Our Connected Culture

A audioseries about the sometimes unexpected ways people intersect created by Andy “River” Peterson. 

Season 1: How Terry Bisson Made Up Better Worlds

In season one of Our Connected Culture we explore how late science fiction author Terry Bisson’s lifelong activism was central to how he imagined a better world in his 1988 novel  Fire on the Mountain, using previously unreleased and archival audio of Bisson and as well as interviews with friends and comrades including Peter Coyote, Kim Stanley Robinson, Annalee Newitz, Paul Park, Mary Corey, and John Kessel. 

We will also talk about the importance of imagining better futures and building inclusive communities through a virtual book club of Fire on the Mountain, an alternative history centering around a communist utopia emerging in the U.S. South a hundred years after the success of the Harpers Ferry raid led by John Brown sets off a self-emancipating revolution. Our book club will wrap just as Tomorrowing, a collection of Bisson's long-running  "This Month in History" column from the science fiction magazine Locus, is released in May 2024. 

Join the bookclub in the MidMountain Discord for our first live stream covering the first quarter of the book at 1pm ET on April 21, 2024.  You can also check out a curated list of books from people featured in the podcast here. 

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. 

Season One schedule:

Stay tuned for a future virtual book club on Tomorrowing!

Season 2: The MidMountain Motion Picture Possum Passel

The Motion Picture Possum Passel with Katie Hanzalik (Spring 2024 Midmountaineer, new board member and the writer of This Week in the South for Scalawag Magazine) and MidMountain curator Andy "River" Peterson discussing fascism and what it means to work in opposition to it through the lens of film every other week, starting with a virtual film club talking about Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Fando y Lis on June 16 at 1pm EST. 

We also have a broad list of films we hope to cover, including children's animation, more adult animation, documentary, horror, and almost everything in between, so stay tuned!

Join us to chat in the MidMountain Discord and for live virtual discussions every other Sunday at 1pm ET via Google Meet links below. 

Disclosure: MidMountain is an affiliate of Bookshop.org and will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase on links to books from this page. 

Season 3: Murder, She Sang

Join us for a season focused on reclaiming Appalachian Murder Ballads, our Fall Fellowship, first festival, and finding creative ways to process grief and grow resilience in the shadow of a regional climate disaster.