Reviving Rural America: A Nine-Part Radio Series

Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit public education organization, has produced a series of nine half-hour radio programs on the challenges facing rural America today and the most promising strategies to address them. Featuring the voices and stories of practical innovators in many regions and fields of activity, the series is accompanied by music native to the regions of the guests. While candid about the problems facing rural America, it is also profoundly hopeful that the best qualities of rural life can and will remain a vital part of who we are as a nation and a people.

Any of the programs can be heard by clicking on the “Listen to Conversation” link at the end of each program description listed below. Additional programs on various topics are also archived on the “A World of Possibilities” Web site, www.aworldofpossibilities.com. CD copies are available upon request from The Mainstream Media Project, 854 Ninth Street, Suite B, Arcata, California 95521. The entire series will be aired on radio stations nationwide during the first half of 2003.

Wind Power and Rural Environment
Dan Juhl, Chris Reed, Seth Zuckerman
Solutions for environmental, economic and security challenges may lie in rural America. Wind power pioneers Chris Reed and Dan Juhl and environmental journalist Seth Zuckerman discuss preserving the environment while strengthening the shaky economies of rural communities.
Listen to Conversation
Duration: 29:33 (mp3)

Healthcare in the Hinterlands
Paula Allen, Cliff Colglazier, Jerome Simone, Stephen Wilhide
Fewer resources, more resourcefulness. Mark Sommer explores with four healthcare providers how rural Americans are finding ways to make up for the lack of funding and advanced technology in tending to the needs of their communities.
Listen to Conversation
Duration: 29:32 (mp3)

The Coming Rural Renaissance
John Ikerd, Mark Ritchie
John Ikerd of the University of Missouri and Mark Ritchie of the Institute of Trade and Agriculture Policy discuss the prospects for new vitality in the countryside that was once the heartbeat of America.
Listen to Conversation
Duration: 29:32

Ethnic Minorities in Rural America
Hugh Joseph, Ralph Paige
Fortunes changing: the number of immigrant farms in rural America increases as the number of African-American farms decreases. Why? We get answers from Hugh Joseph of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project and Ralph Paige of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.
Listen to Conversation
Duration: 29:33

A Sense of Place
Larry Cleverley, Betsy Marston, Ed Marston
Synopsis: Leaving the city for the countryside: finding that something’s lost and something’s gained for both the person and the community. Newspaper publishers Ed and Betsy Marston and organic farmer Larry Cleverley describe their migrations from New York City to rural America.
Listen to Conversation
Duration: 29:32

Reversing Rural Brain Drain
Tom Collins, Francisco Guajardo, Calvin Head
Talented youth with tickets to success choose not to go for the gold but to return to their hardscrabble roots to help give others a chance. Tom Collins, Francisco Guajardo and Calvin Head tell why they went home and what their homecomings did for their communities.
Listen to Conversation
Duration: 29:32

Myths/Realities of Rural Life
Vaughn Grisham, Peter Hille, June Holley
Country folk can spin tales but the tallest tale is that they can’t solve their own problems. Sociologist Vaughn Grisham and Brushy Fork Institute’s Peter Hille discuss myths of rural life and ACEnet’s June Holley explores solutions to the difficulties of country life.
Listen to Conversation
Duration: 29:32

Challenges of Native Americans in Rural America
Rebecca Adamson
Rebecca Adamson, founder of the First Nations Development Institute, addresses challenges facing Native peoples in rural America, reminds us of Native values and insights, and discusses the sense of place shared by Native Americans and rural Americans in general.
Listen to Conversation
Duration: 29:32

Rural America: Series Introduction
John Cromartie
Join us on a tour of rural America, a voyage of rediscovery seeking our roots, and future. Rural demographer John Cromartie of the USDA is the guide to places of diversity and contradictions and he explains why some rural areas struggle while others are flourishing.
Listen to Conversation
Duration: 29:32