Every episode starts with a real question in a real place: Why did your water bill go up in Freeport, Illinois? Why did rent spike in Phoenix? Why did groceries get more expensive in Maine? Host Patrick Fore traces how decisions made in boardrooms, legislatures, and foreign capitals quietly land in American zip codes—showing how policy becomes higher bills, broken streets, longer commutes, and fewer options. This isn’t punditry. It isn’t partisan. And it isn’t abstract. Episodes are short, f ...
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Zip Code Stories Podcasts
"Voices from my Bunker 2020" is a series of interviews with all ages of people of what 2020 has been like for them. This is a rebranded podcast that used to be named, "PODSNACKS/Art of the Diet" but the first six months of 2020 has shifted my preoccupations from five years of weight maintenance to minute by minute sanity maintenance. Attention must be paid to the issues before me. I'm 75, live in Massachusetts, and my doorbell hasn't rung in 3 months and probably won't until there's a vaccin ...
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Sunshine & Stories is a Colorado State Library (CSL) podcast dedicated to all things public and school libraries. Our podcast aims to offer fresh insights, as well as spark creative and practical ideas for diverse public & school library settings. Whether you’re a veteran in the library world, a newbie looking for a little professional support, or someone who's considering shaking things up in your library (a little or a lot), we hope this podcast will be a valuable resource for you. During ...
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Every day, headlines slide across your phone. Oil prices. Trade deals. Interest rates. Infrastructure bills. Most of the time, they feel abstract. Far away. Like something happening to someone else. Until your water bill goes up. Your rent spikes. Your street stays broken for three more years. ZIP: Where Policy Lands is a short-form podcast that co…
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How Oil Prices Ended Up Raising Your Water Bill (Freeport, IL)
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In September 2025, water and sewer rates went up in Freeport, Illinois. Five percent for water. Ten percent for sewer. Nothing about the water changed. Nothing about the pipes got better. People just started paying more. This episode traces how that happened. Starting with a city council vote in a town of 25,000 people, we follow the chain backward…
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Ep. 208 I'm on the Library's Board, Now What!?
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! Sunshine and Stories Episode 208: I'm on the Library's Board, Now What!? Episode Summary: Polly Gallagher sits down with trustees Scarlett Ponton, President of Nederland Community Library Board & recipient of the 2025 CAL Outstanding Library …
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Ep. 207 Library Joy at the Colorado Talking Book Library
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Ep. 206 Unearthing CSLP Summer Program Resources
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Ep. 205 Compassionate Makerspace Projects
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Ep. 204 “Health access should never depend on your Zip Code.”: Telehealth and Rural Communities
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Ep. 203 Trends in Colorado Public and School Libraries
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Ep. 202 Creating Autism-Friendly Libraries Through Sensory Audits
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! Sunshine and Stories Episode 201: CSL Kits: A Librarian's Library Episode Summary: Kate Compton learns all about Colorado State Library book club and circulating program kits from Mike Peever the CSL Kits Program Coordinator. Hear all about ho…
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! If you give us a listen, please let us know what you think by completing a short feedback survey for this episode. Your feedback helps us grow and provides us with important reporting data for our funder. CSL projects like this one are funded …
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Ep. 114 Today's Teen Volunteer, Tomorrow's Future Librarian
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! If you give us a listen, please let us know what you think by completing a short feedback survey for this episode. Your feedback helps us grow and provides us with important reporting data for our funder. This project is made possible in part …
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! If you give us a listen, please let us know what you think by completing a short feedback survey for this episode. Your feedback helps us grow and provides us with important reporting data for our funder. This project is made possible in part …
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! If you give us a listen, please let us know what you think by completing a short feedback survey for this episode. Your feedback helps us grow and provides us with important reporting data for our funder. This project is made possible in part …
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! If you give us a listen, please let us know what you think by completing a short feedback survey for this episode. Your feedback helps us grow and provides us with important reporting data for our funder. This project is made possible in part …
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Ep. 109 Artful Play for Itty Bitties & Kids
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Ep. 108 Performers, Experts, & Marketing, Oh My!
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Ep. 107 The Nuts & Bolts of CSLP and CSL Summer Resources
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Ep. 106 Hispanohablante Communities & Your Library
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! Sunshine and Stories Episode 105: To Prize or Not to Prize Episode Summary: This week Kate & Kate talk summer library program tracking strategies, as well as the pros and cons of offering different types of incentives during the summer. They a…
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! Sunshine and Stories Episode 104: Perfect Summer Partners Episode Summary: Special guest, Suzi Tonini, Colorado’s School Library Leadership Consultant, joins Kate Compton to chat about the school library landscape in our state and how public l…
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! Sunshine and Stories Episode 103: The Art of Capturing Impact Episode Summary: What happens when one Kate asks another Kate what she thinks about how we capture the impact of what happens during our summer library programs? A whole lot of refl…
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! Sunshine and Stories Episode 102: The Why of Summer Episode Summary: Join Kate and Kate as they discuss why we might want to ask ourselves “Why do we do summer programming?” They also consider how reflecting deeply on our why as well as engagi…
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Ep. 101 Creative Takes on Coloring Our World
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You can now use the survey link below AND text us your feedback via Buzzsprout with this link right here!! Sunshine & Stories Episode 101: Creative Takes on Coloring Our World Episode Summary: The Colorado State Library's Youth and Family Services Team, Kate Brunner and Kate Compton, explore all the different ways they can think of to interpret the…
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Meet JoAnn from near St. Paul Minnesota. She and her own immediate family and her siblings have been caregiving for their 100+-year-old Mom through the last seven months of COVID restrictions and challenges, including her Mom being diagnosed with COVID and later recovering. I titled this episode "The Wrap-Around Family" because they seem to be able…
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Voices from My Bunker 2020: Slippery Slope of Weight Management
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Bill Murray says acting suits him he said because he only has to be good at it for 90 seconds at a time. I am also very good at weight management 90 seconds at a time in 2020. But, unfortunately, that time span suits Hollywood and not weight issues. My successful weight loss plan in 2009 was built on flat land and my ability to maintain the weight …
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Meet Jay: At first, no. Now? I think of it as a natural calamity..
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In the beginning, Jay thought it was just a flu and that the news might be exaggerating it. He thought It would pass in a short period of time. Now, he thinks it is a natural calamity no one has ever experienced in their life.By Pat Coakley
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Last Ferry and A Seat in the Reality Ballpark
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The last ferry has left the island and I'm sitting by myself in The Reality Ballpark. What the hell? How did this happen: risk management is now a buffet of choices that do not manage risk but invite it in? Estrangement from the government I am used to in the last three years, but not estrangement from family and friends. Is this the new normal? ww…
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My interview with Joan, a 74-year-old widow in Rochester, NY who, unlike myself, is not a sloth or someone who enjoys sitting for hours at a time reading, clicking, snoozing and I feel 100% sure never uses her bed as her living room, dining room, and office. But, she got through quarantine in her own determined way and taught me a few things. One o…
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Meet Steph. She was born and lived in US until a year and half ago but now lives in Stellenbosch, South Africa with her husband and five kids while he completes his graduate studies at the University there. She describes what "quarantine" has meant and if you think the US rules were strict, listen to Steph. I spent most of the time listening and go…
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Meet Alice. A First Grade Teacher During COVID19
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Meet Alice. A First Grade Teacher in a Catholic School in Washington, DC during COVID19. After listening, you may agree that Teachers, Students and Parents are some unsung heroes of this pandemic. www.patcoakley..comBy Pat Coakley
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Meet Carol. She's 70+, lives alone, and has been seriously ill and undergoing a succession of chemo treatments for three years. In addition, she had to go into lockdown in March, 2020, due to COVID19 and living in Massachusetts. She told her Doctor one thing: Keep me alive until Trump loses the election. www.patcoakley.com…
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Meet Babz. 27 year old Occupational Therapist who moved to Boston, Mass in February 2020 just as pandemic effects were beginning to challenge the city and the entire state. Meet Babz. Needed to. Meant to. This is how she answered my question about any conflict about being a health care worker in the middle of a pandemic in Boston, Massachusetts. Af…
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Voices from My Bunker: Meet Melissa from Iowa
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'Voices From My Bunker 2020" in Massachusetts. (Formerly known as Podsnacks/Art of the Diet). Guests ring my virtual doorbell and I invite them in for a chat. At play in dangerous times in 2020, we tell our stories. We laugh. Eye roll. Cry. Sigh. We go on. Today, meet Melissa.By Pat Coakley
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Podsnacks/Art of the Diet is evolving and being renamed "Voices from My Bunker". This episode explains why and invites you to continue listening as well as be a participant. The art logo came from a family arty day years ago. Handprints dipped in paint and each left their individual mark on the canvas. At play in dangerous times in 2020, folks tell…
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By Pat Coakley
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Do Not Click on Brownie Bowl Recipe. Click.
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Pandemic Diets require Click Supervision.By Pat Coakley
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Is Truth on Your Grocery List or Sweatpants? PODSNACKS/Art of the Diet
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What is on my grocery list every week in a pandemic? Truth. Food is the only thing I have control over these days and it is oddly comforting. I dress for the Apocalypse when going to the grocery store and ask myself what do I need not what do I want. My goal for this period of time: to want what I need and to tell my food truth to myself every week…
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Prepper Advice for Dieters as Apocolypse Approaches.
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There are folks preparing for the Apocalypse and they have acronyms like GOOD=Get Out Of Dodge. I have an acronym for any dieters in the prepper population: SHWAA= So Here We Are Again & YSHTWYC: YOU STILL HAVE TO WATCH YOUR CARBS.By Pat Coakley
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By Pat Coakley
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What's Next on The Fun Agenda? 2020 begins with a cartoon question that I saw recently on an artist's Instagram account. His name was "clownchic". His character answered it by simply stating "Abstinence". I laughed out loud as this character looked like he had abused every illegal substance available. After the holidays, don't we all feel this way?…
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By Pat Coakley
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Secret to Weight Control: Hide the Marshmallows.
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By Pat Coakley
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Art of the Diet is a Skillful Plan- PODSNACKS Art of the Diet 170
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By Pat Coakley
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By Pat Coakley
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RESIST Carbs and Hate. PODSNACKS ART OF THE DIET EP.168
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RESIST (Carbs and Hate) is the word of my day and the weeks to come of weight management. Sometimes, you don't understand why the old habits don't seem to work but passivity is not the conclusion. Resisting passivity is the only next step. That's where I'm at in weight maintenance and the state of my country. Resist CARBS and HATE.…
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WithKindnessBeginAgain.PODSNACKS/ArtoftheDiet 167
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There was a time when reading or listening to someone suggesting that I treat myself with a bit more kindness would have been met with severe eye rolling. By "there was a time", I mean as recently as last month and I'm 74. But, today's episode highlights what has turned my deep eyerolls into acceptance and more importantly, even doing it. Breathe i…
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Your Car Knows How Much You Weigh_PODSNACKS/ArtoftheDiet 166
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Episode 166: Your Car Knows How Much You Weigh. A spokesman for the Auto Association let that cat out the bag. I thought it should have led the news cycle. And, a connection with meditation practice and weight management that does not involve 10-15 minutes of meditation with a body scan. Just thinking about being kind to yourself today. Just think …
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