Are We Here Yet Podcast

Our guest is Noah Harper.  I met Noah at the CNU New England conference in Providence, RI. We were tasked by the organization to debate whether the Congress is positioned well as a leading voice in the current housing challenge before us all.  Thus sparked some great discussion.  Explore Noah's Substack here  Noah has been featured in Strong Towns.   He is a community planner for the firm J.M. Gol...

We've had the pleasure of featuring Baritone Saxophonist Claire Daly twice in the AWHY? Music feature, The Jazz Room.  Host Joan Watson Jones first sat down with Clare at Studio 952 in New York City to talk about her CD "Baritone Monk", recorded at the North Coast Brewing Company. In our second interview Claire spoke to Joan regarding her recording, "The Mary Joyce Project-Nothing to Lose" which t...

Our guest, Andrew Fitch is Communications Manager for  Lever , a Venture Capital Source pioneered by founders and government in the city of North Adams, MA. The last decade or more has seen a resurgence in young professionals rediscovering opportunities in the western half of Massachusetts.  Opportunities in housing, urban development, entrepreneurship and life crafting. Much of Andrew's time is f...

Kendall Fortney is an artist and designer based in Vermont who is currently the Program Director for UVM's VERSO the open-source program centered at the University. Kendall spoke with the Innova802 crew on the power of the open-source community in shaping a society that delivers human-scaled, beneficial solutions in technology. Find out more regarding the resources and community at VERSO VERSO off...

For our latest Are We Here yet? podcast we offer four perspectives sure to keep you contemplating on this upcoming Indigenous People's Day. Our Season III guest Doug Harris, retired archivist for the Narragansett Tribe spoke to us regarding New England's Ceremonial Stone Landscape for episodes 87 and 88 .  We feature two clips here, the first focused on answering the question, 'what is this place...

CEO Kimmerly Nace is dedicated to changing the narrative on how we see our waste.  She's passionate about making this planet, or rather making its people work better for a sustainable planet for all of us, creatures large and small.  Imagine a world where our toughest waste issues become some of our most profitable revenue centers? Literally turning problems into profit; using our existing financi...

Startup founders: today's audio plat savoureux from the Innova802 crew focused on our guest Matt Cropp, executive director of the  Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC). We discussed why you need to consider your future exit now at the onset of your enterprise and why you should take a serious look at forming an employee-owned enterprise and how. The history of tech and tech enabled companies s...

We examine local real estate markets and the unique mix of property and economic development components at the local level here at the 'Are We Here Yet?' podcast so our listeners can find inspiration for their own local efforts back home.  This episode host Scott Graves sat down with Ed Bove, Executive Director of the Rutland Redevelopment Authority in Scott's adoptive hometown of Rutland, VT.  Sc...

Without getting to Jargon-ey,  our guest Gregory Thomas and yours truly explored where and how we in the private sector and within institutions can support the journey from on-the-shelf research to marketplace success.  Gregory is The Executive Director and Lecturer for the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship, Isenberg School University of Massachusetts Amherst .  UMASS is a leader in cutting e...

The team at Innova802 enter the solutions-driven world of biomimicry with Vermont entrepreneur Byron Garcia.  Byron is the founder of Natural Designs where he and his team study the natural flora and fauna of the planet for clues to solving some of industry's most pressing issues.  Projects include improvements to data center cooling systems through the mimicry of beetle wings and elephant ears an...

We had the distinct pleasure of engaging in conversation with two very special professionals. In their report, Integrating Inner & Outer Systems Change , authors Stephen Posner & Kim Nolan offered us insight into the importance inner perspective within each of us plays in the necessary task of reimagining how we collectively survive and even thrive on the planet. Our conversation was vivid.  I hav...

Doug Merrill is Regional Innovation Officer for UVM in Burlington, VT. Doug is leading the charge for the Vermont GaN Tech Hub, a regional reshoring initiative spurred on by the CHIPs legislation. Doug joined the Innova802 team to discuss the project's progress and its potential impact to the regional economy. We also talked about what's so fab about gallium nitride microprocessing chips. From a r...

  For more than five years Travis Benson has represented the interests of citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a policy advocate, primarily working on issues of transparency. His article, "Dissecting the 'Toxic' State House Culture", published May 25 in Commonwealth Beacon recounts the current dysfunction of the state legislature of Massachusetts. The issues we discussed are not unique...

My guest today is Ilana Preuss, founder of Recast City, LLC which she's led for 10 years. To date, Ilana has worked with 60 communities throughout the United States. Her commitment is to apply her expertise in smart growth, community reinvestment, real estate analysis, and stakeholder engagement to create more opportunity for more people in more places and to create strong, inclusive, and resilien...

This latest Innova802 episode had the crew of Scott Graves, Ryan Munn and Will Jeffries exploring different sides of the question, 'Who owns this?' We explored the issue surrounding last spring's decision by Spotify to set limits on how they pay royalties to artists, something Scott takes issue with since his days in the industry.  This affects all creatives utilizing Spotify as a platform, includ...

Up End This is a custom modular housing solution, a startup located in Johnson, VT.  It's founder Michael Zebrowski is the kind of entrepreneur that everyone can both connect with and look up to.  He and his family have weathered the recent floods and the more daily mundane challenges inherent in owning your own business.   Learn More from Up End This They are looking to grow with a smart strategy...

We begin our episode with an interview co-host Scott M. Graves held with Vermont State Rep. Monique Priestley (D-Bradford) regarding the latest on the bill she is co-sponsoring.  VT. House Bill 121 was vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott at the end of the 2024 legislative session and upheld by the Vermont Senate. We offer our listeners the latest on the future of the bill from Monique, who used the opportun...

Since 1975, Tom Fox has been at the forefront of urban park and waterfront development primarily in New York City. His creative thinking, commitment to community engagement and coalition building, use of unique funding mechanisms, and knowledge of government and the media have resulted in revitalized waterfronts and waterways, new parks, greenways and community gardens that have made the city a mo...

Erica Von Kleist is performing artist, educator, businesswoman, colorful commentator on any number of the more ridiculous intersections between art and modern life and wouldn't you know, she plays the saxophone to top it all off and we have to acknowledge,  just had the premiere of three new arrangements at no less than Carnegie Hall.  Find Erica on the Web I've admired her work for many years now...

  "Rural communities do not exist solely to be extracted from.  They are also generative, they can host tech, sic (the example from) our radically Rural biotech (program) is to not just bring (biotech) to but grow from the people and places we already have." Julianna Dodson, Director of Radically Rural and Deputy Director for the Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship spoke with us regarding th...

"I DON'T THINK THE 'MONTANA MIRACLE' IS A ONE-TIME FLUKE. I THINK IT CAN REPRESENT A NEW PARADIGM OF POLITICS IN MONTANA, WHERE THE LEFT AND RIGHT JOIN TOGETHER IN COMMON BELIEF THAT MONTANANS MUST BE FREE TO BUILD, INNOVATE, AND PROGRESS IN ORDER TO OVERCOME THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING OUR STATE." So we opened our Season Nine here at the 'Are We Here Yet?' podcast with this quote from Kendall C...

Many rural regions of the US appear to be at the vanguard of a de-centralization of venture capital.  Specifically, we are seeing a gradual increase in interest on the part of those controlling venture capital streams to ensure we go beyond Boston, New York, San Francisco and Austin.  So can Venture Capital ignite rural economies?  What other critical mass changes are necessary to realize resilien...

We had the distinct Pleasure to speak with Daniel Parkins with a rather broad question to answer: What does the way we assign value to commerce, global policy, culture and just about everything else in our community tell us about our society.  Does it reflect our weaknesses or our strengths? What does it say about the health of our communities, about the health of our inner self? In an era where m...

Our Vermont tech team was joined by Joshua Moses .  Josh works with individuals, organizations, and communities to cultivate vision and resourcefulness in the face of uncertainty and socio-ecological transitions.  He is currently on the faculty of Haverford College.  Josh is currently visiting faculty with us in Vermont at UVM. He joined our conversation dealing with why and how our tech sector re...

The folks at Vermont-based medtech startup Aprexis are no strangers to the definition of persistence.  This is the just the start of why the podcast desired to talk with co-founders Mike Howe, Rob Squire and Carrie LeCompte.   In this episode you'll learn the importance for rooting a medtech solutions company from the clinicians perspective.  We spoke at length regarding the challenges unique to m...