Hometown Stories

Henrietta Lacks was born in Roanoke in the 1920s. Unknowingly, she would go on to change the world, thanks to her immortal cells - taken from her without her consent or knowledge. More than 70 years after her death, her hometown is recognizing her in new ways with the help of two local artists

Three years. That's how long it's been since we first became aware of the threat of COVID-19.  During her recent teleconference, we asked the head of the Roanoke City Alleghany Health District to reflect on this anniversary that is both somber and celebratory. Dr. Cynthia Morrow says there is so much we've learned from COVID-19. And while it's hard to extract silver linings from tragedy, there is...

A historian walks into the National Archives and walks out with something we've never seen before. Virginia Tech Professor Ed Gitre unearths forgotten surveys of WWII soldiers.  In this episode of Hometown Stories, how history and technology are painting us a more intimate picture of life as a soldier, one Gitre hopes will allow us to better understand the Greatest Generation. (A note from the cur...

In this episode of Hometown Stories, we speak with WDBJ7 reporter Janay Reece who highlights the history of slavery in Appalachia.  Some people falsely believe it simply didn't exist in our Blue Ridge Mountains. Now, the Glencoe Museum in Radford, Virginia is highlighting that history with a special exhibit and oral histories from locals and experts.  

On December 8, Hometown Stories hosted its first ever in person storytelling event! We invited the community to hear from three guest speakers to talk about Hometowns - how they have been inspired by and continue to inspire their hometowns. Our guests included recently retired WDBJ7 meteorologist and anchor Robin Reed, Xavier Duckett (Humble Hustle and Imagine Me Mentoring), and Leah Weiss, award-...

This month, Robin Reed will bid WDBJ7 viewers goodnight for the last time.  His retirement caps off a tremendous career spanning more than 40 remarkable years.  We speak often of the impact Robin has had on his community. In this episode of Hometown Stories, a look at the impact the community had on him.   

Renowned TV Chef, scientist and dog-dad Alton Brown, best known for Good Eats and Iron Chef, joins us to talk about his upcoming visit to Roanoke City! In this episode of Hometown Eats, we preview his Live show Beyond the Eats: The Holiday Variant. It's a show that involves cooking, music, comedy game shows and things never before seen by human eyes! We talk about live audiences, laughing brains,...

In a café along Main Street in Clifton Forge, Virginia the past and the present are brewing something unique for the town's future. Caffe' Museo has been open just three years. But the work to bring it to life has been centuries in the making. In this episode of Hometown Stories, we take you to the only coffee grinder museum this side of the globe.

This is a story about big dreams, small print and making happier endings wherever you can. Jennifer Williams is on a mission to give away 1 million books. In this episode of Hometown Stories, a look at her yearslong journey to bring books to schools, jails and everywhere in between.

The man leading the Virginia Tech Hokies into battle this season isn't new to the field at all. Head Coach Brent Pry made his first tour of Lane Stadium back in the 1990s.  Coach has been the boss for almost a year now and we figured it was time to pry back the layers and get to know Coach outside of work. In this episode of Hometown Stories, we chat with Coach Pry about everything from his pizza...

 Virginia Tech librarian who moonlights as an expert on the British monarchy admitted Thursday she wept as news broke that Britain's longest ruling monarch had died.   Marlene Koenig has devoted her life to studying, understanding and writing about the royal family - drawn in after finding a book in the library on Queen Victoria when she was in middle school.    She works as a Librarian for Virgin...

Dr. Kenneth Garren, who sometimes goes by Kenny G, is known for his tenure leading educational institutions in southwest and central Virginia. But Garren also has a military career and a NASA Career under his belt, too. As NASA works to launch phase 1 of the Artemis mission, Garren recalls his time working on Artemis' twin sister, Apollo.

NASA has sights set on human exploration of Mars. But before they run, they've got to walk and NASA leaders see the Moon as the perfect place for those baby steps. In this episode of Hometown Stories, a member of Artemis' team at Kennedy Space Center details the plan to take us from Apollo to Artemis.

Longtime WDBJ7 Sports Director Travis Wells says farewell to broadcast sports. He is about to embark on a new career with the Virginia Tech Hokie Football team. In this episode of Hometown Stories, we sit down with Wells to reflect on his impressive 27-year career and the exciting adventure that awaits him. 

After Roanoke based national bestselling author Beth Macy wrote Dopesick in 2018 - she was convinced she never wanted to write about the opioid crisis again. It was too frustrating, too depressing. But as she traveled the country, she found something that changed her mind: Hope. Macy is launching her latest book, Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America's Overdose Crisis. She says...

The James Webb Space Telescope has given us some of the clearest, deepest images of our universe yet. Webb was many years, many hands and billions of dollars in the making. And at various points - it struggled. In 2018, after almost three decades with NASA, Gregory Robinson was tapped see the project through as Webb's program director. Born to a family of sharecroppers in segregated Pittsylvania C...

This is a story about a baseball team that played better than it ever has. And then... lost. In this episode of Hometown Stories, we take you to Blacksburg, Virginia where an underdog team is proving that some wins don't show up on the scoreboard.

Bedford, Virginia is home to the National D-Day Memorial for a devastating reason. The small, tightly knit community lost more men on D-Day per capita than any other city in the United States. As part of its continuing outreach, the memorial is now offering a podcast, intended to reach people in Bedford and Beyond. In this episode of Hometown Stories, we speak with podcast host and professor John...

Opera Roanoke is closing out its season with a show that's not technically an opera. It's a requiem - a Catholic Mass for the dead. More specifically, it's Guiseppe Verdi's Requiem. Opera Roanoke Conductor Maestro Steven White says they're using the nearly 150-year-old music to honor those lost to COVID and war. In this episode of Hometown Stories, White shares a modern take on an ancient text. 

Books and Crannies in Martinsville, Virginia found customers from all over the country during the pandemic. Givens Books in Lynchburg found a loyal customer who returned week after week for another Agatha Christie novel. And while Oracle Books in Wytheville opened shortly before the pandemic, the support it's received from the community has them feeling right at home. In this episode of Hometown S...

God's Pit Crew is a robust group of staff and volunteers dedicated to helping people following a disaster. They've been kept busy by the tornadoes and wildfires that have swept the southeast over the last several months. In this episode of Hometown Stories, one of those immediate responders sets down his chainsaw to tell us what he's seeing on the ground.

In 2007 the Virginia Tech Campus became the focus of international attention when a gunman killed 32 people in one morning. For local journalists first on scene, what they saw and heard that day is forever engrained in their memories. In this episode of Hometown Stories, we sit down with the journalists who were the first to tell the stories of the horror that unfolded on April 16, 2007. Two repor...

NASA researchers have just shared an image of their record-breaking discovery from the Hubble Telescope. The image shows a red arc in a distant part of our universe. In the midst of that red arc, they discovered a star. The light from that star is so old, NASA says this Hubble image shows us the farthest star ever seen. They've called it Earendel. In this episode of Hometown Stories, NASA Astrophy...

In 1948 a man was arrested and fined $5.00 for refusing to sit in the Colored section of a train. That man happened to be Virginia's first Black Olympic gold medalist and a Tuskegee Airman. In this episode of Hometown Stories, we take a look at how Norvel Lee's fight in the ring and the courtroom is being recognized today.

WDBJ7 shares a special connection with Ukraine. Over the years, several journalists visited the country in an exchange program which also brought Ukrainian journalists to Roanoke. But many say the trip was farm more than just a professional exchange of ideas and had a profound impact personally. In this episode of Hometown Stories, we invite current and former WDBJ7 journalists to share their expe...