It's been a busy few months across the country and in Nevada. A new administration, the biennial circus that is our Nevada Legislature, and a (gladly) crowded client schedule for me. Needless to say, I have been pulled a bit all over the place.

But a big reason for not posting recently is a new project I am working on called 775 Alive. It grew out of conversations with a good friend from Humboldt County, Crystal Newton. Crystal runs a business in Winnemucca as well as a venture entrepreneur, and ran for a Humboldt County Commission seat in the 2024 primary election.

Over the last few years, she and I have engaged in a series of lengthy discussions about rural Nevada, its potential, and the issues we face. In other words, many of the same issues I discuss here in this Substack series.

A few months ago, Crystal proposed a podcast looking at some of these same issues from two separate axes. The first is the rural-urban chasm that forms much of the focus of The Rurals of Nevada. We both originally come from outside rural Nevada and, unsurprisingly, bring different perspectives to its problems from having lived in both urban and rural America for significant portions of our lives.

The second axis is the sharp political divides between the predominantly Republican rural counties and the Democratic-strong Clark and Washoe counties (currently, Clark is the only county in Nevada with more Democrats than Republicans). Furthermore, between 25 to 30% of rural voters are non-partisans. The rurals also have a slightly higher percentage of third-party voters than the rest of the state.

Crystal and I are active in the Republican political scene on both the local rural and state levels. It is a surprisingly complex world, and not just because of the Republican-Democrat divide. Differences of perspective between rural and urban parties, debates on how to reach non-partisan voters, the applicability of urban-style campaigning promoted by political consultants to rural communities, and understanding the complex dynamics linking rural Nevada to national and international affairs are just a small sample of the issues we both have grappled with over the years.

So, we have recently launched 775 Alive with Crystal and Scott to explore these issues. Working through these issues and many others before an audience is surprisingly entertaining (and more than a little therapeutic) for us. But we also think it will be useful for our audience. The lack of conversation between political parties is a bygone conclusion of the current political environment (unfortunately). The lack of conversation between rural and urban audiences is even more regrettable.

We are attempting to connect all these audiences. The title references the 775 area code that encompasses most of Nevada outside of Las Vegas. Our hope is that as we discuss issues between the two of us, it will spark similar discussions elsewhere. We do not claim to be the definitive voice of rural Nevada, only to represent some of the opinions out here. The goal is to soon have guests on to add their voices to the discussion as well.

The podcast is a native vidcast, but we produce each episode as an audio podcast as well. We considered doing it through Substack Live with an attached subscription-based ‘deep dive’ series, and may implement this approach in the future. But we decided to instead launch on a broader range of channels and platforms to build an audience quickly. But it is very much a work in progress.

Our main website, 775alive.com, will host all our videos, as well as a range of additional information. One fun item is our “How Nevada Are You?” quiz (Crystal is particularly proud of it). It's currently just for fun, but if we note anything that might be interesting to discuss, we will cycle it through our growing topic list.

Of course, we are still playing with physical formats such as Zoom or in-studio, as well as addressing the technical issues inherent to any production. But here is an example from our most recent episode on Nevada’s status as a swing state and how different urban and rural political cultures may be contributing to that status.

In addition to the “Swing State Nevada” video, we have four additional episodes available that might give you some ideas of the topics we hope to cover:

• Ep001: The 2024 Nevada State Legislature and Party Priorities

• Ep002: The Question of Tariffs

• Ep003: Mining in the 775

• Ep004: The Culture of Protesting

Please consider checking it out and let us know what you think of the approach. And we are currently trying to recruit guests. If you are interested, feel free to reach out to me or email us at info@775alive.com.

The Demise of REAP

The launch of the podcast sparked an effort to bring together a set of data sources that Crystal and I could readily consult as needed. Imagine my surprise in discovering that one of the sources I had used often in the past and placed at the top of my list shut down just as we started planning.

The Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Analysis Project (REAP) shut down on February 15th, 2025. I have used this resource in the past, partly because it included data for Nevada even though the state is not technically in the Pacific Northwest region (see the first “The Aging Rurals” article, for instance).

The shutdown has been in the works for a while due to budget constraints, so it is not some by-product of the recent program cuts in Washington. The exact reason is a bit murky from what I can follow, however. There appears to be no clear statement beyond the “blue screen of death” above.

One factor cited in some notes is a substantial drop in attendance at an annual conference whose proceeds were used to support the project. If so, this is an interesting (and ironic) example of post-COVID economic damage. Another factor is one of the major sponsors believes it is more effective (by which I think the implication is ‘cheaper’) to do project-specific analyses than regional ones.

There is also the open question about where the data already collected is housed. This issue of preservation is a critical one for an increasingly digital world.

I might dig into thismore because it is an interesting story. And in the overall scheme of things, the disappearance of a single data source is a relatively minor issue, however much it impacted us. But it is a loss.

The Siloing of Data

The juxtaposition of the launch of the 775 Alive podcast at the same time that one of the major comprehensive resources on which we planned to rely brought up an issue I have been grappling with for a long while: the siloing of data.

What I mean by that is that data, particularly that for policy purposes, is becoming harder and harder to compile effectively. For various reasons, data is increasingly being divided up or ‘siloed’ in ways that make cross-referencing increasingly difficult. In effect, those of us interested in policy are living and working in a data-rich but accessibility-poor world.

By accessibility, I do not necessarily mean the ability to access data, although that is part of it. Certainly, those not affiliated with academic or public institutions are often barred from accessing key data sets. This includes those that are publicly funded and theoretically “public facing.” Subscription models are another problem along the same lines. Limiting public data use to those either associated with certain institutions or able to pay is hardly making data, shall we say, public.

While some cynics might claim this is the whole point of these models, it is not the problem that I have.

Rather, I am worried that in the name of “efficiency” we are collecting data on too narrow of a perspective or failing to realize the limitations of the data. The idea that programs such as REAP are being discontinued to focus on single-project research is worrisome. One would think that digital technology would allow us to look at data from a broader perspective. This reasoning is going in the opposite direction.

From a policy perspective, I find this disconcerting. We already have problems with data being too constrained. Not considering the differences between the Rurals of Nevada, for instance, and assuming they all face the same issues results in bad policy. But even when comprehensive and comparative data is accessible today, policymakers too often ignore it for the simple explanation.

Foregoing comprehensive data collection to favor a tight focus is not going to solve this.

Which brings me back to why Crystal and I started 775 Alive. The tendency to silo, whether of perspective or data, needs to be countered by more open discourse. We hope our explorations of various issues that interest us spark open discourse elsewhere. Consider joining us in this process.

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