Reimagine Rural
The dominant narrative of rural America is often one of decline and division. On Reimagine Rural podcast, host Tony Pipa, a scholar in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution and a product of rural America himself, visits rural places across the United States to hear local people tell the story of how they are enacting positive change in their communities and learning how public investment in rural people and places can lead to increased and equitable prosperity.
Episodes
A single natural disaster can change a community for generations. In the span of five years, Canton, North Carolina, experienced Tropical Storm Fred, Hurricane Helene, and a significant economic shock: the closure of its paper mill. The 115-year-old institution had employed more than a thousand people and was a source of pride for workers and their families. In this episode, Tony Pipa visits Canton to understand how residents are w...
Over the past several years, a set of partners in Old Fort, North Carolina, has been developing a network of elite mountain bike and hiking trails that was starting to put the town on the map. In September 2024, Hurricane Helene left the place in ruins, damaging homes, trails, and more than a dozen businesses that had opened as the outdoor recreation economy took hold. In this episode of Reimagine Rural, the first of season 3, Tony...
Season three of Reimagine Rural podcast launches soon with new episodes. Once again, host Tony Pipa is visiting small towns from coast to coast, talking to local people, capturing their stories of the changes unfolding in their hometowns, and exploring the implications and intersections with public policy.
From disaster recovery in North Carolina to downtown revitalization in Kentucky to cleaner and cheaper energy in Minnesota, plu...
As the Trump administration prepares to take power in Washington, Senior Fellow Tony Pipa, host of the Reimagine Rural podcast, looks at what has happened in rural policy under the Biden administration and what shifts in federal policy and emphasis might ensue under President Trump. No matter what changes come, Pipa notes, local communities will continue to solve problems locally.
The importance of public investment, and the difficulty rural places have in accessing it, are recurring themes in the stories we gather for the podcast. Communities often lack the time and staff to navigate the maze of available resources and match them to their project plans and aspirations. Policymakers are beginning to recognize that strengthening local rural capacity is a key to unlocking the investment that these communities ...
Innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental to America’s national identity, yet they are commonly associated with big cities and areas like Silicon Valley. As we’ve encountered numerous times in past episodes, rural America is full of innovation and home to countless examples of ingenuity. In part two of our special innovators episode, rather than capture the story of a rural place, Tony Pipa hears from rural entrepreneurs who ...
Innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental to America’s national identity, yet they are commonly associated with big cities and areas like Silicon Valley. As we’ve encountered numerous times in past episodes, rural America is full of innovation and home to countless examples of ingenuity. In this episode, part one of two, rather than capture the story of a rural place, Tony Pipa hears from entrepreneurs from across the country...
Rural America is facing a national affordable housing crisis, and nearly half of rural renters are rent-burdened. With the unique characteristics and challenges of housing in rural America, but also with policy solutions that are often designed for urban and suburban communities, rural communities are pursuing innovations in collaboration, financing, and construction to meet their residents’ needs. In this episode, Tony Pipa visits...
The land and resources needed for the transition to clean energy are found disproportionately in rural places. Many rural communities now find themselves faced with a potential for clean energy development that brings both economic opportunities and political tensions, especially with the implementation of the Infrastructure and Investment in Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. In this episode, Tony Pipa visits Isabella Count...
Intel Corporation is building two multi-billion-dollar semiconductor chip fabrication plants in Licking County, Ohio. While this industrial installation, the largest private-sector investment in Ohio’s history, promises to create thousands of jobs, it will also bring big changes to the area, affecting nearby rural places that were not part of the siting decision. In this episode, Tony Pipa talks with local leaders about how they ar...
Rural America disproportionately lacks access to high-speed broadband, an essential component of modern life. Though the issue—and many attempts to address it—go back much farther, the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act appropriated $42.5 billion for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program to close the gap once and for all. In this episode, Tony Pipa visits Macon County, Alabama, and also talks with lea...
In late 2022, the federal government auctioned off ocean access near the coast of Humboldt County, California to develop an offshore wind installation. This major industrial project could produce 6% of the state’s current energy needs just in its initial stage. In this episode, Tony Pipa visits Humboldt County to understand the scale and ambition of the project and learn how key stakeholders, including leaders of local tribes, are ...
The history of rural America includes "company towns,” where one employer controlled pretty much everything in town, from retail to housing to jobs, to get as much as possible out of their workers. The fortunes of many rural communities remain closely tied to a major employer even today, and Tony Pipa travels to Humboldt, Kansas, and New Berlin, New York, to learn what it means to rural renewal when community investment and partner...
Season two of Reimagine Rural podcast debuts soon, with host Tony Pipa once again visiting small towns from coast to coast and collecting the stories of local leaders with a focus on how Read more
We planned only eight episodes of Reimagine Rural, but we heard from so many listeners across the country that we couldn’t help but share more. In this episode, host Tony Pipa speaks with listeners from four towns across the country to hear their stories of community revitalization: Lovington, New Mexico, on rebuilding its downtown; Brattleboro, Vermont, on embracing refugee resettlement; De Soto, Kansas, on gearing up for the clea...
In this episode, Tony Pipa reflects on lessons learned throughout his journeys across rural America. He hears from new and old friends about the most important elements of effective rural policy—investing in local leadership and capacity, improving coherence at the federal level, and investing in flexible, substantial grants—but is also reminded that beauty, quality of life, and pride of place are key catalysts for community renewa...
In this episode of Reimagine Rural, host Tony Pipa goes to Eagle Butte, South Dakota, anchor of the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation and Tribe. We hear how local business owners, tribal administration, and leaders from the Four Bands Community Fund are working to build credit, foster creativity, and center local voices in future development.
We're gratified to have heard from many of you about your own town and the positive things ...
In this episode of “Reimagine Rural,” host Tony Pipa visits the neighboring towns of Thomas and Davis, West Virginia, former resource-dependent economies that have reinvented themselves as destinations for art and outdoor recreation. Tony speaks with long-time residents who saw the community’s decline, and newcomers who helped spur its revitalization. They describe the new challenges that come with economic growth and their hopes ...
In this episode of “Reimagine Rural,” host Tony Pipa visits DeWitt, Arkansas, deep in the Mississippi Delta, where a failed biofuel project sparked a shift in the community’s economic identity. Entrepreneurs share the stories of how their small businesses got off the ground and what their plans are for their future and the future of DeWitt.
We're gratified to have heard from many of you about your own town and the positive things h...
In this episode of “Reimagine Rural,” Tony Pipa visits Drew and Moorhead, two towns in Sunflower County, Mississippi, once home to cotton plantations, where the country’s history of slavery and the civil rights movement set the context for these rural towns and their path to renewal today. Local leaders and homecomers describe their efforts to build communities where people want to live—and the role of beauty and leisure in achievi...
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