March 17, 2022

Everywhere Radio: Teri Carter

Teri_Carter

Our guest Teri Carter writes about rural politics, and now she’s living them. Carter talks with Everywhere Radio about why she’s a progressive running as a Republican for magistrate in her Kentucky county, how she stays in relationship with neighbors, and how she became a political writer. 

Carter lives in Anderson County, Kentucky, where she writes about rural politics. You can find her work at the Lexington Herald-Leader, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Daily Yonder. She has a BA in English from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from San Jose State University. She teaches at The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, Kentucky, and is working on a book about stepfamilies.

Video interview

Episode Transcript

Teri Carter: 

Do you want to be a Democrat because you want to wave a flag or do you want to do what you need to do to try to get yourself in office and to elect other people into office whose values and policies you trust? 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

That’s Teri Carter, today’s guest on Everywhere Radio. Everywhere Radio is a production of The Rural Assembly and I’m your host, Whitney Kimball Coe. Each episode I spotlight the good, scrappy and joyful ways rural people and their allies are building a more inclusive nation. 

Teri Carter writes about rural life and politics for publications like The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Lexington Herald Leader, The Lily and our own media partner, The Daily Yonder. A recent piece in the Yonder was about a collaboration between Andrew Hager, who is a recovering addict and the police department in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky who came together to help folks who are struggling with addiction and place the focus on treatment first, instead of incarceration. 

Teri wrote about this program and it’s been a huge success. Teri lives in Anderson County, sometimes called a bedroom community for Lexington, Kentucky. It’s a county that voted 75% for Donald Trump in the last presidential election. And in many ways, Teri has been on the front lines of some of the most controversial issues in the country and in her small community, a county with a population of 23,000. 

She’s written about COVID-19, what’s taught in schools, the dangers of toxic masculinity and why pockets of kindness still matter. And now Teri, a progressive, is running in the Republican primary for county magistrate. There are four people in the race and she is the only woman. 

I’m a little obsessed with Teri because she doesn’t shy away from naming all the elephants in the room. And she’s engaging the questions that I’m carrying around in my own heart right now, like what is mine to do in this season of deep polarization? How do we hold on and hold our country together? How do we stay in relationship with our neighbors? 

So Teri, I’m really glad you’re here to talk about all those things with me on Everywhere Radio. Thanks for saying yes. 

Teri Carter: 

No, it’s so great to be with you, Whitney. Thanks for having me. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Well, I wanted to jump in with a really serious question right away. I follow you on Twitter and I know that you play Wordle. I love Wordle. 

Teri Carter: 

I love Wordle. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

We love the Wordle. I wanted to know if you have a word that you start off with every time? 

Teri Carter: 

Yes, ma’am. I start off with party every single- 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Party. 

Teri Carter: 

… day. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

That’s a great word. 

Teri Carter: 

Because [crosstalk 00:02:53] word, you only use one vowel but you use the Y and the R, which is often used. So it gets you off to a decent start. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Why are we so obsessed with this game? I mean, it’s become part of my morning routine. I’m brewing the coffee and I’m playing the Wordle at the same time. 

Teri Carter: 

It’s the first thing I do besides taking out four dogs, feeding four dogs, making sure everybody gets back in because it’s still dark, but I do the Wordle. There’s all the controversy about it being bought by The New York Times and all that, and is it going to be harder. 

But I love Wordle because it’s something I can do in about 10 minutes or less. I don’t have to think all that hard. I was a literature major. I have a master’s in English, so I’m word obsessed anyway. And it just is a simple way to start the day. It’s fun. And then you go on Twitter and you see what everybody else has done with the Wordle and how they did. I think it’s a happy way to start the day, not reading the news. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Mm-hmm (affirmative). I think that’s probably why I’m attracted to it too. And also it’s an early win in the day for you. It’s a victory, I feel like. Onto another serious question, something that is really fascinating to me about you in this moment is that you are running for county magistrate in Anderson County, Kentucky, is that right? 

Teri Carter: 

Right. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

And you’re running as a Republican, even though you are really … you have more progressive values. So, I mean, well, first I want to ask, could you tell those of us who need a refresher, what is magistrate? What is that role in a county? 

Teri Carter: 

So the magistrate sits on the fiscal court and the fiscal court judge is the highest elected official in the county and the fiscal court judge and the magistrates, there are six in my county, I’m in the sixth district and we really oversee the budget. So the Sheriff’s department reports to the fiscal court, the emergency services, building inspections, everything that needs money, needs money from the county magistrate or the county judge and the fiscal court. 

So you really oversee that. And then what you do in your district is my understanding is that if I have somebody in my district that needs a road fixed in front of their house, I go fight for that money to get that done and try to get it prioritized. That’s my current understanding. And I will say, I mean, I’ve been going to fiscal court meetings for about nine months now. I go to almost every meeting and I go to school board meetings too. 

I had not considered running for office, but after going to all the meetings and seeing what happens, it’s like that thing where something seems undoable or scary or outside your scope until you actually go and participate, and then you go, “Oh, that’s what this is about. These are just normal people like me. They’re no different, they’re no worse, they’re no better. They’re just normal people serving their community.” 

And on December 18th, I went to a town hall, a Republican town hall here in town. And I just listened to so much conspiracy theory nonsense that I literally left that meeting and I thought, “I don’t know what I’m running for, but I’m running for something because I’m mad.” And that’s really how it started. And I filed for magistrate on the last day that you could file. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

And you felt like you needed to file as a Republican in order to actually win. Is that the strategy? 

Teri Carter: 

Yeah. So there are people who have the criticisms of that and people who are all for it. And of course, and as you know, that’s with everything we do anymore. So you just have to follow your own spirit and your heart and pray about it and do what you want to do. 

But in my county, in particular, until about 10 years ago my county was heavily democratic in their voting. And a lot of the Republicans registered as Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary for the weaker candidate, which I thought was crazy the first time I heard it. Well, now I’ve lived here for seven years and I’ve seen, literally seen the tide turn the other direction. In our current election for 2022 we have three Democrats running and that’s it out of about 30 some people because Democrats know they can’t get elected here right now. 

So there are people like me who have decided to register as a Republican to either run for office or to really participate in the system. And there are current elected officials that were elected as Democrats that are still in office that have quietly changed their registration to Republican, as someone told me not that long ago because they saw how the wind was blowing. So the question becomes, do you want to be a Democrat because you want to wave a flag or do you want to do what you need to do to try to get yourself in office and to elect other people into office whose values and policies you trust? 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

And running as an independent is not a viable option. 

Teri Carter: 

Once it gets to the general election, people just pull the R. They pull the lever for the R and then they go home and that’s it. And if you’re a Democrat, you really don’t stand much of a chance. I mean, I hope that the three Democrats that are running do pretty well, but I also think it’s telling that in my race, you mentioned that I have, there are four people in my race. 

That’s the most people in any of the races this year and I’m the only woman but … And we’re all four registered Republicans, but two of us are really Democrats. And in fact, one of the guys was my magistrate when I first moved here and he was a Democrat, but he lost in the last election. So he’s re-registered as a Republican to try to win his seat back. So it’s complicated. It’s like moving pieces on a chess board and as crazy as it sounds and as some people don’t like it, I mean, I think it’s so much fun and I’m having … sometimes on Twitter in the morning, I just write, “I’m having so much fun right now,” because I’m having so much fun right now”. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Okay. Well, we’ll come back to the fun part about it in a second, but I’m trying to picture people pulling that lever for the Rs and you are bringing a different set of values perhaps than what they’re pulling that lever for. I mean, do you sense that, or do you feel like your community … you’re representing the values of your community whether you’re an R or a D on that ticket? 

Teri Carter: 

I think, well, one of the reasons I wanted to get into my race as magistrate is because they’re … with me, that makes four people and when you split the vote four ways, that can get very interesting. And so I feel like I have a chance. And I also believe that for as much as we talk about how the country and we have people moving to the really far right, which are the conspiracy theorists, COVID’s not real, it’s just the flu. CRTs being taught in schools, book banning, all that nonsense. 

I think those people have the biggest microphone, but I also think there’s way fewer of them than it seems like there is. They’re just shouting louder. And I believe that there are Republicans in my district, they might not say it out loud, but they will vote for me. And there are also Republicans in my district that are really Democrats like me registered as Republicans that will vote for me. So I think I have as good a chance as anyone else. And I’m going to give it a shot. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Mm-hmm (affirmative). You were talking earlier about visiting or attending all the school board meetings, the fiscal court meetings and sitting in the audience and realizing these are just normal people. I could do this too and do it well. I imagine there are others who feel the same way, but are still holding back or still afraid to make that run. I wonder, have you felt that kind of fear of feeling held back by worrying about speaking up in front of your neighbors or … the step to run, it’s a big one, especially in a small town where everybody knows you. Do you struggle with any fear around any of this? 

Teri Carter: 

I’m going to be 100% honest and tell you, I am Terified. [crosstalk 00:11:33] And I say that because even though I’ve been writing about local politics and national politics too, for a little over five years now. So I’ve gotten really comfortable in the pushback. So when I write something that people throw a fit about, I don’t step back. I step further into it. So I have that fear, but instead of backing off, I just move forward and stand in my space and say, “No, I’m going to claim this space. This will be over in about 24 hours. And then I’m going to continue on and do my work”. 

And I think part of the … obviously part of the reason for people doing the shouting is they want to shout the other side down and you just have to stand there and refuse to go away. And I will add to that that even though I write about all these things, I do not do public speaking. I do not go stand in front of my neighbors and have the room go quiet, and then you have to talk. I mean, my hands start shaking. I always type my notes in really giant 20 point type letters on the paper. 

It’s really scary and I have to breathe and I have to talk myself into going and I have to rehearse. I mean, even if I’m going to speak for two minutes, I have to rehearse 15 times right before I go in, because that’s the only way that I can be comfortable. I mean, there may be some people, and I know they’re out there that are very comfortable with that type of thing, but it’s one thing to get up … I speak in front of my church regularly. 

I get up and do an offertory and that’s fine because those people are on my side. They love me. They’re happy to see me. I’m delivering a happy message that people want to hear, but it’s a whole different thing to go into a room like the school board or the fiscal court. It’s a hard thing to go into the fiscal court with a bunch of guys who are there to argue for a second amendment sanctuary and stand up in front of those gun rights guys with them staring at you from behind and say, “I’m against this and this is why.” 

And the whole room goes quiet. And you know, that nobody’s really for you. That’s scary. But you know what? It passes and then you’ve done it. And then you go out there punching the air. You’re just so excited that you actually did it. You stood for what you believed in. And sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I remember leaving a meeting that I was really scared to go to one day and I literally walked outside, called my husband and said, “Well, I think I just lost, but I don’t care because I got to have my say.” 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

We’ll be right back after this from The Daily Yonder. 

Xandr Brown: 

Hi, I’m Xandr Brown with the Daily Yonder. Check out the Yonder Report, a new weekly podcast, rounding up the latest rural news produced by The Daily Yonder and Public News Service. You can listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

And now back to Everywhere Radio. 

 

So what is it that helps you decide what you want to write about? Are you interested in speaking to the moment or are you interested in more longer term conversation? 

Teri Carter: 

I am definitely a what kept you up last night writer. And when I teach, because I teach writing as well at the Carnegie Center in Lexington. And when I teach, I tell my students, “Write about what’s setting your hair on fire. Write about what’s keeping you awake at night because you will bring some fire to that that will …” The scariest thing is the blank page. 

So if that’s the scariest thing, if you are so het up about something that you can’t wait to write about it, then you will have something to say and then you’ll have the next thing and the next paragraph and the next paragraph. Then you can start thinking logically and you can be calm and you can rearrange the paragraphs and you can say, “Oh, I didn’t really want to say this, that was too crazy”. 

And then you mark it out and you start to develop what the story is. And so I’m definitely a hot moment writer. And if there’s something going on, like with book banning, I’m going to write about book banning. Right now, I’m running for magistrate as a progressive and I’m not being secretive about it. I just wrote a piece for the Lexington Herald Leader that’ll be in the paper, next weeks, on a Sunday about, “Hey, yes, I’m a progressive, but I’m running as a Republican, and here’s why.” 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

I feel like that advice you just gave about writing about what’s got your hair on fire, I must have pulled that out of the ether when I wrote my op-ed about the book ban that occurred in McMinn County, my own hometown. 

Teri Carter: 

Yeah. I’m going to tell you what I loved about that essay. Obviously, I love the subject, but when I read your essay, I could feel your passion for the subject. I didn’t feel like you were trying to craft something literary or something people wanted to hear. I felt like you were saying what you felt needed to be said. And I think that’s easiest when as a writer we are wound up about something that’s really sitting on our heart and we’re trying to get it off. 

We’re trying to lift that weight off and I’ve tried to write things when I don’t feel super excited about it. It’s why I don’t get real excited when somebody gives me a subject to write about, it’s like a homework and I dread it. And the reason I dread it is because I’m not interested in it right then. Like today, last night I went to the board of zoning adjustments. I mean, how exciting does that sound? 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

That sounds like a party. 

Teri Carter: 

But it was- 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

A party. 

Teri Carter: 

It was super interesting and I’m probably not going to write about it because nothing really happened, but I left that going, “Ooh, well that was an interesting tidbit.” So the part about civic engagement that I think is hard is people are exhausted. We’re exhausted with COVID, exhausted with having our kids at home, exhausted trying to stay healthy, exhausted with the political climate that’s gone on for the last several years. 

There’s so much exhaustion that there’s … it’s hard to find energy. And the way I have found energy is after I got my second COVID shot last year, I just jumped right back into the community. I’m masked almost all the time, but I go. And I don’t always want to go at six or seven o’clock at night. I’m in my comfortable clothes. I’ve had an early dinner, it’s dark. I just want to stay home, but I go get in my car and I go to town and I go sit there and I listen to hear what people have to say. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

And then you’re glad you went, right? There’s not a regret for stepping in, back in to participation. I’ve been experiencing something similar as we’ve been opening up, back up. And I walked into a room, a community room the other day with a lot of our community leaders and I felt so awkward. And I couldn’t even remember how to approach people and say hello, because it’s just been a while. 

Also, I’ve seen things that they’ve posted on social media in these last two years or I feel like I’ve gotten a deeper look at some of their values that I disagree with very deeply. And so I’m wondering, how do we not only come back and start participating again, but how do we also reconcile what we feel like we know about our neighbors right now and start to repair that trust, that lack of trust? 

Teri Carter: 

That is such a great question because I think so many people are dealing with that, whether they participate in civic life or not. I think just running into somebody in the grocery store and you just saw their Facebook post. So I think there’s probably not … I might go a day without talking to somebody that disagrees with me, but I rarely go two days. I mean, I am almost always in town at least saying hello to somebody that does not agree with me politically and whose Facebook page I would cringe at. 

Maybe they cringe at my Facebook page too. But I think it’s important that we still see each other as people. I’m a progressive, but I’m not banging on people’s doors asking them to have abortions. I’m not showing up at the door saying, “Hi, I’m here with a checklist, please give me all your guns.” And I think that’s what people have come to believe and they’ve settled into that. And I just refuse to let that exist. I go out and I’m like, “See, I’m a normal person. I bring food to my neighbors. I’m just like you.” 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Yeah. I’m bringing you a casserole, not a culture war- 

Teri Carter: 

Yeah. Exactly. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

… right now. Yeah. Well I think that is what I’m finding is that I don’t regret the effort I make to participate and actually even feel nourished by it after the fact. 

Teri Carter: 

Right. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

You talk a lot about your faith community and I’m interested in what role can faith communities be playing right now in this time of polarization, emerging from a pandemic, dealing with a lot of the politics of the moment and our estrangement from neighbors? Do you have any thoughts about that? 

Teri Carter: 

So here’s how I found my church. I had not been to church in 35 years. I grew up Catholic. I left the Catholic Church and never looked back and I never went to another church. And then a few years ago, my church, which was not my church at the time, First Christian in Lawrenceburg, they decided that they were going to do gay weddings. And they were the first church in town to stand and say, “You know what, we’re going to do this.” And when they voted to do it, they lost half their population and a lot of those people went to other churches. 

They’ve been heavily criticized for doing it, but you know what, they stood up and their mantra is, you don’t build a wall, you make a bigger table and everyone is invited to the table, literally everyone. So even me who is, I’m still a faith questioner, but I’m still welcome there. And I never miss, if I’m able. I mean, I’m going to be out of town this Sunday and I’m bummed that I’m going to miss church. 

So I’m not churchy. I’m not a Bible reader. I’m not any of those things, but I love that community. And I love the work that they do in our community with feeding kids who don’t have food to take home because there’s no food. So they provide what they call backpack buddies, where they send a bag of food home with kids at the end of the week. We have what we call the blessing box outside of church, which is a big, giant cabinet where we put food every morning and every evening and people can just stop by and take free food. 

So they just do so many things in the community with outreach. I’m way more interested in that than doctrine or anything of that nature. And the people that I see when I go there, I love to see them and all of them don’t agree with me politically. Obviously, some of them do, but we all see each other every Sunday. And I think that’s important too. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

So going back to your writings, you wrote a story recently for The Daily Yonder about Andrew Hager and about the police department. And I wondered if you could tell us how you came upon that story and a little bit more about Andrew? 

Teri Carter: 

Yeah. So there’s one, that’s also a, “Okay, well, I’ve been thinking about this. I think I want to write about it.” I have lunch with our local police department about once every six weeks or so. And this is just something we started, the chief suggested it about a year and a half ago, and then of course COVID happened, but then after COVID lifted, we started going. 

One of the things that happened early on is that so most of the police in the police, our police department, are conservatives. I am obviously not and it’s well known. But I, through my writing, I had made it well known also that I’m Terified of guns because of things that happened in my childhood and I write about guns. And so one day the chief stopped me in the county park. I was walking my dog and he pulled up and he said, “Hey, you want to go learn how to shoot some guns?” 

And I was like, “No, absolutely not.” And he’s like, “Look, come to the range with us. It’ll be safe. I’ll teach you myself.” And I went to the police department shooting range and I stood out there in front of all those guys. I have not held a gun, and even that was a BB gun, since I was 10 years old. And he had all of these weapons laid out on a table and he said, “I’m going to teach you about how these work and what we use and why and what bullets we use and what they’re all used for.” 

And I shot everything from an AR-15 down to the smallest little gun you would put in your purse for target practice. And I was Terified to go. Once I told him I would go, I thought of every reason in the world that I could call and cancel. I got to call and cancel and say, “I’m leaving town. I have to go see my family.” There’s an excuse. But then I just went and it was a great learning experience. And from that point on, I started seeing them regularly. 

The guys that were there were like, “Oh, she’s willing to come out and be in our space.” So we started then getting together for lunch, which leads me to Andrew Hager because one day the chief just in passing said, “Oh, that Andrew Hager, he just did X, Y, Z. He’s so great. I love that guy.” And I just kept thinking about that. And later, a couple days later, I texted the chief and I said, “Hey, about that Andrew Hager, do you think he’d do an interview with me?” And he’s like, “Well, let me check.” 

So then that’s how that came together. I did not know Andrew, but I knew about his work helping our police department get drug addicts into rehab instead of jail. And, oh my gosh, the minute I met him, I just, I hugged him in the police department parking lot. And then we went inside and we just had this really honest interview and I just couldn’t wait to write his story. He’s just such a positive person out doing good things in the community. And it was probably the most fun story I’ve written in a really long time, just because it was a joy to write it. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

So you mentioned your background a little bit. You’re not from Kentucky, originally, right. You’ve been here for seven years, is that what you said? 

Teri Carter: 

Right. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

But you’ve created a really tight knit community where you’re living. I wonder if you could just describe Anderson County and what your life is like there? I mean that you would just run into the police chief and he would invite you out to shoot, that’s special. 

Teri Carter: 

It’s a small town. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

And odd. 

Teri Carter: 

So I live about actually 10 miles outside of town. So I live out in the country on a small lake. So I swim in the lake. We have a little boat. It’s a small motor lake, so there’s no skiing or anything. It’s really quiet. And I just love living out in nature. It’s quiet. When you go out and the sky’s clear, you can see all the stars. You don’t hear any noise. It’s wonderful. 

But every morning I drive to town and I walk my dogs in the county park and that’s, people patrol the pet county park and that’s how I happened to be there walking and the chief pulled up. But I stop in town and get a coffee and there are people in the coffee shop. I say, hello to them. The woman who owns the coffee shop is running for coroner. I just go about my business, but I make sure that I stay in contact with people. 

Obviously, I met people through church, although that came later. I met most of the people here, frankly, by writing about politics. We moved here in 2015, but really 2016. We started migrating here in 2015, but we settled in 2016 and I had never written about politics in my life. And then the Access Hollywood tape out in, what was it, September or October of … October of 2016. I wrote my first piece and I just kept going and a hundred plus pieces later, here we are. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

What is your hair on fire about right now? 

Teri Carter: 

Right now I really just want to … I keep telling people that I’m less concerned about getting myself elected, I mean, even though I want to get elected. We have a county attorney that’s running. She was a registered Democrat, now registered Republican and she’s running. And I think she ran last time. And I think the reason she lost last time is because she was not registered as a Republican and people I think that would’ve voted for her pulled the arm and that was it. So I want to see her get elected. 

I want to see some of the good … there are good Republican women who are not conspiracy theorists. And there are good Republican men who are not conspiracy theorists running in this race. I’d like to see them get into office. I think I’m most … and our election is in May. So it’s only three months away. So for right now, I’m so focused on, I don’t know how else to put it, but to say keeping the far right-wing screamer out of office, because I don’t think we need people in office that just want to talk about CRT and book banning and masks and the fact that the vaccine puts a chip in your arm and all this nonsense that goes on. 

I mean, we don’t need these people on a school board. We don’t need them on a fiscal court. We don’t need them in the Sheriff’s office. I mean, I want people in office who believe in some core American values, they may not be exactly my progressive values, but that’s where we are right now. And there are a lot of good people in this town that are running for election as Republicans and I support them as well. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

So I always ask our guests what you’re reading right now, what’s inspiring you and maybe what’s bringing you some peace too, in the midst of what feels like a little bit of chaos? 

Teri Carter: 

Right. I have a stack next to me, so I can just say- 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Oh, good. 

Teri Carter: 

There’s a book called, This is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home by Lauren Sandler. And she’s a journalist that followed a homeless, pregnant woman in New York City. As a non-fiction writer I’m interested in getting into this story and reading. How do you as a journalist follow this pregnant woman on her journey without interjecting yourself, without helping her, without having her come sleep at your house, without … how do you get close enough to do the story and have empathy and compassion without interfering? And I’m not sure how that goes, but I’m interested in that. 

There’s a book called Drowned Town by Jayne Waldrop. And it’s a series of linked stories, but the stories are all about a town in the Land of The Lakes in Western Kentucky that no longer exists because when they dammed everything up to make the lake, those towns disappeared. And the question in the book is, well, what happens when the town that you and your ancestors grew up in literally disappears off the map? 

And then the other one, and I’m going to show you this one, it’s called Humankind by Rutger Bregman. And there’s a guy at my church that recommended it. He’s a social warrior and it’s all about kindness, human kindness through history. And it goes back, way back into the olden times and moves forward and talks about how people in troubled times found ways to be kind and to get along with their neighbors and do all the things that we’re trying to do now. So that’s what I’m reading for inspiration. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Oh, those are all very layered and somewhat serious topics and I’m really impressed that you’ve got them all … You’re juggling them all at the same time. They all sound fascinating. Thank you for sharing that. 

Well, thank you so much for this conversation, Teri. I love talking to you. Good luck in the coming months. 

Teri Carter: 

Thank you. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

And for those folks who are listening, check out Teri on Twitter. You can also check out all of her articles online, Lexington Herald, New York Times, Daily Yonder, a lot of those publications. So thanks, Teri. 

Teri Carter: 

Thank you, Whitney. It was fun. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

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Just head over to ruralassembly.org to sign up. If you’re a true fan of Everywhere Radio, please let us know by rating us wherever you get your podcasts. If this isn’t your cup of tea, that’s no biggie. It’s fine. 

And we’d like to thank our media partner, The Daily Yonder. Everywhere Radio is a production of The Rural Assembly. Our senior producer is Joel Cohen and our associate producers are Xandr brown and Teresa Collins. And we’re grateful for the love and support of the whole team at the Center for Rural Strategies. Love you. Mean it. You can be anywhere. We’ll be everywhere.