Rural Remix

Over the weekend, demonstrators organized in more than 1,200 cities and small towns across all fifty states to protest actions taken by President Donald Trump and his billionaire advisor, Elon Musk. For Daily Yonder reporters Claire Carlson and Julia Tilton, the demonstrations are the latest response to a question that’s been floating around their newsroom for several weeks: What does dissent look like in rural communities right now?In this episode, Claire and Julia share dispatches from the rallies and town halls they’ve attended over the past month—events which were organized and attended by rural voters across the country. They share what they learned on the road as a way to contextualize the demonstrations this weekend, and look ahead to what organized rural dissent means for substantive action.Image: Tony Guerrero/Hays Post

 How does a community balance historic extractive industries like logging, fishing, agriculture, and mining with tourism and recreation? It’s not as simple as wanting to move away from extraction and toward tourism. In this episode, we’re headed to Ilwaco, a small town on the coast of Southwest Washington. The communities of Pacific County have historically relied on fishing and logging, and the town of Ilwaco is currently working to balance these historic industries with recreation and tourism.

Welcome to the Beyond the Clock Podcast! Ash Hanson from Department of Public Transformation and Anna Claussen from Voices for Rural Resilience are your hosts on a journey into the hearts, minds, and imaginations of rural artists, cultural workers, and change-makers across the country. In this episode, Anna and Ash converse with rural Minnesota-based artist and “slow-cycle change” champion, Nancy X. Valentine about reciprocity in placed-based artistic practice. In this conversation, they explore how celebrating diversity and shared humanity fosters connection and allows us to give and receive love to our community, even when our community sometimes doesn’t love us back. Be inspired to expand your capacity for love in order to find greater affinity for one another!

Low snowpack, drought, flooding, wildfires, warmer winters. Climate change is causing temperature shifts and natural disasters that affect outdoor recreation and the small town economies that depend on recreation. In this episode, we’re headed to New Hampshire ski towns with Daily Yonder reporter Julia Tilton and learning about how winter recreation economies in New England are changing because of warmer winters and less snow. We also learn why rural communities are more vulnerable to climate change with Daily Yonder data reporter Sarah Melotte.

This week, Daily Yonder reporters Claire Carlson and Julia Tilton unpack a recent conversation Claire had with former USDA official Jonathan Coppess, who served under President Barack Obama. Discussion points include changes at the USDA, what Coppess thinks journalists get wrong when covering agriculture, and why the government breaking a contract is the same as us breaking a contract with ourselves.

National parks capture the imagination of many travelers and road trippers seeking the Great Outdoors. But what do national parks do for the communities that serve as their gateways? We take a trip to New River Gorge National Park, the newest national park in the national park system, with Daily Yonder reporter Sarah Melotte, to learn about what Fayetteville, West Virginia is dealing with around the park designation.

Housing is one of the biggest challenges for popular destination communities around the country. Second home owners and vacation rentals drive up prices in our recreation communities and locals get priced out. In this episode we’re headed to Moab, Utah, to learn about the Community Land Trust and the work they’re doing to support affordable housing. We’ll also visit Taos, New Mexico with Daily Yonder reporter Anya Petrone Slepyan to learn about the town's housing challenges and potential solutions.

Introducing the Rural Reporter’s Notebook, a behind-the-scenes look at rural stories from across the country. An evolution of their coverage on the Keep It Rural podcast, Daily Yonder reporters Claire Carlson and Julia Tilton host this biweekly series. Bringing in voices from inside and outside the Daily Yonder’s newsroom, Claire and Julia unpack today’s biggest headlines and what they mean for life in rural places.

Introducing the Rural Reporter’s Notebook, a behind-the-scenes look at rural stories from across the country. An evolution of their coverage on the Keep It Rural podcast, Daily Yonder reporters Claire Carlson and Julia Tilton host this biweekly series. Bringing in voices from inside and outside the Daily Yonder’s newsroom, Claire and Julia unpack today’s biggest headlines and what they mean for life in rural places.In this episode, Daily Yonder reporter Ilana Newman joins to discuss her new podcast, Getaway, a five-episode series about what it means to be a rural recreation community. You can listen to episodes now on the Rural Remix feed.

In our first episode we talk to a few people who study the recreation industry and how it intersects with rural communities. We start out in Montezuma County, Colorado, Ilana’s home in Southwest Colorado and also visit Monte Vista, Colorado, another small town in Southern Colorado. These two communities are not necessarily known as tourism destinations, but the towns are invested in recreation development for locals and developing sustainable tourism along the way.