Vermont Edition

Vermont’s state legislators remain divided on the need for mandated district consolidation.

More than 12,000 Vermonters make their living as farmers. 41% percent of them are women. And while you can read lots of the articles about the agricultural industry, sometimes the best way to really capture a changing industry is through a photograph. 

The work of our region’s female farmers has been memorialized in black-and-white by the Plymouth-based photographer JuanCarlos Gonzalez. His series, Vermont Female Farmers, has been showcased at museums and gallery spaces across Vermont and in Boston. Its next stop is the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro, where Gonzalez's photographs will be on view from late February through late March.

Gonzalez and two of the women featured in the series join us to talk about the long legacy of women farmers in Vermont. Emily von Trapp owns von Trapp Flowers, a year-round flower farm in Waitsfield, and Jennifer Rodriguez owns Triple J Pastures, a livestock and vegetable farm in Irasburg.

But first we talk with meteorologist Mark Breen at the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury about the upcoming weekend of extreme cold. 

Broadcast live on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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There are a few different types of people when it comes to winter. There are migrators — the snowbirds, the Florida folk. There's the active bunch — the ones who, when you complain about winter, they cry out, "But have you even tried cross country skiing?" And then there are the hibernators — the bookworms, stew cookers, knitters and tea drinkers.

Animals' winter survival strategies fall along similar lines. On Wednesday a trio of animal experts guided Vermont Edition listeners on a tour of our ecosystem in winter. We've compiled some of their best facts about overwintering, alongside stories from listeners.

The guests were: Ash Kerby-Miller, a staff naturalist at North Branch Nature Center, Sophie Mazowita, a consulting naturalist, educator, and wildlife tracker from Jeffersonville, and Gregory Pask, an insect chemical ecologist and associate professor of biology at Middlebury College.

"In our human experience of winter, it's a very tough time for a lot of us," Kerby-Miller said. "But for some animals, we are at the southern end, the warm end, of their range, and this is just a perfectly comfortable place for them."

Broadcast live on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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Each month, Vermont Edition takes a deep dive into one Vermont town or city and learns what makes it special. At the end of the hour, a guest helps us randomly select our next location by spinning our big colorful county wheel. 

For the latest in our Town by Town series, we head to Swanton, in Franklin County, for a live broadcast from the Swanton Public Library. Swanton is known for the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, its ancient history of human settlement, its close proximity to the Canadian border, its historic railroad station, and much more.

Over the past year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made many changes in federal health guidelines. Some of his biggest shakeups relate to vaccinations. Last week the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – the CDC – scaled back its childhood vaccine guidelines for six different immunizations, including flu and RSV.

This hour we’re joined by Vermont’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Rick Hildebrant. He talks us through the recent federal-level changes to vaccine policy, and how those policies interact with state-level guidelines. We’ll also learn more about this year’s flu season and what you can do to keep yourself and your family healthy this winter.

Dr. Hildebrant became the commissioner on Oct. 13, 2025. Formerly, he held several leadership roles at Rutland Regional Medical Center. He did his residency in internal medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock and is a clinical assistant professor at UVM’s Larner College of Medicine.

Then, we'll talk with Era MacDonald, founder and director of the Merrymac Farm Sanctuary about her work saving animals and a new accreditation that will enable them to save even more. 

Broadcast live on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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Ski season is not immune to the impacts of climate change. This seasonal activity and other outdoor leisure activities will require adaptation to withstand warming Northeast winters. 

Dr. Caitlin Hicks Pries, associate professor of biological sciences at Dartmouth College, discusses her research on the surprising ecosystem impacts of snow loss. The Appalachian Mountain Club has also been studying how winter climate change is affecting outdoor leisure pursuits in the region, and their director of research Dr. Sarah Nelson shares what they've learned. 

We also hear from Dick Dreissigacker, co-director of Craftsbury Outdoor Center, on the center's unusual strategy for securing early-season snow.

Broadcast live on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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This legislative session, lawmakers are working on addressing the state’s housing shortage by continuing to reform the state's permitting and land use laws.

This work began in 2024 with the passage of Act 181, which made significant changes to Vermont's signature land use law, known as Act 250. Act 181 divides the state into three tiers, each with different requirements for development. The new law places more of an emphasis on the location of the project rather than the project’s size.

A roundtable of guests discussed Act 181 as well as future legislative changes to spur housing development: Miro Weinberger, executive chair of Let’s Build Homes and the former mayor of Burlington; Kati Gallagher, sustainable communities program director at the Vermont Natural Resources Council; and Zeke Davisson, the chief operating officer of Summit Properties. 

Plus, Rep. Laura Sibilia, an Independent from Dover, discussed her concerns about Act 181's impact on rural communities. 

Plus, a conversation with Green Mountain Care Board's Owen Foster 

Publishing a book can take many forms. Some may be published with large corporations in New York City while other books are self-published. Another option for writers to consider is publishing with a small, independent press. 

Samantha Kolber, owner and publisher of Rootstock Publishing in Montpelier, and Dede Cummings, owner and publisher of Green Writers Press in Brattleboro, tell us about the economics of publishing a book, soup to nuts, and how they work with new authors.

Former New Hampshire Public Radio host Laura Knoy published her debut historical fiction novel, The Shopkeeper of Alsace, last year with Bedazzle Ink Publishing. She shared with us her perspective as a new author and why an independent press was the best choice for her.