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”Life Became Very Blurry” is a podcast sharing the voices of Vermonters as they recall the experience of COVID-19. It is based on a three year project collecting oral histories and other records of the pandemic, and released in March 2025 for the fifth anniversary of the first lockdown. This podcast feed is home to a series of audio productions from the Vermont Historical Society, which believes that understanding the past changes lives and builds better communities. Our purpose is to engage Vermonters and Vermonters-at-Heart with outstanding collections, state-wide outreach, and dynamic programming.
Episodes

42 minutes ago
Life Became Very Blurry: Teaser
42 minutes ago
42 minutes ago
”Life Became Very Blurry” is a podcast sharing the voices of Vermonters as they recall the experience of COVID-19. It is based on a three year project collecting oral histories and other records of the pandemic, and released in March 2025 for the fifth anniversary of the first lockdown.
Funding for the COVID-19 collecting project was provided by the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
The Life Became Very Blurry Podcast is produced by Amanda Gustin of the Vermont Historical Society and Mary Wesley, Andy Kolovos and Will Hamilton of Vermont Folklife. Oliver Purdue mixed this episode.
Our theme music is the track “Never Mind The Forecast” from Jericho based artist “Expected Guest.” Find more from Expected Guest on Bandcamp.com

Tuesday Jan 05, 2021
Episode 51: Railroads
Tuesday Jan 05, 2021
Tuesday Jan 05, 2021
For more background on this episode, please visit: https://vermonthistory.org/railroads-1989

Thursday Dec 31, 2020
Episode 50: School Consolidation
Thursday Dec 31, 2020
Thursday Dec 31, 2020
For more background on this episode, please visit: https://vermonthistory.org/school-consolidation-farewell-to-the-one-room-schoolhouse-1986

Tuesday Dec 29, 2020
Episode 49: The First Vermonters, the Abenaki
Tuesday Dec 29, 2020
Tuesday Dec 29, 2020
For more background on this episode, please visit: https://vermonthistory.org/first-vermonters-the-abenakis-1976

Thursday Dec 24, 2020
Episode 48: Act 250
Thursday Dec 24, 2020
Thursday Dec 24, 2020
For more background on this episode, please visit: https://vermonthistory.org/act-250-1970

Tuesday Dec 22, 2020
Episode 47: Back to the Land: Communes in Vermont
Tuesday Dec 22, 2020
Tuesday Dec 22, 2020
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Vermont acquired a reputation for being a haven for hippies and a hotbed of counter-cultural communal living. There was some truth to that. But the communes and alternative life-styles of that generation had a deeper history than most outsiders—and most of the commune residents themselves—knew. And, like their predecessors in the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, the often colorful, sometimes controversial, and much-discussed communal experiments of the late twentieth century ended up having a profound impact on the next generation of Vermonters.
For more background on this episode, please visit: https://vermonthistory.org/back-to-the-land-communes-in-vt-1968

Thursday Dec 17, 2020
Episode 46: The VT/NY Youth Project
Thursday Dec 17, 2020
Thursday Dec 17, 2020
For more background on this episode, please visit: https://vermonthistory.org/vt-ny-youth-project-1968

Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
Episode 45: The Aiken Formula
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
For more background on this episode, please visit: https://vermonthistory.org/aiken-formula-myth-and-reality-1966

Thursday Dec 10, 2020
Episode 44: Dowsing in Danville
Thursday Dec 10, 2020
Thursday Dec 10, 2020
For more background on this episode, please visit: https://vermonthistory.org/dowsing-in-danville-1961

Wednesday Dec 09, 2020
Episode 43: Democrats Rising
Wednesday Dec 09, 2020
Wednesday Dec 09, 2020
For more background on this episode, please visit: https://vermonthistory.org/democrats-rising-1958