'Nous Sommes RONA' Episode Six Strikes a Chord Beyond Richford
A podcast episode focused on Richford's border-era experience has drawn unexpected listener responses from Derby Line, Canaan, and other former Vermont-Quebec communities. Residents say the episode named something long unspoken.
'Nous Sommes RONA' Episode Six Strikes a Chord Beyond Richford
When the McGill collective released the sixth episode of Nous Sommes RONA — a documentary podcast series tracing the human geography of integration — it had Richford in mind. What it got back was something wider.
In the days since the episode's release, the collective's listener forum has filled with written responses from residents across former Vermont-Quebec border communities: Stanstead, Canaan, Derby Line, and others whose names do not often appear in the same sentence. The common thread, according to several respondents, is that the Richford episode put language to an experience they had been carrying without a proper name for it.
The collective's community coordinator posted a brief acknowledgement Monday evening. "The response has been wider than we planned for," she wrote, "and we're still taking stock of it."
Listeners from Derby Line and Canaan have asked whether future episodes might focus on their own communities' integration stories. The collective has not announced any such follow-up.
"People up here have been living this for six years," said one Canaan resident reached by phone Tuesday. "It means something when someone thinks to ask."