Episodes
Monday Aug 12, 2024
Circumnavigating the Wilson Globe
Monday Aug 12, 2024
Monday Aug 12, 2024
James Wilson is an almost mythical figure in Vermont History, reputedly a lone genius who created the first globe in America. For several years, the Vermont Historical Society researched more about Wilson and his globes - and the picture that emerged was much more complicated and interesting than the legend.
Thursday Aug 08, 2024
Acid Rain and Vermont's Waterways
Thursday Aug 08, 2024
Thursday Aug 08, 2024
Vermont's water quality has long been a top concern for scientists and residents, and in the 1980s it reached national attention as acid rain came to the forefront of public understanding. What is acid rain, anyway? Why was Vermont getting so much attention? And where are we now in addressing those challenges?
Monday Jul 22, 2024
The Library Map of Vermont
Monday Jul 22, 2024
Monday Jul 22, 2024
The “Library Map of Vermont” was created in 1914 to track all 225 brick and mortar libraries as well as 267 traveling library stations around the state. In this episode we’ll ask; Can a map truly show what it means for a community to have a well-supported library… and when communities lack that?
Thursday May 23, 2024
Forests And Frontiers
Thursday May 23, 2024
Thursday May 23, 2024
Vermont's extensive old-growth forests drew representatives from the King's Navy looking for mast trees. What can their map of timber resources tell us about our relationship to the land, how Vermont defined itself, and how history is saved or not?
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
Canal Fever
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
In the summer of 1829, three Army surveyors created a map exploring a potential canal route that would have connected Lake Champlain and the Connecticut River. "Canal Fever" was gripping the region, with the success of the Erie Canal. But this quantum leap in transportation technology would have to contend with an even bigger idea: the railroads.
Thursday Sep 21, 2023
Call it a New Life
Thursday Sep 21, 2023
Thursday Sep 21, 2023
Technological improvements, from butter churns to electricity, transformed life on Vermont farms from the 1890s through the mid-20th century. Many of these changes eased the workload of Vermont's farming families. But other changes - done in the name of modernity - had long-term impacts on the future of dairy in our state.
Monday May 08, 2023
A Foot in Both Worlds
Monday May 08, 2023
Monday May 08, 2023
People speaking Spanish as they milk cows may not fit our traditional image of a Vermont farm. But workers from Mexico and Central America are crucial to the state’s economy. And such migrant labor has a long history in Vermont.
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
The Curious Catamount
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
Though said to be extinct, catamounts live on in the minds of many Vermonters. In this episode we retrace a Barnard panther hunt from 1881 and consider the hold that these big cats continue to have on our imaginations.
Monday Mar 01, 2021
A Town Solves a Problem
Monday Mar 01, 2021
Monday Mar 01, 2021
Town meeting is central to our identity as a little state on a human scale that does things differently. But what happens to town meeting when it needs to change during a pandemic? Or when it changes because Vermont itself has changed?
In this episode, we discuss a film made in Pittsford, Vermont in 1950 to promote democracy in postwar Japan. We review the changes that needed to be made to town meeting during this pandemic year. And we talk with political theory professor Meg Mott about ongoing threats to town meeting and self-governance.
This episode is part of the “Why it Matters: Civics and Electoral Participation” initiative sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Federation for State Humanities Councils.
Friday Feb 19, 2021
Send Me a Box
Friday Feb 19, 2021
Friday Feb 19, 2021
We examine some of the products that people have mailed from and to Vermont, from maple syrup to complete houses and almost everything in between. Includes segments about a sugarmaker in East Barnard, Civil War letters, kit houses, and the Vermont Country Store.