In this conversation with Laura Hamilton, we learn what it was like growing up as a city manager's kid, how she got from Nebraska to Virginia, her public policy work in the Clinton administration right out of college, her work as executive director of Lynchburg Beacon Of Hope, the backstory on their HopeX storytelling event, and a deep dive into Beacon's history and their ambitious mission to provide support, opportunity, and hope to students of all ages in our community.

"Library history is community history." In this conversation with Deb Smith, we learn about her work as executive director of the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia, take a deep dive into the library's founding, early history, and the characters that shaped what it became, and explore the important discoveries still being made in the Jones archives to this day.

In this conversation with Beau Wright, we talk about his experience on Lynchburg City Council, how he thinks through the challenges facing Lynchburg, where he sees opportunities, why he is running again for an at-large seat, and reflections on his time in the White House.

In this episode, I sit down with Shelley Blades, the farm manager and executive director of Lynchburg Grows, to hear the story of their farm and the work that they do. Lynchburg Grows has taken an abandoned, seven-acre rose farm right in the middle of our city and transformed it into a thriving urban farm with a mission to provide access to fresh, local produce and purposeful jobs to individuals with disabilities. In our conversation, we talk about how Shelley ended up in farming and in Lynchburg, the people who have helped her along the way, her fondness for radishes, what she's noticed from tending the same soil for several seasons, and what she loves about the work.

"The best stories are the truth. The best stories are accounts of what really happened. There's no better setup or crescendo than what really happened." - Walter Virgil Jr. on the power of honesty and authenticity in storytelling. In this conversation with Walter Virgil Jr., we talk about his childhood growing up in New Jersey, how he made it to Lynchburg, Virginia, the work that he is doing in our community, how his story has shaped his outlook and his mission, and what he is seeing in our city that makes him hopeful.

In this episode, I sit down with former Lynchburg city manager Kim Payne to talk about his early childhood years growing up here, his life in local government, downtown revitalization, what makes a good city council member, and how things get done in our city.

Born in 1938, Aubrey "Chub" Barbour has lived in the Tinbridge Hill neighborhood his entire life. In this conversation, Mr. Barbour shares about the rich history of his neighborhood, what it was like to grow up on Polk Street, his early love of music, his 42 years as the supervisor of the Yoder Center, and his diligent work in the Tinbridge Hill community garden providing fresh produce to his neighbors.

In 1948, J.P. Vaughan and the rest of the Lynchburg Mighty Mites sandlot football team headed to Philadelphia to play in the Pop Warner National Championship. Some players remembered seeing a film crew at the game, but the footage was lost to history. For the next 70 years, their memories, a few black and white photographs, and some faded news clippings would be all they had to remember that time in their lives. But what if a tape of that game still existed? What if those boys, now in their eighties, somehow had the chance to watch themselves all these years later?

In this conversation, John Abell, Professor of Economics at Randolph College, teaches us about the history of redlining in Lynchburg. John also shares with us about his career in academia and how his Randolph students sparked his research on local food deserts.

In this conversation with Reid Wodicka, the Deputy City Manager for the City of Lynchburg, we discuss how a class at E.C. Glass High School sparked Reid's career in local government, what a typical day is like at City Hall, and how the City of Lynchburg is working to address affordable housing.