September 29, 2025: Run for the hills

We’re headed for the hills, which are full of community!Including a health center that’s been keeping the folx in the many-hidden hilltowns healthy. Hilltown Community Health Center got its start 75 years ago tangentially through a campaign of a former Red Cross nurse, but over the years has outgrown its Worthington origins, into much more. We speak with doctors Michael Purdy and Debbie DiStefano about how you can join in their anniversary celebrations this Saturday, Oct. 4. For almost as long, the community has been gathering the first weekend in October for the Conway’s Festival of the Hills. But even more important than the skillet toss, the 10K, and the young generations that the event’s scholarships support in their young adult endeavors, is the community that the celebration brings together. We talk with organizers Sue MacDonald and Alexis Arcaro about the entirely volunteer powered magic community makes. And if we think about our cosmic community, there’s a nearby solar system which bears a striking resemblance to our very own and may be capable of holding life. Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College's Salman Hameed,  shows us more about the Trappist System, and how we might communicate with it, even if it takes 40 years each way.