In this episode of "What class are you?" Tankhun Thongjunthoug talks about what it was like to grow up in an immigrant family, and how he experienced the undercurrents of the American class system.Af Erica Heilman

The last new village in Vermont was established in 1933, so there wasn’t a modern roadmap. Westbury also didn’t have money for lawyers or professional support for guidance.Af Olivia Conti

"What class are you?" It's a question that Vermont Public reporter Erica Heilman has been asking people in Vermont, and this is the fourth installment of a new five-part series. Mark LaRouche grew up in a middle class family in Rutland, but says he prefers "the lower class," and he believes that addiction is the hardest class of all.…

Reporter Erica Heilman talked with Katrin Tchana about her childhood in Lyme, New Hampshire, and how it has become increasingly difficult for people who grew up there to remain.Af Erica Heilman

Retired Vermont State Police trooper Ingrid Jonas talks about class assumptions in law enforcement — and expensive condiments.Af Erica Heilman

Damian Renzello and reporter Erica Heilman are the same age and both grew up in Vermont. But according to Damian, they will always be different fruits.Af Erica Heilman

Lawmakers had hoped the temporary carve-outs would help ease Vermont’s acute housing shortage. Developers are using the new exemptions in at least a dozen locations across the state.Af Carly Berlin

Three separate homicides around Vermont this fall involved young men accused of killing members of their family. Law enforcement officials say these unusually violent incidents highlight a long-standing gap between the criminal justice and mental health systems. Mental health experts disagree.Af Liam Elder-Connors

There are just 20 commercial alpine ski areas in Vermont today. But if you live just about anywhere around the state, chances are there used to be a ski hill right in your town — according to a new exhibit at Stowe’s Ski and Snowboard Museum.Af Sabine Poux

This fall, the Vermont Law and Graduate School welcomed its first class of Brooks Institute for Animal Rights and Policy Animal Law LLM fellows. The four practicing lawyers will spend the school year focused on animal issues.Af Jenn Jarecki, Nathaniel Wilson

"On the surface it looks like we're just giving away free veggies," said Nour El-Naboulsi. "But we are bringing our community members into a solidarity fold."Af Elodie Reed

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to restrict and roll back environmental regulations on clean air and water. What could that mean for Vermont?Af Abagael Giles, Jenn Jarecki

Two Wednesdays a month, members of the Wild Woods Music Co-op meet at the Godnick Adult Center in Rutland to share and nurture their passion for music. All are welcome to join, they say.Af Nina Keck

While next year’s forecast isn’t as dire as some elected officials had feared, Democrats and Republicans say the projected increase is more than many homeowners can bear.Af Peter Hirschfeld

Vermont Public's Mary Williams Engisch spoke with Tracy Dolan, director of the State Refugee Office, about how the office is readjusting its approach and priorities ahead of the incoming Trump administration.Af Mary Williams Engisch, Adiah Gholston

Since 2020, the state-run Venison for Vermonters program has donated more than 3,000 pounds of wild game meat to local food shelves and Vermonters in need.Af Nathaniel Wilson, Joey Palumbo

A Nor’easter moving up the coast is expected to arrive with snow by mid-morning Thursday and intensify through the afternoon and evening.Af Elodie Reed

Next week, the Department of Taxes will issue a highly anticipated letter that will give lawmakers, school boards and the public their first look at how much property taxes are expected to rise next year.Af Peter Hirschfeld

Vermont Public's Mary Williams Engisch speaks with Todd Sears, deputy director of the Project Development Bureau at the Vermont Agency of Transportation.Af Mary Williams Engisch, Adiah Gholston

Carillonneur George Matthew Jr. is playing the national anthem for each country represented in Middlebury College's diverse student body — all 70 of them.Af Andrea Laurion

A downtown apartment building stitched Plainfield together. On July 10, floods washed it away. The Heartbreak Hotel was the kind of place where neighbors saw each other every day, where generations of people, from all walks of life, found belonging and someone to wave to in the morning. Twelve people were living there at the time, and they all surv…

"Uncomfortable conversations need to happen." Raneen Salha and Sarah White discuss their thoughts, feelings and personal connections to the war between Israel and Hamas.

More than four years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the state judiciary is still struggling with an enormous backlog of criminal cases and competing public pressures around how justice should be pursued. To better understand how the system is working, Seven Days and Vermont Public embedded two reporters at the Burlington criminal courthouse for…

Two Abenaki First Nations are continuing to call for Vermont institutions not to work with state-recognized tribes, and to reconsider the process that led to the state recognizing those groups as Abenaki tribes. Those nations — Odanak and Wôlinak — are receiving a mixed response. 2024-04-02: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect th…

John Harrison traveled Vermont as a preacher in the 1880s. A racist name in town records preserved his memory. Note: This story contains sensitive material, including racial slurs. Please listen with care.

Ashley Messier is the co-chair of the Corrections Monitoring Committee in the Vermont Legislature, and she’s the reentry services program manager for Vermont Works for Women. She grew up in Essex with an abusive father and with little money, and she found herself repeating the cycle in early adulthood. This is a story about multigenerational povert…

Many people don’t want to talk about class, because class differences are the source of cultural division and tension. In this story, Erica talks with old friend Susan Randall, a private investigator based in Vergennes, about the luxuries of growing up upper middle class. "What class are you?" is an occasional series from Vermont Public reporter Er…

In 2023, around 70% of the total wealth in this country was owned by the top 10% of earners. The lowest 50% of earners only owned 2.5% of the total wealth. In this story, Vermont writer and poet Garrett Keizer, who has written extensively on the history of labor unions, talks about what happens when we address gender and race equity, but we ignore …

Stephanie Robtoy works as an account manager at Working Fields, a staffing agency that helps people with barriers gain and maintain a job. She grew up in St. Albans in a huge family of Robtoys, some of whom are pretty notorious in town for criminal activity. In this story, Stephanie talks about what it was like to grow up poor, with a last name tha…

Irfan Sehic and his family fled the war in Bosnia and arrived in Barre when Irfan was 17. He worked a number of jobs, went to college and started his own insurance agency, which he still runs out of his house. And for the last few years, he's been a club soccer coach. Irfan lives with his wife and son in Milton, and in this story, he describes the …

Who gets to decide who is Abenaki? Vermont’s four state-recognized tribes — and the state recognition law — have different definitions and criteria for what it means to be Indigenous than many Indigenous Nations. In this episode, we look at this disconnect, and lay out what’s at stake, including power, money and authority. This is Chapter Three of …

After the original group of self-proclaimed Vermont Abenaki failed to gain federal recognition, Vermont lawmakers created a state recognition process of their own. One theory in particular informed the state’s consideration: that Abenaki peoples hid in Vermont to avoid persecution, including statewide eugenics policies. In this episode, we look at …

Two Abenaki First Nations in Canada contest the legitimacy of the four groups recognized by the state of Vermont as Abenaki tribes. This is a dispute that goes back at least two decades, and has gained more prominence in recent years. In this episode, we trace Abenaki history up to 2003, when Odanak First Nation first denounced Vermont groups claim…

University of Virginia researchers say the complaint line run by the grassroots workers’ rights program Milk With Dignity improves conditions for both farmworkers and farm owners. But the program currently only covers one-fifth of Vermont’s dairy industry. Read more from Vermont Public's Elodie Reed.…

Giuliano Cecchinelli is part of a long legacy of Italian stone carvers in Barre, craftsmen whose skill transformed an industry and made the small central Vermont town the “Granite Capital of the World.” In the early 20th century, Barre was a booming industry town. Thousands of workers spent their days making monuments. The railroad chugged into tow…

How the events of last year changed Vermont schools and law enforcement. Also - where's Jack?

How do you know if a young person is plotting a school massacre? And what do you do then?

How a Republican governor who had been rated "A" by the NRA decided that Vermont, one of the most gun-friendly states in the nation, needed gun control laws.

When does planning a school shooting become attempted murder? The question went all the way to the Vermont Supreme Court.

Jack Sawyer’s journal contained a startling confession. It landed him in jail, and sent shockwaves through the state of Vermont.

Who is Jack Sawyer, and why did he want to kill his former classmates?

Coming September 6 from Vermont Public Radio.