Reframing Rural

After a lifetime farming wheat on the Northern Great Plains, the time has come for Russ Torgerson to retire. In this narrative episode, Reframing Rural producer Megan Torgerson shares the intimate journey of her family's farm succession, giving listeners an inside look into the emotional, legal and financial factors at play with succession planning. Curious what the next generation of farmers are facing, Megan also interviews the Jorgensens, another farm family from NE Montana who is transferring the management of their farm to their son Tanner. What happens in the transitional space between a farms' present caretaker and the next? What becomes of a community when, voluntarily or not, a farmer surrenders their plow. And what does the next generation need in order to keep their families' multigenerational farms going are all questions this episode seeks to explore.

The "farmer's lawyer" Sarah Vogel is a hero to farmers across the country. In the 1980s she saved 240,000 family farmers facing foreclosure. In the 2000s she pursued justice for thousands of Native American farmers and ranchers who suffered decades of credit discrimination from the USDA. Sarah continues her fight to save the family farm today, and her new book "The Farmer's Lawyer," is inspiring others to join her.

Reframing Rural's third season will transport listeners to Golden Triangle wheat fields, farmhouse kitchen tables and small mountain town main streets. Combining sound-rich narrative non-fiction episodes with in-depth interviews, season three will shine light on the state of family farming, the resurgence of regenerative techniques in agriculture and the realities of rural gentrification.

Our friends at The Modern West have a new season out, and we're excited to share part one with you! Like Reframing Rural, The Modern West shares surprising stories from often overlooked rural places, helping to reframe how we think about the West as it is today. In "The Rolling Stone," the first episode in their "The Great Individualist" series, they break down myths about what it means to be a "real" cowboy. Be sure to catch up on the rest of "The Great Individualist" season and follow The Modern West wherever you get your podcasts.

In part two of Megan's conversation with journalists Emily Stifler Wolfe and Jason Thompson of the "Common Ground Series" published by Montana Free Press, they discuss the threat of desertification, succession planning challenges family farms face and the sixth soil health principle of context.

Combining profiles of farmers from the Golden Triangle with soil science, history, policy research and transportive imagery, the award-winning "Common Ground" series is sowing hope in the future for farmers across the West. Written by Emily Stifler Wolfe with transportive photography from photo journalist Jason Thompson, "Common Ground," illuminates the role of regenerative agriculture in fostering resilient rural economies and communities.

Randi Lynn Tanglen, PhD grew up in the small NE Montana town of Sidney and turned an early love of literature into a career in education. Randi developed a specialty in hidden voices of 19th century Western American Literature including women, Indigenous and Black authors – a niche that has helped her uncover her family's storied history on the Great Plains. Today Randi leads the statewide humanities council, Humanities Montana, ensuring the public humanities are stewarded in Montana's rural and Tribal communities.

Jeanie Alderson comes from a storied legacy of ranchers in Southeast Montana. In the 1970s, her parents were among the rural organizers to form Northern Plains Resource Council. Today, Jeanie and her husband Terry are continuing their work standing up for family farms and ranches by fighting against the "Big Four" meatpacking monopoly that's extinguishing competition and dictating prices, forcing some ranches to go out of business.

Ashley Hanson is the director of PlaceBase Productions, a site-specific theater company working with nontraditional actors to create stories specific to small towns, and the founder and executive director of Department of Public Transformation, an artist-led nonprofit that's fostering community connection, civic pride and equitable participation in rural places. This episode explores the role of the arts in facilitating community cohesion and rural community development, and the challenges and opportunities of leading an art nonprofit.

Benya Kraus is the co-founder of Lead for America, a national nonprofit nurturing the next generation of rural leaders. Benya embodies the virtue of getting proximate to issues most affecting her rural home, while striving to restore solidarity between disconnected cultures and a divided nation.