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PODCAST

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen

A twenty-something armchair policy wonk born and raised in the Catskills is heading out into the world, and he"s got a lot of questions. In this podcast from WJFF Radio Catskill, we"ll take a deep dive into the institutions in upstate New York that are at the foundation of our community and explore how they work (and how they sometimes don"t). We"ll sit down with educators, farmers, public servants, artists, business owners, and all-around do-gooders to learn what it means to be a part of rural

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

27:03

Business Feature: Aaron Burr Cidery

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/11/20

How is hard cider made? What's its history in our region? Aaron Burr Cidery Co-Founder Andy Brennan drops in to give us an inside look at a product whose story is as interesting and complex as the product itself.

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38:13

School Mergers

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/11/10

In this episode, we tackle an issue impacting rural communities with declining populations nation-wide. Superintendent of the Livingston Manor and Roscoe Central School Districts John Evans drops in to talk about the effort to merge the two districts together. We consider why it needs to happen, and why it isn't. And if that wasn't exciting enough, we even get a cameo from Leif's dad, Russ.

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28:08

Hunting

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/10/08

Is hunting on the decline in New York? Are we managing the deer population? New York State DEC Game Management Section Head Jeremy Hurst drops by to give an update on the state of hunting in our community.

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33:54

The Sullivan County International Airport

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/09/08

Our local airport caters to the wealthiest members of our community. So why do we all pay for it? Leif has his first in-person CTH interview with Sullivan County Airport Superintendent James Arnott, and learns a thing or two about the economics of regional airports along the way.

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49:15

Redistricting and the 2020 Census

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/08/14

We might know what the US Census is, but how on earth does it work? And what is this gerrymandered redistricting stuff all about? In his inaugural episode as co-host of Close to Home, Nate DePaul dives into some of the most important topics impacting local, state, and federal politics today with Jennifer Reichert, the chief of the Decennial Census Management Division of the U.S. Census Bureau, and Jeffrey Wice, an adjunct law professor at New York University and a senior fellow at the New York

en

42:04

Housing and Homelessness

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/07/20

It's not a sexy topic, but it might be the most important human rights issue we discuss on this show: housing. In this episode, we take a look at the roots of--and possible solutions to--rural homelessness, and a relatively new program that aims to thread the needle of decreasing property blight while trying not to contribute to gentrification. We're joined by Kathy Kreiter, the Director and Program Administrator for the Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless, and Jill Weyer, the Executive

en

28:51

Human Rights

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/07/03

Sullivan County Office of Human Rights Executive Director Adrienne Jensen talks all things human rights: what they are, how her office protects them in our community, and what we can do to help foster them wherever we are. She also considers why we're so darn terrible at communicating with each other--and what we can do to have more compassionate conversations. If you or someone you know is experiencing a violation of human rights in Sullivan County, you can contact the Human Rights Commission at

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25:38

Business Feature: Delaware River Solar

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/06/01

Delaware River Solar Customer Support Manager Cat Scott drops in to chat about community solar farms: what they are, how they work, and why they might just be the clean energy future that we've been looking for all along. Perhaps they might even save us a few dollars along the way?

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46:19

Energy Prices and Local Agriculture

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/05/10

Why is everything so darn expensive all of a sudden, and how do energy prices impact our agricultural sector? SUNY Albany Professor Bill Saxonis, 4th generation local farmer Tom Bose, Tom's daughter Erin, and Erin's husband Derek join us to talk about the drastic spike in energy prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and what longer-term inflation means for all of us.

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24:37

Sullivan County Broadband Update

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/04/21

While there isn't a publicly-funded, county-wide high speed internet service yet, it might be closer than you think. Sullivan County Legislature Vice Chair and Sullivan County Broadband Local Development Corporation Chair Michael Brooks drops in to provide an update on the Wireless Broadband Access Project, 13 months after our previous episode on the initiative that is ostensibly one of the first of its kind in the nation.

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24:37

Environmental Justice in the Catskills

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/04/07

Catskill Mountainkeeper Environmental Justice Coordinator Taylor Jaffe talks about the history of the environmental justice movement and the steps we can take on the state and local level to promote environmental justice for low-income and minority communities in our region.

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36:04

"The System Doesn't Work:" Child Care

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/03/12

Sullivan County Child Care Council Executive Director Donna Willi and Valley Daycare owner Nicole Newick discuss how the local child care system works, and why it doesn't.Find the 2015 Council of Economic Advisers report on child care from the Obama White House here.Find the 2019 Council of Economic Advisers report on child care from the Trump White House here.

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30:16

Passenger Rail Service in the Catskills

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/02/23

At long last, we tackle the immortal questions, "why can't I take the train to the Catskills, and will I ever be able to take the train to the Catskills?"Sullivan County historian John Conway talks about the history of passenger train service to the Catskills, and Leif discusses his escapades of posing these questions to Amtrak and the New York Metro Transit Authority.

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25:55

Behind the Numbers: Tourism in the Sullivan Catskills

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/02/07

Sullivan Catskills Visitors Association President and CEO Roberta Byron-Lockwood talks about how Sullivan County has emerged as a statistical outlier in tourism revenue growth in recent years, outpacing the rest of New York's counties nearly threefold. She also considers the phenomenon of why some towns have experienced a boom in tourism and business, while neighboring towns haven't.

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34:49

The Arts

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2022/01/25

Delaware Valley Arts Alliance Executive Director Ariel Shanberg and Catskill Art Society Interim Director Robyn Almquist discuss the state of the arts in the Catskills. They consider the unexpected silver linings of the pandemic on the local arts scene, and how the last few years have changed the face of art as we know it. Learn more about DVAA's upcoming exhibitions at: https://delawarevalleyartsalliance.org/exhibitions/. Learn more about CAS's upcoming exhibitions at:

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36:43

Solving Sullivan's Public Health Problem

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2021/12/27

Sullivan 180 Marketing and Communications Manager Samantha Mango and Sullivan County Public Health Services Medical Director Dr. Bruce Ellsweig discuss ongoing efforts to improve Sullivan County's poor health, as we continue to rank as one of the worst counties in New York State for health outcomes and factors. We consider what "progress" means as we battle COVID-19 in addition to our longstanding public health problems.

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22:33

Mental Health

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2021/12/19

Dr. Amy Nitza, the Director of the Center for Disaster Mental Health at SUNY New Paltz, drops in to discuss the mental health impacts of COVID-19, and what we can do to maintain and improve our mental health now and in the future.

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19:36

The Excelsior Scholarship

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2021/12/01

Leif takes a solo romp through New York State's scholarship that allows students to attend 4-year SUNY and CUNY schools tuition-free. We look at issues of access and equity in the first-of-its-kind program, and consider ways to make it more accessible--particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.Learn more about the Excelsior Scholarship here: https://www.ny.gov/programs/tuition-free-degree-program-excelsior-scholarship

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21:23

Winter Road Upkeep

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2021/11/16

Sullivan County Public Works Commissioner Ed McAndrew calls in to give a behind-the-scenes look at how 18 county plows keep hundreds of miles of roads passable throughout the long Catskills winters.

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30:50

The Labor Shortage

WJFF - Close to Home with Leif Johansen ·

2021/10/29

Sullivan County Center for Workforce Development Director Loreen Gebelein and Rolling V Bus Corporation Executive Vice President Nick Vallone drop by to discuss how our Catskills community is handling a situation that would seem bizarre to Americans in 2020: a sudden abundance of job openings...with no one to fill them.If you or someone you know are looking for a job in Sullivan County, you can check out sullivanny.us/Departments/Workforcedevelopment/HotJobs

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