Hello Everyone,
Thanks for listening to the show.
Rumble Strip runs on your donations. Every dollar you contribute goes straight to the making of the show. The money pays for server fees, original music, website and sound equipment maintenance, gas, and, most important, time. Your money gives me time to make the show. Some stories are made in a week, and some require months and multiple interviews all over the state. Your contributions make all this possible.
So thank you for considering a donation to Rumble Strip!
Online Donations:
PayPal takes a percentage of the donation, but it is convenient. You can click on the button below to donate this way. ((If you make an online donation, will you also send me your physical address so I can thank you with a proper thank you card and sticker??))
VENMO: My venmo name is rumblestrip and last four digits of phone are 0909
Donations by Check:
If you send a check, the full proceeds go to Rumble Strip. But I recognize it’s less convenient, so you decide. Either way is fine with me. You can send a check made out to
Erica Heilman/Rumble Strip
363 Peck Hill Rd
East Calais VT 05650
Thank you so much for this show! I found it through Scott Carrier and am now an avid listener. I enjoy Rumble Strip Vermont because I love learning about life in different regions and hearing about other peoples’ values, lives and opinions.
I came up with an idea today to get my teenagers to broaden their horizons, (since they never want to read the things I suggest;) I offered them minimum wage to listen to your podcasts. I’ll let you know if it works!
Thanks again,
Julie from New Mexico
Julie, that is HILARIOUS. I hope it’s not too punitive. You can also tell them I’d love to hear their unvarnished opinions…and they can make suggestions for shows I should be making about high school life….
Hey Erica,
same here I came from this american life, over scott carrier’s home of the brave to rumblestrip vermont. Podcasts like yours are very special to me, as even though I keep on telling other people about it, my friends don’t really seem to find place for it in their life. Thus it remains some of my most private form of entertainment and I am grateful that people like you enrich my life in this manner.
Thanks a lot and greetings from Amsterdam
Hi Erica,
I’m making this donation in celebration of not having to replace my Mac laptop which took a hard fall off a table.
I spent the weekend worrying while my neighbor fiddled with it and got it going again!
Love your show. Thanks for introducing me to the music of Michael Chorney. My mom has MCI with severe memory loss, and I SO appreciated “After the Forgetting”.
Suggestions for subjects of possible shows:
Annette Smith
Energy projects in Vt and their impacts on communities and environments for whose gain?
David Sleigh!
David Sleigh and/or other VT lawyers and their experiences representing Guantanamo prisoners.
Look forward listening to more of your excellent work!
Hi, Erica – I started listening to RSVT last fall on the recommendation of the Vermont Edition folks. The first episode I listened to was with your friend the investigator. As the (now former) board chair of an anti-poverty organization in Addison County, I was very moved by her description of the living conditions she sees. Just this evening I finished listening to the 6 parents, 6 DCF stories show, which resonated again, this time because my husband has just become a Guardian ad Litum. I’m so grateful to you for bringing these stories to the public, and to the parents you interviewed for sharing them. I was struck by how articulate so many of them were, which makes me realize the biases I hold against people whose real crime is being poor. I love your podcast and am now a devoted listener. Bravo.
Hi – Thank you for the excellent podcasts. I listened as a recommendation from Ben Hewitt’s blogpost. I live in Florida but spent 9 wonderful months (in 2000) in Morrisville, VT with my boyfriend (now husband). Though it has been so many years I still remember that time fondly.
well that’s funny because i’m headed over morrisville way in about 10 minutes to buy some hops plants at Elmore Roots! That’s nice country….!
Excellent show, Erica. I laughed at the ever-so-serious “Police Log, Stolen Pie Edition,” and immediately afterwards was brought to tears by the beautiful story of “Last Chapter.” The friend who recommended your show will definitely be getting a beer on me.
I’m always looking for interesting things to listen to in the car on my long commute to work. I found RSVT when I googled for podcast recommendations and found The Atlantic best of 2015 list. I’ve listened to quite a few episodes starting right after the recent election. They have been a balm for my soul and a welcome antidote to what I’ve been hearing on the news.
Your comment makes me very happy, particularly because I’ve been wondering what the hell to do in response to the news. So if the show is useful to you, that makes my day. Thank you Janine. E
Hi Erica – I really love your show. It feels real, heartfelt, down to earth. It feels authentic in a way that most of the stuff coming my way doesn’t. When RSV comes on I usually set down the task at hand and take it in without distraction because I know I will be glad I did. Not too long ago you mentioned you would be hitting the road for a little. Can I help with gas money?
I always pay close attention to the intros and outros of indie podcasts I like for tips on others. Keep it up, that is my favorite way to find folks like you.
Bruce
Thank you Erica for staying curios and putting your energy into finding ideas and producing the show.
Thank you also to your guests for sharing their stories with us.
There is so much media out there and the older I get the more difficulties I have to connect – it seems everybody is just presenting themselves. Listening to your show feels like the real thing. It enriches my life.
Thank you and best wishes
Matt
Thank you for those kind words Matt. Your note was the perfect start to my day. –Erica
Erica, I just finished listening to your episode on CTE at St. J Academy. It was a fine piece of reporting and such great press for the importance of tech ctrs. I hope the rest of the tech centers in VT will have access to your podcast to use as evidence of their importance (even the the delivery system is different for ST. J’s). I was moved to donate since I am a former public school employee and I thank you for what you are doing. I don’t need a thank you note (and in fact, we’re on the road in our camper full time so getting mail is not easily accomplished).
This mental health series is really well done. Devastating and clear. A fine balance of the personal and the technical. So great, Erica. I know it’s in conjunction with VPR, but I wanted to come here and say well done.
I found your lovely podcast through “Home of the Brave”. I’m enjoying exploring the “back catalog”. As someone in their 50s, of course I had to listen to your turning 50 episode, I wish it was three hours long. Thanks for your good work.
Hi Erika, Another note from me (and you’ll get a check in the mail as a more tangible thank yo- no thank you note necessary). The interview with the guy from Bosnia was so powerful. I was blown away by what an amazing, smart young man he seems to be and his perspective of coming to America.
PS I tried donating on line as I would have preferred to use my debit card and it would only let me use PayPal.
Thank you Karen. He’s amazing. Smart and radical and hilarious. The donation thing…I’m not sure what the solution is. You could send me a check if you like…or use venmo… or nothing is fine too. I’m really grateful you took the time to write.
Erica, I just listened to your re-broadcast of The Defense…so amazing. The part that still sticks with me is the lawyer who said if we really want change we should reverse the way prisons and schools are financed! I will be sending a check! Thanks for making and producing many amazing episodes! I can tell it’s a labor of love.
I entirely agree. There was such simple clarity in that comment about school/prison financing. It’s an….’ok RIGHT.’
Just finished listening to the Finn and the Bell podcast. I can tell you put your heart and soul into this and it was outstanding. I was profoundly moved by the various interviews, with the coach, the principal but most especially with Finn’s mother. Her sharing of her experience after Finn’s death was beyond words. You deserve whatever award gets given for “excellence in podcasts” for this (and other) episode(s)!
Erica,
We, and far-flung kids, have been listening since ever, so the check in the mail is definitely belated.
So many intersections with people and places that have appeared in the episodes: The Advisor General, Alan LePage, DCF and parents, the Defense (Dan/family court and Kelly/town meeting), Chandler Summer Musical, Joslyn House, Greg Sharrow, Vermont Compost, Guys & Trucks, Huntin’ Camp, and all the Lelands we knew, teaching school. As well as several Finns, I’m sad to say, whose story you handled so deftly and humanely.
I would love to tack on a poem for you here but it’s a bit long. It’s by Hayden Carruth: Regarding Chainsaws.
You can find it here: https://poets.org/poem/regarding-chainsaws
Thank you.
Congratulations, Erica, on the Peabody nomination–so well deserved! I listen to a lot of fine podcasts and yours is my favorite. Thank you especially for the variety.
Discovered RSVT today after hearing Finn and the Bell on Snap Judgment, then downloaded you and listened to it again. Simultaneously exquisitely beautiful, poignant and painful, this story seeped in to every cell. Although this is the only one of your stories I have listened to so far, I just know RSVT is the podcast I have been longing for. I am so glad you /it exist and happy to donate to your time in the closet. I will say, it’s the only time ever I wanted someone to stay in the closet!
I just discovered this podcast thanks to The New Yorker. I have already recommended it to several friends, and listened to so many episodes. The first episode I listened to was the Peabody winning Finn and the Bell. What a place to start.
Thank you for enriching my life.
Welcome Melanie! Thank you so much for listening. Erica
This is hands down the best media of any sort that I’ve discovered in the past several years. I love the storytelling, I love the people. The subject matter is diverse and has genuine depth, and the presentation is gentle, sincere, and not aggressive. (I think that sums up modern society when my highest praise for something I’m interacting with is that it’s non-aggressive.) I’m thrilled to donate to you. Thank you for making this show and giving it to us.
Well THAT is the way to start a week. Gentle, sincere and aggressive. I might put it on my self introductory laminated card if I ever get invited to a conference! Thank you for listening Mira, and thank you for taking the time to write this very nice note. I appreciate it a lot. e