Meet the Path Finders

Thought-provoking conversations with interesting people blazing trails across rural America. Delivered to your inbox every Monday.

This is Path Finders.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Path Finders is a weekly email newsletter featuring Q&A interviews with rural thinkers, creators, and doers. In each edition, you’ll hear from people doing creative work in rural settings or shedding light on some problem in rural life and suggesting solutions.

Poverty

Q&A: How Studying Place Can Provide Insight on American Poverty

A new book reveals what can be learned from studying the most impoverished places in the U.S., which tend to be rural.

Keep reading

Housing

Q&A: Understanding the Difference Between Rural and Urban Homelessness, With Elizabeth Carpenter-Song

Homelessness in small towns can be less visible than in cities, but just as big an issue. Anthropologist Elizabeth Carpenter-Song’s new book tells the complicated reality of homelessness in rural New England.

Keep reading

Environment

Q&A: Native-Led Rural Organizing, With Krystal Two Bulls

Krystal Two Bulls is the new executive director of Honor the Earth, a national organization fighting for climate justice.

Keep reading

Food

Q&A: A New Book Tells the Story of Food, From the Civil Rights Movement to Now

“Food Power Politics” shows how food was used both as a weapon against and a shield for Mississippi’s Black communities during the 1960s, and how these forces are still at work today.

Keep reading

Arts and Culture

Q&A: Using Fiction to Unpack Rural Masculinity, with Author Robert Maynor

Maynor’s new book, “The Big Game is Every Night,” depicts the devolution of a teenage boy from rural South Carolina whose life spirals out of control when his burgeoning football career is cut short.

Keep reading

Arts and Culture

Q&A: A New Documentary Charts the Changing Identity of Portsmouth, Ohio

Portsmouth has been known nationally as the epicenter of rural America’s opioid crisis. But a new documentary casts a different light on the small town.

Keep reading

Energy

Q&A: Investing in Appalachia Requires Systemwide Leadership from the Local to Federal Level

Seth Long has spent more than two decades building healthier communities in East Kentucky through his nonprofit housing organization. But long-lasting change, he argues, will require strong leadership both within small communities and at the federal level.

Keep reading

Arts and Culture

Q&A: Exploring the North-South Rural Divide in Sara Johnson Allen’s New Book, “Down Here We Come Up”

Allen’s book digs into the “cultural camouflage” rural people must don to get by in America.

Keep reading

Arts and Culture

Q&A: This Small-Town Fairytale Movie Centers Rural Queer Voices

“The Butterfly Queen,” produced by filmmaker Liam O’Connor-Genereaux, is a coming-of-age fairytale story that centers queer characters not for the sake of token representation, but because LGBTQ+ voices can and should exist without question in rural stories.

Keep reading

Loading…

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Meet the Team

Olivia Weeks is the chief creative force behind the Path Finders newsletter. Her insightful interviews are where it all began. She grew up in West Frankfort, Illinois and first came to the Daily Yonder as a Rural Reporting Fellow.

Olivia previously worked as a news intern at the Provincetown Independent in Provincetown, Massachusetts and is currently a student at Harvard University.

Get More from Olivia

Caroline Carlson is the producer of Path Finders. She is the Daily Yonder’s digital editor and hails from Viroqua, Wisconsin.

Caroline manages the Daily Yonder’s full portfolio of email newsletters, plus the visual bounty of our Instagram channel. She’s previously written for The Heavy Table, The Growler Magazine, Organic Valley, and more.

Get More from Caroline

Want More Path Finders?

Subscribe today to get Path Finders directly in your inbox.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Tips for the Trail?

Know someone who should be featured in a future edition of Path Finders? Have feedback for us? Contact our team today.