Intersections

Episodes

Episode 17: Our guest provides insight into their experience of moving to the Upper Valley from a more urban and suburban environment and what it’s like to integrate into Upper Valley schools, identifying how we function in multiple layers of bubbles that sometimes need to be burst.

Episode 16: Our guest points out the challenges of access to community as a single parent, and as a proponent of environmental and food justice whose work in the trenches of identifying community members’ needs and meeting these through funding opportunities shapes their vision of the multiple layers and diverse issues that arise when we talk about community and what it means to belong, to be valued and inclusive.

Episode 15: Our guest shares their rich personal experience of community, of diversity, of inclusion and of exclusion in far off places including the Middle East and Africa, as well as in the United States, while pursuing a career as a member of the Air Force.  They describe how their curiosity has informed their deeply rooted sense of community, and how this has evolved since moving to a small Vermont town a few years ago, and the challenges and rewards of becoming a part of the community fabric.

Episode 14: Our guest shares what he has learned about being a Vermonter, after moving to the Upper Valley just before the pandemic, and provides insights into how he approaches building community through volunteering.

Episode 13:  Our guest shares a positive experience of community anchored in a rich family tradition of openness and caring, in a place where kids answered the call of the street lights coming on as the signal to get back home, where elders sipped coffee and shared cake in fellowship.  They describe how they have managed to maintain and cultivate a sense of belonging in the Upper Valley, using dialogue and mutual respect as the cornerstones to build their local community.

Episode 12:  Our guest shares an experience of community informed by her early upbringing in Southern California, and the contrast with her experience here in the Upper Valley, where there is a huge difference in her sense of belonging.  Despite active efforts to get involved in local community, she has experienced little to no acceptance.

Episode 11:  …takes us into the experiences of community of a person who has deep, long term ties to the Upper Valley, having moved here as a teen, and now transitioning towards retirement in the near future.  Our guest shares his strong sense of self founded in family, in church and in theater, and invites us to make the effort to reach out to take our own responsibility to actively build community as the only way to develop true inclusion.

Episode 10:  Our 10th guest describes her youth in the Upper Valley, feeling a part of her hometown community in various local activities, like bake sales and bingo nights, and a grounding within her family. She explains how adult life, full of work, errands and obligation, has lessened her sense of belonging, and invites us to identify the ways in which small acts of recognition, as simple as greeting one another or using our turn signals, contribute to building a sense of inclusion.

Episode 9:  Our 9th guest calls out the hypocrisy and disingenuousness  they have experienced in the Upper Valley, where they have felt both accepted and  recognized as a young, skilled athlete and then pushed aside, shunned as a visible individual, learning what it is to be alone and to struggle, encouraging us all to be slower to judge one another, to get to know one another’s stories, and to move beyond appearances.

Episode 8:  Our 8th guest shares a vision of community that is rooted in compassion, empathy and caregiving, and describes arriving in the Upper Valley from a large family in a large city, learning a new pace and a sense of safety in the outside world, while struggling with full time work and finding affordable day care as single parent of a toddler; they explain what worked and what didn’t in this life exploration that now follows a path away from the Upper Valley.

Episode 7:  Our guest relates their story of falling out of love with the Upper Valley: the ugliness they have uncovered behind the community’s beautiful facade, the false lure of inclusion disappointed by the enduring reality of the harm being caused to black and brown bodies, here in this space, in these times.

Episode 6: Our guest talks about her community in France vs. her community in the Upper Valley, how she has and has not initiated community activity, and how her family life and children have played a role in her community.

Episode 5: An interview with a relatively new Vermont resident, who is trans-gender, and gives their experience(s) of living in the Upper Valley.

Episode 4: A special episode with the co-creators about the mission and creation of the Intersections podcast.

Episode 3: Our 3rd guest remembers days of open fields and outdoor games as a foundation for building community, and invites us all to reflect on how we reach out to connect with one another; how does inclusion happen when contact is mitigated through a computer screen and wifi access?

Episode 2:  Our second guest shares a vision of how our cycles of life feed the source of community, amongst humans and throughout the natural world, offering a gentle map of the small things that bring us together: harvesting tomatoes, the neighbor’s mailbox, the porcupine, the cockroach, the softening of the eyes.

Episode 1:  Our first guest recounts a vision of community grounded in a childhood in East Texas, and the challenges of losing a sense of connection upon arriving in New England. (Pilot 2/14/22)

To share your story or questions with co-creators Michelle and Julius, you’re invited to email them at: intersections@uvjam.org

Edited by David Eric for CATV