Reimagine Rural

Hazard, Kentucky, is overcoming the decline of its coal industry and the impact of the opioid epidemic, creating a vibrant downtown business district and renewed civic spirit. In this episode, Tony Pipa visits the Queen City of the Mountains to meet the people who decided downtown was worth fighting for and understand how they brought it back to life.

Also, see Tony's interview with Ryan Eller, executive director of Appalachia Funders Network, as they explore the powerful ways that narratives—both positive and negative—can shape a community's identity and future, and the role philanthropy and policy can play in enabling sustainability and prosperity in Central Appalachia.

Episode transcript and show notes.

Reimagine Rural is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to [email protected].

A single natural disaster can change a community for generations. In the span of five years, Canton, North Carolina, experienced Tropical Storm Fred, Hurricane Helene, and a significant economic shock: the closure of its paper mill. The 115-year-old institution had employed more than a thousand people and was a source of pride for workers and their families. In this episode, Tony Pipa visits Canton to understand how residents are working together to navigate this series of crises, and what it means to be a mill town without a mill.

See also Tony's interview with Matt Calabria, director of the Governor's Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, to learn more about how state leadership is coordinating recovery after the most devastating storm in state history.

Episode transcript and show notes.

Reimagine Rural is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to [email protected].

Over the past several years, a set of partners in Old Fort, North Carolina, has been developing a network of elite mountain bike and hiking trails that was starting to put the town on the map. In September 2024, Hurricane Helene left the place in ruins, damaging homes, trails, and more than a dozen businesses that had opened as the outdoor recreation economy took hold. In this episode of Reimagine Rural, the first of season 3, Tony Pipa visits this small western North Carolina town to learn how it plans to keep its vision for a just and sustainable future intact as it continues to rebuild after the storm.

See also Tony's interview with Matt Calabria, director of the Governor's Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, to learn more about how state leadership is coordinating recovery after the most devastating storm in state history.

Episode transcript and show notes.

Reimagine Rural is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to [email protected].

Season three of Reimagine Rural podcast launches soon with new episodes. Once again, host Tony Pipa is visiting small towns from coast to coast, talking to local people, capturing their stories of the changes unfolding in their hometowns, and exploring the implications and intersections with public policy.

From disaster recovery in North Carolina to downtown revitalization in Kentucky to cleaner and cheaper energy in Minnesota, plus healthcare, data centers, immigration, and a whole lot more across the country, Tony is telling a whole new set of stories from rural America on how local places are organizing themselves to meet challenges and find ways to help their communities thrive.

Episode transcript and show notes.

Reimagine Rural is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to [email protected].

As the Trump administration prepares to take power in Washington, Senior Fellow Tony Pipa, host of the Reimagine Rural podcast, looks at what has happened in rural policy under the Biden administration and what shifts in federal policy and emphasis might ensue under President Trump. No matter what changes come, Pipa notes, local communities will continue to solve problems locally.

This episode is a replay of an interview Tony did on The Current podcast in late December.

Episode transcript and show notes.

Reimagine Rural is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to [email protected].

The importance of public investment, and the difficulty rural places have in accessing it, are recurring themes in the stories we gather for the podcast. Communities often lack the time and staff to navigate the maze of available resources and match them to their project plans and aspirations. Policymakers are beginning to recognize that strengthening local rural capacity is a key to unlocking the investment that these communities need to thrive. In this final episode of season two, Tony Pipa sits down with state and federal leaders to learn how they are developing new ways to support rural America and the impact it's having.

Episode transcript and show notes.

Reimagine Rural is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to [email protected].

Innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental to America's national identity, yet they are commonly associated with big cities and areas like Silicon Valley. As we've encountered numerous times in past episodes, rural America is full of innovation and home to countless examples of ingenuity. In part two of our special innovators episode, rather than capture the story of a rural place, Tony Pipa hears from rural entrepreneurs who returned to revitalize their hometowns through the boundary-pushing use of agrovoltaics, a worker-owned approach to revitalizing the local textile industry, and business development fueled by narrative change, storytelling, and financing.

Episode transcript and show notes.

Reimagine Rural is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to [email protected].

Innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental to America's national identity, yet they are commonly associated with big cities and areas like Silicon Valley. As we've encountered numerous times in past episodes, rural America is full of innovation and home to countless examples of ingenuity. In this episode, part one of two, rather than capture the story of a rural place, Tony Pipa hears from entrepreneurs from across the country who have created ventures to bring the digital economy, affordable housing, and childcare to rural places.

Episode transcript and show notes.

Reimagine Rural is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to [email protected].

Rural America is facing a national affordable housing crisis, and nearly half of rural renters are rent-burdened. With the unique characteristics and challenges of housing in rural America, but also with policy solutions that are often designed for urban and suburban communities, rural communities are pursuing innovations in collaboration, financing, and construction to meet their residents' needs. In this episode, Tony Pipa visits Coachella Valley in Riverside County, California, to learn about an ambitious collaboration that is on track to increase affordable housing production in the region by more than twenty-five times, and also talks with a housing developer in rural Colorado who is creating new housing for the local rural workforce.

Episode transcript and show notes.

Reimagine Rural is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to [email protected].

The land and resources needed for the transition to clean energy are found disproportionately in rural places. Many rural communities now find themselves faced with a potential for clean energy development that brings both economic opportunities and political tensions, especially with the implementation of the Infrastructure and Investment in Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. In this episode, Tony Pipa visits Isabella County, Michigan, to learn how a small group of farmers came together to create a community-minded revenue-sharing lease that helped overcome the controversy and resulted in the largest wind farm in the state.

Episode transcript and show notes.

Reimagine Rural is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to [email protected].