Yonder Radio’s first-ever special report is called Power Dynamics: The Rural Data Center Boom. We’re digging into how different kinds of power – from literal computing power to political and economic power – shape data center development in rural America.

Two-thirds of new data centers are going to be built in rural places, according to the Pew Research Center. That puts rural communities at the forefront of a nationwide scramble to build the physical infrastructure powering AI. Still, as the U.S. economy embraces AI, rural America has yet to feel the technology’s economic windfall.

Instead, many communities are grappling with competing visions for the future of their land, water, and energy resources, as data centers crop up to supply growing AI demand. Over the past year, the Daily Yonder has reported on the rural data center rush in nearly every region. What has emerged is a story not only of what gets built, and where, but also of who gets to decide.

This week on Yonder Radio, we start out talking to Daily Yonder contributor Kaitlyn McConnell about the future of small rural cemeteries in the Ozarks. As donations decline and cemetery caretakers age, communities and individuals will have to decide what happens to these sites of local history.

Then we head to Montana, to learn about interactive performances about mental health to communities around the state. Next, we’ll learn about a one-of-a-kind ballet in Wisconsin, where the dancing is done by farm equipment – hay rakes, to be exact.

We’ll hear from French filmmaker Luce Fayolle about her time documenting the American Southwest, and musician and professor Trevor McKenzie brings us the story of Otto Wood, also known as the Appalachian Robin Hood.

Our featured musician is Bruce Salmon, who combines influences from funk to Klezmer in the hills of New Mexico.

Tune in for all that and more on this week’s episode of Yonder Radio.

This week on Yonder Radio, we start out talking to Daily Yonder contributor Kaitlyn McConnell about the future of small rural cemeteries in the Ozarks. As donations decline and cemetery caretakers age, communities and individuals will have to decide what happens to these sites of local history.

Then we head to Montana, to learn about interactive performances about mental health to communities around the state. Next, we’ll learn about a one-of-a-kind ballet in Wisconsin, where the dancing is done by farm equipment – hay rakes, to be exact.

We’ll hear from French filmmaker Luce Fayolle about her time documenting the American Southwest, and musician and professor Trevor McKenzie brings us the story of Otto Wood, also known as the Appalachian Robin Hood.

Our featured musician is Bill Salmon, who combines influences from funk to Klezmer in the hills of New Mexico.

Tune in for all that and more on this week’s episode of Yonder Radio.

This week on Yonder Radio, we bring you a story from KBIA reporter Jana Rose Scheils about energy policy in Missouri.

We also bring in Alexis Bonogofsky with the World Wildlife Fund to learn about sustainable ranching.

Jocelyn Catterson takes us to the San Luis Valley with her interdisciplinary work interpreting drought through painting and art.

Nick Bowlin of the Frontier and Katie Campbell of ProPublica bring us the story of their new documentary, Toxic Ground: How Oil Field Pollution Is Threatening Oklahoma.

Finally, we head to the midwest with Arts Midwest reporter frankie felegy who brings us a story about basket weaving.

Our featured musician this week is country artist Ryne Brashear.

Tune in for all that, and more, on Yonder Radio.

This week on Yonder Radio, we have a story from Daily Yonder data editor Sarah Melotte about changes to the voting rights act and gerrymandering in rural areas.

Then we head to Wisconsin where Jim Winship and his son are making a film about aging in place in rural areas.

Our partners at ICT bring us a story about broadband coming to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

We also bring you the final episode of a five part series in partnership with the Rural Faith Initiative about LGBTQ+ affirming churches

Then we head to eastern Kentucky where community members are creating a mosaic mural to commemorate the 2022 flood that devastated the town of Whitesburg, Kentucky.

Our musician of the week is 80 Proof Alice and they discuss the bluegrass music festival they run in Kansas.

Tune in for all that and more on Yonder Radio.

This week on Yonder Radio, we begin in Weiser, Idaho – a town battling a cat-astrophe. Reporter Astra Lincoln brings us the story of the rural town’s efforts to tackle the influx of hundreds of stray cats through a trap and release program.

Next, we’re heading to western North Carolina, where Anya Petrone Slepyan reports on Cherokee pottery traditions that have been practiced for nearly 3,000 years.

Then, Pulitzer Prize finalist Megan Kate Nelson tells us about her latest book, The Westerners: Myth and Belonging on the American Frontier. We continue our series on rural southern churches that are welcoming LGBTQ members, and get some advice on seeing the forest through the trees from Daily Yonder columnist Donna Kallner.

Finally, we commemorate four years since deadly flooding in Eastern Kentucky, with the story of some “drunk angels” who came by to help out.

And our featured musicians this week are the Gladson Family Band out of Hancock County Tennessee.

Tune in for all that, and more, on Yonder Radio.

This week on Yonder Radio, we start off with Daily Yonder reporter Madeline de Figueiredo, who brings us a story about efforts to improve maternal health care in rural Texas. An influx of funding for local providers will boost capacity, and help grow programs focused on holistic and culturally informed care.

Then, we travel to East Kentucky, where photographer Malcom Wilson seeks to combat stereotypes of Appalachian women with a series of glamour shots in the style of old Hollywood.

We catch up with Carlos Valdez, an incredible young man who has found his purpose as a motivational speaker, and our partners at the rural faith initiative highlight LGBTQ-affirming churches in the rural South.

And we visit an entirely different kind of church, which is now a multipurpose art, performance, and community space, in Colorado’s San Luis Valley.

Our featured musician is Sarah Burton, a touring artist whose one true home is the road.

Tune in for all that, and more, on Yonder Radio.

This week on Yonder Radio, we start out with a story from KFF Health News about the ongoing rollout of the Rural Health Transformation Program. Reporter Sarah Jane Tribble explains how large companies are well-positioned to benefit, as states scramble to meet deadlines for administering the funds.

Then, we head to rural Nebraska to learn about the social benefits of livestock sale barns. And the Ag and Water Desk reports on corn belt farmers who are banding together to create regenerative farming practices.

Next, Whitney Kimball Coe interviews Reverend Claire Brown about southern rural churches that are welcoming LGBTQ+ members. Also, Frankie Felegy takes us on a midwestern punk rock odyssey to Minot, North Dakota.

Our featured musician is Trevor McKenzie, an old-time singer, storyteller, and multi-instrumentalist out of Boone, North Carolina.

Tune in for all that, and more, on this week’s episode of Yonder Radio.

This week, we start out with a conversation with Daily Yonder reporter Ilana Newman who brings us a story from Illinois, where community members are trying to get state policy passed that would stop CO2 pipeline companies from using eminent domain to build pipelines.

We have two takes on America’s 250th birthday this week, one from editor of the Glasgow Courier, Skylar Baker Jordan and another from columnist Donna Kallner.

We welcome back Kiki Bush to the show with a conversation with Susannah Broun about supporting the arts in rural areas.

Then, we have a segment from our partners at the Rural Faith Initiative about LGBTQ+ affirming rural churches and parishes. It’s a conversation between Whitney Kimball Coe and Reverend Claire Brown.

Our featured musician this week is Sam Miltich, who brings his jazz music and mental health advocacy to the show.

This week on Yonder Radio, we’re starting with an update on state governments’ efforts to regulate data centers. Daily Yonder reporter Julia Tilton drops by to tell us about the fate of an Illinois bill, called the POWER Act, which aimed to limit water usage for data centers and increase transparency.

Then, Daily Yonder reporters Madeline de Figueiredo and Anya Petrone Slepyan head to far West Texas, where the Trump administration is enacting controversial plans to build 500 miles of border wall through the Big Bend region.

Next, we learn about Rural Assembly Everywhere, a virtual gathering taking place in July, which will connect rural leaders, innovators, and community members across the country.

And reporters Julia Tilton and Claire Carlson fill us in about efforts to fight coastal erosion in Washington, whilst standing in – where else – a cranberry bog.

Our featured musician is Gabe Mangold, a heavy metal guitarist out of Del Norte, Colorado.

Tune in for all that, and more, on Yonder Radio.