort of inherited her when I got when I got married, you know, she's been very patient with me, like, because at first I was so skittish around her, and I could see her, kind of like rolling her eyes, like, I mean, you no harm. You can pick me up. It's all good. And she's just been so wonderfully patient with me. We've built that bond over time. Michael Hingson  39:31 Well, yeah, I have, of course, my my eighth guy, dog, Alamo, and stitch the cat. Stitch is 15 and a half and a real cutie pie. We rescued her. Actually, there were people who were living next to us, and he was moving out. His wife had died, and he just told the people who were moving all of his stuff out, take the cat to the pound. I don't want anything to do with it. And we, we said, Absolutely not. We'll find it a home. And then I asked, What the. Cat's name was, and they told me the cat's name was stitch. And I knew that this cat wasn't going to go anywhere because my wife had been, well, my wife had been a quilter since 1994 and a quilter is never going to give away a cat named stitch. Yes. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  40:14 Oh, I'm so glad stitch found a home with you. Michael Hingson  40:18 Oh, yeah. Well, we found a stitch. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  40:20 Oh, that's right, that's right. Michael Hingson  40:23 And, and, and so she's, she's got lots of personality. And so it really works out pretty well. No, no complaints. And I've always said, Whenever I get a guide dog, because my wife has always had cats, when I get a new guide dog, I've always said, and will continue to say, it has to be a dog that's been raised around cats and has no problems with cats. I have seen a couple of Guide Dogs, actually, that hated cats, and one almost killed a cat, and that's I will never tolerate that. Yeah, they have to get along. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely now, when we brought Alamo home, stitch had a few concerns about this dog in her house. She got over it when she decided that Alamo wasn't going to do anything to bother her and they they talk all the time now and rub noses and all that sort of stuff. Oh, that's so cool, yeah, but, but it's, it is great, and they, they bring so much joy and so many lessons to us that I think it was really important to learn. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  41:34 Yeah, yeah. You're reminding me the first dog, because my grandmother actually loves animals, and when I went to Ghana, she got a dog, and, you know, as a kid, so we got a puppy. And I remember the puppy was initially supposed to be a guard dog, but we I, I would feed the I would hand feed the dog sausages and just spoil the dog so much. Could not be a guard dog, so I loved that dog. Joshua, yeah, Joshua, Michael Hingson  42:07 well, but you and Joshua got along really well. On we got along great. One of the things that people sometimes ask me is if my dog trained to protect and the answer is no, they're not trained, and then they've said, Well, what would happen if somebody were to decide to attack you with the dog around? And my response will always be and rightly so, I wouldn't want to be the person to try that and find out what will happen, because much more than guarding, there's love. And I've always believed that dogs love unconditionally. I think trusting is a different story. They are open to trust, but, but you have to earn their trust. They'll love you, but will they trust you? That depends on you. And so it's it's really pretty cool, but I would not want to be the person to ever decide to try to attack us, because I, I am sure that Alamo would not tolerate that at all. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  43:10 Oh, not at all. How do, how do you or how have you built trust with your your pets? Michael Hingson  43:17 Well, a lot of it has to do with they want us to be the pack leaders. They want us to be their team leader. And so I have to set the ground rules. So, for example, no jumping on the furniture and all that. But again, it's also how you convey that. So if my dog is going to jump up on something and I don't want that, I'll say, leave it. And as soon as the dog obeys, I'll give the dog a food reward, a kibble, to let the dog know, and I'll also use a clicker, but I'll let the dog know I approve of what you did, not punishing them for, you know, something else. Yeah, so it's not punishment, it's positive rewards. I think that's extremely important, but also it is in the stressful times being very focused and calm. So if we're walking somewhere and we get lost, that is not the dog's fault, because it's my job to know where to go and how to get where I'm going, and it's the dog's job to make sure that we walk safely to get there, so if we get lost, that's on me. And what I can't do, or shouldn't do, is panic and become very fearful and upset, because the dog will sense that I have to stop and figure it out and continue to praise the dog, saying what a good job you're doing, and so on. And those kinds of things are the things that will, over time, build that trust. I think it takes a good year to truly build a trusting relationship that is second. To none. And that's the kind of teaming relationship that you want, whether it's a guide dog or any dog. And even as far as that goes, although they're different cats, yeah, but it's, it's all about building that relationship and conveying the command and conveying that you want to trust and be trusted? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  45:24 Yeah, yeah. I think you're you. What you said that really resonated with me is that they want to know. They want you to be the pack leader and the and part of that is, you know, you lay down the ground rules, but also you're responsible for them and their well being. And, yeah, that really, that really resonated with me. Michael Hingson  45:48 Well, so you wrote your first book, and then when did you write your second book? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  45:55 My second book came out in 2022, so it was a 12 year spread in my first book and my second book, Why so long? Oh my gosh, my book, I was the book I was working on, like to sort of follow, was just rejected for, for all that whole time, and I was, you know, in more and more distraught, and, you know, in despair about it. I didn't know what to do about it. And I actually, you know, I was actually reading the Bible, and I came across the fact that there was a curtain, a blue curtain, in King Solomon's temple. And I was like, why does it matter that the curtain was blue? And so I just started googling casually, and I discovered that there was a snail in antiquity that was harvested for the blue drops that it it secreted, or it secreted drops that were ultimately oxidized to turn blue. And I was like, what I've never heard about this? I started doing some more research, and I realized, like, oh my gosh, the color blue has such a fascinating history. Kids need to know about this. And so I wrote it really as a poem initially, but then I thought, you know, I really want to see if I can get this published. And I was able to get it published, and that became my children's book blue, which was such a bomb to my soul, because after sort of a decade of getting, you know, rejected, and, you know, close to a decade of getting rejected, this, this sort of beautiful, like, sort of knowledge, you know, I came across, But I was able to create a book, and it's just been a wonderful experience with the children's Michael Hingson  47:45 book, wow, so the full title of blue is, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  47:51 it's blue a history of the color as deep as the sea and as wide as the sky. Wow. Michael Hingson  47:57 That should be enough to get the book sold. But as you point out, there's, there's a lot of history, yes, and that, that's pretty cool. So it was, it was released in 2022 and they finally, the publishers finally bought into that, huh? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  48:16 Well, yeah, I mean, that wasn't the novel that I've been working on. So I was still working. I ultimately, I did sell the novel, but that was its own journey, and I ended up writing another book that became the book is called my parents marriage, and it is not about my actual parents marriage. It's a novel about a young woman for adult readers. It's my first book for adult readers, and it is about a young woman whose parents are in a polygamous union, and how they're they have a really turbulent polygamous union, and how that relationship kind of kind of cast a shadow on this woman's, you know, choices in relationships and marriage for herself. Michael Hingson  49:10 So you you publish that my parents marriage. You also did a collection relations. Tell me about relationships. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  49:18 I did. Yeah, so relations is an anthology of its stories, essays and poems that are by writers from all across the continent of Africa. So I have Egyptian poets and Libyan you know essayists and you know, Nigerian storytellers, just it was, it was a really amazing project to work on. I started working on it during August of 2020, which was sort of like I've heard it described as peak pandemic, right? You know, we were several months. Into lockdown, and you know, it became this wonderful way for me to kind of connect while I was sort of holed up in my apartment in New York. Michael Hingson  50:15 Okay, now, were you married by then? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  50:18 No, I was not. I had just started dating my now husband, and I was like, Am I ever gonna see this man again? Because he lived in California, so at that time, the planes were grounded. I remember we were, like, on the first, very first flights that were able to start, you know, that started and be on planes, there'd be like, four people on the entire plane. Michael Hingson  50:42 Yeah, hopefully you both weren't on planes going against each other at the same time. No, you did communicate a little more than that. Oh, good. Well, so you published. So when was well? What was relations published? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  51:02 Relations came out in 2023 okay, February of 2023, and my parents marriage came out in July of 2024. Just came out in July of 2025, Michael Hingson  51:14 which one the paperback of the paperback? Oh, okay. Have any of them been converted to audio Yes, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  51:23 all, but my first book, are audio books. So blue is an audio book, beautifully read, and then their relations, the stories and essays and poems are read by two speaking artists, and then my parents, marriage is is also wonderfully performed. So, yeah, they're all an audience. Michael Hingson  51:50 That's cool, yeah. So when you're writing, what, what's kind of the difference, or, how do you differentiate between writing for young people and writing for adults. There must be differences. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  52:07 Yeah, I think, I think with for young people, and the practical thing that I try to do is make sure that the vocabulary is are is familiar to them, mostly familiar. I like to put in a stretch word now and then to kind of get them to, like, get to the dictionary and find out what. But if I'm right, when I when I wrote blue, for example, knowing that, you know, the the age group is, the age spread is four to 888, year olds are in third grade. Four year olds are in pre K, so that's that's pretty big spread. So my sweet spot is first and second grade vocabulary words. Okay, it has to be something that they've been exposed to. So thinking of it in that way, the other thing too is breaking down concepts that are, you know, as adults, you know, we just assume that you know, or you can go look it up, but just kind of thinking it through. So if I'm talking about, instead of saying that, you know, there was a snail in antiquity who, you know, heart, you know, dyers were harvesting blue dye from these snails through after a process of oxidation. I wouldn't use any of those words. I would say, snail produced some drops that when exposed to the air and the sun turned blue. And so just sort of really, kind of being mindful of that, and also thinking very visually, writing, very visually. How can I create pictures with words that would be familiar to a child, that can sort of ignite their imagination? Michael Hingson  53:53 Yeah, I think it's extremely important to to deal with the visual aspects of it, but using words and really drawing again, drawing people in because if you just say, well, you can see this in this picture. That doesn't mean a lot, and you're also, I would think, helping to teach or create the concept that some people might some children might want to go off and write because they like how you say and what you say Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  54:24 absolutely and when I when I talk to kids, I go or visit schools, I invite them like I wrote about the color blue. What's your favorite color? These are some some things that I did to kind of learn about it. You can do these things to learn about your favorite color and write your own book? Michael Hingson  54:42 Yeah, yeah, it's, I think, so important to really draw people in and get them to think. And I think it's so much fun for me, I do some of that, but I have probably more of a chance. Challenge, because kids want to play with the dog. Yeah, it's all about the dog. I did a lecture at a K through six elementary school in San Francisco several years ago. I'm trying to remember what school it was anyway, and the teacher said you can only talk for about 10 or 12 minutes, because they just won't pay attention any longer than that. 35 minutes later, I finally ended the discussion, because they were so fascinated to hear me talk about what my dog did. And then I carried that over to how blind people work and function and all that. And the fact is, they were fascinated. The teachers couldn't believe it, but for me, it was a great lesson to know that it's all about creating these pictures that people can follow, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  55:53 yeah, and also to extending those pictures or those words into an experience for kids. Yeah, they really, they really appreciate, sort of like seeing it, kind of, you know, see if the having the concept come to life, yeah, way. And so I'm sure when they see your dog, or are able to interact with your dog, that must be so wonderful for them, Michael Hingson  56:22 but it's important for them to understand what the dog is all about. So by the time they get to interact with the dog, we've talked about things like, you never pet a guide dog in harness. This is what a guide dog does, and this is what they don't do. There are a lot of things to to cover. So it's great when I have the opportunity to really teach them. And sometimes we'll walk around a classroom and I'll show them what he does. Yeah, it's important to be able to do that. Oh, I love that. I love that. And he loves it, of course, all the way. So no question about that. He's you haven't lived until you've seen two or 300 kids all wanting to pet this dog. And the dog knows what to do. He's down on the floor with every appendage stretched out as far as he can go to maximize petting places, petting. Oh, it is so funny. I love that. He loves it. He's, he's, he's so happy. He doesn't care whether he'll do it more with kids even than adults, but, yeah, he'll do it with everybody. It's all about petting me and just remembering I'm the dog. I love that. Well, you've gone through a fair amount of time between books, and I'm sort of curious, what do you think about all the various kinds of changes and ebbs and flows that have come along in the book business, in the book publishing business and so on. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  57:56 Yeah, there have been a lot of changes. Um, I think, um, when my first book came out, like things like, you know, Instagram Bookstagram did not exist. There weren't many sort of podcasts or things of that nature. So I think that there is, there's definitely, there are more venues and more platforms to, you know, get the message out about the book. But I think also there is, it's also just hard. It's in some ways, it also feels in some ways more challenging to get the word out, because in addition to, like, yes, there are more venues in that way, regard, there are fewer book reviewers and fewer places to get a book reviewed, and there's a whole kind of interesting business about around getting reviews. So it's just not the same in that way. But then at the same time. I think what remains the same is connecting with readers. I think the most effective thing is, you know, writing a book that's good and then getting people who have read it and liked it to evangelize, to tell people I liked it, please buy it, or you should have you heard of and because at the end of the day, you know, that's what's going to, you know, give it some wind Michael Hingson  59:30 when thunder dog came out, and we did mention about reviews, and it actually has had, like well over 1600 reviews since it came out in 2011 live like a guide dog hasn't had, of course, so many yet, but every time I get a chance to talk about that book, I ask people to go review it and tell them why it's so important, because potential readers want to know what people think of the book. Yeah, for sure. For sure, it's. It really is important for readers to review and just be honest and say what you think. It's fine, but people should do that. For me, I think one of the biggest things that I see that publishers are doing less of is in a lot of ways, true marketing. You don't, you know, you don't see them doing nearly as much. Of course, I know it's more expensive, but to help create book tours or anything like that, they focus only on social media, and that's not the way to market the book. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  1:00:33 Yeah, I think, I mean, I've never worked inside a publishing office, so I don't know what actually, how they make these decisions and what goes on, but I do. I think what I have come to sort of think, how I've come to think of it, is the publisher is my business partner, sort of invested in terms of, they've given me an advance. They're going to do the turn key things like, you know, make sure the book gets reviewed by Publishers Weekly, or, sorry, Publishers Marketplace, or no Publishers Weekly. I was correct, and Kirkus review, Kirkus right, and all those kinds of things. And maybe they'll do a mailing to you know who they believe are the people that they need to mail it to. But outside of that, unless you know you, you know it's stipulated in your contract, or you know you are that high, yeah, you know that that celebrity author, or that that best selling author that they you know, are willing to put that money behind. You're working with some your publicist, who's been assigned to your book has is probably working on 10 other books. Can devote so much to it. And so what I've learned is thankful. I'm thankful that, you know, I have this publisher, but I also know that I need to do a lot of work on my own to get Michael Hingson  1:02:04 you've got to be your best marketer, yes, but, but there's value in that too, because you can tell the story whatever it is, like no one else, exactly, exactly. And so that's that's really pretty important, yeah, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  1:02:18 for sure, for sure. And you can be, you know that I think, also giving yourself permission to be creative, yeah, you know, how can you get the word out in really creative ways, like, again, the publisher. These are things that like, if there was, you know, people, there were many people dedicated to your book for this amount of time, they could kind of sit there and brainstorm and do all those things. But, you know, the reality is, in most cases, it's a small it's a lean and mean team. They don't have that bandwidth, so yeah, just kind of coming up with creative ways. And at times, what I have learned to do is, how can I, if I have an idea that is maybe low cost and but I can't necessarily do it on my own? How can I ask them for support, because they do have, you know, a little bit more resources, Michael Hingson  1:03:16 yeah, and, and the how is really pretty simple. Actually, you just ask exactly, exactly, and you know either they will or they won't, or you'll share it, or whatever. And I have found that same thing to be true. Well, Nana, if people want to reach out to you, how do they do that? If they might want to talk about you doing copywriting for them or whatever, how can people find you? Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  1:03:41 So my website is Nana brew-hammond.com, can you spell please? It's n, a n, a, b, r, e, w, H, A, M, M, O, N, d.com, and I have a newsletter there. So a newsletter sign up. So they can sign up to be a part of my newsletter and connect with me that way. They can also find me on Instagram, I'm at n, a, n, a, e, K, U, a writer on Instagram, and I'm also on Facebook at that same name, and then on Twitter, I am that without the writer. So, n, a, n, a, e, K, U, a, Michael Hingson  1:04:28 okay, cool. Well, I hope people will reach out and and I hope that they will read your books and like them and review them. I hope the same thing. Well, I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank all of you for listening and watching us today. We really appreciate you being here with us. I'd love to hear what you think. Please feel free to email me. I'm reachable at Michael H, I m, I C, H, A, E, L, H i at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I. B, e.com, Michael H i@accessibe.com love to hear your thoughts and love to get your your opinions. I would really appreciate it if you would give us a five star rating when you have the opportunity to review this podcast. We really value your ratings and reviews very highly, and definitely want to know what you think, but please give us a great rating. We love that. If you know anyone who wants to be a guest on a podcast, or you think ought to be a guest, we're always looking for guests. And Nana you as well. If you know anyone, we're always looking for more people to come on the podcast and tell their stories. So we appreciate it. If you'd let us know. By the way, you can also go to my podcast page, www dot Michael hingson, M, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s o n.com/podcast, that's another way to reach out to me as well. But definitely anything you can do to bring more folks to us, we value it very highly. And so with that, once again, Nana, I want to thank you for being here. This has been great. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  1:06:01 Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me on, and you are such an inspiration. And thank you. Michael Hingson  1:06:13 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

(Nov 17, 2025) The Adirondack Park Agency is sending its first project in 14 years to an adjudicatory hearing; the Senior Planet Center in Plattsburgh will host an emergency preparedness training for North Country families tomorrow; and we head into the woods in Oswegatchie to track down a missing buck.

(Nov 14, 2025) Matt Bondurant's latest novel "North Country" explores a crime ring that is smuggling drugs over the Canadian border.

(Oct 9, 2025) New Yorkers on unemployment benefits could see their payments rise by hundreds of dollars per week; we take you to a competition for utility arborists that happened last weekend in Burrville, just ouside Watertown; a North Country native has made it past the first round of "The Voice;" and a conversation with Lake Placid author Joan O'Leary, who is will be signing books and giving a talk tonight in downtown Lake Placid.

Let's talk about Canadian tourism, long term effects, and Plattsburgh....

(Sep 10, 2025) Gov. Kathy Hochul was in Plattsburgh yesterday to attend the grand opening of a bus manufacturer that helped save hundreds of local jobs and highlight funding for northern border security; federal officials arrested dozens of people at a food processing plant in Central New York last week; and North Words host Mitch Teich talks with Giles Blunt about his new book "Bad Juliet," which is set at a tuberculosis sanitarium in the Adirondacks.

(Sep 10, 2025) Governor Kathy Hochul was in Plattsburgh yesterday. She attended the grand opening of a bus manufacturer that helped save hundreds of local jobs. Also: Federal agents arrested dozens of people at a food processing plant in Central New York last week.

Trevor Cole is the Director of Planning & Community Development at the Town of Plattsburgh.  He's also the bassist for the rock band Last Pages.

(Sep 2, 2025) Despite the Trump administration asking schools to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, one local district says it has no plans of stopping; the chairs of the Democratic county committees in the 115th Assembly District say they're nominating Plattsburgh's town supervisor for an upcoming special election; and many hiking enthusiasts know the basics of the story, but the Adirondack History Museum in Elizabethtown put together a special exhibit to dive deeper into the history of the first 46ers.

(Aug 28, 2025) Clinton Community College started classes at its new campus this week, now sharing space with SUNY Plattsburgh. Students and employees say the move is bittersweet. Also: The Army is doing an about-face and keeping open the R-O-T-C program based at Clarkson University in Potsdam.

(Aug 25, 2025)

Ralph welcomes Ben Cohen (anti-war activist and ice cream entrepreneur) to discuss his new campaign, "Up in Arms," which advocates for a common-sense Pentagon budget. Then, Ralph speaks to Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi about her recent piece: "When will we finally admit: the Gaza death toll is higher than we've been told."Ben Cohen is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and longtime anti-war activist. He is a co-founder of the ice cream company Ben & Jerry's and a prominent supporter of progressive causes. He is co-founder of Up In Arms, a public education and advocacy campaign pushing for a common-sense approach to military budgeting. In May of this year, Ben was arrested by Capitol Police after he interrupted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s testimony by screaming,”Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid.”We're up in arms because the government has taken the kindness, the heart, the soul of the American people and essentially replaced it with so many bombs that there's no rational use for them. They've turned us all into mass murderers.Ben CohenYou know, politicians starting from Reagan are fond of saying “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” And then they turn around and spend $100 billion a year on a nuclear arsenal that's capable of blowing up the entire world several times over. So they say one thing and they do another. I mean, a nuclear arsenal capable of blowing up the entire world several times over? That's not deterrence. That's delusion.Ben CohenI just go back to the moral issue of our time, which is Gaza—two-thirds of the American people don't support continuing to arm Israel. And we need to make our politicians pay the price for continuing to arm Israel… We have a midterm election coming up. If your guy voted to continue to essentially facilitate the genocide, vote them out.Ben CohenWhen you have more money than is needed, you tend to invite corruption, cost overruns, machinery that doesn't work, and I would advise that you look into why the GAO and the Pentagon auditors are being asked to do fewer audits of the military budget. Because there's almost a direct correlation between throwing money at a government program (especially at that scale) and corruption. And corruption is understandable to everybody. It's the number one political issue all over the world, when the pollsters poll.Ralph NaderArwa Mahdawi is a columnist for the Guardian and author of Strong Female Lead: Lessons from Women in Power. Here is her recent piece on the genocide in Gaza: “When will we finally admit: the Gaza death toll is higher than we've been told” (The Guardian, August 8, 2025)To be fair, the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal have published some pretty devastating reports from their reporters in that area. They've put out some devastating features on what's going on [in Gaza], but it doesn't translate into editorial denunciation by these papers. And it doesn't translate into taking the next step and doing what they would do in other conflicts around the world where there isn't so much prejudice and domestic pressureRalph NaderI'm an opinion writer, but as journalists, you're always supposed to report facts. And the fact is: we have absolutely no idea how many people are dead in the Gaza Strip. But there are plenty of studies (which I reference in the article—one Lancet peer-reviewed study, one letter to the Lancet by a highly-respected scientist, one empirical study by Michael Spagat) which show that the death count is a lot higher. So I truly believe that unless you're saying “the official figure from the Ministry of Health is around 60,000 but studies show it is probably much higher,” then that's just journalistic malpractice.Arwa MahdawiI think there's just this instinct to believe that Palestinians are lying and Israelis are telling the truth. And it also goes back to…this isn't just Israel's war, this is America's war as well. And this desire to see America as the good guys—we're the good guys, the Palestinians are the bad guys. And to have this black-and-white narrative where, obviously, we're the good guys, you know, and so if the Palestinian narrative casts doubt on that, then it must be wrong.Arwa MahdawiI always suggest that people write to the media outlets and say that they want to see more Palestinian narratives, they want the media outlets to voice their concern that foreign reporters are not being let in, that more aid workers are not being let in, that pictures are not coming out.Arwa MahdawiThere are very few pictures coming out of the scale of this destruction in Gaza, but when you see the ones that do come out, it is very, very obvious that there are more than 60,000 people dead.But there seems to be this lack of curiosity with some of my peers. Why aren't they asking, “Why aren't we seeing more pictures?” There should be nonstop outrage that their press freedom is being stifled like this and so many Palestinian journalists are being slaughtered.Arwa MahdawiNews 8/22/25* Last Thursday, during an event in her Masscusetts congressional district, Congresswoman Katherine Clark – who holds the position of House Minority Whip, making her the number two Democrat in the House – called Israel's campaign in Gaza a “genocide,” per Axios. According to Zeteo, this makes Clark the 14th member of Congress to use the “g word.” Lest she be accused of bravery however, Clark quickly walked back her comments. In a statement to the Jewish News Syndicate, Clark said “last week, while attending an event in my district, I repeated the word ‘genocide' in response to a question…I want to be clear that I am not accusing Israel of genocide.” This incident illustrates the cross-cutting pressures facing Democratic Party leaders. This divide will be on the agenda again at the DNC meeting on August 26th, where among other issues, party leaders will vote on competing resolutions to lay out the Democrats' position on Gaza. Allison Minnerly, the progressive DNC delegate sponsoring the resolution to end arms shipments to Israel, is quoted saying “Our voters…are saying that they do not want U.S. dollars to enable further death and starvation anywhere across the world, particularly in Gaza…I don't think it should be a hard decision for us to say that clearly,” per the Intercept.* Even as Democrats wrestle with their position on Gaza, the politics are clearly shifting. The Reject AIPAC coalition has released a new statement saying that among Democrats, AIPAC is now a “toxic pariah.” As evidence of this, Reject AIPAC cites the fact that only 14 House Democrats attended the AIPAC-sponsored Israel trip this year. According to Mondoweiss, “In 2023, the lobbying group brought 24 House Dems to Israel over recess. In 2019, over 40 attended.” Reject AIPAC also cites the fact that Reps. Valerie Foushee and Maxine Dexter, both recipients of millions of AIPAC dollars, voted to block arms to Israel and Foushee is even now rejecting AIPAC money. As these small victories mount, the horizon of possibility for movement within the party grows ever wider.* Last week, Tom Artiom Alexandrovich – a senior department head in Israel's National Cyber Directorate – was arrested in a “multi-agency operation targeting child sex predators,” in Clark County, Nevada according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. According to Reuters, “Alexandrovich faces a felony charge of luring or attempting to lure a child or mentally ill person to commit a sex act ‘with use of computer technology.'” Yet, inexplicably, Alexandrovich was released by U.S. authorities and is back in Israel. This set off a firestorm in the U.S., with many accusing the Trump administration of facilitating Alexandrovich's release. The State Department was forced to issue a statement denying these claims, stating that Alexandrovich "did not claim diplomatic immunity and was released by a state judge…Any claims that the U.S. government intervened are false." The AP adds that the “Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Israeli Prime Minister's Office did not immediately return messages.” Disturbingly, the mainstream media seems to be purposely ignoring this case. While it has been covered by the Guardian, the Times of Israel, and Haaretz, there has been zero coverage in the New York Times or Washington Post, or ABC, NBC, or CBS. This media blackout adds fuel to the speculation that this case is being tamped down by the administration for political reasons.* Another troubling story regarding minors on the internet comes to us from Mark Zuckerberg's Meta AI. According to Reuters, internal documents from Meta Platforms detail “policies on chatbot behavior…[permitting] the company's artificial intelligence creations to ‘engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,' generate false medical information and help users argue that Black people are ‘dumber than white people.'” Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan called these reports “disturbing” and cited a legal complaint filed by the FTC to the Justice Department against Snap in January, under her leadership, “charging that [Snap's] AI chatbot was creating risks and harms for young users.” Khan noted that the “DOJ hasn't filed the case or taken any steps to protect these kids,” and demanded that “Any lawmaker concerned about big tech's abuse of kids should ask what is going on.” The administration's lack of action on these issues indicates that despite their rhetorical inveighing against the tech industry, they are treating SIlicon Valley with the same kid gloves they use for the rest of corporate America, even when it affects minors.* In more positive news from abroad, the Washington Post reports that between 2022 and 2024, Mexico lifted a stunning 8.3 million residents out of poverty. This 18% drop in poverty includes a 23% decrease in extreme poverty and a 16% drop in moderate poverty. According to experts, this remarkable achievement is the result of the policies of former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, and his successor Claudia Sheinbaum, such as tripling the minimum wage and instituting a raft of social programs to aid “senior citizens, unemployed youth, students, farmers and people with disabilities.” President Sheinbaum is now plowing ahead with a new project – producing a “small, 100% electric, accessible [EV],” called the “Olinia,” to be fully manufactured and assembled in Mexico, per Mexico News Daily.* Turning to domestic politics, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik finally showed up in her district on Monday after an extended period of avoiding public appearances. At a ceremony honoring a late Clinton County clerk in Plattsburgh, Stefanik was drowned out by cries of “‘You sold us out!', ‘Shame!', and ‘Unseal the Epstein files!', along with a “steady stream of boos,” according to the Daily Beast. Stefanik “left the podium after speaking for less than a minute,” and when she returned, she was booed again. Stefanik's chronic absence and chilly reception is a bad sign for her gubernatorial aspirations. In the months since she has held a town hall, her constituents held a mock town hall where they addressed an empty chair, per WRGB, and New York Democrats AOC and Paul Tonko held town halls in her district, per the Albany Times-Union.* In more political news from New York, disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo is explicitly seeking to woo New York Republicans in his independent bid for Mayor of New York City. POLITICO reports that at a fundraiser at media mogul Jimmy Finkelstein's Southampton estate, Cuomo told the crowd that he agrees with President Trump that the “goal is to stop Mamdani.” To this end, he is trying to convince Republicans that they would be “wasting [their] vote on [Curtis] Sliwa,” the Republican nominee for Mayor, “because he'll never be a serious candidate.” Cuomo also implied that he is open to an alliance with Trump, telling the crowd “Let's put it this way: I knew the president very well.” Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for the Zohran campaign, is quoted saying “Since he's too afraid to say it to New Yorkers' faces, we'll make it clear: Andrew Cuomo IS Donald Trump's choice for mayor.”* In Texas, state Democrats have returned to the state, ending their attempt to defeat Governor Abbott's mid-decade redistricting scheme by denying the legislature a quorum. In a statement Gene Wu, chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said "We killed the corrupt special session, withstood unprecedented surveillance and intimidation, and rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation — reshaping the entire 2026 landscape," per the BBC. The legislature is now expected to approve the redrawn congressional maps; the state Democrats plan to continue fighting them in the courts. California has vowed to redraw their own maps to compensate for the expected loss of five Democrat-held seats in Texas. New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Maryland are also considering their own redistricting plans. Vice President JD Vance was deployed to Indiana to pressure Republicans in that state to redraw their maps to favor Republicans as well, per the IndyStar. It is a sad state of affairs that American politics has been reduced to such naked power grabbing plots, but here we are.* In local news, the federal occupation of Washington, D.C. continues to deepen. CBS reports the governors of at least six Republican-led states are sending contingents from their National Guards to the capital. These include Mississippi and Louisiana, West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. Just what these troops will do in Washington remains unclear. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who is sending 160 troops, cited “monument security” and “traffic control” among their official responsibilities. The federal agents on the ground, with little to do – the DOJ itself reports as violent crime is at a 30-year low in the District – seem to be mostly just harassing residents. The Daily Beast reports ICE tore down a banner and replaced it with a dildo. A local, Amanda Moore, posted a photo of 15 federal agents calling an ambulance for a drunk girl in Dupont Circle. And, while the Lever reports D.C. corporate lobbyists pushed for the occupation, it is wreaking havoc on local businesses; Rolling Stone reports reservations at D.C. restaurants are down between 25 and 31%, to take just one example. We can only hope that this pointless, destructive farce of quasi-fascistic political theater ends sooner rather than later.* Finally, investigative reporter and Iraq war veteran Seth Harp is out with a new book – The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces – which details the double murder of Master Sergeant Billy Lavigne and Chief Warrant Officer Timothy Dumas, along with the “many more unexplained deaths…other murders connected to drug trafficking in elite units, and dozens of fatal overdoses,” at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Among other remarkable discoveries, Harp “describes a U.S. special forces k9 [unit] that was given titanium dentures and encouraged to feast on human brains in the field,” in the words of publisher and producer Chris Wade. Remember these titanium dentures whenever you hear that there is no money to pay for critical social programs. The money is there. The political will is not.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

At Bluff Point Golf Resort in Plattsburgh, New York, owner Paul Dame says he used to see 20 or 30 Canadian cars in the lot. Now? Just one or two. used to see — 過去常常看到（但現在不再） just one or two — 只有一兩個（口語中常用來強調數量很少） And it's not only his course. Data shows Canadians made nearly 40% fewer trips to the U.S. this summer compared to last year. Relations have soured after President Trump suggested making Canada a U.S. state and added steep tariffs. A strong U.S. dollar hasn't helped either. -- Hosting provided by SoundOn

(Aug 19, 2025) Congresswoman Elise Stefanik attended a dedication ceremony in Plattsburgh yesterday, following a rare public feud with local Republicans over selecting a candidate for an upcoming special election; a statewide program that allows college students to work on and off campus is helping them find their roots in the North Country; and astronomer Aileen O'Donoghue is in the studio this morning to guide us through this month's night skies.

(Aug 19, 2025) Congresswoman Elise Stefanik attended a dedication ceremony in Plattsburgh yesterday. Her appearance followed a rare public feud with local Republicans over selecting a candidate for an upcoming special election. Also: Part of the reason for a road salt shortage last winter was because of a requirement to buy from an American company.

(Aug 15, 2025) We visit the man who owns a well known caboose on Route 11 between Canton and Potsdam; Plattsburgh is getting a new 24/7 crisis center to close a gap in local behavioral health services; New York lawmakers say the state should cancel plans to send taxpayer rebate checks with the state facing a big budget deficit; National Grid customers will soon see a higher electricity bill after the state Public Service Commission approved a rate hike; and, Adirondack trail conditions and what's up with those pesky deer flies?

(Aug 8, 2025) A major ski jumping event in Lake Placid has been cancelled because of infrastructure issues; thousands turned out for Plattsburgh's first-ever Michigan Fest; Alcoa and NYPA are nearing a deal to keep the aluminum giant in Massena; Plattsburgh's town supervisor will run replace Assemblyman Billy Jones; and, teen theatre in Westport and local music in Potsdam!

(Aug 8, 2025) Last weekend, more than 4,000 people celebrated Plattsburgh's local specialty, the Michigan. We take a trip to the inaugural Michigan Fest, which honored the iconic hot-dog-and-meat-sauce combo. Also: Gov. Kathy Hochul continues to condemn Republican plans to realign congressional districts ahead of next year's midterm elections.

In this episode of The Ganjapreneur Podcast, host TG Branfalt sits down with Christie and William Ashabranner, the husband-and-wife duo behind The Herb Cave, a licensed cannabis dispensary in Plattsburgh, New York. Built on values of inclusivity, kindness, and education, The Herb Cave stands out not only for its product selection and interior design, but for its genuine community connection and emphasis on customer experience. In this interview, Christie and William share the trials of opening a cannabis shop in a hesitant real estate market, how word-of-mouth and staff culture fueled their early success, and why they're building a space that goes beyond retail with events, metaphysical offerings, and plans for an eventual on-site consumption lounge. They also reflect on legacy roots, regulatory frustrations, and what it takes to earn a customer's trust in a legal market.

(Aug 4, 2025)

(Aug 4, 2025) As tensions run high between the U.S. and Canada, people on both sides of the border are coming together to affirm their friendship. Plattsburgh and Cornwall leaders actually put it in writing. Also: A new series of portraits is now on display at John Brown Farm in Lake Placid that puts a spotlight on the faces of activists throughout American history.

(Aug 1, 2025) A festival honoring Plattsburgh's culinary delicacy is taking place tomorrow. Michigan Fest celebrates the hot dog and meat sauce favorite. Officials say it's about bringing locals and non-locals together. Also: Public transit and highway advocates are getting ready to do battle over New York's new transportation master plan.

(Jul 22, 2025) Police say a Canadian man murdered his nine-year-old daughter while vacationing in the U.S.; during a town hall in Plattsburgh over the weekend, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke out against President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill and Republicans like North Country Congresswoman Elise Stefanik who supported it; and North Words host Mitch Teich speaks with Bloomberg Opinion columnist and part-time North Country resident Francis Barry about his book, "Back Roads and Better Angels," which chronicles his journey along the more than 3,000-mile long Lincoln Highway.

(Jul 22, 2025) Big Democratic Party star power came to Plattsburgh over the weekend. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came to Republican Elise Stefanik's district to speak out against President Donald Trump's massive policy bill as a time when Stefanik is considering a run for Governor. Also: Three Democrats are lining up to challenge Republican Claudia Tenney in the 24th congressional district next year.

(Jul 21, 2025)

(Jul 11, 2025) Leaders from around the region gathered in Alexandria Bay this week for an informational session on nuclear energy; The recissions package that would claw back $9.4 billion dollars in already approved funding will likely be voted on by the Senate next week; Plattsburgh  manufacturer has received orders from two government contractors; Recent DEC rescues included two litter carry-outs and a helicopter airlift; and, a preview of the Paddle for Betterment this weekend!

(Jul 3, 2025) It's prime canoe and kayaking season, when there are races most weekends somewhere in the North Country. We join the Willard Hanmer paddling race, which is set to return to Saranac Lake this Sunday. Also: Health care professionals protested in Plattsburgh yesterday, saying Republicans' tax and spending bill will devastate the North Country's health system.

(Jul 1, 2025)

(Jul 1, 2025) The Adirondack Park Agency headquarters' potential move to Saranac Lake has created a lot of controversy and accusations against the APA's director, Barbara Rice. A new report by NY's Inspector General cleared Rice of any wrongdoing. Also: Two new lawsuits filed against the city of Plattsburgh challenge the police department and its newly appointed chief.

(Jun 26, 2025) Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie was in Plattsburgh yesterday to announce new funding for a local nonprofit; registration to be a volunteer observer for New York's annual loon census is open; and a conversation about how the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts transitioned to a new home in Blue Mountain Lake this summer.

(Jun 26, 2025) One of New York's top Democrats was in Plattsburgh yesterday to deliver funding for a big project in the city. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie brought an additional $1.5 million dollars for the construction of the Plattsburgh YMCA's new home. Also: With summer finally kicking in, we got for a swim in Tirrell Pond near Blue Mountain Lake.

(Jun 20, 2025) Plattsburgh officials are again calling on the federal government to address failing infrastructure at the former Air Force Base; Glens Falls' mayoral race will be decided on the June 24 primaries; NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand says President Trump should pursue diplomacy, not war, in the Israel and Iran conflict; Assemblyman Robert Smullen says he's considering a run for NY-21 if Elise Stefanik runs for Governor; Indian Lake will be celebrating monarch butterflies this weekend; and, a preview of the EP of ‘The North Country's Premier Post-Outlaw Country Band.'

(Jun 20, 2025) Officials in Plattsburgh are again calling on the federal government to take action on failing infrastructure at the former Air Force Base there. They say the costs and stakes are rising. Also: The race for mayor of Glens Falls will be settled in a Democratic primary on Tuesday. We have a profile of the candidates.

When Scott Dukette left his hometown of Plattsburgh, New York, to attend college, he never imagined he'd return for more than the occasional family visit. But as retirement approached, Scott and his wife, Barbara, couldn't pass up the chance to buy a home directly on Lake Champlain—for just $210,000. Now, they spend their summers soaking up life on what's known as “the Adirondack Coast” or “the poor man's Vermont.” Although Plattsburgh may seem secluded, there is plenty to do including lounging on a beautiful beach, and it is not far from Montreal, Canada; Burlington, Vermont; and Lake Placid, New York. Find out more about the Dukettes' lakeside adventure on Episode 212 of Retire There with Gil & Gene. #retirethere #retiretherepodcast #retirewhere #retireabroad #retirehere #wheretoretire #retireearly #bestplacetoretire #retirement #retirementplanning #babyboomers #genxers #plattsburgh #plattsburghnewyork #plattsburghny #lakechamplain #adirondackcoast #poormansvermont #adk #adirondackmountains #adirondackpark #lakegeorge #adirondacks #upstateny #saratogasprings #lakegeorgeny #newyork #iloveny #lakeplacid #upstatenewyork #ny #lakelife #saratoga #adks #adklife #adirondacklife

(Jun 13, 2025) NY's Governor testified in front of Congress about immigration policies; NY-21's Stefanik is supporting a northern border bill; St. Lawrence County hosted an open house to show the community all the ways the government serves them this spring, with few attendees; Emily Russell takes us on a trail run on Wellesley Island; Elizabethtown concerts this weekend feature an oddball instrument combo: the saxophone and clarinet; and, NoCo communities are out and proud this Pride Month. We'll get a preview of events in Potsdam, Plattsburgh, Lake George and beyond.

(Jun 2, 2025)

Eric is a graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law and currently works as a Litigation Attorney at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers. Not only have I known Eric since I was 5, but hearing his riveting journey to the Law was a full-circle moment for me, and an excellent episode that anyone can learn from! Eric and I started before his introduction with his first run-in with Law School at Touro Law Center. Eric always wanted to be a Lawyer since he was 5 years old, with many of his relatives being Lawyers, and working in his Uncle's Law Office since he was young. Following his graduation from Plattsburgh, Eric would head off to Touro Law Center. Although after his father, my legendary lifetime lacrosse coach, was struck with cancer in the fall, Eric would miss out on the GPA minimum in his first semester and would be dismissed. But this wouldn't stop him, as the following fall, he would land himself at the University of Baltimore School of Law. With a new city to explore and having the prior experience of 1L, Eric would excel in his first year and beyond in Law School. Eric and I would discuss the various experiences he had throughout Law School, and how he came to find out that Personal Injury Litigation would be the path for him. Finally, we spoke about his post-Law School experiences and where he works today at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers. He spoke about identifying a company's culture and learning how to build up cases. He emphasized asking questions and always being available to help at any opportunity. This episode with Eric was a sentimental one for me, and I would be remiss not to shout out the entire Suris family for all that they have done for me and my family throughout the years! With that being said, you don't want to miss this one! Eric's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericsurisBe sure to check out the Official Sponsors for the Lawyers in the Making Podcast:Rhetoric - takes user briefs and motions and compares them against the text of opinions written by judges to identify ways to tailor their arguments to better persuade the judges handling their cases. Rhetoric's focus is on persuasion and helps users find new ways to improve their odds of success through more persuasive arguments. Find them here: userhetoric.comThe Law School Operating System™ Recorded Course - This course is for ambitious law students who want a proven, simple system to learn every topic in their classes to excel in class and on exams. Go to www.lisablasser.com, check out the student tab with course offerings, and use code LSOSNATE10 at checkout for 10% off Lisa's recorded course!Start LSAT - Founded by former guest and 21-year-old super-star, Alden Spratt, Start LSAT was built upon breaking down barriers, allowing anyone access to high-quality LSAT Prep. For $110 you get yourself the Start LSAT self-paced course, and using code LITM10 you get 10% off the self-paced course! Check out Alden and Start LSAT at startlsat.com and use code LITM10 for 10% off the self-paced course!Lawyers in the Making Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Lawyers in the Making Podcast at lawyersinthemaking.substack.com/subscribe

(May 22, 2025) The Plattsburgh city council installed Jarrod Trombley as its new police chief last week, and some residents expressed concern over past workplace misconduct allegations against him; locals in Glens Falls hope the opening of a new event and market center called The Ed signals a fresh start for the city; and for Mental Health Month, we're putting the spotlight on what makes farmers more vulnerable to mental health challenges.

(May 22, 2025) The Plattsburgh city council installed a new police chief last week. But some residents are concerned about workplace misconduct allegations against him that still haven't been fully resolved. Also: Voters in most North Country school districts approved their school budgets Tuesday, including Watertown's spending plan that contains a controversial provision that upset the area's pre-K providers.

(May 19, 2025)

(May 19, 2025) Biking is one of life's great pleasures. But it can be hard for older people to get on a bicycle. A nonprofit in Plattsburgh wants to bringing people of all ages and abilities together through the joy of cycling. Also: Governor Kathy Hochul is going to the Seneca Nation in western New York tomorrow to apologize for the state's role in a boarding school that tore apart indigenous families and culture.

(May 15, 2025) The editor-in-chief of one of the North Country's daily newspapers retired last week after forty years in local journalism. Joe LoTemplio says he's grateful for his sources and Plattsburgh Press-Republican colleagues. Also: As Republicans in Congress move forward with President Trump's tax and budget bill, some New York GOP lawmakers are holding out over tax reductions known as SALT.

(May 8, 2025) Dozens of prisons were built in Upstate NY during the boom decades ago, but now the prison bust is impacting rural economies; in today's North Country at Work story, we talk to a couple trying to make a difference amid the Adirondacks' housing shortage by investing in long-term rentals; and the Strand Center for the Arts in Plattsburgh will hold its second artisan market of the year this Saturday.

More than 50 years ago, a group of Native Americans chose to leave the reservations where they lived to form a new community near Plattsburgh. Frustrated with the overcrowding, drugs, and alcoholism they had just fled, they built their new settlement, called Ganienkeh, with the goal of following a traditional way of life. A land dispute between the group, a nearby town, and the state led to state troopers policing the area for three years until the Mohawks and the state reached an agreement, moving Ganienkeh to its permanent home. The story is told through the documentary, "This Land," which will be screened at the Rochester International Film Festival. This hour, we talk with the team behind the film and residents of Ganienkeh about their remarkable story of reclaiming their land and their culture. Our guests: Raiewate Herne, Ganienkeh community member Tyler Hemlock, Ganienkeh community member Darryl Martin, Ganienkeh community member Mike Bradley, documentary filmmaker and director, producer, and editor of "This Land"

(Apr 22, 2025) Two years after a drag queen story hour controversy shut down the Lake Luzerne library, new board members and staff are working to rebuild its reputation with the community; North Country Congresswoman Elise Stefanik wants the U.S. Department of Education to investigate a school district in Saratoga County; and a new art exhibition in Plattsburgh spotlights the work of women artists.

(Apr 22, 2025) Two years after a drag queen story hour controversy shut down the Lake Luzerne library, new board members and staff are working to rebuild the library - and its reputation with the community. Also: Two Democratic lawmakers held an event in Plattsburgh to pressure Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to oppose Medicaid cuts in the GOP's budget plan.

Primary sources can often feel irrelevant and difficult to navigate for students. In this episode, Jessamyn Neuhaus joins us to discuss how student-created photographs can provide a personalized learning experience and foster a deeper connection to history and the university archives.  Jessamyn is the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence and Professor in the School of Education at Syracuse University. Prior to this, she served as Director of the SUNY Plattsburgh Center for Teaching Excellence and was also a Professor in the History Department at SUNY Plattsburgh. Jessamyn is the author of Geeky Pedagogy: a Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to be Effective Teachers and the editor of Picture a Professor: Interrupting Biases about Faculty and Increasing Student Learning. See is also the editor of Teaching History: A Journal of Methods. Jessamyn also regularly serves as keynote speaker and workshop facilitator. A transcript of this episode and show notes may be found at http://teaforteaching.com.

(Mar 31, 2025)

Champ the Lake Champlain MonsterThis week we dive into the legend of Champ, the Lake Champlain Monster, exploring over 300 reported sightings dating back to 1609 when Samuel de Champlain claimed to witness a 20-foot serpent-like creature.We chronicle key evidence including Sandra Mansi's famous 1977 photograph, sonar readings capturing unusual shapes, and alleged echolocation recordings from cryptozoologist Katy Elizabeth.Throughout the episode, we discuss theories about whether Champ could be a prehistoric survivor like a plesiosaur or tanystropheus, citing Lake Champlain's substantial depth of 400 feet as a potential habitat. We also look at alternative explanations for the Lake Champlain cryptid, including large sturgeon (which can reach 27 feet), groups of otters swimming in formation creating a serpentine illusion, or partially submerged logs moved by underwater currents called seiches.Patreon: Support Believing the Bizarre and get tons of extra content by joining our Patreon.For updates, news, and extra content, follow Believing the Bizarre on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitterDiscordShop Merch: You can rep Believing the Bizarre and buy some unique merchWant to send BTB something? Ship it here: 3570 Executive Drive, Suite 218, Uniontown, Ohio 44685Keywords: Lake Champlain monster sightings, Champ cryptid evidence, Lake Champlain cryptozoology, Champ monster legend, Lake Champlain creature, Champ prehistoric survivor, Lake Champlain Nessie, Champ monster photos, Lake Champlain monster history, Champ lake monster mysteries, serpent-like creature, humps, Button Bay, Dennis Hall, Middlebury register, Plattsburgh, hydrophone, cryptozoological research, Fort Henry, Otter Creek, Vermont history, petrified remains, PT Barnum, Roadtrippers magazine, Sandra Mansi photograph, mass sightings, Ethan Allen boat, underwater commotion, fishing community

Hosts Jo Firestone & Manolo Moreno play listener-created games with callers!Games played: Dr. Social Meatia submitted by Sara Cherny from Chicago, Illinois, Short Kingz submitted by Michael Miller from Phoenix, Arizona, and Mulder, She Wrote submitted by Luke McNeill from Quincy, MassachusettsCallers: Sara from Chicago, Illinois; Jenna from Chicago, Illinois; Barbara from Boston, Massachusetts; Alex from Atlanta, Georgia; Patricia from Plattsburgh, New York; Andrew from Kansas City, KansasOutro theme by Brady Brown from Stillwater, OklahomaManolo's new cartoon, Starcreeper, is available at moslo.xyz