Brave Little State

Bethel, Vermont is home to a rare geological treasure: a brilliant granite that’s often described as the whitest in the world. The stone has been quarried there for generations and sent as far as Paris and Abu Dhabi. Two local residents want to know: Why is this stone found in Bethel, of all places? And is it found anywhere else?

Thanks to Bennett Law and Owen Daniel-McCarter for the great questions. Click here for photos and a full episode transcript.

For more on granite in Vermont, here are some suggested resources:

Last year, a listener question inspired us to spend 12 whole hours at a park-and-ride lot in Richmond. This year, we posted up at another Vermont mainstay – a popular ice cream shop near the beaches of Lake Champlain, in Colchester. 

The Village Scoop is the kind of place where, if you stay put long enough, you can watch a whole Vermont summer unfold in one day. So, we arrived hours before the shop opened and stayed long after the last customer was served.

During our marathon day there,  we got a real taste of Vermont summer at i...

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 baseball hats and bags of potato chips. 

But what do Americans really make of this anniversary? The historian Jill Lepore and audiomaker Sophie Crane wanted to find out. They sent reporters all across the country, from California to Louisiana to Vermont, to listen to what people had to say about it.

This piece is part of a project called The Listeners, an experiment in hyperlocal documentary storytelling from the Transom Story Lab. 

Right now, there are around 150 Vermonters behind bars in Tutwiler, Mississippi. 

Question-asker Devon Kurtz is wondering: Why does the state send these men to a private prison more than a thousand miles away — especially since there's a vacant prison in Windsor, Vermont? 

Click here for the web version of this episode, including photos and a full transcript. And read an in-depth dispatch from Liam’s visit to Tutwiler here. 

RSVP to our upcoming event in Winooski!

This episode was reported by Liam Elder-Connors. Editing and production from Sabine Poux, Burgess Brown, Alicia...

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 takes us from a dairy farm in Franklin County to a university in Amsterdam and back.

Thanks to the amateur investigators who aided us along the way, and to Ellen Stanley, our winning question-asker. She’s wondering:

“I live next to a community — Sheldon, Vermont — that has so many twins. Are twins really 'in the water'? What might cause this over generations?” 

Click here for the web versi...

Inside a cavernous redemption warehouse in the Upper Valley, customers come to exchange bottles and cans for coins — and to see bottle-sorter Teera “Sweet T” Paye. 

We visited thanks to a question from Kevin Donohue of Thetford. He asked,“Who redeems bottles and cans in Vermont? Why are there so few places to do so?”

Click here for photos and a full episode transcript. And here to sign up for the BLS newsletter!

This episode was reported by Burgess Brown. Editing and additional production from Sabine Poux and Josh Crane. Our executive producer is Angela E...

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 first in the nation in maple syrup production and number of craft breweries per capita. 

Gary Gulka, of Cabot, wants to know: Where is Vermont ranked dead last?

As we waded through a sea of last-place statistics, one stood out to us more than any other. Satisfy your cravings (hint hint) and tune in to learn more.

Thanks to Gary for the great question. Click here for photos and a full...

We all accumulate lots of … stuff. Increasingly, we’re cramming more of that stuff into self-storage facilities: those fields of metal lockers, arranged in neat, industrial rows. 

Join us as we explore the stuff — and stories — we usually keep stored away.

Thanks to Chris Robbins of Middlebury for the great question.

JOIN US! We’re headed to Northern Stage in White River Junction to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the show. We hope to see you there.

Click here for photos and a full episode transcript.

This episode was reporte...

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.

Thanks to Morgan Pratt, Ann Fano and Carol Fano for the great questions.

You can find the web version of this story here. 

JUST ANNOUNCED: Join us in April in White River Junction for a behind-the-scenes look at the show!

This episode was reported by Burgess Brown. Editing and additional production from the BLS team: Sabine Poux and Josh Crane. Our executive pro...

Fire departments across the country are struggling to find volunteers. But in Norwich, new recruits are lining up. 

We spent a weekend at the firehouse to find out why.

You can find the web version of this story here.

This episode was reported by Josh Crane. Additional editing and production from Burgess Brown and Sabine Poux. Angela Evancie is our executive producer. Ty Gibbons composed our theme music; other music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Special thanks to Camila Van Order Gonzales, Alex Warner, Chris Pike, Prescott Nadeau, Gerald Levesque, Ronald Morse a...

Ice is unavoidable during winter on the Champlain Islands. Surrounded on all sides by an icy expanse, islanders embrace this seasonal terrain — as a place to walk the dog, to skate and to fish. 

One North Hero resident sees trucks of ice fishermen driving out onto the lake and wants to know: How do they know when it's safe? 

You can find the web version of this story here. For ice fishing guidance from the state of Vermont, head here.

Thanks to David Erich, of North Hero, for the great question.

This...

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?

You can find the web version of this story here.

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions about counties, including Gary Novosel of Addison County, Paul Hochanadel of Chittenden County and Michael Moser of Lamoille County.

This episode was reported by Howard Weiss-Tisman and produced by Burgess Brown. Editing and additional production from Josh Crane and Sabine Poux. Angela Evancie is our executive producer. Ty Gibbons composed our theme...

The Vermont National Guard usually takes orders from the state. But at the end of 2025, President Trump deployed the Vermont guard to the Caribbean — and Gov. Scott said he had no control over the president’s orders.

It gave this question from a listener newfound relevance: 

“Who controls the deployment of the Vermont National Guard if orders from the federal government and the state are in conflict?”

You can find the web version of this story here. 

For more about the Vermont guard, check out this 2010 VPR series, which covered some of the 1,5...

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 Vermont that inspired the idea of the trail in the first place. 

Thanks to one of our favorite podcasts, Off the Path, for sharing this story with us. Here’s a link to the original web post.

For more stories from the trail, check out our episodes, “What’s it like to hike the Long Trail?” and “What’s the deal with Vermont’s fire towers?”

...

A few years ago, John Haffner was digging in his White River Junction backyard when his shovel hit a glass bottle buried underground. Then he found another, and another — all with words like “remedy,” “tonic” and “quick cure” embossed on them. John wants to know why there are so many of these old bottles around and, more importantly, what was in them? 

Local historian and independent reporter Kelby Greene is on the case, unraveling the snake oil sensation that swept the Green Mountain State. 

You can find the web version of this story here.

Reporting for...

Question-asker Manny recently got out of prison. He wants to learn about his options for transitional housing — a place where he could stay sober while readjusting to life outside a prison cell. 

It turns out, those options look very different today than they would have even a few years ago.

To see photos from our reporting, check out the web version of this story here. 

This episode was reported by Carly Berlin and produced by Burgess Brown. Editing and additional production from the rest of the BLS team: Sabine Poux and Josh Crane. Our...

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 side of the city people are missing.

Thanks to Linda Mullin of Rutland for the great question. If you want to be part of a future BLS live voting round, join us in Jeffersonville on Dec. 3 at Lot 6 Brewing. Reserve your ticket and find more information here.

Check out the web version of our story here. 

This episode was reported by Burgess Brown. Editing and additional production from the rest of the...

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 web version of our story here. And if you want to read up on apples, here are three books that were helpful in our research:

Thanks to Ben St. James of Barnet for the great question.

This episode...

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 beginning of our archive — combing through thousands of questions — and picked out some of our favorites that we’ve never answered before: about apple pie, nudity laws, haunted houses and Subarus. Laughter ensues.

Find the web version of this story here.

This episode was reported and edited by the BLS team: Josh Crane, Sabine Poux, Burgess Brown and Camila Van Order González. Our executive producer is Angela...

“There was this huge divide in, like, social grouping and connection … No one really talked to each other.”

“Making friends at the high school wasn't really my priority because I felt like I had nothing in common with them at all.”

“I think the closer we got to graduation, the more it kind of came out.” 

“Financial class absolutely affects everything beyond financial class in the classroom. Absolutely it does.”

In this episode, a series of recent grads from Middlebury Union High School in Addison County wrestle with class differences among classmates — and ho...

There are five Great Lakes: Superior, Ontario, Michigan, Huron and Erie. But for a few fleeting weeks in the late 1990s, Lake Champlain made six.

How did this happen? To answer that question from Erin Robbason of West Rutland, we pass the mic to our friends at Interlochen Public Radio and the podcast Point North for a story about Lake Champlain’s brief and controversial stint as the sixth Great Lake.

Find the web version of this story here.

This episode was reported and produced by Ruth Abramovitz and Dan Wanschura. It was ed...

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 spent 12 straight hours (yes, you read that correctly) at one of the busiest park and rides in the state, on one of the busiest travel days of the year, to find out. 

This is the story of our day — and all the people we met along the way. 

Check out photos from our experience, and a full episode transcript, in our web post. 

A big shouto...

Every summer, we add a new chapter to our favorite annual tradition: investigating the origins of Vermont’s strangest road names, as chosen by our listeners.

This summer’s crop included Horn of the Moon Road in East Montpelier, Scotch Hollow Road in Newbury and Goodenough Road in Brattleboro.

Tune in to hear us raid town archives, chase down local lore… and spend an inordinate amount of time driving up and down the three roads in question (sorry, neighbors!) — all in the name of journalism. 

And don’t miss the seven previous installments of this roa...

Starting this summer, Vermont farmers are some of the first in the nation to face major restrictions on neonicotinoids — a kind of pesticide widely used to treat corn and soy plants. In part, that’s because neonics are killing honeybees.

Quebec has had a similar law on the books for years. So we head north of the border to see what we can learn from our Canadian neighbors and answer this question from Curtis Mraz, of New Haven:

“What is Vermont doing to protect our pollinators?”

For a full transcript of this episode and phot...

Today, we're sharing an episode of a podcast we really like. It's called Essential Salt, a show about connection, local storytelling and how getting to know your neighbors might change the way you see yourself. It's a collaboration between Maine Public and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies at the Maine College of Art and Design.

In this episode, we get to know a famous figure who drew a city together while remaining completely anonymous. Then, we look at what being a good opponent at chess can teach us about building strong, long-lasting relationships.  

As a...

July in Vermont means hot dogs and peanuts and Cracker Jacks… and summer baseball. A few summers ago, reporter Liam Elder-Connors joined question-asker Emma Ramirez-Richer in the stands at Centennial Field to share some Dippin’ Dots, root for the Lake Monsters and chat with fans about Emma’s winning question. The team had just been sold the year before and Emma wanted to know: 

“What does the sale of the Vermont Lake Monsters mean for the team, and what does minor league baseball mean to Vermonters?”

We’re revisiting that episode...

Close your eyes and try to picture the Vermont flag…

If you’re drawing a blank — you're not alone.

Our flag defies almost all the flag design rules set out by the North American Vexillological Association. 

That’s part of the reason why Brian Sewell, of Burlington, thinks Vermont should consider an upgrade. He asked:

“Other states are undergoing redesigns of their state flags. How much do Vermonters know about our flag? And is it time to update ours too?”

Have an idea for a new Vermont flag design? Check out our...

Not being able to drive in this state can be isolating — especially for older Vermonters navigating the challenges of aging.  

Ninety-two-year-old Gerry Quinlan has found a way, with a network of friends that can drive her to their weekly coffee dates in Essex.

But she’s wondering how others do it, so she came to us with this question:

"How do you maintain a social life in Vermont once you can no longer drive?"

Join us as we ride along with Gerry and others who have given up their keys, but not t...

Wanting children, and not being able to have them, is an experience people rarely discuss publicly. But it’s one that cuts close to the bone for many — like Gina Accorsi, of Milton. 

Gina is grieving the loss of a path she can’t take, and she’s looking for support as she charts a new one. She reached out to us with some questions:

“How common is childlessness in Vermont today? Is there a support system or community acceptance here for childless people?”

If you’re looking for more support, check out AllPath Family...

Do you know what rocker panels are? No? Well, one listener found out hers were rusted during her annual car inspection — and that they were in need of a pricey repair. Vermont is one of just nine states that still requires annual safety inspections for all cars. And over and over, car inspections — especially car inspections that end in failure — bring frustrated Vermonters to the BLS question box. 

Three listeners want to know why Vermont’s inspection requirements persist, even as other states have axed theirs. And they ask: Do inspections actually make the roads here safer?

For...

Vermont’s logging industry has changed a lot over the last several decades. But one thing remains true: We just can’t agree about how to manage our forests in the face of climate change.

This raises a lot of questions about how Vermont should manage its forests — and it has led to heated debates around the state.

For photos from the episode, check out the web version of this story.

This episode was reported by Abagael Giles. Editing and production from the BLS team: That’s Sabine Poux, Burgess Brown and Josh Crane. O...

What does it mean to be a Vermonter if you’ve left the Green Mountain State? 

Reporter Myra Flynn brings us on a sonic journey across the globe from Los Angeles to the Dominican Republic, to Jamaica. There are love stories, tales of taking chances and conversations about what it means to call somewhere home. 

Thanks to question-asker Jesse Wingate of Virginia – formerly of North Troy, Vermont – for the great question. 

For photos and an episode transcript, head to our website.

This episode was reported by Myra Flynn. It was edited and produ...

South Royalton has something that no other Vermont town does: a law school. But for a long time, there’s been one rumor the town and the school can’t seem to shake — that Vermont Law & Graduate School is on the verge of upping sticks for Burlington. 

Question-asker Tess Mix, of neighboring Tunbridge, has been hearing this rumor her whole life. She wants to know, is it true? And how reliant is the community on the law school, anyway?

For more photos and an episode transcript, head to our website.

***Get our brand new, li...

You can find the swoopy, stylized version of the word “Stowe” everywhere — police cruisers, store windows, a covered bridge. It’s as if the entire town is part of one giant marketing campaign. Question-asker Joe Emery of Essex finds this sort of weird, and wants to know how it came to be.

We made a video version of this episode! Check it out here. 

For more photos and an episode transcript, head to our website.

This episode was reported by Sabine Poux. It was edited and produced by Josh Crane and Burgess Brown. Our inter...

Five mysterious disappearances were the talk of Bennington in the mid-20th century. Now, they’ve developed a cult following online. We revisit the initial cases and trace the rise of the “Bennington Triangle” in the popular imagination.

Thanks to Kevin Landry of Claremont, New Hampshire for the great question.

Check out the web version of this story here.

This episode was reported by Howard Weiss-Tisman and produced by Burgess Brown. Editing and additional production from Josh Crane and Sabine Poux. Our intern is Catherine Morrissey. Angela Evancie is our Executive Producer. Digital suppor...

Cha-ching. Vermont health insurance is pricey, and getting more expensive really quickly. For one listener in Montpelier, it’s just not adding up.

Rosie Krueger says sky-high health insurance costs were a real pill when she was building budgets on the Montpelier City Council a few years ago. Since then, this health insurance dilemma has only gotten worse.

The good news: There’s a pretty straightforward answer to Rosie’s question. The bad news: It’s hard to know what to do about it.

For a closer look at the data we mention in the e...

Forests for the people! Democracy in the woods! Most towns in Vermont have a locally owned forest, but no two are exactly the same — and their stories are still unfolding.

Check out the web version of this episode for photos and a full transcript. You can participate in UVM’s town forest census project here.

Thanks to Anne Wallace of Bristol for the great question.

This episode was reported by Lexi Krupp. It was produced by Burgess Brown, with editing from Josh Crane and Sabi...

Vermont used to have hundreds of dumps all over the state. These days, most of the state’s trash ends up in one place: a landfill in Coventry. Question-asker Sylvia Dodge, of Lyndon, wants to know why all that trash ends up in just one small town.

We visit the Coventry landfill, trash bag in hand, and talk to the people doing the dirty work. You can find photos from our reporting, and a full transcript for the episode, here.

Share your feedback about BLS! We’d love to hear from you and it will help...

We track down the Lorax of Vermont cemeteries and visit a farm in East Putney where the past and present collide.

Share your feedback about BLS! We’d love to hear from you and it will help us make the show even better. Plus: prizes!

Thanks to Kathleen Cuneen of Thetford for the great question. Check out the web version of this episode for photos and a full transcript.

This episode was reported by Sabine Poux. It was produced and edited by Burgess Brown and Josh Crane. Digital support from Sophie Stephens. Angela Ev...

Alex Larrabee is in 10th grade at the Danville School in the Northeast Kingdom. She doesn’t hunt, but her family does and her classmates do. And she’s noticed that people who go hunting… it’s not a casual interest. They’re passionate about it. Alex, on the other hand, doesn’t really get what all the fuss is about.

Now, we at Brave Little State are not big hunters, and neither is Lola Duffort, our reporter for this episode. So, we figured the best way and probably the only way to answer Alex’s quest...