Mitch Wertlieb
Senior Host and CorrespondentA graduate of NYU with a Master's Degree in journalism, Mitch has more than 20 years experience in radio news. He got his start as news director at NYU's college station, and moved on to a news director (and part-time DJ position) for commercial radio station WMVY on Martha's Vineyard. But public radio was where Mitch wanted to be and he eventually moved on to Boston where he worked for six years in a number of different capacities at member station WBUR...as a Senior Producer, Editor, and fill-in co-host of the nationally distributed Here and Now. Mitch has been a guest host of the national NPR sports program "Only A Game". He's also worked as an editor and producer for international news coverage with Monitor Radio in Boston.
An avid Boston sports fan, Mitch has been blessed with being able to witness world championships for two of his favorite teams (and franchises he was at one time convinced would never win in his lifetime): the Boston Red Sox in 2004, 2007, and 2013, and in hockey, the Boston Bruins, who won their first Stanley Cup in 39 years in 2011.
Mitch was known to play a music bed or two during Morning Edition featuring his favorite band The Grateful Dead. He lives in South Burlington with his wife Erin, daughter Gretchen, and their dog Fezzik. He (Mitch, not Fezzik) was host of Morning Edition on Vermont Public from 2003 until 2023. He now serves as the Senior Host and Correspondent.
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Lawmakers in Montpelier are revisiting an idea to place heavier taxes on second homes to help ease the state’s housing crisis. Plus, Trump administration cuts cancel thousands of pounds of food that were scheduled for the Vermont Food Bank, a new report reveals Americans are now more likely to want to know if they have Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms set in, a new sheriff has been appointed in Caledonia County, and Vermont joins a multi-state effort to make energy transmission more long-term reliable and affordable. -
A conversation with Gov. Phil Scott about tensions over federal immigration policy and the effects being felt in Vermont. Plus, the town of Woodstock moves to buy a local water system from a private company, a set of new permanently-affordable apartments will open in Colchester, bridge work is starting today that will slow traffic near Granville village, and Vermont’s US Senators condemn the arrest of a circuit court judge in Wisconsin last week.
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Poet Geof Hewitt, Vermont's reigning poetry slam champion, performs each week at an open mic in Calais backed by a group of improvising musicians. Plus, lawmakers consider a new program to finance infrastructure that supports new housing, Lt. Gov. John Rodgers advocates for public consumption of cannabis, a new non-profit works to protect older people from fraud, and spring turkey hunting season kicked off this weekend.
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In our recurring series on class we hear from Isaac McDonald who spoke previously about growing up in the Northeast Kingdom, and is now back to talk about attending his freshman year at Columbia University on a full scholarship. Plus, high ranking state senate Democrats call for ending the contract that allows federal officials to detain people in Vermont prisons, in a state health department survey most Vermonters report being in good health, Clinton Community College in New York plans to move its operations to the SUNY Plattsburgh campus, Gov. Scott signs a bill designating November as the Vermont month of the veteran, and in our weekly sports report we predict an upset in round one of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs by a team that only made it into the tournament on the last day of the regular season.
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In the latest installment of our recurring series on class, we meet Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer who talks about the increasing pressures of maintaining a middle class life in Vermont. Plus, Rep. Becca Balint pens a letter to Trump administration officials asking them to justify the recent arrest of a Vermont citizen, the Communications Director of Vermont’s teacher’s union says the state’s Education Secretary should have been more forceful in resisting the Trump administration’s threats over DEI programs, an elementary school in the Champlain Islands will close following a school district board vote, and Vermont’s Commission on Native American Affairs is publishing a school curriculum on Abenaki history.
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In our recurring series on class in Vermont we meet a filmmaker from Richford who discusses the challenges of attending college among more affluent peers. Plus, a federal judge halts a Trump administration order that would have deported two Vermont high school students from Nicaragua, some Vermont lawmakers consider adding citizenship and immigration status to the state’s fair housing law, a bill that would review how Vermont recognizes groups as Native American tribes is introduced at the Statehouse, and invasive zebra mussels are discovered on the American side of Lake Memphremagog.
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We examine the House floor debate that preceded a major overhaul of how education is paid for and governed in Vermont.
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Investigating whether there’s any truth to rumors that Vermont’s only law school might be moving from its home in South Royalton. Plus, two Nicaraguan students at CVU High School face deportation, a psychiatric unit for teenagers opens at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, tariffs have begun to affect Vermont’s business relationship with Canada, and we explore the early days of the new baseball season as well as the wrap-up of hockey’s regular season in our weekly sports report.
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We preview the Paramount Theatre’s staging of the Tony Award winning musical Urinetown. Plus, Vermont communities lose FEMA funding for a hazard mitigation program canceled by the Trump administration, an executive order signed by the president condemns the Vermont Climate Superfund Act created to allow the state to seek damages from major oil companies, Vermont State Police investigate calls made to multiple schools with false reports of shooting incidents, and a Vermont lawmaker says he’s got an alternative and more cost-effective plan for restoring the Bennington Battle Monument.
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The effort to get more people biking as a chief mode of transportation in Chittenden County. Plus, Vermont’s Education Secretary reverses course on a Trump administration directive to ban DEI programs for schools that get Title 1 federal funds, a Planned Parenthood center in St. Johnsbury will close in June, Ripton elementary school will shut down next year following a failed bid to recruit more students, the Vermont Humanities council says it will have to reduce programming after federal support was cut by the Trump administration, and the deadline for Real I-D-compliant identification needed for domestic air travel is less than a month away.
