Vermont Edition

Betty Smith is known as Vermont Public’s founding mother. She’s been with the station since its very first day, and this year, she celebrates her 50th anniversary in public radio. She’ll tell us stories from the early days of VPR, when they weren’t sure the station would survive, and her thoughts on public media's future. 

Then: a new film about the melting ice of Greenland features a University of Vermont professor. 

It's the fourth installment of our annual fall series, School Stories. Every Tuesday this month, we’ve focused on issues related to Vermont schools. For this edition, we discuss pre-kindergarten.

In 2014, Vermont’s governor Peter Shumlin signed a universal pre-K bill into law. Thereafter, 3 and 4-year-olds could get free pre-K for 10 hours a week through their public school system, or through subsidy on tuition to a private or home-based childcare centers. We’re about a decade into the implementation of this law, and there have been some big wins. But the pre-K world in Vermont is far from some stable, done deal. 

Our guests this hour are helping to shape the vision for pre-k education in Vermont. We're joined by Vermont Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, Janet McLaughlin, executive director of the nonprofit Building Bright Futures, Morgan Crossman, and Executive Director of Turtle Island Children’s Center in Montpelier, Jocelyn York.

Broadcast live on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Some Vermont towns are adopting a new strategy to help people in crisis. It’s called situation tables.

We’ll learn about this initiative that’s underway from Bennington to Burlington. Police and social services groups come together for weekly meetings to help specific community members with housing, addiction and other stressors. We’ll hear from a Vermont Public reporter, and a retired police chief-turned-situation table trainer.

Then: some communities offer a program that pays repeat offenders not to do drugs. It’s funded with settlement money from opioid manufacturers. We’ll hear from a UVM psychiatrist who helped develop this controversial approach.

Over the next year, some of Vermont’s hospitals are going to see less money coming in than they wanted. Their budgets for the year are now set, and they know exactly how much they can charge insurance companies for patient care. 

Green Mountain Care Board chair Owen Foster joins us for the hour. The Board is in charge of approving budgets for Vermont’s 14 hospitals. He explains this year’s decisions, including some major cuts to UVM Medical Center’s rate requests. That’s the state’s largest hospital.

The Green Mountain Care Board also approves insurance premiums in Vermont. All these choices the board makes affect how much you will have to pay for health care. It’s a complicated knot we’ll untangle together.

Broadcast live on Thursday, September 18, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

There are two new record holders for fastest supported and unsupported Long Trial hikes. One athlete, Tara "Candy Mama" Dower, is a professional ultramarathoner from Colorado. The other, Tori "Chewy" Constantine, is a nurse from Waterbury. They’ll tell us about the mental and physical preparation it takes to hike the spine of the Green Mountains at top speed.

Plus: Investigators have identified the last remaining victim in the Bear Brook murder case. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Jason Moon hosted a blockbuster podcast about the case. He’s just released an update about this final twist in the story.

It's the fourth installment of our annual fall series, School Stories. Every Tuesday this month, we’ve been focusing on issues related to Vermont schools. On this episode we focus on AI in the classroom.

Tech companies are investing billions of dollars in data centers to power artificial intelligence, and some of the biggest users of AI are students. Are they using generative AI to cheat, or to enhance their learning?

First we focus on higher ed when we speak with Hector Vila, an associate professor in Writing & Rhetoric at Middlebury. He teaches a first-year seminar at Middlebury College called “AI, Writing and Creativity" and is one of the organizers of the upcoming Clifford Symposium about AI.

Then, we hear from educators in the Essex Westford School District who are monitoring and regulating the use of AI in their district. Peter Drescher is the director of technology and innovation, and Renee Langevin is the digital learning leader. She’s also the co-host of ExplAIned, a podcast about AI and education.

Broadcast live on Tuesday, September 15, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Vermont has a special history with horses. The Morgan horse is our state animal and some of the most famous endurance horses come from this state. There are also therapeutic benefits to horseback riding that can help people build their confidence too. 

To learn about what it takes to raise healthy horses, a panel of experts with personal equine connections will share their insights. Mary Fay leads the Whispering Pines 4-H Club and helps coordinate the Vermont 4-H Program. She lives in Westford and has been a 4-H leader for 55 years. We also spoke with Ripton resident Molly Witters, an equine veterinarian with Vermont Large Animal Clinic and Hospital in Milton, and Margaret Bojanowski, farm manager and riding director at the Eddy Farm School in Middlebury.