The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman

Democrats, stop freaking out. That is the message — or plea — of veteran campaign consultant Stuart Stevens following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week. Numerous pundits on cable news, some Democratic donors and the editorial board of the New York Times have called for Biden to drop out and let a younger candidate take on Trump. Stevens thinks that dumping Biden is “ins...

This Vermont Conversation with Jackson Beecham originally aired in July 2022. When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade on June 24, it left each state to decide its own abortion laws. Many Republican-led states are reverting to the anti-abortion laws that were on the books before 1973 when Roe legalized abortion. Vermont legalized abortion a year before Roe. In 1972, the Vermont Supreme...

Is our car-centric society ready to ditch automobiles for bicycles? It is already happening in a number of cities, and it may be part of the solution to the climate crisis. This is the case made by Daniel Piatkowski in his new book, Bicycle City: Riding the Bike Boom to a Brighter Future. Piatkowski, a former New York City bike messenger, is now a professor of land use and transportation planning...

In 1969, with the country in the grips of protests against the Vietnam War, Rob Mermin took a different path. He ran off to join the circus. So began his career as a performer that has touched the lives of thousands of people. For the next decade, Mermin performed in circuses throughout Europe, above the Arctic Circle and behind the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union. He studied with the legendary p...

Harvard professor Steven Levitsky is the co-author of the 2018 international bestseller, “How Democracies Die.” It’s a book that President Joe Biden has cited often. In it, Levitsky and fellow Harvard professor Daniel Ziblatt documented the rise of authoritarian movements and the decline of democracies around the world. But Levitsky was still shocked when Trump supporters launched a violent attack...

Are the kids all right?   This question is foremost on the mind of parents, educators, and young people themselves.   Students today are still grappling with the lingering effects of the covid pandemic, during which their schools closed and their education continued alone — or in many cases, their education and development stalled. Significant covid-related learning gaps continue to pose a challen...

“Imagine one day you receive a letter in the mail that informs you that a large energy company is planning to build a massive pipeline through your property. That surveyors will be coming out soon. That they have the legal right to do so, whether you like it or not, because this project is in the 'public interest.'"  That’s how journalist Jonathan Mingle describes the letter that people in rural V...

Nicholas Kristof has been an eyewitness to some of the most iconic political and social transformations of modern times. As a reporter and columnist for the New York Times for the last four decades, Kristof has been telling searing stories about revolutions, genocides, and the impact of global inequality. His work has garnered the top prizes in journalism, including two Pulitzer Prizes. The first...

Annelise Orleck did not expect that protecting her students would result in getting assaulted and arrested. Orleck is a professor of history and the former chair of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. On May 1, Dartmouth President Sian Beilock called police to break up a peaceful student protest on the Dartmouth Green. The students were protesting Israel’s war on Gaza and calling on Dartmouth to...

College campuses around the country have been rocked by protests against Israel’s war on Hamas, which has claimed the lives of some 35,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza. Students have established tent encampments and are calling on their universities to divest from companies that support the Israeli occupation. Some universities have cracked down on protesters. Since encampme...

In August 2000, 23-year-old Tamara Mathieu and her husband left good jobs, gave up everything, and joined a cult. For 14 years, they were members of Twelve Tribes, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as “a Christian fundamentalist cult” that has been accused of child abuse, child labor, racism and misogyny. The Twelve Tribes made national news in 1984 when their Island Pond community,...

In 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison, hopes were high that apartheid was in its dying days. Father Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest and a chaplain to the African National Congress, had been living in exile in Zimbabwe. He thought he might soon return to South Africa to begin building a new post-apartheid nation. But apartheid’s henchman would not go quietly. Three...

Even if you don't know Jules Rabin, there’s a good chance that you have seen him protesting or read one of his many letters to the editor or commentaries in local publications. Rabin is Vermont’s most tenacious and dedicated peace activist. He celebrated his 100th birthday on April 6 by asking friends to join him in downtown Montpelier to protest Israel's war on Gaza. Rabin grew up in Boston, the...

Jan Reynolds just wanted to be “one of the guys.” Growing up as one of seven children on a dairy farm in Middlebury, Reynolds thought nothing of a tough physical challenge. This propelled her to record setting high-altitude adventures in the company of some of the world’s top mountaineers, often as the only woman on expeditions on the highest summits. Reynolds attended the University of Vermont, w...

Some people make films to entertain or inform. Bess O’Brien makes films to change the world. "I'm very committed as a documentary filmmaker to not only make the movie but to try to use the film to create change," the award-winning Vermont filmmaker said.  O’Brien's work has raised awareness about vulnerable people and social justice. Her 2013 documentary, “The Hungry Heart,” about the prescription...

This Vermont Conversation originally broadcast in April 2015. Tom Hayden was a leader of the student, civil rights, peace and environmental movements of the 1960s. He went on to serve 18 years in the California legislature. He was a founder of Students for a Democratic Society and was described by the NY Times as “the single greatest figure of the 1960s student movement.” Hayden died in October 20...

Laura Waterman has been described as “mountain royalty.” With her late husband, Guy Waterman, she has written numerous articles and books on the outdoors, including the definitive 900-page classic, “Forest and Crag: A History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure in the Northeast Mountains.” The Watermans were pioneering philosophers of wilderness ethics and are often credited as the inspiration...

On Tuesday, Burlington voters elected Emma Mulvaney-Stanak to be the Queen City’s next mayor. The 43-year-old Progressive/Democrat who grew up in Barre City succeeds Democrat Miro Weinberger, who has been mayor since 2012 and did not run for reelection. Mulvaney-Stanak will be the first woman and the first openly queer person to serve as Burlington’s mayor when she is sworn in on April 1. She is a...

Twenty years ago, Gov. Howard Dean ended his run for president. His campaign concluded with a scream – the fabled Dean Scream – but not before it changed the face of modern campaigning.  The Deaniacs, as his legions of young followers came to be known, proved that small dollar internet fundraising and organizing could help vault the governor of a small state who was little known outside of New Eng...

Hisham Awartani didn’t expect to become the focus of international news when he went for a walk before dinner at his grandmother’s house in Burlington on Nov. 25. Awartani was with his friends Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad, who are all of Palestinian descent and attend colleges in the U.S. They were speaking a mix of English and Arabic and two were wearing kufiyahs, the traditional Palest...

When Mia Schultz became president of the Rutland branch of the NAACP in December 2020, she became one of Vermont’s most visible and important racial justice advocates. The NAACP was founded in 1909 and is the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the U.S. with more than 2,200 branches. Schultz hails from Arizona and moved to Bennington in 2016. She is the first Black woman to chair the B...

VTDigger is re-releasing some of our favorite interviews of the past decade to mark the 10th anniversary of The Vermont Conversation. This episode with Matthew Desmond was originally published in April 2023. Why does the U.S. — the richest country in the world — have the most poverty of any advanced democracy? Why are homeless encampments popping up from Seattle to Burlington? The answer is that,...

On a cold winter day in 1984, three skiers pushed off from the Massachusetts border with an audacious plan to ski the length of Vermont. They named the 300-mile route the Catamount Trail. It is now the longest ski trail in North America. On Feb. 8, those same three skiers, Ben Rose, Paul Jarris, and Steve Bushey, who are each now in their 60s, will set off to once again ski the length of Vermont t...

Driving around rural areas of the Northeast, it’s not uncommon to see an occasional home or vehicle displaying a Confederate battle flag. Look closer, and you might find symbols of far right groups like the Proud Boys or the Three Percenters, both classified as hate groups. Reporters Emily Russell and Zach Hirsch decided to dig further. They spent months investigating the reach of the far right mo...

Katherine Paterson is one of America’s most celebrated writers for children. The author of more than 40 books, she is one of just six writers who have twice won the prestigious Newbery Medal, for “Bridge to Terabithia” in 1978 and “Jacob Have I Loved” in 1981. She has also won the National Book Award twice. In 2000, Paterson was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress. Paterson frequently...