Kaatscast: the Catskills Podcast

Community Episodes

Nov. 5, 2024

The Anti-Rent War's Populist Legacy with Author Jennifer Kabat

This episode of Kaatscast delves into the transformative period of the 1830s in the United States, marked by mass enfranchisement and significant demographic changes. The focus narrows to New York's Anti-Rent War (1839-1845),...

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Oct. 8, 2024

Teen Lens 🎬 Woodstock Film Festival's Youth Film Lab

This episode takes us to the Woodstock Film Festival's Youth Film Lab , a three-week intensive filmmaking program for teens in Kingston, NY. Each summer, participants learn filmmaking from industry professionals like Gregg Br...

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Sept. 10, 2024

White Gold: The Rise and Fall of Catskill Cauliflower

In the early 20th century, ⁠Cauliflower Was King⁠ in the western Catskills, and –– especially in the good years –– farmers called it "white gold." Historian Diane Galusha describes the origins of cauliflower farming in Margar...

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July 2, 2024

Bruderhof: a Christian Community in the Platte Clove

The Bruderhof is a worldwide community of 3,000 Christians who, inspired by the early church, share their money and possessions, and practice "full-time discipleship," working, dining, and singing together. Perhaps you've bum...

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June 18, 2024

A Life on the Mountain Top with Dede Terns-Thorpe and Ed Thorpe

Dede Terns-Thorpe is the historian for the Town of Hunter, referred to locally as "the mountain top," and comprising the villages of Hunter and Tannersville, and the hamlets of Edgewood, Elka Park, Lanesville, and Platte Clov...

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May 7, 2024

Nature Calls 🍃 Conversations from the Hudson Valley

In 2022, four Master Gardeners were looking for a new way to bring their expertise to our region, and they did so with a weekly podcast on everything from honeybees to hydrangeas; perennials and pollinators; monarchs, chicken...

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Feb. 13, 2024

Catskill Neighbors

Catskill Neighbors , whose mission it is to "help seniors wishing to remain safe and comfortable in their own homes," was born of necessity in the wake of 2011's Hurricane Irene. Founder, Reverend Ralph Darmstadt, died in Jan...

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April 25, 2023

Financial Literacy at Ulster Savings Bank

April is Financial Literacy Month! It's also National Jazz Appreciation Month, National Fresh Celery Month, Foot Health Awareness Month, World Landscape Architecture Month, and National Soft Pretzel Month. But let's just stic...

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April 11, 2023

Remembering Hank Rope

Just two weeks before the start of trout season, the Catskills lost a paragon of angling. Henry "Hank" Rope, Jr. wore out a pair of wading shoes every year, fishing Catskills creeks and tributaries. Hank shared his love of th...

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March 28, 2023

Radio Catskill 90.5 FM WJFF

Radio Catskill hit the airwaves in 1990 and operated out of a hydro-powered station in Jeffersonville. But when a building was recently offered in nearby Liberty, WJFF shed its 30-year skin and relocated to the now fully-reno...

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Jan. 17, 2023

Billy's Make & Mend: Vintage Sewing Machines

There's a "herd" of sewing machines in the hundreds, in Delancey, NY, and they're in the loving and capable hands of one Billy Hancock, owner of Billy's Make & Mend , an outpost for sewing machine repair and maintenance, sewi...

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Jan. 3, 2023

Shea in the Catskills: Tarot, Art, Community

To start off the new year, we visited Shea in the Catskills , a tarot practitioner, artist, facilitator, organizer + contemplative, for a (deeper than perhaps expected) conversation on community, tarot, inspiration ... and so...

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Dec. 6, 2022

Kenny Bloodgood's Catskills Connection to a Famed Western Artist

Charles Shreyvogel was an Eastern artist who painted famous Western scenes. His favorite model was also decidedly non-Western. Greene County’s Kenny Bloodgood recounts tales of his great-uncle Grant and his unlikely appearanc...

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May 10, 2022

Wellness Rx: a Prescription for Rural Healthcare

Ed Ullmann is the owner and pharmacy manager of Wellness Rx , a holistic and patient-centered pharmacy in Tannersville, and soon ... Phoenicia! Far from the chain store aesthetic (or lack thereof) the Tannersville location wh...

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March 20, 2022

Special: Pierogi for Ukraine

On March 19th, 2022, a Pierogi and Borscht fundraiser at the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Jewett, NY, brought in thousands of dollars for the people of Ukraine. We spent some time in the kitchen with organizer Switlana Breigl...

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