Vermont Public Docs

Coming of age — and coming out — in the time of civil unions

Vermont Public — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:19:50 -0000

July 1st, 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of civil unions in Vermont. This legal alternative to marriage was the first of its kind in the United States. In the Vermont Supreme Court case Baker v. Vermont, the court ruled that the state had no legal basis to discriminate against same-sex couples. If the legislature would not allow same-sex couples to get marriage licenses, lawmakers would have to figure out a legal alternative. The result: civil unions.

Vermont Public's Andrea Laurion spoke with LGBTQ+ Vermonters who were coming of age — and coming out — when civil unions became legal. They were likely too young at the time to be thinking about marriage for themselves, but old enough to know what was going on and how it might affect them one day.

See photos and learn more at vermontpublic.org.

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The Arts that Shape Us #2: Tibetan Music and Dance

Vermont Public — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 08:00:10 -0000

For Tibetan-American artist Migmar Tsering, music and dance are inextricably linked to being Tibetan.

Migmar first learned traditional dance in the village of Langkor in the county of Tingri. He was born there almost 3 decades after the invasion of Tibet by communist China in 1950.

Since the 1950s, the Tibetan diaspora has expanded, with multiple groups of Tibetans relocating to India and later the U.S., Canada, Australia, and some European countries. Under the United States 1990 Immigration Act, 1,000 Tibetans living in exile in India, Nepal, and Bhutan were chosen via lottery to receive U.S. visas.

In 1993, Vermont became one of 25 resettlement sites in the U.S. Migmar arrived to Vermont in 2011 and soon began teaching traditional music and dance to kids in Vermont's Tibetan American community.

The Arts that Shape Us is a podcast by Vermont Folklife, produced with support from Vermont Public's Made Here Fund. Hosted by Mary Wesley, it’s devoted to exploring the state’s cultural heritage and what different local artforms say about the past and present of Vermont.

The Arts that Shape Us #1: Barre Stone Carvers

Vermont Public — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Since at least the 1870s, people in central Vermont have cut, chiseled, hoisted, polished, and carved local granite, creating monuments, statues, and especially memorial grave markers. The granite industry brought Italian, French, Canadian, Scots, Scandinavian, Irish, Greek, and Spanish workers to the city of Barre, each bringing their own stone carving traditions.

Over time, these artisans and the manufacturers they worked for shaped an enduring identity: The Barre stone carver.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro #6: Tremendous Journey

Vermont Public — Mon, 12 May 2025 21:00:00 -0000

“There is a lot of change from the beginning up to now, and we are still learning every day.”

The experience of resettling in Brattleboro has changed not only the Afghan women who had to rebuild their lives, but also the people and the town that helped them do it. There are many challenges—a housing shortage, the loss of federal funding that supports refugee programs, pockets of resentment among local residents. But in the words of one longtime Brattleboro citizen, the town has learned a lot “about resiliency, support, and what really matters.”

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro was produced by Two Daughters Productions with support from Vermont Public's Made Here Fund.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro #5: Home Lives

Vermont Public — Mon, 12 May 2025 20:58:00 -0000

“My daughters will be raised in America, so their lives will be different from mine.”

Some Afghan women in Brattleboro left their country because their husbands had jobs connected to the Afghan military or to the U.S. government evacuation in 2021, which put them in danger. Coming from traditional families, these women focus on the same things in Brattleboro as they did at home: raising their children, practicing their faith, and preserving their culture. But they’re also doing new things, like learning how to drive.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro was produced by Two Daughters Productions with support from Vermont Public's Made Here Fund.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro #4: Like a Stone

Vermont Public — Mon, 12 May 2025 20:56:00 -0000

“Many of us who are here in Brattleboro ... we had a good life in Afghanistan.”

Afghan women in their 40s and 50s grew up surrounded by war. They went to school off and on, depending on how much violence was happening in their neighborhoods. They raised children. Many built careers. But those careers put them in danger when the Taliban returned in 2021. Today these women face the double burden of supporting themselves and their families in Brattleboro and also their families back home.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro was produced by Two Daughters Productions with support from Vermont Public's Made Here Fund.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro #3: Another Page

Vermont Public — Mon, 12 May 2025 20:54:00 -0000

“I grew up with all these stories, all this history. How can I accept in one night, everything is changed?”

Many young women who came of age during Afghanistan’s 20 years of democracy went to high school and university and were charting their futures when the Taliban took power. Their lives were in danger so they fled. In Afghanistan, they had been academic powerhouses, artists, educators, rising business managers. In Brattleboro, they started over.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro was produced by Two Daughters Productions with support from Vermont Public's Made Here Fund.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro #2: Arrival

Vermont Public — Mon, 12 May 2025 20:52:00 -0000

“Is any place in the United States of America called Vermont?”

As Afghan women left their country and embarked on a journey halfway around the world, they mourned their losses: family, homes, careers, comfort. They mourned their loss of Afghanistan. They landed in Vermont, a place they’d never heard of before. A brand new resettlement agency and a cadre of volunteers were waiting for them.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro was produced by Two Daughters Productions with support from Vermont Public's Made Here Fund.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro #1: One Backpack

Vermont Public — Mon, 12 May 2025 20:50:00 -0000

“The day the Taliban took control of our country, how much we cried no one can imagine.”

When the fundamentalist Taliban seized power in 2021, Afghan citizens were shocked and terrified. They fled the country for different reasons: their education, jobs, or activism put them in danger; they were connected to the Afghan military or a western government; or all of the above. The U.S. evacuated close to 80,000 Afghans. Some were destined for Brattleboro, Vermont.

The Afghan Women of Brattleboro was produced by Two Daughters Productions with support from Vermont Public's Made Here Fund.

The only primary care doctor in Island Pond

Vermont Public — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:30:00 -0000

Dr. Bob Primeau is the only primary care doctor for miles. He has spent his entire career taking care of patients from the day they’re born until the day they die. But his field is changing, and Primeau is nearing retirement age.

"At the end of the summer, I'm leaving the primary care practice," Primeau says. "I'll have more time to devote to our local trail network, to play music, maybe even do some work overseas or teach at the high school. None of that will be as important as the 34 years I spent as the doctor in Island Pond."

This story is a collaborative documentary, told from the point of view of its main subject, in his own words. The narration is the result of many hours of conversation and work between Dr. Primeau and producer Anna Van Dine, written based on transcripts and emails.

See photos and learn more at vermontpublic.org.

Support Vermont Public's longform audio storytelling with a donation.

Exposed

Vermont Public — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 14:55:00 -0000

Homeless Vermonters face many deadly risks. But the state doesn't track how many have died, or what kills them. A first-of-its kind analysis by Vermont Public and Seven Days identified at least 82 people who died either living outside or sheltered in motels between 2021 and 2024.

See photos and read more at vermontpublic.org.

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The Heartbreak Hotel

Vermont Public — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 11:00:00 -0000

A downtown apartment building stitched Plainfield together. On July 10, floods washed it away.

The Heartbreak Hotel was the kind of place where neighbors saw each other every day, where generations of people, from all walks of life, found belonging and someone to wave to in the morning.

Twelve people were living there at the time, and they all survived. Most of their beloved cats did not.

In the days after the flood, reporter Erica Heilman talked with a number of the residents who lost their homes. They sat on porches and in houses where they were camped out, and in Erica’s car. What was lost that night, and what could it teach us about what comes next?

See photos and read more at vermontpublic.org.

Support Vermont Public's longform audio storytelling with a donation.

Two Vermont voices reflect on the Israel-Hamas war

Vermont Public — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0000

"Uncomfortable conversations need to happen."

Raneen Salha and Sarah White discuss their thoughts, feelings and personal connections to the war between Israel and Hamas.

See photos and read more at vermontpublic.org.

Support Vermont Public's longform audio storytelling with a donation.

Trials & Tribulations: A week inside Vermont's busiest courthouse

Vermont Public — Tue, 28 May 2024 22:30:00 -0000

More than four years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the state judiciary is still struggling with an enormous backlog of criminal cases and competing public pressures around how justice should be pursued. To better understand how the system is working, Seven Days and Vermont Public embedded two reporters at the Burlington criminal courthouse for one week. Read the accompanying print story on Vermont Public or Seven Days.

Recognized: An Update

Vermont Public — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 11:01:00 -0000

Two Abenaki First Nations are continuing to call for Vermont institutions not to work with state-recognized tribes, and to reconsider the process that led to the state recognizing those groups as Abenaki tribes.

Those nations — Odanak and Wôlinak — are receiving a mixed response.

2024-04-02: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the response of Vermont's state-recognized tribes to scrutiny of the state recognition process and whether they have demonstrated their Abenaki ancestry. Additional context has also been added about genealogical documentation cited in – but not made public with – state recognition applications.

Remembering John Harrison

Vermont Public — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:00:00 -0000

John Harrison traveled Vermont as a preacher in the 1880s. A racist name in town records preserved his memory.

Note: This story contains sensitive material, including racial slurs. Please listen with care.

What class are you? Ashley Messier

Vermont Public — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 17:05:00 -0000

Ashley Messier is the co-chair of the Corrections Monitoring Committee in the Vermont Legislature, and she’s the reentry services program manager for Vermont Works for Women. She grew up in Essex with an abusive father and with little money, and she found herself repeating the cycle in early adulthood. This is a story about multigenerational poverty and abuse, and the temporary relief of opiates.