This Conversation

This episode features a member of TAKE ACTION SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA, one of the organizers of the NO KINGS protest in Abingdon, Virginia on Saturday, June 14, 2025. Guest Lynn Manweiler works with the local protest group that claims attendance of 700 people in one of the more than 2,000 protests held nationwide on the same day.   We look at the issues causing  people to take ...

Blue Ridge Job Corps Admissions Manager Heather Goodpasture continues to defy instructions to keep quiet and provides updates on Department of Labor orders to shut down the Job Corps. The shut down is under a restraining order, due in part because of the public backlash, and is set for a hearing on June 17 in a federal court. The decision will affect nearly 100 Job Corps programs nationwide. This...

Heather Goodpasture, Admissions Manager of Marion, Virginia's Blue Ridge Job Corps has gotten notice that she is losing her job and that 90 students at the Job Corps will be turned out of their living quarters. Goodpasture is ignoring instructions not to speak to the media and wants people to know the benefits of the program to individual students and to the community. Mentioned in this episode: W...

IN 2023, Southwest Virginia author Barbara Kingsolver won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Demon Copperhead. In this interview, you'll hear how the title character reflects the challenges of drug addiction in his family and in his own life. The boy is loveable and resilient with a grand dream to see the ocean. Barbara talks about how many of the region's challenges were pressed upon the area by ex...

Long-time U.S. resident Dr. Philip Farah is member of the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace and was a speaker at the United Nations just before this interview aired on May 21, 2025. Farah is a Christian who has lived in the West Bank and who has relatives in Gaza who have been killed in the Israeli-Gaza War. His Palestinian parents were displaced from their home in the establishme...

Susan Lachman has been presenting the radio show "Women on Air" for 38 years. In this interview, she details the first idea of the show and talks about its growth, leading to its current airing of five hours per week. The show can be heard on WEHC-FM, 90.7 and WISE-FM, 90.5 on Wednesdays at 3:00 and Fridays on 6:00 in Southwest Virginia. On WETS-FM, 89.5 in Johnson City, TN, the show airs on Satur...

Emory & Henry History Professor is leaving his position to start a new life in Egypt. Why? We'll find out in this episode of This Conversation. Mentioned in this episode: WEHC 90.7 FM is the Voice of Southwest Virginia. Stay tuned, connected, informed and entertained. This is listener supported radio. www.wehcfm.com

The news producer does not show up in front of the camera, but does have great power of the newscast: what stories are covered... the order they appear...the graphics... the use of video...what the anchors say...and the way reporters approach the story they're covering. News Producer Aaron Taylor works for CBS affiliate WJHL-TV in Johnson City and shares insights into the busy, behind-the-scene wo...

This week's conversation is a lively conversation with Monica Hoel -- an Emory & Henry legend who is retiring after 40 years as a staff member at the University. Until April 30, Monica is the Alumni Director. She has hosted her radio show, The Duckpond Wall for many years. She reviews some of the highlights of her career and of her radio show. Mentioned in this episode: WEHC 90....

Olivia Bailey on combatting crime, drugs, and Medicaid abuse as Community Liaison in Southwest Virginia for Virginia's Attorney General Jason Miyares. Bailey is able to work with programs that reduce crime, assist victims of Medicaid Fraud, and focus on drug problems, such as the "One Pill Can Kill" program that addresses the dangers of fentanyl. Olivia reviews her time as an Emory & Henr...

Dr. Lou Fincher is the first president of Emory & Henry University, moved into the position from her Interim President status in March 2025. https://www.emoryhenry.edu/live/news/3845-emory-henry-university-selects-career-educator Mentioned in this episode: WEHC 90.7 FM is the Voice of Southwest Virginia. Stay tuned, connected, informed and entertained. This is listener supported radio. www.weh...

In this episode, we talk to international opera star Mike Austin who is coming to Emory with his opera star son Justin for a concert on April 12, 2025 at the McGlothlin Center for the Arts at 7:00 p.m. Austin is an Emory & Henry graduate and was the first African American to perform the lead opera role of Otello in the United States and has performed the role all over the world. In T...

This interview concludes a four-part series on free press.  PART IV A First Amendment lawyer details the scope of the liberties we have, including those that scare us.   Gabe Rottman works with the First Amendment Clinic in The School of Law at the University of Virginia. He also serves as an officer in the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which offers 24-hour support t...

Wildlife biologist Ethan Chapmon of the Virginia Dept of Wildlife resources addresses problems and solutions for the overabundance of deer in our neighborhoods. From car crashes and destroyed gardens to disease from deer ticks, Chapmon offers his advice. If you have a problem with a wounded deer or other issues, you can call the Wildlife Conflict Helpline: 855-571-9003. Or visit the Virginia Depar...

Mia Seligman found herself covering anti-Semitic speech as a first year student at Appalachian State University. Now in her junior year, she is the editor of the student paper. She continues to follow the story, despite the fear of having her picture posted on an anti-Semitic group's website and the scare of having her car windshield broken out. She is scheduled to have an article published in thi...

This interview is Part II in a four part series on Freedom of hte Press. In Part I, David Huff described his arrest for insisting that he's a member of the press -- and that he should have a seat at the Press table at a Saltville Town Hall meeting. In this episode, we hear from his lawyer Christopher Johnson who agrees with Mr. Huff and describes the resolution of the legal case. Is this...

This interview begins a four-part series on free speech and a free press. Our first conversation is with Saltville resident David Huff who claimed to be a member of the press and refused to leave a press table at a Town Council meeting. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. Is he really a member of the press and how can we know? Hear the result of his disorderly conduct...

It's Black History Month and Marva Wheeler shares her history in Washington County Virginia as a child of segregation, but also a person with outstanding musical talent. That didn't mean she avoided racial discrimination. She shares her story in hopes that the lessons of inequality can prevent future racism. Mentioned in this episode: WEHC 90.7 FM is the Voice of Southwest Virginia. Stay...

Valentyn Boychuck is a foreign exchange student who left Ukraine to be a student at Abingdon High School. The program that brought him here is the FLEX program through the U.S. Department of State. This 15-year-old share stories about the struggles of life in war-torn Ukraine including friends and family members who have served in the military and also how he loves his country and wants to share t...

Ben Davis, an Emory & Henry graduate, who lives in Santa Monica, California, shares his experience living through the wildfires that burned tens of thousands of acres in January 2025. With evacuation notices for his neighbors four blocks away, Ben and others in his apartment building evacuated as well. When they looked outside, the view was a wall of inferno nearby in the Palisades a...

David King converted from Old-Order Amish beliefs to Pentecostal Apostolic beliefs. His journey began with his birth in an Amish community in Lancaster Pennsylvania. As an adult, he began questioning the religious commitment in his community and eventually moved to Abingdon, Virginia where he is now known as a prominent farmer who sells his goods at the Abingdon Farmers Market.  He describes...

She's the Chief of Police for Emory & Henry University.  Yancey Wilmoth.   In This Conversation, she talks about intense Police Academy Training that helped her prevail in an incident where a man attempted to evade arrest. In contrast, she talks about the skills involved in communicating with children, and she tells the story helping a family in distress that became one of...

A new national research project into collard greens is underway and is based on work done for a book by Emory & Henry Professor Ed Davis and his co-author Professor Emeritus John Morgan. Ed's book is called Collards: A Southern Tradition from Seed to Table. In this episode of This Conversation, he reviews the culture of collards and recounts his pilgrimage over thousands of miles to find heirl...

An area company is leading the world in saving us from plastic waste. Eastman Chemical in nearby Kingsport, TN is now operating the world's largest chemical recycling facility. Eastman has reduced its carbon footprint by 80% with a goal of zero carbon input into the environment. The company is partnering with other major corporations, such as Pepsi and Proctor and Gamble to reduce plastic was...

Monroe Preston attended the Glade Spring Elementary School during segregation. The school was commonly referred to as the "colored school." Preston has led a campaign that resulted in the posting of a state highway marker to commemorate the school and its teachers. In this interview, Preston describes the school and its dedicated teachers, along with the many successes of those...