The Highlands Current Podcast

Bring on the Clown

Todd Haskell, a resident of Beacon and a member of the Current board of directors, discusses his nearly 20 years as balloon handler and then clown during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City.

Civil Rights | The Mitford Sisters

Peter Stevenson speaks with Dinky Romilly, a Philipstown resident who was active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s and also has a famous mother, the investigative journalist and writer Jessica Mitford, best known for her book The American Way of Death, and for her eccentric family of sisters, the Mitford sisters, who were Dinky’s aunts. 

The Barefoot Ironman

Beacon resident Guy Felixbrodt recently became the first person ever to complete a full Ironman triathlon with no shoes on. In this interview with Current reporter Brian PJ Cronin, he talks about why he did it, and shares his unique worldview focused on ambitious athletic feats, community service and the practice known as "earthing," which emphasizes maintaining direct contact with the ground. 

The Future Of Local Journalism

More than 300 U.S. newspapers have closed in the past three years, on top of the 2,500 that have shut down since 2004. In this episode, we present a conversation last year between Highlands Current editor Chip Rowe and Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post media columnist and author of Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy, about the effect of this loss on our country.

The History Of Stone Walls, With Susan Allport

Susan Allport is the author of Sermons in Stone: The Stone Walls of New England and New York. In this episode she talks with Chip Rowe about the origin and uses of these rocky ruins that criss-cross New England's landscape. 

Carl Bon Tempo On The History Of Immigration

Carl Bon Tempo, who lives in Cold Spring, is a history professor at SUNY Albany. He is the author, with Hasia Diner, of Immigration: An American History, which Yale University Press published in May. 

Remembering the Life of a Fugitive Slave Who Became a Beacon Homeowner

In our second episode tied to The Current's series on the Black history of the Highlands, historian Myra Young Armstead discusses the life of James F. Brown, who was the longtime gardener in the 19th century at Mount Gulian and may have been the first Black man to vote in what is now Beacon. Armstead's book "Freedom's Gardener: James F. Brown, Horticulture, and the Hudson Valley in Antebellum America" details what we've learned about Brown's life and times from a meticulous journal he kept for 37 years, from 1827 to 1866. 

Early Black History in the Highlands, with Michael Groth

In a conversation with Current Editor Chip Rowe, Michael Groth, author of Slavery and Freedom in the Mid-Hudson Valley, discusses the overlooked early history of Black people in our area and the African American struggle for freedom. 

Tracing The Highlands’ Indigenous History, With Evan Pritchard

Anthropologist Evan Pritchard is a descendant of the Mi'kmaq people, who are part of the Algonquin nation, and has taught Native American studies at Pace University, Vassar College and Marist College. In this conversation with Michael Turton, he details the history of Native American people in the Hudson Valley. 

The Poet Next Door: James Hoch

April is National Poetry Month and, in a new episode, Current editor Chip Rowe shares a conversation he had last year with James Hoch, a Garrison resident who has been a professor of creative writing at Ramapo College since 2006. Hoch’s most recent collection of poetry, Last Pawn Shop in New Jersey, was published in February.