Kaatscast: the Catskills Podcast

A behind‑the‑scenes journey into one of the most unusual and inspiring places in the Catskills — the Catskill Biological Field Station — where museum artists, taxidermists, curators, and scientists gather to practice and preserve the craft of natural history.

Kaatscast spends a full day at the Catskill Biological Field Station, a Catskills campus operated by the Institute for Natural History Arts. More than a location, it’s a living workshop — a place designed from the ground up to keep traditional museum craft alive. The station’s main building, The Pavilion, is itself a museum: “to step inside… is to enter the movie set for Indiana Jones or maybe Jurassic Park with the design and direction of a Wes Anderson movie.”

Across its cabins, trails, and field stations, the property functions like an open‑air classroom for natural history — a place where museum professionals can immerse themselves in slow, careful, hands‑on work, surrounded by the landscapes that inspire it.

The day begins with Dr. Walter Meshaka, who demonstrates herpetological fieldwork and explains why museums still collect specimens. His analogy captures the spirit of the place: “Think about these specimens as a research library. Every specimen is a first edition book.”

In a meadow clearing, diorama artists Stephen Quinn and Sean Murtha paint an expansive wetland scene en plein air — a reminder that museum dioramas begin not in studios but in natural landscapes. Their presence underscores what makes the Field Station special: it’s one of the few places where artists can still practice diorama craft the way it was done a century ago.

Back at the Pavilion, Joyce Cloughly demonstrates how leaves and plants are molded and cast by hand. As George Dante notes, modern shortcuts — “a generic fern… bought online from Amazon” — undermine accuracy.  The Field Station exists to counter that trend, preserving the field‑based techniques that once defined natural history exhibits.

The expedition continues to unfold at a rustic ornithologist’s cabin, where Dr. Peter Capainolo prepares bird study skins and skeletons. His demonstration — “the feathers are attached to the skin… sort of like a pelt”  — reveals the unseen labor behind museum collections and the precision required to make specimens useful for generations.

Later, Brett speaks with Darrin Lunde, mammalogist, museum curator, and author of The Naturalist. His perspective deepens the day’s themes: the value of fieldwork, the ethics of collecting, and the responsibility museums carry as repositories of biodiversity. His presence rounds out the lineup, connecting mammalogy and museum science to the artistry unfolding across the property.

The Catskill Biological Field Station is not a museum, not a school, and not a retreat — but something in between. It’s a rare space where natural history professionals can gather outside institutional constraints, work with their hands, teach emerging artists, and preserve techniques that are disappearing from modern exhibit production. It’s a place built by people who care deeply about the craft, and who want to ensure it survives.

Featured Guests:

• George Dante, President & Founder, Institute for Natural History Arts
• Dr. Walter Meshaka, Senior Curator of Zoology & Botany, State Museum of Pennsylvania
• Stephen Quinn, Diorama Specialist, American Museum of Natural History
• Sean Murtha, Artist & Preparator, Bruce Museum
• Joyce Cloughly, Modeler & Exhibit Artist
• Dr. Peter Capainolo, Senior Museum Specialist, Ornithology, AMNH
• Darrin Lunde, Mammalogist, Museum Curator, Author of The Naturalist

In this episode, Brett Barry visits the Delaware County Historical Association to talk with historian Tim Duerden about Escape From the Sugar House, his first work of historical fiction. The book follows Levi Hanford, a Connecticut teenager swept into the Revolutionary War and imprisoned in a New York City "sugar house" — one of several makeshift prisons where thousands died from disease, starvation, and neglect.

Duerden discusses the Revolution as a civil war, the economic forces shaping Loyalist and Patriot strongholds, and the postwar migration that brought veterans like Hanford to the Catskills. The conversation centers on a unique artifact: a cane crafted from a Sugar House beam and gifted to Hanford late in life.

A compelling blend of history, storytelling, and regional heritage.

As the leaves change, Kaatscast and Cidiot join up to look at fall foliage on both sides of the Hudson. Cidiot's episode covers the science of leaf color with Cary Institute scientist Dr. Amy Zanne. This one covers the west side: an environmental educator explains why leaves change color, and five more Catskills residents describe how they spend the season and where they go to see it.

In this episode

• 00:00 Introduction, with a reading of "Poème d'Automne" by Langston Hughes

The autumn leaves
Are too heavy with color.
The slender trees
On the Vulcan Road
Are dressed in scarlet and gold
Like young courtesans
Waiting for their lovers.
But soon
The winter winds
Will strip their bodies bare
And then
The sharp, sleet-stung
Caresses of cold
Will be their only
Love.

• 01:33 Matt Savatgy, environmental scientist in residence in the Onteora School District (Cornell Cooperative Extension / Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program), on chlorophyll, why trees go dormant, how drought and a wet August affect color, and why the Northeast shares its foliage with places at similar latitudes like South Korea. Favorite spots: the escarpment at North Lake, Ashokan Quarry Trail, Giant Ledge, Overlook Mountain.
• 11:57 Milton O'Connell of the Bruderhof community in Platte Clove on fall hikes (Kaaterskill High Peak, Indian Head, Plattekill Mountain, Dibble's Quarry) and the community's fall festival.
• 15:41 Painter Christie Scheele on why fall is the season she paints least, what she looks for in late-fall oaks, and driving Route 28 west.
• 21:24 Photographer Casey Kelbaugh on shooting foliage in overcast light, iPhone settings, and a one-way hike through Diamond Notch to the West Kill brewery.
• 28:10 Ed Ullmanm of Wellness Rx in Phoenicia on fall as a season of reflection, plus his advice on flu shots, COVID boosters and immune support.
• 33:05 Samantha Awand-Gortel, manager of Ulster Savings Bank's Phoenicia branch, on preparing finances for winter costs and her favorite views, including the Belleayre and Hunter Mountain Oktoberfests.
• 35:42 Closing and how to send in your own fall favorites

Event: The Bruderhof fall festival in Platte Clove is Saturday, October 3, 2026, 2:00–5:00 PM, open to the public (hayrides, pumpkin carving, cider making).

Links

• Cidiot podcast, East of Hudson fall guide with Dr. Amy Zanne: https://www.cidiot.com/
• Bruderhof: A Christian Community in the Platte Clove: https://www.kaatscast.com/bruderhof-a-christian-community-in-the-platte-clove/
• Christie Scheele's Kaatscast episode: https://www.kaatscast.com/catskills-artist-christie-scheele/
• ... and the Drive 28 Arts & Culture audio tour: https://drive28.com/
• Walking the Long Path from Manhattan to the Catskills (Casey Kelbaugh): https://www.kaatscast.com/walking-the-long-path-from-manhattan-to-the-catskills/
• Wellness Rx: A Prescription for Rural Healthcare: https://www.kaatscast.com/wellness-rx-a-prescription-for-rural-healthcare/
• Samantha Awand-Gortel's 2023 financial literacy episode: https://www.kaatscast.com/financial-literacy-at-ulster-savings-bank/
• Share your fall favorites: kaatscast.com (contact page or Send a Voicemail): https://www.kaatscast.com/contact/

“Invasive species” has become one of the most charged phrases in environmental discourse — but what if the term itself obscures more than it reveals? In this episode, Brett Barry sits down with Dr. Erik Kiviat, co‑founder of Hudsonia and a field biologist with decades of research on introduced plants, to explore the nuance behind weeds like knotweed, purple loosestrife, and common reed. As Kiviat notes, “There is a fear and hysteria of things that come from somewhere else….” His perspective reframes the conversation, showing how many “invasives” also provide habitat, pollinator resources, water‑quality benefits, and even medicinal compounds like resveratrol.

From the herbarium at Hudsonia's field station on the Bard College campus, Kiviat explains how human disturbance creates ideal conditions for these plants, why management must be site‑specific rather than fear‑driven, and how wildlife — from songbirds to pollinators — routinely use knotweed in ways that complicate the usual narrative. The episode offers a grounded, science‑based look at a topic often clouded by alarmism, reminding us that ecology is complex, adaptive, and rarely served by simple labels like “invasive.”

"Close your eyes when you roll through town and open them when you get to the driveway," is essentially how Peter and Sarah Finn jokingly welcomed friends to their Hunter home in the mid-1990s — when dilapidated buildings and FOR SALE signs dominated Main Street.

The Finns turned  frustration into action, buying a rotting dairy barn and a struggling movie theater, and building what would become the Catskill Mountain Foundation in 1998. Nearly 30 years later, CMF runs a three-screen cinema, a piano performance museum, ballet and theater programs, artist housing, an organic farm, and a monthly regional magazine, and employs about 30 people.

Peter's new book, Driven to Build, Guided by Values: Leading for Long-Term Success in the For-Profit and Nonprofit Worlds, traces the principles behind both CMF and FINN Partners, the global PR firm he founded.

Peter and Sarah join host Brett Barry at their home in Hunter, along with CMF Executive Director Amy Scheibe, to talk through the foundation's origins and where it's headed. Topics include:

• The Finn family's roots in Hunter, going back to Peter's great-grandparents, who arrived from the Poland-Ukraine borderlands in 1889 (a story also told in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers)
• Buying and renovating the Red Barn and the old Hunter movie theater, and how conversations with Sean Byrne (Hunter Foundation), Barry Kerr, Linda Nichols, and Pam and Judd Weisberg shaped CMF's formation
• The distinction between CMF (arts) and its neighbor, The Hunter Foundation (Main Street revitalization)
• Funding the foundation's early years and building donor relationships, including Hunter Mountain's Slutsky family
• How Peter's PR-agency background shaped CMF's multi-pronged structure
• Current capital projects: new theatrical equipment and a rehearsal/dance studio at the Orpheum (funded by a $1.75M state matching grant), a NYSERDA net-zero grant for the studio building, and new artist housing (Creekside Retreat)
• What's next for CMF

Links:

• Peter Finn's book: Driven to Build, Guided by Values
• The Catskill Mountain Foundation: catskillmtn.org
• Kaatscast: kaatscast.com — full episode archive, transcribed and searchable

Ed Van Put spent more than fifty years studying, fishing, and protecting Catskill waters — and in the process became one of the region’s most respected fly fishers and fisheries biologists. In this episode, Nick Lyons returns to Kaatscast to share the story of how Ed’s final book, A Fly Fisher’s Revelations, brought him out of retirement at age 93. Joining Nick is Ed’s wife, Judy “Obie” Van Put, who offers a deeply personal portrait of Ed’s life, his gentle nature, and his lifelong devotion to the rivers he loved.

Together, Nick and Obie trace Ed’s journey from a curious New Jersey kid to a principal fisheries biologist for New York State, his meticulous fishing journals, his contrarian approach to fly selection, and his decades of work securing public fishing rights and cold‑water releases. They revisit Ed’s favorite flies, his philosophy of presentation over complexity, and the stories behind his landmark books on Catskill trout fishing. It’s a celebration of a man whose knowledge, humility, and passion shaped generations of anglers — and whose legacy continues to ripple through Catskill waters.

At a Fleischmanns street fair, a bottle with a bright red label and bold white type — Station Navy Strength Gin — stops Brett at the Skillers booth. Owner James Rooney pours a taste and explains why British sailors once needed their gin strong enough that gunpowder would still ignite if it got splashed with the stuff. That bottle leads to a drive up to Lexington, NY, to see where it's made.

Skillers Mountaintop Distillery occupies a small pre-fab barn in what started as Rooney's ski house property near Hunter. Kaatscast walks us through some of the New York state laws that made a small operation like his possible — the Micro Distillery Act of 2003, which cut licensing fees enough to let small producers in; the Farm Distillery Act of 2007, which let distillers open tasting rooms and sell direct, the way wineries already could; and the Craft New York Act of 2014, which simplified licensing further and let farm distilleries sell in satellite locations. In exchange, farm distilleries have to source at least 75% of their ingredients from New York — Skillers uses 100% New York corn as the base for all three of its spirits, filling in the small remainder with botanicals like coriander that can't be grown locally.

The three bottles get a full tasting. Greywacke vodka takes its name from the bluestone bedrock under the Catskills, and Rooney credits its stony, mineral edge to Schoharie Creek water that's filtered through that rock. The navy strength gin, bottled at 57% ABV, is built specifically to survive being mixed into a Negroni without landing flat. And horilka — a honey and chili spirit named for the Ukrainian word for flower (kvitka) — nods to the area's Ukrainian community, using local honey and an ultrasonic extraction process to pull flavor from Thai chilies.

Gin-smith Jeff Graham describes running the still, watching a batch drip for hours to yield about 20 gallons at a time. Marketing director Todd Spire talks about the tasting room's weekend acoustic music series. And we learn that Skillers spirits are now on shelves at Elevated Wines in Hunter and behind the bar at Small Talk in Woodstock and Peekamoose in Big Indian. Next up: a Skillers Negroni made entirely in-house, which means Rooney is now considering his own line of vermouth.

Featuring

• James Rooney, founder and owner, Skillers Mountaintop Distillery
• Jeff Graham, gin smith
• Todd Spire, director of marketing
• Ric Rawlins, tasting guest

Music: "Growing Up Catskills" by Josh Roy Brown, from the documentary of the same name.

The Shandaken Theatrical Society turns 50 this year, and its home stage — the Phoenicia Playhouse — has a history that stretches back even further. Built in 1887 as a lodge for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the building later served as an auction house and a movie theater before falling into disrepair by the 1980s. Community intervention saved it from demolition, and STS has run it ever since.

This episode brings together voices spanning the organization's history: board member and longtime performer Faye Storms, who arrived in the Catskills just three years after STS was founded in 1976; playhouse manager Geneva Turner, who also works as a standardized patient and intimacy coordinator when they're not running the house; technical director George Muller, a veteran of Live Aid and the Philadelphia Orchestra before landing in Phoenicia; and Wallace Norman and Hank Neimark of Woodstock Fringe, in town for a co-production of Songs Mostly of the Theatre.

Fifty years ago, STS opened with a production of The Sound of Music — and there's talk of marking the anniversary with a singalong screening of the film. Beyond that possible nod to their roots, the season has grown into a full slate of drama, comedy, open mics, a concert series with Flying Cat Music, and youth theater camps.

Find out more at phoeniciaplayhouse.com

In 1845, a feudal land system that had survived the American Revolution finally met its match in the hills above Andes, New York — and the clash left a county undersheriff dead and hundreds of farmers under arrest. The Anti-Rent War was a massive, organized uprising that had been building since the late 1830s and swept across upstate New York — yet it remains largely unknown outside this region.

Victoria Kupchinetsky and Misha Gutkin are Russian-born journalists who stumbled upon the story at an Andes community day parade — and couldn't let it go. The result is Calico Rebellion, a documentary that centers the voices of local descendants, historians, and storytellers to bring this "final chapter of the American Revolution" back to life.

We talk about the patroon system and its perpetual leases that kept tenant farmers from ever owning the land they cleared; the Calico Indians, disguised farmers who donned homemade masks and calico dresses to resist rent collectors; the dinner horns repurposed as an alarm network; and the fatal confrontation on Dingle Hill that set off a chain of trials, pardons, and ultimately, legislative reform.

Victoria and Misha also reflect on what it meant — as immigrants from the Soviet Union — to dig into this forgotten corner of American democracy, and what the Anti-Rent War says about the ongoing work of keeping a democratic system alive.

Visit calicorebellion.com for Calico Rebellion screenings, events, and info.

What did Beethoven's piano actually sound like? At the Catskill Mountain Foundation's Piano Performance Museum in Hunter, New York, you don't have to wonder — you can sit down and play one.

Brett Barry visits the museum at the Doctorow Center for the Arts with performing arts director Pam Weisberg and docent Stacey Bowers, who guide him through dozens of historic instruments spanning three centuries — from a mid-18th century French harpsichord to a nine-foot Baldwin concert grand that once traveled with Liberace.

Along the way: the difference between a harpsichord's pluck and a piano's strike, why Beethoven's piano had four strings per key, the short life of the American square piano, and what it means to let the instrument tell you what it can do.

The museum is open Saturdays 11 a.m.–3 p.m.; group tours available by arrangement. For performances, schedules, and more: catskillmtn.org/piano-performance-museum