This is a conversation with Jay Allison about the recent attack on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Recently, Congress passed a rescission bill that eliminates $9 billion in previously allocated funding, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which effectively defunds public media, which includes NPR, PBS and member stations around the country. This is a conversation about what that means and what we stand to lose. Jay Allison has been working in and around public radio since it’s beginnings a half century ago. He's been an independent public radio producer, journalist, and teacher since the 1970s. He is the founder of Transom, where I learned to make radio, and 25 years ago he founded WCAI, a public radio station in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Jay's work has won most of the major broadcasting awards, including six Peabodys. He produces The Moth Radio Hour and was the curator of This I Believe on NPR.

No. 10 Pond is where I go swimming in the summer. All kinds of people go there. Kids, grownups, grandparents, mothers and fathers, dogs. But ALWAYS there is a group of ladies....standing thigh deep in the pond, talking together. All over the world since the beginning of time, ladies of a certain age have been standing thigh deep in water together, talking. It’s a scientific fact. So here in my town, for hundreds of years--even before recorded history--pieces of these ladies conversations have been drifting around on the pond. This is a show about No. 10 Pond, and the ladies who stand in it.

This is the last episode in season 6 of What Class are You?, a periodic series I make for Vermont Public. Susan Ritz grew up in a wealthy family in Minnesota. For the past 36 years, she's lived in central Vermont, where she writes books and is an active philanthropist. In this episode of "What class are you?" we talk about the surprising complexities of having more than most.

Today, episode 4 of season SIX of What Class are You?, a periodic series I make for Vermont Public about living in the American class system. In today’s episode, we revisit Kytreana Patrick, who was a guest from the first class series back in 2022. Back then, Kytreana was working as a cashier at Olney’s general store in Orleans, Vermont. Since then, Kytreana’s gotten a job at a factory that manufactures combat helmets. She’s got a small apartment in Newport, and this past January she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Emberlyn.

Dan Sedon has been working as a criminal defense attorney in Vermont, where he works with poor people and rich people and all the people in between. In this latest episode of What Class are You?, reporter Erica Heilman talks with Dan about what this line of work has taught him about the American class system.

What Class Are You? is a periodic series I make for Vermont Public about our lives in the American class system. Sharon Plumb works for a statewide nonprofit in the outdoor recreation sector. She lives in East Montpelier with her husband and daughter. In this conversation, Sharon talks about the advantages she sees in the lives of people whose parents are able to help their kids financially all the way into adulthood.

Ralph Rockwell lives in Wolcott, Vermont with his wife Carol and about 28 tractors. He runs a towing service part time and sells some of the tractors he restores, but he’s 72 and he’s mostly retired from a long career as a mechanic. In this episode of the occasional series "What Class Are You?" Ralph and I sit next to one of Ralph's tractors and talk about class.

This is the fourth episode of What Now Sounds Like, a periodic series comprised entirely of your recordings from all over the world, in which we try to capture these strange times in audio.

This was the inaugural year of Hardwick State, a weekend long university in Hardwick, Vermont, organized by the Civic Standard, and designed to take place during the awfulest time of the year. People from around Hardwick become professors and students. Classes are free, and everyone’s welcome to teach at Hardwick State. Maybe you teach something you do in your regular job. Maybe it’s just something you’re good at. Maybe it’s something you’re not very good at but you love it and you’re better than most. Here are some highlights from Hardwick State.

Death in Venice is a story Larry Massett produced in the early 80s. Joe Frank narrates, and Larry wrote and performed all the music.