The Birthday Party: America at 250
You might have heard that the U.S. turns 250 this year. It’s a big, corporate to-do — the phrase “America 250” is plastered all over basebal...
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Brave Little State
What if you could decide what stories Vermont Public Radio should be covering, before they're even assigned? That's the idea behind Brave Little State.
Brave Little State Podcast Guide
Listen to Brave Little State, a Society & Culture podcast by Vermont Public Radio. Stream 217 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.
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20 of 217 episodesWhy does Vermont send people to an out-of-state prison?
Right now, there are around 150 Vermonters behind bars in Tutwiler, Mississippi. Question-asker Devon Kurtz is wondering: Why does the state...
Why are there so many twins in Sheldon?
There’s a saying that twins are “in the water” in the town of Sheldon. Our journey to get to the bottom of this curious bit of local lore ta...
A day with Bradford’s bottle-sorting wiz
Inside a cavernous redemption warehouse in the Upper Valley, customers come to exchange bottles and cans for coins — and to see bottle-sorte...
Vermont’s love-hate relationship with fast food
People love to highlight Vermont “firsts” — like, how we’re the first state to ban billboards and to approve civil unions. Or how we’re firs...
Why are self-storage facilities popping up all over Vermont?
We all accumulate lots of … stuff. Increasingly, we’re cramming more of that stuff into self-storage facilities: those fields of metal locke...
What's the story behind the asbestos mine in Eden?
This is a tale about what happens when a toxic industry booms and busts, the mess that’s left behind and the fight over how to clean it up....
Who are Vermont’s volunteer firefighters, and why do they do it?
Fire departments across the country are struggling to find volunteers. But in Norwich, new recruits are lining up. We spent a weekend at the...
When is it safe to go ice fishing on Lake Champlain?
Ice is unavoidable during winter on the Champlain Islands. Surrounded on all sides by an icy expanse, islanders embrace this seasonal terrai...
What do Vermont counties actually do?
Vermont has among the weakest forms of county government in the United States, placing a big burden on towns. Is there a better way forward?...
Who controls the deployment of the Vermont National Guard?
The Vermont National Guard usually takes orders from the state. But at the end of 2025, President Trump deployed the Vermont guard to the Ca...
Off the Path: Where the Appalachian Trail began
Today, the origin story of the Appalachian Trail, which stretches more than 2,000 miles from Maine to Georgia. But it was a peak in southern...
The case of D.W. Bancroft’s curious cure-all
A few years ago, John Haffner was digging in his White River Junction backyard when his shovel hit a glass bottle buried underground. Then h...
What happened to all the halfway houses in Vermont?
Question-asker Manny recently got out of prison. He wants to learn about his options for transitional housing — a place where he could stay...
Why is Rutland made to feel like Vermont’s ‘ugly child’?
Rutland — or, “RutVegas” — gets a pretty bad rap outside the city’s limits. But some of Rutland’s most passionate cheerleaders say there’s a...
The case of the missing Tinmouth apple
Leave your grocery store apples at home and join our search for this most unusual Vermont fruit. For photos from our journey, check out the...
200th episode extravaganza
For the 200th episode of the show, we set ourselves a challenge: take on 20 listener questions in a single episode. We went back to the very...
Class in the classroom
“There was this huge divide in, like, social grouping and connection … No one really talked to each other.” “Making friends at the high scho...
Lake Champlain’s brush with ‘Great’-ness
There are five Great Lakes: Superior, Ontario, Michigan, Huron and Erie. But for a few fleeting weeks in the late 1990s, Lake Champlain made...
Twelve hours at the Richmond park and ride
We took a full-day detour to answer this question from Heather Channon of South Burlington: "Who is using all of the park-and-ride lots?" We...