I grew up in rural Colorado (town of 400, K-12 school had less than 200 kids) and ended up in NYC, now living in a town of 1000 in upstate NY. Living in Tivoli NY, with NYC 2hrs away is exactly the blend I yearned for… This show hit a lot of marks for me. As an professional aesthete I had to go, but longed for small town living as I aged. A country mouse needing to be a city mouse, and now a blended mouse.

Shes discussing the value of small-town living. Some parents worry the schools aren't good, and she says, "And a GOOD quote unquote school is no guarantee of ANYthing." So stupid I laughed and laughed. Im a high school teacher. At a good school. Yep, usually people in small towns say a good school is overrated. They think education is overrated. Education is not valued in small towns because the status quo is always the goal, as we see w this podcast host. If you have students in a bad school, they are starting 10 steps behind the kids from good schools. Small towns famously have terrible schools. I remember a quote from a parent about a religious charter school: Yeah, that school can teach their students evolution isnt real, so my kids will never be hiring those kids." This podcast has someone trying to push small towns so hard they say absurd things,There are probably many legitimate things to recommend small towns, but I don't think you'll be hearing them on this podcast.

Super woke brought up race / gender theory several times in the first episode

My husband and I made the move from living in a major urban city to a mountain ranch in a different state. We did it in our 50s after we became empty nesters. It took many years to realize our dream and now we are loving our new life! It has been challenging to learn how to fit in to a small community and live the ranch life, but we wouldn’t change a thing! Realizing our dream feels amazing. I’m so glad this podcast exists to explore the possibilities for people who want to do this. It’s definitely possible!!!

The host has an end of sentence vocal fry on a good portion of her speaking. I know that folks that do this are unaware but it’s highly grading and professionals are trained not to speak this way. Anyway, It’s a great podcast. Lots of fun analysis of small town v city which a really relevant topic for our time.

I’m enjoying listening to this so much. Spending time in small towns as a child in the summer, growing up in suburbs and during college living in cities, I have a dream of living in a small town, but in actuality - I do. Park City, UT is my small town and I love that I can bike anywhere and walk to many places. I’m loving listening and thinking about these ideas in respect to where I live. Great podcast

I recently moved from a large city in the Southwest to a small city in the Midwest because of my husband's job. I was not too happy about it and I immediately struggled to find "vital" services (including stylish haircuts and massages) and food items to make my beloved recipes. This podcast has given me perspective and helped me appreciate that my new city is offering me things that my former city never could.

I’m a gay man living in Seattle with my husband and we have considered moving to a smaller town such as Port Angeles or Ellensburg. I was very excited to stumble upon this podcast, as it seemed so relevant to my current circumstances. While I find it enjoyable, I feel that it lacks substance and any real advice. I was particularly excited to hear the conversation with the queer couple, but when I realized that they were social media celebrities, I struggled to connect or parse out any information that seemed relevant. Regardless of geography, I don’t have much in common with a social media star. I know there are queer people in small towns and rural areas that are living normal, small town lives and it’s a real shame that the crew didn’t try to dig deeper in their search for subjects, because I’m confident that there are more interesting rural queer stories to be found.

I listened to this podcast when it was first released, which happened to coincide with the beginning of my thinking of moving to a small town. It was incredibly helpful then and I have come back to several episodes multiple times as I continue to think through this really big decision in my life! I haven’t made the leap yet, but I’m closer. And this show gives me comfort that I’ll at least have an interesting small town adventure, even if I choose to move back to the big city after a few years.

My family recently moved to a small town and while we were considered in our decision and carefully researched everything it’s still different when you have actually moved from a city. This is a great look at what it’s like and the aspects you need to look into when making the move. Hopefully there are more episodes soon.

Great insight into small town living. Covers all aspects of it. Anne Helen is a great host. I really enjoy listening to the podcast. Hope there will be more episodes.

This podcast to me doesn’t truly describe small town living. As someone who’s grown up in a small town of about 1,000 people - I’ve found this podcast hard to relate to because these guys grew up in a college town with wineries and fancy restaurants. I can’t say that we have much of any of that here. It’s much different than what this podcast portrays. We’re lucky that we have any access to food at all in town. Most have to travel to a neighboring town to buy goods or see entertainment. The attitude on this podcast can come off as entitled if you’ve grown up in a place smaller than Walla Walla, WA as the host has. It’s not an accurate representation of towns of smaller sizes. As someone who’s living or grew up in a larger city (also describes me), you may get some value out of listening since it is talking about a smaller living space than cities. It fails to represent smaller towns than college towns.

I enjoy this show. However, it’s always glaringly obvious (to me) when the residents start telling the history of their town that we are missing the indigenous history of that land. At this point in time isn’t it obvious that the land didn’t pop out of nowhere in 1800…? It seems that a lot of these people think it did. Confused why AHP didn’t inquire about indigenous history on air and include it in the show. It’s a shameful exclusion. Do better.

As someone living in a big city, I’ve been curious about smaller towns ever since the pandemic and I love how this podcast explores the options and questions of small town living. Great insights and interacting characters and I appreciate that the hosts gets a diverse range of people to interview.

I wish this Podcast had been available a few years ago, when I made my decision to move to a small town from a large city! It is a huge decision, and Anne covers many important considerations with her guests each week. The conversations are fun and informative. As someone who took the leap and is thriving, I enjoy hearing about other people’s experiences. Recommend.

Small towns aren't for everyone, but this podcast is. Regular ordinary and extraordinary folks grew up in, flea from and retreat to small towns. Hear all about it.

This podcast is so soothing. I love the hosts voice and the music, it’s all so gentle and relaxing.

Anne Helen Peterson is such a great interviewer! Really enjoying this podcast and the fun characters they’ve found to talk to. Particularly loved the ‘Manifesting Abundance’ and ‘Keeping the Music in Muscle Shoals’ episodes.

Anne Helen Peterson is so smart and funny and welcoming to the guests. This show is a delight!