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A Manchester woman who played soccer at Burr & Burton Academy and at Williams College has turned a campus work-study job into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: being part of a national broadcasting team at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Japan.

Juneteenth is a holiday that dates back to 1865, when the last enslaved people were set free in this country. There’s a national debate underway over how racism and slavery should be remembered. This story originally aired on North Country Public Radio. You can find the original piece, here . But Black activists in Vermont and northern New York say the celebration has been re-energized in recent years and hope Juneteenth spurs a better understanding of Black history in America.

A statewide network of Black, Indigenous and people of color in Vermont are planting the seeds to advance racial equity in land, the environment, agriculture and foodways.

Summer begins on Sunday, making this the perfect time to go over some best practices to keep and maintain a healthy garden. This hour, garden expert Charlie Nardozzi joins us to talk about tips and tricks for best results, and to answer your gardening questions.

Even though Vermont has reached its 80% vaccination goal, state officials plan to continue to push to vaccinate as many people as possible. In our weekly health update, we talk to Vermont health officials about their efforts, as well as the outlook for the COVID-19 virus in the late summer and fall.

Vermonters often take pride in a state history that has strong ties to the abolitionist movement. The state’s history includes stories like that of Alexander Twilight, the first Black American to earn a college degree from an American university. But do Vermonters remember the contributions of Black and Indigenous people fully and honestly?

A classical cellist and Burr and Burton Academy senior became Vermont's Poetry Out Loud state champion back in March. And now Irén Hangen Vázquez's verse will reach an even larger audience with a chance this week at winning a nationwide poetry recitation contest.

Vermont lawmakers closed out what Senate President Becca Balint called “a session for the history books” Friday evening after passing a $7 billion state budget that includes moonshot investments in broadband, affordable housing, climate initiatives and other longstanding policy priorities.

The spiny softshell turtle has been on the threatened list in Vermont since 1987. Populations near Lake Champlain have struggled in the last few decades. Some of those struggles are manmade. This segment, VPR's Connor Cyrus checks in with Vermont's Fish and Wildlife Department about the Vermont Eastern Spiny Softshell Recovery Plan and what still needs to be done to protect this species of turtle.

Last week, North Country Congresswoman Elise Stefanik was elected as the House Republican Conference Chair to replace Liz Cheney. This segment, we discuss what this means for Rep. Stefanik, North Country voters and the Republican Party.

At a time when some states are moving to restrict access to voting, the Vermont Legislature is moving in the opposite direction. Lawmakers have given their approval to a bill that encourages early and mail-in voting. This segment, we'll look at this issue with Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos.

Demand for high-quality mental health care has grown more urgent since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Calls for that support are growing louder in the Northeast Kingdom, where residents in a community organization say local and state mental health officials are not providing an adequate level of mental health care.

When the owners of a generations-old family business in Chester, Vermont announced they were shutting down last year, a local couple took a leap and decided to buy the store. Their story is the next in our series about businesses that have started or substantially changed during the pandemic.

According to a new national study, Vermont leads the country in four out of five categories dealing with statewide vaccination rates. In fact, Scott administration officials say if Vermont were its own country, it would have one of the highest participation rates in the world. At the same time, the number of people between the ages of 18 and 29 who have been vaccinated lags considerably behind the rest of the state.

A lot of people grew hemp in 2019 , thinking there would be easy money to be made in the CBD industry. However, the market crashed that year due to oversupply, and the number of growers in Vermont has plummeted since then.