[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/214270716″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] Here’s a show from Larry Massett about cars. And honor. Larry owns two Porsches, and he talks about them a lot. In fact it’s almost all he ever talks about. His friend, Joe Frank, is a BMW man. Which is the superior car? The Porsche? The BMW? Joe and Larry have agreed to decide this with a race. But in the meantime,...
Jul 11, 2015•14 min•Ep. 50
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/213298322″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] This was my first year as a soccer mom and I’m here to tell you, it’s harder than it looks. I never played team sports, I still don’t really understand soccer, and I spent an entire season screaming ‘GET IT IN THE BASKET!’ Being a soccer mom is weirdly emotional in ways I hadn’t anticipated. I’ve experienced exultat...
Jul 05, 2015•24 min•Ep. 55
For the last couple years, in addition to producing this show, I’ve also been doing interviews for an organization called The Wake Up to Dying Project . The basic goal of the project is to encourage people to think and talk more about the fact that we die, and at the heart of the project is a sound exhibit that features audio stories–lots and lots of them. Last month I did an interview for this project with a mother who had lost a baby after three weeks of life. I was incredibly nervous about th...
Jun 24, 2015•31 min•Ep. 105
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/209841412″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] Here’s a story from Otto Trautz of Cabot, Vermont. It takes place in 1966 and starts with a phone call and a very compelling proposition. This story was originally told at extempo, central Vermont’s live storytelling event produced by the wondrous Jen Dole. You can find more stories at: www.extempoVT.com ....
Jun 11, 2015•7 min•Ep. 49
I was meeting a friend at a coffee shop and a song came on the radio that I hadn’t heard since I was in my late twenties. It reminded me of a time when I’d stay up all night long with friends, talking and drinking around bonfires. It was before children and spouses, and before everyone moved to wherever it is they went. It was a time when we had endless amounts of time. So when I heard this song after so long, I remembered this time. And it hadn’t occurred to me until right then, twenty years la...
Jun 03, 2015•16 min•Ep. 99
It’s time again for a sampling from the Barre and Montpelier police logs, as reported in the Times Argus. This month there were a number of disturbing animal reports. Sick raccoons, catatonic woodchucks, and more. Also, a number of naked children. Come listen if you dare. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/206723347″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] Scott’s podcast, Home of the Brave , is grea...
May 22, 2015•4 min•Ep. 47
Radio production and private investigation have a lot in common. You ask questions, find out what happened, and try to figure out why. This is a show I made with Larry Massett for NPR’s Hearing Voices in 2011. None of the people you hear in this story were investigation clients of mine where they did pardons according to https://nationalpardon.org/pardons-canada/ . They were all young men on furlough, putting their lives together after doing time in prison. Also, all of the case stories you hear...
May 06, 2015•12 min•Ep. 46
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/205325448″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] A commentary from Marc Estrin about the three things he learned in twenty-five years of school. The only three things. Marc Estrin is a writer, cellist, and political activist who lives in Burlington, Vermont. His most recent book, And Kings Shall Be Thy Nursing Fathers, features the ruminations of Tchaikovsky’s cor...
Apr 13, 2015•4 min•Ep. 45
Larry Massett was driving up through northern California toward Oregon and ended up spending a little more time at Mt. Shasta than he’d had in mind, thankfully he had his flashlight in his trunk. Was it coincidence ? Was it fate that drew Larry to one of the country’s most famous destinations for the spiritually curious? In this story you’ll hear from some naked meditators, UFO solicitors, and there’s some howling at the moon. Leave a comment if you’ve got one. It’s always nice to hear from you....
Apr 09, 2015•25 min•Ep. 44
Michael Chorney is a self taught musician, arranger and composer. If you asked me what genre of music he makes, I’d have no idea. All of them? None of them? He spent years mastering different musical genres in both guitar and baritone sax. He’s played British Isles-inspired folk music, improvisational jazz, soul, rock. And over the years, in his own music, the lines between these genres have gotten really blurry. And that’s how he wants it, an ambiguous audio interface is a fun one, he says. Mic...
Apr 02, 2015•51 min•Ep. 79
This is a show about love, family and dementia. Part one features a show I made in 2008 about one family’s experience living with an elderly mother’s progressive dementia. Part two features an interview with one of the story’s main characters, Greg Sharrow, about what’s changed, and what he’s learned, in the five years since we made After the Forgetting. After the Forgetting features Greg Sharrow, Bob Hooker, and Marjorie Sharrow. Greg did a lot of marvelous interviews with his mother for this s...
Apr 02, 2015•59 min•Ep. 86
This is an essay about cooking and all the shame and rage and frustration that can accompany this art. Writer Sarah Miller describes her desire to be loved and appreciated for her fig galettes, and her decision to quit cooking altogether. Sarah is the author of the novels Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn and The Other Girl , and she contributed to the bestseller The Bitch in the House . She has written for Details, Lucky, Marie Claire, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Guardian....
Apr 02, 2015•10 min•Ep. 43
Today, a true story about two strangers who meet and talk very late one night on a northbound NYC subway. The story is from Otto Trautz, and was originally told live on stage at extempo, central Vermont’s totally excellent live storytelling event. And if my name were Otto Trautz, I’d have great stories too. Welcome. To hear more true stories live onstage, visit extempo’s website here . [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/197472681″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_p...
Mar 24, 2015•10 min•Ep. 41
Into Tuesday we’ll see gusty winds, an early morning cold front east of Route 2 and a massive low pressure system delivering winter-like temperatures and moderate rain east of the Greens. Here are Eyes on the Sky. Eyes on the Sky was written by Montpelier resident Linda Coble. And thank you to the brave meteorologists at Eye On the Sky , who have delivered so much bad news, so well, for so long. Winters wouldn’t be the same without you....
Mar 19, 2015•4 min•Ep. 39
Welcome to The Mudroom. This is a commentary from Hilton Dier of Middlesex, Vermont. He proposes that much of Vermont politics is really about who has enough time and money to…show up. Please fling us your comments at the bottom of this page! We love to hear from you. Hilton is a renewable energy consultant and author of the incomparable blog, Minor Heresies using Advance Systems . The Mudroom is a joint commentary series by Rumble Strip Vermont and The Dooryard . [soundcloud url=”https://api.so...
Mar 04, 2015•4 min•Ep. 38
Ed Epstein is a portrait artist of some renown in these parts. But painting has comprised only a fraction of Ed’s artistic life. As a kid in the fifties he hitch hiked across the country with only a banjo and a few bucks. He fell in love with the Bach cello suites and spent the next twenty years mastering the cello so he could play them. Ed has designed and built woodstoves, houses, and when his son showed interest in fishing, Ed built a boat so they could get out to that stand of reeds…where th...
Mar 02, 2015•49 min•Ep. 37
Tonight I was driving home from Montpelier with my son, and we were both happy because today really did feel like maybe spring will come this year, and we were listening to Miriam Bernardo sing. It was a recording I made of a house show a couple years ago. There’s something so beautiful to me about this live recording, and I figured I’d share one of the songs with you. Here’s Miriam, and Michael Chorney on guitar and Rob Morse on bass. This is Love Came Here , by Lhasa de Sela. Welcome to spring...
Mar 02, 2015•4 min•Ep. 36
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/195178661″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] The sock went missing in November, was encased in ice in someone’s driveway, and yesterday it was released. The end of winter is nigh everyone. This is for real. It’s time again for a sampling from the Barre and Montpelier police logs, as reported in the Times Argus. This month saw a disproportionate number of shove...
Mar 01, 2015•3 min•Ep. 42
A couple months ago I ran a commentary by Marc Estrin called Poopy Old Man . In this commentary, he talks about feeling increasingly invisible to the people around him as he gets older. It’s a rather dark perspective on aging. This is a response to that commentary, and offers a somewhat different perspective on getting older. Here’s a conversation between Larry Massett and Marianne Ross of Washington DC. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/191968300?secret_token=s-k0Tt1″ params=”c...
Feb 23, 2015•8 min•Ep. 35
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/191291077″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] This is a conversation about love and objects. It’s from a late night conversation with my friend Clare Dolan . In the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, we sat on my couch and talked about a special kind of love that exists between people and objects. The conversation starts with Clare’s first friend in childhood…...
Feb 15, 2015•15 min•Ep. 85
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/189626294″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] You can learn a lot about a place from the local police log. A couple weeks ago I was reading the Times Argus , and I read a police log that I was sure held some kind of message for me. There was a lost key, a found wallet, and a woman in yoga pants seen walking down Sumner Street. There was a dead deer missed by a ...
Feb 02, 2015•3 min•Ep. 63
From my house, if you take a left through the woods, then a right up a dirt road, and then another right up another dirt road, you come to a really old farmhouse. That’s where Leland lives, and where he’s thinking things over. Last week he agreed to talk with me about some of these things. Death, deep space, and Revolutionary War reenactments. Welcome. The music in this show is from the remarkable Carla Kihlstedt . Learn more about her HERE . Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec reenactment. Three g...
Jan 27, 2015•10 min•Ep. 40
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/187185013″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] Here’s a short story about my son and piano practice and parental rage.
Jan 21, 2015•5 min•Ep. 34
This is a show produced by Larry Massett, for NPR’s Hearing Voices. It features remarkable stories from Solidod, the last remaining member of her village of Mescalero Apache who lived on the edge of Death Valley. Here’s Larry’s introduction…. “When I first met Solidod she was living alone in a tiny room in a rather depressing subsidized-income apartment complex in Florida. She herself was anything but depressing, though. A few minutes after we met she showed me the little knife she carries with ...
Jan 08, 2015•51 min•Ep. 33
This week’s episode is about one of life’s hardest and most humbling jobs. Parenting. You’ll hear stories about potty training, power struggles, living with teenagers, character-driven parenting, and negotiating new relationships with grown children. Plus some stories about beaches and dead birds. The hour features two interviews. Melissa Burroughs is a mother and teacher, and has worked extensively with families. The show also features an interview with a mother of two grown daughters. She talk...
Dec 26, 2014•1 hr•Ep. 32
We live in a place where trucks are a kind of passion. It’s not overt. It’s an understated, Vermont kind of passion. According to TheCarStarter.com , Vermonters sometimes heat up when you get them talking about Ford vs. Chevy vs. Dodge. So I drove around and talked with some guys about trucks. Here’s what they said. Leave a comment or story at the bottom of this show page! We love to hear from you. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/169932294″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=fal...
Dec 26, 2014•8 min•Ep. 109
We are all busy getting older, for better and for worse. Here is an unvarnished perspective on aging by author Marc Estrin. Marc Estrin is a writer, cellist and political activist who lives in Burlington, Vermont. His most recent book, And Kings Shall Be Thy Nursing Fathers, features the ruminations of Tchaikovsky’s corpse. You can find it on Amazon here , or order it from a local bookstore. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/183023161″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&...
Dec 24, 2014•6 min•Ep. 31
Welcome to The Mudroom, a joint commentary series of Rumble Strip Vermont and The Dooryard . In time for the holidays, we bring you a commentary about Buy Nothing Day, an annual day of protest against buying stuff. Jessamyn West is a writer, blogger, librarian, and knower of many things technological and digital. She lives in Randolph, Vermont, and here she is standing on a bed. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/182121652″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=fal...
Dec 18, 2014•7 min•Ep. 29
I don’t know what you’d call this. A commentary? A riff? An agricultural lament? This is how Alan LePage started his show a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share it with you all. Alan LePage is a legend around here in central Vermont. He’s a fourth generation Vermont farmer, mentor to many up and coming market gardeners, and he’s the host of one of WGDR’s most popular shows, The Curse of the Golden Turnip . For the past few months, we’ve been working on getting his show out into the world as a po...
Dec 12, 2014•5 min•Ep. 28
This is a story produced by my friend Larry Massett. A few years ago Larry took a trip with public radio personality Andre Codrescu. Andre grew up in Romania in times of hardship. After twenty years as an American citizen, he feels he’s lost the local taste of the land where he spent his youth. Larry Massett records the story of a man now in the role of “tourist” in his radically changed native land. THANKS TO HEARING VOICES This program originally aired on Hearing Voices, and airs on Rumble Str...
Dec 07, 2014•18 min•Ep. 27
