Rumble Strip

Welcome to a new, periodic series called Life of Kaye. This first episode is called: Some Kind of a Speaker. The series is produced by me and Kaye Phipps. Send us your comments if you have them and thank you so much for listening.

Transcribed - Published: 28 May 2026

Home health and hospice nurses provide all kinds of healthcare to people in their homes...day and night, and in mud and snow. I knew of these folks because I met some of them after my father came home from the hospital. A nurse came to help with his medications. A VNA therapist came to give him physical therapy. But I wasn’t really aware of these nurses and therapists UNTIL my family really needed them, and I expect there are a lot of people out there like me. So this is a show about the nurses who travel, and what their days are like, and what they know about this place because of the work they do.

Transcribed - Published: 21 May 2026

Vermont Quick Lube is a stay-in-your-car oil change place and car wash in Barre, Vermont. Wednesday is Ladies' Day and since I love Vermont Quick Lube, I made a story about it. On a Wednesday.

Transcribed - Published: 1 May 2026

A special airing of A Requiem for Larry Massett, produced by The KItchen Sisters Present, and Barrett Golding and Transom. It's really good.

Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2026

This is a same-day reaction to this morning’s story called: A springtime show about how about the economy that partly explains why we feel ashamed. That story features a wonderful listener in Scotland who is a money manager and made some fascinating comments about the last class series. I asked her if she’d be willing to share some of these thoughts on the phone, and she was willing, and that was this morning’s story. A couple hours later I got a reaction audio from one of the people featured in the class series who we talked about in this morning’s story. So I’m playing it. Because it’s great and because the point of the class series is to talk about these things and this is almost like a real goddamn conversation! What Class are You? is a series I make for Vermont Public.

Transcribed - Published: 9 April 2026

This is a conversation with a money manager in Scotland who has given a great deal of thought to why many of us feel confused and ashamed about our financial lives. After the What Class are You? shows, I often receive interesting commentary, and I’m always frustrated that this commentary can’t become part of a wider conversation. So after receiving two fascinating comments from EM in Scotland, I asked her if she’d be willing to share some of her thoughts on the economy on the phone. She said yes, and then we had a conversation longer than she ever could have imagined. EM responded primarily to two shows. One featured a woman called Trudy, who worked all kinds of jobs in her life, and toward the end of her working years, she realized that she was not going to have enough money for a comfortable retirement, but she would have a little too much to qualify for services that would make her retirement more comfortable, so she made sure that she retired with little enough money that she could qualify for services. The other story that EM responded to was about Kaye, who talks about how not having money makes her feel like a child, and that all the people with money seem like the adults. Fair warning, I ask a lot of dumb questions in this show, because I don’t know much about the economy. But I’m figuring that maybe there are some people out there like me. And even though I don't know much about economics, most of what she says here has deep resonance. She is naming something I feel but don’t understand.

Transcribed - Published: 9 April 2026

Six years ago, seventeen-year-old Finn Rooney killed himself in his home in Walden, Vermont. A couple days later, his community held a bonfire in the parking lot of Hazen Union High school in Hardwick. Hundreds of people came. Tom Gilbert, who organized the bonfire, asked his friend Heidi Wilson to write a song for the occasion. The song was called Hold On. She made sure it was a song everyone could sing. And they did. Now people are singing this song all over the world. People in Minneapolis have been singing it to ICE agents. They’re singing it for their neighbors who are afraid to leave their houses. They’re singing it in Wales and Australia and Iralend in solidarity with the people of Minneapolis. Peole are singing it all over, to give each other some comfort and some courage. This is a story about where that song came from and where it’s gone.

Transcribed - Published: 6 March 2026

A conversation about the roles of race and class in the lives of two biracial teenagers in Vermont.

Transcribed - Published: 29 January 2026

Kaye Phipps lives in Montpelier, Vermont. Right now she works as a custodian at a local grocery store. She’s also been a florist, a housekeeper, and a house cleaner. But even though she’s sometimes working multiple jobs, she often comes up short. In this episode, Kaye talks about how having a limited income makes her feel like a child, long into adulthood.

Transcribed - Published: 28 January 2026

Jules Guillemette grew up on their family farm in Lamoille County, Vermont, which has been in the family nearly 100 years. Since then, Jules has worked as a chef, a meat cutter and now they're an electrician. In this episode, we talk about what it means to own land of enormous value but always be struggling to save enough money.

Transcribed - Published: 27 January 2026

Trudy Richmond lives in subsidized senior housing in Burlington. She’s educated and worked all her life, but at a certain point, Trudy realized that she had too little money to pay for a comfortable retirement and too much to qualify for services that might make her retirement more comfortable. In this episode of What Class are You, Trudy talks with reporter Erica Heilman about how she negotiated a comfortable retirement for herself.

Transcribed - Published: 26 January 2026

This is a show about Thanksgiving, and what it sounds like. It is made entirely of your recordings.

Transcribed - Published: 9 December 2025

Hello all. Here's a little sample of the show I'm trying ot make with YOU this Thanksgiving...

Transcribed - Published: 26 November 2025

This is me imploring YOU to make some recordings this year about your Thanksgiving.

Transcribed - Published: 25 November 2025

Vaughn Hood was an 118-pound barber in his late teens when he was drafted and sent to Vietnam, and in Vaughn’s war, most men didn’t survive their first three month tour. I met Vaughn through my sister. He was her hairdresser in St. Johnsbury, and he mentioned his time in Vietnam while he was cutting her hair. They didn't talk much about it, but she recommended him to me. We sat down in the back of his salon one day and I turned my recorder on, and we had one of the most remarkable conversations I've had in my life.

Transcribed - Published: 11 November 2025

My friend Jesse had a birthday party. I attended but spent the entire time lying down upstairs in the guest room. I asked people who attended the party to send me voice memos about the party. This is a show comprised of these recordings. And whales. Happy birthday Jesse.

Transcribed - Published: 3 November 2025

People often assume the Joslyn House is a nursing home, probably because a lot of old people live there. But it’s not a nursing home. It’s not assisted living. There’s no anonymous art on the wall. It’s a house. It’s a a place where up to twenty older people live independently together…in a huge, elegant house furnished with their own things. It is a place where you don’t have to worry about cooking, where if you’re lonely at night there‘s someone to talk to, or sit with. In other words, a civilized, safe place where love is evident.

Transcribed - Published: 21 October 2025

I stopped in to visit with Forrest Foster about his barn project. Here's our conversation.

Transcribed - Published: 8 October 2025

My friend Ralph Rockwell is a mechanic in Wolcott, Vermont, and he runs a tow truck business. He's been rebuilding old vehicles since he was 15. Now he's 72 and he restores old tractors. I don't know anything about tractors, but I love listening to Ralph talk about them. Each story contains the tractor's history as far back as he can go. This begat this begat that. It's almost Biblical. This summer I sat and talked with Ralph in his shop next to a 1953 Ford Jubilee. Then I tagged along to a tractor pull.

Transcribed - Published: 25 September 2025

A couple weeks ago my friend Susan Randall came to visit. She’s a private investigator and we’ve been friends for thirty years and every now and then we get together and compare notes on our lives, and on what the hell is going on. Sometimes we talk about her work, sometimes our kids, once we made a show about a dead owl. This has been a very difficult year for Susan. In this conversation, we talk about her health...and the federal government.

Transcribed - Published: 13 September 2025

My friend Bryan Pfeiffer is a writer and field naturalist in Montpelier, Vermont. And recently he published an article about his discovery of these crazy zombie snails…whose eye stalks have been taken over by these long, wet, pulsing technicolor appendages. They are amazing. So we talked about them.

Transcribed - Published: 4 September 2025

This is a conversation with Jay Allison about the recent attack on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Recently, Congress passed a rescission bill that eliminates $9 billion in previously allocated funding, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which effectively defunds public media, which includes NPR, PBS and member stations around the country. This is a conversation about what that means and what we stand to lose. Jay Allison has been working in and around public radio since it’s beginnings a half century ago. He's been an independent public radio producer, journalist, and teacher since the 1970s. He is the founder of Transom, where I learned to make radio, and 25 years ago he founded WCAI, a public radio station in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Jay's work has won most of the major broadcasting awards, including six Peabodys. He produces The Moth Radio Hour and was the curator of This I Believe on NPR.

Transcribed - Published: 30 July 2025

No. 10 Pond is where I go swimming in the summer. All kinds of people go there. Kids, grownups, grandparents, mothers and fathers, dogs. But ALWAYS there is a group of ladies....standing thigh deep in the pond, talking together. All over the world since the beginning of time, ladies of a certain age have been standing thigh deep in water together, talking. It’s a scientific fact. So here in my town, for hundreds of years--even before recorded history--pieces of these ladies conversations have been drifting around on the pond. This is a show about No. 10 Pond, and the ladies who stand in it.

Transcribed - Published: 28 July 2025

This is the last episode in season 6 of What Class are You?, a periodic series I make for Vermont Public. Susan Ritz grew up in a wealthy family in Minnesota. For the past 36 years, she's lived in central Vermont, where she writes books and is an active philanthropist. In this episode of "What class are you?" we talk about the surprising complexities of having more than most.

Transcribed - Published: 18 July 2025

Today, episode 4 of season SIX of What Class are You?, a periodic series I make for Vermont Public about living in the American class system. In today’s episode, we revisit Kytreana Patrick, who was a guest from the first class series back in 2022. Back then, Kytreana was working as a cashier at Olney’s general store in Orleans, Vermont. Since then, Kytreana’s gotten a job at a factory that manufactures combat helmets. She’s got a small apartment in Newport, and this past January she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Emberlyn.

Transcribed - Published: 17 July 2025

Dan Sedon has been working as a criminal defense attorney in Vermont, where he works with poor people and rich people and all the people in between. In this latest episode of What Class are You?, reporter Erica Heilman talks with Dan about what this line of work has taught him about the American class system.

Transcribed - Published: 16 July 2025

What Class Are You? is a periodic series I make for Vermont Public about our lives in the American class system. Sharon Plumb works for a statewide nonprofit in the outdoor recreation sector. She lives in East Montpelier with her husband and daughter. In this conversation, Sharon talks about the advantages she sees in the lives of people whose parents are able to help their kids financially all the way into adulthood.

Transcribed - Published: 15 July 2025

Ralph Rockwell lives in Wolcott, Vermont with his wife Carol and about 28 tractors. He runs a towing service part time and sells some of the tractors he restores, but he’s 72 and he’s mostly retired from a long career as a mechanic. In this episode of the occasional series "What Class Are You?" Ralph and I sit next to one of Ralph's tractors and talk about class.

Transcribed - Published: 14 July 2025

This is the fourth episode of What Now Sounds Like, a periodic series comprised entirely of your recordings from all over the world, in which we try to capture these strange times in audio.

Transcribed - Published: 2 June 2025

This was the inaugural year of Hardwick State, a weekend long university in Hardwick, Vermont, organized by the Civic Standard, and designed to take place during the awfulest time of the year. People from around Hardwick become professors and students. Classes are free, and everyone’s welcome to teach at Hardwick State. Maybe you teach something you do in your regular job. Maybe it’s just something you’re good at. Maybe it’s something you’re not very good at but you love it and you’re better than most. Here are some highlights from Hardwick State.

Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2025

Death in Venice is a story Larry Massett produced in the early 80s. Joe Frank narrates, and Larry wrote and performed all the music.

Transcribed - Published: 5 May 2025

We're raising money to rebuild Forrest Foster's barn. This is a very short story (plea) about it.

Transcribed - Published: 4 May 2025

Larry Massett was driving up through northern California toward Oregon and ended up spending a little more time at Mt. Shasta than he'd had in mind. Thankfully he had his flashlight in his trunk.

Transcribed - Published: 1 May 2025

This is the second show for LARRY MASSETT TRIBUTE WEEK. Larry Massett owned two Porsches, and he talked about them all the time. His friend, Joe Frank, in addition to being one of the greatest radio producers of all time, was a BMW guy. They decided to argue about this, and then have a drag race that would decide things.

Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2025

Larry Massset died last week. He was my mentor and my favorite radio producer. His stories was insane and brilliant and heretical and sublime. I wouldn’t have become a radio producer without his guidance and his stories to inspire me. I’m going to run a series of his shows as a tribute to him. This first show is The Eyes of Sibiu, about a trip to Romania with Romanian-American poet and novelist Andrei Codrescu.

Transcribed - Published: 29 April 2025

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House was intentionally built to straddle two nations and two communities. Three quarters of the building is in Stanstead, Quebec and one quarter is in Derby Line Vermont, and it's been the local library for both communities for over a century. The main entrance to the library is in the U.S., and for as long as anyone can remember, Canadians have been allowed to walk the 70 feet of sidewalk around the building to that front entrance. But in late January of this year, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem paid a surprise visit to the library while she was up touring some of the Vermont border crossings, and she did a little show for everyone there. And starting in October, Canadians will no longer be able to visit their local library without passing through a border crossing. This is a show about it.

Transcribed - Published: 25 April 2025

This is a show about health insurance and how hard it is.

Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025

Here is the third installment of What Now Sounds Like. It occurred to me the other day that this show is more like a long song, or even ambient sound. You can listen in the shower or washing dishes or even while you’re going to sleep. The goal is to keep each other company in a strange time.

Transcribed - Published: 2 March 2025

T.O. got out of prison in Rutland a couple weeks ago, after a six and a half year bid.  I met T.O. through my private investigator friend Susan Randall in May, 2017. He’d been a client of hers in a federal public defender case. T.O.’s been in and out of jail his whole adult life, and it’s become a kind of tradition for us to get together and talk when he gets out of jail. We don’t talk about his crimes. Mostly we talk about what it’s like to start over…over and over. Now T.O. is in his mid forties, and this time he was released in the middle of a Vermont winter.

Transcribed - Published: 14 February 2025

Here is episode 2 of What Now Sounds Like, a show I make that is entirely comprised of your recordings about the strange and desperate times we're living in. I'm hoping that shows made up of all of us will help us all feel less alone.

Transcribed - Published: 29 January 2025

What Now Sounds Like is made by all of us. You send me recordings that sound like this time we're living in, and I make shows with them. It could be an argument, your thoughts in the middle of the night, your songs and hummings....a recording of being on hold with your insurance company...whatever. And tell your friends to send their recordings too. Just email me at rumblestripvermont@gmail.com. song, a conversation, a middle of the night thought, a call to your insurance company....I don't know. Youthis what I hope is the first of a series.

Transcribed - Published: 23 January 2025

The world is chaotic. Systems are failing. Towns are burning. If you need to make an appointment with your doctor you may have to wait til July. So it's time to make a show about it all. I implore you to record moments of your day and send me the audio and I will try to make a show that sounds like RIGHT NOW. Email the recordings to me at rumblestripvermont@gmail.com.

Transcribed - Published: 18 January 2025

A first generation experience of the American class system.

Transcribed - Published: 10 January 2025

Katrin Tchana on the gentrification of her hometown.

Transcribed - Published: 9 January 2025

Retired police detective Ingrid Jonas on class in law enforcement.

Transcribed - Published: 8 January 2025

Mark LaRouche, on the comforts of 'lower class', and addiction as a class all its own.

Transcribed - Published: 7 January 2025

Damian talks about the difference between white collar and blue collar, and we compare notes on our lives because we are exactly the same age and we both grew up in Vermont and then I went to college and took tap dancing and he joined the army.

Transcribed - Published: 6 January 2025

Forrest Foster found a new old truck, thanks to you listeners. We drove around and talked about the truck and about Forrest's new job and I complained about feeling old. Happy Holidays and thank you for your generosity. Happy Holidays to all!

Transcribed - Published: 17 December 2024

Things have been pretty grim around here. I lost my cat Zu Zu and she was only two and a half and she left behind her brother Kenny and Kenny and I aren’t doing so great. So. I’m going to play a story I made for Vermont Public about Erika Bruner, a veterinarian who specializes in end of live care for pets. She does at-home euthanasia…in barns, in basements, in fields.  I didn’t think I’d need her services so soon. But I did. She’s remarkable and she made a very difficult day a little less difficult.

Transcribed - Published: 11 December 2024

We raised ALL the money for Forrest's new old truck and we are so GRATEFUL!!!

Transcribed - Published: 16 November 2024