FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact: Megan Torgerson, MFA, Founder, Host and Producer reframingrural@gmail.com, 406.480.5591
Reframing Rural, the podcast cultivating curiosity across divides, launches its second season spotlighting rural advocates in the West and Heartland
In “Season Two: Sowing Possibility,” podcast founder Megan Torgerson convenes rural thought leaders to explore intimate and expansive questions that provoke inspired possibilities for rural America.
October 27, 2021 – Seattle, Wash. – Reframing Rural, the original podcast series cultivating curiosity and conversation across the urban-rural divide, launched its second season, “Sowing Possibility,” this fall to sow hope in the future of rural America. Hosted by rural Montana native and urban Washington resident Megan Torgerson, the 10-episode season features conversations with rural activists, academics, artists and entrepreneurs working to bridge divides and rewrite the narrative on the rural West and Heartland. The first episode of season two features a conversation with Sarah Calhoun, founder of Red Ants Pants, the first company dedicated to making workwear for women, and a Montana Business Hall of Fame inductee.
“There's a lot we can collectively learn from the culture of small-town America, of things that might be applicable to our broader world and how to treat each other a little better, and, you know, have Republicans and Democrats break bread together. That's an important thing, and I think that's exactly what we need more of these days,” said Sarah Calhoun in Reframing Rural’s podcast from her home in the ranching community of White Sulphur Springs, Mont.
This season, Reframing Rural also welcomes Jake Bullinger, founding editor of the former Bitterroot Magazine; Ashley Hanson, Obama fellow, Bush fellow and founding executive director of Department of Public Transformation; Miranda Moen, a Fulbright scholar and rural architectural designer; Benya Kraus, Lead for America co-founder and Lead for Minnesota, executive director; Randi Tanglen, Humanities Montana executive director; and Benjamin Winchester, University of Minnesota Extension educator and rural sociologist.
An alumna from the University of Montana, Torgerson launched the independent podcast in 2020, while working toward her MFA in Arts Leadership at Seattle University. “Sowing Possibility” grows out of the podcast producer’s inaugural season, “Coming Home,” dedicated to her rural homeplace, Dagmar, Mont. The predominantly Scandinavian agricultural community sits on ancestral Assiniboine land in the state’s extreme northeast corner. Part narrative nonfiction, part audio memoir, season one shines light on the hard work and life of Eastern Montana farmers, ranchers, lay ministers, country school teachers and professionals working in the oil and gas industry. In season two, Torgerson begins each episode exploring guests’ rural roots and transitions to discussions on social and environmental issues central to guests’ home communities and their place-based solutions toward collective resilience.
“The fate of rural America matters to everyone, no matter where you live,” said Reframing Rural Founder Megan Torgerson. “Through conversations with thought-provoking rural advocates, I hope to uplift the resiliency of rural communities, stretch listeners’ social imagination and call attention to the interconnectedness of rural and urban geographies.”
Reframing Rural launches new full episodes on the last Thursday of every month and is available anywhere podcasts are found. Funding partners for “Season Two: Sowing Possibility” include Humanities Montana and the Greater Montana Foundation. For more information, visit reframingrural.org.
About Reframing Rural Reframing Rural's mission is to share stories of people and places in rural America in an effort to celebrate culture, preserve history, and cultivate curiosity and conversation across geographic, class and cultural divides. reframingrural.org
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Media note: Megan Torgerson’s headshot and Reframing Rural logo are available at this link. Other photos, including original photography of Eastern Montana by Megan Torgerson, are available upon request.
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