Rural Remix

Sometimes the monster isn’t so literal, and deeper fears take center stage: isolation, grief, disillusionment, despair. In these cases, rural landscapes often play a supporting role. In our third episode, we turn our attention to the fear of isolation — both physical and emotional —and how it’s connected to portrayals of grief in horror movies. Films discussed include “Midsommar” (2019), “The Edge of the Knife” (2018), and “Deliverance” (1972).

Continuing on from our first episode, we zoom in to a specific kind of "urbanoia." Join us for a closer look at a set of iconic movies that made a horror trope out of an over-the-top stereotype, introducing us to an infamous class of villain: the killer hillbilly and his degenerate rural family. As some Appalachians and rural people seek to reclaim power and pride in the word hillbilly, what are we to do with the killbillies? Films discussed include "Deliverance" (1972), "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974), and "The Hills Have Eyes" (1977).

Where do horror movies happen? Small towns, dark forests, cornfields, and farmhouses have each been the locations for iconic scary films. But why are rural settings so popular, and how do these choices affect the areas represented? In the first episode of our 5-part series exploring the often-flawed, but always interesting, depiction of rural people and places in horror movies, we look at urban fears about the country, and rural fears about the city. Which is scarier, and should we take more issue with the tropes, or the inversions of them? Films discussed include "Jennifer's Body" (2009), "Pearl" (2022), "Frankenstein" (1931), and "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" (2010).

Beginning this month Everywhere Radio becomes Rural Remix. Together with our partners at the Daily Yonder and Center for Rural Strategies, we'll bring you unexpected rural stories that talk back to the stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding rural communities. Up first, just in time for Halloween, is our debut series, the Rural Horror Picture Show, five episodes exploring the depiction of rural people and places in horror films. If you're already a subscriber to Everywhere Radio, you'll seamlessly transition into the world of Rural Remix. When our very first episode drops, you'll find it waiting for you in your podcast feeds. And if you haven't yet joined our community of listeners, now is the perfect time.

Daily Yonder reporters Sarah Melotte and Claire Carlson discuss how extremist political movements impact rural communities, focusing on examples like banning electronic voting systems and defunding libraries. They emphasize that rural areas face higher stakes when extremist movements infiltrate, affecting essential services and community dynamics. The episode explores the challenges faced by rural libraries, county clerks, and the influence of vocal minorities promoting election denialism. The guests highlight the importance of rural communal spaces like libraries and the broader implications of extremist movements in rural areas.

How are rural people feeling about the future? What are they concerned about? What do they value? Pollster Celinda Lake talks with Center for Rural Strategies President Dee Davis about the findings of a soon-to-be-released poll that explores what's on the minds of rural voters in 2023. "We really asked questions to get beyond the surface, and we looked in-depth at concerns and values and then support for policies," Lake says. "And what I loved about it was that the poll was really defying a lot of conventional wisdom."   Find the video, interview highlights, and transcript at https://www.ruralassembly.org. About the guest Celinda Lake is a pollster and political strategist who is considered one of the nation’s foremost experts on electing women candidates and on framing issues to women voters. President of the polling firm Lake Research Partners, Lake grew up on a ranch in rural Montana. American Politics calls Celinda a "super-strategist or, better yet, the Godmother," and Working Woman says she is "arguably the most influential woman in her field." 

Teresa Kittridge has spent much of her life serving rural people across the country as a leader in the private, public and nonprofit sectors as well as serving in elected office in Minnesota. She founded the nonprofit organization 100 Rural Women to inspire leadership and create connections among rural women. We talk with Teresa about the organization; what has changed in rural policy work; the definition of rural; and what she heard from women in all 87 counties of Minnesota. About Teresa Teresa Kittridge, founder of 100 Rural Women, lives in Marcell Township in Northern Minnesota.  She has spent much of her life serving rural people across the country, with a career that includes executive level leadership in the private, public and nonprofit sectors as well as serving in elected office. 100 Rural Women models her life’s work, by serving women in rural places to inspire leadership, create connections, networks, support civic engagement and encourage leadership. The first twenty years of her career were spent serving as an officer of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Following her time in the legislature, she built the Washington D.C. office of RUPRI (Rural Policy Research Institute) and served as Director of National Policy Programs. She has over a decade of experience in leading and building national and international businesses, as a publishing executive for MN based Coughlan Companies and then as founder and president of MNREM (Minnesota Renewable Energy Marketplace)  a non-profit organization. Kittridge returned to RUPRI in 2014 as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. She is currently building the national non-partisan organization, 100 Rural Women. Teresa is an active civic and community volunteer. She is an elected Trustee and Secretary of the Board for the Bigfork Valley Hospital Northern Itasca Hospital District, serves on Marcell Township Business Loan committee and on committees of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Rural Innovation.  Kittridge served as Board Chair and as a Director on the Waconia School Board. She holds a M.A. in Organizational Leadership and a B.A. in Business Administration.

Whitney talks with Libby Lane, the Rural Assembly's new Deputy Director. She comes to us from the rural Midwest, from the 16-County region in Western Illinois, sometimes called Forgottonia. She grew up in a town of 3000, fell in love with musical theater and acting, and ultimately made her way to Chicago, where she now lives with her wife and their rescue dog, Roxie. And she's still a member of her rural community in Rushville and visits often. Whitney and Libby talk about Libby's desire to honor communities like the one she came from; supporting marginalized voices in rural; and their shared love of musical theater. This might be our first episode to include a singalong. Before joining the Rural Assembly, Libby served as senior marketing manager for Bostrom, an association management firm in Chicago. She has more than 15 years of combined experience in the fields of nonprofit management, marketing, event planning, and user experience.   Libby earned her BFA from musical theater, from Millikin University and her MFA in acting from Western Illinois University. For regular listeners of this podcast, you know Libby's musical theater background is making Whitney all kinds of happy. 

Tony Pipa is part policy wonk, part story teller. He focuses on connecting with policy makers, local leaders, and community members to reimagine federal policy to fit the needs of rural America. He uses his wide range of expertise to uplift stories of progress and success in rural communities.We talk with the native rural Pennsylvanian about the diversity of rural America, his new podcast, and bringing the rural story to Washington D.C. Tony Pipa is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution. Tony launched and leads the Reimagining Federal Rural Policy initative, which seeks to modernize and transform U.S. federal policy to enable community and economic development in underserved rural places across the U.S. He hosts the Reimagine Rural podcast, which profiles rural towns across America that are making progress on their efforts to thrive amid social and economic change. Tony serves as the vice-chair of the board of directors of StriveTogether; as a senior associate research fellow in the Global Cities program at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies; and as a member of several task forces and advisory committees. He grew up in rural Elysburg, Pennsylvania, in the heart of anthracite coal country and attended Stanford University, graduated from Duke University, and earned a Master of Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School.  

The United States is the world's largest incarcerator. Many of the prisons built since the 1990s are in rural places, particularly in Central Appalachia as an economic development strategy to replace the coal industry. The prison economy of Central Appalachia figures strongly into the work of both our guests, multimedia artist and organizer Sylvia Ryerson and professor and author Judah Schept. Ryerson is a multimedia artist, organizer and PhD candidate in American Studies at Yale University. For over a decade, her work rooted at the intersection of scholarship, activism and art, has probed the overlapping crises of racialized mass incarceration, rural economic abandonment, and environmental destruction. She is also the director of a new documentary Calls from Home, which documents WMMT.FM's longstanding radio show that sends familial messages of love over public airwaves to reach people incarcerated in Central Appalachia. Schept is a professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. His most recent book is Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia. He has been active with numerous organizations and campaigns centered on decarceration, criminalization and abolition.  About our guests Sylvia Ryerson is a PhD Candidate in American Studies at Yale University, with a Master’s concentration in the public humanities. Prior to graduate school she worked as an independent radio producer, and at the Appalshop media arts and education center in Whitesburg, Kentucky. There she served as a reporter and the director of public affairs programming, and co-directed Appalshop/WMMT-FM’s Hip Hop from the Hilltop & Calls from Home radio show, a nationally recognized weekly radio program broadcasting music and toll-free phone messages from family members to their loved ones incarcerated, and Making Connections News, a multimedia community storytelling project documenting efforts for a just transition from coal extraction. Her research questions build from this work, and are rooted at the intersection of scholarship, activism, and art.  Judah Schept is a Professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. He is the author of Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia (New York University Press, 2022) and Progressive Punishment: Job Loss, Jail Growth, and the Neoliberal Logic of Carceral Expansion (New York University Press, 2015. He is co-editor of The Jail is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration (Verso Books, 2024). He holds a PhD from Indiana University and a BA from Vassar College. https://youtu.be/CPlHM3aIsXQ Everywhere Radio spotlight the good, scrappy and joyful ways rural people and their allies are building a more inclusive nation. Everywhere Radio is a production of the Rural Assembly. Get the Rural Assembly in your inbox: https://www.ruralassembly.org/newsletters