Put another log on the fire and get comfortable with the third and newest edition of their NH 4000 footers book. "The 4000-Footers of the White Mountains," co-authored by Mike Dickerman and Steve D. Smith. which has just been nominated for the "Peoples' Choice Award" in the NH Writers Project biennial awards contest. 

Nancy West reflects on ten years of hard-won success that has made InDepthNH.org an important force in providing local and state news and feature stories intended to fill the void left by the media companies that have eroded to a shadow of their previous versions or closed entirely.

While Elliott chose New Hampshire as the venue for his life's work as an advocate for low-income families, his service and impact have been broadly hailed for creating innovative solutions to daunting problems, especially around homelessness and affordable housing.

Public schools so exciting and effective that no one would want to send their children anywhere else.

For generations the American system of education has been run on what noted NH Educator and reformer Tony Wagner of Holderness, NH, calls the Carnegie method, measured by seat time and grade. Today, both Bramante and Wagner are at the forefront of an educational philosophy built around the belief that public schools need to refashion themselves around the competency of the students they produce. 

She honors us with a reading of some selected works as well as a revealing look into her inner world, including her means of titling her books and works.

Mark Twain is said to have remarked: "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." Mike Dickerman has lived just such a life. 

Caledonian Record was his first reporting job, followed by a stint at the Manadnock Ledger and the Littleton Courier from 1987 to 1998. During that path he found the Mountains and the nexus of those two paths have given him sustenance in every possible way. 

What was created was a Northcountry stew of enthusiasm, fearlessness, talent and determination from which would emerge the most thrilling and innovative changes to alpine skiing since its beginnings. 

The men and women who led this revolution in skiing were a diverse, freewheeling and welcoming group of people, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, from every socio-economic level, every religious and non-religious background. 

It seemed the epitome of everything that our founders had dreamt of . . . a pluralistic wave moving us forward, to match the other changes taking place all over the country and the world.

We were a country and a people on the move, a people who served as a paradigm of everything we could be; where the athletes, mentors, and dreamers made us excited about the future by providing us with examples of courage, and enthusiasm that matched our own personal vision of that which was best in America. 

In this episode Jerry reflects on his friendship with JD Nelson, Skiing with Paul Pfosi and other great memories from the Waterville years.

Last year Bernie logged more than 50 days skiing at 75 years of age. He is still an active and eager part of the skiing community and a key member of the team that made Freestyle possible, even when it was back on its heels.

Running events and shows is never easy but Bernie seemed to make it look so. 

Jack Sanders a brilliant legal mind and protector of Freestyle

While most folks in his native state of New Hampshire knew Jack Sanders as one of the finest attorneys in NH, Jack's love of skiing and freestyle was compelling him into the national freestyle legal space. He got into it somewhat reluctantly at the urging of Floyd Wilkie who was concerned about the future of freestyle and felt it needed the steady hand of Jack Sanders and his legal expertise to assure a brighter future. Ultimately Jack would serve in a national role helping to provide guidance to the young sport in its time of need.

The Mentors & Protectors

The excitement and joy of freestyle also had it’s downside. It was not all rainbows and unicorns. 

For those who remember those early days of Freestyle, you may recall that a less-than-healthy competition developed between skiers, racers,  hot doggers, and only a few years later snowboarders as well. 

A well-known cartoon showing each of the groups disdainfully pointing at the next and uttering “they suck” 

In fact, many ski resorts were slow to welcome Freestyle skiing to the mountain. At some ski areas, skiers were having their tickets “pulled” if they were caught doing stunts, even the tamer ballet moves. Today, nearly every mountain has a ski park, especially for Freestyle skiers and boarders.

The early aversion to Freestyle may have been an overreaction but that never happened at Waterville Valley.

Until the 1970s skiing had evolved gradually, beginning with its European roots followed by a migration of famed European skiers imported into the US specifically to bring their expertise. With the exception of the legendary Stein Erickson, most of the others were still skiing and instructing in the traditional, albeit evolving, manner and method. 

So what was so revolutionary about Waterville Valley? 

It was the people; their common humanity and openness to one another. In short it was their generosity of heart, spirit, and their love of skiing and the land.

Tom Corcoran was the commander of the works but he was also the public face of Waterville, traveling the country to evangelize on behalf of the new resort. As Tom Corcoran traversed the country on behalf of the Waterville Company its reputation grew.

Meanwhile, back in the “Valley” a group of exciting, and sometimes outrageous, skiers were birthing the most exciting new development in Alpine skiing. 

This interview was particularly meaningful to Wayne because Frank was his coach when Wayne was a 10-year-old aspiring racer (before he fell in love with freestyle, of course). Frank also bought his first ski home from Roger and Roberta King, Wayne's mom and dad, in the town of Campton. 

Frank's son Tony was a great racer who actually led the family to Waterville when he entered a competition for a scholarship in the Waterville Racing program. For the next two years, Tony would live with Tom Corcoran and his wife Birdie so that he could go to the Waterville Academy Tutorial School (lovingly referred to as the "Tute School") and ski in the afternoons. Frank would live in Worchester during

But ask them about their life in Freestyle and they will be the first to tell you that the medals and awards are great but it is the life-journey that has been the path to finding their joy.

They live in Campton where they continue to coach and mentor skiers young and old at their Mountainfare Inn and Freestyle America Camps.

The conversation begins with a tribute to JD Nelson, a bright, genuine, and gregarious African American who was first and foremost an avid skier who fell in love with Freestyle. He came to Waterville Valley as a result of his friendship with the Dunfey family. JD - in a turbulent time for an African American man - endured the difficulties of other black Americans but never let it rule his life. He easily developed friendships with both the heirarchy of the Waterville Company as well as the athletes. So it was a natural thing that when the Athletes felt taken advantage of as the sport evolved, they would turn to him and his business savvy to help them protect themselves and develop sponsorships. Later, he would play a critical role in saving Freestyle when it fell into a crisis over injuries - particularly to aerial skiers.

In this podcast, we take a whirlwind trip through Wayne Wong's amazing career.

A Conversation with John and Donni Hughes

Whenever we try to tell a big story like the birth of freestyle skiing we tend to start out with the superstars that inhabit the rarified air of the legend.  However, much of the story is hidden within the layers of what might be considered “average folks” who stepped up in a multitude of ways, to provide the wind beneath the wings of the athletes, the dreamers, and the mentors who would catapult “Hotdogging” to the more urbane “Freestyle” in only a few years. Often it was these folks who drove the public enthusiasm that would make Freestyle skiing the hottest new trend in skiing. 

Beginning in their days at Plymouth State College when Donni was a student at PSC and a cocktail waitress at “Fourways Restaurant” and John was stapling tickets at the mountain as he put himself through college. 

This podcast, ahead of our three-part series on “The Birth of Freestyle at Waterville Valley: The Dreamers & Doers; The Mentors and Protectors; and, The Athletes” celebrates the folks who worked tirelessly, day after day, to support the work of the names that the history books will recall. 

But in a larger sense, their work was the real foundation of the revolution that became Freestyle Skiing and propelled Waterville Valley into the hierarchy of ski resorts in the US. 

I may be wrong, but I’m betting that many of those who benefitted the most from the Freestyle Revolution would agree that people like John and Donni Hughes were the wind beneath their wings.

Here’s my conversation with Donnella Hughes and John Hughes, iconoclasts and worker bees, at the cutting edge of a skiing revolution.

But the story of the Childress family began many years before their move to New Hampshire. Bob was a budding artist from his early years following his birth in 1915. Nancy describes him trapsing around town on his pony with his art supplies in tow during our conversation here and it was from this childhood start that his career developed.

Bob went on to have a long and distinguished career that culminated with ten years as the artist who brought those of us "of a certain age" Fun with Dick, Jane and little sister Sally.

He was not the first artist to bring Dick and Jane to the culture but he was the artist that brought vivid colors to a cultural institution that helped to define the American educational experience - for good or ill . During those ten years Nancy, with the staging help of her mother, was the model for Dick and Jane's little sister Sally. So those who grew up with Dick and Jane readers have seen Nancy, in the guise of Sally, for that same period of life.

Nancy has led a long and parapetitic life and is, in addition to all I have already conveyed to you, also an author of a children's book series entitled "The Little Bumpkins", In addition to a book she has recently released about her father - entitled from "The Red Hills to the White Mountains", and if all that wasn't enough, she is an inventor in addition to all of the other hats she has worn.

Today, she lives in the town of Gilmanton with her husband Tony Hartford. 

For more than two decades, Sy Montgomery and her husband Howard have kept a flock of chickens in their backyard. Each chicken has an individual personality (outgoing or shy, loud or quiet, reckless or cautious) and connects with Sy in her own way.

In this short, delightful book, Sy takes us inside the flock and reveals all the things that make chickens such remarkable creatures: only hours after leaving the egg, they are able to walk, run, and peck; relationships are important to them and the average chicken can recognize more than one hundred other chickens; they remember the past and anticipate the future; and they communicate specific information through at least twenty-four distinct calls. Visitors to her home are astonished by all this, but for Sy what’s more astonishing is how little most people know about chickens, especially considering there are about twenty percent more chickens on earth than people.

With a winning combination of personal narrative and science, What the Chicken Knows is exactly the kind of book that has made Sy Montgomery such a beloved and popular author.

Welcome to this joint production of The New Hampshire Secrets, Legends & Lore and The Radical Centrist Podcast. I'm your host Wayne King.

It's not often that we feel compelled to do a joint podcast but there is something quite special about our guest Michael Swack - Senior Fellow at the Carsey Center for Impact Finance, having recently stepped aside from his previous role as its director - In hopes of being able to direct more of his energy to practical and positive projects. Michael has been New Hampshire's secret weapon for Community Development for forty years. Those of us who have known him over the course of those years are very proud of him and the contributions he has made toward building community here. But he isalso a man of the world and he has worked his magic in countries from North America to Asia, Latin America and Africa. He is, by every standard we have established on the Radical Centrist Podcast, a radical centrist - more interested in getting things done than towing the line of any dogma or ideology.

Michael Swack is probably not a name that sets off a lot of bells and whistles with most folks, but for more than forty years he has been the brains behind some of the most innovative and empowering ideas for Community Economic Development and finance - not only in New Hampshire but nationally. In other words, he is a superstar, but a superstar without a super-ego. His joy - what gets him out of bed every day raring to go - is his work and the powerful understanding that his actions are making a difference in the lives of those too-often overlooked when it comes to building community and equity in our future.

All of us have a shortlist of people in our lives whom we have met and immediately realized that we were in the presence of someone very unique and talented. For me Michael Swack is one of those people.

I've known Michael now for more than 40 years. We were founding members of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, one of the very first nonprofit loan funds in America helping low-income families purchase and manage their cooperative housing. I was the prime sponsor of two key pieces of legislation that Michael - along with two other giants in my eyes: Elliot Berry and Julie Eades - were the brains behind. To this day Those two bills, that both became law, along with New Hampshire's first homeless shelter legislation, are among the laws of which I am most proud.

But the thing about Michael is that he's never satisfied and his brain is always looking beyond today for the next series of ideas to achieve even more.

All this is not to say that Michael is simply a "tinkerer" because among professionals in his field he - in fact - sets off all those bells and whistles I spoke of before, because Michael Swack is a pioneer in the field of Community Development, who never rests on his laurels. To dispense with the tinkerer analogy - and to make it even more silly but meaningful: He's the ever-ready bunny of Community Economic Development. His gears always seem to be turning, ferreting out ideas that use public and charitable dollars to leverage private sector investment,all in the name of benefitting the hub of our lives . . . our communities and more specifically the people of those communities.

That's why In 2019, the National Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) awarded Michael the industry’s highest individual honor, the 2019 Ned Gramlich Lifetime Achievement Award for Responsible Finance. Then, In 2021, Michael was appointed by President Biden to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Advisory Board - a position he has recently been reappointed to by the President. It's also why his position as a professor at UNH and as the founder of the Center for Impact Finance at the Carsey School is the ideal spot for him, teaching others is the next best thing to cloning Michael himself.

As he retires Senator D'Allesandro takes his place among the giants of NH politics, names like Raymond Burton, Walter Peterson, Stuart Lamprey, Warren Rudman, Caroline Gross, Susan McLane, Hugh Gallen, Donna Sytek all of whom he praises and calls his friends, irrespective of political Party.

Over the course of his 82 years Lou D'Allesandro has sported many titles, Captain of his UNH athletic teams, Coach of basketball teams of all ages, teacher, College President, State Representative, and now retiring "Dean" of the NH Senate, an honor bestowed upon him by his colleagues as the longest-serving Senator.

The extensive article written by In Depth NH's Paula Tracy and linked below provides a much more detailed look at all this but of course our goal was to add some color to the biography of Senator D'Allesandro through his recollections and reflections.

Paula Tracy - InDepthNH.org

Sen. Lou D’Allesandro Retiring After Bringing Us So Many Great American Days

I am joined by a special cohost, veteran journalist Garry Rayno, who has extensive experience with many of the challenges faced by Senator D'Allesandro during his tenure.

“(To) Wait . . . an ironic verb, an action word, used to describe inaction. Derived from the French “to wake, to become alert to” To wait and to wake are not opposites but twins. We love NOW because it IS now. “Now” holds at once all of time in its fullness”  ~ Sy Montgomery, “Of Time and Turtles”

Turtles have been around since the time of the dinosaurs, more than 200 million years ago. Even then they may have been subject to the whims of “traffic” but they have, nonetheless, withstood the test of time.

To many Native American nations, from the Navajo of the southwestern US to the Abenaki and Iroquois in my own northeast lineage, North America’s indigenous people are tied to turtles. The continent itself is often referred to as Turtle Island based on various legends that Turtle delivered North America to earth upon its back. 

So you may presume, rightly, that I would eagerly anticipate this latest book by New Hampshire’s own Sy Montgomery. 

After having read, listened to, and reread Sy Montgomery’s newest book, “Of Time and Turtles - Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell,” I am thoroughly convinced that had she been born into the Iroquois Nation, a matrilinial society, she would have been seen as a mystic and given a fitting honorific, something akin to “Speaks with Turtles.”  

Of Time and Turtles - Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell

Written by Sy Montgomery, Illustrated by Matt Patterson

The Smile that Charmed Northern New England

Marty Engstrom ended his weather forecast every night except his very first this way.

Though his nightly weather forecast from the top of Mount Washington was rarely more than one minute long, it was a minute that charmed the folks of the tri-state region to the extent that today, more than 20 years since his retirement, he is remembered with such fondness. Marty was, for all intents and purposes, our very first rock star. 

You'll meet Frank Dubois, the first certified African American ski instructor in America, Jerry Dunfey who intersected with their lives from his perch at the Parker House Hotel in Boston and the slopes of Waterville. as well as John and Donni Hughes, Bernie Weichsel, Executive Director of the first professional Freestyle association The International Freestyle Skiers Association, and others. 

Through it all Tom Gross, trusted friend to Olympic superstar and Waterville Valley founder Tom Cochran, was often at the center of the media storm. He was there at the beginning, announced races and competitions all over the country, and hobnobbed with celebrities (He's the only person I know who actually got Bill Russell to autograph something for him.)

Whenever I would engage someone from Waterville Valley the conversation would invariably lead to Tom Gross who has forgotten more about Waterville Valley than the rest of us know.

He's a great storyteller on top of it all. 

"David is an expert on all kinds of things: New England graveyards, the New England Primer, hornbooks of New England, clown history, Shaker history (particularly African American Shakers), African American history and literature, slavery in New Hampshire, New Hampshire African American history, Grace Metalious, Robert Frost, human rights (he was active in a local chapter of Amnesty International and I think headed that chapter) and more. He also is interested in Native American history and has sponsored legislation on behalf of Natives in this state." 

This podcast focuses on his work in the Senate but I suspect we will do a future podcast where we explore some of these other passions of this very interesting fellow.

I think it's that focus on community that allows Peter to have been the choice of both Republican and Democratic leaders in the US and in NH as a leader they can count on to build bridges. . . and if there is anything we need desperately these days its a restoration of a sense of community. From his heartfelt call to the legendary US Senate Republican Leader Mark Hatfield at one of the most trying points of his life to simply say, I'm proud of you. Keep on." To the moment that Democratic candidate for President Fritz Hollings poked his head into a latenight bull session at a local store in Lancaster and asked "Anyone here know Peter Powell? Tell him Fritz Hollings says hello!" There followed appointments to prestigious state panels in the humanities, the Trust for NH Lands, The NH Charitable Fund and so many other state honors that it would take too much time to mention.

Peter spent a few years working in Washington after college, working for Norris Cotton and the Senate Commerce Committee as well as congressman Louis Wyman before deciding he wanted the country life and making the move to Lancaster. His father Wes Powell was governor of NH for two terms and of course that invites hundreds of stories into the conversation so we are going to schedule another podcast in a month or two so we can get in a few more of those. Wes was from the rough and tumble area of Puddledock in Portsmouth which seems to play prominently into many of those stories.

IN THE RAMP-UP TO THE 2024 NEW HAMPSHIRE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY, STUDENTS AND PUBLIC FIGURES WILL EXPLORE POLICIES AND SOLUTIONS FOR BUILDING A ROBUST AND RESILIENT CLIMATE ECONOMY WHILE HIGHLIGHTING THE IMPORTANCE OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND VOTING

Today, a lot of folks believe that formula may finally have been found and - once again - optimism is bubbling up in the heart of New Hampshire. A combination of local knowledge, ski industry savvy and the financial "juice" needed to confront the dual challenges of restoring Tenney's infrastructure and dreaming big about its future seems to have coalesced with the team of Dan Egan and Steven Kelley - two folks with "just enough crazy in them" to make it happen.

In 2008, after 33 years and the successful creation of a SuperSanctuary of conserved lands, Meade handed the Executive Director reins to Laurie Bryan and became “Senior Naturalist"— emphasis on the Senior. At the end of 2012, he retired from his role as Senior Naturalist and Land Program Director. He continues to spend time at the Harris Center — working on land protection and outings, and sharing his considerable wisdom with the rest of the Harris Center staff — as their first-ever Naturalist Emeritus.

Meade also served as a faculty member in Antioch University New England’s Environmental Studies Department for 34 years.

But plastic waste is only one of the issues that we need to address moving forward. Reduction and substitution is also a critical component of building a future where plastics do not pose the threat that faces us today. Finally, there is the overarching issue of climate change and the question of whether Advanced recycling will improve carbon emissions associated with the disposal of plastics or make the problem worse. 

Dick's first job after college but before Law School was as a worker in the US Senate Post Office. He worked a half day and went to Law School the other half.

In 1967 He and his wife vacationed in NH on Lake Spoffard and fell in love with NH. Shortly after that they bought a home in Walpole, NH. He became a legal services lawyer for the area.

New Hampshire would turn out to be Dick and Virginia's "Spot on the Porch" for the balance of their lives (so far!)

On the last day of class in his first year of Georgetown Law School Dick received a call from the office of Senator Russell Long asking him to come and work for Sen. Long. On that same day his first child was born and Dick was appointed as Maritime Counsel to Long's Merchant Marine Committee. US Senate: Office of the legendary Senator Russell Long of Louisianna. Senator Long was the son of Huey Long, also a legendary figure in Louisiana politics.

He was appointed Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. Richard retired from that position upon the election of Ronald Reagan.

Assistant to the President: Seafarer's Union, a Union representing the men and women who work on US flagged ships. Trying to raise the work standards all over the world so US ships, and employees, could be more competitive.

At 74 he was appointed Chief Judge of the Federal Workers Compensation Appeals Board, a position he would hold for 4 years before returning to New Hampshire full time in his retirement.

Described by the great John Harrigan as a first-rate journalist, Edith Tucker had already experienced a full and consequential life before a later life conversion to journalist. She dropped out of college to marry and then, in addition to raising four children, she got involved in local government, first in Pelham, NY and then in Wellesley, MA where she served as Chair of the Finance Committee and on the school board for nine years. She became an activist in the women's movement and fair housing and attended the 1976 Republican National Convention. After meeting the great Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, Galbraith hired her to work for him, assisting him in the transcription and writing of his books and speeches and later serving as his appointment secretary.

Edith was not the kind to let any grass grow under her feet so when a later employer moved his business to her hometown, saving her more than an hour commute each way, she decided to fill in those two hours by going back to college. She was accepted at Wellesley College as a Davis Scholar, majoring in Government. As a non-traditional student she was nervous about her ability to jump back into academic life - especially while working full time. She didn't need to worry, because she graduated summa cum laude and won the Erasmus Prize in history, bolstered by a paper that she wrote about the treatment of Chinese laborers in Massachusetts' Shoe Factories, a paper that influenced the State's adoption of the Chinese Inclusion Act.

In 1994 she and her husband moved to New Hampshire and she went to work at the Berlin Reporter and later moved to the Coos County Democrat, owned by John Harrigan.

A three-term state legislator during the last six years Edith has done a lot of thinking about some of the great issues we face in our country. The wisdom of her thoughts will make this podcast very enjoyable for you.

When you listen to this podcast you will find yourself both disgusted by the unjust and likely-unconstitutional (soon to be adjudicated) use of millions of dollars of taxpayer funding being doled out to thousands of families whose children were already in private, often-religious, schools before the passage of the Education Freedom Account law, administered by a private contractor - not the NH Department of Education, and not subject to any legislative oversight.

Parents who enroll their children in the program forfeit all special education assistance to the child, leaving their child as the primary victim of the transition.

The only requirement to qualify for this grant is that the household is beneath an approximately $80,000/year income level but this requirement is only for the first year. If a family enrolls a first grader in the program this year, irrespective of how high their income goes over the course of their child's education, they will be eligible to collect the grant through the end of high school, with no recertification of income level.

3,200 children are enrolled in this program, receiving a public grant of between $7-$9,000 per year per child. 3,100 children were already in private schools before the program went into effect and only 100 students applied to move from public schools to private schools. This represents a direct transfer of wealth, from communities throughout the state to families who were already sending their children to private schools.

Then there is the hopeful news.

For the first time in more than 20 years, a committee was appointed, Chaired by Rep Luneau, with support from the Carsey Center at UNH, a think tank, to do a broad assessment of educational funding, based on empirical data now available. What they discovered is that funding for public education is adequate but that changes to the formula for distribution are needed.

That's right. More money is not the problem. How that money is allocated could substantially improve the equity of public education for all of our kids.

Daniel Webster was at the center of the great issues that defined his times. He was opposed to slavery, vehemently opposed the Indian Removal Act - that ended in the notorious and, illegal, Trail of Tears - with fellow congressman Davy Crockett; argued consistently for freedom of religion and the protection of religious minorities. Yet even today an ambivalence exists about him that reflects a judgment of him based on current standards.

In his book Indivisible: Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism, historian Joel Richard Paul seeks to draw our attention to the two most abiding principles of Webster: Freedom - that drove his belief that slavery was wrong, and Union, without which securing freedom for slaves in the southern states would not be possible and without which America could not fulfill its most promising ideals.

Paul makes a convincing case that Webster was the force that gave birth to the to the belief that we were Americans, not merely Virginians, or Pennsylvanians or New Hampshireites; That the Constitution of the United States was the thread that wove us together and gave us common cause.

Joel Richard Paul is a Professor of Constitutional and International Law, University of California Hastings College of the Law; Author, Indivisible: Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism

"Always Leaving a Door Open" to Your mind and your future. That seems to be the thread that runs through the life of Marcel Veilleux.

When I heard that President Carter had gone into hospice care, I wanted to find a way to celebrate the life of Jimmy Carter that intersected with New Hampshire. It brought to mind a day in 1974 when I walked into the Memorial Union Building at UNH and ran into my friend Marcel Veilleux who was working at a storefront kiosk in the front foyerl.

I discovered he was working on the Presidential Primary campaign of an unknown Georgia Governor named Jimmy Carter. I remember I teased him about it - even though I was helping Jerry Brown and Fred Harris myself.

Little did I know that Marcel had just signed on for the ride of a lifetime as Jimmy Carter went from unknown to rockstar. OK, rockstar may be overstating the case, but Carter's quiet competence and humility was just what the American people needed after the Nixon/Ford/Vietnam years.

A few months later, after Carter won in the NH primary, Marcel was off to help in other states and he worked in the administration after that. This was an achievment that was celebrated by his friends at UNH.

My conversation with Marce was a heartfelt reunion and a celebration of President Carter's many contributions to the world. From his presidency to founding the Carter Center to building thousands of houses with Habitat for Humanity, eliminating Guinea worm - a scourge in Africa - to proving fair oversight for elections around the world.s

Marcel himself has had a consequential life from campaign operative and member of the Carter administration to managing a large professional association as well as his own business, and finally as a Pastor of a church, The Lighthouse Christian Center in Westbrook Maine. 

It all began when she did a solo performance for her local historical society about Sanbornton native "Mother" Gilman" whose fictionalized correspondence with her son Moses, from the various battlefronts of the Civil War she created from historic records of his time and regiment. In that first performance, Evelyn read both letters from Mother Gilman to Moses and from Moses to her. When the Historical society asked her to come back for a repeat performance she recruited her grandson to play the role of Moses. With this first performance, dressed in everyday clothes, Evelyn was bitten by the acting bug; but something was still missing and it was right up her alley . . . period clothing. Evelyn loved both history and clothes so the wedding of historic fashion and historic figures was born. 

Joining us for the visit and lending their voices to the discussion from time to time you will hear the voices of her daughter Carol Barbour, friend and neighbor Janice Leighton Boudreau, and William Hockensmith Janice's husband. 

Perhaps his long and circuitous journey prepared him far better as a leader than an easier path might have. Dr. Lessards manner and modesty put me in mind of a quote from a famed Chinese philosopher. Long before we were launching rockets into the skies the philosopher Lao-Tzu said this:

A leader is best

When people barely know

That he exists,

Less good when

They obey and acclaim him,

Worse when

They fear and despise him.

Fail to honor people

And they fail to honor you.

But of a good leader,

When his work is done,

His aim fulfilled,

they will all say,

'We did this ourselves.’

Yet while George is proud of the "LOB" he is most proud of the ways in which he worked to bring women into the mainstream of leadership in the House, a tradition continued by John Tucker.

Roberts was also convinced that creating civility among the political parties was often a matter of small things; like seating. He alternated R & D members so that each had two people from the opposite party on their left and right on the theory that if they saw the humanity in members of the other party they would be more civil even when they disagreed.

It's not that she was asking a lot - she was simply issuing a call to those who felt a similar concern to take personal action along with her. That's why she is an everyday hero, taking action through her own initiative.

Their new single, "Ain't That the Way," will be released with an accompanying music video filmed by local NH filmmaker Elias Gillen on January 14th at 10am at Alumni Hall in Haverhill, NH.

A Rough, Tumble and Raucous Introduction!

A Rough and Tumble and Raucous Introduction: The Rough and Tumble Invite Their adopted Community to be part of their next album. Rough and Tumble a self-described Teeny Tiny Traveling Band has just put down roots after 8 years on the road with their two dogs in a 16' camper.

You're going to love their sound!

https://www.theroughandtumble.com

Surrounded by 26 miles of impervious fence, walling off 26,000 acres and two mountain peaks, Corbin Park seems mysterious, though harmless enough. But it is built upon a foundation of grift, pain, and suffering that includes state-sponsored and institutional slavery, and, quite probably, a role in the near-extermination of the American Bison as a tool of genocide against the Cheyenne, the Sioux, the Crow and other plains Indian nations.

August Longpre invites people who have an interest or further information to contact him. Here is the Piece he wrote most recently.

https://augustlongpre.substack.com/p/corbin-park-history

Several years of research by author Kim Varney Chandler went into the process of developing this extraordinary compendium of the Covered Bridges of New Hampshire, on top of the thousands of hours devoted to these bridges by the many communities, builders and individuals.

It seems that this all began as a project that evolved from the nexus of Kim's love for covered bridges and the advent of the Covid Pandemic. It only made sense to Kim that photographing and then writing about covered bridges was a safe way to be productive during the pandemic.  That is all to our benefit because she has produced, with the help of the talented folks at Peter E. Randall publishing, a book for the ages. 50 or 100 years from now I can imagine a lover of covered bridges with Kim Varney Chandler's book in hand exploring the covered bridges of New Hampshire. 

~ Charles Walbridge

In 2022 Charlie Walbridge, an icon of River Safety and a nationally and internationally renowned symbol of adventure and conservation, with deep ties to New Hampshire, was inducted into the International Whitewater Hall of Fame and the Southern Appalachian Paddlesports Hall of Fame.

Wayne King, host of the New Hampshire Secrets, Legends & Lore Podcast caught up recently with Walbridge to celebrate his more than 50 years of adventure and activism within the paddling community.

Today, however, you are more likely to find him going door to door in his hometown of New Boston or one of the other towns in Hillsborough District 42 running for the NH Legislature. 

This was not how Dick saw himself spending time in his golden years, but his deep concern for the loss of community among our citizens and our elected officials has drawn him into the fray. I caught up with Dick recently over Zoom and we chatted about running for the legislature, always with the thread of rebuilding community running through the discussion and how rebuilding impacts and is impacted by so many of the challenges we face in our lives. How do we rebuild a sense of community when our commitment to public education is under fire? How do we restore community when more than 50% of our population are denied bodily autonomy? These and other issues compelled Dick to do something he never expected to do, to run for public office.

James attributes his love of the natural environment to his years at Mowglis, School of the Open, the summer camp on Newfound Lake he attended as a boy where he developed skills that have paved the way for a life of purpose bringing him to today when he is a leader in environmental policy around the challenges of Climate Change.

Is IVF the Next Target for the Morality Police?

Dr. Adam Finkel

Adam Finkel is a resident of Dalton, NH and Princeton, NJ. He served in leadership positions in both the Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations aimed at promulgating and evaluating risk-based regulations to protect the nation’s workers from chemical, radiological, and biological hazards. He has a Masters Degree in public policy from the JFK School of Government at Harvard and a Doctorate in Environemtnal Health Science from Harvard as well. In the past few years he has jumped into important New Hampshire issues including the efforts to stop the placement of a landfill in the area adjacent to Forest Lake in Dalton as well as other local efforts to protect the NH environment. 

His concern over the ramifications of the Dobbs decision of the US Supreme Court regarding In Vitro Fertilization have started to consume addition attention of his time because he is concerned that it may be the next target of the fundamentalist forces that have gained control of the Court.

David Scanlan, New Hampshires new Secretary of State seeks to balance the interests of the broadest cross section of voters at the same time that he continues to move the state forward in terms of providing access to the sacred right to vote.

We caught up with him recently to discuss the First in the Nation Presidential Primary status, the balancing act entailed in assuring ready access to voting for those qualified to vote, transparency and security, as well as the newest effort to increase the voter information for those whose primary language is not english.

In fact, the entire West family has a long and storied history. His grandfather “Thunderbow” fought Custer at what the Cheyenne and the Sioux knew as the Green Greasy Grass river, today referred to as the Little Bighorn. His Grandmother Renee would be one of the children taken by the government and placed in boarding schools who escaped to return to her roots. 

So when the opportunity arose for him to be a plaintiff in New Hampshire’s ongoing litigation over educational funding he did not hesitate. The lawsuit, we’ll call it Claremont 3, though, to my knowledge, no moniker has yet been assigned to it - may be the culmination of more than 3 decades of legal action (and political inaction) based on the New Hampshire constitutional obligation to provide funding for an adequate education to all public school children.

I wanted to speak with Steve Rand, not because he can recite chapter and verse about the legal history of the Claremont cases or the numeric minutia of tax disparities between towns or their relationship to the quality of schools from high-income or low-income school districts. Rather, I wanted to speak with someone who came at this from an experiential basis; someone who has lived the disparities on a day-to-day and year-to-year basis. Someone who has seen how the system short-changes our kids and our communities.

Dick was elected to the second congressional district seat in congress in 1990 and in 92 he was handily re-elected for another term.

The turning point of Dick's political fortunes came in 1994 with the successful passage of the assault weapons ban. Despite the danger to his own career, Dick voted for the measure and it became law. He lost his reelection bid by less than a percentage point. FOLLOWING ON THE HEELS of the ban, there was a decline in gun violence but when the ban was not extended under George W. Bush we reverted to the status quo ante and we all know what that has looked like for our country.

In 1998 he was named Ambassador to Denmark by President Bill Clinton a post he held until 2001.

In this podcast I speak with Dick Swett about his political journey and his life journey since his act of courage led to the passage of the (temporary) assault weapons ban in 1994 and his razor close loss, fueled by the NRA, in the subsequent election.

Daniel Weeks, Revision Energy and the Fight for a Livable World

A 12th-generation Granite Stater, Dan Weeks is well steeped in New Hampshire history but he is also a citizen of the world. Dan left New Hampshire after high school to serve with AmeriCorps and attend Yale and Oxford on scholarships. He lived and worked on four continents before returning to NH with his South African wife Dr. Sindiso Mnisi Weeks, a human rights lawyer and academic. Dan and Sindiso are the proud parents of three young children.

According to the legend, Chocorua was already an adult with a young son, he is said to have lost his wife to disease shortly after his son's birth. According to the legend. Chocorua befriended Cornelius Campbell, an immigrant from Scotland, who had settled in the area around what was known first as Burton, then as Albany and is today called Tamworth.

Today, Chocorua is spoken of in reference to both a man and the mountain which ostensibly bears his name. But did Chocorua actually exist or does his story represent 3 centuries of "fake news"?

Jim Rousmaniere is a soft spoken fellow, but these still waters run deep as the saying goes. He has the curiosity and insight of an oracle to many of his admirers.  He is also straight out of central casting when it comes to the role of an editor, glasses at just the right level on his nose so he can look over them at you and make you feel like his BS meter is always on full alert.

After a stint in the Peace corps, he began his career in journalism  at The Baltimore Sun in Baltimore and Washington DC, where he covered national economics, and in the early 1980s he took over the editorship of the daily Keene (NH) Sentinel. He retired from newspaper management in 2013, at which time he began researching the subject of his book: "Water Connections."

While he clearly has a deep respect for the natural environment, it is the intimate and immediate connection with people and their stories that feed his imagination and enthusiasm and allow him to take what might seem a simple story and weave it together with the artistry of a symphonic composer. Art, history, science, and business all figure into the story that Jim tells.

Mark Okrant has spent the past 42 years in New Hampshire teaching Tourism Management and establishing and then maintaining the mantle of "Tourism Research Guru" for the State of New Hampshire.

Born and raised in Connecticut, Mark came to New Hampshire in 1979 when he was hired by Plymouth State in response to a search for an individual to help establish the state of New Hampshire's first academic tourism program.

One of the grand benefits of all this was that many, perhaps all of the most interesting and majestic tourist attractions in the State of New Hampshire would roll out the red carpet for him and share with him the comfort of their accommodations and - now and then - a secret or two.

At some point Mark began to craft the idea of writing a murder mystery and staging it at one of the famous resorts in New Hampshire. Then a conversation with Steve Barba, an icon in New Hampshire tourism and owner of the Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch unleashed the dam. Mark had asked if Steve would be open to having him write a murder mystery about a crime at the Balsams. Not only did Steve say yes, he opened his doors and staff to the project. That conversation sparked a life-long friendship and Okrant's first novel "A Last Resort".

Nine mysteries, and one non-fiction book later, Okrant is still going strong and continues to write, though he is winding up his teaching career.

I caught up with Mark recently to talk about coming to New Hampshire, his academic and research career and writing novels.

 Laketarletoncoalition.org

 Zack Porter, 

Standing Trees, zporter@standingtrees.org

In 2000 a coalition of people including elected officials, volunteers and environmental organizations rallied to save an especially unique area in the Moosilauke region that was threatened by development and logging. Lake Tarleton is the largest lake in the White Mountain National Forest today and one of the few that has never had problems with invasive species. 

Today the area is once again under threat, this time from the very agency that was charged with caring for it when $7.5 million in public and private funds secured its preservation. This is not the first time that the forest service has been charged with acting like a man with an ax whose only solution to a problem is to cut. Furthermore, it is not at all clear that the forest service would have been chosen to manage the property had the organizations and citizens who rallied to save the lake and its surroundings known that it would thoughtlessly place this gem in the box of rocks that is the lowest level of protection offered within the White Mountain National Forest.

With fewer than two weeks before final submissions are due proponents of a plan to give greater “Scenic” protection to the Lake Tarleton Watershed area are making a final push buoyed by an Earthday Executive Order from President Biden encouraging the development of Old Growth Forests that on the face of it runs contrary to the actions of the White Mountain National Forest administration.

I spoke with Zack Porter of St. Johnsbury-based Standing Trees organization as well as Rob Wipfler, Co-director of Kingswood Camp for Boys on Lake Tarleton who is also the Director of a newly formed Lake Tarleton Coalition.

Sail over the canyons and up to the stars

And reach for the heavens and hope for the future

And all that we can be and not what we are.”

~ John Denver

It may seem to some nearly heretical to use the lyrics of a song to highlight the poetic and beautiful writing of Sy Montgomery but I suspect that she of all folks would understand that expressions of the beauty and joy that the animal kingdom brings to us all serve to complement one another and give more strength to the final message, not dissonance.

Researching articles, films, and her 31 books for adults and children, nationally bestselling author Sy Montgomery has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Rwanda, hunted by a tiger in India, and swum with piranhas, electric eels and pink dolphins in the Amazon. Her work has taken her from the cloud forest of Papua New Guinea (for a book on tree kangaroos) to the Altai Mountains of the Gobi (for another on snow leopards.) 

For THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS (a National Book Award finalist) she befriended octopuses at the New England aquarium and scuba-dived and snorkeled with wild octopuses in Mexico and French Polynesia; next, she drew on her scuba skills to cage dive with great white sharks. 

Her latest book, out May 3, 2022, is “The Hawk’s Way” in which she becomes “the junior partner” to this extraordinary ruler of the sky. 

Sy lives in New Hampshire with her husband, the writer Howard Mansfield, and their border collie Thurber.

The words attributed to Margaret Mead come to mind when I think of Dudley Dudley:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." ~ Attributed to Margaret Mead.

What followed was a three-year struggle to assert his academic freedom and civil rights - with help from nationally acclaimed civil rights attorney John Meyer. Just when life should have become simpler. Mike Fischler was faced with the challenge of a lifetime. Today, with the worst of it behind, he reflects on his life and - for the first time - on the trauma that almost derailed his legacy. 

Michael L. Fischler lives in Holderness and is professor emeritus in the Department of Counselor Education and School Psychology at Plymouth State University, where he taught for 50 years.

Fischler has made numerous contributions to PSU, PSU students, and the PSU community over the course of his long and distinguished career. He has served on PSU’s Homophobia Task Force, on the President’s Commission on Diversity, and as an advisor to the Black Student Union and Tau Omega sorority. His research interests include cultural diversity, intercultural communication, social behavior, psychological counseling, multicultural education, and prejudice reduction.

The plaque credits Fischler for the Center’s founding and for the inspirational lessons he taught during his 50-year teaching career.

Will Electric Vehicles form an important Component of Energy Storage in the Future?

Hosts Wayne King and Don Kreis - NH Consumer Advocate before the Public Utilities Commission - speak with Bill Johnstone, business development executive, and Brian Callnan, VP of Power and Resources Access at the NH Electric Cooperative about a pilot project with big implications for energy storage and cost control with respect to electric rates.  

First elected to the NH General Court in 1977 she served until 2000 rising to be the first woman Speaker of the House.

In this podcast Speaker Sytek reflects on her distinguished career in the legislature, the women who dominated the legislature upon whose shoulders she stood, and the current state of legislative affairs.

Bennett’s father - a graduate of Harvard who hoped his son would follow in the family tradition gave up that ghost after Ed was expelled from his second expensive private high school. Upon questioning, Ed told him that his first ambition in life was never to return to school again. His second was to become either a fireman or a tugboat captain.  As an after-thought he suggested that he might be interested in being a newspaperman.

In the final days of the Boston office of UPI , Beverly Stoddart who was working for the Boston Herald wandered into the offices of UPI to say her goodbyes. She was captivated by a huge Rolodex still among the detritus of the quickly vanishing equipment and memorabilia and she inquired what was to be done with it.

When she was informed it would be thrown out Beverly immediately asked if she could have it, thus beginning a 20 year journey to "Stories from a Rolodex" where Beverly becomes investigative journalist to some of the most consequential investigative journalists of their time reporting on everything from integration and busing in Boston to the largest mass murder in New Hampshire history.

Finally, as if sharing these life-altering stories with us were not a generous enough act, Beverly teamed up with Ann Welch a curriculum development specialist (among many other things!) to build a study guide around the book and to offer it at no cost to teachers, parents and schools at no cost so that their work could serve as a template for experiencing the thrill of journalism and history first hand and learning to discern between real news and the fake news that now lurks in every corner of the Web.

Bernie enlisted in the Marines in 1956 and was assigned to be a combat photographer and during the next four years he captured images of everything from the mundane to the mendacious, including the very first US foray into the Middle East. 

In 1978 a change of venue brought him to the North Country of New Hampshire and he has never looked back, establishing himself as a newspaperman, journalist, storyteller and entrepreneur. He’s ridden the “Straight Talk Express” with John McCain. Munched burgers with John Kerry and watched as the “Good Ol’ Boys” of Haverhill became the “Good Old Boys and Girls” without losing a beat (or their ornery independence). 

Roger would later sign on as the director of the Squam Lakes Conservation Foundation and dedicate his time to protecting the resources of the Squam Lake watershed through purchases of land, development rights, conservation easements and other conservation instruments.

His choice as the inaugural Civic Scholar in Residence at Franklin Pierce University is less a punctuation point on an outstanding career than an exhortation to "stay tuned!" there's more to come from Andru Volinsky.

I describe the book as Cliff notes because 360 pages just cannot do justice to the colorful and amazing story of this family of 14. Having been through the process of interviewing only some of the extraordinary people profiled in this memoire I can tell you that a 20-30 episode podcast series would be needed to even come close to doing justice to their legacy. Perhaps this podcast will lead to just such a series but understanding the basics of the rise of the Dunfey family is a study in the American dream and a celebration of how tenacity, hard work and a deep and abiding commitment to community, service, social justice and progressive ideals can change history.

In the summer of 1913 two cottages in the beachside community of Salisbury Massachusetts housed separate "clubs" of young single women and men from the Mills of Lowell. It was here that Leroy "Roy" Dunfey and Catherine ("Kate") Manning met, fell in love and - by labor day - were engaged. Together they would raise a family that helped reshape the world.

From his earliest days charting his early morning walks to class by the rank smells emitted by the Pemigewasset River to its rebirth as a protected river under the NH River's Protection and Management act Larry has employed science and activism throughout his life to create an environmental legacy - not only for himself but for Plymouth State University.

His latest project, the Pemigewasset Riverside Park and Gyro Bike park is a collaboration between both private individuals, Plymouth State University and the communities of Holderness, Plymouth and Ashland as well as several local clubs. Led by Spencer and Dr. Lisa Doner, as well as the Conservation Commissions from the collaborating towns this conservation effort provides a wide range of recreational opportunities from hiking, swimming at "Secret Beach" to birding, snowmobiling and mountain biking.

Both Dr. Spencer and Dr. Donor have for years been running cleanup trips along both the Pemigewasset and Baker Rivers as well as providing volunteer time and brainpower to the task of helping to create a sustainable future for these two beautiful rivers.

I caught up with Larry Spencer recently and spoke with him about his legacy and finding time in his busy retirement.

For John Harrigan, legendary newsman and editor, New Hampshire's premier outdoor columnist and Northcountry icon, the story behind his camp is woven so thoroughly into his life that it is almost impossible to separate. Like a beautiful strand of Bittersweet whose tendrils, flowers and seeds weave through the joys and sorrows of his life.

But time waits for no man or woman. Inevitably, the time comes when the trek into camp challenges the years and reluctantly the man or woman must yield to the exigencies of the moment.

John is sanguine about this, yet he also recognizes the momentous import of this transition within the context of both his own history and that of the camp itself.

In this podcast John recalls the serendipity of securing the land, tearing down the old camp - injudiciously placed in a swampy area too close to the water and falling down after years of deferred maintenance. Then the joyous - and bittersweet - process of planning and executing the building of a new camp.

It seems almost poetic that John has opted to pass the camp along to another renowned Journalist, Gary Ghioto, who wrote for The Courier, Foster's Daily Democrat, The Boston Globe, and NH Public Radio among others and at NHPR played a central role in the reporting of the Colebrook shootings that had played such a central role in John's life.

Doug is a board member of the NH/VT Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. He is fond of saying that  "before the chestnut blight - running from about 1904 - 1950 - decimated the North American chestnut tree population, that "A squirrel could travel from Maine to Georgia on chestnut tree branches without ever having to touch the ground." So I guess you could say that for a squirrel, the Chestnuts were the Appalachian Trail of its world.

A Joint production of New Hampshire Secrets, Legends and Lore Podcast and The Radical Centrist Podcast.

I've been wanting to chat with Jack Savage, President of the "Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests" and I've had a growing list of things I hoped to ask him about from their part in the successful fight to stop Northern Pass recently and reaching back to the founding of the Society.

A Conversation with Elliot S! Maggin

In his Jr. year at Brandeis University Elliot Maggin wrote a term paper about how comic books and super heroes could influence the moral and intellectual development of young people. As a component of the paper he wrote a Green Arrow story where Green Arrow ran for Mayor of Star City (Sound familiar?) His teacher gave him a B+ and Maggin objected to the grade but the professor was unmoved so Maggin took his story to DC Comics who eagerly bought it and hired him to write Green Arrow and eventually Superman - and the rest, as they say, is history.

In succeeding years he would move to New Hampshire, write over a hundred Superman stories, inspire Mario Puzo to see the Superman story as a greek tragedy and to write the very first Superman movie based on Elliot's counsel.

Elliot loved New Hampshire and he claims that running for Congress against Judd Gregg was mostly just a way to try and stay in New Hampshire. Though he had always had an interest in running for office.

Elliot S! Maggin's shares his recollections of his New Hampshire years as well as the collection of icons, both real and fantasy with whom he has shared the colorful pages of history.

Most people respond to such a proposal with the usual frustrated sense of powerlessness, resigned to the belief that there is nothing that can be done to halt the seemingly inevitable process.

But did you know that a town has the right to hire a land-use attorney and other engineers and consultants - paid for by the applicant?

Did you know that the town can require that the applicant cover the cost of maps, alternative site plans and other studies to verify - or refute - claims made by the applicant?

These are only some of the rights outlined in the Telecommunications Act that covers the rights and responsibilities of both the companies seeking to site a tower and the communities who will be affected.