Brave Little State

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 t...

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 h...

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...

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 Sess...

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...

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...

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 t...

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?”...

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 ...

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 Burges...

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 stor...

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:

• Apples of Uncommon Character by Rowan Jacobsen (2014)
• The Illustrated History of Apples in the US and Canada by Daniel J. Bussey (2017)
• The Apples of New York by Sp...

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 th...

“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 serie...

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 stor...

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 ...

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 que...

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...

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 complet...