This hour, Vermont Edition brings you the stories of three creative people in our region and their new projects.

We begin with Richard Hawley of Ripton. He recently celebrated the publication of the seventh volume of his series On My Way Out: A Reflection on Closure. A mixture of memoir, diary and philosophical musings, the book explores such topics as mortality, retirement and friendship.

Musician and Champlain College art professor Al Larsen reunited his band Some Velvet Sidewalk for the first time in 30 years. The band, woven into the fabric of the Pacific Northwest's '90s grunge scene, has released a new album, Critters Encore. A month-long show of Larsen's artwork is also now on display at the Champlain College Art Gallery. 

Artist and organizer Katherine Leungof Milton makes zines and other art that explore her Cantonese and Jewish identities. Leung is the creator of a new, six-part podcast called Ritual about Asian Jews in Vermont. The podcast was created with the support of Vermont Folklife, where Katherine is one of their inaugural communities fellows. 

Broadcast on Thursday, June 25, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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As it turns out, many people visit the Green Mountain state just to tee off here. We’ll parse over the numbers, and discuss how the golf industry is attempting to counter perceptions that it's not ecologically friendly and a sport just for the elite. 

Joining us to discuss the sport are David Jankowski, president of the Vermont PGA, and Mark Finch, director of grounds at Country Club of Vermont and the vice president of the Vermont Golf Course Superintendents Association.

If trying to get a small round ball into a cup isn’t quite your cup of tea, there’s also disc golf. Two of the premier courses in the country are in Vermont. To tell us more is Jeff Spring, the head of the Pro Disc Golf Tour, who also designed the Brewster Ridge course at Smuggler's Notch, and Aidan Trombley, the resort's manager of disc golf operations.

Smuggler's Notch is a Vermont Public business sponsor.

Broadcast on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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

In the latest installment of our series, Vermont Edition At Home, we head to the Montpelier home of writer Katherine Paterson. 

The award-winning author has written more than 40 books, including The Great Gilly Hopkins, Jacob Have I Loved, Bread and Roses Too, among many others. Her best-known book, Bridge to Terabithia, was adapted into a Hollywood movie in 2007. Paterson is one of only six American authors to receive the Hans Christian Andersen Award. The Library of Congress named her a ‘Living Legend’ in 2000.

Paterson tells us about her early life in China as the daughter of missionaries, grappling with the rush of success and making writer friends in Vermont. We’ll also hear how she balanced motherhood with a burgeoning literary career.

Earlier this year, Vermont’s first director of animal welfare, Lisa Milot, released a report on how the state responds to animal welfare and cruelty cases. She discussed plans to modernize the system, emphasizing the need for clearer standards, stronger enforcement and additional resources.

We also heard from Medora Plimpton, who runs Howling Mountain Wildlife Rescue from her home in Starksboro. She is one of only a few people in Vermont licensed to work with rabies-vector species such as foxes, skunks and raccoons. Plimpton also shares what to do if you encounter an injured or baby animal.

A new graphic novel tells the story of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, two seamstresses in 1800s Addison County. The two women lived together as a couple for nearly half a century, and they were accepted and beloved by their community. They're buried under the same gravestone in Weybridge.

Norwich cartoonist Tillie Walden tells this love story in her new historical graphic novel 'Charity & Sylvia.' Walden is the former Vermont cartoonist laureaute and the author of more than a dozen books.

We also talk with Coco Moseley, executive director of the Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury, which holds Charity and Sylvia's archives. And Vermont Humanities executive director Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup helped bring the story to Walden's attention. Vermont Humanities will distribute thousands of copies as this year's pick for the Vermont Reads program. (Note: Vermont Public is the media sponsor of Vermont Reads.)

This Friday is Juneteenth, a holiday marking the date that some of the last enslaved people in the Confederacy received word that they were free. Juneteenth celebrations date back to the 1860s, but it didn’t become a federal holiday in 2021. Now, communities across our region mark Juneteenth with storytelling events, speaker series, community meals and music.

The Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro will host Singing a Journey of Freedom: Songs of Slavery and Emancipation on Friday. The program began as a research project by Mat Callahan, a musician and author currently residing in Bern, Switzerland. He uncovered songs composed and sung by enslaved people and abolitionists that had been buried by history. 

Callahan then teamed up with Dr. Kathy Bullock to bring this music to life. Bullock is a visiting professor of music at Bennington College, as well as a singer, arranger and choral conductor specializing in gospel, spirituals and classical works by composers from the African diaspora. 

We are also joined by Rev. Leon Dunkley, an ethnomusicologist and a minister at the North Chapel in Woodstock.

Then, Joan Gorman of the Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh shares the history of the museum, which used to be a stop on the Underground Railroad. 

The FIFA World Cup is underway in stadiums across the US, Canada and Mexico. Toronto and Vancouver in Canada are two of the World Cup host cities. For Vermonters, the closest place to see a match is Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. It’s been temporarily renamed Boston Stadium for the duration of the Cup, on FIFA’s insistence.

Giving us the lowdown on Boston is GBH News reporter Esteban Bustillos. In addition to the Boston matches, he's been covering celebrations from local immigrant communities and the residence of the French national team at a nearby university. 

For a Vermont perspective, we brought together a trio of Englishmen with a deep love of the game: Tyler Caton and Riley Moloney, two members of the Vermont Green FC; and Joseph Fox, owner of the SLIDE IN Pub in Shelburne, Vermont's first soccer bar. 

Howard Dean is a former Vermont governor, presidential candidate and Democratic National Committee chair. But before all that, he was just a local physician who really wanted Burlington to have a bike path.

In the latest installment of our occasional series Vermont Edition At Home, Howard Dean invites us into his living room in Burlington. 

He talks candidly about his upbringing in New York and his ongoing grief over his brother’s early death. We also hear his thoughts on the current political climate and Vermont’s struggle to provide affordable healthcare to all residents.

Broadcast on Thursday, June 11, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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The U.S. Mint ceased making new pennies in November. Our humble, one-cent, copper-and-zinc coin can still be used as currency, but its circulation will dwindle in the years ahead.

Vermont's first coin — before it became a U.S. state — was also made of copper. These coins date back to days of the Green Mountain Boys, when Vermont was its own republic. Historian Jon Mathewson of Middletown Springs shares the history of Harmon's mint in Rupert. 

Joe Watkins of Vermont Coin & Jewelry in South Burlington gave us his coin collector's perspective on how to make a pretty penny from collecting rare pennies.

For insight from the banking world, we talk with Jennifer Smith, a regional leader with Union Bank in Morrisville. We also hear from Matt Cota, managing director of the Vermont Retailers & Grocers Association. He tells us about a new state law that creates a system for rounding cash purchases up or down at the register.

When it comes to idioms and common English phrases, the penny punches above its weight: penny pincher, a pretty penny, penny-wise, a penny saved and so many more. Helping us make sense of the penny's place in language is Maeve Eberhardt, associate professor of linguistics at the University of Vermont.