Rob Mermin and Bill Morancy lived in neighboring apartments in Montpelier, Vermont. They were best friends. And when Bill was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he asked his best friend to help him die. In 2013, Vermont passed the The Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act, or Act 39…our version of Death with Dignity. The legislation allows eligible Vermonters with terminal diseases the option to be prescribed medication that will hasten the end of their life. In 2015, Bill elected to use Ac...
Jun 09, 2016•23 min•Ep. 218
Last winter I made a show about working for the Department of Children and Families and I’d promised to make a show about what it’s like to be a parent whose had to work with this state agency, which is responsible for the safety of Vermont children. It’s no secret that DCF is currently understaffed and overworked. The opiate epidemic is one major factor in the growing number of kids taken into temporary custody by the state, and the growing number of TPR’S, or terminations of parental rights. T...
May 20, 2016•38 min•Ep. 94
Here’s another show from my friend Larry Massett’s brain. The story is called Aunties, and it’s from his soon-to-be-released podcast, Lick The Crickets. Lick the Crickets is a podcast that’s been coming soon for quite some time. The problem is, Larry can’t stop making shows for Lick the Crickets long enough to launch Lick the Crickets. But he will. Oh, he will. And it will be found at Lickthecrickets.com, and I will let you know when it’s up. Aunties is performed by Paul Kiernan . Art for this s...
May 08, 2016•5 min•Ep. 70
Leland Kennedy lives one hill over from me in East Calais, Vermont. I interviewed Leland last year when he was ten, and I’ve received some letters from listeners wondering what he’s up to and what he’s been thinking about since then. Leland’s pretty busy in the afternoons after school. You can usually find him biking up and down the road or working on survival techniques in the woods, or watching television. But he agreed to come over and talk with me about what’s on his mind these days. We talk...
Apr 26, 2016•12 min•Ep. 78
I have been remiss in reporting on calls to the local police. I apologize. Here is a sampling of reports to the Barre and Montpelier police in the last few months. Reported by Scott Carrier. Music by Peter Cressy of Plainfield, Vermont Scott Carrier produces the excellent Home of the Brave .
Apr 21, 2016•3 min•Ep. 75
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/257971136″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] For most of Jesse’s early childhood, her mother was addicted to crystal meth. She called it her ‘high functioning addict period’. She kept a spotless house, worked a regular job and had four well behaved kids. Then Jesse’s mom started using opiates, and everything changed. She lost the job, lost the money, and it be...
Apr 08, 2016•24 min•Ep. 72
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/255017739″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] Barry Forbes lives on Route 116, five miles east of Middlebury and eight miles south of Bristol, Vermont. He says if you’re trying to find the place, just slow down and his hounds will let you know where he is. Barry lives in a double wide trailer directly behind the house where he spent his entire childhood, and he...
Mar 25, 2016•14 min•Ep. 76
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/249825433″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]Twenty years ago, Ben Hewitt and his wife Penny bought forty acres of land in Cabot, Vermont and started their first homestead. In Vermont, the word ‘homestead’ generally refers to people who build their own houses and live self sufficiently to one degree or another…with varying degrees of success. One of the most im...
Mar 02, 2016•36 min•Ep. 71
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/249471566″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]In celebration of the day before Super Tuesday, here’s a story from writer Sarah Miller called Berned in Reno. It’s an account of her deep feelings for Bernie, and canvassing for his campaign in Nevada before the caucus. Sarah Miller writes for theawl.com, newyorker.com, time.com, thecut.com and others. This story ap...
Feb 29, 2016•12 min•Ep. 67
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/245930720″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]This week, a special guest show from Scott Carrier, producer of Home of the Brave . Years ago, Scott was hired to conduct interviews for a mental health research project. He drove around Utah administering a test to possible schizophrenics. The test was comprised of 100 questions, and took approximately an hour to co...
Feb 07, 2016•15 min•Ep. 68
It has been a very troubling few years at Vermont’s Department of Children and Families. In 2014 there was a string of child deaths in Vermont–children in families involved with DCF. These deaths prompted intense anger and at least four investigations into the department. Then on August 7, 2015, Lara Sobel, a caseworker at DCF, was shot as she left the DCF offices in Barre, Vermont. She was shot and killed by a woman who was angry after losing custody of her daughter to DCF the month before. The...
Jan 24, 2016•45 min•Ep. 92
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/238953388″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] It’s the day before Christmas, and like a Christmas miracle, I received this report from Scott Carrier on recent police activity here in central Vermont. Here are a selection of calls to local police as reported in the Times Argus and Stowe Reporter. Happy Holidays everyone. Music by Hayvanlar Alemi. The song is tit...
Dec 24, 2015•3 min•Ep. 60
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/237865316″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]How time flies! The holidays are such a nice time to catch up with friends and family. Here’s a waspy little roundup of highlights from a year in the Becht family. Happy Holidays! Credits Seasonal Update was written by Tal McThenia , a writer of books and articles and screenplays. To learn more about Tal, you can vis...
Dec 16, 2015•8 min•Ep. 89
M.T. Anderson is the author of Feed , winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, as well as The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing , which won the National Book Award. Whether it’s crafting a dystopian future, writing vampire fiction, or, in the case of his latest book, Symphony for the City of the Dead , chronicling the life of the composer Dmitri Shostakovitch, his books are meticulously researched and vividly told. I first met Tobin (his middle name) when he came over with my friend Peter ...
Dec 09, 2015•31 min•Ep. 74
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/234650376″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]Today…Hot Bird. This is a short show in celebration of the season of turkeys, and catching them. Then eating them. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. And for those of you listening outside the United States, I hope you happen to have a really great meal planned with good friends. With or without a hot bird. This show featu...
Nov 25, 2015•4 min•Ep. 62
The recent school consolidation bill promised to lower our taxes. Then it promised equal opportunity for all kids. It’s unclear how it will deliver on either of these promises, but one thing is sure. It could radically change culture in small town Vermont. This is a show about some of the long-term political and cultural effects of Act 46. Comments: To make a comment or to see comments, scroll to the bottom of this page. THE SHOW: Click here to listen to the show . THE OUTTAKES: For a more in-de...
Nov 19, 2015•23 min•Ep. 98
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/232885186″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] In Case of Emergency is another show from Larry Massett’s new podcast series, as yet unnamed. The series isn’t out yet, and I have no idea how to describe what it is. It’s not like any podcast series I’ve ever heard. And it’s gonna be good. Here is….In Case of Emergency. Credits (links to recordings below) My Heart’...
Nov 13, 2015•6 min•Ep. 80
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/231822021″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]The time has come to draw names for the Schwag Membership Pledging and Sustaining Campaign Event Raffle. This is the first consolidated shilling campaign I’ve done and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned that you’re listening as far away as Arthur’s Pass in New Zealand and I’ve learned that there are listeners right her...
Nov 06, 2015•6 min•Ep. 58
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/229606253″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] It’s almost November. It’s getting cold here. The days are getting shorter. I’m already missing the colors and sounds of summer and fall. So today I’m going to play one of my all-time favorite stories, which just happens to be a story that’s filled with the sound of summer. It’s called Stories from the Green River, ...
Oct 22, 2015•26 min•Ep. 54
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/228542605″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]Dear Listeners, I love making this show and I am endlessly grateful to those of you have donated. These donations keep my car running and give me time to work on the show. So recently I was listening to the pledge drive on my local public radio station and I thought, I’m going to do that. Except my pledge drive will ...
Oct 15, 2015•8 min•Ep. 66
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/227656999″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]My friend Brett Berk got a very early start as a teacher, and by the time he was twenty-five, he was the director of a progressive preschool in the East Village in New York City. Blocks, clay, and instead of costumes, the kids had scraps of fabric they could adorn themselves with. There were occasional guest appearan...
Oct 09, 2015•30 min•Ep. 69
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/226435328″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]My friend Larry Massett sent me this weird story he wrote, which I’m hoping will be the beginning of a whole new weird podcast. It’s hard to say what it is, which in my book is a good thing. Here’s Press 4.
Oct 01, 2015•6 min•Ep. 57
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/225531902″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]Jessamyn West is a library activist and computer technology savant who lives in central Vermont. She’s also kind of Internet famous. Jessamyn was one of the original moderators for the community blog MetaFilter —which is like the civilized version of Reddit. She was recently contacted by the White House for her thoug...
Sep 25, 2015•40 min•Ep. 48
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/223397407″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]For twenty-five years Mark Johnson hosted The Mark Johnson Show , first up in Burlington at WKDR, then at WDEV here in central Vermont. Last month he retired from the show. Mark kept us company on our commutes, in our kitchens and on job sites all over central Vermont. And if you live around here, you’ve either calle...
Sep 11, 2015•31 min•Ep. 65
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/222225987″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] Summer is coming to a close here in central Vermont. It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from the local police logs. This summer there were some problems with odors and stuck squirrels. A machete also was seen. Here’s Scott Carrier reading a sampling from the last couple months’ reports to the Times Argus and the Sto...
Sep 03, 2015•3 min•Ep. 59
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/220715911″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /] Steve Fugate roams the roads of America, walking thousands of miles with a sign stuck over his middle-aged head that reads “Love Life” — because of what happened to his son. This story was recorded by Mark Baldwin and produced by Larry Massett. It originally aired on NPR’s Hearing Voices . You can follow Steve’s wri...
Aug 24, 2015•24 min•Ep. 53
If you throw a rock from Fred’s porch and you have a pretty good arm, you can almost hit Canada. He lives way up in Coventry, Vermont, and when I drove up to his place, I found him covered in paint, in one of his barns. He was just finishing building his fifth stage coach, parts of which he’d painted bright yellow and cherry red. Most of his barns—and there are a lot of them—are filled with old farm equipment. He says he’s trying to show the evolution of farm machines in New England from as far ...
Aug 15, 2015•39 min•Ep. 64
This summer there have been five bison attacks in Yellowstone National Park, the result of visitors taking selfies with bison in the background. Today on Fresh Air, an interview with author Sarah Miller. Her recent book, Bison Selfies , is a brave exploration into this new phenomenon. In this interview we discuss selfies, bison, and the American consciousness. Credits This article originally appeared in Jezebel in July, 2015. Sarah Miller writes for theawl.com, newyorker.com, time.com, thecut.co...
Aug 07, 2015•10 min•Ep. 52
“In the cathedral, priests with long black beards and scarlet robes are gliding through the shadows…I feel faint. It’s the heat, the fatigue, frustration — whatever, but there’s a lump in my throat and my eyes are filling with tears. The cop is starting to make big signs of the cross in the air. If w don’t get out of here quick, we’re going to convert .” This is a story from Larry Massett about a very, very long day in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, in 2002. This story aired originally on The ...
Jul 31, 2015•16 min•Ep. 51
This is an interview with a very old friend of mine, and the person who trained me as a private investigator. She taught me everything from basics like how to look up criminal records to the very advanced skills I learned. Susan Randall has been a PI in Vermont for fifteen years. She works on the some of the biggest cases in the state…and she’s really good. Susan can find anyone, and she can get them to talk about anything. And most of the time she’s working on fifty to seventy-five cases at the...
Jul 26, 2015•27 min•Ep. 126
