Beth Poague's life changed when she and her then-husband Jim learned that their youngest son Finn had a rare genetic disorder. Their pace of living shifted, they sought community with other families going through the same thing, and as Finn got older, Beth channeled her energy into advocating for changes to Beacon's schools on her son's behalf.

First at JV Forrestal and later at Rombout Middle School, Beth pushed for — and got — more integrated classrooms and school activities that allowed kids with disabilities to learn alongside typical kids. She believes the work she and other parents did improved outcomes not only for their special needs kids but also for the "normal" kids.

"All of us get accommodated all the time, right?" she says in our interview. "I am wearing eyeglasses right now. That's an accommodation for my disability of my sight. But eyeglasses are seen as something normal, so we don't ever think of it as an accommodation. But accommodations for disability are all over the place. Every single one of us needs help. This idea that we're supposed to muscle through everything and pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and be independent and not need anything from anybody is harming all of us."

Also in this episode, Beth talks about the Wheel of Consent, a system for identifying and communicating needs for the purpose of clear communication, healthy boundaries and personal empowerment. Beth teaches classes and facilitates workshops about the Wheel of Consent. More on her website at BethPoague.com.

Repost: Some listeners experienced a truncated version of this interview, so we are deleting and reposting. -ZR

The tables have turned! After six years and more than 133 interviews, Beaconites creator and host Zach Rodgers (i.e. me) moves into the guest's chair for a discussion of his life and the evolution of this community project. A few listeners have asked for this episode over the years, and Beacon AV Lab's own Jonny Taylor — my creative and production partner during the full run of this project — was kind enough to be my interlocutor.

We talk about my upbringing in Northern Michigan, journey to Beacon, the origin of Beaconites, favorite episodes and the future direction of this project.

Julie Winterbottom has written a wide range of books aimed at children, including books on farts, pranks and horror — all designed for maximum humor, spine chills and fun. Her most recent work is a little different: "Magic in a Drop of Water" tells the story of ecologist Ruth Patrick, who did pioneering research connecting biodiversity to river pollution and helped to write the 1972 clean water act. It's a beautiful book in terms of both the story it tells and the gorgeous illustrations of marsh snails, hugsuckers and, above all, diatoms, the family of phytoplankton that appear in all bodies of water and that were the focus of Patrick's work.

In addition to book projects, Julie also plays cajun accordion and volunteers with multiple local causes, including Beacon Prison Rides and Beacon Climate Action Now. At 68, she offers a wonderful example of someone in endless pursuit of ways to create, connect with others, and give back to this community and those in need.

Mike Diago loves eating, and writing about, food, but his interest is only partly about the cuisine itself. In articles for Eater, Saveur, Chronogram, The Bittman Project and other publications, Mike has created a niche covering the critical role food and eateries play in stabilizing communities. He has written about the surprising Dominican expat tradition of holding spaghetti feasts on the beach; about a BBQ restaurant in the Bronx that has operated continuously since 1954; about a burger place in Jersey City that has anchored its community and overcome sharp racial divides.

This food-focused journalism is a side hustle, basically. In his day job, Mike is a social worker for the Peekskill school district, and over time he has successfully blended his interest in cooking with his outreach to teens. In our interview, he describes how he has invited students - many of them disengaged young men - to prepare meals together. In the process, many have found friendship and discovered that they actually do love to learn in a group setting.

Also in this interview: Eating in Beacon, Mike's backyard cookouts, growing up with a globetrotting father and more.

Heather Christian is a singer, playwright, composer and recent winner of a MacArthur "genius grant."

Her compositions use spiritual music forms to explore themes as varied as ghosts, grief, the Odyssey and the Big Bang. She describes them as " choral-based complex music theater works." They are often presented in the round, in part to obliterate the hierarchy between audience and performers.

"I'm interested in existence. I'm interested in unanswerable questions," she says in our interview. "Our lives have become so much about the in and out business of our civilization. The email, the phone alerts, the economy. When you zoom way way out, all of those things seem so arbitrary and small. I wanted [to] imagine what it would be like if we had the time, space and bandwidth to ask the big questions - like why and how we are here."

Heather's two best known works are Animal Wisdom, which was staged in 2017, and Oratorio for Living things, which has been staged three times, including a string of extremely sold-out performances in 2022.

Originally from Natchez, Mississippi, Heather has lived in Beacon for 13 years, largely under the radar.

"I've tried to keep a separation of church and state. Beacon is church," she says. "Beacon reminded me a lot of my hometown. There's something about river people. There's a reverence to the landscape you're inhabiting. We use it, it grounds us."

As the only candidate running for city council representing Ward 4, Carolyn Glauda is pretty much a shoe-in for the seat, but she still wants to earn your vote. In this interview, she shares her vision for a safer, more affordable and more sustainable Beacon.

Carolyn has been a member of the traffic safety committee since 2020, an experience that got her hooked on civic engagement. In this interview, she shares her point of view on Beacon's affordability crisis, sustainability initiatives, transit and other topics. She also indulges her interviewer in a detour on the failures of Democrats nationally and what, if anything, we can learn from our current debacle.

In her day job, Carolyn works for the Southeastern New York Library Resource Council, managing the Digital Navigators of the Hudson Valley. This is a program that provides community members with tech support in a world where digital access and fluency is increasingly a prerequisite for participation in society.

In this back-to-school episode, we hear from two longtime teachers in the public schools. High school history teacher Christina Dahl and JV Forrestal kindergarden teacher Lesli Tomkins talk about changes for the 2025-26 school year, the largest of which is a new "bell-to-bell" ban on cell phones at Rombout Middle School and Beacon High School. This is a huge experiment that's playing out across New York State, and Christina offers an early take on how it's going.

We also review some important curriculum changes that are picking up steam this year. A big one for elementary students is the addition of "science of reading" teaching requirements. In the high school, New York State is sunsetting the Regents Exams and shifting to a "portrait of a graduate" framework which emphasizes critical thinking, creativity and global citizenship.

In addition to their teaching roles, Christina and Lesli also lead the Beacon Teachers Association - the union representing educators in the district. We spend some time talking about the role of the union and what kind of support teachers need - namely, wages commensurate with cost of living.

Thanks so much to Christina and Lesli for taking the time out to chat during these hectic first weeks of school, to superintendant Matt Landahl for the introduction, and to school board VP Meredith Heuer for guidance on questions.

Our new interview with Margot Kingon, an artist and the founder of Second Wave Supplies, has a wonderful sweep to it.

As an artist and creative instigator, much of Margot's work could be labeled "art as social practice." Her many projects have included a long-running pop-up dance party (Dance/Play), a year-long series of Covid-era family portraits, and most recently, an art supply thrift store in Beacon.

When she takes something new on, Margot typically isn't only out to express herself creatively but also to invite others to engage and build something together.

All of this is fairly new. Margot grew up in Manhattan's Upper West Side during a period of high crime. (She was mugged multiple times). She took a million art classes as a kid but strayed from making art as she grew up. She only returned to it in force after working for decades in work she didn't love, as a lighting technician. The initial spark that renewed her creative life came when she became a mother, as she and her husband (musician Josh Stark) made a pact to do the work they wanted their child to know them for. But even after making that commitment, she grappled for nearly two decades with work/life balance, her responsibilities to her ailing mother, and how to live.

That all sounds rather serious but Margot recounts her stumbles and epiphanies with a lot of humor and insight. And of course she talks at length about Second Wave Supplies' mission to provide affordable access to art materials to folks in Beacon while keeping them out of the landfill.

Photo by Michael Isabell