How should people live long-term in our state if they have a serious mental illness? The hope is that they’ll find ways to integrate into their communities with support, but that’s proven tough to accomplish. In this show we look at the challenges in our community mental health care system. Featuring: Ken Libertoff, former director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health Anne Donahue, state representative from Northfield and Berlin, editor of Counterpoint Greg Mairs, operational director of...
Nov 20, 2018•14 min•Ep. 137
Both Alexis and Steve were diagnosed with schizophrenia. This is the story about how meaningful, paid work plays a role in their recovery. Featuring: Paul Miller, co-coordinator of the Green Mountain Workforce, Washington County Mental Health Louis Josephson, president and CEO of Brattleboro Retreat Alexis Kyriak , artist Steve, culinary worker This show is part of a seven-part series I produced for Vermont Public Radio called They Are Us, which features personal stories from inside the state’s ...
Nov 20, 2018•12 min•Ep. 132
Leslie Nelson has heard voices for as long as she can remember. She sees things other people don’t see. This is a conversation about what it’s like to be normal, from Leslie’s point of view, and the incredible power of finding people like herself to talk with about their normal lives with mental illness. Featuring: Leslie Nelson, START Team Leader, Howard Center This show is part of a seven-part series I produced for Vermont Public Radio called They Are Us, which features personal stories from i...
Nov 20, 2018•15 min•Ep. 134
Connie’s son was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was nineteen, just as he was becoming independent. He didn’t believe there was anything wrong with him. He did not want to seek treatment. And since he was legally an adult, his parents stood by and watched his life fall apart. Ron’s story was much the same. One in 100 adults is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and for most, the onset is around this time, in late adolescence, and parents often play a critical role in their care. As caregivers, c...
Nov 20, 2018•16 min•Ep. 138
There are Vermonters who experience psychiatric crises for years — and repeated visits to emergency rooms and psychiatric hospitals. Where do they go when they leave the hospital? And why do they keep coming back? This is a story about the role housing plays in mental health. Featuring: Ken Libertoff, former director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health Louis Josephson, president and CEO of Brattleboro Retreat Brian Lincourt, night charge nurse at Brattleboro Retreat Connie Stabler, moth...
Nov 20, 2018•13 min•Ep. 139
A story about Vermont’s only permanent, supervised housing for people with serious mental illness. Featuring: Anne Donohue, state representative from Northfield and Berlin, editor of Counterpoint Graham Parker, MyPad director Connie Stabler, mother and Howard Center board member This show is part of a seven-part series I produced for Vermont Public Radio called They Are Us, which features personal stories from inside the state’s mental healthcare system. Comments: Please make a comment or share ...
Nov 20, 2018•10 min•Ep. 136
We didn’t have cheerleading at my school. Or pep rallies. I think we would’ve made fun of cheering and cheerleaders at my school. Because we were scared and cruel and had no idea what we were missing. My son just started high school and I snuck into the gym for his first pep rally. I almost wept. Seeing all those kids—the freshmen and the seniors and the football players and the shy kids—kids at a stage in life that can be so self conscious and horrible—seeing them all clapping and cheering toge...
Oct 04, 2018•15 min•Ep. 206
Steve Grody has dedicated his life to his passions. He’s an accomplished swing dance teacher. He’s a self defense instructor. And in the last twenty-eight years, he’s taken tens of thousands of photographs of graffiti in his hometown of Los Angeles. This is a conversation about the decades he’s spent wandering alleyways, climbing under bridges and through tunnels, documenting this ephemeral art. This program is produced by Bianca Giaever . She’s a writer, filmmaker, artist and radio producer, an...
Sep 28, 2018•12 min•Ep. 124
This is a show about women running for office. It’s not about issues or policies. You won’t learn where these women stand on public education or healthcare. It’s just about being a woman…running for office. The truth is I’m tired of hearing about women running for office. I think there’s a liberal assumption that I already understand why that’s a good thing. But we’re not really supposed to talk explicitly about how being a woman, and not being a man, can be a value in and of itself. So I figure...
Sep 11, 2018•23 min•Ep. 148
Daphne Kalmar was a school teacher for over twenty years. She taught in California, Massachusetts and then in a small school in Vermont. She was one of those teachers. One of the exciting and inspiring ones you never forget…one of the teachers who sees every kid. Daphne is now a children’s book author and she’s just published her first book, A Stitch in Time . We sat in her kitchen by an open window. It had that late summer sound to it, the sound I associate with the beginning of school in Vermo...
Aug 23, 2018•20 min•Ep. 129
I picked Amelia up at The Shelburne Museum the other day. It was a few hours before her soundcheck so she had some time to kill and we took a slow drive down by the lake. She drove. She’s a good driver. Amelia is one half of the band Sylvan Esso. Nick Sanborn is the other half. I’m not great at music genres but I’ve heard their music described as ‘electro-pop’, as ‘glitchy metropolitan folk’ ( what?? ). Anyway, their music is incredibly fun, bent, smart, and they can turn the end of the world in...
Aug 10, 2018•25 min•Ep. 152
Thomas Caswell has autism. Which doesn’t tell you very much about him. Autism doesn’t describe a person. If you’ve met one person with autism, then you’ve met one person…with autism. But over the last couple years Thomas has been coming out of the closet, in stages. And along with the common difficulties of coming out, there are some special difficulties if you’re a person with a disability. In this show, Thomas talks about growing up with autism, and growing into his life as a gay man. Credits ...
Jul 20, 2018•14 min•Ep. 130
It’s time again for another conversation with my neighbor Leland. He’s fourteen now. He just finished eighth grade. He’s got big plans for the summer. This is the fourth year I’ve interviewed Leland about what he’s doing and what’s on his mind, and what’s on his mind is always pretty interesting. This year he took me out to his fort, in a pine forest about a half mile from his house. It’s a tarp held up by two beams, and covered with brush piles. There’s a firepit. We sat in a couple lawn chairs...
Jun 28, 2018•11 min•Ep. 120
Welcome to the second episode of Problems, an occasional mini-series of Rumble Strip. Problems. Because no problem is too small to complain about. Problems stars Pam and Joel, old friends who support each other through their problems. We left off with Joel, who was in the midst of a pretty inconvenient bathroom renovation in his house, and Pam, who’s been dealing with some issues with her daughter River. River’s been biting other kids at school. Here is a very special addition to the song from l...
Jun 07, 2018•8 min•Ep. 133
It’s almost summer here in central Vermont, and as it gets hotter, it seems to get more dangerous. Law enforcement is working hard behind the scenes to keep people safe. Also to keep cows safe. Here’s the police log, read by Scott Carrier.
May 24, 2018•3 min•Ep. 128
Depending on who you talk to, The Shaggs were either one of the best bands from the ’60s, or one of the worst bands of all time. Helen, Betty and Dot Wiggin grew up in Fremont, New Hampshire. They had no interest in music, no natural talent for music, and in the late ’60s, their father forced them to drop out of school and start a rock band. In their living room. And then he forced them to record an album. Decades later, The Shaggs became a cult classic….beloved by the likes of Frank Zappa, Soni...
May 10, 2018•31 min•Ep. 123
Directions to Carl Blaisdell’s house: Go about seven miles down this road. Then there’s a road that kind of goes up to a Jersey farm on the left and then there’s a pond. But there’s no sign to the pond. So after the pond, drive past the pull-off and Carl’s trailer sits way up in a field at the top of that hill. There’s a lot of pipes. And a lot of cars and trucks. And lots and lots of hounds. But Carl wasn’t home. And so I went back the next day and we sat in his truck and talked. Carl’s trailer...
Apr 24, 2018•17 min•Ep. 118
This is a show I made back in 2008. I’m running it as a tribute to my friend Greg Sharrow. Greg was one of the first people I met when I came back to Vermont in 2003. I didn’t have many friends, I didn’t have a job or really any plans, and it was the middle of winter. And then I met Greg at his office in the old Vermont Folklife Center building in Middelbury. It was crammed with books, and we sat down and talked for two hours, and it was that kind of talk where you’re almost gulping each other d...
Apr 04, 2018•10 min•Ep. 122
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. –Rumi This winter Susan Randall worked with the defense on a sentencing case for a high profile multiple-murder here in Vermont. A sentencing is the time for considering the pain caused by a crime. It’s also a time to ask, How did we get here? What happened in the life of this person that led her to do what she did? For months, Susan worked closely with the woman who committed these murders, creating a profile o...
Mar 29, 2018•12 min•Ep. 131
[Uhm…..satire. In case that wasn’t evident….] Some of life’s inevitable problems are big and some are quite small. But no problems are too small to complain about. Welcome to the first installment of Problems …a periodic radio drama about…problems. Joel and Pam’s problems.Pam and Joel, who you’ll hear from in this show, are old friends and they support each other through their problems, and even if you don’t think their problems are very problematic, for Pam and Joel…they are. In this first epis...
Mar 21, 2018•11 min•Ep. 119
Son Lux is a band that doesn’t live comfortably in any genre. Their sound is massive, anthemic, but it’s also strangely intimate. The rhythms are incredibly complex, and it’s shot through with these bright details of sound. The project started in Ryan Lott’s brain in Cleveland, and then it grew by two–guitarist Rafiq Bhatia and drummer Ian Chang. They’re all composers and producers and improvisers. I think it’s fair to say they’re all wicked smart. I interviewed Ryan Lott just two days before he...
Mar 03, 2018•22 min•Ep. 117
The Northeast Kingdom is mostly small towns separated by miles and miles. Sometimes it’s featured in trout fishing magazines. It also has some of the highest unemployment and lowest wages in the state. Its beautiful place. And it’s a hard place to live. I was up at the St. Johnsbury Academy a couple weeks ago, which is one of the gateways to the Kingdom. My sister and brother in law both work there. And I’ve always been curious about the career and technical classes at the school. They have the ...
Feb 09, 2018•21 min•Ep. 127
People having mental health crises are visiting emergency rooms in record numbers. But emergency room nurses are not trained to treat mental illnesses. This problem isn’t unique to Vermont. In fact it’s an acute problem all over the country. For this show I interviewed nine nurses and one sheriff, in three settings around the state. This isn’t a show that explores where the problem came from, or where the solution lies. This show is about what it looks like right now in emergency rooms across th...
Jan 16, 2018•27 min•Ep. 144
This is another guest show from radio producer Scott Carrier, which he produced when he was twenty-six. He hitchhiked across the United States, interviewed people along the way, and ended up at the door of NPR in Washington, DC with an armful of tape. This is Scott’s first story. Scott produces my favorite podcast. It’s called Home of the Brave .
Jan 10, 2018•35 min•Ep. 116
Here is our annual season’s greetings card, this year from Liz and Jerry Danforth. Fair warning…they had a pretty rough year. Credits Script by writer Tal McThenia The show is a co-production of Rumble Strip and Pod Planet. Music Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy • United States Navy Band Clouds Pass Softly Deux • Podington Bear • Free Music Archive I Am A Man Who Will Fight For Your Honor • Chris Zabriskie • Free Music Archive Little Drummer Boy • Field recording of Christmas carolers....
Dec 21, 2017•11 min•Ep. 112
My friend Tim Kasten died two weeks ago. Ever since I met Tim, he’s been preparing for his own death. Partly because he had significant medical issues. But I think mostly he was preparing for his death because he wanted to. Thinking about the impermanence of life gave his life meaning. He was one of the most spiritually curious people I’ve ever met. In this show, we hear from Tim, on death and dying. And we also chronicle the building of his casket…or his simple pine box…built by family and frie...
Dec 14, 2017•15 min•Ep. 165
I’ve been reading the news too much. I read every version of the same story in every news outlet, and sometimes I forget I’ve read them and I read them again. I think a lot of people are feeling concerned and even scared. But I thought it would be good to remember some of the important things that are not the news. I asked Scott Carrier to tell me about a place in the wilderness, in a high meadow, far, far away from the news. It’s a musical. Credits Willie Tobin provided the nature sound for thi...
Dec 05, 2017•10 min•Ep. 121
This fall my friend and I were going for a walk and as we walked past a small barn set down off the Upper Road in Calais, we heard someone from the barn call up to us and say, ‘You wanna come see some pigs?’ Of course we wanted to see some pigs. John Rowell showed us his new piglets and I went back a few weeks later to hang out with John and his brother Eddie and record a conversation. Here’s a few minutes from that night.
Nov 14, 2017•10 min•Ep. 114
The mission of The Museum of Everyday Life is “a heroic, slow-motion cataloguing of the quotidian–a detailed, theatrical expression of gratitude and love for the miniscule and unglamorous experience of daily life in all its forms.” The museum’s home is in a barn on Route 16 in the Northeast Kingdom. It is my favorite museum. This is a show featuring the museum’s creator, Clare Dolan. Credits This show is co-produced by Erica Heilman and Mark Davis . Mark is my friend and a very good journalist a...
Oct 28, 2017•16 min•Ep. 125
Rob Mermin had a career as a mime clown for forty years, then in 1987 he started a circus company here in Vermont called Circus Smirkus. Three years ago he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. This is a story about movement, the loss of control of movement…catastrophe and grace. About Rob Rob Mermin trained in classical mime with Etienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau and has performed in European circus, theater, TV and film for forty years. He is an author, director, university lecturer, former...
Oct 16, 2017•23 min•Ep. 113
