Season Three: Groundwork
An introduction from founder Megan Torgerson
To challenge negative rural narratives, in season one I profiled friends and neighbors who are keeping alive my unincorporated rural home community of Dagmar, Montana. In season two, I sought to share actionable knowledge and inspire the feeling of possibility by curating a series of interviews with professionals using their talents and leadership to foster vitality in their rural communities and address broader systemic inequities. Season three centers a more issues-based approach, mixing sound-rich stories and in-depth interviews that explore: the need to preserve family farms and ranches on working lands, the potential for greater human health and environmental resiliency through regenerative agriculture, and the impacts of rural gentrification and the need to maintain affordability in the Mountain West. These episodes share oral stories and information that are not only helpful for farm families and those facing rural gentrification. They call attention to the shared fate of rural and urban communities and the urgency surrounding challenges from the cost-price squeeze and climate change, to income inequality and division.