The Best Job in South Dakota
76 episodes listed below
South Dakota work stories with roots.
The Best Job in South Dakota pairs easy host banter with generous interviews about agriculture, conservation, and work across the state. Guests explain how they found their work, what they have learned on the ground, and why South Dakota keeps pulling them in.
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The Best Job in South Dakota is a steady, neighborly interview series about the people working around agriculture, conservation, and leadership in South Dakota. It has a recognizable rhythm. Rebecca Blue and Chris Church begin with a light check-in, wander through a bit of local color, and then bring the guest into a conversation that starts broad and becomes personal. The show is proud of place without turning stiff. A bald eagle sighting, a joke about capitol buildings, the history of FFA jackets, or the name of Gettysburg, South Dakota can all become the runway into a deeper career story. The guests come from practical worlds. Katie Youthy talks about communications work for the South Dakota Association of Conservation Districts and the Dakota Conservation Network as a starting point for conservation help. Cheyenne Tant describes policy work for the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources after taking a leap from Southeast Texas to Pierre. Caroline Hansen and Kate Meyer discuss FFA, student leadership, ag teachers, and the value of trying new roles while the stakes are still low. Valerie Devine brings in NRCS conservation work, grazing, plant identification, staff mentoring, and the quiet satisfaction of helping people grow into demanding jobs. The tone is warm and affirming. It is not a hard-news show or a technical policy seminar. The appeal comes from patient questions, lived experience, and the hosts’ habit of treating each guest’s path as worth slowing down for. Agriculture here includes classrooms, state offices, websites, county conservation work, cattle, soil, and the confidence to serve a community well. The result is a grounded portrait of South Dakota work life, especially the women helping farmers, students, agencies, and conservation teams move forward.
Made for: For listeners interested in agriculture, conservation, leadership, FFA, public-facing work, and South Dakota community life. It especially suits people who like warm career-story interviews more than debate or technical deep dives.
What sets it apart: The show makes agriculture and conservation work feel personal through local anecdotes, mentor stories, and patient guest-led conversations. Its recurring “best job” frame gives policy, soil, youth leadership, and public-facing work a distinctly South Dakota sense of pride.
Rebecca Blue and Chris Church host The Best Job in South Dakota where they explore the important role that women play in agriculture. With a touch of awe and envy, the hosts converse with women who have either 1) found their way to the best job; or 2) performed the best job in their chosen endeavor. Often both! These individuals are making a difference in their communities through agriculture and related fields and demonstrating the important role that women play.
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It makes South Dakota's agricultural institutions legible through warm interviews about the people, career paths and practical work inside them.
Rebecca Blue and Chris Church give agricultural work a human scale, pairing practical interviews with playful opening exchanges about birds, state capitals, FFA jackets and other curiosities.
This is where cover crops, blue corduroy and state policy become your unusually cheerful social circle.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm conservation interview that treats local outreach as a practical starting point.
The Best Job in South Dakota reads as a warm, practical conversation about conservation outreach. Rebecca Blue and Chris Church speak with Katie Youthy, the communications coordinator for the South Dakota Association of Conservation Districts, and the most engaging part is her…
A warm local-government interview that turns a policy job into a personal story.
Rebecca Blue and Chris Church keep this one grounded and easy to listen to. What starts as a policy interview turns into a clear portrait of Cheyenne Tant, who comes across as steady and thoughtful while talking about the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural…
FFA pride, mentorship, and a jacket history detour with real heart.
This episode folds an FFA conversation into a wider look at leadership, mentorship, and the pull of the blue corduroy jacket. Caroline Hansen and Kate Meyer give it shape, and the hosts keep the talk moving with an easy rhythm that fits the show's local feel.
A calm conservation interview that ties cattle, cover crops, and mentorship into one grounded story.
This episode keeps its focus on Valerie Devine, the Resource Unit Conservationist for the Upper James Resource Unit at USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, and that steady frame works.
British landscapes, patiently listened to.
Wildlife wonder, policy, and fieldwork in conversation.
Field conservation, told by the people doing it.
One plant per episode, and a guest who knows it.
Conservation science and good news, from people doing the work.
Rebecca Blue and Chris Church welcome Kelly Branley, communications director for the Women's Ag Network and the show's first repeat guest.
Rebecca Blue and Chris Church start with their familiar "best job in South Dakota" banter and a spring bird story before welcoming Katie Youthy.
Rebecca Blue and Chris Church welcome Cheyenne Tant, a policy advisor with the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Rebecca Blue and Chris Church start with a familiar check-in.
Liv Stavik, executive director of the South Dakota Agribusiness Association, describes leaving South Dakota for Montana before returning to her family's Stavik-Simmental ranch.
Rebecca Blue and Chris Church host Valerie Devine, the Resource Unit Conservationist for the Upper James Resource Unit at USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service.