Love 'em or hate 'em, jam bands have infiltrated our culture and forever changed the music industry. There’s the Grateful Dead and Phish, but also Widespread Panic, The String Cheese Incident, and The Dave Matthews Band.

Author Mike Ayers joins Mikaela to talk about his new oral history which chronicles the rise of the jam band genre in the 1990s, and the culture that surrounded them. It's called "Sharing in the Groove: The Untold Story of the 90s Jam Band Explosion and the Scene that Followed." We talk about some of the biggest jam bands to come out of this region, and remember some of the most iconic local concerts. Mike Ayers is a veteran music journalist, and he’s been to more than 20 Grateful Dead shows and 130 Phish shows.

Broadcast live on Tuesday July 22, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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Last year, Vermont became just the second state in the nation to ban a type of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Now, that ban is going into effect. 

Many farmers use these treated seeds to keep pests away, but pollutes water and hurts fragile pollinator populations, like honey bees. The Vermont state government is in charge of enforcing this ban. It also has a role in determining exemptions. Who still gets to use neonics, and under what conditions? We’ll hear how the state is making those choices, using information from local farms. We’ll also learn about other neonics restrictions in Quebec and New York.

To make a feature film, you don’t have to move to Hollywood. It might take a little more resourcefulness, but you can do it right here in our region.

Three local film professionals join Vermont Edition to talk about their latest projects: Chad Ervin, president of the Vermont Production Collective and director of the documentary Gone Guys; Emma Schlenoff, producer of The Obelisk and a Vermont Production Collective board member; and Alexey Hartlieb-Shea, who co-wrote The Obelisk and stars in it.

Then; Shelburne Museum in Chittenden County celebrates a wide range of American art. If you visit, you’ll find everything from a round barn full of circus-themed figurines, to a Ticonderoga steamboat permanently beached on a green field. Through the end of October, you can also visit the exhibition “Making a Noise: Indigenous Sound Art.” The pieces on display are all by Indigenous artists, and they merge sound and textile design to create interactive works.

Victoria Sunnergren is Shelburne Museum’s curator of Native American Art. She tells us more about the artists and their work. 

Broadcast live on Thursday, July 17 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

Many longtime educators understand that the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to teaching is not always effective. There are different types of learners with unique needs.

Landmark College in Putney is designed for students who learn differently, like those with dyslexia, autism, or ADHD. The college marks its 40th anniversary this fall, and its new president Jim Dlugos is optimistic about its future.

The Willowell Foundation runs outdoor learning programs in Addison County that let young students chart their own paths. Founder and executive director Matt Schlien discusses his efforts to revive the Walden Project, a high school program focused on ecology, wellness, civic engagement and time outdoors.

Broadcast live on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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Sunil "Sunny" Eappen is the president and CEO of the University of Vermont Health Network. It’s the largest hospital system in Vermont where health insurance premiums are among the highest in the country. We talk with Dr. Eappen about why that is, and the role hospitals play in setting health care costs. He also discusses how he’s thinking about the hospital system’s budget for the coming year.

President Trump’s new travel ban is in effect. For a month now, people from 12 countries have been barred from entering the U.S., including Afghanistan, Burma and Eritrea. Seven other countries are partially banned, and the President has floated the idea of banning several more.

We’ll hear how the travel ban affects refugees, green card holders, international students and others in our region. joined from Brattleboro by Joe Wiah, director of the Ethiopian Community Development Council, a refugee resettlement agency in Brattleboeo, Tracy Dolan, the director of Vermont’s state refugee office, and Kristen Connors, an immigration attorney at Montroll, Oettinger and Barquist in Burlington

Plus: The Mexican consulate recently set up a mobile location in Brattleboro. We’ll hear from a Mexican farmworker living in Vermont amid the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown.

A good jingle is short, catchy and teaches you a business name or phone number that you can't get out of your head — maybe even for years.

This hour we celebrate the art of the local jingle. We from some jingle writers who have written some legendary earworms. Jim Giberty is based in Bethel and wrote ads for local ski areas, as well as some broader New England gems, most notable, The Lobster Claw in Cape Cod. Cary Reich is based in Florida, but penned songs for Pizza Putt and Wendell's Furniture that will be familiar to longtime Vermonters. And we hear from Daisy Nell, a folk musician who has just so happened to have her songs become local jingles - her most famous being from the 1980s for the Snowsville General Store. 

Broadcast live on Thursday, July 10, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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