Reframing Rural

Megan Torgerson has some big life news to share and is working with collaborators on the creative direction of the fourth season!

In this final installment of Season 3 “Groundwork,” Reframing Rural founder, host and producer, Megan Torgerson speaks with the podcast’s audio engineer, Aaron Spieldenner and story editor, Mary Auld about the inspiration behind the season and all the work that goes into producing the show’s long-form narrative episodes.

Grace Olmstead is the West’s preeminent author on place. In her book "Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We've Left Behind” and in this interview, she speaks to rural outmigration, connection to place, the history of how agriculture was industrialized and the future of agriculture in the West amid suburban sprawl and a call to build more just and resilient regional food systems.

At 21 John Wicks was faced with the decision to stay in college or come home and save his family's farm. Today he is a leader in Montana's organic and regenerative farming movement and an advocate for family farms across the state, serving as the associate director of Montana Farmers Union. Together with his friends Peyton Cole and Paul Neubauer, John is helping further the understanding that the health of our agricultural lands impacts the health of our communities.

Dr. Alison Brennan, MSU Extension's designated mental health specialist, Courtney Brown Kibblewhite with Northern Ag Network and Beyond the Weather, and wellness coach and rancher Lisa Williams discuss mental health resources and stigma around mental health in Montana's rural and agricultural communities. This episode spans data on farm stress, free counseling services for Montana producers and actionable tips for restoring balance and wellbeing to our lives.

In Winnett, the only town in the least populated county in Montana, out-of-state absentee land ownership poses a threat to the future of ranching and the preservation of the region’s intact prairie ecosystem. To keep people on the land and build a vibrant future for Winnett’s main street, the rancher-led nonprofit Winnett ACES is furthering economic and environmental sustainability for Petroleum Co. through local grassroots organizing.

This bonus episode features a webinar recorded for the Women’s Foundation of Montana, June 2022. “Developing Leaders for Montana’s Future” was a virtual conversation about the landscape of women’s leadership in the state featuring leaders who’ve advanced opportunities for young rural women, Montana women business owners and students privileged to experience the perspective-shifting adventure of an international exchange. This panel featured Deena Mansour, the executive director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana, Suzi Berget White, the former business development director of Prospera Business Network and Shannon Stober, the lead facilitator of the Red Ants Pants Foundation’s Girls Leadership Program. 

The convergence of mountain and prairie ecosystems along the Rocky Mountain Front is the awe-inspiring backdrop of the Blackfeet Nation, home of the Amskapi Piikani, or Blackfeet, for time immemorial. Latrice Tatsey, a rancher and cultural land ecologist with Piikani Lodge Health Institute, and Danielle Antelope, a teacher of wild plant medicines and the executive director of FAST Blackfeet, have long braided their lives into the cycles of this wild and tender land. This episode explores their respective food sovereignty initiatives, how they’re helping people regain comfortability on the land, thrive in the face of climate change and restore balance to the plant, animal, land and human communities on the Blackfeet Nation. 

In this bonus episode from Working Wild U, a podcast by Montana State University Extension and Western Landowners Alliance, hosts Jared Beaver and Alex Few explore how people’s values impact how they think about wolves and land use in the West.

The small North Idaho town of Dover has seen the extraction of timber, cheap labor and the natural amenities that draw tourists and second home owners with high-incomes and high-expectations for the luxuries they’re accustomed to. What happens to the natural environment and community cohesion when developers build with higher-income-earners and with profits in mind? What happens to locals when they are priced out or culturally displaced? In this immersive episode, host Megan Torgerson brings listeners to the shores of the Pend Oreille River, the center of Kalispel’s homeland for 10,000 years, where she interviews longtime residents, local historians and Dr. Ryanne Pilgeram whose book “Pushed Out: Contested Development and Rural Gentrification in the US West” uses Dover as a case study for how corporations cause destruction in order to profit from spaces with abundant natural beauty.

Montana has long held a distinctive place within the mythos of America. Today, it’s becoming an ever-more attractive destination for those in search of a stronger sense of community, or an escape, in response to a dizzying and hyper-digital world. In this honest conversation with award-winning, Butte-based journalist, Kathleen McLaughlin, Reframing Rural explores what an influx of wealthy newcomers means for housing access and affordability, open spaces and community cohesion, and how new and established residents of all class backgrounds can work together to create a place where all Montanans can thrive.

In this bonus episode Stories for Action podcast host Lara Tomov explores how the pressures of rapid growth and development are affecting Montanans, and how community groups like Trust Montana, Successful Gardiner and Reimagining Rural are working to maintain vibrant communities where all Montanans can thrive.

After a lifetime farming wheat on the Northern Great Plains, the time has come for Russ Torgerson to retire. In this narrative episode, Reframing Rural producer Megan Torgerson shares the intimate journey of her family’s farm succession, giving listeners an inside look into the emotional, legal and financial factors at play with succession planning. Curious what the next generation of farmers are facing, Megan also interviews the Jorgensens, another farm family from NE Montana who is transferring the management of their farm to their son Tanner. What happens in the transitional space between a farms’ present caretaker and the next? What becomes of a community when, voluntarily or not, a farmer surrenders their plow. And what does the next generation need in order to keep their families’ multigenerational farms going are all questions this episode seeks to explore.

The “farmer’s lawyer” Sarah Vogel is a hero to farmers across the country. In the 1980s she saved 240,000 family farmers facing foreclosure. In the 2000s she pursued justice for thousands of Native American farmers and ranchers who suffered decades of credit discrimination from the USDA. Sarah continues her fight to save the family farm today, and her new book “The Farmer’s Lawyer,” is inspiring others to join her.

Reframing Rural’s third season will transport listeners to Golden Triangle wheat fields, farmhouse kitchen tables and small mountain town main streets. Combining sound-rich narrative non-fiction episodes with in-depth interviews, season three will shine light on the state of family farming, the resurgence of regenerative techniques in agriculture and the realities of rural gentrification. 

Our friends at The Modern West have a new season out, and we’re excited to share part one with you! Like Reframing Rural, The Modern West shares surprising stories from often overlooked rural places, helping to reframe how we think about the West as it is today. In “The Rolling Stone,” the first episode in their “The Great Individualist” series, they break down myths about what it means to be a “real” cowboy. Be sure to catch up on the rest of "The Great Individualist" season and follow The Modern West wherever you get your podcasts.

In part two of Megan’s conversation with journalists Emily Stifler Wolfe and Jason Thompson of the “Common Ground Series” published by Montana Free Press, they discuss the threat of desertification, succession planning challenges family farms face and the sixth soil health principle of context.

Combining profiles of farmers from the Golden Triangle with soil science, history, policy research and transportive imagery, the award-winning “Common Ground” series is sowing hope in the future for farmers across the West. Written by Emily Stifler Wolfe with transportive photography from photo journalist Jason Thompson, “Common Ground,” illuminates the role of regenerative agriculture in fostering resilient rural economies and communities.

Randi Lynn Tanglen, PhD grew up in the small NE Montana town of Sidney and turned an early love of literature into a career in education. Randi developed a specialty in hidden voices of 19th century Western American Literature including women, Indigenous and Black authors – a niche that has helped her uncover her family’s storied history on the Great Plains. Today Randi leads the statewide humanities council, Humanities Montana, ensuring the public humanities are stewarded in Montana’s rural and Tribal communities.

Jeanie Alderson comes from a storied legacy of ranchers in Southeast Montana. In the 1970s, her parents were among the rural organizers to form Northern Plains Resource Council. Today, Jeanie and her husband Terry are continuing their work standing up for family farms and ranches by fighting against the "Big Four" meatpacking monopoly that's extinguishing competition and dictating prices, forcing some ranches to go out of business.