Tailgate Talks Rolls Out New Season

What happens when a classic 1972 Datsun pickup bed gets turned into a trailer, lined with Astroturf and rolled around the Mad River Valley?

You get Tailgate Talks—a one-of-a-kind video series from the Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce and a pretty good example of Yankee ingenuity at work. Use what’s handy, lean into what makes this place different and tell the stories that only the Mad River Valley can tell.

 A new season of Tailgate Talks has recently rolled out, making this an opportune time to introduce—or reintroduce—the series to the community.

The newest episode features a particularly fitting guest: Lisa Loomis, editor and publisher of The Valley Reporter. The conversation explores the importance of local journalism, the challenges of keeping a small community newspaper healthy in today’s rapidly changing media world and how The Valley Reporter is working to adapt. Lisa also talks about the creation of the Valley Reporter Trust and the effort to help ensure that strong, independent local journalism remains part of life here in the Mad River Valley.

It is exactly the kind of conversation Tailgate Talks was created for—informal, interesting and unmistakably local.  Tailgate Talks are casual conversations with the people who give the Valley its personality. No studio. No fancy production. Just interesting local folks climbing aboard the tailgate to share what they do, why they do it and a bit of the story behind it all.

Because every community has businesses, trails, shops and restaurants. What makes the Mad River Valley special are the people behind them. Since Tailgate Talks got started they have hosted local legends, artists, innkeepers, entrepreneurs, farmers, grocers, trail builders and all sorts of other Valley characters. There has even been a conversation with a bunch of goats. They didn’t have a whole lot to say, but they were darn good television.

Head over to the Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce YouTube channel’s the Tailgate Talks playlist. You can also catch the latest episodes on Mad River Valley Television. There are a couple dozen episodes to choose from. rest assured you can expect a heaping helping of local flavor.