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.

#9 in the Top 100 Indie places & travel Monthly 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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71. Mayors of the Mall

Cidiot

07/07/22 • 19 min

Newburgh is one of the oldest towns in New York State and frequently talked about as a city coming around. Cidiot spoke to Diane Parisella, who with her business partner Lisa Morgan, own Designed Grind Cafe at the Newburgh Mall and started The Newburgh Market, held on Sundays from April through the end of October in the mall parking lot 10am-3pm. Hear about the market, their business, what's coming to the mall, her favorite places in the Hudson Valley, and more on Newburgh itself. Stop by Designed Grind Cafe and tell 'em Cidiot sent you and get 10% off a delicious coffee.

Thanks for listening to Cidiot and our sponsors Hudson Valley Kitchen Design Center and Taconic Toastmasters Club. Follow Cidiot on Instagram (@cidot.hv) and subscribe to the free newsletter on the home page at Cidiot.com.

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62. A Little Therapy

Cidiot

03/17/22 • 36 min

This episode is about managing stress and the proven science of the great outdoors being good for you. I also talk to Allison Chawla, host of Talk to Allison on Radio Free Rhinecliff as well as a psychotherapist, healer, and coach. We talk about change, giving up what is comfortable, about the artistic hamlet of Rhinecliff, parenting, moving up here from the city, newfound diversity, foraging—and keeping a knife under her bed in fear of the silence.

In other news, Cidiot made the finals for 2022 Chronogrammies Best Regional Podcast, so get ready to vote in April.

1 Listener

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:

70. Toastmasters Teach

Cidiot

06/23/22 • 12 min

I asked our new sponsors at Taconic Toastmasters Club to help me be a better presenter on air for you. They went through a few of my episodes and tell me what I'm doing right—and maybe could be better. I'm a believer in self-improvement and I'll take a few tips wherever I can get them. Including about owls.

Want to develop and polish communication and leadership skills in a fun, friendly, supportive environment? Join Taconic Toastmasters Club at their next meeting at the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, 1 North Front St, Hudson, NY (Use rear entrance). The club meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 5:30 PM. See their website.

Follow Cidiot on Instagram and please send a birthday message at Cidiot.com. Just click on the microphone in the corner and mention your name and a favorite episode. By July 1 if you can. You can also subscribe for free to the Cidiot newsletter. Thanks.

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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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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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61. Floridiot

Cidiot

03/03/22 • 17 min

Cidiot is about being new in and acclimating to country life. So what happens if you, say, move to south Florida for a few months and try to fit in there. In this special episode, you'll find out. Mat shares his eight observations comparing life in Florida to the Hudson Valley, including a guest voice: his brother-in-law's brother-in-law Irwin Levy, who is active in the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society. Tune in for some laughs and, of course, warmth. Be sure to stream the new Cidiot anthem on Spotify, Apple Music and more. Hamilton & Adams is offering 15% off at their new online store for fans of the show. Just use the code: CIDIOT. And sign up for the Cidiot mailing list and get more info about the show, becoming a sponsor, and the Hudson Valley, Catskill Mountains, Berkshires and rural living at Cidiot.com

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65. The Daily Catch

Cidiot

04/28/22 • 41 min

Some of the most important news is local. Mat interviews Emily Sachar, publisher and editor of The Daily Catch. She shares her journey from a newspaper reporter (including an internship under Bob Woodward at The Washington Post), to an art historian and then starting The Daily Catch in Red Hook, NY. We hear about the stories of which she's proudest, behind the scenes of the Daily Catch's Ukraine coverage, what it takes to produce a daily paper, about just doing "the next right thing," and more. And when asked the signature question of her favorite place in the Hudson Valley or Berkshires, Emily brings Cidiot an exclusive!

Cidiot is up for best regional podcast in the Arts & Entertainment category of the 2022 Chronogrammies. Please vote and get other ideas from Episode 64 "A Cidiot's Ballot," or via the blog post on Cidiot.com.

Welcome new sponsors Taconic Toastmasters Club and Hudson Valley Kitchen Design Center. Lucky to have you.

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