Vermont Public Docs

"Uncomfortable conversations need to happen."

Raneen Salha and Sarah White discuss their thoughts, feelings and personal connections to the war between Israel and Hamas.

More than four years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the state judiciary is still struggling with an enormous backlog of criminal cases and competing public pressures around how justice should be pursued. To better understand how the system is working, Seven Days and Vermont Public embedded two reporters at the Burlington criminal courthouse for one week. Read the accompanying print story on Vermont Public or Seven Days.

Two Abenaki First Nations are continuing to call for Vermont institutions not to work with state-recognized tribes, and to reconsider the process that led to the state recognizing those groups as Abenaki tribes.

Those nations — Odanak and Wôlinak — are receiving a mixed response.

2024-04-02: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the response of Vermont's state-recognized tribes to scrutiny of the state recognition process and whether they have demonstrated their Abenaki ancestry. Additional context has also been added about genealogical documentation cited in – but not made public with – state recognition applications.

John Harrison traveled Vermont as a preacher in the 1880s. A racist name in town records preserved his memory.

Note: This story contains sensitive material, including racial slurs. Please listen with care.

Ashley Messier is the co-chair of the Corrections Monitoring Committee in the Vermont Legislature, and she’s the reentry services program manager for Vermont Works for Women. She grew up in Essex with an abusive father and with little money, and she found herself repeating the cycle in early adulthood. This is a story about multigenerational poverty and abuse, and the temporary relief of opiates.

"What class are you?" is an occasional series from Vermont Public reporter Erica Heilman. In it, she talks with people from all sorts of backgrounds about money and class and privilege.

Many people don’t want to talk about class, because class differences are the source of cultural division and tension. In this story, Erica talks with old friend Susan Randall, a private investigator based in Vergennes, about the luxuries of growing up upper middle class.

"What class are you?" is an occasional series from Vermont Public reporter Erica Heilman. In it, she talks with people from all sorts of backgrounds about money and class and privilege.

In 2023, around 70% of the total wealth in this country was owned by the top 10% of earners. The lowest 50% of earners only owned 2.5% of the total wealth. In this story, Vermont writer and poet Garrett Keizer, who has written extensively on the history of labor unions, talks about what happens when we address gender and race equity, but we ignore income inequality. Here's Garret Keizer.

"What class are you?" is an occasional series from Vermont Public reporter Erica Heilman. In it, she talks with people from all sorts of backgrounds about money and class and privilege.

Stephanie Robtoy works as an account manager at Working Fields, a staffing agency that helps people with barriers gain and maintain a job. She grew up in St. Albans in a huge family of Robtoys, some of whom are pretty notorious in town for criminal activity. In this story, Stephanie talks about what it was like to grow up poor, with a last name that was hard to escape.

"What class are you?" is an occasional series from Vermont Public reporter Erica Heilman. In it, she talks with people from all sorts of backgrounds about money and class and privilege.

Irfan Sehic and his family fled the war in Bosnia and arrived in Barre when Irfan was 17. He worked a number of jobs, went to college and started his own insurance agency, which he still runs out of his house. And for the last few years, he's been a club soccer coach. Irfan lives with his wife and son in Milton, and in this story, he describes the American class system as he sees it, starting with the middle class.

"What class are you?" is an occasional series from Vermont Public reporter Erica Heilman. In it, she talks with people from all sorts of backgrounds about money and class and privilege.

Who gets to decide who is Abenaki? Vermont’s four state-recognized tribes — and the state recognition law — have different definitions and criteria for what it means to be Indigenous than many Indigenous Nations. In this episode, we look at this disconnect, and lay out what’s at stake, including power, money and authority.

This is Chapter Three of “Recognized,” a special series from Brave Little State. Chapters One and Two are available right now in this podcast feed. Find a transcript of the series here.

And to learn more about our approach to this story, you can read our editor's note, here.

***

“Recognized” was reported by Elodie Reed. Sabine Poux is our producer. The senior producer and managing editor is Josh Crane. Additional editing from our executive producer, Angela Evancie, as well as Tristan Ahtone, Brittany Patterson, Myra Flynn and Julia Furukawa. Julia Furukawa, Corey Dockser and David Savoie contributed reporting to this episode. Extra support from Mark Davis and Sophie Stephens. Theme music is by Ty Gibbons; other music by Blue Dot Sessions.

There are lots of other people who contributed to this series along the way — too many to name everyone here. You can find a full list on our website..

As always, our show is better when you’re a part of it:

• Ask a question about Vermont
• Vote on the question you want us to tackle next
• Sign up for the BLS newsletter
• Say hi on Instagram and Reddit @bravestatevt
• Drop us an email: [email protected]
• Call our BLS hotline: 802-552-4880
• Make a gift to support people-powered journalism
• Leave us a rating/review in your favorite podcast app
• Tell your friends about the show

Brave Little State is a production of Vermont Public and a proud member of the NPR Network.