Meet Madeline Hung of Castle, a finance app that helps homeowners save time and money managing their homes. Madeline says she’s a San Francisco cidiot trying to recreate her Bay Area lifestyle here in the Hudson Volley. She and her husband Hugo have created a service that does two things: One is to understand the money you’re saving, and the second part is to help you optimize and save. Their average customer, as you’ll hear, is saving $10,000.00. That’s real money.  “It seems like it all should be knowable,” says Madeline.

Terms you should know for this episode:

• DIY - Do it yourself
• SEDI - Someone else does it

Links:

• Head over to www.getcastle.com to sign up for your two-week free trial of the Castle mobile app today. 
• Vote for Cidiot® for Regional Podcast in the Chronogram Readers Choice Awards through May 15, 2025.

Thanks for tuning in this season. Please send in feedback and rate and review the show at Cidiot.com. Most of all, come visit. 

©2025 Mat Zucker Communications. Cidiot® is a Registered Trademark.

Ready for something different? On this episode of Cidiot®, you’ll hear from John Burton, host of the popular podcast “Home From Here.” 

Hear John’s history from Rhinebeck to New York City to Westchester—and his plans to get back up here to the HV. As John explains, he wants to get back to his people. The people of the Hudson Valley are “Sophisticated and simple at the same time, smart and funny at the same time.” 

John puts it all out there. We talk about his wife’s incredible cancer journey, his own challenges with mental health, music in the Hudson Valley, and the Lifted Project - coming up Sunday, April 6, at the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck. It’s a unique one-day musical experience bringing together a huge group of musicians to perform original music to support and provide visibility for four amazing nonprofits. Tickets are just $25. 

Towards the end, we also discussed our idea for a ‘Cidiot Immersion Class,’ which I really want to do, and we even started to program its curriculum. Let me know if you’re game to help. 

Meanwhile, act quickly for tickets for Sunday, April 6:

• The Lifted Project: https://liftedproject.org/

Venues mentioned:

• Paula’s Runway Cafe Airport (Beacon)
• The Rhine Cellar (Rhinebeck)
• Barton Orchards (Pougquague)
• Joseph’s Italian Steakhouse, Hyde Park
• Hudson Valley Musicians Facebook Group

Also:

• Mat on Home from Here show - episode 217 (MixCloud) or More Links (the show's website)
• Valley Girls Podcast (thank you for introducing us)

Thanks for listening to Cidiot, the award-winning podcast about moving from the city to the Hudson Valley.  Come visit.

©2025 Mat Zucker Communications. Cidiot® is a Registered Trademark. 

What can we learn from the nature—and animals—around us? Meet Jessica Morgenthal, host of the new, already award-winning “Resilience Gone Wild” podcast. Mat’s been a guest, and now Jessica is one on Cidiot®.

Tons of talk about donkeys, goats, chickens, sea turtles, beehives, and more. Nature can be loving, nature can be harsh. The answers we’re looking for are sometimes right in front of us. And at the end, bonus: you’ll hear the real difference between turtles and tortoises. 

Links:

• "Resilience Gone Wild" podcast links to listen

• Mat on Episode 20 of "Resilience Gone Wild"

• The Biggest Little Farm (film)

• What the Chicken Knows by Sy Montgomery (book)

Thanks for tuning in. Come visit.

Cidiot® 2025. All Rights Reserved

“We're trying to create the best version of a night out” — Mike Burdge of Story Screen Cinema

The arts are huge in the Hudson Valley, including film and cinema. In this episode, Mat talks to Mike Burdge of Story Screen Cinema about independent film and theatres in the Hudson Valley. Hear Mike and his partner Diana DiMuro’s story, from working in hospitality and hosting after-hours movie pop-ups to owning their own unique cinemas—first in Beacon now in Hudson.

Mike also shares how they decide what to show for so many different audiences on just three screens and gives a candid explanation of ticket prices, concessions and permission to sneak stuff in. Mat loves this cinema—there’s a table at your seat plus a bar and movie-themed food and drinks. Better yet, Mike may have agreed to help Mat achieve one of his major bucket list items to do an ensemble sing-along of a movie musical. 

Mike and Diana also helped Cidiot create a big list of movies and TV shot in the Hudson Valley that you might want to watch. See the list on the Cidiot blog. Maybe we’ll create a Cidiot film festival!

Links for mentions in the episode:

• Story Screen (Hudson)
• Upstate Films (Rhinebeck, Saugerties, Woodstock)
• The Movie House (Millerton)
• Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory

• Mike writing about film in Chronogram

Thanks for tuning in. Come visit.

Cidiot® 2025. All Rights Reserved

Welcome to Season 8 of Cidiot®!

Mat kicks off by re-grounding us in what partly makes the Hudson Valley so special—the space. Inspired by local young writer Will Forge and his new book “Hudson Valley Reveries,” Mat helps us lose ourselves among an iconic Shawongunk tree. Will writes, “Patricia herself was a peculiar sort….. preferred the company of trees to people…”

Will’s advice for cidiots is also Mat's for this season opener. Let’s appreciate where we’re at, think about where we’re at, understand the history—and appreciate the story of it. 

Excited to have you tune in to the show—so much more coming this season. 

“I want more people to come to the area and appreciate where they are coming to.” — Will Forge

Links:

Cidiot® 2024. All Rights Reserved

This little light of mine…. 

For the Season 7 finale of Cidiot, and just in time for Winter Solstice, Mat explores the idea and need for light in the darkness. There are three themes of light: the light that guides you; the light that cheers you; and the light that helps you believe.

Thank you to everyone who participated this season. Special shout-outs to editor Isaac Rostan and my husband Brian Fuhr. Join the Cidiot newsletter at Cidiot.com to be ready for next season. 

Quote:

 “Lighthouses don’t go looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.” Anne Lamott 

Links:

Cidiot® is the award-winning podcast about moving to the Hudson Valley, produced and hosted by Mat Zucker. Please rate & review the show at Cidiot.com, join the mailing list, and get in touch about what you like—and what you’d like to hear about. And come visit.

Cidiot® 2024. All Rights Reserved.

“Stories tell you what’s important to people.” - AJ Schenkman

Thanks to Jennifer Santiago and Jenny Leifer of The Valley Girls podcast, I was introduced to a writer and public school teacher A.J. Schenkman. He writes a lot about area history and has published multiple books including “Patriots and Spies,” Wicked Ulster County,” “Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh” and most recently the beautiful illustrated children’s book “Franklin’s Trees.” 

As you’ll hear on this episode of Cidiot®, A.J.’s brand of writing and teaching is “History Made Seamless,” which means making history accessible. We talk about how he got into writing about history, Eleanor wanting a place of her own away from mother-in-law, witness trees, stories from the FDR National Historic Site, elk, and  A.J.’s new illustrated book: “Franklin’s Trees.” 

“A good book will transform you through time,” he promises so excited to share this conversation and a slew of stories about FDR, Eleanor, trees, and more. 

Links to highlights from this episode:

Thanks to the Valley Girls Podcast and their new show, Literary Hudson Valley.

Cidiot® is the award-winning podcast about moving to the Hudson Valley, produced and hosted by Mat Zucker. This episode was brilliantly edited by Isaac Rostan. Please rate & review the show at Cidiot.com, join the mailing list, and get in touch about what you like—and what you’d like to hear about. And come visit.

Cidiot® 2024. All Rights Reserved.

Hudson, New York is still a new place for me, so this episode Cidiot tries to take a short cut to getting to know why the way things are.

I find the best way to do this is through people who’ve been here for years and who reflect the way things are and maybe even shape them. 

Meet Mark Allen, a film-maker, a writer, a radio host, and yes, a former go-go boy. Mark and I both grew up in the 70s and 80s, though I was not a go-go boy nor featured in Paper Magazine. He is prolific and provocative and is generous and hilarious sharing what he sees.  We talk about Hudson’s culture, about video, dinner parties, the waves of gays, advice for cidiots—and of course the back alleys of Hudson.

Links highlighted in episode:

Cidiot® is the award-winning podcast about moving to the Hudson Valley. Please rate & review the show at Cidiot.com, join the mailing list, and get in touch about what you like—and what you’d like to hear about. And come visit.

Cidiot® 2024. All Rights Reserved.

Carole Osterink writes The Gossips of Rivertown, a blog that is news and commentary (and takes its name from a novel by a Hudson writer). It’s a must-read for all of us who live here. This episode tune into Carole’s story, how she chooses what to cover, if she considers herself a journalist andtr advise if you want to start a hyperlocal news sources like it in your town. 

I hope you have something like it where you live. And I hope it’s written by someone like Carole. 

Hyperlocal newspapers & blogs (pls send in more!):

Plus, Mat is recently interviewed on the Rhinebeck Scoop podcast about Cidiot.

There also are many good visitor and travel blogs to the Hudson Valley but that’s a separate list. Let me know if I should put one together. 

Cidiot® is the award-winning podcast about moving to the Hudson Valley. Please rate & review the show at Cidiot.com, join the mailing list, and get in touch about what you like—and what you’d like to hear about. And come visit.

Cidiot® 2024. All Rights Reserved.

This episode, Mat shares the news of moving—still within the Hudson Valley of course. Some thoughts on change and new opportunities. Some questions too. Are you still a cidiot if you move back to a city? 

Links to what’s mentioned:

Cidiot® is the award-winning podcast about moving to the Hudson Valley. Please rate & review the show at Cidiot.com, join the mailing list, and get in touch about what you like—and what you’d like to hear about. And come visit.

Cidiot® 2024. All Rights Reserved.