Vermont Edition

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, soccer star Sam Mewis will coach two women’s exhibition games this summer for the Vermont Green. She’s a FIFA World Cup champion, an Olympic medalist and one of the best midfielders to come out of the U.S. We’ll hear more about coaching in Vermont, and her popular Men in Blazers podcast, the Women’s Game.

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 legislature enacted a new regulation in 2022 to end gas-powered car sales by 2035. To do that, manufacturers would have to increase the percentage of EVs for sale in Vermont. State agencies said the strategy led to an uptick in EV ownership. But then, about three weeks ago, Vermont’s Governor Phil Scott issued an executive order halting enforcement of this law for 19 months. He also said his administration "remains committed to achieving emissions reductions, including vehicle emissions." We hear more about what's going on in Vermont from freelance journalist Nathaniel Eisen of Colchester, who recently covered the story for Inside Climate News. Vermont's Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, Julie Moore, gives us the state's perspective, and Democratic state Senator Anne Watson explains why she's disappointed in the governor's decision. Plus, Brent Dragon, sales manager for the heavy truck dealership R.R. Charlebois in Milton, tells us about the trucking industry's take on the mandate and the state's decision to put it on hold. Broadcast live on Tuesday, June 3, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

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 minimums, dramatically cut the number of school districts, and change how we pay for public education and independent school tuition. We'll hear from Alison Novak with Seven Days, Ethan Weinstein with VTDigger, and Vermont Public’s Lola Duffort.

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. We’ll talk with leaders of companies based in Waterbury and the head of the town’s business development organization. Plus, we’ll talk about how other small towns can attract businesses that bring good jobs to the area.

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 scientist from the Lake Champlain Basin Program, and a shoreline ecologist with Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation. They’ll tell us about the biggest threats to these water bodies, like phosphorus runoff.

First up, we're joined by Josh Wronski, the outgoing Executive Director of the Vermont Progressive Party to talk about his tenure there, what he learned in his nine years leading Vermont's third party, and how they should move forward. Then, Rep. Becca Balint joins us to talk about the Big Beautiful Bill, Medicaid cuts, the war in Gaza, impeachment, and U.S.-Canada relations. Lastly, it's our monthly local food segment with Seven Days food writer Melissa Pasanen. Broadcast live on Thursday, May 22, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

In the latest installment of our series, Vermont Edition At Home: The award-winning cartoonist Alison Bechdel chats with us from her home studio in Bolton. Alison Bechdel is one of the country’s most renowned cartoonists. Her graphic memoir Fun Home was turned into a Tony Award-winning musical. Her new graphic novel, Spent, is set in Vermont.

Spring is an annual rite of passage, a time of transition and regrowth. Some spend it gardening. Others reconnect with friends. And a few of us, like Vermont Edition's Mikaela Lefrak, derive actual joy from spring cleaning. Two professional home organizers joined Mikaela to share their best spring cleaning tips: Sarah Thompson of St. George and Amie Davis of Georgia, Vt. If you need an extra dose of motivation, you could hire a DJ like Burlington-based Taraleigh Weathers, also known as DJ Cheetahtah. She'll come to your house to play music while you clean. She's also working launching her own YouTube channel that you can watch and listen to as you clean.

Sen. Phil Baruth on the state budget, property taxes, and the Trump Administration

Parts of our region are experiencing a very wet and muddy spring. For some, the rains bring up tough memories of the flooding of recent years. For some towns, the floods of 2023 and 2024 caused immense damage and upended lives. While we all hope 2025 doesn’t make this list, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Here to to talk flood preparedness is the director of Vermont Emergency Management, Eric Forand. His office is working to improve communication with individual towns when a disaster hits. We also talk with volunteer organizers about their plans to help Vermonters weather this years storms. Megan Mathers of Northeast Kingdom Organizing and the Kingdom United Resilience and Recovery Effort, and Jon Copans of the Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience join us.

Today is Vermont Edition’s annual spring gardening show. Our guest is Charlie Nardozzi – gardening consultant extraordinaire, speaker, and TV and radio host. You can hear him on Sunday mornings right here on Vermont Public for All Things Gardening. This year's show was in front of a live audience at Vermont Public’s Colchester studio.

Three new art and culture offerings in our region

Vermont’s only law school is the heart of South Royalton. Many residents wonder if the school will stay there, or if it’ll leave town. Today on Vermont Edition, we share a recent episode of Brave Little State. It digs into this listener question about Vermont Law and Graduate School: “Do South Royalton and the surrounding towns actually have to worry about the Vermont law school leaving, or is it just a recurring rumor?” Produce Sabine Poux learns about the law school’s footprint in that part of the state. Plus, a live discussion with Vermont Supreme Court Justice Karen Carroll and lawyer Andrew Cliburn on how the law school shaped their careers.

First, Leading arts organizations in Vermont are reeling, after finding out they’ve lost grant funding from the federal government. The Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Flynn Center, and Northern Stage are just a few of the local groups that face significant cuts. The head of the Vermont Arts Council, Susan Evans McClure, explains the role of federal funding in Vermont’s cultural landscape. Then, The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against Vermont and three other states for legislation that allows them to sue oil companies for damage caused by climate change over the last 30 years. Vermont was the first in the state to pass such a law, called the Climate Action Superfund. Pat Parenteau, a professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Law Center, tells us about this lawsuit and the two other lawsuits coming from outside of the state and how they may play out. Independent State Rep. Anne Donahue tells us why she thinks Vermont's law should be repealed. And Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak explains his office's work to determine the specific amount that the state aims to collect from oil companies. Broadcast live on Monday, May 12, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

We’re excited to present a new podcast created by the nonprofit Vermont Folklife. It’s called The Arts That Shape Us. It’s devoted to exploring the state’s cultural heritage and what different local artforms say about the past and present of Vermont. This podcast is one of ten projects funded by Vermont Public’s Made Here Fund, created to support Vermont media makers. Vermont Folklife’s Director of Education and Media, Mary Wesley, hosts the show. In this first installment, she takes us to Barre. As Mary explains, the city had a booming granite industry, and this industrial tradition birthed an artistic one. Then, we meet a Tibetan musician and dancer who has infused his cultural heritage into Vermont's. Broadcast live on Thursday, May 8, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

There’s an effort underway by the Trump administration to defund public media in America. Vermont Public's CEO Vijay Singh will answer listener questions along with our own to get a clearer view of public media’s mission, its message, and future if financial support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is eliminated. Plus, Quebec's Eastern Townships may be overshadowed by the glamour associated with the city of Montreal, but the editors of a new book called "Quebec's Eastern Townships and the World" argue the collection of towns just north of the border have their own historical and cultural footprint that reaches far beyond the province.

Vermont author Bailey Seybolt used marvel at the beauty of one old Burlington building. Her research unearthed a dark history. Seybolt sits down with Mitch Wertlieb to discuss her true-crime novel, Coram House, and the notorious real-life abuses at St. Joseph's Orphanage it's based on. Then; the story of Vermont's founders like Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold has been told ad nauseum. But Vermont State Representative Conor Casey found something inherently funny about these men and their relationship. So, he wrote a satirical take on the events surrounding Vermont's early history, provocatively titled Founding F***ers: The Story of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. It began it's weeks long run at The Greater Boston Stage Company earlier this week and runs until May 18th. Casey sits down with Mitch to talk about why he finds Vermont's founders so funny and how the stage play came together. Broadcast live on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Urban and rural Vermont communities face a primary care shortage

Two local orchestras celebrate music and fight mental health stigma