By Paul Carrier
When 72-year-old Vermont radio host Vern Barclay decides that out-of-state corporate interests and addled local politicians need to be reined in in his home state, he launches the “underground, underfoot and underpowered” Radio Free Vermont (actually, a podcast) to spread the word.
Soon enough, the wry, good-natured radical is urging Vermont to secede from the Union, and although he isn’t entirely serious, he and his accomplices quickly run afoul of Vermont’s Trumpian governor and somewhat crazed federal authorities.
The high jinks that ensue transform Bill McKibben’s Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance into a rollicking tale which, at just over 200 pages, makes for a quick (if didactic) read. McKibben, a leading climate activist and prominent environmental writer, finds a kindred spirit in Barclay, who laments Vermont’s largely snowless winters of late and urges his listeners to slow down, buy local (especially beer!), think small and “hunker down."
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