Cidiot

Mat Zucker

1 Creator

Learning to live and love life in the Hudson Valley. Hosted by Mat Zucker. Have you fantasized about living in the country? Curious what the transition is like? Or are you a local and want to see a different side of the folks who've invaded your land? The award-winning podcast Cidiot® has been featured in The Albany Times-Union, Chronogram, Country Living, Hudson Valley Magazine, The Poughkeepsie Journal, NBC's Today.com, and more. For updates visit cidiot.com and follow @cidiot.hv on Instagram and @cidiot_hv on X. Email: [email protected] © Mat Zucker 2018-2024. Cidiot is a ® trademark.

#22 in the Top 100 Indie places & travel All time chart

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Top 10 Cidiot Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Cidiot episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Cidiot for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Cidiot episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

67. Pride Is Back

Cidiot

05/26/22 • 27 min

Pride starts early in June across the Hudson Valley, Catskills and Berkshires. This episode I talk to Osun Zotique, executive director of OutHudson and the co-grand marshal of Hudson Pride. If you’re following the news, you may have also seen that Osun just announced a historic run for congress to represent the new 19th district. To their knowledge, Osun is the first trans non-binary candidate to run for national office. Learn more at OsunforNY.com.

Osun and I talk about pride in the Hudson Valley, about Hudson (“the P-town of the Hudson Valley”), about LGBTQ contribution to the upstate’s community, economy and culture. Osun also teaches me about “forest bathing” and how this year’s Pride is an opportunity to take that COVID Stickiness and well, dance it out...

Find Pride events mentioned in this episode and many others on the Cidiot.com blog post and follow Cidiot on Instagram.

Thank for listening. And special thank you as well to show sponsors Hudson Valley Kitchen Design Center and Taconic Toastmasters Club.

Photo credit: JD Urban. Provided by OutHudson.

2 Listeners

85. Camp Catskill

Cidiot

03/16/23 • 30 min

Welcome to Season 6 of Cidiot®!

I'm excited to talk about 700,000 acre-big Catskill Park, "America's First Wilderness," with Ryan Penny, owner of Camp Catskill in Tannersville, NY.

In two parts, we'll cover what drew Ryan to the Catskills, about starting his store in Tannersville, spotting a cidiot, and about Catskill Park, including his four favorite spots "inside the blue line." We also get into Kaaterskill Falls and the controversy of its claim as the tallest waterfall in New York state. We also talk about micro spikes, crampons and how I shouldn’t wear my Stan Smiths into waterfalls. In part two, we cover culture, including the story and connection of Rip Van Winkle. You'll want to wake up for this.

Be sure to check out these links:

Tannersville: Cidiot Guide to 5 Places To Visit Nearby (on the Cidiot.com blog)
Camp Catskill store (Use promo code CIDIOT10 for 10% off. For a limited time.)
Episode 55: Hike Your Own Hike (with Sean of Mountain-Hiking.com)

Cidiot® is a registered trademark, hosted and produced by Mat Zucker. Visit Cidiot.com for more info including sponsorship and partnership opportunities. Original music created by Space Studios.

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88. Green Thumb - Part I

Cidiot

06/08/23 • 15 min

Mat finally takes up gardening but in the safety and security of an adopted small garden plot at Four Corners Community Farm. It's a learning experience for sure, so join him via his audio journal as he tries to grow vegetables vs. flowers.

Links:

Four Corners Community Farm

Old Dutch Village Gardening Club

Garden Pals

National Garden Association

Thanks for listening to Cidiot®, the Hudson Valley's most awarded podcast. Would love to hear from you about what you would love to hear about so write in at Cidiot.com and review the show while you're there. Come visit.

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59. Music To Your Ears (Season 5 Premiere)

Cidiot

02/03/22 • 37 min

Cidiot is back, turning up the volume with a bigger-than-ever Season Five. Four years and 58 episodes have taught Mat a thing or two, plus the listener survey piled up the advice to make this season five-u-lous. We're starting off big, with the a full-play of the new Cidiot Anthem, produced with El Sueco and The Don at Space Studios here in Red Hook. The photo is by Tasha Hurley and we were generously outfitted by Hamilton & Adams in Kingston, NY who thought we did justice to their "Upstate & Chill" aesthetic. Listen up for a full-play of the song and the backstory in our interview with Ben Senterfit and Paul Rivers Bailey. You'll hear their backstory, how they met through Community Music Space in Red Hook, their favorite places in the Hudson Valley, the process of creating the song, what we each hope to achieve it, and of course, why the two of them are called El Sueco and The Don. Find links to the Cidiot Anthem at the music page on Cidiot.com and more about El Sueco and The Don at their site.

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78. Pinkwater

Cidiot

10/13/22 • 27 min

When you think of art in the Hudson Valley, your head probably goes to the Hudson Valley School and the river, mountains and landscapes of Thomas Cole and Frederick Edwin Church. You know, dead old white men.

Anne Sanger runs the Pinkwater Gallery in uptown Kingston. She’s an artist and her gallery focuses on women artists of the Hudson Valley. We talk about her journey to the Hudson Valley, taking a wrong turn—or was it a right turn—and becoming an artist. We also chat about the types of artists she represents and the etiquette and advice for newbies like me shopping for art. Yes, you can sometimes borrow it!

Thanks to our sponsor Sunflower Market with locations in Woodstock and Rhinebeck. Sunflower is devoted to deepening symbiotic relationships through clean and sustainably sourced food. Visit their site and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Pinkwater Guide to Art in the Kingston Area:

GALLERIES IN KINGSTON

In Uptown / the Stockade:

In Midtown:

Monument

In the Rondout / the Strand:

On Route 28 (between Kingston and Woodstock):

The Lockwood Gallery

FALL LEAF PEEPING + ART

Art OMI in Ghent
Storm King in the lower Hudson Valley near Windsor
Opus 40 in Saugerties

Annual Art Events in Kingston

Art Instruction for Adults

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51. Born in the HVA

Cidiot

08/20/21 • 26 min

Meet Josh Santonja, who helped run Pugsly's Hudson location and has become both a barber and friend to me, my husband, father-in-law, and several friends. He's kind of a cult favorite. Josh also grew up in the Hudson Valley and has lived in multiple towns in the areas which only made me want to talk to him more about it all. We even debut a new game on the show called "Hudson Valley Geography." Thanks for listening to Cidiot. Lucky to be chosen as Best Regional Podcast in the 2021 Chorogrammie Awards. Also, my book Bronze Seeks Silver is now out on audiobook. Here's a link to through Audible program if you want to subscribe with my code.

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96. Aging in the HV

Cidiot

10/26/23 • 32 min

Where should we grow old? Is the Hudson Valley a good place for aging? More and more people think so. And when you find your place, how should we plan for it? How can we stay in our home? How can we get around? What kind of resources are available? Choosing to move from the city to upstate and now past 50, yeah, Cidiot® wants to know all this and more.

So Mat talks to Brian Jones of the Dutchess County Office for the Aging who debunks myths about the department (no, they don’t just send people to retirement homes) and shares info about the great resources and programs that offices like ours in Dutchess County offers. Brian has tips for successful aging and how to "stay on the upside of dirt." It’s really fun conversation, plus Brian has an awesome voice - no wonder he’ll soon be an announcer for local college sports teams. Dutchess Office for the Aging (dutchessny.gov/aging)

Tel: 845-486-2555 Links of things mentioned in the episodes:

Go Go Grandparents
Meals on Wheels
Help at Home
Rhinebeck at Home (aging in place group)
Silver Sneakers
Falls Prevention Checklist
County Calendar
Pickleball Courts (Quiet Cove)
Overmountain Conservation Area
Friendship Centers in Dutchess County
Sunwise Aging Services & Care Management

Thank you for listening to Cidiot, the award-winning podcast about learning to live and love life in the Hudson Valley.

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109. Franklin's Trees

Cidiot

10/17/24 • 33 min

“Stories tell you what’s important to people.” - AJ Schenkman

Thanks to Jennifer Santiago and Jenny Leifer of The Valley Girls podcast, I was introduced to a writer and public school teacher A.J. Schenkman. He writes a lot about area history and has published multiple books including “Patriots and Spies,” Wicked Ulster County,” “Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh” and most recently the beautiful illustrated children’s book “Franklin’s Trees.”

As you’ll hear on this episode of Cidiot®, A.J.’s brand of writing and teaching is “History Made Seamless,” which means making history accessible. We talk about how he got into writing about history, Eleanor wanting a place of her own away from mother-in-law, witness trees, stories from the FDR National Historic Site, elk, and A.J.’s new illustrated book: “Franklin’s Trees.”

“A good book will transform you through time,” he promises so excited to share this conversation and a slew of stories about FDR, Eleanor, trees, and more.

Links to highlights from this episode:

Franklin’s Trees, by A.J. Schenkman (Muddy Boots publishing)
A.J. Schenkman's blog “History Made Seamless”
Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site
Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site
Historic Huguenot Street (New Paltz)
A.J. on Literary Hudson Valley (YouTube)
Cidiot Episode 29: Eleanor Was Right

Thanks to the Valley Girls Podcast and their new show, Literary Hudson Valley.

Cidiot® is the award-winning podcast about moving to the Hudson Valley, produced and hosted by Mat Zucker. This episode was brilliantly edited by Isaac Rostan. Please rate & review the show at Cidiot.com, join the mailing list, and get in touch about what you like—and what you’d like to hear about. And come visit.

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86. Route 9 - Albany Post Road

Cidiot

04/20/23 • 17 min

Sometimes the show takes you to new places, and sometimes the way to get there is the destination. U.S. Route 9 is historic—for much of the portion in New York State, it's The Albany Post Road. Join Cidiot® for a very personal driving tour from Poughkeepsie to Kinderhook with sites, stops and history along the way. Be sure to see the surviving markers, a system developed by Ben Franklin, including the iconic 100-mile marker in Rhinebeck.

Below are some of the places mentioned w/links for more info.

Poughkeepsie to Hyde Park:

Staatsburgh to Rhinebeck:

River & Post restaurant
Mills Mansion (Staatsburgh State Historical Site)
Habitas on Hudson
Patty’s Pet Palace
The Beekman Arms
Le Petit Bistro
Samuels Sweet Shop
Oblong Books (book recommendations on Episode 77)
Rhinebeck Farmer’s Market
100 Mile Marker (picture on Cidiot Instagram)
Northern Dutchess Hospital
Co. coworking
Dutchess County Fairgrounds
Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome

Red Hook:

Maizeland (Van Ness House)
Taste Budd’s Cafe
Annabelle’s Village Bake Shop
The Corner Counter
Localvore
Historic Village Diner (The Halfway Diner)
The Elmendorph Inn
Rose Hill Farm
Greig Farm
Lasting Joy Brewery

Clermont to Claverack:

Claverack to Hudson:

83. Country Colors

Cidiot

12/15/22 • 42 min

I love color. I’m fascinated by color. I have questions. Amy Krane is an architectural color consultant as well as a real estate broker. And get this: she has her own podcast on color called Let’s Talk (Paint) Color with colleague Amy Woolf.

On this episode in three fun, chatty parts, Amy and I talk about her journey upstate (she’s not a newbie) and then becoming a color consultant and then into my thousand questions about color especially for rural homes, historical homes - starting with why are barns red - or as you’ll hear Falun Red - and what about painting your outbuildings the same color as your house? And then she surprises with what color was researched to paint your front door for $6,000 more in resale value. You’ll also hear about her philosophy called “Fit In, Stand Out.”

Part 1: About Amy’s Journey
Part 2: Mat’s Color Questions
Part 3: Mistakes to Avoid and Hudson Valley Favorites

Thanks for listening to Cidiot®. Until December 22nd, you can help change history by voting for Cidiot for Listener's Choice in the prestigious Signal Awards in the Lifestyle category. Currently one of six finalists and gunning for gold.

Amy’s Links: