Vermont Edition

Americans pay more for health care–as a nation and individually–than citizens of any other nation on earth, even as access to health insurance continues to dwindle. And as a state, Vermont's per-person health care spending and health insurance costs are among the highest in the country. We delve into one of the reasons there’s so much sticker shock–the behind-the-scenes influence of lobbyists on h...

Ever drive past a park n ride full of cars and wonder, what happens there? What are all those people using that giant parking lot for? The team at Brave Little State recently spent 12 hours at the Richmond park and ride , all to answer a listener's question. The whole Brave Little State team — Josh Crane, Sabina Poux and Burgess Brown — shared some insights from their reporting.

Vermont developers try to keep building houses, amid new tariffs and rising costs

Betty Smith is known as Vermont Public’s founding mother. She’s been with the station since its very first day, and this year, she celebrates her 50th anniversary in public radio. She’ll tell us stories from the early days of VPR, when they weren’t sure the station would survive, and her thoughts on public media's future.  Then: a new film about the melting ice of Greenland features a University o...

Lawmakers respond to controversial Israel trip

It's the fourth installment of our annual fall series, School Stories. Every Tuesday this month, we’ve focused on issues related to Vermont schools. For this edition, we discuss pre-kindergarten. In 2014, Vermont’s governor Peter Shumlin signed a universal pre-K bill into law. Thereafter, 3 and 4-year-olds could get free pre-K for 10 hours a week through their public school system, or through subs...

Some Vermont towns are adopting a new strategy to help people in crisis. It’s called situation tables. We’ll learn about this initiative that’s underway from Bennington to Burlington. Police and social services groups come together for weekly meetings to help specific community members with housing, addiction and other stressors. We’ll hear from a Vermont Public reporter, and a retired police chie...

Over the next year, some of Vermont’s hospitals are going to see less money coming in than they wanted. Their budgets for the year are now set, and they know exactly how much they can charge insurance companies for patient care.  Green Mountain Care Board chair Owen Foster joins us for the hour. The Board is in charge of approving budgets for Vermont’s 14 hospitals. He explains this year’s decisio...

There are two new record holders for fastest supported and unsupported Long Trial hikes. One athlete, Tara "Candy Mama" Dower, is a professional ultramarathoner from Colorado. The other, Tori "Chewy" Constantine, is a nurse from Waterbury. They’ll tell us about the mental and physical preparation it takes to hike the spine of the Green Mountains at top speed. Plus: Investigators have identified th...

It's the fourth installment of our annual fall series, School Stories. Every Tuesday this month, we’ve been focusing on issues related to Vermont schools. On this episode we focus on AI in the classroom. Tech companies are investing billions of dollars in data centers to power artificial intelligence, and some of the biggest users of AI are students. Are they using generative AI to cheat, or to en...

Vermont state employees react to Gov. Scott’s return-to-office order

Vermont has a special history with horses. The Morgan horse is our state animal and some of the most famous endurance horses come from this state. There are also therapeutic benefits to horseback riding that can help people build their confidence too.  To learn about what it takes to raise healthy horses, a panel of experts with personal equine connections will share their insights. Mary Fay leads...

Town by Town: Elmore

Vermont schools are required to provide comprehensive sex education. Classes cover everything from STIs to consent. Jenna Emerson , a certified sex educator and stand-up comedian, and Celia Bird , a family nurse practitioner and comprehensive sex educator, share how they create age-appropriate lesson plans, and embrace the awkward humor of the human body.  At a national level, the Trump administra...

Can you get the latest COVID vaccine? The answer might depend on how old you are, what state you live in or whether you have a prescription. Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is undergoing a period of upheaval marked by firings and resignations. Kennedy also fired the members of the CDC's immunization panel, and the new panel hasn't...

The Vermont alt weekly Seven Days is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Every week, they publish a print paper, and every day they share local news and stories online. We’ll hear from the paper’s co-founder and deputy publisher about their favorite memories from the past 30 years, and what it’ll take to keep the paper going for 30 more. Plus, a check-in with Vermont Public's two newest music hosts,...

Will Vermont's drought leave leaf peepers high and dry?

When we talk about schools, we usually focus on what happens inside the classroom, but what happens in the cafeteria also plays an important role in learning. In the second installment of our fall series School Stories , we’re talking school meals. Food services coordinators Susan Grabowski of the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union and Kathy Alexander of the Mount Abe and Addison Northwest school...

Vermonters are very particular about our ice cream. It makes sense — we live in the land of milk and maple syrup. Chances are that if you stop a person in the street, they'll be able to quickly rattle off their favorite creemee spot and classic order. On Vermont Edition's annual creemee show, we talk with the purveyors of some of your favorite frozen treats in the region. This year we hear from Ha...

Varsity bass fishing hooks Vermont high school students

School Stories: Redistricting and consolidation

For four decades, a statue dedicated to an Abenaki Chief stood in Burlington's Battery Park. The wooden statue was recently removed due to decay and rot. Deciding how to honor a complex part of history is never easy. We’ll talk with a Norwich professor about Northeastern Indigenous history, the director general of Odanak First Nation in Quebec, and a state representative for Burlington. City leade...

Vermont Edition At Home: Gesine Bullock-Prado

Winooski author Maggie Hersokvits loves the hardy little plants that grow through the cracks of our cities. Her new book is an urban field guide to the plants, trees and herbs you might find in a North American city, like pokeweed, ground ivy, yellow rocket and hackberry. Plus, we'll listen back to our conversation from June with the state’s Historic Preservation Officer about the state’s newest h...

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