Ric Cengeri

Over the last couple of months, we have been in the search for the most interesting Vermonters. We've met a 106-year-old from Townshend and a man in Charlotte who grows and gives away 10,000 roses every year.

The popularity of vaping among young people is sounding alarm bells for educators and health professionals, as trendy e-cigarettes like the Juul are becoming a more common sight in middle and high schools. We're talking about where the rise in this behavior is coming from, the health issues at stake and what schools and the state are doing in response.

Vermont has three state rocks — and with good reason. Granite, marble and slate have done a lot to shape the state economically, environmentally and demographically. On this Vermont Edition, we dig into how and why that happened.

This weekend, the streets of Burlington will be flooded with runners and spectators in town for the 30th year of the Vermont City Marathon. Among the 8,000 competitors on Sunday will be running royalty: Olympic Silver medalist and winner of both the New York and Boston marathons, Meb Keflezighi.

It's been a long cold winter followed by a funky spring. And your trees and shrubs really felt the effects. Luckily, we have gardening expert Charlie Nardozzi to help us segue successfully into summer with our gardens intact.

Central Vermont and the Northeast Kingdom have recently welcomed new food establishments offering tastes of Asia and the western Pacific. Seven Days food writer, Hannah Palmer Egan, shares all the delicious deets in this VPR Cafe podcast!  

Ray Vega is a senior lecturer at the University of Vermont, where he teaches jazz history, directs three jazz combos and heads up the jazz trumpet studio. He's a trumpeter, percussionist, composer and arranger, who has worked with some of the biggest names in jazz and Latin music. He's now added "radio host" to his busy schedule as he takes over the reins of VPR's Friday Night Jazz.

Patients in rural Vermont seeking treatment for pain often face time-consuming travel to large regional hospitals and long wait times to see specialists. Now UVM's medical school is using a new telemedicine program to connect those specialists with primary care practitioners in rural areas to help patients get better care more quickly.

The great thing about life is that you get choices. But some of them aren't easy to make, like deciding the right age at which to start taking your Social Security payments from the government. We'll help you navigate that tricky decision.

Strong disagreements between Gov. Phil Scott and legislative leaders in Montpelier mean that the future of the budget, and many other bills at the Statehouse, is still very much up in the air. So where is all of this headed?

Vermont beer is not only wildly popular here at home, but also across the country and around the world. In fact, visit Spain and you might just find a "Vermont-style IPA."  That's what one attendee of the Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference recently shared when it was held in Burlington in March.

It's that frantic time in Montpelier when lawmakers and the administration face the crunch to pass a budget as well as other lingering bills. We talk to Gov. Phil Scott about the continuing budget standoff and what he would like to see on his desk before the end of the biennium.

People around the country have been fascinated by the story of the Golden State Killer, the research by the late true-crime writer Michelle McNamara, and the arrest of a suspect in the decades-long mystery back in April. But one Vermont College of Fine Arts student's writing about a different California cold case generated interest of its own that caught investigator's attention and eventually an arrest.

Paying a seasonal fee for a weekly cache of greens and root veggies from a local farm remains popular in Vermont; however, the model of community supported agriculture (CSA) is evolving. In order to offer convenience to customers, many CSA programs are now offering flexible purchase plans and more product options. These approaches also allow more farmers to get in the game.

Charlotte's Yvan Plouffe is a retired dairy farmer who sugars, tends to his plum and peach trees, and raises 10,000 roses every year to hand out all around town. He also does woodwork, metalwork and pottery, the latter of which he took up just ten years ago at age 70. And he lives in a house he built himself, along with most of the furniture inside of it.

In February, Jack Sawyer was accused of a thwarted shooting plot involving Fair Haven Union High School. Already the case against the 18-year-old Poultney man has taken many twists and turns. We'll look at what has transpired so far in the case and how it's grabbed the attention of the entire state.

Writing a letter? Having a pen pal? These may seem a little old-fashioned but both are alive and well thanks to NOFA-VT (The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont). They've come up with a program that connects young students with local farmers through correspondence and field trips.

When it comes to the dairy industry in Vermont, there are a lot of questions and myriad answers. We get a lot of both as we listen to a recent "News & Brews" event held at VPR that explored the relationship between agriculture and the environment.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont Christina Nolan says the opioid crisis—including related violence and human trafficking—is a top priority for her office, one she says will emphasize prosecutions to reduce the amount of opioids in the state.

Philosophy can get a bad rap as a subject only for scholars and academics, with little use in the real world. But many in the field say that philosophy doesn't have to be inaccessible; it can be a tool we use to tackle a wide range of the problems that we face every day. We're delving into this ancient subject and exploring how philosophy is relevant today.