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Rural Remix

Rural Remix

By Rural Remix

Your source for a deeper, richer story about life in rural places. Each episode of Rural Remix spotlights unexpected rural stories and pushes back on stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding rural communities.

Rural Remix is a co-production of the Daily Yonder and the Rural Assembly, both projects of the nonprofit Center for Rural Strategies.

Rural Remix is an evolution of Everywhere Radio, an interview podcast that featured conversations with rural leaders and allies, spotlighting the good, scrappy, joyful ways rural people are building a more inclusive nation.
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Pasito a Pasito: The Immigrant Journey in Rural America with Gladys Godinez

Rural RemixMar 18, 2021

00:00
27:19
Home Cooked - Ep 3: Lab School
Mar 22, 202435:49
Keep It Rural - Ep 5: Blast from the Past

Keep It Rural - Ep 5: Blast from the Past

Home can be a difficult place to leave, even for Oregonians in the danger zone of a major earthquake. In this episode of Keep It Rural, Daily Yonder reporter Claire Carlson discusses natural disasters of the past, present, and future.

Mar 20, 202409:00
Home Cooked - Ep 2: Made in the U.S.A.

Home Cooked - Ep 2: Made in the U.S.A.

In the 1950s, meth was available over the counter. In the 1960s, it was still unscheduled by the FDA and widely prescribed by doctors. All kinds of people – among them housewives, truckers, and college students – used the stimulant to induce weight loss, wakefulness, and high spirits. But in 1971 meth was reclassified as one of the nation’s most dangerous drugs and its legal production quickly fell by 90 percent. Demand, on the other hand, persisted, and outlaw biker gangs stepped into the supply vacuum. How’d biker gangs come to dominate the meth trade in the 80s? And why did they eventually lose control of it?

Mar 15, 202431:02
Home Cooked - Ep 1: Old Meth, New Meth
Mar 08, 202436:58
Keep It Rural - Ep 4: Beyoncé's Country Debut

Keep It Rural - Ep 4: Beyoncé's Country Debut

Country music is inextricable from Black culture, no matter how much the music industry has tried to separate them. Beyoncé’s new country songs could force a long-overdue change to how we think about a genre. Daily Yonder reporter Claire Carlson discusses the overhaul of country music that is happening before our very eyes.

Mar 06, 202406:07
Launching March 8th: Home Cooked

Launching March 8th: Home Cooked

Home Cooked: A 50-Year History of Meth in America

Stay tuned for Home Cooked, Rural Remix’s five-part series on the history of methamphetamine in America. How’d meth get a reputation as a “hillbilly” drug? Why was meth ever so explosive in rural America? And why is it back in the news today? We’re investigating these questions and more, beginning with Episode One, “Old Meth, New Meth.” Look for it on your feed on Friday, March 8th.

Mar 01, 202403:18
Keep It Rural - Ep 3: Extinction in the Anthropocene

Keep It Rural - Ep 3: Extinction in the Anthropocene

To love something is to eventually grieve the losing it. But what happens when climate change speeds up our rate of loss? Daily Yonder reporter Claire Carlson discusses love, life, and loss in the anthropocene.

Feb 21, 202404:56
Keep It Rural - Ep 2: Wolves and Humanity

Keep It Rural - Ep 2: Wolves and Humanity

This is Keep It Rural. Your spot for musings on rural news, exploration of rural culture, and queries about rural life. Today Daily Yonder reporter Claire Carlson discusses a Colorado effort to reintroduce gray wolves and the debate over humans' place in the natural world.

Feb 07, 202406:52
Planning for a ‘Broadband Breakthrough’ in Rural Illinois

Planning for a ‘Broadband Breakthrough’ in Rural Illinois

It's 2024 and we're still talking about how to get high-speed internet to the rural people and places that need it. An influx of federal dollars coming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 may offer a path forward, and a group of Illinois government and business leaders are getting ready to seize the opportunity. As part of the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society's, "Broadband Breakthrough" program, local stakeholders are getting coached up on broadband basics, community outreach, and how to take their best shot when competing for a chunk of the federal funding available for internet infrastructure.

Producer's Note: The Benton Institute for Broadband and Society is a contractor for the Center for Rural Strategies, our parent organization. The Rural Remix team operates independently in all editorial decisions.

Feb 02, 202413:14
Keep It Rural - Ep 1: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Keep It Rural - Ep 1: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

This is Keep It Rural. Your spot for musings on rural news, exploration of rural culture, and queries about rural life. Today Daily Yonder reporter Claire Carlson discusses how a viral airplane near-disaster made her think about pedestrian safety on rural roads.

Jan 24, 202406:36
The Rural Horror Christmas Show

The Rural Horror Christmas Show

With Halloween in the rear view maybe you thought spooky season was over. But the scariest day of the year is yet to come… the horrors of Christmas are almost upon us. It's time for a Rural Horror Holiday Special.

Join us for a bonus episode of the Rural Horror Picture Show as we explore this uniquely absurd and terrifying sub-genre of films that represent the darker side of the holiday season. Films discussed include "Krampus" (2015), "Silent Night" (2012), and "To All a Good Night" (1980).

Dec 08, 202337:12
Rural Remix: Bridging Communities Through Culture with Erin Eveland

Rural Remix: Bridging Communities Through Culture with Erin Eveland

In Rushville, Illinois, Erin Eveland and her team at The HUB - Arts and Cultural Center are carrying out a mission to to bridge the gap between art, culture, and rural communities.
In this new episode of Rural Remix, Eveland and Rural Assembly Deputy Director Libby Lane (a Rushville native!) talk about what drives the work, as well as the challenges of funding and the importance of community support in sustaining and growing the organization.
Keep listening for the lightning round of questions, where Eveland shares her favorite places, comfort food, superpower, and more.

Keep listening for the lightning round of questions, where Eveland shares her favorite places, comfort food, superpower, and more. Rural Remix is a co-production of Rural Assembly and the Daily Yonder.

To get updates about future episodes, subscribe at https://www.dailyyonder.com/podcasts/rural-remix/#email-alerts

Nov 16, 202335:14
The Rural Horror Picture Show - Ep. 5: Legacy

The Rural Horror Picture Show - Ep. 5: Legacy

Was Burkittsville, Maryland ever the same after the "Blair Witch?" What about the Texas town that played host to the "Chainsaw Massacre?"

Dawn breaks and we conclude our series with some reflections on the lasting legacy of rural horror. How have the places featured in popular films been affected by their depictions on screen? And what do the tropes and shorthand used by horror filmmakers continue to reveal about the world around us?


Nov 03, 202341:33
The Rural Horror Picture Show - Ep. 4: Supernatural

The Rural Horror Picture Show - Ep. 4: Supernatural

No examination of rural horror would be complete without talking about folk horror. Superstitions about witchcraft and the occult hearken back to the country's pastoral, Puritan roots. We dig into the sub-genre and how it uses rural places to illustrate modern tensions between science and the supernatural.

Films discussed include "The Children of the Corn" (1984), "The Blair Witch Project" (1999), and the documentary "Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched" (2021).

Oct 31, 202337:01
The Rural Horror Picture Show - Ep. 3: Isolated

The Rural Horror Picture Show - Ep. 3: Isolated

Sometimes the monster isn’t so literal, and deeper fears take center stage: isolation, grief, disillusionment, despair. In these cases, rural landscapes often play a supporting role. In our third episode, we turn our attention to the fear of isolation — both physical and emotional —and how it’s connected to portrayals of grief in horror movies.

Films discussed include “Midsommar” (2019), “The Edge of the Knife” (2018), and “Deliverance” (1972).

Oct 27, 202335:35
The Rural Horror Picture Show - Ep. 2: Killbillies

The Rural Horror Picture Show - Ep. 2: Killbillies

Continuing on from our first episode, we zoom in to a specific kind of "urbanoia." Join us for a closer look at a set of iconic movies that made a horror trope out of an over-the-top stereotype, introducing us to an infamous class of villain: the killer hillbilly and his degenerate rural family. As some Appalachians and rural people seek to reclaim power and pride in the word hillbilly, what are we to do with the killbillies?

Films discussed include "Deliverance" (1972), "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974), and "The Hills Have Eyes" (1977).

Oct 20, 202337:16
The Rural Horror Picture Show - Ep. 1: Urbanoia

The Rural Horror Picture Show - Ep. 1: Urbanoia

Where do horror movies happen? Small towns, dark forests, cornfields, and farmhouses have each been the locations for iconic scary films. But why are rural settings so popular, and how do these choices affect the areas represented? In the first episode of our 5-part series exploring the often-flawed, but always interesting, depiction of rural people and places in horror movies, we look at urban fears about the country, and rural fears about the city.

Which is scarier, and should we take more issue with the tropes, or the inversions of them? Films discussed include "Jennifer's Body" (2009), "Pearl" (2022), "Frankenstein" (1931), and "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" (2010).

Oct 19, 202336:38
Welcome to Rural Remix

Welcome to Rural Remix

Beginning this month Everywhere Radio becomes Rural Remix.

Together with our partners at the Daily Yonder and Center for Rural Strategies, we'll bring you unexpected rural stories that talk back to the stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding rural communities.

Up first, just in time for Halloween, is our debut series, the Rural Horror Picture Show, five episodes exploring the depiction of rural people and places in horror films.

If you're already a subscriber to Everywhere Radio, you'll seamlessly transition into the world of Rural Remix. When our very first episode drops, you'll find it waiting for you in your podcast feeds. And if you haven't yet joined our community of listeners, now is the perfect time.

Oct 10, 202300:41
More at stake: When extremist political movements infiltrate rural communities

More at stake: When extremist political movements infiltrate rural communities

Daily Yonder reporters Sarah Melotte and Claire Carlson talk about what's at stake in rural communities when extremist political movements infiltrate local politics. Melotte and Carlson talk about their own reporting and how they came to the same notion: that when extremist political movements — banning electronic voting systems or defunding libraries for example — enter a rural community, there's often more at stake in that rural place than there would be in a suburb or a city.


Oct 05, 202329:18
Celinda Lake: How Rural Americans Are Feeling About the Future

Celinda Lake: How Rural Americans Are Feeling About the Future

How are rural people feeling about the future? What are they concerned about? What do they value? Pollster Celinda Lake talks with Center for Rural Strategies President Dee Davis about the findings of a soon-to-be-released poll that explores what's on the minds of rural voters in 2023.

"We really asked questions to get beyond the surface, and we looked in-depth at concerns and values and then support for policies," Lake says. "And what I loved about it was that the poll was really defying a lot of conventional wisdom."  

Find the video, interview highlights, and transcript at https://www.ruralassembly.org.

About the guest

Celinda Lake is a pollster and political strategist who is considered one of the nation’s foremost experts on electing women candidates and on framing issues to women voters. President of the polling firm Lake Research Partners, Lake grew up on a ranch in rural Montana. American Politics calls Celinda a "super-strategist or, better yet, the Godmother," and Working Woman says she is "arguably the most influential woman in her field." 

Sep 21, 202329:39
In Conversation with 100 Rural Women Founder Teresa Kittridge

In Conversation with 100 Rural Women Founder Teresa Kittridge

Teresa Kittridge has spent much of her life serving rural people across the country as a leader in the private, public and nonprofit sectors as well as serving in elected office in Minnesota. She founded the nonprofit organization 100 Rural Women to inspire leadership and create connections among rural women. We talk with Teresa about the organization; what has changed in rural policy work; the definition of rural; and what she heard from women in all 87 counties of Minnesota.


About Teresa

Teresa Kittridge, founder of 100 Rural Women, lives in Marcell Township in Northern Minnesota.  She has spent much of her life serving rural people across the country, with a career that includes executive level leadership in the private, public and nonprofit sectors as well as serving in elected office. 100 Rural Women models her life’s work, by serving women in rural places to inspire leadership, create connections, networks, support civic engagement and encourage leadership.

The first twenty years of her career were spent serving as an officer of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Following her time in the legislature, she built the Washington D.C. office of RUPRI (Rural Policy Research Institute) and served as Director of National Policy Programs. She has over a decade of experience in leading and building national and international businesses, as a publishing executive for MN based Coughlan Companies and then as founder and president of MNREM (Minnesota Renewable Energy Marketplace)  a non-profit organization. Kittridge returned to RUPRI in 2014 as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. She is currently building the national non-partisan organization, 100 Rural Women.

Teresa is an active civic and community volunteer. She is an elected Trustee and Secretary of the Board for the Bigfork Valley Hospital Northern Itasca Hospital District, serves on Marcell Township Business Loan committee and on committees of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Rural Innovation.  Kittridge served as Board Chair and as a Director on the Waconia School Board. She holds a M.A. in Organizational Leadership and a B.A. in Business Administration.

Jun 08, 202327:17
Introducing Libby Lane, the Rural Assembly's New Deputy Director

Introducing Libby Lane, the Rural Assembly's New Deputy Director

Whitney talks with Libby Lane, the Rural Assembly's new Deputy Director. She comes to us from the rural Midwest, from the 16-County region in Western Illinois, sometimes called Forgottonia. She grew up in a town of 3000, fell in love with musical theater and acting, and ultimately made her way to Chicago, where she now lives with her wife and their rescue dog, Roxie. And she's still a member of her rural community in Rushville and visits often. Whitney and Libby talk about Libby's desire to honor communities like the one she came from; supporting marginalized voices in rural; and their shared love of musical theater. This might be our first episode to include a singalong.



Before joining the Rural Assembly, Libby served as senior marketing manager for Bostrom, an association management firm in Chicago. She has more than 15 years of combined experience in the fields of nonprofit management, marketing, event planning, and user experience.

 

Libby earned her BFA from musical theater, from Millikin University and her MFA in acting from Western Illinois University. For regular listeners of this podcast, you know Libby's musical theater background is making Whitney all kinds of happy. 

May 25, 202331:42
Tony Pipa on Reimagining Rural

Tony Pipa on Reimagining Rural

Tony Pipa is part policy wonk, part story teller. He focuses on connecting with policy makers, local leaders, and community members to reimagine federal policy to fit the needs of rural America. He uses his wide range of expertise to uplift stories of progress and success in rural communities.
We talk with the native rural Pennsylvanian about the diversity of rural America, his new podcast, and bringing the rural story to Washington D.C.


Tony Pipa is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution. Tony launched and leads the Reimagining Federal Rural Policy initative, which seeks to modernize and transform U.S. federal policy to enable community and economic development in underserved rural places across the U.S. He hosts the Reimagine Rural podcast, which profiles rural towns across America that are making progress on their efforts to thrive amid social and economic change.

Tony serves as the vice-chair of the board of directors of StriveTogether; as a senior associate research fellow in the Global Cities program at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies; and as a member of several task forces and advisory committees. He grew up in rural Elysburg, Pennsylvania, in the heart of anthracite coal country and attended Stanford University, graduated from Duke University, and earned a Master of Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School.

 

May 11, 202330:43
Prisons, Coal and the Appalachian Economy with Judah Schept and Sylvia Ryerson

Prisons, Coal and the Appalachian Economy with Judah Schept and Sylvia Ryerson

The United States is the world's largest incarcerator. Many of the prisons built since the 1990s are in rural places, particularly in Central Appalachia as an economic development strategy to replace the coal industry. The prison economy of Central Appalachia figures strongly into the work of both our guests, multimedia artist and organizer Sylvia Ryerson and professor and author Judah Schept.

Ryerson is a multimedia artist, organizer and PhD candidate in American Studies at Yale University. For over a decade, her work rooted at the intersection of scholarship, activism and art, has probed the overlapping crises of racialized mass incarceration, rural economic abandonment, and environmental destruction. She is also the director of a new documentary Calls from Home, which documents WMMT.FM's longstanding radio show that sends familial messages of love over public airwaves to reach people incarcerated in Central Appalachia. Schept is a professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. His most recent book is Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia. He has been active with numerous organizations and campaigns centered on decarceration, criminalization and abolition. 


About our guests


Sylvia Ryerson is a PhD Candidate in American Studies at Yale University, with a Master’s concentration in the public humanities. Prior to graduate school she worked as an independent radio producer, and at the Appalshop media arts and education center in Whitesburg, Kentucky. There she served as a reporter and the director of public affairs programming, and co-directed Appalshop/WMMT-FM’s Hip Hop from the Hilltop & Calls from Home radio show, a nationally recognized weekly radio program broadcasting music and toll-free phone messages from family members to their loved ones incarcerated, and Making Connections News, a multimedia community storytelling project documenting efforts for a just transition from coal extraction. Her research questions build from this work, and are rooted at the intersection of scholarship, activism, and art. 


Judah Schept is a Professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. He is the author of Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia (New York University Press, 2022) and Progressive Punishment: Job Loss, Jail Growth, and the Neoliberal Logic of Carceral Expansion (New York University Press, 2015. He is co-editor of The Jail is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration (Verso Books, 2024). He holds a PhD from Indiana University and a BA from Vassar College.


https://youtu.be/CPlHM3aIsXQ


Everywhere Radio spotlight the good, scrappy and joyful ways rural people and their allies are building a more inclusive nation. Everywhere Radio is a production of the Rural Assembly. Get the Rural Assembly in your inbox: https://www.ruralassembly.org/newsletters

Apr 27, 202336:05
Bruce Poinsette: Telling the stories of Black rural Oregonians

Bruce Poinsette: Telling the stories of Black rural Oregonians

Guest host Claire Carlson interviews Bruce Poinsette, an Oregon based writer, organizer, and educator whose work focuses on the Black experience in Oregon and the historic and current racial tensions that shape this experience. He hosts the YouTube series “The Blacktastic Adventure: A Virtual Exploration of Oregon’s Black Diaspora” and “The Bruce Poinsette Show” on 96.7 The Numberz FM, Portland’s Black radio station. Most recently, Bruce was the Community Storytelling Fellow for Oregon Humanities, an organization that facilitates conversations and publishers writing from the perspectives of Oregonians who have been ignored or marginalized. Claire and Bruce discuss what it's like to report on the people who have built rural America but have been excluded from its historical record, disrupt some of the misconceptions about living in both rural and urban Oregon, and talk about how to build more inclusive communities wherever you are. Get these interviews in your inbox: https://www.ruralassembly.org/newsletters About Bruce: Bruce Poinsette is a writer whose work is primarily based in the Portland Metro Area. A former reporter for the Skanner News Group, his writing has also appeared in the Oregonian, Street Roots, Oregon Humanities, and Eater PDX, as well as projects such as the Mercatus Collective and the Urban League of Portland’s State of Black Oregon 2015. He hosts the YouTube series “The Blacktastic Adventure: A Virtual Exploration of Oregon’s Black Diaspora” and “The Bruce Poinsette Show” on 96.7 The Numberz FM, Portland’s Black radio station. Poinsette also works with Respond to Racism LO, a grassroots anti-racism organization in his hometown of Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Apr 13, 202328:42
Dawn Luedtke: Representing rural in a diverse county

Dawn Luedtke: Representing rural in a diverse county

Our guest Dawn Luedtke is a council woman in Montgomery County, Maryland. Montgomery County is just outside of Washington D.C. yet it includes a surprising amount of rural land. In fact, it's home to the Agricultural Reserve, 93,000 acres preserved for farm land and rural space and hailed as one of the best examples of land use policy in the country. Luedtke was elected to the council in 2022 to represent a newly created district that includes much of Montgomery County's rural spaces. We talk with Luedtke about the opportunities to make these rural voices heard in a diverse county, improving mental health access, and her love of theater.

About Dawn Luedtke

Dawn Luedtke is a community advocate, former Assistant Attorney General, certified law enforcement trainer and expert on healthy schools and public safety serving her first term on the Montgomery County Council. 

She was elected in 2022 to represent the newly created District 7, including Ashton, Brookeville, Damascus, Derwood, Laytonsville, Montgomery Village, Olney, Redland, Sandy Spring, and northeast Montgomery County. 

Dawn is committed to providing world-class constituent service, fostering a business environment for local small businesses to thrive, preventing crime through enhanced community policing, improving behavioral health and crisis response, and protecting Montgomery County’s farmers, food, and Agricultural Reserve. She serves on the Council’s Public Safety and Health and Human Services Committees.

Dawn is a certified law enforcement trainer on school safety, implicit bias, hate crimes and other critical public safety issues, where she has taught and worked with law enforcement officials across Maryland. She served in the Office of the Attorney General of Maryland as Counsel to the Maryland Longitudinal Data System Center, Maryland Center for School Safety, Food Systems Resiliency Council, and Active Assailant Interdisciplinary Work Group. She also advised State agencies on topics including open government and government operations, and oversaw the creation of the State’s Model Behavioral Threat Assessment Policy for K-12 Schools.  Dawn also served as Chair of the Prevention Subcommittee of the Active Assailant Interdisciplinary Work Group, a member of the Behavioral Health Administration’s workgroup on involuntary commitment standards, the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems’ Crisis Response Work Group, and as a member of the Youth & Families Subcommittee of the Governor’s Commission to Study Mental & Behavioral Health.

A longtime theater performer and advocate, Dawn is Vice President of the Opera Baltimore Board of Directors, Secretary of the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Graduate Club Board of Directors, and previously served on the Boards of Directors of the Olney Theatre Center, Transformation Theater, LLC, and the Bruce Montgomery Foundation for the Arts.

Dawn lives in Ashton with her husband Eric and four children.

Mar 30, 202332:02
Leading Rural Prosperity in Kansas and Wisconsin: Trisha Purdon + Beth Haskovec

Leading Rural Prosperity in Kansas and Wisconsin: Trisha Purdon + Beth Haskovec

What is an Office of Rural Prosperity? Both Kansas and Wisconsin have them, and on this episode we talk with the two women charged with running them: Beth Haskovec, from Wisconsin, and Trisha Purdon, of Kansas. 


Statewide Offices of Rural Prosperity are dedicated to ensuring rural stakeholders are part of the equation, across policy, capital, resource management — and that rural people and places are connected to those programs and pathways that contribute to community prosperity.

About our guests

Beth Haskovec is the Director for the Office of Rural Prosperity within the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). In this role, Beth works to advance rural Wisconsin through interagency collaboration and resource navigation. Priorities of the Office include broadband access & accessibility, rural housing, ecosystem building at the local and regional levels, small business & entrepreneurship, and promoting rural culture through placemaking and tourism.

Beth comes to the Office of Rural Prosperity from LISC, one of the nation’s largest CDFIs, where she oversaw strategies and programs related to access to capital for small businesses across Rural America, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She brings a wealth of expertise in commercial real estate development, commercial corridor development, small business capital, entrepreneurship and initiatives at the intersection of arts and culture and economic development. Originally, Beth is from a one stop light county in rural Iowa. She brings this passion for rural communities and culture to her role as the Director of Rural Prosperity.


Trisha Purdon is the Director of the Office of Rural Prosperity in the Kansas Department of Commerce. She attended the University of Kansas where she earned a master’s degree in Public Administration with a focus on local government Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Social Welfare with a focus on public policy. Trisha has worked as a rural economic developer in both city and county-level leadership roles for over a decade. She grew up in the small town of Kiowa, Kansas, and is a graduate of Chaparral High School in Anthony, Kansas.


Mar 16, 202334:19
From Ohio to Ukraine with Love and Music: A conversation with folk musician Brother Hill (Brett Hill)

From Ohio to Ukraine with Love and Music: A conversation with folk musician Brother Hill (Brett Hill)

Whitney Kimball Coe talks with Brother Hill (Brett Hill), folk musician, singer, songwriter, and humanitarian volunteer from southern Ohio, known for his dynamic voice, insightful lyricism, and engaging stage presence. Brother Hill performs as frontman in Appalachian folk-quintet “Hill Spirits” and also as American representative of the Ukrainian-Belarusian-American folk project “Slavalachia”, which has allied representatives of Slavic and American folk traditions together since 2019 to promote cultural solidarity and forge new bridges for creative cultural expression.

Hill visited eastern Ukraine delivering donations of medical supplies and performing for Ukrainian troops fighting on the frontlines as part of the “From Ohio With Love” campaign, which he founded with colleague Benya Stewart within the first week of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. To date the grassroots campaign has raised over $86,000 for Ukrainian causes, primarily through folk concerts in Ohio. Funds raised support the hand-delivery of CAT tourniquets and Advanced Bleed Control Kits to mobilized units across Ukraine.

Hill will be returning to Ukraine in May for another delivery of supplies, and to continue fortifying long-standing cultural support through performances across the country and collaborations with Ukrainian artists.

Besides his work abroad, Brett Hill is an active partner with United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary in Meigs County, Ohio, as member of their Deep Ecology Fellowship. Since receiving this fellowship in 2020, Hill and United Plant Savers have collaborated with West End Distillery in Athens, Ohio to craft Hill Spirits Elder Gin- a sustainably and locally sourced botanical gin, the proceeds of which ($5000 since July 2021) go to benefit American Ginseng preservation in southeast Ohio.

Hill has self-released three albums under the Brother Hill moniker (the Summoning of Brother Hill [2017], the Dereliction of Brother Hill [2019], and Blackfish [2021]) as well as two albums with Hill Spirits (Omens EP [2020], Hill Spirits [2020]) and a full length self-titled album with folk alliance Slavalachia [2022].

Released this Spring will be compilation album Three Gardens, featuring Slavalachia counterparts Benya Stewart and Siarzhuk Douhushau (of Belarus). The three began recording the compilation within two months of the invasion as a means of coping with the realities of war and separation from their Ukrainian bandmates who remained in Ukraine. It is a compilation of content varying from songs learned during their time in Ukraine, to original songs written about the war, to traditional Appalachian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian folk materials.

Mar 02, 202330:37
Filmmakers preserve stories from East Kentucky flood
Feb 09, 202330:15
From the Kenai Peninsula to Pippa Passes, Two Rural Young Leaders Paving the Way

From the Kenai Peninsula to Pippa Passes, Two Rural Young Leaders Paving the Way

On this episode, we talk with Jonathan Blair and Sam Schimmel about the work they’re doing to strengthen their rural communities in Appalachia and Alaska. Blair and Schimmel are two of three co-creators of an ongoing documentary media and public engagement initiative – American Creed: Citizen Power —  that explores American idealism and activism from a range of young adult perspectives. American Creed: Citizen Power is the forthcoming follow-up to the 2018 Citizen Film PBS production American Creed.

To hear more from these extraordinary young adults, be sure to RSVP for Rural Assembly’s upcoming “Connecting Our Heartlands” event Jan. 19 to join the conversation with these young leaders and a panel of civic luminaries: David M. Kennedy (Stanford University Lane Center for the American West), Eric Liu (Citizen University) and Danielle Allen (Harvard University Safra Center for Ethics).

About our guests

  • Sam Schimmel is a first-year law student at Georgetown University. Schimmel plans to use what he learns in law school to help his people negotiate a healthier, more sustainable economy that aligns with his community’s values and the need to protect the environment.  At Connecting Our Heartlands, Schimmel will show his photo essay and discuss his Kenaitze Tribe’s movement to restore Indigenous rights to subsistence fishing and economic development in alignment with community values. (Click here to view his Daily Yonder photo essay "Salmon Tales: Subsistence on the Kenai Peninsula")
  • Jonathan Blair lives, works, and studies at Alice Lloyd College, in Eastern Kentucky. He coordinates a work-study crew of about 60 people, mostly first-generation college students from rural Appalachia. Together with two of his crew members—Jacob Frazier and Carlos Villanueva—they document their connection to blue-collar work in and around the Appalachian coal industry, and they reflect on their hopes for the region.  (Click here to view his Daily Yonder viewfinder article "Phantom of the Black Diamond")
Jan 12, 202332:03
Erickson Blakney: Telling the stories of the Mississippi Delta

Erickson Blakney: Telling the stories of the Mississippi Delta

Erickson "EB" Blakney grew up in Toledo, Ohio, but has a strong connection to the Mississippi Delta. A filmmaker, journalist, and philanthropy professional, Blakney talks with host Whitney Kimball Coe about his work in Mississippi, rural films, and his hope that that journalists and philanthropists will begin to focus on what the region's people have to offer.


A  program officer with the New York-based The Pinkerton Foundation, Blakney's is also an award-winning writer and reporter having worked for Bloomberg and CBS News. A member of the National Press Club, Blakney is the co-founder, along with author and award-winning filmmaker Dr. Lee Quinby, of the True Delta Project which produces documentaries about the Delta region which air on Mississippi Public Broadcasting Television (MPB) and screen at film festivals around the country. His most recent documentary, Zip Code Matters (2021, produced in partnership with Sena Mourad Friedman and The Fair Housing Center-Toledo, examines racial and socioeconomic inequalities in health.

EB is a board trustee of the DreamYard Project, an arts and social justice organization in the Bronx.  He plays a similar role on the board of the Clarksdale Animal Rescue Effort and Shelter (CARES) in Clarksdale, MS. Because of his filmmaking and philanthropic work in the rural Delta, he was invited to serve as a board member for The Center for Rural Strategies in Whitesburg, KY. Blakney also serves on the grant review and finance committees of The Needmor Fund. Founded in 1956 by Duane and Virginia Secor Stranahan, the Perrysburg, Ohio-based philanthropy, supports grass-roots groups organizing to bring about social and economic justice. Blakney is a graduate of Hobart College and Maumee Valley Country Day School in Toledo, Ohio.

Find the transcript at www.ruralassembly.org/podcasts/everywhere-radio-ericksonblakney

Dec 21, 202228:34
Talking about Rural Youth and Reproductive Justice with Student Activist Rebecca Stern

Talking about Rural Youth and Reproductive Justice with Student Activist Rebecca Stern

As we reach the end of a monumental year for reproductive justice, we talk with Rebecca Stern, a student activist and former Rural Assembly intern who spent her summer in Whitesburg, Ky. at The Center for Rural Strategies headquarters. Becca interviewed rural young people about their thoughts and concerns about reproductive justice following the reversal of Roe v. Wade. We talk with Becca about what she heard and we will be sharing those interviews and stories at www.ruralassembly.org.

Rebecca Stern is a second-year Robertson Scholar at UNC Chapel Hill studying Public Policy and Global Gender Studies. This past summer, she interned at the Center for Rural Strategies, mainly working with the Rural Assembly on rural policy and writing a bit for the Daily Yonder. Her main project was interviewing rural youth about reproductive health and access to contraceptives and sex education following the overturn of Roe vs. Wade. At UNC and Duke, Rebecca is the Campus Outreach Coordinator and Advocate at the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF), a Bryan Fellow, Penny Pilgrim George Women's Leadership Initiative Cohort Member, and the Tour Manager of the UNC Loreleis.

Dec 01, 202232:45
Dee Davis on Rural America and the Midterm Elections

Dee Davis on Rural America and the Midterm Elections

We talk with Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies, about results of the midterm elections and what's on the minds of rural voters. Read more about rural voting at www.dailyyonder.com.


About Dee Davis

Dee Davis is the founder and president of the Center for Rural Strategies. Dee has helped design and lead national public information campaigns on topics as diverse as commercial television programming and federal banking policy.

Dee began his media career in 1973 as a trainee at Appalshop, an arts and cultural center devoted to exploring Appalachian life and social issues in Whitesburg, Kentucky. As Appalshop's executive producer, the organization created more than 50 public TV documentaries, established a media training program for Appalachian youth, and launched initiatives that use media as a strategic tool in organization and development.

Dee is on the board of the Kentucky Historical Society; he is a member of the Rural Advisory Committee of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Fund for Innovative Television, and Feral Arts of Brisbane, Australia. He is also a member of the Institute for Rural Journalism’s national advisory board. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Work and the Economy. Dee is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship. Dee is also the former Chair of the board of directors of Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation.

Nov 09, 202236:36
"Free Hill: Renewal and Rememory" a conversation with Xandr Brown

"Free Hill: Renewal and Rememory" a conversation with Xandr Brown

Nov 03, 202232:37
Rural Monsters, Myths, and Legends with author Liz Carey

Rural Monsters, Myths, and Legends with author Liz Carey

As a rural health care reporter, Liz Carey has spent much of the past two years writing about the pandemic. But one day, she received a press release about something other than Covid ... Big Foot. We talk with Liz about how that led to her new e-book "Rural Monsters, Myths, and Legends," an exploration of not only the cryptids themselves, but the impact they've had on communities and people — and how some rural towns are using these tales of alien encounters, lake monsters, and other legends as economic development strategies.

About the book

Across rural America — in its forested woods, its remote lakes, and its sprawling fields — there is plenty of room for the wild and weird to take root. Just beyond the gaze of “normal” existence, strange sightings and odd encounters have lingered in the minds and memories of many rural communities.

Contrary to what you might think, these stories are not simply silly or scary. Call them foolish or farfetched if you must, but they offer a valuable window into the unique culture and community life of places often unseen and under-appreciated.

Originally published in the Daily Yonder, we invite you to join us in this closer look at the cryptids of rural America. Let your imagination roam, welcome feelings of wonder or dread, and, if only for a moment, ponder the possibilities beyond what’s proven and known.

Rural Monsters, Myths and Legends takes a look at not just the tales from these remotes areas of the country, but what kind of an impact they've had on their communities and the people who experienced them. From alien encounters to tales of water dancing nymphs to evil witches set on revenge to beasts hiding in the mountains of Appalachia, walk with us through the farmland, the swamps, the desert roads and the chilly lake waters where the unknown and mysterious lurks just out of sight.

About Liz Carey

Liz Carey is a journalist, author and writing teacher living in Central Kentucky. A graduate of Miami University, she worked as a reporter for 20+ years and earned more than 30 awards for her writing and reporting before setting off on her own as a freelance writer. Currently, she writes about rural health, Appalachian culture, the transportation industry, workers’ compensation and Kentucky arts and entertainment. She started working for the Daily Yonder in 2018 writing a story about cast iron Dutch ovens before convincing them to give her more newsy stuff. Today, she serves as one of the Daily Yonder’s rural health reporters and on the growing rural mental health crisis, the rural opioid crisis, the rural health care system and rural electric vehicle systems.

Oct 20, 202231:30
From the frontlines of the 2022 Kentucky flood: Katie Myers and Jessica Shelton

From the frontlines of the 2022 Kentucky flood: Katie Myers and Jessica Shelton

Jessica Shelton and Katie Myers have been on the frontlines of responding to the flooding disaster in Eastern Kentucky in a variety of roles. We talk with them about their work and the region's recovery.

Jessica Shelton is the director of the Appalachian Media Institute at Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky.  We talk with her about her work as an organizer with the grassroots organization EKY Mutual Aid, which has been helping those directly impacted by the devastating floods that hit southeastern Kentucky in late July by meeting needs in real time and offering direct cash assistance.

Katie Myers is the economic transition reporter for the Ohio Valley ReSource and WMMT 88.7 FM in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Her work has also appeared on NPR and Inside Appalachia, and in Belt Magazine, Scalawag Magazine, the Daily Yonder, and others. We talk with Katie about reporting on the flood and her own experience waking up to the disaster. 

To get these podcasts and more rural stories in your inbox, register at www.ruralassembly.org/newsletters

Oct 06, 202230:43
Melody Warnick and the importance of place (when we could live anywhere)

Melody Warnick and the importance of place (when we could live anywhere)

When we can work from anywhere, does place matter? That's the question award-winning writer Melody Warnick poses in her latest book, If You Could Live Anywhere: The Surprising Importance of Place in a Work-from-Anywhere World.  We talk with Warnick about the book, her own life in Blacksburg, Virginia, and how to you choose where to live — and how to make a community feel like home.

More about Melody Warnick
Melody Warnick is the author of
This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are, a book that explains the concept of place attachment and helps people fall in love with their town. Her second book,  If You Could Live Anywhere: The Surprising Importance of Place in a Work-from-Anywhere World, helps location-independent people find the right place to achieve success and happiness.
Warnick has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Reader's Digest, Fast Company, The Guardian, Slate, Quartz, CityLab, Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, O: The Oprah Magazine, Medium, Livability, and many other publications. Learn more about melodywarnick.com

Sep 22, 202236:29
Tim Lampkin's Higher Purpose: Supporting Black ownership
Sep 08, 202230:05
Tree Thieves: Author Lyndsie Bourgon examines crime and the search for identity in the North American woods

Tree Thieves: Author Lyndsie Bourgon examines crime and the search for identity in the North American woods

We welcome Lyndsie Bourgon, author of "Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods" to Everywhere Radio.   Bourgon wanted to know more about how tree poaching affects forests like the one in her front yard. Her research led her to stories about our human quest for dignity and identity in the face of displacement and poverty.  (Find the transcript and more on our episode page.) 

Lyndsie Bourgon is a writer, researcher, oral historian, and 2018 National Geographic Explorer. She writes about the environment and its entanglement with history, culture, and identity, and her features have been published in The Atlantic, Smithsonian, the Guardian, the Oxford American,  Aeon, The Walrus, Hazlitt, and elsewhere. Her first book, Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s Woods, came out in June 2022.   


Everywhere Radio is a production of The Rural Assembly.

Get this podcast in your inbox, along with stories and news from rural leaders, allies, and their communities in our weekly Rural Assembly newsletter: https://www.ruralassembly.org/newsletters-subscribe.

Aug 25, 202230:27
Everywhere Radio's taking a summer break

Everywhere Radio's taking a summer break

We're taking a short break for the summer. Everywhere Radio will be back in August with more of the good, scrappy, joyful ways rural people are building a more inclusive nation. Until then, keep following The Rural Assembly's other work at https://www.ruralassembly.org. A new episode of our video series Everywhere Extra drops next week. It explores Native American representation in the media. We’ve got clips and interviews with some searing voices including writer and actor Bobby Wilson of Rutherford Falls and the hit series Reservation Dogs.  You'll find that, plus video episodes of this season's podcasts, on our Youtube Channel. See you in August! 



Transcript

Hi everyone, it’s Whitney, checking in to let you know that Everywhere Radio is taking a summer break. You know what I’m talking about—we’re pausing our program in June, July, and early August to catch our breath, lean into new projects, travel to conferences and events and hopefully score some vacation time, too.

I hope all of you are getting the same opportunities to reconnect, recreate, and maybe recalibrate your work a little. Our staff also plans to use these summer months to reflect upon the work we’re doing in the world. We’re setting aside time to wrestle with questions like “What is ours to do in this season?” and “Why do we think building an inclusive nation is essential to the future of rural and urban places?” It feels important to sit with these big questions every so often, to make sure that everything we put out into the world—from Everywhere Radio to our virtual events to our email newsletters is responsive and true to the spirit of our call to be caring and courageous right now.

Just because we’re not in the recording studio however does not mean we aren’t creating spaces and content for you: There are lots of things to look forward to on the Rural Assembly platform this summer, especially, the premier of our newest episode of Everywhere Extra. The latest video drops the week of June 27. It’s a sort of mini documentary that explores Native American representation in the media. We’ve got clips and interviews with some searing voices including writer and actor Bobby Wilson of Rutherford Falls and the hit series Reservation Dogs. 

We’ll also continue sending the latest news, stories and rural advocacy opportunities that you’ve come to expect via our email newsletters. If you’re not yet signed up, head over to ruralassembly.org and click the subscribe button.

If you’re looking for more video content, you can access all the videos from Rural Assembly Everywhere on our YouTube channel. There are hours there of  programming featuring artists and poets, civic leaders and experts.

If you are looking for another podcast, check out The Yonder Report, a weekly podcast rounding up the latest rural news, produced by The Daily Yonder and public news service. You can listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

Jun 23, 202202:30
Author Neema Avashia on identity, relationships, and coming up queer and Indian in Appalachia

Author Neema Avashia on identity, relationships, and coming up queer and Indian in Appalachia

On this episode, we talk with Neema Avashia, author of "Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place," about her memoir, identity, finding your people, and growing up in West Virginia. 

This interview was first recorded at Rural Assembly Everywhere, a virtual gathering of the Rural Assembly in May 2022. Avashia is interviewed by Skylar Baker-Jordan, Contributing Editor for Community Engagement at 100 Days in Appalachia.  

For more rural content, subscribe to Rural Assembly newsletter: https://ruralassembly.org/newsletter-subscribe 

The Rural Assembly is a movement of people and organizations devoted to building a stronger, more vibrant rural America. This interview was first aired at Rural Assembly Everywhere, our virtual festival for rural advocates and the rural-curious, listeners and leaders, neighbors and admirers.

Jun 09, 202228:22
After Maus: Book Bans and Building an Inclusive Nation in Tennessee and Beyond
May 26, 202241:48
YouTube Commentator Beau of the Fifth Column on Fact, Opinion, and the Democracy In Between

YouTube Commentator Beau of the Fifth Column on Fact, Opinion, and the Democracy In Between

This week on Everywhere Radio, Xandr Brown, multimedia producer at the Daily Yonder, speaks with Beau of the Fifth Column. A portion of this conversation first aired as part of the Rural Assembly Everywhere virtual festival that took place on May 10 and 11, 2022. We are pleased to bring you the full conversation in podcast form here on Everywhere Radio.

Since starting his channel three years ago, Beau of the Fifth Column has grown his YouTube audience to more than half a million subscribers, connecting with folks from all walks of life and political identities. It isn't surprising given that he doesn't shy away from most any topic, whether it's his almost hourly updates about the Ukraine and Russian conflict to more general sociopolitical topics like political polarization, the misappropriated words of George Orwell, or gun rights and law enforcement in the United States. When you're watching Beau of the Fifth Column, you know you're not just watching to hear what you already know. You're watching to see him illuminate a topic through his variety of experiences. You're there for his voice. In that spirit, if you're already familiar with his channel or this is your first time hearing about it, we hope you enjoy this conversation between Xandr and Beau. 

May 12, 202234:09
Rural Assembly Everywhere: Join us on the front porch!
Apr 28, 202216:53
Bridging the rural-urban divide with Anthony Flaccavento

Bridging the rural-urban divide with Anthony Flaccavento

We talk with Anthony Flaccavento about his work in bridging the rural-urban divide, coming from Baltimore to Appalachia, and why farming keeps him humble. Listen to Everywhere Radio wherever you stream podcasts. Flaccavento is the co-founder of RUBI, the Rural-Urban Bridge Initiative. 

Flaccavento is also farmer and rural development consultant from Abingdon, Virginia in the heart of the Appalachian Coalfields.  The Founder of Appalachian Sustainable Development, Flaccavento has focused most of his work over the past four decades on building healthier food systems and more diverse, locally rooted economies in Appalchia and around the world.  His consulting firm, SCALE, Inc, works with communities across the nation to evaluate, plan and build healthier farm and food systems and local economies.

Flaccavento is the author of Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up:  Harnessing Real World Experience for Transformative Change (University Press of Kentucky, 2016), along with “Healthy Food Systems:  A Toolkit for Building Value Chains” (self-published) and scores of articles and op-eds.  He writes and speaks regularly on rural development, bottom up economics, overcoming the rural-urban divide and and a range of political and cultural issues.  He has taught course on these topics at Future Generations University, Emory & Henry College and community colleges.

Flaccavento was the Democratic Candidate for the U.S. House in 2018, and remains involved in trying to impact politics and the public debate.  He is the co-founder of RUBI, the Rural-Urban Bridge Initiative, through which he works with colleagues to lead public forums and trainings designed to help people understand and begin to overcome the rural-urban divide.  He has also compiled The Rural-Urban Divide:  A Guidebook to Understanding the Problem and Forging Solutions.  He is married to Laurel, a retired public school teacher, and has three terrific grown children.

Apr 14, 202237:29
Cynthia McCowan: Lifting Black voices and history in Athens, Tennessee

Cynthia McCowan: Lifting Black voices and history in Athens, Tennessee

Our guest on Everywhere Radio is Cynthia McCowan, a community activist and connector. She's an advocate for black lives in Athens, Tennessee, and is spearheading a project to ensure black histories and experiences are acknowledged in this small rural town.


Mar 31, 202233:52
Writing Her Own Story in Rural Politics with Teri Carter

Writing Her Own Story in Rural Politics with Teri Carter

Our guest Teri Carter writes about rural politics, and now she's living them. Carter talks with Everywhere Radio about why she's a progressive running as a Republican for magistrate in her Kentucky county, how she stays in relationship with neighbors, and how she became a political writer.


About the guest: Carter lives in Anderson County, Kentucky, where she writes about rural politics. You can find her work at the Lexington Herald-Leader, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Daily Yonder. She has a BA in English from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from San Jose State University. She teaches at The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, Kentucky, and is working on a book about stepfamilies.

About the podcast: Everywhere Radio, hosted by Whitney Kimball Coe, features rural leaders and allies spotlighting the good, scrappy, joyful ways rural people are building a more inclusive nation. Everywhere Radio is produced by the Rural Assembly.

All the links:

🔔 Subscribe to our Youtube channel: https://bit.ly/TheRuralAssemblyYT

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About this episode: https://www.ruralassembly.org/podcasts/everywhere-radio-teri-carter

Mar 17, 202234:48
From Arkansas to Alaska: Empowering Women Everywhere with Starre Haas

From Arkansas to Alaska: Empowering Women Everywhere with Starre Haas

On this episode of Everywhere Radio, we talk with Starre Haas, an advocate for women’s leadership and empowerment, mother, wife, and entrepreneur. We talk with Starre about her journey from accounting to women’s empowerment and politics and what it has meant to build a new community and life with her family in Hope, Alaska. Formerly with VoteRunLead, Starre is the founder and CEO of Community Connections Now, a company that focuses on empowering women through networking and leadership development and of the nonprofit, The Everyday Bold Woman, formed to spotlight and provide leadership training and financial resources to women, particularly mothers and homemakers, women who have been suffering as a result of the pandemic.

Everywhere Radio is a production of the Rural Assembly. Learn more at rural assembly.org/podcasts.

Mar 03, 202231:60
You Can Go Home Again with Writer Skylar Baker-Jordan

You Can Go Home Again with Writer Skylar Baker-Jordan

Skylar Baker-Jordan is a freelance writer from Appalachia, covering topics from British politics to LGBTQ culture in rural America. Skylar and Whitney talk about Skylar's journey as "an upwardly mobile and openly gay" person who chose to return to rural America to make a difference in his own community.

Feb 17, 202235:34
Talking Rural News and More with Daily Yonder Editor Tim Marema

Talking Rural News and More with Daily Yonder Editor Tim Marema

Everywhere Radio returns for season two! Host Whitney Kimball Coe talks with Daily Yonder Editor Tim Marema about the role news journalism plays in a democracy, how the pandemic has affected Daily Yonder coverage, and why Reservation Dogs is one of the best shows, ever.

Feb 03, 202236:36