Shows
Rumble StripJoslyn House RevisitedCreditsThanks to all the residents who talked with me, and the beautiful Arlene and Becky Wright, managers of the house.My friend Kelly Green produced this show with me. She’s great at this PLUS she’s a great defense attorney! If you're in trouble, call Kelly.Click here for more information on the Joslyn HouseThe song for this show is A Wave in the Air by The Imperfectionists, from their latest album, Universal Consent.And my frickin ALL TIME FAVORITE IMPERFECTIONIST SONG: Astroplane.
2025-10-2126 min
Rumble StripWhat Now Sounds Like, the AI Isn't Smart EditionRecordings: In this show you hear from Carolyn and her neighbors on Coits Gore Road in Vermont, Amanda in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, dogs in Atlanta, Jeff Sharlet interviewing Pastor Pete in Holiday City, Ohio, Heather’s kids in Washington DC, Jarod in West Philly, Susan and Stella in Pittsburgh, a xylophone on the Thea Foss Waterway in Tacoma. You heard my mom Barbara on my couch, Devon in Gladstone Missouri, the train in Melbourne Australia, Aaron in Shediac New Brunswick, night insects in South Africa, Zack in Lafayette, Indiana, Beverly and her mom in Toronto, Ali...
2025-03-0220 min
RadiolabSmall PotatoesAn ode to the small, the banal, the overlooked things that make up the fabric of our lives.Most of our stories are about the big stuff: Important or dramatic events, big ideas that transform the world around us or inspire conflict and struggle and change. But most of our lives, day by day or hour by hour, are made up of … not that stuff. Most of our lives are what we sometimes dismissively call “small potatoes.” This week on Radiolab, Heather Radke challenges to focus on the small, the overlook, the everyday … and find out what happens...
2024-04-1959 min
Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)Where We've Been and Where We're GoingToday's episode, a re-run from last year at this time, featured Rabbi Yoni Dahlen, Dr. Erika Bocknek, Michael Franti, Jaye Johnson, Shari Colton, Eric Colton, Caveh Zahedi, Rob Walker, Jessi Hempel, Kevin Kelly, Dan Messé, Ned Specktor, Holly Wren Spaulding, Jo Strausz Rosen, Erica Heilman, Grace Bonney, Rikke Houde, Laura Hawley, Lucy Anderton
---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.h...
2023-12-2631 min
Rumble StripTaylor Swift Music for the EndMy friend Kelly Green is a defense attorney who represents people accused of murder. She spends a lot of time reading autopsies and driving around talking with witnesses and worrying. She’s got a lot going on at the moment. A couple weeks ago she asked me if I wanted to go to the opening of the new Taylor Swift movie in Barre. I did. This is a show about it.
2023-10-2011 min
Brave Little State5 Vermonters talk about guns
A question from a listener prompts a different kind of conversation about guns. Reporter Erica Heilman talks with five Vermonters about how their lives have been impacted by them, and why they have them.Content warning: This episode contains conversation about suicide, domestic and sexual violence; profanity; substance abuse and gun violence, which might be difficult for some to hear. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, help is available. Just dial 988 to talk to someone at the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
2023-05-1148 min
Rumble StripIt’s Town Meeting Again.
This is a re-run of a show but it’s TOWN MEETING DAY SO I’M RUNNING IT AGAIN! LONG LIVE TOWN MEETING!
In most of New England, town citizens become legislators for one day a year. They get together in school gyms and town halls and vote in person, and in public. This centuries long practice of towns doing the slow and hard work of disagreeing and arguing and compromising on how to govern themselves—this has a profound impact on a place, and what it means to be from a place.
Sometimes it’s c...
2023-03-0700 min
Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)A Spiral Year: 23 voices on change, purpose and meaningToday's episode featured Rabbi Yoni Dahlen, Dr. Erika Bocknek, Michael Franti, Jaye Johnson, Shari Colton, Eric Colton, Caveh Zahedi, Rob Walker, Jessi Hempel, Kevin Kelly, Dan Messé, Ned Specktor, Holly Wren Spaulding, Jo Strausz Rosen, Erica Heilman, Grace Bonney, Rikke Houde, Laura Hawley, Lucy Anderton---Call Zak with your advice @ 844-935-BEST---IG: @bestadviceshow & @muzacharyTWITTER: @muzacharybestadvice.show
---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill o...
2022-12-2929 minRumble StripThe NeighborhoodMy son is leaving for his freshman year of college and I am feeling maudlin. I listened to this show I made years ago and it made me feel better. So before August is really, really over, here are the kids of Hospital Hill.
Description: The kids of Randolph, Vermont describe their neighborhood as a place with three purple houses. They tell me there’s a shortcut through the woods down to Dunkin’ Donuts, and they say it’s pretty close to three graveyards. The kids run in twos and threes and sometimes in one big pack for a...
2022-08-2600 minRumble StripThe Defense.
In cases where a defendant seems unjustly accused, the defense attorney is our hero. But if they seem guilty…or if it’s an especially violent crime, we look at these lawyers and wonder…how can they do that?
This is a show about the people who stand with the accused.
You’ll hear five perspectives on the art of criminal defense, and you’ll hear some great stories. Which makes sense because telling great stories is part of the job description.
Hear the Full Interviews
Here are the (relatively...
2021-10-0457 minRumble StripThe Defense
In cases where a defendant seems unjustly accused, the defense attorney is our hero. But if they seem guilty…or if it’s an especially violent crime, we look at these lawyers and wonder…how can they do that?
This is a show about the people who stand with the accused.
You’ll hear five perspectives on the art of criminal defense, and you’ll hear some great stories. Which makes sense because telling great stories is part of the job description.
Hear the Full Interviews
Here are the (relatively...
2021-10-0457 minRumble StripVirtual Justice
At the onset of Covid in March, 2020, the Vermont Supreme Court declared a judicial emergency, suspending all non-essential court hearings. Hearings have resumed, but many are still being held remotely, including arraignments, which are ground zero for all criminal cases. An arraignment is the first time that defendants appear in front of a judge. They’re informed of their charges and they enter a plea. And for defendants working with a public defender, it’s often the first time they meet their attorney, or even see their attorney. But since Covid, nobody’s seeing much of anyone...
2021-08-2722 minRumble StripTown Meeting
In most of New England, town citizens become legislators for one day a year. They get together in school gyms and town halls and vote in person, and in public. This centuries long practice of towns doing the slow and hard work of disagreeing and arguing and compromising on how to govern themselves—this has a profound impact on a place, and what it means to be from a place.
Sometimes it’s contentious. Sometimes it’s boring. But it’s always the most interesting and authentic and civilized social event of the year. Al...
2021-02-0530 minRumble StripOur Show Four
Here is Our Show 4, your recordings during the pandemic. Thank you for sending me remarkable recordings from all over the world, and the intense privilege of making shows with them.
In this show you hear from:
Bill in New York City
Clive in Toronto
Tim in Durango, Colorado
Bianca in New York City
Andrew’s son reading Pi in Northhampton, Mass.
Kelly in New Braunfels, Texas
Ralph in North Wolcott, Vermont
Amelia in Durham North Carolina
Music by hand habits and Amelia Meath.
Your Recordings!
Keep sending your st...
2020-04-0215 minRumble StripJoslyn House
People often assume the Joslyn House is a nursing home, probably because a lot of old people live there. But it’s not a nursing home. It’s not assisted living. There’s no anonymous art on the wall. It’s not licensed by the state. It’s a house. It’s a a place where up to twenty older people live independently together…in a huge, elegant house furnished with their own things. There’s socializing when you want it, silence when you don’t, there’s sociable silence… there are three beautiful meals served a day. Residents are g...
2020-01-1530 minRumble StripSummer Musical
It’s the summer musical in Randolph, Vermont…one day before showtime. It’s been an annual event at Chandler Music Hall for over twenty years, and this year they’re putting on Footloose. And honestly? It feels like the whole town is involved. Like it takes every last person in Randolph to pull this thing off…again. To put on a full musical with up to 120 kids, in three weeks? It’s a miracle.
I spent an afternoon talking with some of the kids backstage, about their lives in musical theater. And even though we were sitting...
2019-08-0713 minRumble StripVictim Advocate
The criminal justice system is not designed to answer to the needs of crime victims. It’s designed to figure out if there’s enough evidence to bring a case. If there is, a defense attorney builds a case for the defendant and a prosecutor builds a case for the state of Vermont. The alleged victim in the case becomes a witness in their own story. They may have felt the impact of a crime, but they play no direct role in how the crime is adjudicated. For most people brand new to the system, this...
2019-05-1023 minRumble StripThe Neighborhood
The kids of Randolph, Vermont describe their neighborhood as a place with three purple houses. They tell me there’s a shortcut through the woods down to Dunkin’ Donuts, and they say it’s pretty close to three graveyards. The kids run in twos and threes and sometimes in one big pack for a game of hide and seek tag.
I spent an afternoon talking with them and following them around. This show is a little taste of that day. It’s a postcard from childhood, a place we remember but can’t visit anymore.
Than...
2016-07-0209 minRumble StripInside DCFIt has been a very troubling few years at Vermont’s Department of Children and Families. In 2014 there was a string of child deaths in Vermont–children in families involved with DCF. These deaths prompted intense anger and at least four investigations into the department.
Then on August 7, 2015, Lara Sobel, a caseworker at DCF, was shot as she left the DCF offices in Barre, Vermont. She was shot and killed by a woman who was angry after losing custody of her daughter to DCF the month before.
The Department of Children and Families flares up in t...
2016-01-2444 min