Bordertown

The Bordertown Flood series tells the stories of Central Vermonters experiencing the 2023 flood disaster.  Today we welcome Julia Watson the owner of Capital Grounds. Julia took over ownership of Capitol Grounds in January of 2020 from her father Bob, who started the business with Bob Plante in 1998. Julia returned to Vermont with her husband and two kids, anxious to take over the family business....

The Bordertown Flood series tells the stories of Central Vermonters experiencing the 2023 flood disaster. Today we welcome Lalitha Mailwaganam. Lalitha moved to Vermont from Malaysia in 2002. She is a single mom to two teens, a dog, two cats and a couple of chickens. She is an avid gardener,  enjoys cooking, dancing and music as well as getting outside and appreciating the natural beauty of Vermon...

The Bordertown Flood series tells the stories of Central Vermonters experiencing the 2023 flood disaster.  Today we welcome Alec Long. Alec and his wife Amanda purchased Chill Gelato last year and had reopened it in March. Chill has been a Montpelier staple since 2012 and Alec is enjoying his new career as a purveyor of fine Gelato. He also loves being part of the Montpelier business community and...

The Bordertown Flood series will introduce you to some of Vermont’s small businesses, community members, government officials anyone in the community that is collectively experiencing the 2023 flood disaster in Vermont.  On July 11th A State of Disaster was declared for all 14 counties of the state of Vermont after extensive rain in two days triggered the worst flooding since Tropical Storm Irene...

The Bordertown Flood series will introduce you to some of Vermont’s small businesses, community members, government officials anyone in the community that is collectively experiencing the 2023 flood disaster in Vermont.  On July 11th A State of Disaster was declared for all 14 counties of the state of Vermont after extensive rain in two days triggered the worst flooding since Tropical Storm Irene...

The Bordertown Flood Series!   The Bordertown Flood series will introduce you to some of Vermont’s small businesses, community members, government officials anyone in the community that is collectively experiencing the 2023 flood disaster in Vermont.  On July 11th A State of Disaster was declared for all 14 counties of the state of Vermont after extensive rain in two days triggered the worst flood...

This episode features my daughter Elena, and her friend Juniper! Recorded on Dec. 16th, 2019 this is a fun conversation we had at the Rabble Rouser Chocolate Factory! A fun chat with two 9-10 year-olds...pre-pandemic! Stay Informed Subscribe to Bordertown Email

Cara Robechek is the Executive Director of the Vermont Energy Education Program, whose mission is to build a deep understanding of energy through education, encouraging choices that result in sustainability in our communities, economy and environment. Cara has been with VEEP since 2014. Cara has worked in nonprofit development and managemen at the Center for While Communities in Waitsfield, served...

Skyler currently worksin Washington DC as Project Manager for the Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy. He joined that organization in June, 2018, following his completion of his Masters program in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont. Skyler also received a certificate in Ecological Economics from the Gund Institute at UVM. Skyler’s research f...

Libby Bonesteel is the Montpelier/Roxbury School District Superintendent. Prior to that she was the director of communication and instruction at Franklin Northwest Supervisory Union. She also has experience as a consultant, adjunct professor, teacher, co-principal, principal and teacher.  Libby holds master’s degrees from Michigan State University and Teachers College-Columbia University and a bac...

In this episode we welcome Michele Braun, the Executive Director of the Friends of the Winooski River . Michele took the helm at the Friends of the Winooski in 2018. She was the founding president of the watershed organization twenty years earlier. In her prior role as the planner for the Town of Northfield, Michele was responsible for the acquisition and demolition of 18 homes damaged in Tropical...

n this episode we welcome Tom Sabo, the Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Systems . Tom is an award-winning high school teacher, leading sustainability educator, prominent local food activist, and most recently the founding executive director of the Center for Sustainable Systems. He is a chief architect of a model of service learning that integrates curriculum through a school gree...

In this episode we welcome Jim Birmingham, Food Service Director of the Montpelier Roxbury School District . He is a graduate of Johnson State College and attended culinary school at Le Cordon Blue, London, UK. He is an American Culinary Federation Certified Executive Chef who spent several years working in resort hotel kitchens around Stowe, VT and more than a decade as a Chef Instructor at New E...

In this episode we welcome David Zuckerman, The Lieutenant Governor of Vermont . David Zuckerman is the co-founder of Full Moon Farm , a NOFA-certified organic farm in Hinesburg, Vermont. Inspired by then Congressman Bernie Sanders, David first ran for the Vermont House in 1994 while enrolled at the University of Vermont. He lost by 59 votes, but came back two years later to become the fourth Prog...

In this special "Halloweed Episode" we welcome author, William Alexander .William shares a few ghost stories and his experience as an author of fantasy, science fiction, and other unrealisms for young readers. His novels include Goblin Secrets, Ghoulish Song, Ambassador and Nomad. His latest novels are the companion set A Properly Unhaunted Place and A Festival of Ghosts. Honors include...

In this episode we welcome Walt Poleman , Senior Lecturer and Director of the Ecological Planning Program at the University of Vermont. Walt specializes in natural history, place-based landscape analysis, and education for sustainability. He teaches courses in natural history and human ecology, landscape inventory and assessment, and conservation science. He is co-director of the Field Naturalist...

In this episode we welcome Ryan Geary, owner the of The Hive , and co-owner of Rabble-Rouser . He works in a variety of mediums and disciplines, including wood carving, furniture making and painting, but his preferred art form and main focus over the past 5 years has been 2D and 3D collage. Ryan attributes his health and ability to live a productive life, to, among other things his active creation...

In this episode we welcome Janice Walrefen of All Together Now . Janice Walrefen co-creates AllTogetherNow!, Community Arts Center in East Montpelier, with Ellen Leonard. Together they teach summer camp and produce our community seasonal pageants, parades and puppet shows. Janice has her Art Tiles clay studio, classroom, puppets and shares community gardens at AllTogetherNow! Ellen is the director...

Matthew Binginot is a designer producer, and lover of all forms of media creativity. He is especially drawn towards photography, music, film and graphic design, although he is always seeking new forms of creative epression to tell stories and share his inspiration. When not producing his own media art, he teaches a program called Digital Media Arts at the Central Vermont Career Center . Every day...

This week our guest is Bennett Shapiro of Madtech Sound . If you go to a live music event in this area, you are bound to see Bennett, walking around with his magic tablet, making things sound good. We talk to Bennett about his journey as a sound engineer, the music scene in central Vermont and his ideas about integrating our live podcast into the Rabble-Rouser Chocolate Factory and Community Cente...

This episode is a conversation about how the Bordertown podcast aligns with the Rabble-Rouser creative vision. Our guest is the founder of Nutty Steph’s and one of the visionary’s behind Rabble-Rouser, Jaquelyn Rieke. She will provide background on the formation of the Rabble Rouser, collaboratively-owned Chocolate Factory and Community Center, and discuss the creative vision. Vic Guadagno will di...

We're taking the show on the road. After several years of recording interviews in our home studio, we are embarking on a public conversation at Montpelier’s new Rabble Rouser – Chocolate Factory and Community Center. In this episode we join the Rabble Rouser community at their launch party. We hear from Jaquelyn Rieke (formerly known as Nutty Steph), the visionary behind this undertaking. We...

Chuck Collins is a Senior Policy Analyst for the Institute for Policy Studies . He is the author of many books including Born on Third Base , The Community Resilience Reader and Is inequality in America irreversible? He is the co-editor of the Inequality.org website. Chuck has dedicated his life to understanding the basis of economic inequality in the US, and has pioneered countless efforts to con...

Sherri Mitchell, Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset is an Indigenous rights activist, spiritual teacher, and transformational change maker. She was born and raised on the Penobscot Indian reservation with a family of strong advocates and social justice activists. It was engrained in her from a very young age that, “not only do you not accept poor treatment of the ones that you love, but you also don’t...

Christine Hanna is the Executive Director of Yes Media Christine grew up in Virginia, received her bachelors degree in economics from UVA and after graduation had the opportunity to travel to the former Czechoslovakia to study comparative economics. It was during that time she was able to witness and appreciate the power and creativity of entrepreneurship and problem solving. She returned to the U...