Episodes

United States troops are now pulling out of Afghanistan, bringing to a close America’s longest war. U.S. intelligence predicts that the Taliban will take over the country within six months, returning the country to much way we found it when we invaded following the 9/11 attacks. Since 2001, the Global War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan has resulted in the deaths of 800,000 people, including 7,000 Americans, while spawning terror groups including ISIS and other jihadi organizations. ...

Alex Showerman had a secret. Growing up in Thetford Center, Alex competed on boy’s teams in cross-country, running and hockey. But Alex was actually running from who she was. Like more than half of transgender or nonbinary youth, she considered suicide rather than reveal her secret. Showerman went on to graduate from St. Lawrence University and work in progressive politics. In her free time, she threw herself into mountain biking and backcountry snowboarding. She numbed the pain of hiding from ...

Alex Showerman had a secret. Growing up in Thetford Center, Alex competed on boy’s teams in cross-country, running and hockey. But Alex was actually running from who she was. Like more than half of transgender or nonbinary youth, she considered suicide rather than reveal her secret. Showerman went on to graduate from St. Lawrence University and work in progressive politics. In her free time, she threw herself into mountain biking and backcountry snowboarding. She numbed the pain of hiding from ...

Alex Showerman had a secret. Growing up in Thetford Center, Alex competed on boy’s teams in cross-country, running and hockey. But Alex was actually running from who she was. Like more than half of transgender or nonbinary youth, she considered suicide rather than reveal her secret. Showerman went on to graduate from St. Lawrence University and work in progressive politics. In her free time, she threw herself into mountain biking and backcountry snowboarding. She numbed the pain of hiding from ...

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the secret official history of the Vietnam War that was leaked by Daniel Ellsberg. The Pentagon Papers revealed that multiple U.S. presidents and top government officials had been lying about the Vietnam War to the American people and to Congress. To mark the anniversary of America’s most famous exposé, we are rebroadcasting my 2015 Vermont Conversation interview with Daniel Ellsberg about war, conscience, and whist...

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the secret official history of the Vietnam War that was leaked by Daniel Ellsberg. The Pentagon Papers revealed that multiple U.S. presidents and top government officials had been lying about the Vietnam War to the American people and to Congress. To mark the anniversary of America’s most famous exposé, we are rebroadcasting my 2015 Vermont Conversation interview with Daniel Ellsberg about war, conscience, and whist...

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the secret official history of the Vietnam War that was leaked by Daniel Ellsberg. The Pentagon Papers revealed that multiple U.S. presidents and top government officials had been lying about the Vietnam War to the American people and to Congress. To mark the anniversary of America’s most famous exposé, we are rebroadcasting my 2015 Vermont Conversation interview with Daniel Ellsberg about war, conscience, and whist...

Mark Redmond was on a glide path to success. Fresh out of Villanova University, he landed a plum job with a major insurance company and had a cushy apartment on Park Avenue. Money, status, and job security were all firmly in his grasp. Then he walked away and left it all behind. Redmond moved into Covenant House, a shelter for homeless youth located in Times Square, described by Rolling Stone at that time as “the sleaziest block in America.” His pay was $12 per week. Redmond writes in his new...

Mark Redmond was on a glide path to success. Fresh out of Villanova University, he landed a plum job with a major insurance company and had a cushy apartment on Park Avenue. Money, status, and job security were all firmly in his grasp. Then he walked away and left it all behind. Redmond moved into Covenant House, a shelter for homeless youth located in Times Square, described by Rolling Stone at that time as “the sleaziest block in America.” His pay was $12 per week. Redmond writes in his new...

Mark Redmond was on a glide path to success. Fresh out of Villanova University, he landed a plum job with a major insurance company and had a cushy apartment on Park Avenue. Money, status, and job security were all firmly in his grasp. Then he walked away and left it all behind. Redmond moved into Covenant House, a shelter for homeless youth located in Times Square, described by Rolling Stone at that time as “the sleaziest block in America.” His pay was $12 per week. Redmond writes in his new...

Martha Hennessy is a grandmother of 8, a retired occupational therapist, and a federal prisoner. The 65-year old resident of Weathersfield, Vt. is in jail, along with six other pacifists, for breaking into a Georgia submarine base in 2018, spilling blood and spray-painting anti-war slogans to protest against the threat of nuclear weapons. The group is known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. The name refers to the prophet Isaiah who said that swords shall be beaten into plowshares. “I have no crimi...

Martha Hennessy is a grandmother of 8, a retired occupational therapist, and a federal prisoner. The 65-year old resident of Weathersfield, Vt. is in jail, along with six other pacifists, for breaking into a Georgia submarine base in 2018, spilling blood and spray-painting anti-war slogans to protest against the threat of nuclear weapons. The group is known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. The name refers to the prophet Isaiah who said that swords shall be beaten into plowshares. “I have no crimi...

Martha Hennessy is a grandmother of 8, a retired occupational therapist, and a federal prisoner. The 65-year old resident of Weathersfield, Vt. is in jail, along with six other pacifists, for breaking into a Georgia submarine base in 2018, spilling blood and spray-painting anti-war slogans to protest against the threat of nuclear weapons. The group is known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. The name refers to the prophet Isaiah who said that swords shall be beaten into plowshares. “I have no crimi...

The 2021 legislative session is in the books. The historic Covid-19 session was conducted entirely online over Zoom. Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, was often eerily alone in her office at the Statehouse in Montpelier. The session confronted — and then deferred on — some intractable issues such as state pension reform, but it was largely notable for the lack of rancor between Balint, Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) and Republican Gov. Phil Scott. That’s partly due to...

The 2021 legislative session is in the books. The historic Covid-19 session was conducted entirely online over Zoom. Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, was often eerily alone in her office at the Statehouse in Montpelier. The session confronted — and then deferred on — some intractable issues such as state pension reform, but it was largely notable for the lack of rancor between Balint, Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) and Republican Gov. Phil Scott. That’s partly due to...

The 2021 legislative session is in the books. The historic Covid-19 session was conducted entirely online over Zoom. Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, was often eerily alone in her office at the Statehouse in Montpelier. The session confronted — and then deferred on — some intractable issues such as state pension reform, but it was largely notable for the lack of rancor between Balint, Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) and Republican Gov. Phil Scott. That’s partly due to...

“Critical race theory” is the newest front in the culture wars, and conservative activists are intent on making Vermont one of its battlegrounds. At least 16 states with Republican-led legislatures or Republican governors are considering or have signed into law bills to limit the teaching of critical race theory, which, simply stated, considers how racism has been a powerful force in American history that has disadvantaged Black people and other people of color. About 100 residents packed a ch...

“Critical race theory” is the newest front in the culture wars, and conservative activists are intent on making Vermont one of its battlegrounds. At least 16 states with Republican-led legislatures or Republican governors are considering or have signed into law bills to limit the teaching of critical race theory, which, simply stated, considers how racism has been a powerful force in American history that has disadvantaged Black people and other people of color. About 100 residents packed a ch...

“Critical race theory” is the newest front in the culture wars, and conservative activists are intent on making Vermont one of its battlegrounds. At least 16 states with Republican-led legislatures or Republican governors are considering or have signed into law bills to limit the teaching of critical race theory, which, simply stated, considers how racism has been a powerful force in American history that has disadvantaged Black people and other people of color. About 100 residents packed a ch...

One of the most striking consequences of the murder of George Floyd is just how far reaching the movement for Black lives and against racism has been. Rallies and protests spread from Minneapolis, where Floyd was murdered by police, to small towns across America. One of those communities is the village of Morrisville, Vermont, population 2,000. On the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, students staged a walkout from Peoples Academy, the local public high school, and from nearby Stow...

One of the most striking consequences of the murder of George Floyd is just how far reaching the movement for Black lives and against racism has been. Rallies and protests spread from Minneapolis, where Floyd was murdered by police, to small towns across America. One of those communities is the village of Morrisville, Vermont, population 2,000. On the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, students staged a walkout from Peoples Academy, the local public high school, and from nearby Stow...

One of the most striking consequences of the murder of George Floyd is just how far reaching the movement for Black lives and against racism has been. Rallies and protests spread from Minneapolis, where Floyd was murdered by police, to small towns across America. One of those communities is the village of Morrisville, Vermont, population 2,000. On the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, students staged a walkout from Peoples Academy, the local public high school, and from nearby Stow...

The world is awash in misinformation and conspiracy theories. Foremost among them is the “big lie” that President Trump won the 2020 election (he lost by 7 million votes), that Covid-19 is a hoax (it has killed nearly 600,000 people in the U.S. and over 3 million worldwide), that the Covid vaccine implants a microchip created by Bill Gates (it doesn’t), and that Antifa stormed the US Capitol on January 6 (the FBI says it was white supremacists and far right groups, not Antifa). All of these fals...

The world is awash in misinformation and conspiracy theories. Foremost among them is the “big lie” that President Trump won the 2020 election (he lost by 7 million votes), that Covid-19 is a hoax (it has killed nearly 600,000 people in the U.S. and over 3 million worldwide), that the Covid vaccine implants a microchip created by Bill Gates (it doesn’t), and that Antifa stormed the US Capitol on January 6 (the FBI says it was white supremacists and far right groups, not Antifa). All of these fals...