Okay, okay, there is a little bit of making excuses this time around since it's been so long, but between Black Field, strategic planning and decorating for Halloween, who has time to just sit down and chat? Our front porches are starting to get chillier, but we still managed to chat with Assistant Director Veronica and Marketing and Outreach Librarian Cass about Halloween decorating year round, scary movies that have scarred us for life, and murder basements (commonly misnamed Michigan basements lol). We then stumble again and again over 90s references as Cass and I chat with Krissi Brott, Greenville City Clerk, true crime lover, and fellow adventurer through a hodge-podge of careers before landing in her dream job. We reminisce about the best and worst of our favorite decade, and dispel misconceptions about the bureaucratic election machine and all the pieces that make it work. Get out and vote and then join us on the Flat River Front Porch!

At long last, it's our end-of-summer edition of Flat River Front Porch! This one has been a long time coming, but it is packed full of (low-key, nerd-friendly) celebrity guests. While we will be coming back home in our next episode to interview a local retired teacher, our guest this week is a teacher from much farther away. She is Amanda Jones, small-town Louisiana school librarian turned freedom fighter who has been making headlines for fighting back against individuals in her community trying to scare her into silence over attempts to remove books from the public library. Her fight turned into a multi-year lawsuit and a bestselling book, That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America (check our shelves!). Cassie, our Marketing and Outreach Librarian and fellow intellectual freedom enthusiast, joins us as we talk about the threats Amanda had to deal with and the good things she was able to take away from the experience. (Warning: there is a small amount of profanity in this episode.) The episode also features some recognizable names and voices from 30 Rock, The Good Place and Parks and Recreation who were excited and kind enough to be featured on our little podcast. Take one last trip for the summer on the Flat River Front Porch!

We are in the home stretch of summer and it has been BUSY, so we're a little bit behind with sitting down indoors and recording. However, we are celebrating the summer fun and planning for the warm weather we have left with some local guests (and one far-flung one). I sit down with Amanda Lee (AGAIN, I know -- but we have so much fun) to talk summer fruits and veggies and the bizarre slang terms Midwesterners come up with for them, when it's acceptable to use your crockpot, beach reads, and something called the Great Saunter (a real thing for which Amanda is currently training). Then we speak with Steve Bowers from The Library Network on the east side of the state. He told us all about the Michigan Activity Pass program (and I've been saving his interview since last October so we were all in a state park and traveling kind of mood). Finally, we compare notes with a handful of library moms about what their alternately exciting and relaxing summers have entailed so far. It's never been a better time to pour yourself some lemonade, settle in on the front porch and join us!

June is Home Ownership Month, and we're celebrating it by talking to a set of people who eat and breathe housing and all its facets. We kick it off with Kamey Krum-Howe, newly back at FRCL from other adventures and full of her own interesting home history tales. Then we sit down with Mike Adams from Montcalm Habitat for Humanity, local realtor Andrea Belding, and Larry Moss from Greenville City Council and City Planning Commission. We dig deep into our very homey topic, with everything from the housing shortage to the idiosyncrasies of finding and maintaining your forever home. We talk about ways people are working to improve options for safe and affordable homes in our community, and each of our topsy-turvy journeys with pole barn living, city homes vs country homes, tree infestations, bats, basement floods and so much more. If you've ever lived indoors, this episode for you. Take a tour, then join us on the Front Porch!

This week we celebrate the kick-off of Summer Reading by chatting with two members of one of our biggest reading families, the Quigleys! I've been talking books and everything else with Amanda Quigley and her EIGHT (yes, 8) kids for 7 years, back when we were both still in Belding. Amanda is a homeschooling coach, a Cannonsville Critters volunteer and animal lover, and a strong advocate for open discussion about mental health, neurodivergence, and pretty much everything else. Her daughter, Hannah, joins us, and we talk about the happy chaos that is the Quigley household. We are also joined by Miss Tiffany, and we get into everything we can look forward to this summer, and our proposal to refresh the Black Field property until a beautiful new performance and natural education space. Get comfortable with us on the front porch!

This episode is an out-of-the-office, off-the-grid adventure as we dive into this year's Montcalm One Book One County selection! We are joined by Brooke Whipple, native Stantonite and star of The History Channel's Alone and National Geographic's Yukon River Run. Brooke has a million fascinating stories about adventuring and surviving under harsh conditions, and this episode features my conversation with her as well as highlights from her presentation at the One Book One County kickoff. We're also joined by (almost) all of the library directors in Montcalm County. We hint at (and then finally reveal) this year's selection title, then talk about creative and unique projects and items for checkout that each one offers. We recorded before the kickoff, so sections about the OBOC book this year were added later, so don't be alarmed when I start to go a little NPR on you. Put in your earbuds and go for a walk with this special outdoorsy episode of Flat River Front Porch! 

The "body safety" in this episode is not the fleeing-from-Freddie-Krueger kind! We honor Sexual Assault Awareness month (which, to be fair, was April) by sitting down with Alexis Thane, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator for RAVE, Relief Against Violent Encounter. Their organization provides support, shelter and counseling for survivors (of all ages and genders) of sexual assault and domestic abuse. While these topics are rarely easy, open discussion of them is so important to try to reduce the stigma of honesty around them. This is essential if we want to prepare and support young people (or anyone) in their relationships, and promote body safety awareness. We hope our episode will encourage you to start your own honest discussions. Also, we sit down with staff member, Danielle, and her visiting daughter, Megan, who make me work exceptionally hard to get them to talk. Megan was with us for job shadowing, but tells us about the horror film-inspired career aspiration she prefers over becoming a librarian. Then I attempt to get Megan to try her hand at podcast hosting (with mixed results). This episode is a hodge-podge mix of silly and serious, but then that's the best kind. Join us on the Front Porch! 

We appreciate your patience as we get out this last episode, and it is a doozy! This is the second half of our two-part series with the Outmans, our local state legislators. This time we are joined by Rick Outman, senator for the 33rd district. Rick talks his grudging entrance into politics years ago, the history of redistricting in Michigan, his chihuahua Chico, and his serious fandom of the cartoon Bluey (which he admits he may watch even with the grandkids aren't around).   We are also joined by Marketing and Outreach Librarian Cassie Vargo, who talks seed libraries, the Career Fair, and our shared nostalgia for all things Time-Life. Tune in as we talk all these things (and more!) on the Flat River Front Porch. 

Our guest this week takes a break from partisanship to join us for a low-key conversation on the front porch: State Representative Pat Outman! We talk parenting young kids, outdoor hobbies, childhood aspirations, travel spots, and the challenges of representing all the voices from a rural district. Then we play the first half of a father-son version of the Newlywed Game, to see how well he and his dad know each other (to be concluded when his father, Senator Rick Outman joins us here in a few weeks). Also joining us this week is Montcalm Area Reading Council Director, Amanda Lee, and she and Stef talk about a whole array of ridiculous things (as usual). We run the gamut of topics, from Princess Kate (who announced her cancer diagnosis a couple days after we recorded) to celebrity memoirs, vacation prep, upcoming concerts, vegan diets and swishy pants. Lots of fun as always, and TONS of book recommendations... so settle in and join us!

Our community and front porch are stretching this week to bring in an (uncaped) crusader from up north, Michele Howard, the director of the Traverse Area District Library system! I met Michele at this year's Michigan Library Association conference in October. Her story of firing up organizations in her city to dig in and work together to make change inspired me to make her my first recorded interview for the podcast (if not our first episode). Michele's great work brings hope that any community can start a conversation that overcomes barriers and brings life-changing results with the right motivation. We are also joined again by Cara McGee, our in-house comic creator, who was gearing up for Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. She gives some hints on her current projects, talks the best cities to stock up on too many specialty foods, and shares her favorite celeb comic con encounters. And somewhere in there we try to solve the mystery of an obscure, possibly German dessert multiple decades after it was served. There's something for everyone this week on the Front Porch!