Vermont Edition

President Trump’s new travel ban is in effect. For a month now, people from 12 countries have been barred from entering the U.S., including Afghanistan, Burma and Eritrea. Seven other countries are partially banned, and the President has floated the idea of banning several more. We’ll hear how the travel ban affects refugees, green card holders, international students and others in our region. joi...

A good jingle is short, catchy and teaches you a business name or phone number that you can't get out of your head — maybe even for years. This hour we celebrate the art of the local jingle. We from some jingle writers who have written some legendary earworms. Jim Giberty is based in Bethel and wrote ads for local ski areas, as well as some broader New England gems, most notable, The Lobster Claw...

Scientists try to restore American chestnut trees to the northeast

Vermont marks the anniversary of the 2023 and 2024 summer floods

State Senators Seth Bongartz (D-Bennington) and Scott Beck (R-Caledonia) are the subject of an ethics complaint that alleges their ties to independent schools influenced their work on Vermont's big education reform bill.  Vermont Public reporter Lola Duffort has been closely following the education reform process and this ethics complaint. We also explore the process of investigating alleged ethic...

Who wants to turn on the stove and cook dinner this time of year when you could stop by a local snack bar instead? Eating out at these seasonal restaurants is a beloved summer tradition in our region. Seven Days food writer and editor Melissa Pasanen shares some of her favorite snack menu items, like the smash burgers from Gondola's Snack Bar in Morristown and the hand cut fries at Green Meadows G...

Of all the touchy topics there are to talk about, class might be the thorniest of all. Today on Vermont Edition: Vermont Public's Erica Heilman tells us about her ongoing series examining economic differences in Vermont. New stories in her series What Class Are You drop this week. Then: we bring you a recent episode of the podcast Brave Little State/ Producer Burgess Brown explores what it’s like...

How local communities are working to save their general stores

July 1st, 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of civil unions in Vermont. This legal alternative to marriage was the first of its kind in the United States. In the Vermont Supreme Court case Baker v. Vermont , the court ruled that the state had no legal basis to discriminate against same-sex couples. If the legislature would not allow same-sex couples to get marriage licenses, lawmakers would have to...

Our region is home to celebrated poets from a wide variety of personal backgrounds. On this Vermont Edition, we revisit interviews with four local poets that we recorded in April to mark National Poetry Month.  Bianca Stone of Brandon reflects on her first year as Vermont’s poet laureate, Geof Hewitt of Calais tells us about the roots of slam poetry, Alexandria Hall explains how she carries her Ve...

What it's like being a first-term state lawmaker

Building queer community can be incredibly hard, when you’re facing forces like bigotry or intolerance. It can also be hard when you live in a place like Vermont, where there just aren’t a whole ton of people. Last week, our team went to The Barre Social Club to record a live panel discussion with Barre-area LGBTQ business owners and organizers who are trying to strengthen ties in Barre’s queer co...

Communities across our region are hosting Juneteenth celebrations this year. The federal holiday marks the end of slavery in the United States and honors Black history and culture. South Burlington recreation specialist Kate Likhite and state Sen. Joe Major of Hartford tell us about their communities' Juneteenth events. Then: two local authors share the stories behind their new books. In " The Gho...

More than 200 wildfires are currently burning in Canada. They are transforming forests, and becoming more intense and frequent due to climate change.  This hour we discuss how wildfires affect our landscapes, and how wildfire smoke affects air quality and our bodies. Our guests are David Grass , a senior environmental health manager at the Vermont Department of Health, and David Phillips , a Toron...

Navigating changes and challenges on Burlington's Church street

Rosemary Gladstar is said to be the Godmother of modern herbalism. In the latest installment of Vermont Edition At Home, Mikaela visited Gladstar at her house in Milton, Vermont. They discussed her roots in herbalism, from her childhood learning how to forage for food and medicine with her grandmother, to becoming the founder of a world renowned herbal retreat center in Vermont and founder of seve...

"The long term survival of life on earth has never really been in doubt...it's the survival of homo sapiens that has been in question." That stark reminder, or perhaps warning, comes from one of the central characters in the new novel by Vermont author Tim Weed called "The Afterlife Project." Guest host Mitch Wertlieb speaks with the Putney-based writer about what inspired his book--which blends e...

The birthrate in the United States is on the decline, and of all 50 states, Vermont’s fertility rate is the lowest. We'll listen to a recent episode of Vermont Public's podcast Brave Little State where reporter Nina Keck looks into a listener’s question about childlessness. Then, we'll be joined by sociology professor Amy Blackstone of the University of Maine, who researches why some people opt ou...

As Senate debates the budget, Vermont Sen. Peter Welch hopes "we kill the bill"

Summer reading: Ease into the season with these book recommendations

Vermont’s roadways are dotted with iconic green and gold markers. They tell stories of our region’s past. Today on Vermont Edition, the state’s Historic Preservation Officer tells us about the state’s newest historic markers, like the one for Devil’s Bowl Speedway, New England’s fastest dirt track, or another in Fayston for Ralph Waldo Ellison, author of the classic novel Invisible Man. Then, socc...

Electric vehicles – EVs – don’t emit pollutants into the air. That’s a good thing, if you’re focused on cutting emissions and curbing climate change. But they’re also often more expensive than gas cars, and the charging infrastructure along roads and highways isn’t fully built out yet. Considering these challenges, how do you get people to buy EVs? In Vermont, the Scott administration proposed a r...

Vermont’s legislative session was supposed to be over, but one massive and potentially historic bill will keep lawmakers in Montpelier longer than expected. That bill? Education reform. Today on Vermont Edition: a trio of local education reporters break down the ed reform debate. This bill seeks to fundamentally transform how Vermont schools are run and how they are funded. It could set class size...

Darn Tough. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Ben and Jerry’s. Ivy Computer. Verde Technologies. KORE Power Battery Cell Developers. What do all these businesses have in common? They either were, or still are, in the small town of Waterbury, Vermont.  Today on Vermont Edition: what makes this one town in Washington County a good home for growing companies? Our guests this hour have their theories. ...

Lake Memphremagog provides drinking water for around 200,000 Canadians, and recreation for countless Vermonters. It also faces serious environmental challenges.  Today on Vermont Edition: the fight to restore and protect the water quality of our region’s largest lakes. We’ll hear from a Quebec-based group about their effort to designate Memphremagog as a lake in crisis.  We’ll also talk with a sci...