Cidiot

Welcome to Season 6 of Cidiot®! I'm excited to talk about 700,000 acre-big Catskill Park, "America's First Wilderness," with Ryan Penny, owner of Camp Catskill in Tannersville, NY.  In two parts, we'll cover what drew Ryan to the Catskills, about starting his store in Tannersville, spotting a cidiot, and about Catskill Park, including his four favorite spots "inside the blue line." We also get into Kaaterskill Falls and the controversy of its claim as the tallest waterfall in New York state. We also talk about micro spikes, crampons and how I shouldn’t wear my Stan Smiths into waterfalls. In part two, we cover culture, including the story and connection of Rip Van Winkle. You'll want to wake up for this. Be sure to check out these links: Tannersville: Cidiot Guide to 5 Places To Visit Nearby (on the Cidiot.com blog) Camp Catskill store (Use promo code CIDIOT10 for 10% off. For a limited time.) Episode 55: Hike Your Own Hike (with Sean of Mountain-Hiking.com) Cidiot® is a registered trademark, hosted and produced by Mat Zucker. Visit Cidiot.com for more info including sponsorship and partnership opportunities. Original music created by Space Studios.

Cidiot closes out Season 5—the show's biggest yet—with reflections on what worked and what's ahead. Thank you for making Cidiot one of the Hudson Valley's biggest and most loved shows. Stay warm catching up on past episodes and watching the Cidiot anthem video, available here, via Cidiot.com, and on YouTube. Thank you for our sponsors and partners this season, including El Sueco and the Don, Greig Farm, Hudson Valley Kitchen Design Center, Hudson Community Incubator, Taconic Toastmasters Club, Sunflower Market in Woodstock and Rhinebeck, and Scot Hastie of Pardee's Agency (A World Company).   Thank you to all the guests this season, including Ben Senterfit and Paul Rivers Bailey, Andrew Addotta, Allison Chawla, Jeremy Franson and Sandra Franson, Emily Sachar, Osun Zotique, Robinson Greig, Elizabeth Sobol, Mary Howard and four other Taconic Toastmasters, Diane Parisella, Kathy Stevens, Brett Barry, Suzanna Hermans, Amy Zimmerman, Amanda Stromoski, Kendra Sinclair and Jared Vengrin, Alissa Hessler, Anne Sanger and Amy Krane. Cidiot 's new season begins March 2023. Would love hear your ideas and comments and please rate & review the show at Cidiot.com or on Apple Podcasts. Stay in touch via Cidiot.com, join the newsletter and follow on Instagram. And come visit.

I love color. I’m fascinated by color. I have questions. Amy Krane is an architectural color consultant as well as a real estate broker. And get this: she has her own podcast on color called Let’s Talk (Paint) Color with colleague Amy Woolf. On this episode in three fun, chatty parts, Amy and I talk about her journey upstate (she’s not a newbie) and then becoming a color consultant and then into my thousand questions about color especially for rural homes, historical homes - starting with why are barns red - or as you’ll hear Falun Red - and what about painting your outbuildings the same color as your house? And then she surprises with what color was researched to paint your front door for $6,000 more in resale value. You’ll also hear about her philosophy called “Fit In, Stand Out.” Part 1: About Amy’s Journey Part 2: Mat’s Color Questions Part 3: Mistakes to Avoid and Hudson Valley Favorites Thanks for listening to Cidiot®. Until December 22nd, you can help change history by voting for Cidiot for Listener's Choice in the prestigious Signal Awards in the Lifestyle category. Currently one of six finalists and gunning for gold. Amy’s Links: Company site - AmyKraneColor.com Let’s Talk (Paint) Color Podcast Other Links Mention in the Episode: The Garden Conservancy Open Days A Way to Garden Podcast (Margaret Roach)  Hancock Shaker Village (Pittsfield)  The World’s Most Famous Colorist: A Short Story (Amazon)  Episode 9: Red All Over Thanks so much to Scot Hastie at Pardee's Agency and to Sunflower Market, with stores in Woodstock and Rhinebeck, for supporting Cidiot this season. How to contact Scot: email: shastie@pardeesinsurance.net phone: 845-331-0025 x1940 web:  Pardee's Agency (A World Company)

Meet a couple who makes a leap, not just in moving upstate, but by restoring a motel. Cidiot talks to Kendra Sinclair and Jared Vengrin who have just opened the Reclaimed Motel in Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York.  Jared grew up here, met Kendra in college and now they’ve together been lovingly updating this motel along the Albany Post Road with a view of the Catskills. With fantasies of being Moira from Schitt’s Creek and furnishing it with vintage items within a 20-mile radius, they’ve designed it with a nod to 1960s motor lodge experience, including fun, comfortable and groovy. Hear about their experience, why they made the choice, motel history featuring Robert Redford, and some advice about visiting the Hudson Valley in the winter months including maple tapping!  Thanks Kendra and Jared for the special offer.  Reclaimed Motel is offering Cidiot listeners 10% off on your first stay. Just enter CIDIOT in your reservation form.  Links mentioned:  Reclaimed motel: Site | Instagram (@reclaimedmotel)  New York State Small Business Development Center  From Wreck to Reno (The Daily Catch) Thank you Sunflower Market, with stores in Woodstock and Rhinebeck, for supporting Cidiot. Long.Live.Local.

It seemed like a giant beehive was in our willow. Or was it? What should a cidiot do anyway? This episode is about the little critters that fill our lives—and our properties—in the Hudson Valley. Bees, wasps, bats, snakes, spiders, chipmunks, frogs, beavers—and more. Tune in for an education and a giggle. Links: Beaverland, Leila Philip (new book!) Beekeeping in the Hudson Valley and Catskills Episode 78 Brett Barry shares his snake (and bear) stories Pestmasters Blog Spotted Laternfly (Scenic Hudson)  Rethinking the Humble Beaver (Scenic Hudson) Sponsors: Sunflower Market (Woodstock, Rhinebeck) Photo: Brett Barry of Kaatscast podcast

Artist Alissa Hessler shares her inspiring journey from city life to rural Maine, discussing the impact of urban exodus. She talks about winter survival tips, canning, and community building in the Hudson Valley. The podcast explores the joys and challenges of country living and offers advice for those considering a move to the countryside.

When you think of art in the Hudson Valley, your head probably goes to the Hudson Valley School and the river, mountains and landscapes of Thomas Cole and Frederick Edwin Church. You know, dead old white men. Anne Sanger runs the Pinkwater Gallery in uptown Kingston. She’s an artist and her gallery focuses on women artists of the Hudson Valley. We talk about her journey to the Hudson Valley, taking a wrong turn—or was it a right turn—and becoming an artist. We also chat about the types of artists she represents and the etiquette and advice for newbies like me shopping for art. Yes, you can sometimes borrow it! Thanks to our sponsor Sunflower Market with locations in Woodstock and Rhinebeck. Sunflower is devoted to deepening symbiotic relationships through clean and sustainably sourced food. Visit their site and follow them on Facebook and Instagram. Pinkwater Guide to Art in the Kingston Area: GALLERIES IN KINGSTON In Uptown / the Stockade: Pinkwater Gallery  Headstone Gallery  In Midtown: Monument  In the Rondout / the Strand: Artport Kingston  West Strand Gallery  On Route 28 (between Kingston and Woodstock): The Lockwood Gallery  FALL LEAF PEEPING + ART Art OMI in Ghent  Storm King in the lower Hudson Valley near Windsor  Opus 40 in Saugerties  Annual Art Events in Kingston Art Walk Kingston in September  O+ Festival in October  Art Instruction for Adults Woodstock School of Art  Kingston Ceramics Studio 

In a special cross-over in honor of International Podcast Day, Cidiot talks to this year’s winner of the Chronogrammie for regional podcast (we got runner-up!) Brett of Kaatscast podcast. It’s no wonder he won. A pro in audio with a very handsome voice and a public radio style podcast, Brett has recording more than 60 episodes of Kaatscast as well as audiobooks and driving tours of the Catskills.  Recorded outside at Ole Savannah’s in Kingston on the water, we talk about how working in audio leads to producing driving tours of the Catskills and his award-winning podcast (!) and we also compare the Catskills and the Hudson Valley and talk about bears and snakes. Ick. Be sure to also tune into Brett’s interview of Mat on his new episode of Kaatscast. Links Kaatscast podcast  Brett’s scenic tours (free) of the Catskills at Drive28.com North South Lake (Tannersville) Dibbels Quarry  The Best Rural & Regional Podcasts (Cidot.com blog)

If you love books, you’ll love this episode. Cidiot gets local, pro recommendations from Oblong Books in Millerton and Rhinebeck, The Chatham Bookstore in Chatham, Rough Draft Bar & Books in Kingston, and several Cidiot listeners. Links here and on the episode page on Cidiot.com Books mentioned: One Hundred Miles From Manhattan, Guillermo Fesser (memoir) The Rural Life, Verlyn Klinkenborg (memoir) This Poison Heart, Kalynn Bayron (novel) Please Wait To Be Tasted: L’il Debs Oasis Cookbook (cookbook) The Blade Between, Sam J. Miller (novel) Elegy For An Appetite, Shaina Lowe-Banayan (memoir) Diamond Street, Bruce Edward Hall (history) The Story of Historic Kingston, Stephen Blauweiss and Karen Berelowitz Our Country Friends, Gary Shteyngart (novel) A Ship Made of Paper, Scott Spence (novel) Fifty Acres and a Poodle, Jeanne Marie Laska (memoir) Country Matters: The Pleasures and Tribulations of Moving from a Big City to an Old Country Farmhouse, Michael Kora (memoir) Typecast, Andrea J. Stein (novel)  Bookshops: Cidiot bookshop (Bookshop.org) Oblong Books (Rhinebeck and Millerton) Rough Draft Bar & Books (Kingston) The Chatham Bookstore (Chatham):  Golden Notebook (Woodstock) Inquiring Minds (Saugerties) Magpie Bookshop (Catskill) Spotty Dog (Hudson) Half Moon Books - used (Kingston) Merritt Bookstore (Millbrook) H.A.S. Beane Books - used (Red Hook) Hobart Book Village (Hobart) The Bookloft (Great Barrington, MA) Rodgers Book Barn (Hillsdale) Other: Murders in the Hudson Valley Podcast (Apple) Welcome new sponsor: Sunflower Market, with stores in Rhinebeck and Woodstock, is devoted to deepening symbiotic relationships through clean and sustainably sourced food. Visit their site, follow on Facebook & Instagram.

A big part of why we love the Hudson Valley and Catskills is because of the farms and the animals. In this awesome, moving, eye-opening, and hilarious episode, you’ll meet the fabulous Kathy Stevens and hear how Catskill Animal Sanctuary in Saugerties got started and its mission. You’ll learn about Noodles, a blind horse named Buddy, and a cow named Tucker, what Kathy calls 'random acts of callousness' and about the Underfoot Family.  “The tours change people,” Kathy explains.  You’ll also get advice on how to engage with animals on a tour (i.e., take your sunglasses off, sit down, don’t make a loud sound), CAS's unique programming, and why and how to volunteer. We find a job for Mat. And yes, yes, yes, Kathy and I will together make animal sounds. Catskill Animal Sanctuary website (donate, volunteer, programming) Herd Around The Barn podcast (Kathy's award-winning show) Welcome new sponsor: Sunflower Market, with stores in Rhinebeck and Woodstock, is devoted to deepening symbiotic relationships through clean and sustainably sourced food. Visit their site and follow them on Facebook and Instagram. Past episodes on animals: 46. Pets 44. Chicken Run 41. Meet A Farmer 35. Animals