Alex Larrabee is in 10th grade at the Danville School in the Northeast Kingdom. She doesn’t hunt, but her family does and her classmates do. And she’s noticed that people who go hunting… it’s not a casual interest. They’re passionate about it. Alex, on the other hand, doesn’t really get what all the fuss is about.

Now, we at Brave Little State are not big hunters, and neither is Lola Duffort, our reporter for this episode. So, we figured the best way and probably the only way to answer Alex’s question was to head into the woods and see for ourselves. We hope you’ll tag along.

This episode was reported by Lola Duffort. It was produced by Burgess Brown and edited by Sabine Poux and Josh Crane. Digital support from Sophie Stephens. Angela Evancie is Brave Little State’s Executive Producer. Our theme music is by Ty Gibbons; other music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Special thanks to Abagael Giles, Travis Tremblay, Mike Covey, Matt Breton, Rachel Keach, Natalie Conway, Chris Bray and all the teachers and administrators who helped facilitate the high school voting round that led to this episode.

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Brave Little State is a production of Vermont Public and a proud member of the NPR Network.