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Northeast Notebook Live
WAMC’s Northeast Notebook Live brings listeners inside the conversations of the region. Each day, the hour-long show airing online and on-air will feature a deep dive into an issue that matters most, as well as analysis of the headlines and additional interviews with newsmakers and journalists to provide a broad overlook of what matters most. The show will feature reporting by WAMC journalists, and highlight the vital work local journalists do to inform their communities. Northeast Notebook Live will regularly feature reporting by the Albany Times Union, the Berkshire Eagle, and the Adirondack Explorer thanks to a formal partnership with WAMC that’s meant to explore the region’s news with breadth, depth and context.

Northeast Notebook 9-24-26: Low math scores, solar energy storage, and Norman Rockwell

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Sam Dingman
Published September 24, 2026 at 5:05 PM EDT
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), "Expense Account," 1957. Painting for "The Saturday Evening Post" cover, November 30, 1957. Oil on canvas, 31 /14" x 29". Norman Rockwell Museum Collections. ©SEPS: Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN.
Norman Rockwell Museum
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), "Expense Account," 1957. Painting for "The Saturday Evening Post" cover, November 30, 1957. Oil on canvas, 31 /14" x 29". Norman Rockwell Museum Collections. ©SEPS: Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN.

In college, co-host Molly Anderson sought to write satirical poetry that was "equal parts disturbing and amusing." We hope you'll find yourself applying similar adjectives to today's show.

First: in the wake of mostly-positive polls for incumbent New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, we consider her plan to campaign with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Is she anticipating strong support for Bruce Blakeman in the suburbs, and looking to run up the score in New York City?

And then, on today's deep-dive, climate and community collide. If New York wants to meet its renewable energy goals, it has to figure out a sustainable storage solution for solar batteries, which have a bad habit of catching on fire.

Plus: if the line item for "procuring energy" on your monthly electric bill doesn't mean delivery costs... what does it mean, exactly? We investigate the causes behind the costs that are rising for energy customers around the Northeast.

All that and more, on this Sept. 24 edition of Northeast Notebook.
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Sam Dingman
Sam Dingman is WAMC’s Hudson/Catskill Bureau Chief. Previously, he was co-host and reporter at “The Show” on KJZZ, Phoenix’s NPR station. Prior to KJZZ, Dingman was the creator and host of the acclaimed podcast “Family Ghosts,” which has been hailed as a critic’s choice by NPR, the LA Times and the New York Times. Dingman also co-hosted the BlueWire original series “The Rumor,” which was featured in the Washington Post and New York Magazine, and was a Webby honoree for Best Podcast Writing. He was story editor for Lemonada Media’s Signal Award-winning series “Pack One Bag,” writer and showrunner for John Stamos’s Webby-winning podcast “The Grand Scheme: Snatching Sinatra,” editor of Karina Longworth’s “You Must Remember This,” and a producer for WNYC’s Peabody-winning “On the Media.” He is a four-time winner of the Moth Grand and Story Slams, and has created, written, hosted, produced and edited podcasts for The Atlantic, Audible Originals, Gilded Audio, Gimlet Media, Lincoln Center, Panoply Media, Paramount Pictures, Pushkin Industries, Spotify, Slate, Stitcher, and Wondery.
See stories by Sam Dingman