Bordertown

Ginny Sassaman is a co-founder, past president, and advisory board member of Gross National Happiness USA, and the creator of the Happiness Paradigm. Since 2013, she has served as a lay preacher at Unitarian Universalist churches in Vermont, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and South Carolina. Originally from central Pennsylvania, Ginny and her husband spent many years living in Washington, DC, before settling near Montpelier, Vermont in 2001.Ginny has a master’s degree in Meditation and Applied Conflict Studies from the Woodbury Institute at Champlain College in Burlington VT, and a Certificate in Positive Psychology from Tal Ben-Sharar and the Wholebeing Institute. She has been the communications director for national non-profits (Common Cause and the Woman’s Legal Defense Fund), a full-time watercolor artist and a working mediator.In 2009, Ginny joined with others in central Vermont to co-found Gross National Happiness USA, the first grassroots organization in the United States focused on building a movement for a thriving and sustainable future based on a holistic framework of defining individual and collective success. She served as President for a year and now serves on the GNHUSA advisory board. She is also on the advisory board of the Happiness Alliance, a Seattle-based group which collects and analyzes happiness data.Ginny released her book, Preaching Happiness: Creating a Just and Joyful World in 2020. The book is a collection of secular sermons she has delivered in Unitarian Universalist churches and fellowships from 2013 through 2019. Each sermon explores the connection between spirituality, personal happiness, and with the urgent need for broad economic systems change. Ginny has also given speeches and presentations on individual and collective wellbeing in Seattle; Portland, OR, Santa Fe, NM; Burlington, VT; Charlotte, NC; New York City and Costa Rica. To learn more about non-violent resistance and the work of Erica Chenoweth visit her Harvard website.Music for this podcast – Adding My Voice by Railroad Earth Stay InformedSubscribe to Bordertown Email

D. Davis is an amazing musician who has performed with a wide range of artists in Vermont since he arrived in Burlington in 1997. Originally from Brielle, NJ, D. grew up walking the beaches at the New Jersey Shore. Music was a big part of family life and Dee found joy in family music sessions including friends and family of all ages. In the podcast we talk about D.'s journey from NJ to Vermont and he sings songs relevant to the various phases of his life. D. moved to Burlington in 1997 and got deeply entrenched in the vibrant music scene of BVT in the late 90’s. He talk about different phases of his musical journey and how he know performs and teaches styles ranging from blues & rock, to classical, jazz and the Romantic era of guitar/music. Always active with various musical groups, D. talks about his current bands including Red Hot Juba, The Peoples House Band, The Faerie God Brothers, The Devonian Hot Club. He also plays in two duos, with Marc Gwinn and Django Soulo, and of course the occasional solo gig. D. teaches young artists and provides healing and music therapy through his non-profit, The Community Music Initiative. This is a first on the Bordertown podcast, where the interview is highlighted with live performance! Please enjoy my conversation…and the music of…D. Davis!Music for this Podcast provided by D. DavisStay InformedSubscribe to Bordertown Email

Charlie Watt is the owner and operator of Home Coming Seeds, an open-pollinated seed farm specializing in vegetable, flower and herb seeds with a focus on bioregional adaptation. Charlie was hired in May of 2023 to manage the Montpelier Community Feast Farm, a no-till farm run by the Parks and Trees Department in collaboration with Montpelier's Community Services Department. They grow fresh, healthy produce for food-insecure neighbors in Montpelier.The Feast Farm was located at the convergence of the Winooski River and the Stevens Branch between Barre and Montpelier Vermont. Two month after Charlie was hired, on July 10 & 11, 2023 over 12 inches of rain fell, causing the river to crest approximately 21.29 feet. The Feast Farm, as well as much of the infrastructure, businesses, landscapes and homes of central Vermont were permanently impacted.Over the next year, straddled with decreasing resources and increasing hydrological pressure, the Parks Department was still able to serve as first response to the flood disaster (as a key partner in Montpelier’s central flood response hub), organize community events to build relationships and increase capacity, AND reestablish their farm at a new, city-owned location, a couple hundred feet above the flood plain on Country Club Road. I was amazed to see how quickly they established their farm and organized conversation abouit potential reuse of this locationCharlie has moved onto the next chapter in his life, which is a farm-based seed company called Home Coming Seeds. a seed company located in Northfield Vermont. Charlie and his family have made quick progress establishing the initial growing area, constructing support structures around the farm, launching the company and preparing to launch their catalog in 2026.Energy is still gathering around the Country Club Road Property and a recent design excercisse generated a varity of visions which you can review at Vision Montpelier.Music for this Podcast - "Grandfather Mountain" by Railroad Earth.Stay InformedSubscribe to Bordertown Email

Born and raised in New Jersey, Karen Hatcher spent much of her career, managing nonprofit organizations. She made her way to New England about 13 years ago and lives with her husband Mark who is a luthier. Since the flood of July 10th 2024, Karen, along with Michael Zahner, has been managing fundraising and grant coordination for disaster recovery in the town of Plainfield. An an October 9th, 2024 "Bridge" Article, Plainfield Select Board chair Karl Bissex introduced Karen as the "master of pulling together a team of people who can get money.”"My life was never a straight line" Karen describes, "I just love how there's such synchronicity...in terms of all you've done in your life, and all the experiences you've had can come into play and can actually serve where you are".Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the upper Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.Music for this Podcast - "Blues Highway" by Railroad Earth.Stay InformedSubscribe to Bordertown Email

Meg Mott has been called a Constitutional Wrangler, whose stated mission is “teach ordinary citizens how to think through the various constitutional issues in a specific controversy”. Meg is a writer, teacher and the town moderator of Putney, Vermont. She uses dynamic and innovative strategies to help people find a common language.After twenty years of teaching political theory and constitutional law to Marlboro College undergraduates, Meg has taken her love of argument to the general public. Her award-winning series Debating Our Rights on the first ten amendments, brings civil discussions on contentious issues to public libraries and colleges.In 2008, after moving to Putney, Vermont, Meg received an invitation to run for town meeting moderator, and gaveled in her first gathering in 2015. She has been the town moderator ever since.“I was once very suspicious of Robert’s Rules of Order,” said Meg, who recalled living in a yurt as her wife built their goat farm. “Was it just patriarchy or white supremacy or heteronormativity? I had all my big words. I came to realize that communities were lost if they stopped listening to each other,” she said in a recent interview. “In these times, we need to be more careful that we do not engage in viewpoint discrimination.” (VT Digger, 2/28/24)Meg credits her interest in argument/discourse to Clarence Darrow, a first amendment and due process attorney. She recalls that Darrow helped her understand that “if you want people to do a better job at ruling themselves, they better have some pretty strong principles, and everybody’s going to want to give up on those principles”. She realized that our constitutional structure is critical to helping people govern themselves.Meg is a collaborator with the Ecological Planning Laboratory at the University of Vermont. The Ecological Planning Laboratory helps communities tackle vital projects on their land, offering long-term support in partnership with UVM Extension and the Field Naturalist graduate program. The EPL work emphasizes social-ecological health at the watershed scale.Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the upper Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.Music for this Podcast - "Adding My Voice" by Railroad Earth. Stay InformedSubscribe to Bordertown Email

Don Taylor is a middle school educator at the Main Street Middle School (MSMS) in Montpelier, Vermont. After spending 17 years teaching language arts and social studies, Don was the driving force behind the creation of the MSMS_SUSTAIN program, which he co-directs with Drew McNaughton. MSMS_SUSTAIN is a learning program predicated on the belief that students of the 21st century must know and understand issues related to climate change, sustainability and social justice. Don credits his enrollment in the Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability Program at Shelburne Farms, VT, his involvement with Up For Learning and his collaboration with several students in the Spring of 2021 for the creation of the MSMS_SUSTAIN program. It has since developed into a robust curriculum for 5th through 8th grade students at MSMS.Through personalized learning, students have the opportunity to explore areas of interest, connect with others who are working to solve local problems, and to communicate their findings to the school community as well as the broader community. The program is based on the belief that students and adults should be partners. A focus on student voice, student-led action and collaboration with the learning community are core beliefs of the program.An avid fisherman, Don recalls some of his early experiences that led to the formation of MSMS_SUSTAIN including time living & working in the Pacific Northwest, international travel, and youth camping in New England, particularly Camp Challenge in Bradford, VT run by Dartmouth College Graduate and Forester, Putnam Blodgett. Don continues to innovate the MSMS_SUSTAIN program and project learning at Main Street Middle School. For the past ten yeas he has been an actively involved with the Middle Grade Collaborative (MGC), a collaboration of colleges and universities specializing in professional development for middle school educators. Don is a contributor to the MGC "Conversations", a monthly conversation focused on issues related to middle level education.  All of their conversations are posted to the MGC YouTube channel.Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the upper Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency , equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.Music for this Podcast - "Peace on Earth" by Railroad Earth.Stay InformedSubscribe to Bordertown Email

Kianna Bromley is the Founder and Director of the Montpelier Performing Arts Hub. She has been involved in theater & performance throughout her life and attributes her love for theater (as well as her approach to theater, to the summer camp she attended throughout her childhood, The Young People’s Center for the Creative Arts in East Hampton Connecticut. Kianna came to Vermont to attend college, and although she didn’t study theater, she quickly integrated into the theater community and was active with UVM’s Royal Tyler Theater and the Lyric Theater Company in Burlington. VT.An immensely energetic and passionate problem solver, Kianna never does anything halfway. Ever since pursuing her master’s degree in Business in Entrepreneurship from the University of Vermont (SI-MBA), she has been planning business models for a new performance and event spaces. When the Gary Library, located at the former Vermont College of Fine Arts crossed her path she knew it was time to jump!Kianna most recently taught Theatre Arts and directed the Masque Theatre Program at Montpelier High School. In addition to teaching on and off since 2011, Kianna has worked as the Business Manager for Orchard Valley Waldorf School, the Student Matinee Series Manager at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, and the Finance Director for Small Dog Electronics.Kianna currently serves on the Board at Lost Nation Theater in Montpelier and previously served on the Sustainable Entrepreneurship Advisory Board. She lives in Montpelier with her husband and children. Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the upper Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency , equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.Music for this Podcast - "Chains" by Railroad Earth.Stay InformedSubscribe to Bordertown Email

Professor Ben t. Matchstick founded Cardboard Teck Instantute in 2005. He is a performing artist working in the mediums of cardboard, games, and stories. Ben has worked as a youth advocate, librarian, cafe owner, educator, puppeteer, artist, and entrepreneur in Vermont for 20+ years. He is the founder of Cardboard Teck Instantute.Ben is the co-creator (with Pete Talbot) of the award-winning PinBox 3000 cardboard tabletop pinball machine kit. Ben is the production and media manager and storyteller for the PinBox 3000, which has sold over 25,000 units since its invention in 2015.Ben co-conceived Hadestown (with Anaïs Mitchell), now on Broadway. Hadestown began in Central Vermont and went on to win 8 Tony awards.  Ben was a traveling company member with Bread & Puppet Theater for 4 years and 8 summers. He a proud member of Generator Maker Space in Burlington Vermont.He graduated with a BA in Theater from Northwestern University, and holds a MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College.Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the upper Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency , equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.Music for this Podcast - "Cold Water" by Railroad Earth.Stay InformedSubscribe to Bordertown Email

This week’s podcast is the Posthumous interview with Eric Zencey. Eric was a professor, writer and social critic. He passed on July 1st, 2019. Eric Zencey, novelist, essayist, lecturer, and social thinker was a tireless evangelist for a new way of thinking about humankind’s relationship with nature. Eric arrived in Vermont in 1980 to teach at Goddard College, quickly developing a deep love for his adopted state.More recently, he served as a visiting lecturer in the Sam Fox School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as teaching in the Honors Program at the University of Vermont, where he also was a fellow at the Gund Institute. Over the years, Eric’s work was recognized and supported by fellowships from the Guggenheim, Bellagio-Rockefeller and Bogliasco Foundations. His commentaries appeared in several publications, including The New York Times, and he was quoted on National Public Radio and in the Harvard Business Review. He also helped convince Vermont leaders to adopt the GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator), providing a more complete measure of a population’s well-being than the myopic GDP (Gross Domestic Product).While his writing focused for the most part on the subject of ecological economic, he was also the author of the best-selling historical fiction novel "Panama", in which Henry Adams turns detective. In addition to "Panama", Eric published three works of non-fiction: "Virgin Forest: Meditations on History, Ecology and Culture"; "The Other Road to Serfdom and the Path to Sustainable Democracy"; and "Greening Vermont: The Search for a Sustainable State" (co-authored with Elizabeth Courtney). In addition to Goddard College, he taught in Empire State College’s International Program, which required frequent travel to its extension campuses in Prague and Albania. Here is a good link to Eric's books.In the months before his death, he raised more than $100,000 to endow the Eric Zencey Prize in Ecological Economics, to be administered by the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont. The prize recognizes the best current affairs book or long-form journalism that advances public understanding of real-world environmental challenges using the principles of ecological economics, a field that explores the relationships between economics and Earth’s limited natural resources. Contributions in his memory may be made to the Eric Zencey Prize in Ecological Economics, through the University of Vermont Foundation, 411 Main St., Burlington, VT 05401. Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the upper Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive. Music for this Podcast – "The Great Divide" by Railroad Earth.Stay InformedSubscribe to Bordertown Email

The Ecological Planning Laboratory (EPL) at the University of Vermont is a partnership between UVM Extension and the Field Naturalist Graduate program, in year two of a three-year pilot phase. The EPL helps communities tackle vital projects on their land, with an emphasis on social-ecological health at the watershed scale. As their website states, “sustaining momentum over years is often the greatest challenge of land-based projects, from starting a riparian tree nursery to coordinating multi-town climate resilience plans. The EPL offers a guiding hand throughout the project, connecting communities with funding to leverage UVM resources and expertise — faculty, graduate student consultants, and undergraduate interns”. On November 2nd, 2024 the EPL hosted their first symposium at Jefford’s Hall a the University of Vermont. Approximately 30 people attended the event and this podcast is a recording of the morning session. We recorded a short conversation with a small group of six associated with a project in the Mad River Valley that is dealing with the Knotweed infestation. The Knotweed project represents just one of the projects of the Ecological Planning lab, and we use this as a case study to discuss the topic of “Emergence”. Emergence in leadership, social organizing and project development.We started the conversation with a small group of six, then expanded to the entire group of approximately 30 people for questions and an expanded conversation. Participating in the initial conversation are: Walter Poleman,  Senior Lecturer at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, Director of the Field Naturalist ProgramJito Coleman from the Warren Conservation CommissionDave Maroney, GIS Coordinator Consulting Ecologist with the Ecological Planning LaboratoryMariano Rodriguez-Cabal, assistant professor at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural ResourcesBella Linville, senior in the Rubenstein School/Mad River Valley Knotweed internVic Guadagno, Producer, Writer and Editor with Bright Blue Ecomedia. Communications consultant with the Ecological Planning Laboratory.In addition to the community members, this conversation references a few people I mention here to give greater context to the conversation – Hans Estrin, one of the key plays in the Ecological Planning Lab at UVM, Kurt Lindberg from the Waitsfield Conservation Commission, and Roy Beckford, Associate Dean and Director of UVM Extension in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Music for this Podcast – "So Good" by Railroad Earth.Links:Ecological Planning LaboratoryUniversity of Vermont ExtensionField Naturalist ProgramWarren Vermont - Conservation CommissionWaitsfield Vermont - Conservation CommissionFayston Vermont - Conservation CommissionBordertownBright Blue EcomediaThanks to all those who attend the first symposium for the Ecological Planning Laboratory at the University of Vermont, thanks to all who participated…and thank you for listening!Bordertown is an ecomedia project comiStay InformedSubscribe to Bordertown Email