Jun 26, 2022Member-only“What the Hell Happened?” Bill McKibben Reconsiders his Boyhood and the American DreamListen to this Vermont Conversation interview here. Bill McKibben thought he knew where he came from. He grew up in the tidy, affluent and predominantly white suburban community of Lexington, Massachusetts. As a teenager, he gave tours on the Lexington Battle Green, regaling visitors with tales about the opening shots…Bill Mckibben20 min readBill Mckibben20 min read
May 13, 2022Member-onlyRep. Jamie Raskin on losing his son and saving democracyListen to this interview here. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin was expecting trouble after the November 2020 presidential election. Raskin and his Democratic colleagues in Congress anticipated that former President Donald Trump would try to subvert the results and try to derail Congress’s normally pro-forma certification of President Joe Biden’s election. …Jamie Raskin18 min readJamie Raskin18 min read
Apr 22, 2022Member-onlyHow Dark Money is Fueling Right-wing Extremism and Undermining DemocracyInvestigative journalist Jane Mayer on why “it feels like a dangerous hiatus right now” — Listen to this interview here. Jane Mayer has earned a reputation as one of the country’s top investigative reporters. As chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, Mayer has been relentless in exposing the hidden forces shaping American politics. …Dark Money14 min readDark Money14 min read
Apr 8, 2022Member-onlyHow did Republicans go from Cold Warriors to Putin apologists? Stuart Stevens knows whyThe Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues with politicians, activists, artists, changemakers and citizens who are making a difference. Listen below, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify to hear more. Click here to listen to…Republican Party13 min readRepublican Party13 min read
Jan 5, 2022Member-onlyAfter confronting death & Trump mob “it’s an all-hands-on-deck moment” to defend democracy: Rep. Peter WelchThe Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues with politicians, activists, artists, changemakers and citizens who are making a difference. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify. Listen to this interview at https://vtdigger.org. On January 6…Trump19 min readTrump19 min read
Published inElemental·Jul 23, 2021Member-only‘Covid-19 Is Raging Like an Intense Forest Fire’A conversation with Stanford epidemiologist Steven Goodman on the perpetual pandemic — “We’re not done with this,” warns Stanford epidemiologist Steven Goodman about the Covid-19 pandemic. I believe my brother. In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was spreading and lockdowns were being imposed, I asked Steven to join me on The Vermont Conversation, the radio show and podcast that I host…Covid-1910 min readCovid-1910 min read
Published inElemental·Jan 4, 2021Member-only‘This Epidemic Is Hundreds of Micro-Epidemics’A conversation with Stanford epidemiologist Dr. Steve Goodman — Back in March when the Covid-19 outbreak was in its early days, I asked my brother Steve to join me on The Vermont Conversation, a radio show and podcast that I host, to talk about what we could expect with this new virus. Steve Goodman, MD, MHS, PhD, is an…Covid-197 min readCovid-197 min read
Published inElemental·Jul 20, 2020Member-only‘This Is Not a Public Health Crisis — It’s a Political Crisis’A conversation with Stanford epidemiologist Dr. Steven Goodman — Back in March, when the Covid-19 outbreak was in its early days, I asked my brother Steve to join me on the public affairs radio show that I host, The Vermont Conversation, to talk about what we could expect with this new virus. Unlike me, he is an expert. Steve…Public Health8 min readPublic Health8 min read
Jun 23, 2020Member-onlyHow Democracies DieHarvard Prof. Steven Levitsky on two nightmare scenarios for the U.S. Is our democracy in danger? So begins How Democracies Die, the 2018 New York Times bestselling book by Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. The authors have studied the collapse of democracies in Latin America and Europe…Trump9 min readTrump9 min read
Published inElemental·Jun 1, 2020Member-onlyHow Racism KillsA conversation with Harvard social epidemiologist Nancy Krieger — Racism is deadly. This is apparent when police kill unarmed people of color such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. But the lethality of systemic racism is also evident in the Covid-19 pandemic, which is killing African Americans at a staggering three times the rate of white people. Nancy Krieger…Racism8 min readRacism8 min read
