When small colleges close, their hometowns feel the pain
The financial problems — and wholesale shutdowns — affecting an escalating number of colleges and universities touch not only students, faculty and staff but also local economies, often in rural places where they are among the most important employers and…
Watch 5:44
How these photographers used a camera to tell stories of rural America
Photographers Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss traveled and worked abroad for years before meeting in the late 1960s. As a couple, they decided to shift their professional focus to the U.S., and specifically to the rural south. Their imagery documents…
Watch 11:08
Sens. Heitkamp and McCaskill on Democratic mistakes and a ‘culture of failure’
Although this year’s midterms sent several new women to Congress, two prominent female senators--Heidi Heitkamp and Claire McCaskill--are preparing to leave Washington after losing bruising reelection battles. Judy Woodruff sits down with both to discuss voters who feel forgotten, the…
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This festival aims to bridge the urban-rural political divide ‘in a time of rot’
A food and arts festival in central Wisconsin has grand ambitions. “Fermentation Fest” celebrates art, farming and all things fermented. But in addition to serving up sauerkraut and kombucha, festival organizers from The Wormfarm Institute also hope it provides…
After Congress failed to pass a farm bill ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, a Department of Agriculture program that helps veterans transition into farming faces an uncertain future. For soldiers returning from war, farming can offer a new occupation,…
For decades, students and faculty from Auburn University's Rural Studio have been working, studying and living in Hale County, Alabama, and using architecture to serve the greater good. There, more than two dozen different homes that cost only $20,000 have…
What kind of future should a struggling rural town choose? In the town of Green River, population 950, a nonprofit called Epicenter aims to use art and architecture to bring new energy, life and economic development. Jeffrey Brown reports.
Distance and technology hinder the college aspirations of a surprising number of rural Americans.
President Donald Trump is hailing the Republican tax overhaul law during a pitch to rural America at a meeting of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
