What Makes a Good Corporate Neighbor?
Are We Here Yet Podcast
Report from the New England Beacon We’re talking with correspondent Chris Brady of the New England Beacon for this AWHY? Episode. explores the relationship of a $373B corporate entity and its de-industrialized, under capitalized home city. While Woonsocket lets dozens of teachers go CVS found ways to eliminate its obligation to pay property taxes. Its unique relationship to the state of Rhode Island’s Economic Development Corporation allows them to reduce its overall tax burden on income. While it’s true this corporate entity employs thousands, many from Woonsocket and...
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What’s in a Civic Brand?
Are We Here Yet Podcast
Author Ryan Short’s 2025 caught our attention for a singular reason. One of the books many underlying themes is to choose substance over shallow ‘solutions’. Why do we hang new banners downtown every 5 years when we make no substantive investments in small business to fill those empty storefronts? Why do we collect data points to defend projects rather than define them? Ryan talks about taking action to discover the real issues at play, then solving the problems. Without this, do you have a civic brand? Here, at the ‘Are We Here Yet?’ Podcast and...
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My Response to the Magical Teenage Idol
Are We Here Yet Podcast
Transcript taken from This week, a break from our work solving all the problems of small scale developers in rural America. Besides, our work relies on the success of tech entrepreneurs just as much as it does with municipalities, small business owners, manufacturers and advocates. So it’s big tech and entertainment that’s got my mind captured this time around. ’s recent Substack on left me in my own stream of consciousness, reliving then to now and our slip into idiocracy with MAMLMs (modern advanced machine learning models). What’s specifically got me frustrated is...
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Empowering Gig Workers
Are We Here Yet Podcast
Empowering Gig Workers Tamara Laine is the founder of MPWR, a fintech services platform launching in 2026 to serve the some 80 million global gig economy workers. This isn't the first founding experience for Tamara, here she is MPWR will focus on providing lending and support tools to gig economy workers who up until now face significant challenges accessing the financial services that W2 workers typically take for granted. Their reach could be vast, Tamara is focused on the domestic market but also has her eye on markets in Africa and Asia where gig economy workers...
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The Later Days of Big Bands: From the Culture Desk
Are We Here Yet Podcast
The Later Days of Big Bands: From the Culture Desk Join co-hosts Joshua Michael Stewart & Scott Graves on a musical look at just what all those Big Band musicians were doing decades after the end of the Big Band Era. The popular culture phenomenon of swing music did not end when the record deals started drying up. The spectrum and synthesis of styles, the premium musicianship and the comradery between bands and fans continued to the present date. We bring you more than a dozen recordings in their whole from the seventies to now including mostly musicians and bands still...
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What’s to Come in 2026
Are We Here Yet Podcast
Cohosts Ryan Munn and Scott Graves delve into what’s on the horizon in Vermont tech in 2026. Talk of BETA Technologies recent IPO and its consequences on employment opportunities was high among the list of other companies mentioned that we’re watching in the upcoming year. The list includes OnLogic, former podcast guest , Lightshift Energy and more. If you didn’t make the conversation this time around, have no fear. We’re watching YOU, too! A look at the upcoming year cannot be had without some meaningful conversation on artificial intelligence, advanced...
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Rural Housing Report: New Ideas from Otis, MA
Are We Here Yet Podcast
Rural Housing Report: New Ideas from Otis, MA We’re joined by , a fifth generation citizen from the Berkshire hamlet of Otis, MA. After listening to Stacey tell us in detail about the town’s greatest assets we’re feeling good about the resiliency of small town New England. Alongside her neighbors Stacey is engaged in garnering new ideas to solve Otis’s housing challenges in the most direct way possible, by listening to what your neighbors have to say. We’ve been gathering some compelling stories of economic development and housing this year from...
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Lean Into Success Lean Real Estate’s Michael Cohen
Are We Here Yet Podcast
is a partner and founding member of a successful investment firm buying directly from owners. The team at Lean applies lean manufacturing principles to real estate investment, which has helped the team of three stay focused and well disciplined in every aspect of their operation. Learn from Michael how to apply lean principles to your operation in our episode, plus understand more about the Burlington, Vermont real estate market. Burlington is one of Vermont’s highest performing markets for increasing value as is Chittenden county as a whole, which has been good for...
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New England Equity Collective Transforms Lives One Neighborhood at a Time
Are We Here Yet Podcast
is a realtor who recently donned the hat of a developer and non-profit leader. What makes this remarkable is the model of her new venture, . The NEEC is targeting families across a wide spectrum of backgrounds for co-living in pocket neighborhood developments combining services like art and music therapy with a more affordable and desirable place to live. Listen in if you are a non-profit leader looking to discover how to refine your model. Listen in if you are a new urbanist looking for an intentional design to a pocket neighborhood. Listen in if you care about innovation...
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Hypnotic Boogie: Re-discovering the Hill Country Blues
Are We Here Yet Podcast
The Hill Country Blues is, in effect for many of us, a form of early american music that is hiding in plain site. Take one part, fife and folk from the british isles,another part west african polyrhythms. Mix european balladeering with caribbean hypnotic rhythms. What begins as drum and fife music deep in the hills of northern Mississippi and Alabama blended with other blues from the region then heavily influenced the likes of Rock legends like Bo Diddley. We're re-discovering what Hill Country blues is all about. I'm joined by 2025 Massachusetts beat poet...
info_outlineConsorvia’s founder, Christina Fedor wants to redefine society’s relationship to the creative sector. With their latest client platform the company is fundamentally bringing the individual and the system together to serve people in their effort to self actualize.
Our conversation reached into the benefits of letting people young and old flex their deepest and most creative muscles. Some of the issues with how we interact with tech and the solutions to overcoming these limitations.
Consorvia is an R&D ecosystem primed to answer the really big questions that seem to be converging on us at an accelerated rate none of us has experienced before in our lifetimes. What kind of AI do we truly desire to interact with? How does tech bring the most creative out of us? How do we build whole new systems for better leveraging tech?