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Past Episodes
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Download Episode 123
Episode 123 Timing
This week’s episode is a Special Report:
Yonder Radio's first-ever special report is called Power Dynamics: The Rural Data Center Boom. We're digging into how different kinds of power – from literal computing power to political and economic power – shape data center development in rural America.
Two-thirds of new data centers are going to be built in rural places, according to the Pew Research Center. That puts rural communities at the forefront of a nationwide scramble to build the physical infrastructure powering AI. Still, as the U.S. economy embraces AI, rural America has yet to feel the technology’s economic windfall.
Instead, many communities are grappling with competing visions for the future of their land, water, and energy resources, as data centers crop up to supply growing AI demand. Over the past year, the Daily Yonder has reported on the rural data center rush in nearly every region. What has emerged is a story not only of what gets built, and where, but also of who gets to decide.
Episode 123 Timing
Download Episode 122
This week’s episode features stories including:
Daily Yonder contributor Kaitlyn McConnell talks about the future of small rural cemeteries in the Ozarks. As donations decline and cemetery caretakers age, communities and individuals will have to decide what happens to these sites of local history.
We head to Montana, where theater-maker Michael Rohds is taking his show on the road, bringing interactive performances about mental health to communities around the state.
We’ll learn about a one-of-a-kind ballet in Wisconsin, where the dancing is done by farm equipment – hayrakes, to be exact.
Musician and professor Trevor McKenzie brings us the story of Otto Wood, also known as the Appalachian Robin Hood.
Our featured musician is Bruce Salmon, who combines influences from funk to Klezmer in the hills of New Mexico.
Episode 122 Timing
Download Episode 121
This week’s episode features stories including:
We bring you a story from KBIA reporter Jana Rose Schleis about energy policy in Missouri.
We also bring in Alexis Bonogofsky with the World Wildlife Fund to learn about sustainable ranching.
Jocelyn Catterson takes us to the San Luis Valley with her interdisciplinary work interpreting drought through painting and art.
Nick Bowlin of the Frontier and Katie Campbell of ProPublica bring us the story of their new documentary, Toxic Ground: How Oil Field Pollution Is Threatening Oklahoma.
Finally, we head to the midwest with Arts Midwest reporter frankie felegy who brings us a story about basket weaving.
Our featured musician this week is country artist Ryne Brashear.
Episode 121 Timing
Download Episode 120
This week’s episode features stories including:
We have a story from Daily Yonder data editor Sarah Melotte about changes to the Voting Rights Act and gerrymandering in rural areas.
Then we head to Wisconsin, where Jim Winship and his son are making a film about aging in place in rural areas.
Our partners at ICT bring us a story about broadband coming to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
We also bring you the final episode of a five-part series in partnership with the Rural Faith Initiative about LGBTQ+ affirming churches.
Then we head to eastern Kentucky where community members are creating a mosaic mural to commemorate the 2022 flood that devastated the town of Whitesburg.
Our musician of the week is 80 Proof Alice, and they discuss their music along with an upcoming bluegrass music festival they run in Kansas.
Episode 120 Timing
Download Episode 119
This week’s episode features stories including:
Reporter Astra Lincoln brings us the story of Weiser, Idaho’s efforts to tackle the influx of hundreds of stray cats through a trap-and-release program.
Our Living Traditions series goes to Western North Carolina to report on Cherokee pottery traditions that have been practiced for nearly 3,000 years.
Pulitzer Prize finalist Megan Kate Nelson tells us about her latest book, The Westerners: Myth and Belonging on the American Frontier.
Advice on seeing the forest through the trees from Daily Yonder columnist Donna Kallner.
We commemorate four years since deadly flooding in Eastern Kentucky, with the story of some “drunk angels” who came by to help out.
Our featured musicians this week are the Gladson Family Band out of Hancock County, Tennessee.
Episode 119 Timing
Download Episode 118
This week’s episode features stories including:
Daily Yonder reporter Madeline de Figueiredo, who brings us a story about efforts to improve maternal health care in rural Texas. An influx of funding for local providers will boost capacity and help grow programs focused on holistic and culturally informed care.
Photographer Malcom Wilson seeks to combat stereotypes of Appalachian women with a series of glamour shots in the style of old Hollywood.
We catch up with Carlos Valdez, an incredible young man who has found his purpose as a motivational speaker,
Our partners at the rural faith initiative highlight LGBTQ-affirming churches in the rural South.
Our featured musician is Sarah Burton, a touring artist whose one true home is the road.
Episode 118 Timing
Episode 117 Timing
Download Episode 117
This week’s episode features stories including:
A report from KFF Health News about the ongoing rollout of the Rural Health Transformation Program. Reporter Sarah Jane Tribble explains how large companies are well-positioned to benefit, as states scramble to meet deadlines for administering the funds.
A study from Nebraska about the social benefits of livestock sale barns.
The Ag and Water Desk reports on corn belt farmers who are banding together to create regenerative farming practices.
frankie felegy takes us on a midwestern punk rock odyssey to Minot, North Dakota.
Our featured musician is Trevor McKenzie, an old-time singer, storyteller, and multi-instrumentalist out of Boone, North Carolina.
Download Episode 116
This week’s episode features stories including:
We start out with a story from Illinois, where community members are trying to get state policy passed that would stop CO2 pipeline companies from using eminent domain to build pipelines.
Then we have two takes on America’s 250th birthday.
We welcome back actor Kiki Bush to the show with a conversation with Susannah Broun about supporting the arts in rural areas.
Then, we have a segment from our partners at the Rural Faith Initiative about LGBTQ+ affirming rural churches and parishes.
Our featured musician this week is Sam Miltich, who brings his jazz music and mental health advocacy to the show.
Episode 116 Timing
Download Episode 115
This week’s episode features stories including:
We start with an update on state governments’ efforts to regulate data centers. Daily Yonder reporter Julia Tilton drops by to tell us about the fate of an Illinois bill, called the POWER Act, which aimed to limit water usage for data centers and increase transparency.
Then, Daily Yonder reporters Madeline de Figueiredo and Anya Petrone Slepyan head to far West Texas, where the Trump administration is enacting controversial plans to build 500 miles of border wall through the Big Bend region.
We learn about Rural Assembly Everywhere, a virtual gathering taking place in July, which will connect rural leaders, innovators, and community members across the country.
Our featured musician is Gabe Mangold, a heavy metal guitarist out of Del Norte, Colorado.
Episode 115 Timing
Download Episode 114
This week’s episode features stories including:
We start out with a story from KFF Health News, about the closure of dialysis clinics in rural Nebraska.
We visit to the Great Plains with Kristy Bly, who manages the restoration of the Black Footed Ferret with the World Wildlife Fund.
We head to western North Carolina, to learn about the tradition of ballad swapping, and its special significance in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
Our featured musical guest is Bill Palmer, a musician and producer out of Terilingua, Texas.
Episode 114 Timing
Download Episode 113
This week’s episode features stories including:
We start off talking about a movement to grow water-conscious and delicious grains in Colorado’s San Luis Valley.
Culture reporters Susannah Broun and Madelon Basil dissect the latest albums from Noah Kahan and Kacey Musgraves, two rural artists whose new music is all about leaving home, and coming back again.
Daily Yonder contributor Nhatt Nichols takes us to coastal Washington, to learn about how local organizations are repopulating native Olympia oysters to repair the Salish Sea’s complex ecosystem.
We’ll hear music from Clover Lynn, a banjo picker who brings a gothic flair to traditional mountain music.
Episode 113 Timing
Download Episode 112
This week’s episode features stories including:
Kaitlyn McConnell reports on a small town in Missouri that is recovering after a tornado hit last year.
We’ll also take a trip around the world with travel writer Rolf Potts, who gives insight on how to represent rural places in writing and storytelling.
We kick off Pride Month with a discussion about representation in data and how much data exists about rural queer people.
Our partners at ICT have a story about the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on birthright citizenship and how it could affect Native American Tribes.
The music this week is from Nico Albert Williams, an Indigenous musician who is part of the metal band Medicine Horse.
Episode 112 Timing
Download Episode 111
This week’s episode features stories including:
We start out talking to Julia Tilton about Sangamon County, Illinois, where the county board recently approved
We go on a road trip around the Great Lakes with Tim Marema and Liz McGeachy in their music-filled camper van.
The musical guests this week are Larry & Joe, a duo that fuses Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music.
And finally, we celebrate the humanity of the roadside rest stop with columnist Claire Carlson.
Episode 111 Timing
Download Episode 110
This week’s episode features stories including:
Reporter Julia Tilton explains how nearly a quarter of a million dollars of federal funds meant for affordable housing is going toward a data center instead.
We learn about an organization leading important conversations around PTSD and veteran support in rural areas.
The musical guest this week is an incredible duo from the San Luis Valley playing under the name The Beauty & The Horror.
We also walk through the Colorado prairies to learn about the landscapes' past, present, and future.
Episode 110 Timing
This week’s episode features stories including:
A conversation with Jim Checkel, who grew up wanting to be a farmer in rural Minnesota, and ended up as the lead lab technologist for the Mayo Clinic.
We talk with actor Kiki Bush about filmmaking in rural Kansas, and her efforts to promote film tax credits.
Our musical guest this week is the talented poet, producer, and musician shirlette ammons
We travel back to 1920s Appalachia, the site of the world’s first cooperatively-owned coal min
Download Episode 109
Episode 109 Timing
This week’s episode features stories including:
A new program for people running for local nonpartisan office.
A unique festival in a small town in the Colorado mountains
Rural education with the National Rural Education Association
Music from Landon Hughes, a young artist from Appalachia who was a recent competitor on American Idol.
Download Episode 108
Episode 108 Timing
Download Episode 107
This week’s episode features stories including:
A proposed moratorium on building large-scale data centers in Maine.
A behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to report on rural health care in West Texas.
Travel writer-turned-culture critic Rolf Potts about big screen depictions of small towns, and why it matters.
Music from Brigid and Johnny Reedy, a brother and sister keeping the western music tradition alive in Dillon, Montana.
Episode 107 Timing
Download Episode 107
This week’s episode features stories including:
A proposed moratorium on building large-scale data centers in Maine.
A behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to report on rural health care in West Texas.
Travel writer-turned-culture critic Rolf Potts about big screen depictions of small towns, and why it matters.
Music from Brigid and Johnny Reedy, a brother and sister keeping the western music tradition alive in Dillon, Montana.
Episode 107 Timing
This week’s episode features stories including:
New poll of rural voters, conducted by the Center for Rural Strategies and expert pollsters Lake Research.
Efforts to save a pristine local watershed from a proposed sewer plant.
A forest farmer producing syrup from big leaf maple trees.
The Rural Health Transformation Fund from Sarah Jane Tribble of KFF Health News.
Download Episode 106
Episode 106 Timing
This week’s episode features stories including:
Crisis care in mental health
Turning swords into plowshares in Appalachia.
Farm succession in Montana from podcaster Megan Torgerson
Musician Sparrow Smith from western North Carolina
Episode 105
Episode 105 Timing
This week’s episode features stories including:
Creative solutions to rural childcare shortages.
Kentucky’s historic and mostly forgotten baseball Tobacco Leagues.
The resurgence of traditional weaving in Appalachia.
Music from the Catgut String Band.
Episode 104
Episode 104 Timing
This week’s episode features stories including:
Innovative healthcare approach in rural Wisconsin that combines daycare with elderly care.
Rural representation in reality TV, breaking down the TLC show “Suddenly Amish”
Reflections from a canoe journey 50 miles down the Hudson River.
Music from South Dakota rancher Eliza Blue.
Episode 103
Episode 103 Timing
This week’s episode features stories including:
Rural counties collaborating with immigration enforcement
Boris McCutcheon, a musician from New Mexico
A Reveal and Daily Yonder collaboration about Solar for All funding cuts
Seed savers in Appalachia
Artist Perri Lynch Howard uses sound to tell quiet stories in northern Washington
Episode 102
Episode 102 Timing
Episode 101
This week’s episode features stories including:
Data centers in rural communities
How rural films fared at the Academy Awards
Blue Mountain Tribe, three time winners of the Native American Music Awards
Folk pottery traditions still practiced in North Carolina
