Last year's premiere season of "Rural by Choice" put host Cory Hepola in the tractor seat.
Co-produced with Otter Tail County Rural Rebound Coordinator Erik Osberg, the documentary-style video series features the Twin Cities broadcaster-slash-gubernatorial candidate exploring the small-town lifestyle, hoping to bridge the urban-rural divide. As he bottle-fed a calf and reeled in a fish, Hepola probed community members about the diversity of, and stereotypes surrounding, the area where he grew up.
In the second season, which drops Nov. 27, Hepola continues to consider the possibility of moving back home, now that he's a 40-something suburbanite with a young family. This season, he snowmobiles, ice fishes, and even takes a post-sauna roll in the snow with locals who know how to embrace a Minnesota winter.
Hepola features two cultural amenities in the area, the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center and the new Otter Cove Children's Museum, by interviewing their directors, who both returned to their hometowns after attending college and starting their careers.
Hepola talks health care with another remarkable returnee — a former classmate, who, after surviving a nearly fatal farm accident as a child, was inspired to become a surgeon at the top-ranked Perham, Minn., hospital.
Hepola said he hopes the series exposes urbanites to the benefits of a rural lifestyle — and dispels myths about what it's like to live in a small community.
"You may have thought it was one way, but actually it could be a good thing for you," he said.
