Megan Torgerson - Storytelling from Rural America
Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson
Mountain & Prairie Media
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2023
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Megan Torgerson is a podcaster and the creator of Reframing Rural, a narrative podcast whose mission is to "share stories of people and places in rural America in an effort to celebrate culture, preserve history and cultivate curiosity and conversation across geographic, class and cultural divides." In just three seasons, Megan has grown Reframing Rural from a spark of an idea into a highly regarded podcast, one that has been recognized by institutions such as the Headwaters Foundation, Montana Farmers Union, Humanities Montana, and more. Personally, I have learned a ton from Megan's work, so it was an honor to have her join me on the podcast.
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Megan was born and raised on the Great Plains of eastern Montana, primarily in the small town of Dagmar. She attended the University of Montana in Missoula and eventually made her way to graduate school in Seattle, where she earned her MFA. As you'll hear in this conversation, during her time in grad school, Megan began exploring the idea of a podcast that focused on rural America. Rather than getting bogged down in endless planning and idea generation, she took action, produced Season 1, and put it out into the world in spring 2020. Fast forward to today, and Megan has a team that works with her, she continues to receive wide-ranging recognition, and the show is being broadcast on several Montana radio stations.
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I've known Megan for a year or so, but this was the first time I had a chance to ask her detailed questions about her journey as a storyteller. We started out talking about her upbringing in Dagmar, as well as her educational background and early career. We discuss why she decided to create a narrative podcast, and she explains the very involved process of creating a single episode. We discuss some of the issues she explores in Reframing Rural, including rural gentrification, which was the topic of one of her most recent episodes. We discuss her generosity in the podcast space, whether or not she considers herself a journalist, why she is optimistic about the future of rural America, some advice for aspiring podcasters, and she has lots of amazing book recommendations.
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If you haven't already, I'd encourage you to subscribe to Reframing Rural on your favorite podcast app. Megan is committed and she's a pro, and I know that Mountain & Prairie listeners will appreciate the amazing work she's putting into the world. Enjoy!
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- Reframing Rural
- Reframing Rural: S3 E4: Rural Gentrification in North Idaho
- Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/megan-torgerson/
- Green River Course with the Ed & Freeflow Institute
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TOPICS DISCUSSED:
- 5:30 - Megan's childhood
- 12:30 - What Megan hoped to do once she went to college in Missoula
- 15:00 - How Megan's passions inspired hard work
- 17:15 - Why Megan started Reframing Rural
- 22:00 - Why Megan produces a narrative style podcast
- 26:00 - When did Megan plan for podcasting to become a job
- 28:30 - Megan's experience with why podcasts generate such compelling stories and interviews
- 31:30 - Whether podcasting is a journalistic or creative endeavor for Megan, and whether she is concerned or not with "taking sides"
- 35:30 - An example of Megan's podcast topics
- 39:30 - If Megan worries about negative feedback to her show, and how she handles it
- 44:30 - Where Megan's generosity comes from
- 47:30 - What Megan is optimistic about regarding rural America
- 51:30 - How Megan measures success as a storyteller
- 53:30 - Other storytellers that Megan admires
- 55:15 - How to start a podcast, according to Megan
- 57:30 - How long the Dover episode took Megan to make
- 59:15 - Megan's accolades
- 1:02:30 - Megan's book recommendations
- 1:06:15 - Megan's parting words of wisdom
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ABOUT MOUNTAIN & PRAIRIE:
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody's Ed, I've got two announcements before we get started. Number one is I want to thank Amy Winter |
| 0:05.2 | for becoming our newest Patreon supporter. Patreon is monthly support that comes with a lot of pretty cool benefits. |
| 0:12.1 | If you want to learn more about monthly support |
| 0:14.0 | through Patreon or other ways to support the podcast, you can go to mountain and prairie.com |
| 0:17.9 | slash support. Second thing is a really cool trip that I just announced if you follow me on |
| 0:24.3 | social media you may have seen it but I have teamed up with the Free Flow Institute |
| 0:28.7 | for a five-day float on the Green River in Utah through Gates of Lidore and Dinosaur National Monument. |
| 0:35.7 | And this is a storytelling course and we're going to be focused on the power of a good story to |
| 0:40.0 | affect change. |
| 0:41.8 | So during our five days on the river, we're going to examine the region's rich history, |
| 0:45.8 | we're going to talk about past and present conservation challenges of the region, and then |
| 0:49.9 | we're going to learn how effective storytelling can be a powerful tool for protecting our beloved wild places. |
| 0:55.9 | Over the course of my career, which has now been about two decades in land and water and |
| 1:01.0 | conservation in the west, I've found, and this is just me but I've found that success can be found not by |
| 1:06.9 | harping on doom and gloom but by focusing on solutions common ground and |
| 1:11.2 | win-win scenarios. |
| 1:13.0 | And I really, really do believe that optimistic, easily accessible storytelling can have a measurable impact for good. |
| 1:20.0 | So whether your audience is a publisher or a foundation or a donor board of directors a landowner a live audience a podcast listener whoever your ability to transform complex issues into captivating stories is a critical skill for |
| 1:34.4 | affecting change. So in this workshop slash river trip I'm going to share some of the |
| 1:39.8 | strategies that I've developed over the years that's allowed me to do everything from crafting multi-million dollar grant proposals |
| 1:46.3 | to boiling down complexities of water right issues and to a compelling narrative that makes sense for somebody who can possibly fund your project. |
| 1:54.5 | And then to conducting interviews like I do on this podcast about potentially controversial issues |
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