Reframing Rural is the award-winning documentary podcast founded in 2019 by writer, Montanan and farmer's daughter, Megan Torgerson. Reframing Rural does the much needed work of challenging stigmas about rural places by introducing listeners to working people, history and culture that don't always get the spotlight. Season 1 transports listeners to Torgerson's rural homeplace, a tight-knit agricultural community on the plains of far Northeast Montana. Season 2 sows hope in the future of the…
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This episode about Megan Torgerson's hometown - Dagmar, Montana - originally aired on The Obit Project podcast and on Montana Public Radio, summer 2026. The audio obituary for Dagmar (in-town population: 10), asks how do you know when a town is dead? Megan, a local historian, post master, church goers and farmers and ranchers try to answer the question.
In collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund's Nature Breaking podcast, we're bringing you a conversation between Nature Breaking host Seth Larson and vice president of WWF's Great Plains program, Martha Kaufmann. In this episode, Megan reflects on her personal connection to the Northern Great Plains, before Martha and Seth explore why the grasslands are overlooked, why people should care about…
Sterling Drake is a musician from Philipsburg, Montana, who is using his platform to talk about mental health in agricultural communities. In effort to destigmatize the topic and connect people to resources, Sterling is talking about it in his lyrics and on the stage. Sterling and Megan met up in May 2025 at Live from the Divide in Bozeman. In addition to the impact he's making on the rural mental…
We've teamed up with A New Angle podcast to bring you two back to back episodes from their show hosted by Justin Angle a professor at the University of Montana College of Business. The first episode features an interview with Megan Torgerson on Reframing Rural's origin story, our latest season, "Succession Stories," and "Mother Range," a short documentary film Megan co-produced that premiered at…
In this companion episode to our "Succession" season, Megan sits down with author Joe Wilkins to explore the pressures facing rural communities and how fiction can help us understand them more deeply. Joe's award-winning novel "The Entire Sky" follows a ranch family in eastern Montana navigating grief, generational change and the uncertain future of their land. Through these fictional characters,…
Megan shares an update from Winnett ACES since her first reporting trip to Winnett, three years ago, then re-airs the season three episode "Winnett ACES: Strengthening Community & Keeping Ranchers on Working Lands." In this story, she visits Winnett, the only town in the least populated county in Montana, where out-of-state absentee land ownership poses a threat to local ranchers. To keep people…
From the archives, we bring you Megan's family succession story "Farm Succession in Northeast Montana," the season three story of Megan's dad Russ Torgerson's retirement. In this episode, Megan shares the intimate journey of her family's farm succession, giving listeners an inside look into the emotional, legal and financial factors at play with succession planning. Curious what the next…
You've heard the stories of succession planning from families around Montana this season, and now you're ready to start thinking about succession planning for your own family's farm or ranch. In this bonus episode, we bring you a two-part, practical roadmap for getting started. In chapter one, we take you to Winnett, where Megan hosted a live panel discussion with succession specialists Dr. Marsha…
Sig Pugrud's ranch sits on a high bench above Flatwillow Creek, in one of the least-populated counties in the United States. Her family homesteaded in Petroleum County, Montana in 1910, surviving drought, the Dust Bowl, the farm crisis of the 1980s, and generations of economic uncertainty with a combination of grit and creativity. As a child, Sig watched her parents gamble on emerging cattle…
When Jake Fritz moved back home at 19, four generations were trying to make a living off the same acres northwest of Chester, Montana. With no succession plan from the senior generation, Jake's mother Dena and her husband Jim were leasing land from Jake's grandpa and great-grandma, giving away a quarter of their crop while carrying all the operating costs. This episode follows the Fritzes through…
