Inside Appalachia

Foster Care in a Pandemic World The pandemic has reshaped so much of our lives, and that was true for families fostering and adopting children, too. In Eastern Kentucky, 22-year-old Hannah Adams found herself with a front-row view of the process, after she was sent back home from college and moved back in with her mom, who was in the midst of adopting a foster child.  As a result, Hannah made a 12...

Messes Are A Part of Life If you’ve spent time with toddlers, you know that messes are a part of creativity and life. During the pandemic, many parents are juggling working from home while also watching after children -- which can sometimes lead to messes. Producer Roxy Todd sat down with author David Perri to discuss his book “Messy Larry,” a book about a larger-than-life bear named Larry who lea...

What is a Crankie? When traditional Appalachian musician Anna Roberts-Gevalt first showed ballad singer Elizabeth LaPrelle a crankie, Elizabeth was speechless. “I really freaked out,” LaPrelle told WUNC’s Laura Candler in 2013.  Crankies, which originated in Europe , have been used for years to enhance the art of live storytelling. A crankie consists of long rolls of fabric that are rolled up on e...

Pandemic-Fueled Homebuyers Moving To Appalachia The pandemic has caused a boom in the housing market across the country — and Appalachia is no exception. People have been spending more time inside their homes these days. This, coupled with an increased popularity in remote work, has had people rethinking their lives in big cities. Some have even bought houses in the region sight unseen. We’ll also...

Decades after HIV was first discovered, there’s still discrimination. In this week’s episode of Inside Appalachia , we hear from several people here in Appalachia who are living with HIV.  Elena Eimes recalled being harassed at Walmart, after a customer learned she has HIV. “That hurt so bad. [I was] So embarrassed. And that woman really thought she was warning everybody,” Eimes said. “The biggest...

Human beings are social creatures and the pandemic is taking a toll on all of us in one way or another. It’s also bringing to light just how important human connection is in our lives. This week on Inside Appalachia , we’ll hear from folks who are overcoming these challenges on top of maintaining sobriety and staying on the path to recovery. As we grapple with the immediate health emergency of the...

In this episode of Inside Appalachia , we’re sharing stories about people with passions like poetry, music, or making hot dogs, and have touched others with their dedication to their craft. Punk Music And Banjos In Harlan County, Kentucky, 20-year-old Bradford Harris plays in the punk band L.I.P.S. When in person shows were canceled because of the pandemic, Bradford began playing the banjo. Eventu...

Valentine’s Day gets a lot of flack for being sappy, cliche or just a marketing ploy by card and chocolate companies. But we tend to think there is more to it than that.  So, for this episode of Inside Appalachia , we asked our listeners for their best Appalachian love stories.  We received more stories than we could include in a single show, but we included some of our favorites, including one co...

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed and exacerbated societal inequities.  Black and Latino populations have suffered higher infection rates. People working low-income jobs are more likely to be considered essential — and therefore required to work in-person — while others have the luxury of working remotely.  The pandemic has pushed many people who were already living paycheck to paycheck out of wo...

This week on Inside Appalachia , we’re revisiting a show that originally aired last fall, that prominently features bold mountain women who are making a difference in their communities. We hear what happens when Abigail Washburn and Wu Fei combine Appalachian and Chinese folk music. We also meet the driving force behind a family-owned Black newspaper that’s been publishing since 1939. Claudia Whit...

For some, winter can be a difficult time -- dark and cold. For others, time outside in the winter is a powerful experience. After everything we’ve been through in the past year, getting outside can be one way to help with the stress. Taking a break from social media and the news, getting bundled up and venturing out into nature, even just for five minutes, can help.  In this episode of Inside Appa...

How can we hold onto traditions in a world that’s always changing? This week on Inside Appalachia, we explore stories about how our history and culture can help us find answers, and ask questions, about the types of future we want to build. Whether it’s learning the recipes of our ancestors, trying to bring back a heritage tree that was nearly wiped out, or rooting for the home team, our future wo...

In this episode of Inside Appalachia, we’re revisiting some of the stories we have reported about economic development. We’ll hear how these projects are doing today, and how the pandemic has impacted these efforts. Lavender An economic development project in southern West Virginia, partly funded by a $1 million grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, planned to grow lavender on former str...

In 2016, our  Inside Appalachia  team began documenting the lives of six Appalachians who were trying to decide if they could find a stable job and keep their roots in Appalachia, or if they’d have to leave home for opportunities elsewhere. This series won first place for “Best Series” from the Public Media Journalists Association (formerly known as the Public Radio News Directors, Inc.). Two of t...

Have you ever noticed how conversations about food can lead us to learn surprising things about each other? In this week’s episode of  Inside Appalachia , we talk about holiday foods. We’ve got recipes for things like cranberry salad, sorghum gingerbread, and pecan pie. But more than recipes, this show is about the power of memory, and tradition. Co-host Caitlin Tan shares her grandmother’s recipe...

If you live in Appalachia, or for that matter, if you’ve ever lived in Appalachia, you are a part of our family. It defines us. This week on Inside Appalachi a we’ll hear about family found in unexpected places — like a West Virginia family who got a letter from a sister in Austria they didn’t even know they had.  And a young man in North Carolina who was inspired to learn old-time music when he s...

What are communities in Appalachia doing to address racism? The death of George Floyd and others at the hands of police sparked hundreds of demonstrations over the summer, and a national reckoning on police reform and systemic racism. Those conversations are happening here in Appalachia, too.

In this episode of Inside Appalachia, you’ll hear the story of Iraq War veteran Mark Combs. A few years ago, he recorded his journey as he left Appalachia to become a comedian. He and his friend Cameron tried their luck first in California, then in Colorado. Along the way, homesickness hit Combs especially hard as he struggled to find a place where he felt he belonged. His story is part of a long-...

Juggling work and child care has never been easy, but it’s gotten even more complicated during the coronavirus pandemic. Our child care system is in crisis. The system was patchwork and threadbare before this year. Working parents in the United States face a lot of pressure. And child care workers are often underpaid, overworked, and undervalued. In this week’s episode of Inside Appalachia we’ll h...

It’s been quite a stressful couple of months for most of us. For this episode of Inside Appalachia, we wanted to slow down, take a breath, and talk about one of our favorite foods — cookies! We'll get some baking tips on a very special kind of cookie, made with local buckwheat and stone ground flour.

There is a deep connection among generations that holds steady for many families across central Appalachia. Perhaps it’s a combination of shared struggles and enduring repeated cycles of economic boom and bust. Maybe it’s our deep ties to the land that help bind so many of us to our past — after all, these mountains are among the oldest on the planet. While many Appalachians have fled the region i...

Many of us are dreaming about the things we want to do when this pandemic is over — like traveling someplace far away. If you have wanderlust, or the itch to fly, these are not ideal circumstances. But being grounded does give us time to reflect and dream about flights in our future and those in our past. This week on Inside Appalachia, we are listening to an encore episode of a show that aired ov...

Four years ago, 95 percent of Appalachian counties voted for Donald Trump. National journalists parachuted in to try to understand why. But, what did they miss? This week on Inside Appalachia, we’re talking with voters across Central Appalachia about the issues that matter to them.

This week’s episode of Inside Appalachia is about fierce women — something we have no shortage of here in Appalachia. We’ll hear about the folk music collaboration between Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn. Their new album combines the tones of Appalachia with the melodies of China. We’ll also hear a story about the first transgender person elected to political office in West Virginia, and a 90-year-old...

In Appalachia, we’re all too familiar with black lung disease, and how it takes the breath away from coal miners. For a time, it seemed black lung was going away, thanks to tougher mine safety regulations. Now it's seeing a resurgence. There is another problem that doesn’t seem to have gone away, either, and that is racism. It shows itself in places you never would have thought of, including in th...