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School boards reckon with looming district consolidation

First up on the show:  Colchester resident and asylum seeker Steven Tendo was detained by ICE Wednesday after his shift at the University of Vermont Medical Center, where he works as a nursing assistant. Tendo fled Uganda in 2018. On Vermont Edition last year he said he was tortured by the Ugandan government for encouraging youth voter registration. For an update on Tendo's case and whereabouts, we speak with immigration attorney Brett Stokes. He is the director of the Center for Justice Reform Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School. Thousands of athletes are in Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which start tomorrow. Some of those athletes are from our little corner of the world, which makes them extra fun to root for. Here to give us a local look at the biggest international sports competition in the world is Mitch Wertlieb. He’s the host of Vermont This Week on our main TV channel, and as of just a few days ago, the host of the Sports Rapport, a weekly sports show from Vermont Public.If you’re not familiar with the biathlon, here’s how it works. Athletes cross-country ski with rifles on their backs. During the race, they stop and shoot at targets 50 meters away. If they miss a shot, they get time added to their race, or they have to ski an extra 150 meter penalty loop. Biathlete Susan Dunklee of Craftsbury joins us now. She’s competed in three winter Olympics, and she’s won two silver medals in world championship races. She is now the Director of Biathlon at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. 

New BlueCross BlueShield CEO says 'we have an affordability crisis' in Vermont

In the mid-1970s, avant-garde musician and Bennington College professor Bill Dixon created a department called the Black Music Division. Along with fellow musician and professor Milford Graves, they taught performance and theory while bringing Black music into the academic sphere.  Joining to walk us through this history is Michael Wimberly, a percussionist, composer and Bennington College professor. Last year, he organized a two-day symposium to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the division's founding with live music and reflections. 

During the current cold snap, many Vermonters are able to take comfort in their wood stoves or heating systems. Others aren’t so lucky. A growing number of people without permanent housing are living outside during the depths of winter. Vermont has had a high rate of homelessness ever since the pandemic — one of the highest rates in the country. The state used to pay a lot of money to house people in motels, but that program was significantly scaled back last year. Some of the money was redirected to shelters that only open on the coldest nights. But when temperatures rise, even by just a few degrees, those shelters close their doors. In Brattleboro, homeless encampments have been a repeated topic of discussion at select board meetings this winter. Meanwhile, the arts center 69A is working to provide basic services to homeless people in the area. It moved to a new location at the end of last year. Its director, Lisa Marie, has personal experience living in encampments in the Brattleboro area.  We also hear from Charles "Chuck" Keir III, Brattleboro's assistant fire chief and town health officer, Becky Best, director of shelters at Groundworks Collaborative; select board chair Elizabeth McLoughlin and select board member Isaac Evans-Frantz. Broadcast live on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments, or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Bernie Sanders is one of our country’s most famous senators. He’s run for president, has stood up to oligarchs, and even became a mitten-wearing meme. Before all that, he was Mayor Sanders, of Burlington, where he served from 1981 to 1989. A new book, Bernie for Burlington: The Rise of the People's Politician, covers that pivotal time of change in the Queen City. The author, poet and professor Dan Chiasson, is a Burlington native and weaves in many personal anecdotes about his hometown. 

Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described the U.S.'s current posture towards its trade allies as a "rupture." U.S. President Donald Trump fired back, threatening new tariffs on its northern neighbor. Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum is viewed by many as a landmark moment in the rapidly shifting relationship between the U.S., Canada, and the international community writ large. A year into Trump's second presidency, and nearly a year into Carney's leadership, we asked listeners from both Quebec and Vermont how they are feeling about the tensions between the two nations. Vermont Edition teamed up with our friends at the CBC's Radio Noon and their host Shawn Apel for this conversation. We also heard from Newport, VT Mayor Rick Ufford-Chase to hear how the Canadian boycott of the U.S. has affected his town.  Broadcast live on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments, or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

During the legislative session, Vermont’s Statehouse is usually full of heated debate, gaveling and other sounds of lawmaking. But on Wednesday nights, legislators cede the dais to musicians and artists for the Farmers Night series. David Schutz, Vermont’s longtime state curator, joins Vermont Edition to look back at the origins of the series. Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone (D-Burlington) shares a preview of this year’s lineup and talks about the value of bringing the arts directly to the House Chamber.  The 2026 Farmers Night series continues through April 8 and takes place on Wednesday nights at 7:30 p.m. at the Vermont Statehouse. Performances are free and open to the public. Then, noted Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye is headed to Putney’s Yellow Barn for a performance that weaves together poetry and music. Nye joins the show, along with Yellow Barn’s executive director Catherine Stephan. Naomi Shihab Nye will perform alongside musicians Daniel Chong, Jessica Bodner and Daniel Anastasio on Saturday, Jan. 31, at 3:00 p.m. Admission is free, but advance registration is recommended. Broadcast live on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments, or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Vermont’s state legislators remain divided on the need for mandated district consolidation.

More than 12,000 Vermonters make their living as farmers. 41% percent of them are women. And while you can read lots of the articles about the agricultural industry, sometimes the best way to really capture a changing industry is through a photograph.  The work of our region’s female farmers has been memorialized in black-and-white by the Plymouth-based photographer JuanCarlos Gonzalez. His series, Vermont Female Farmers, has been showcased at museums and gallery spaces across Vermont and in Boston. Its next stop is the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro, where Gonzalez's photographs will be on view from late February through late March. Gonzalez and two of the women featured in the series join us to talk about the long legacy of women farmers in Vermont. Emily von Trapp owns von Trapp Flowers, a year-round flower farm in Waitsfield, and Jennifer Rodriguez owns Triple J Pastures, a livestock and vegetable farm in Irasburg.But first we talk with meteorologist Mark Breen at the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury about the upcoming weekend of extreme cold.  Broadcast live on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments, or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

There are a few different types of people when it comes to winter. There are migrators — the snowbirds, the Florida folk. There's the active bunch — the ones who, when you complain about winter, they cry out, "But have you even tried cross country skiing?" And then there are the hibernators — the bookworms, stew cookers, knitters and tea drinkers. Animals' winter survival strategies fall along similar lines. On Wednesday a trio of animal experts guided Vermont Edition listeners on a tour of our ecosystem in winter. We've compiled some of their best facts about overwintering, alongside stories from listeners. The guests were: Ash Kerby-Miller, a staff naturalist at North Branch Nature Center, Sophie Mazowita, a consulting naturalist, educator, and wildlife tracker from Jeffersonville, and Gregory Pask, an insect chemical ecologist and associate professor of biology at Middlebury College. "In our human experience of winter, it's a very tough time for a lot of us," Kerby-Miller said. "But for some animals, we are at the southern end, the warm end, of their range, and this is just a perfectly comfortable place for them." Broadcast live on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments, or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Mental health struggles and high suicide rates in the construction industry

Each month, Vermont Edition takes a deep dive into one Vermont town or city and learns what makes it special. At the end of the hour, a guest helps us randomly select our next location by spinning our big colorful county wheel.  For the latest in our Town by Town series, we head to Swanton, in Franklin County, for a live broadcast from the Swanton Public Library. Swanton is known for the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, its ancient history of human settlement, its close proximity to the Canadian border, its historic railroad station, and much more.

Over the past year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made many changes in federal health guidelines. Some of his biggest shakeups relate to vaccinations. Last week the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – the CDC – scaled back its childhood vaccine guidelines for six different immunizations, including flu and RSV. This hour we’re joined by Vermont’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Rick Hildebrant. He talks us through the recent federal-level changes to vaccine policy, and how those policies interact with state-level guidelines. We’ll also learn more about this year’s flu season and what you can do to keep yourself and your family healthy this winter. Dr. Hildebrant became the commissioner on Oct. 13, 2025. Formerly, he held several leadership roles at Rutland Regional Medical Center. He did his residency in internal medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock and is a clinical assistant professor at UVM’s Larner College of Medicine. Then, we'll talk with Era MacDonald, founder and director of the Merrymac Farm Sanctuary about her work saving animals and a new accreditation that will enable them to save even more.  Broadcast live on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments, or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Ski season is not immune to the impacts of climate change. This seasonal activity and other outdoor leisure activities will require adaptation to withstand warming Northeast winters.  Dr. Caitlin Hicks Pries, associate professor of biological sciences at Dartmouth College, discusses her research on the surprising ecosystem impacts of snow loss. The Appalachian Mountain Club has also been studying how winter climate change is affecting outdoor leisure pursuits in the region, and their director of research Dr. Sarah Nelson shares what they've learned.  We also hear from Dick Dreissigacker, co-director of Craftsbury Outdoor Center, on the center's unusual strategy for securing early-season snow. Broadcast live on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Have questions, comments, or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.