Season One | Reframing Rural

Season One: Coming Home

An introduction from founder Megan Torgerson

Google image of Sheridan County, Montana

Located on the ancestral lands of the Assiniboine peoples of present day Sheridan County, Montana, season one is dedicated to the rural homeplace of my youth. It is a landscape that is at once unrelenting and peaceful, endless and settled. Since the late 1800s it has also been home to Scandinavian homesteaders and their descendants who sought a better life in the Treasure State. My Nordic ancestors arrived to Northeastern Montana in 1882.

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In Sheridan County tourism is limited to pheasant, antelope and deer hunting, and the county population of approximately 3,500 residents has increased only slightly in the last decade due to the neighboring Bakken Oil Formation. Many who grew up in the MonDak area are retiring from farming and moving to warmer climates, or moving to bigger towns offering more opportunities. I'm one of those who left, but Reframing Rural keeps me coming back. Creating this podcast also keeps me curious about how the community has changed since my childhood, who is left to preserve our cultural traditions, and what is the future of this place.

Season one features stories of people I think about when I

think about home. This includes farmers and ranchers, preachers and teachers, and people working in the oil and gas industry. It is my greatest hope that Reframing Rural’s first season is a gift to these folks, and all people past and present who’ve lived in this placid and remote corner of Montana.

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Season One Episodes:

Episode 7: Patchwork Quilt, A Narrated Essay by Megan Torgerson

In the final episode of Reframing Rural's inaugural season, founder Megan Torgerson recounts her experience leaving rural Montana to attend college in Missoula, her journey encountering and dismantling rural stereotypes, and why she is working to reframe the narrative on rural America. Offering a glimpse into Megan's childhood, this narrated essay explores how her rural roots informs her work today.

Bonus Episode: The Modern West

Looking for another podcast set in the American West that weaves family stories, personal inquiry and cultural analysis to uncover issues affecting beloved rural places? Look no further than The Modern West’s Ghost Town(ing) series! In this episode you’ll hear from host Melodie Edwards who will transport you to Walden, Colorado where she interviews her parents about their enduring love for their small town and what compels them to stay.

Episode 6: A Celebration of Rural Womanhood

This special Mother's Day episode features Kay Brinkman and Renny Torgerson two old friends and rural Montana farm women who have lived in the Scandinavian farming community of Dagmar, since the 1970s. From braving a whiteout with a herd of cattle, to teaching in a two-room school house, these matriarchs are an example of the integral role women play in small towns and rural communities across the country.

Episode 5: A Snapshot of Family Farming Amid Cycles of Modernization and Migration

The Torgersons have farmed for as far back as the family has record of, at least the 1500s, but likely much longer. Beginning with the onset of industrialization, this episode tracks the story of a family who left Norway for the promise of a better life in America roughly 150 years ago, and how this family continues to preserve its farming legacy in Northeastern Montana.

Episode 4: Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed

Ralph Summers is a mailman, bus driver, taxidermist and preacher living in Dagmar, Montana. In this episode, we explore the history of rural mail delivery, the value of neighbors, and what it means to have faith. Ralph shares stories of miracles he has seen on the road, how he finds inspiration for his sermons and his experiences with the healing power of prayer.

Episode 3: Unearthing the Indigenous Narrative in NE Montana

Eddie Hentges grew up and later taught history on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Northeast Montana. A descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, he discusses the politics behind looking Native, the history of the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes and how he approaches teaching U.S. high school history through a multicultural and decolonial lens.

Episode 2: The Scary Prairie Will Not Get the Best of Me

Margaret Hoven and David Anderson moved to Plentywood, Montana from Washington D.C. 15 years ago. Northeastern Montana culture, political memory, change and the power of music are themes explored in this episode named after Margaret's original song "The Scary Prairie Will Not Get the Best of Me" from a play the couple co-wrote, titled "Dead Thing On the Wall."

Episode 1: Preservation & Motherhood on the N. Great Plains

Kim Rudnigen is a mother of four, working as an environmental compliance officer in the oil and gas industry in Northeast Montana. In Reframing Rural's first episode, we'll learn from Kim what it is like to raise a family in a county where there are two people per square mile and how the Rudnigens are helping to reinvigorate the community surrounding Dagmar, MT.

Season 1 Preview

Reframing Rural's first season, "Coming Home," is set in Sheridan County, Montana, which borders Canada, North Dakota, and one of the most rural counties in the U.S.. Coming Home reflects on geography's role in our understanding of home and features stories of hope and resilience from the Northern Great Plains.