Trippin on the Shoestring

Dec 11 2024 35 ep. 47 mins 23

Trippin on the Shoestring Podcast artwork

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.

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

Dec 11 2024 61 mins

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

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

Nov 22 2024 59 mins

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 a

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

Nov 03 2024 67 mins

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 th

Ep. 32: All Politics Is Local with Vijay Prashad

Oct 10 2024 54 mins

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 b

Ep. 31: Podcasting on the PVTA

Sep 20 2024 36 mins

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, b

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

Aug 15 2024 71 mins

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 t

Ep. 29: Summer Break Recap with Dusty and Shelby

Jul 25 2024 29 mins

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 gu

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

Jun 13 2024 62 mins

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 w

Ep. 27: Housing Hardship with Rose Webster-Smith and Jean Frances

May 30 2024 57 mins

We have been away, out in the field, working on an important episode about the housing crisis facing western Massachusetts. First, in Easthampton we interviewed 81-year-old resident Jean Frances, who is facing a steep rent increase on a fixed income. She welcomed us into her home to talk about the reality renters are facing. Then, we sat down in Springfield to talk radical action w

Ep. 26: Farms, Floods, and Climate Change with Alisa Klein and Piyush Labhsetwar

Apr 24 2024 44 mins

In every month of 2023, average global temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels. That’s a first, and it’s a tipping point that climate scientists have raised concerns about for years. The Connecticut River Valley is not immune to those impacts. Last year, western Mass experienced its hottest summer ever recorded, a deluge of smoke from wildfires spr