This is the transcript for episode 473 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, we spotlight episode 134 of Building Local Power, an ILSR podcast hosted by our Communication’s Manager, Jess Del Fiasco. On this episode, Jess is joined by the Community Broadband Networks Initiative’s Senior Researcher Ry Marcatillio-McCracken and Senior Reporter, Editor and Researcher Sean Gonsalves to interview Christopher Ali about his new book, Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Christopher Ali: Everybody needs the ability to participate in this digital world that we all take for granted. And the more people who are on the network, the better. That's the network effect, right? The network improves when we've got everybody connected.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken: Welcome episode 473 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. This is Ry Marcattilio-McCracken here at the Institute for local self-reliance. Today, I joined communications manager, Jess Del Fiasco, and senior researcher and editor, Sean Gonsalves to talk with Christopher Ali, an associate professor and the of media studies at the University of Virginia. Christopher discusses his new book from MIT Press titled Farm Fresh Broadband, the politics of rural connectivity. During the conversation, we talk about the communities Christopher visited while writing his book and some of the local success stories he heard. We talk about why the concept of rural deserves a more nuanced definition than it is usually afforded, and how high quality affordable broadband access can revitalize rural economic development in direct and indirect ways. We end by talking about where and why federal efforts to improve rural broadband infrastructure have fallen short, and how local solutions have shown the way forward. Now here's the show with Christopher, Jess and Sean.

Jess Del Fiasco: Today, I am joined by my colleagues, Ry Marcattilio-McCracken and Sean Gonsalves who are senior researchers with ILSR's community broadband team. Welcome to the show guys.

Sean Gonsalves: Thanks for...

This is the transcript for episode 472 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this week's episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, ILSR's Senior Reporter, Editor, and Researcher Sean Gonsalves, along with Senior Researcher and Multimedia Producer Maren Machles, chat with Paul Recanzone, the general manager of Beacon Broadband, about Beacon's plan to build out broadband where no one has before. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Paul Recanzone: We cannot rely on the industries of the 20th century, which were our fishing and our timber. We have to find a way to thrive in the 21st century. And here at Beacon Broadband, we believe that the broadband is going to be the catalyst to be able to create a thriving economy on the south coast of Oregon.

Sean Gonsalves: Welcome to episode 472 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I am Sean Gonsalves, Senior Reporter and Editor, sitting in for the vacationing Christopher Mitchell. He will be back this week and will return to the airways for the next episode. So there's still time for our listeners to send in a bunch of emails to tell him what a fabulous job we've done since he's been gone. Today, we are going to look at the work of a Cooperative in the beautiful state of Oregon. And so that is why are joined by Paul Recanzone, the general manager for Beacon Broadband, which is the broadband subsidiary of Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative. Welcome to the program, Paul.

Paul Recanzone: Thank you, Sean.

Sean Gonsalves: And we also are joined by my colleague here, Maren Machles, who wrote our story on muninetworks.org about CCEC that we published in May. We're pleased to have Maren with us as well. Welcome Maren.

Maren Machles: I'm pleased to be here, glad to be chatting with you folks.

Sean Gonsalves: So we're going to have Marin jump in throughout to help us out and to flesh out this discussion, but just to get us started, Paul, why don't you tell us a little bit about you and how you got to Beacon Broadband?

Paul Recanzone: Well, thank you. I've been working in broadband development for probably 15 or 16 years. The long story in an abbreviated...

This is the transcript for episode 470 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast, Christopher Mitchell is joined by Executive Director of the ConnectMaine Authority, Peggy Schaffer to discuss strategies that might make Maine and other states successful in solving connectivity issues with the $42 billion in broadband funding the new infrastructure plan sets aside to go directly to states. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Peggy Schaffer: There's money coming, take a breath and figure out what it is you want for your community for the next 50 years because that's what you're going to be able to get.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in St. Paul, Minnesota. Today I'm speaking with Peggy Schaffer from one of my favorite states, don't tell anyone, from Maine, the executive director of the Connect Maine Authority in fact. Welcome back to the show, Peggy.

Peggy Schaffer: Thanks for inviting me. It's great to be here.

Christopher Mitchell: Yes. And I've, I have to say that, obviously my organization has deep roots in, in Maine, in the Portland area particularly, but Maine has been one of my favorite states for broadband to. The main Broadband Coalition that you've been involved with, historically that you still are involved with, but so many great folks, so many great partnerships, really interesting approaches throughout the state. Let me just start with a general question. You've also been active in helping to shape the broadband piece of the infrastructure bill. How are you feeling right now, now that that language is sort of written in and maybe kind of quickly curing concrete?

Peggy Schaffer: I think it's a huge win. I really do. And here's, here's why, I mean, I think there's holes, right? They're always going to be holes in federal dissertation, but to me, the huge win is the significant shift from moving away from federally run programs to state run programs, because I'm a huge believer that the states are the people doing this work. It'...

This is the transcript for episode 468 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast, Christopher Mitchell is joined by Bruce McDougall, Anacortes City Council Member to speak about the journey to build a 21st century infrastructure in this small community in Washington by advocating for a municipally owned and operated fiber optic network. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Bruce McDougall: It's good to have some technical resources that know the industry, whether that's within the activist's portion of it or within the elected officials, or even if there's IT staff in city hall that want to take this on.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in St. Paul, Minnesota. And today I'm speaking to Bruce McDougall, who is a member of the Anacortes City Council. That is a part-time position. And so like many people who are working to better their communities in an elected position, he also works as an outside position, and he works for Cisco systems as well, where he is a consulting engineer. Welcome to the show, Bruce.

Bruce McDougall: Thanks, Christopher. Great to be here.

Christopher Mitchell: This is one of those shows that I wanted to do two years ago. I knew that good things were happening, but we always like to let things simmer a little bit so that we can talk about what's been done rather than what you plan to do. And it seems like now you're in a good stage to do that.

Bruce McDougall: Yeah. Timing is good. We've made some progress on construction and turning up customers here in the last 12 months. So yeah, so we have real things to report at this point.

Christopher Mitchell: Excellent. So let's start with Anacortes. Anacortes is in Washington State for folks who are not familiar with it. Tell us a little bit about it, and what one might expect if they've visited.

Bruce McDougall: Yeah. Anacortes is about an hour north of Seattle, along the coast. It's kind of the gateway to the San Juan Islands. A lot of boating around here. It's a...