The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman

The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman


Latest Episodes

“This is not a public health crisis — it’s a political crisis:” Stanford epidemiologist Dr. Steve Goodman on the exploding COVID-19 pandemic & the abdication of leadership
July 15, 2020

Why does the U.S. now have the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the world? Dr. Steve Goodman argues that public health experts “know exactly how to [manage COVID] – we just need the political will.” He notes, “It’s not politicians who …

“The Crisis of American Democracy:” WaPo media columnist Margaret Sullivan on the collapse of local journalism
July 15, 2020

Most people might assume that the greatest threat to the media is President Trump’s relentless assaults on what he falsely calls “fake news.” But Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan argues, “Another crisis is happening more quietly. Some of

“We’re on the road to something new:” Emily Bernard, acclaimed author of “Black is the Body”
July 09, 2020

Emily Bernard’s latest book of essays, Black is the Body: Stories from my Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine, was named a Best Book of 2019 by NPR and received the LA Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose. …

Vt. House Speaker Mitzi Johnson on COVID relief and the road ahead
July 01, 2020

The Vermont Legislature have temporarily adjourned after appropriating about $1 billion in coronavirus relief funds. The money is intended to help Vermonters, businesses, and communities survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Vermont House Speaker Mitzi Johnson d

Black Lives Matter & criminal justice reform: Vt. Judiciary Chair Sen. Dick Sears
July 01, 2020

Vermont Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington) discusses criminal justice and policing reform in the age of Black Lives Matter protests and police brutality revelations. He also discusses reducing Vermont’s prison population and ending the “warrior mentality” of

“The greatest voter fraud is denying an American the right to vote:” Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos
June 24, 2020

Pres. Trump declared at a rally in Arizona this week: “This will be in my opinion the most corrupt election in the history of our country, and we can not let this happen.” Trump has repeatedly claimed without proof that …

We need “a radical reconception of policing:” Ex-Police Chief Brandon del Pozo
June 24, 2020

In a forceful New York Times op-ed following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Brandon del Pozo, a former NYPD officer and police chief of Burlington, Vermont, slammed police for having “aligned themselves with the president’s flagrant ra

Black Lives in the Green Mountains: Race & racism in Vermont
June 17, 2020

According to the ACLU of Vermont, “Every metric we have shows that Black Vermonters face systemic barriers to education, health care, employment, and justice.” Too often, conversations about racism consist of white reporters (like me) asking black people

How Democracies Die: Harvard Prof. Steven Levitsky
June 10, 2020

Is America on the brink of authoritarianism? Steven Levitsky has been wrestling with that question. Levistky is professor of government at Harvard University and is co-author, with fellow Harvard Professor Daniel Ziblatt, of the international bestselling

Is America at a tipping point? Bill McKibben on the Uprising
June 10, 2020

Could the wave of protests around the US signal a tipping point for social change? How are the issues of climate crisis, racism, police brutality, and the COVID-19 pandemic linked? Bill McKibben, a veteran activist and author, discusses the interconnectio