Trippin on the Shoestring

The Shoestring
  • 4.9 (30)
  • News Commentary

In-depth conversations and investigative journalism from the western Massachusetts-based independent news outlet The Shoestring. Investigative reporters Dusty Christensen and Shelby Lee bring you big local scoops and important voices from across the Connecticut River Valley.

  1. 12/11/2024

    Ep. 35: On Local News, with Jason Pramas, Corinne Colbert, and Brian Zayatz

    This week, our guests let us in on an open secret in the journalism world: nobody knows how to fund local news anymore. With the traditional pillars that supported local information ecosystems eroding and eventually collapsing over the last few decades, recent years have seen experimentation with all kinds of economic models, including the nonprofit.  In this episode, Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen are joined by three guests fighting to save local news: Jason Pramas, executive director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism; Corinne Colbert, editor-in-chief of the Athens County Independent in Ohio; and Brian Zayatz, managing editor of The Shoestring. Together, the group discusses discuss the crisis in local news, how to duct tape together an information ecosystem, and some of the organizing we've done together to advocate for reforms that would support stronger local news for everyone. Produced by Dusty Christensen. Music by An Archaeologist.

    1h 2m

  2. 11/23/2024

    Ep. 34: Election Post-Mortem with Dan Cannity and Jeff Napolitano

    In this week's episode of Trippin' on The Shoestring, host Shelby Lee is joined by guests, and impromptu political correspondents, Dan Cannity and Jeff Napolitano to discuss the dumpster fire that was the 2024 U.S. national election. Recorded the day after the election, we discuss the trends we could see from the results and what this means for the future of the political parties and control of the government. Dan Cannity is a returning voice on the podcast, a former co-chair of the Northampton Policing Review Commission and a regular presence in Northampton as a community advocate. Jeff Napolitano, also a returning guest and local political analyst, is a longtime western Massachusetts activist who has the distinct honor of being blocked by U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern on social media.

    59 min

  3. 11/04/2024

    Ep. 33: Veterans for Peace with Nick Mottern, Martin Omasta, and Donovan Lee

    This week, Shelby Lee is joined by a special guest co-host — Shoestring friend and former co-chair of the Northampton Policing Review Commission Dan Cannity — to have an important conversation about the U.S. military, its impact on the world, and the people who participate in it. Joining them for that conversation are three veterans who have served in the armed forces across three generations from 1960 to 2016 and are currently organizing for peace in western Massachusetts: Nick Mottern, Martin Omasta, and Donovan Lee.

    1h 7m

  4. 10/10/2024

    Ep. 32: All Politics Is Local with Vijay Prashad

    In this week's episode of Trippin' on the Shoestring, co-hosts Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen explore the connection between local politics in western Massachusetts and U.S. foreign policy, the consequences of which continue to roil the region. Protests have exploded across the region, for example, over the U.S. government’s arming of the Israeli government as it continues to bombard Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. And with the United States continuing to be a leading greenhouse-gas polluter globally, western Mass has experienced record-breaking heat and rainfall – events that can be directly attributed to climate change. Joining the podcast to talk about all of those issues — all the way from Santiago, Chile — is the renowned scholar, journalist, and dissident Vijay Prashad. A longtime resident of western Massachusetts, Prashad is the director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and has written over 40 books on many topics including Palestine, U.S. imperialism, climate change, and more.

    55 min

  5. 09/20/2024

    Ep. 31: Podcasting on the PVTA

    On this week’s episode, Trippin' on the Shoestring comes to you from Pioneer Valley Transit Authority bus R41 and bus stops in Easthampton, Holyoke, and Springfield in an effort to document the daily experience of navigating public transit in the Connecticut River Valley. Many municipal and state leaders have talked about making public transit free for riders by removing fares, but that’s not necessarily the biggest issue those riders are facing. Come take a ride with co-hosts Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen to hear directly from bus riders about their public-transit concerns and biggest dreams.

    36 min

  6. 08/15/2024

    Ep. 30: Crisis Response with Earl Miller and Sera Davidow

    Trippin’ on the Shoestring is back from vacation and ready to take on a heavy topic: how we as a society respond to those in our communities experiencing crisis. The police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 renewed national calls for better crisis response models to reduce aggressive and sometimes fatal interactions that result when police are the ones showing up to the scene. Municipalities locally here in the Connecticut River Valley and nationally have begun to adopt various crisis-response models in answer to this mounting public pressure.  We sat down with two guests to talk about what is happening at the state level here in Massachusetts around these crisis response models. We were joined by Sera Davidow, an author, filmmaker, and director of the Wildflower Alliance – a national training and peer support organization rooted in harm reduction. We were also joined by Earl Miller, the director of community supports at Wildflower Alliance. He is the former director of the civilian-response department that began operations last year in the town of Amherst, the Community Responders for Equity, Safety, and Service, also known as CRESS.

    1h 11m

  7. 07/25/2024

    Ep. 29: Summer Break Recap with Dusty and Shelby

    It's summer break! As our podcast hosts and producer take some time to recharge, our hosts Dusty Christensen and Shelby Lee look back on Trippin' on the Shoestring's year so far, bringing back clips from some of our favorite guest moments and sharing updates on some of the issues we've discussed over the last six months. From politics to labor organizing to social movements, our guests have shared sharp analyses with us on issues both local and national, and some even seem to have predicted the future. We'll be back with a regular schedule of episodes this fall, so if you, too, have powers of clairvoyance when it comes to predicting how the powerful operate in western Mass, drop us a line: you could be our next guest!

    30 min

  8. 06/13/2024

    Ep. 28: Palestine, Protest, and Police Repression at UMass Amherst with Kevin Young and Max Greenberg

    In this episode, we delve into the student-led, anti-war activism that has been building on campus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It’s a movement that has been around long before the school’s leadership called in the police to break up a protest encampment this spring. That decision resulted in a violent crackdown during which police arrested more than 130 people who continue to face charges. The “Popular University for Gaza Encampment,” as it was known, was aimed in part at drawing attention to the university’s partnership with weapons manufacturers. Co-hosts Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen are joined by two guests this week: Kevin Young, a history professor at UMass Amherst, and Max Greenberg⁩, a PhD student in the university's economics department. Young is part of the group Faculty for Justice in Palestine and an elected leader in the university’s faculty union. He’s also part of the multi-union environmental coalition on campus, the Environmental and Social Action Movement. Greenberg is a union member with the Graduate Employee Organization, which represents grad-student workers on campus, and is part of the steering committee of the union’s Palestine Solidarity Caucus. He has also done organizing with the Western Mass Coalition for Palestine.

    1h 2m
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4.9
out of 5
30 Ratings

About

In-depth conversations and investigative journalism from the western Massachusetts-based independent news outlet The Shoestring. Investigative reporters Dusty Christensen and Shelby Lee bring you big local scoops and important voices from across the Connecticut River Valley.

Information

  • Creator
    The Shoestring
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2024
  • Episodes
    35
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright The Shoestring
  • Show Website
    Trippin on the Shoestring