Kaatscast: the Catskills Podcast
Kaatscast: the Catskills Podcast

Kaatscast: the Catskills Podcast

Kaatscast is a biweekly series featuring Catskills culture, history, sustainability, local interviews, literature, and the arts. Shows are hosted by Brett Barry and produced by Silver Hollow Audio, in the heart of the Catskills. Voted “Best Regional Podcast” 3 years in a row. Enjoy!

Shandaken Theatrical Society: Fifty Years at the Phoenicia Playhouse
Kaatscast: the Catskills Podcast
Shandaken Theatrical Society: Fifty Years at the Phoenicia Playhouse

Recent Episodes

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Shandaken Theatrical Society: Fifty Years at the Phoenicia Playhouse
174
July 14, 2026

Shandaken Theatrical Society: Fifty Years at the Phoenicia Playhouse

The Shandaken Theatrical Society turns 50 this year, and its home stage — the Phoenicia Playhouse — has a history that stretches back even further. Built in 1887 as a lodge for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the building later served as an auction house and a movie theater before falling into disrepair by the 1980s. Community intervention saved it from demolition, and STS has run it ever since.This episode brings together voices spanning the organization's history: board member and lo
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Revolution's Last Stand: Calico Rebellion and the Catskills Anti-Rent War
173
June 30, 2026

Revolution's Last Stand: Calico Rebellion and the Catskills Anti-Rent War

In 1845, a feudal land system that had survived the American Revolution finally met its match in the hills above Andes, New York — and the clash left a county undersheriff dead and hundreds of farmers under arrest. The Anti-Rent War was a massive, organized uprising that had been building since the late 1830s and swept across upstate New York — yet it remains largely unknown outside this region.Victoria Kupchinetsky and Misha Gutkin are Russian-born journalists who stumbled upon the story at
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The Piano Performance Museum: Hearing History in Hunter
172
June 16, 2026

The Piano Performance Museum: Hearing History in Hunter

What did Beethoven's piano actually sound like? At the Catskill Mountain Foundation's Piano Performance Museum in Hunter, New York, you don't have to wonder — you can sit down and play one.Brett Barry visits the museum at the Doctorow Center for the Arts with performing arts director Pam Weisberg and docent Stacey Bowers, who guide him through dozens of historic instruments spanning three centuries — from a mid-18th century French harpsichord to a nine-foot Baldwin concert grand that once tr
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Little Spaghetti Noodles: The Secret Life of the American Eel
171
June 2, 2026

Little Spaghetti Noodles: The Secret Life of the American Eel

Every spring, something remarkable happens in the tidal waters of Black Creek in Esopus, New York: tiny, translucent eels — just an inch and a half long and barely the weight of a postage stamp — swim in from the Atlantic Ocean, following a journey that began in the Sargasso Sea nearly a year before.In this episode, guest host Sierra DeVito joins the Hudson River Eel Project at Black Creek Preserve, where Professor Susan Hereth of SUNY New Paltz leads a team of college and high school studen
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Heather Houskeeper, the Botanical Hiker: Plants, Trails, and Belonging
170
May 19, 2026

Heather Houskeeper, the Botanical Hiker: Plants, Trails, and Belonging

Kaatscast walks a stretch of the Finger Lakes Trail in Delaware Wild Forest with Heather Houskeeper — herbalist, long-distance hiker, author, and founder of the School of Plant and Place Connection — to talk about foraging, plant medicine, and what it means to truly belong in a landscape.Along the trail, Heather identifies edible and medicinal plants including garlic mustard, jewelweed, and dandelion, and explains how to approach foraging safely, ethically, and with a spirit of reciprocity.
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Extra Edition: Kaaterskill Clove at a Crossroads
169
May 12, 2026

Extra Edition: Kaaterskill Clove at a Crossroads

The Catskill Park's most visited corridor — Kaaterskill Falls and the Kaaterskill Clove area along Route 23A — may be heading for a major management overhaul. In this extra edition, host Brett Barry sits down with Jeff Senterman, Executive Director of the Catskill Center, to dig into a newly released Visitor Use Management report that recommends capping daily visitors at 1,000, implementing timed entry and advance reservations, and evaluating a public shuttle service to replace the recently shut
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About the Host

Brett Barry Profile Photo
Brett Barry

Brett hosts and produces Kaatscast from Silver Hollow Audio, in the heart of the Catskills. He teaches podcasting and audio production in the Digital Media & Journalism dept. at SUNY New Paltz. He is a recipient of the Catskill Center's prestigious Alf Evers Award.

Brett graduated from Syracuse University’s television, radio & film program and worked as an associate documentary producer for several years before launching a career in voice-overs in 2002. He returned to Syracuse 10 years later for a graduate degree in television-radio-film.

Brett is represented in NYC by Access Talent for television and radio commercials, audiobooks, promos, and narration. He’s the host of public radio’s "Sound Beat," was the longtime voice of India’s English-language network, Zee Café, and the last announcer for the iconic soap opera Guiding Light. He has narrated more than 125 audiobooks.

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