S5:E13 - The Fight for Public Education with Erin Oban
Release Date: 05/05/2025
S5:E16 - What Makes Kids Love Their Small Towns with Carter Undem
The Growing Small Towns Show
This is a first on the podcast and a great ending to the first part of Season 5 (we’ll be back in September with more episodes!) One of Rebecca’s children joined us for the funnest episode ever about small towns through the eyes of a kid: what he loves, what he’d like to see, and the frustrations he experiences as a kid in a small town. About Carter: Carter is Rebecca’s 13-year-old son, the middle child, and a small-town connoisseur and font of wisdom about how to connect with and make small towns great places for kids. In this episode, we cover: What Carter loves about his small...
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S5:E15 - Getting and Keeping Rural Lawyers with Hannah Haksgaard
The Growing Small Towns Show
This episode is about the rural lawyer shortage, why it’s happening, why it matters, and what we can do about it. This is a new-to-us topic, and we’re so excited to share it with you because it’s way more important and impactful than we realized. Lawyers have a crucial place in our small communities, from providing essential government services like prosecution to supporting small businesses and helping them thrive. Our guest, Hannah, is a law professor and author who took a deep dive into this issue, and we’re so glad she did. We learned a lot, and we think you will, too! About...
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S5:E14 - How to Engage Youth in Small Towns with Karen Pifher
The Growing Small Towns Show
We focus a lot on belonging here at Growing Small Towns, and one of the most important groups (that sometimes gets neglected by traditional community development) is youth. Kids need to feel at home and welcome in our small towns, too, and when our young people are engaged, active, and have good places to hang out with their friends, the effect is like a shockwave in the best way. Today’s episode is with the amazing Karen Pifher, who is helping communities support their youth in very real, material ways. And with lots of food, because apparently that’s key for kid hangouts. ...
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S5:E13 - The Fight for Public Education with Erin Oban
The Growing Small Towns Show
When we think of politics, I think a lot of us feel intimidated or like there isn’t room for us in the process–we’re not “political,” or we don’t have time, or we’re not the right kind of person. Today’s guest shows that being an unlikely politician may actually be the best thing, and why we need more real people in politics (yes, that means you!) About Erin: Erin Oban is a lifelong North Dakotan and proud, Class B kid, raised in a farm family in Ray, ND. Her professional career has included experience as a middle school math teacher, in nonprofit management and educational...
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S5:E12 - Making Room for New People with Meredith McMurray
The Growing Small Towns Show
Meredith is easily one of the most interesting and unusual people we’ve ever had on the podcast, and her story is a testament to just how much small-town living appeals to all kinds of people, even people that you may not expect. This episode is all about how Meredith–a Marin County, California native–found herself in rural South Dakota, and what we can do to make our small towns more welcoming for all different kinds of people who want to make their lives here. About Meredith: Meredith McMurray was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA. She was home-schooled for all...
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Season 5, Episode 11 - Small Town People Problems: Negative Local Voices with Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer
The Growing Small Towns Show
This episode is a listener-submitted Small Town People Problem, and it’s one we hear a lot: What do we do about local negativity? How do we deal with it when the people in the town are the ones being the Negative Nancies (or Negative Normans), and what can we do about it? We are joined by the amazing Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer, who, as it happens, is someone who knows quite a lot about local apathy and what to do about it. About Heidi: Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer barely escaped law school. She became a freelance writer in 2006, the Mayor of HeidiTown.com in 2007, and a community builder in 2023 when she...
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S5:E10 - Love as a Driver in Small Towns
The Growing Small Towns Show
We underestimate the power of love–or maybe limit the places where we deem it appropriate–but that’s silly because love is the most powerful motivator on the planet. We believe that love can actually be the key to unlocking the answers to some of our biggest questions and challenges in small towns. In this episode, Rebecca talks about all the ways that love can make our communities better places and what it looks like to show up with love. In this episode, we share three challenges for you to start using love as a force for good and change in your communities: Focus on doing more of...
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S5:E9 - Small-Town People Problems: Competition
The Growing Small Towns Show
Each season, we’re going to have a few episodes that directly address *your* small-town people problems. For our first one, we’re starting off with a question from a listener about one of the most common difficulties in small towns: what to do when the neighboring towns treat each other as competition instead of working together. Sometimes we’ll bring in a guest, sometimes it’ll be a solocast with Rebecca like today’s episode. Do you have your own small-town people challenge? Call in to the show and we’ll address it on-air! 701-203-3337 In this episode, we cover: The three ways...
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S5:E8 - The Opportunity for Returners with Jessica Meyers
The Growing Small Towns Show
The “Returner” phenomenon is a very real thing: people leave their small towns as young people and come back later when they’re ready to settle down, and there is a huge opportunity for both the returners and the small towns they’re coming back to–but we’re not always open to these boomerangs. This episode is about inviting people back, creating spaces, and growing as communities so they everyone is thriving. We think you’ll love it! About Jessica: Originally from Winner, SD (pop. 2,852), Jessica Meyers was raised in Winner and Vermillion, SD, and earned her bachelor’s degree...
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S5:E7 - Building Possibilities in Small Towns with Deb Brown
The Growing Small Towns Show
Deb Brown is one of our favorite people in the world, and we’re so glad to have her on the show with us to share her words, her new book (!!!) and all the work she’s doing to help small-town dreamers just like you. This episode is all about approaching big problems in small towns in idea-friendly ways and starting small to build big. About Deb: Deb Brown is a dynamic small-town advocate and community development expert with a wealth of experience empowering rural communities. As the co-founder of SaveYour.Town, she has been working alongside Becky McCray for a decade, providing practical...
info_outlineWhen we think of politics, I think a lot of us feel intimidated or like there isn’t room for us in the process–we’re not “political,” or we don’t have time, or we’re not the right kind of person. Today’s guest shows that being an unlikely politician may actually be the best thing, and why we need more real people in politics (yes, that means you!)
About Erin:
Erin Oban is a lifelong North Dakotan and proud, Class B kid, raised in a farm family in Ray, ND. Her professional career has included experience as a middle school math teacher, in nonprofit management and educational leadership, and in politics and public service. In 2014 and again in 2018, Erin was elected to represent central Bismarck’s District 35 in the State Senate. In 2022, she received an appointment from President Biden to serve as North Dakota’s state director of USDA Rural Development, a federal agency responsible for making financing and technical assistance accessible to rural and Tribal communities across the country.
When not engaging in issues of importance and finding ways to make an impact, big or small, in her community, Erin enjoys a cold beer on the patio with friends, a cup of coffee with a stranger, live music and comedy, traveling, and being comfy at home in Bismarck with her husband, Chad, and their son and favorite human, Evin.
In this episode, we cover:
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How Erin became involved in the legislative world (kind of by accident!)
- Why voucher schemes and school choice don't help our small towns
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How every single one of us has something we can offer and something we can do about the things we care about
Resources Mentioned:
https://www.ndforpublicschools.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ND4PublicSchools
Think Again by Adam Grant
Small-Town Shout-Out!
Wahoo to the unincorporated community of Guelph, ND (just a stone’s throw from Oakes) for showing that no town is too small to do big, cool things when people care.
Two cool things we’re highlighting: Off the "Sheulph" Guelph purchased the old school building, where they host markets throughout the year and rent out the historic wood gym for events, and a young couple transformed the old train depot into a beautiful Airbnb, giving visitors a reason to come and stay. Good job, Guelph!!
New Segment Alert!
We think some of the best parts about radio shows and podcasts are listener call-ins, so we’ve decided to make those a part of the Growing Small Towns Podcast. We really, really want to hear from you! We’re introducing two new parts to the show:
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“Small town humblebrags”: Call in and tell us about something amazing you did in your small town so we can celebrate with you. No win is too small—we want to hear it all, and we will be excessively enthusiastic about whatever it is! You can call in for your friends, too, because giving shout-outs is one of our favorite things.
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“Solving Your Small-Town People Challenges”: Have a tough issue in your community? We want to help. Call in and tell us about your problem, and we’ll solve it on an episode of the podcast. Want to remain anonymous? Totally cool, we can be all secretive and stuff. We’re suave like that.
If you’ve got a humblebrag or a tricky people problem, call 701-203-3337 and leave a message with the deets. We really can’t wait to hear from you!
Get In Touch
Have an idea for a future episode/guest, have feedback or a question, or just want to chat? Email us at [email protected]
Subscribe + Review
Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Growing Small Towns Show! If the information in our conversations and interviews has helped you in your small town, head out to Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify, subscribe to the show, and leave us an honest review. Your reviews and feedback will not only help us continue to deliver relevant, helpful content, but it will also help us reach even more small-town trailblazers just like you!