Baby Carl's Happy Apocalypse
Baby Carl’s Happy Apocalypse podcast is a lighthearted and inspirational take on a very serious topic that includes interviews with interesting people, laughing children, happy cows, car-talk banter, a labyrinth, an outdoor classroom filled with conversations, and singing.
Who is Baby Carl? Well, he’s just a little guy: a toddler with a big vocabulary, a hearty appetite for information, and an even bigger love for humanity. And he loves singing songs. He has a friend, Bill. Bill’s a philosopher and teacher. They get together from time to time to talk, and in the first episode they talk about the scary word “apocalypse,” and they discover its original meaning is to disclose or reveal.
Baby Carl gets people to talk about their own happy apocalypses as he and Bill take a road trip across Vermont. Baby Carl interviews two teachers in an outdoor school, a farmer, and a nun. All of them are deeply concerned about the state of the Earth, and they’re not afraid to share their worries. But that doesn’t stop them from responding to the challenges in their daily lives with imagination, focus, honesty, kindness, and joy. Baby Carl brings out the best in people!
The challenges of climate change, social injustice, and assaults on democratic systems are never far from the interviews, but the inquisitive and disarming voice of a young child interviewing people who have had happy, inspirational revelations—who are working to make the world where they live a better and less scary place—helps listeners connect with what’s important. It helps them think about how they might contribute to much-needed solutions. Baby Carl’s enthusiasm is contagious.
To schedule an interview with podcast creators, contact:
Doyle Dean: doyle@ncpr.org
Bill Vitek: wvitek@middlebury.edu
Artwork by Chantal Bennett. Special thanks to Middlebury College student interns Crystal Zhou and Tessa Mott for their help in launching the podcast.
Baby Carl’s creator is Doyle Dean. Doyle is production manager at North Country Public Radio in Canton, New York, and a video producer, artist, and musician. With more than 35 years’ experience behind the mic and camera, including 10 years in Los Angeles, Doyle brings a unique perspective and energetic drive to the project. Doyle is the writer/director of the independent feature film Four Way Stop (1998); co-director/videographer of the documentary For the Love of the Mambo (2013); and was video producer and adjunct instructor of Video and Audio Production for the State University of New York at Potsdam (2013–2018). He also won a second-place national award for best interview from the Public Media Journalists Association.
Bill Vitek directs the New Perennials project and is a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College. Bill taught philosophy for 32 years at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. Much of his work has engaged ecological issues, including collaborations with Wes Jackson for more than three decades. Vitek and Jackson co-edited two books, Rooted in the Land (1996) and The Virtues of Ignorance (2008). A semi-professional jazz pianist, Vitek founded and performs in the Jazz Collective in Middlebury, Vermont.
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Bill and Baby Carl visit Meghan Rigali, one of the many passionate instructors of the New Roots Project. Founded by the Willowell Foundation, the New Roots Project runs an outdoor, interdisciplinary, multi-aged school program in Monkton, VT. Meghan shares with Baby Carl the importance of experiential education, her connection to the land, and how she hopes to give children the same sense of responsibility and awe in the wild. Meghan discusses her happy apocalypse and the ways in which it shaped her for the future. To learn more, visit https://www.willowell.org/new-roots-project.
Visit https://www.newperennials.org/ for more information.