Our conversation this week is with Chloe Maxmin & Canyon Woodward. Chloe is the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine State Senate. She was elected in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent and (former) Senate minority leader. In 2018, she served in the Maine House of Representatives after becoming the first Democrat to win a rural conservative district. Canyon is a political strategist, author, and trail runner who served as Chloe's campaign manager in Maine. Together they wrote "Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends On It" and founded Dirtroad Organizing, where they continue their work empowering the next generation of rural organizers, staff, and candidates. They are both children of rural America, Chloe from Nobleboro, ME and Canyon from Franklin, NC and the North Cascades.

In this episode we talk about the long history of Chloe & Canyon's special friendship, their deep love of their home, family, and the natural world keeping them grounded, finding their way into organizing and political action at Harvard, the brain-drain in rural places, the circle from going away to coming home, listening to stories as a campaign strategy, curiosity replacing fear, understanding moral communities, telling more unified stories to beget social change, and the great work Chloe & Canyon are doing with Dirtroad Organizing.

Check out Chloe & Canyon's work: Dirtroad Organizing

Read their book! Dirt Road Revival

Chloe's appearance on Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Communities

Canyon & Chloe in the film Rural Runners

Mentioned in this episode:

Making Noise: The Story of a Skatepark by Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo

The Wandering House — Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo

How Students Pressured Harvard to Divest From Fossil Fuels

Howard Zinn

Marshall Ganz

Tim McCarthy

Hollowing Out the Middle by Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas

King Coal

Weather Reports — Terry Tempest Williams

Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center

Our conversation this week is with Hilda Downer. She's an Appalachian poet, retired psychiatric nurse and English instructor at Appalachian State University, member of the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative, and most importantly, a child of Bandana, NC.

In this episode we talk about Hilda's love for Bandana, the mica and feldspar mines as a haven, seeing beauty in what others see as ugly, walking and tasting nature, seclusion as a reason to get together, an infinite connection through landscapes and music, poets projecting themselves into the future, finding her place at Wiley's Last Resort and SAWC, the life and legacy of Jim Webb, poets as legislators of the world, and attention as the rarest form of generosity.

Location: Hilda's home in Sugar Grove, North Carolina

Read Hilda's work:

Wiley's Last Resort

When the Light Waits for Us

Sky Under the Roof

Bandana Creek

Mentioned this episode:

Groundglass by Kathryn Savage

Jim Webb

Wiley's Last Resort

Battle at Blair Mountain by Hilda Downer

Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Literary Magazine

Mitchell County Historical Society: Bandana

Roan Highlands Ecology

The Year of My Life by Issa Kobayashi

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

Southern Appalachian Writers Collective

Pauletta Hansel

Legislators of the World by Adrienne Rich

Mountaintop Removal 101 - Appalachian Voices

Appalshop

Our conversation this week is with Vivian Gibson. She's the author of 'The Last Children of Mill Creek' - a bestselling memoir about growing up in the 1950s in a segregated St. Louis neighborhood, a life-long entrepreneur, the Missouri Library Association's 2022 Missouri Author of the Year, a 2020 Missouri Humanities Council Literary Achievement Award winner, and most importantly, a child of Mill Creek in St. Louis, Missouri.

In this episode we talk all about Vivian's memoir, why the story of Mill Creek is so important, writing the story you want to read, the lasting influence of her mother and father, the suprising connections people across the world have to her memoir, sharing Mill Creek through a child's eyes, how Vivian developed her self-definition and confidence, The Last Children making it on syllabi, and the continued fight for recognition and understanding of her home.

Location: Vivian's kitchen table | St. Louis, Missouri

Buy Vivian's book! The Last Children of Mill Creek

Check out Vivian's website: vivian-gibson.com

Go see The Ross Family Exhibition at the Missouri History Museum

Watch & listen to Vivian's TED Talk, 'Deferred Storytelling'

Visit Pillars of the Valley

Mentioned in this episode:

Nikwasi Mound in Franklin, NC

Cowee Mound

Watauga Town

Kituwah Mound

Where's the Reservation? by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

Rondo Neighborhood in St. Paul, MN

How Interstate 40 changed the face of Jefferson St. in Nashville, TN

Toni Morrison

Belt Publishing

Historian Gwen Moore brings to life a largely untold part of St. Louis' past

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Harland Bartholomew: Destroyer of the Urban Fabric of St. Louis

Protest Targets SLU Plan to Tear Down Former Mill Creek Valley Buildings

Urban Renewal and Mill Creek Valley: Decoding The City

Our conversation this week is with Annie B. Jones. She's the owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia, host of the 'From the Front Porch' podcast, and child of Tallahassee, Florida.

In this episode we explore the power of ordinary stories, the beauty and challenges of small-town life and business, how faith built The Bookshelf, her evolution as a From-Away in Thomasville, work as humility, her wonderful team of booksellers and communal support, an honest (and refreshing) take on Amazon, and the strength given by "weak ties" inside a bookshop.

Visit The Bookshelf in Thomasville!

Listen to the From the Front Porch Podcast

Mentioned in this episode:

An Old Fashioned Girl and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

The Chumscrubber

Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Wendell Berry

Nora Ephron Documetary - Everything Is Copy

Dragonfly Books in Decorah, Iowa

Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, North Carolina

A Novel Escape in Franklin, North Carolina

Independent bookstores turn a new page on brick-and-mortar retailing

Hollowing Out the Middle by Patrick J. Carr and Maria Kefalas

James 1:2 - 4

The Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong

Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The From-Aways and The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser

I'm nobody! Who are you? by Emily Dickinson

Sundog Books in Seaside, Florida

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Our first conversation of 2024 is with John T. Edge. He's an acclaimed author, the host of TrueSouth on ESPN/SEC Network, Director of the Mississippi Lab at the University of Mississippi, the founding director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, resident of Oxford, Mississippi and child of Jones County, Georgia.

In this episode John T. takes us back to his childhood in Clinton, Georgia, talks about the infuence his mother and father have had on his life, explores the vicissitudes of his career, shares his fascination with lost worlds and underworlds and Underground Atlanta, gives us a lesson on change, and recounts how Oxford, MS became his true homeplace.

All things John T. Edge:

johntedge.com

TrueSouth on ESPN

The Mississippi Lab

Southern Foodways Alliance

Mentioned in this episode:

A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living by Luc Ferry

My Mother's Catfish Stew by John T. Edge | Oxford American

The Angolite, Prison Acitivist Resource Center

William Price Fox

The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker

White Trash Cooking by Ernest Matthew Mickler

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

Alberto Cruz Art

General Alfred Iverson's Birthplace Historical Marker - Clinton, Jones County, Georgia

Senator Iverson's Speech - January11, 1860

Janisse Ray

King Coal by Elaine McMillion Sheldon

Blair Hobbs - University of Mississippi

Remembering Emmett Till by Dave Tell

Gorilla by Lee Stockdale

Underground Atlanta

Dante's Down the Hatch

Natasha Trethewey

A Place Like Mississippi by W. Ralph Eubanks

Clinnesha Sibley - Story Made Podcast

Our conversation this week is with Garrett Martin: award-winning filmmaker, owner of VentureLife Films production company, and child of Hamilton, Virginia.

Martin has worked on numerous documentaries with his last feature, UNBOUNDED, receiving multiple international awards and has been shown around the world. His current feature, THE RIVER RUNS ON, is making its rounds through the film festival circuit and will premiere in 2023. His clients include organizations such as BBC, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, National Parks Conservation Association, Eastern Band of Cherokee and more.

Listen to us talk about Garrett's journey to becoming a filmmaker, the mystery and magic of nature, learning to break the rules, chasing after god, searching for meaning and identity with a camera, learning to film while hitchhiking from Newfoundland to Canada, sharing happiness, stories of unreal human generosity, the adventure of a lifetime on the Greater Patagonian Trail, and using film to open people up to the magic of the world.

Location: Garrett's home | Asheville, NC

garrettrmartin.com

theriverrunson.com

Watch UNBOUNDED

Mentioned in this episode:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Time Away From Time by Eliza Edens

Werner Herzog Films

Crumb - A film by Terry Zwigoff

Jan Dudeck - The Quest to Complete the Greater Patagonian Trail

Mile...Mile & a Half (2013)

Nantahala and Pisgah Forest Revised Plan Finalized (February 17, 2023)

Our conversation this week is with Elaine McMillion Sheldon: Academy Award-nominated, Peabody-winning, and two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and daughter of West Virginia.

She premiered her latest feature-length documentary, KING COAL, at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. She is the director of two Netflix Original Documentaries - "Heroin(e)" and "Recovery Boys" - that explore America's opioid crisis. In 2013, she released "Hollow," an interactive documentary that examines the future of rural America through the eyes and voices of West Virginians.

Listen to us talk all about KING COAL, the highlight of her life/career, film and processing grief, fiction as a way to be honest, self-definition and creativity, learning to watch your tone, overcoming limiting narratives, the struggle of memory and change, the power of having death in your mind, a strange and beautiful funeral, Louise McNeill and other unknown artists, stories as salvation, and the mythic character of Elaine's Paw Paw.

Location: Elaine's office at the University of Tennessee | Knoxville, TN

Upcoming screenings for KING COAL

KING COAL | Official Trailer

Hollow - An Interactive Documentary

John Prine - Summer's End Offical Video (directed by Elaine)

Find the rest of Elaine's films on her website!

Mentioned in this episode:

The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin

The Other Others – First Law and Songlines

Dr. Anne Poelina

Dr. Mary Graham

Alexis Wright

West Virginia Culture Center

Moments by Mary Oliver

Super Duty Tough Work Podcast

Alysia Santo of The Marshall Project

Howard Berkes

Death and Dying in Central Appalachia by James K. Crissman

The photographs of Finley Taylor

Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor

Hill Daughter: New and Selected Poems by Lousie McNeill

Our conversation this week is with Nina Parikh - Director of the Mississippi Film Office, filmmaker, producer of Sundance award-winning film 'Ballast', and child of Mississippi.

Listen to us talk about a timeless love story, searching for and deepening roots, the making of 'Ballast' and loving words from Roger Ebert, launching a career in Eudora Welty's living room, 25 years of connecting the world & Mississippi through film, how to get stuff done in a polarized world, belonging and not being enough of anything, and seeing the story in everything.

Location: Mississippi Film Office; Woolfolk State Office Building | Jackson, MS

Mississippi Film Office website

Watch Ballast

Watch The Inspection

Watch Eudora Welty interview about 'A Worn Path' (Feb. 21, 1994)

Rogert Ebert's review for Ballast : "The very life of life" (Oct. 29, 2008)

Selected passages from The Sante Fe and Taos Colonies: Age of the Muses by Arrell Gibson

Our conversation this week is with H.C. Porter - Vicksburg-based photographer, painter, printmaker, owner of H.C. Porter Gallery, and child of Jackson, Mississippi.

Listen to us talk about her initial joys in life, combining artistic interests, seeing Millsaps Avenue, the influence of Studs Terkel and Eudora Welty, the stories behind 'Backyards and Beyond' and 'Blues @ Home', and learning how to tell stories outside of Mississippi.

Location: H.C. Porter Gallery | Vicksburg, Mississippi

HC Porter website

Buy 'Backyards and Beyond' and 'Blues @ Home'

Follow HC Porter on Instagram and Facebook

Our conversation this week is with Brent Martin - author, conservationist, educator, Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy, 2022 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award winner, and longtime beloved member of the Cowee community in Macon County, NC.

Listen to us talk about Brent writing a book on the wild and beautiful life of George Masa, William Bartram's story and what he can still teach us two centuries later, the vicissitudes of conservation work, seeing difference differently, finding common ground in the wild, nature and the numinous, and finding/maintaining hope as a member of a horrible species.

Location: Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center | Macon County, North Carolina.

Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy

Buy Brent's book! George Masa's Wild Vison: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina

Brent Martin wins Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award

Mentioned in this episode, for you to explore:

William Bartram's Travels

John Lane

Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography by George Ellison and Janet McCue

Mountain Fever by Tom Alexander

Grove Park Inn detention facility during World War II

The Heart of the Alleghanies; or, Western North Carolina by Ben Grosscup and Wilbur Zeigler

'The Mystery of George Masa' Documentary

The Alarka Institute and Expeditions

Audobon Society Disavows Racist and Slave-Owner Elisha Mitchell

General Winfield Scott begins the Trail of Tears, absolutely not a hero

Emerson's Nature and the Artists by Tyler Green

'Luddite' Teens Don't Want Your Likes

How Tom Petty Barely Held It Together on 'Echo'