This is a first on the podcast and a great ending to the first part of Season 5 (we’ll be back in September with more episodes!) One of Rebecca’s children joined us for the funnest episode ever about small towns through the eyes of a kid: what he loves, what he’d like to see, and the frustrations he experiences as a kid in a small town. About Carter: Carter is Rebecca’s 13-year-old son, the middle child, and a small-town connoisseur and font of wisdom about how to connect with and make small tow...
Jun 02, 2025•55 min•Season 5Ep. 16
This episode is about the rural lawyer shortage, why it’s happening, why it matters, and what we can do about it. This is a new-to-us topic, and we’re so excited to share it with you because it’s way more important and impactful than we realized. Lawyers have a crucial place in our small communities, from providing essential government services like prosecution to supporting small businesses and helping them thrive. Our guest, Hannah, is a law professor and author who took a deep dive into this ...
May 26, 2025•45 min•Season 5Ep. 15
We focus a lot on belonging here at Growing Small Towns, and one of the most important groups (that sometimes gets neglected by traditional community development) is youth. Kids need to feel at home and welcome in our small towns, too, and when our young people are engaged, active, and have good places to hang out with their friends, the effect is like a shockwave in the best way. Today’s episode is with the amazing Karen Pifher, who is helping communities support their youth in very real, mater...
May 12, 2025•56 min•Season 5Ep. 14
When we think of politics, I think a lot of us feel intimidated or like there isn’t room for us in the process–we’re not “political,” or we don’t have time, or we’re not the right kind of person. Today’s guest shows that being an unlikely politician may actually be the best thing, and why we need more real people in politics (yes, that means you!) About Erin: Erin Oban is a lifelong North Dakotan and proud, Class B kid, raised in a farm family in Ray, ND. Her professional career has included exp...
May 05, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Meredith is easily one of the most interesting and unusual people we’ve ever had on the podcast, and her story is a testament to just how much small-town living appeals to all kinds of people, even people that you may not expect. This episode is all about how Meredith–a Marin County, California native–found herself in rural South Dakota, and what we can do to make our small towns more welcoming for all different kinds of people who want to make their lives here. About Meredith: Meredith McMurray...
Apr 28, 2025•1 hr 39 min•Season 5Ep. 12
This episode is a listener-submitted Small Town People Problem, and it’s one we hear a lot: What do we do about local negativity? How do we deal with it when the people in the town are the ones being the Negative Nancies (or Negative Normans), and what can we do about it? We are joined by the amazing Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer, who, as it happens, is someone who knows quite a lot about local apathy and what to do about it. About Heidi: Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer barely escaped law school. She became a freel...
Apr 21, 2025•56 min•Season 5Ep. 11
We underestimate the power of love–or maybe limit the places where we deem it appropriate–but that’s silly because love is the most powerful motivator on the planet. We believe that love can actually be the key to unlocking the answers to some of our biggest questions and challenges in small towns. In this episode, Rebecca talks about all the ways that love can make our communities better places and what it looks like to show up with love. In this episode, we share three challenges for you to st...
Apr 15, 2025•37 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Each season, we’re going to have a few episodes that directly address *your* small-town people problems. For our first one, we’re starting off with a question from a listener about one of the most common difficulties in small towns: what to do when the neighboring towns treat each other as competition instead of working together. Sometimes we’ll bring in a guest, sometimes it’ll be a solocast with Rebecca like today’s episode. Do you have your own small-town people challenge? Call in to the show...
Apr 07, 2025•35 min•Season 5Ep. 9
The “Returner” phenomenon is a very real thing: people leave their small towns as young people and come back later when they’re ready to settle down, and there is a huge opportunity for both the returners and the small towns they’re coming back to–but we’re not always open to these boomerangs. This episode is about inviting people back, creating spaces, and growing as communities so they everyone is thriving. We think you’ll love it! About Jessica: Originally from Winner, SD (pop. 2,852), Jessic...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Deb Brown is one of our favorite people in the world, and we’re so glad to have her on the show with us to share her words, her new book (!!!) and all the work she’s doing to help small-town dreamers just like you. This episode is all about approaching big problems in small towns in idea-friendly ways and starting small to build big. About Deb: Deb Brown is a dynamic small-town advocate and community development expert with a wealth of experience empowering rural communities. As the co-founder o...
Mar 24, 2025•46 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Joy can feel a little soft, or a little touchy-feely, but helping people find joy is a catalyst for positive change. This week’s guest is all about helping teachers and educators with professional development that focuses not on a list of things to do, but rather helps them re-discover their joy and passion for teaching and learning. The best part? This episode applies to anyone who is making a difference, pushing for change, and looking for joy. About Darcy: Darcy is the Founder of The Educator...
Mar 17, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Awhile back, we were having a conversation with Brodie on the podcast and he mentioned that he hires based on a “vibe check,” and given his success not only hiring but keeping long-term employees (many of whom are Gen Z *gasp*) we needed to bring him on to hear more about just what what means. This episode is all about how to hire and lead well for small businesses in our small towns and why culture is important, even when it’s not formalized with a mission statement on a wall. About Brodie: Bro...
Mar 10, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 5
It feels like you can’t go five minutes without hearing about AI–and often for good reason! We’re back with our favorite AI expert to talk about a “Hope over fear” approach for integrating AI into how we do life and business. We often face a skills and resource deficit in small towns, and AI can be an incredibly useful and powerful tool for bridging that gap, helping us work smarter, not harder, and even outsourcing tasks that we don’t love so we can spend more time on the things that make us li...
Mar 03, 2025•52 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Our small towns are ours to save–no one is coming to do that for us! However, sometimes it can feel nearly impossible to make changes in our small towns. Our guest this week has a different approach, and it’s different than The Way We’ve Always Done It but it really works, and is more accessible to small-town changemakers who want to get things done. About Becky: Becky McCray believes small towns have a future. She watches the global trends in the economy, technology, and society, then she deliv...
Feb 24, 2025•55 min•Season 5Ep. 3
One of our favorite things is the impact of great employers on individuals, small towns, and the overall culture of the communities they operate within, and this episode is all about what happens when an amazing work culture fosters amazing things outside of the workplace. Amanda Gregory and Joe House both work for a manufacturing company called Design Ready Controls and co-founded MAKE (Manufacturing, a Kid’s Experience) in 2023 as a way to foster awareness about and interest in manufacturing i...
Feb 10, 2025•45 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Friends and neighbors (virtual and IRL): we are so excited to share this episode with you. Now, we know we say that every week, and what can we say, we’re excitable folks. But we’re *extra* excited for this one because it’s the first podcast of the rest of our lives, and we’re introducing the new format and components of this show, and giving you a peek behind the curtain into the behind-the-scenes and the future of Growing Small Towns. Instead of a guest, we have a guest host interviewing Rebec...
Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Our last Moments of Growth episode is about another event that will become at flagship bit of programming for Growing Small Towns: the Rural Mastermind. The first Mastermind group was inspired, in part, by Rebecca’s own experience with a Mastermind. Really good Mastermind groups can be pivotal and life-changing, and she wanted to bring that same experience to entrepreneurs and small business owners in Oakes. This episode features perspectives from all sides: one of our beloved coaches, several o...
Jan 27, 2025•59 min•Ep. 153
When we were thinking about the kinds of people we wanted to talk to for this Moments of Growth series, we knew we needed to include people who have been impacted in some way by the work we do at Growing Small Towns. Some of these guests use Growing Small Towns in an official capacity—they have a formal role in economic or community development, or something similar, and have utilized our programming professionally. Others are members of our local school board, have engaged with us on a personal...
Jan 20, 2025•2 hr 20 min•Ep. 152
This Moments of Growth installment features some of the businesses/organizations and the people in them who are aligned with our beliefs and our hopes for GST. These are people without whom we could not do this work, and we want you to know them! This work can feel very lonely and so gathering up people who are passionate about the same things makes it feel less so. The links to all of their organizations are below, and if you are someone doing things in your small town, reach out to them! We al...
Jan 13, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 151
When we first launched Growing Small Towns, we did it with a bus tour. We loaded a bunch of business professionals from the Fargo-Moorhead area onto a bus and held them hostage for eight ours (okay, not really, they were completely willing participants!) and we did a tour of the area, visited local businesses and our building, and had such a ball that a bus trip of some sort has become a repeat event. It’s a flagship thing for GST and one of our favorites because of how unique it is, and the mag...
Jan 06, 2025•50 min•Ep. 150
This episode of the Growing Small Town Show features three humans that have, in some way, shape, or form, partnered or funded some of the work that we do here at Growing Small Towns. Because we’re a nonprofit, we are always looking for partners who believe in this work as much as we do to help make it happen. Our philosophy is “Work with the willing and love the rest,” because we don’t believe in forcing people to support this work if it’s not their thing! But, we do dearly love and appreciate t...
Jan 06, 2025•39 min•Ep. 149
This week’s episode is the next in our Moments of Growth series, and this one is about one of our favorite subjects: art! Lots of people think that art is a “nice to have” in a small community, but it’s really a need. Art and art programming gives people an opportunity to not only view and experience art made by other people, but to create their own through workshops or events. Tapping into our creative side means we make more vibrant, interesting, fun, and beautiful communities, and who doesn’t...
Dec 30, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 148
This week’s episode is the first in a limited series we’re calling “Moments of Growth.” We had some big milestones this year, and we wanted to look back and talk to people that we’ve worked with and share the progress they’ve made (and us, too!) this past year. This first episode is about mental health programming. Awhile back, our local healthcare network, Catholic Health Initiatives, did a needs assessment for our community. Like many rural communities, mental health was at the top of the list...
Dec 23, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 147
Things are changing a little around here (don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere! You’re stuck with us!) and we’re very excited to share the future of the Growing Small Towns podcast with you. Brodie Mueller, one of our favorite people and frequent Guest of the Pod, is here to talk about what that looks like, how he fits in, and what we would like to hear from YOU, our listeners. About Brodie: Brodie Mueller, owner of Market on the Plaza, has lived in Aberdeen for the past 8 years and owns the do...
Dec 09, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 146
It’s really easy to give people the highlight reel and act like everything is all hunky-dory, but that wouldn’t be authentic, and we’re all about authentic, so this episode is a bit of the Real Reel about some things Rebecca has been thinking and feeling during a bit of a hard season that a) we’ll all resonate with and b) are incredibly wise and things we should all keep in our back pockets. (Remember, Cassidy from our team writes these show notes so this is not Rebecca writing in the third pers...
Nov 25, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 145
We’re back with another one of our favorite kinds of episodes: real stories of real people doing really cool things in their small towns. This episode features Terry Sando, a retired Air Force officer who’s built a brewery in his small town of Hillsboro, ND. We love this story because Terry was inspired to build a business to serve his community…so he did! He’s kept the community at the heart of everything he does, and he’s such a great example of what can happen with a dream, willingness to lea...
Oct 14, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 144
This is our first-ever LIVE podcast recording! This episode was recorded on the main stage of the 2024 Main Street Summit in Watford City, ND and features guests Pat Bertagnolli of Job Service North Dakota and Mike Knutson of Dakota Resources. When we got asked to host this live show during the summit, we took to the socials—as we do—to ask what our people needed the most help with. Overwhelmingly, the idea of how to get more people involved in making our communities great emerged as the topic, ...
Sep 16, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 143
Have you ever heard of the Norborne Soybean Festival? You might have, thanks to their recent recognition as the Cenex Hometown Throwdown Grand Prize Winner, but even if you haven’t, you’re going to love this episode. It’s about building amazing community events and what it looks like to swing for the fences. About Kyle: Kyle Durham is a sixth-generation farmer from Norborne, Missouri, an agricultural community of 700 residents. Kyle and his father farm 2,500 acres of soybeans and corn in the Mis...
Aug 19, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 142
Mental health is something we’re incredibly passionate about here at Growing Small Towns, which most of you likely know by now given how much we love to talk about therapy and feelings and support around here! We are so appreciative of mental health practitioners like Jordyn Koski who are building practices aimed at helping our (sometimes secretly struggling) rural communities access better mental health. About Jordyn: I'm Jordyn Koski, therapist and Founder behind It's A Part Of, PLLC. I'm a Li...
Aug 05, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 141
We all know about TED Talks and how wildly popular and cool they are. But, what about a TEDx event in RURAL AMERICA? Can you even? We can’t, either, but Jeremy Ratliff could. This is an episode about audacious ideas, small towns getting it done, unexpected support, and dreaming big. About Jeremy: I grew up in the Midwest and graduated college from North Central University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My first radio job was at WTMJ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I have worked with Cox Media Group since 2...
Jul 22, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 140
