Kaatscast: the Catskills Podcast

Episodes

Feb. 28, 2023

Adaptive Sports Foundation at Windham Mountain

As any skier knows, squeezing into a pair of ski boots can be quite the challenge. For skiers with physical and cognitive disabilities, though, preparing for a day on the slopes can require exponentially more time and effort....

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Feb. 14, 2023

The CAG Report: a Blueprint for Growing Catskills Crowds

If the Catskills seem busier lately, you're not imagining it. According to a new report, visits to the Catskills more than doubled between 2018 and 2021, when the region welcomed an estimated 12 million travelers––that's roug...

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Jan. 31, 2023

Catskills Thrillers: Reading Along with Kelli Huggins

Washington Irving was an early author to set his fictional tale in the Catskills, but he certainly wasn't the last. If Rip Van Winkle were alive today, he'd have no shortage of contemporary Catskills suspense stories to help ...

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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. 20, 2022

Sea Lion Training in ... Kingston! The Tale of Sharkey and "Seal Coll…

Just off the Kingston traffic circle, you'll find a couple of gas stations, a used car dealer, and a drive-through vegetarian burger joint. But in the 1940s, this was the site of "Seal College," a training facility for some o...

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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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Nov. 22, 2022

Getting the Lead Out: Making a Case for Copper Bullets

Whether you're a human who enjoys venison, or a bald eagle that scavenges a hunter's kill, lead = poison. And as it turns out, common lead bullets fragment on impact into hundreds of pepper-sized flakes that can be devastatin...

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Nov. 8, 2022

Witness Cremations at the Historic Wiltwyck Cemetery

When the Wiltwyck Cemetery and family crematory started following us on Instagram, instead of getting ... well ... creeped out, we decided to reach out, and learn about this unique establishment. Kingston's Wiltwyck Rural Cem...

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Oct. 25, 2022

Women and the Vote: an Interview with Catskills Novelist Violet Snow

Catskills writer Violet Snow is the author of To March or to Marry , an historical novel about the lengthy fight for a woman's right to vote, both here in New York, and nationally. As we prepare to cast our …

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Oct. 11, 2022

Overlook's Spirit Stones: Investigating the Indigenous

Overlook Mountain is a popular Catskills hiking destination, complete with a scenic fire tower and the ruins of an historic hotel. According to researchers, and bolstered by groundbreaking scientific evidence, the mountain's ...

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Sept. 27, 2022

Cidiot: the (other) Best Regional Podcast

If you've ever heard (or even ... uttered) the word "cidiot," to describe an urban transplant, likely that term wasn't used in a positive light. Podcast host Mat Zucker has been doing his best to rebrand the word in a …

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Sept. 13, 2022

Empire State Railway Museum: Catskills Rails Then and Now

In our last episode we took a ride on the old Ulster & Delaware rails with Rail Explorers , a pedal bike experience in Phoenicia, NY. This week, we're at the neighboring Empire State Railway Museum , at home in …

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Aug. 30, 2022

Rail Explorers

From the late 19th- to the early 20th-century, passengers could board an Ulster & Delaware train in Kingston and ride straight up through the Catskills, to Oneonta. These days, you can still experience a 4-mile stretch of tha...

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Aug. 16, 2022

The Classical Concerts that Predate 1969's Woodstock: Inside the Mave…

Long before "THE" concert so closely associated with Woodstock, " Maverick Concerts " have been delighting fans of classical music for more than 100 years. We sat in the historic concert hall with music director Alexander Pla...

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Aug. 2, 2022

Drive Time: at the Schoharie Turnpike – Kaaterskill Clove Road Rally

Earlier this summer, we joined dozens of auto enthusiasts for a 135-mile loop on the Schoharie Turnpike - Kaaterskill Clove Road Rally, one in a series of rallies that pairs Catskills scenery and history with the love of driv...

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July 19, 2022

Protecting What You Love: with Author/Angler Stephen Sautner

Stephen Sautner is a lifelong fisherman, environmental activist, and the author of several books on those topics. And while his passion for fishing has taken him to the Falkland Islands, Cuba, the Zambezi River, and even ... ...

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July 5, 2022

No Kale, Just Flowers: Crespell's Flower CSA

Anne Hall's addiction to flower growing is a boon to Catskills designers, florists, restaurants, and individuals who want locally grown, chemical-free flowers in another league from generic supermarket fare. In February, we p...

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June 21, 2022

Fire Tower Challenge!

If you're looking for a unique way to experience Catskills views, there's no better time to check out the Catskills' 6 hiker-accessible fire towers ! The 2022 Catskills Fire Tower Challenge encourages hikers to visit all 6, w...

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June 7, 2022

Boom! Catskills Real Estate with Peggy Bellar

Just a few years ago, the coveted Catskills "cabin on 5 acres" was priced at $300,000, give or take. Today, that same property could easily cost you double. Real estate in the Catskills is booming, and while housing markets e...

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May 24, 2022

Six Ticks: in the Lyme Light

If a tick bites you in the woods, and it's free of disease-causing pathogens, does it matter? We wanted to know how many of our Catskills ticks are pathogenetic, so we sent 6 of them to the Thangamani Lab at …

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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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April 26, 2022

Post-Hibernation with Leslie T. Sharpe

In 2020, Leslie T. Sharpe came to Silver Hollow Audio to narrate The Quarry Fox: and other Critters of the Wild Catskills , available at Libro.fm or wherever you get your audiobooks. Then the pandemic hit. Two years later, sh...

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April 12, 2022

The Bluebird Chronicles: A Catskills Romance

The winter/spring 2022 issue of Appalachia , "America's longest-running journal of mountaineering and conservation," features an essay by Catskills writer Leslie T. Sharpe about our little blue harbinger of spring: the bluebi...

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