The Highlands Current Podcast

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. 

Richard Kreitner, of Philipstown, is the author of Break It Up: Secession, Division and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union. He discusses with Current Editor Chip Rowe the many attempts at secession in the U.S., the state he suspects will be the first to break away, and the logistics of Philipstown seceding from Putnam County.

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 (Yale University Press). 

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. 

Alex Finkelstein is on a mission to provide Highlands residents with excellent coffee in an unpretentious setting. He talks with Current reporter Michael Turton about the ins and outs of coffee growing, roasting, grinding and serving that perfect cup of joe.    

Bonny Carmicino, who lives in Cold Spring, has had an interesting career path but primarily is a clothing pattern maker. We spoke near the end of her term as president of the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals about when she learned to sew, her winding route from Capitol Hill to MIT to Wall Street and law school, and what she calls her life work: creating a way to have our clothes fit us better.

Rupert Holmes, who lives in Cold Spring, is known for many things. In 1979, his song, "Escape (The Pina Colada Song") hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts. In 1985, his musical whodunit, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, won five Tony Awards. We spoke with Rupert not about any of that but about his New York Times bestselling mystery, Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide. A sequel, Murder Your Mate, is due in 2025.

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.

Guy Felixbrodt, who lives in Beacon, 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. 

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.