Rumble Strip

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 .

[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 s...

[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 d...

[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 s...

[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 Mil...

[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 schiz...

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 a...

[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 Argu...

[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 McTheni...

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 rese...

[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...

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...

[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 go...

[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...

[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...

[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 loca...

[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...

[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.

[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...

[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...

[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 Carrie...

[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...

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 fa...

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 appea...

“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...