Mandy on the Mountain

Mandy serves up the Forrest Gump version of Thanksgiving — turkey this, turkey that, turkey every-dang-thang — mixed with Black Friday chaos and the grown-woman Age of I Do Not Care. From showing up for her son’s birthday on Thanksgiving, to turkey salad drama with her brother, to leftover fatigue so strong she starts hallucinating cheeseburgers, this episode is peak Appalachian comedy. Add in the...

Mandy takes you from Black Friday chaos in Johnson City to the quiet shift that happens when a mountain woman finally reaches the Age of I Do Not Care. From Toys ‘R’ Us runs in a Toyota Supra, to grown kids, grief, and the freedom that comes after surviving a lifetime of giving yourself away — this episode blends Appalachian humor with grown-woman truth. If Black Friday doesn’t hit like it used to...

In this Thanksgiving episode, Mandy takes you back to a cold little trailer with no heat, a wobbly table, mismatched chairs, frozen goldfish, and a mama who made holidays holy. But this year, something hit Mandy full-circle — a realization about grief, motherhood, and why her mama never cooked Thanksgiving again after her brother died. This is an Appalachian story of loss, love, judgment, grace, a...

This is the story of the dog who bit me twice… and somehow still saved my life. Grief like this is layered… love and pain braided together in ways only trauma survivors understand. Tonight, I’m talking about the dog who hurt me, stood by me, and carried pieces of me no one else could hold. This is our creek, our porch, our Thanksgiving mornings… and the goodbye I never thought I’d have to face.

Mandy dives into Appalachian Thanksgiving Eve with humor and comfort, sharing the real chaos behind last minute prep. From missing cornbread and deep freezer panic to paper plate politics and the annual weather forecast debate, she brings laughter and warmth to the day before everything starts. If you are overwhelmed or already sideways, this episode reminds you to breathe and borrow Scarlett O’Ha...

Tonight, the November rain started to wake me up… barefoot on the mountain, hair soaked, Zach Bryan playin’ in the back of my mind. For the first time in a long time, I felt myself coming back to life. In this episode, I talk about what it means to get back to good after grief, gaslighting, addiction around me, and carrying one million things on my shoulders. If you’ve ever stood in the rain just...

Mandy gets real about the side of Thanksgiving nobody talks about… addiction, meth in East Tennessee, mental health battles, black sheep stories, and the dread of walking into a family gathering already holding your breath. She shares the memory of her brother Little Bill, the difference between gentle souls fighting addiction and the ones who steal your peace, and why so many of us pray for just...

Appalachian women are raised to stay quiet, stay strong, and swallow the truth — even when it hurts. In this episode, Mandy finally says the things mountain women don’t say out loud: the hidden fears, the quiet wounds, the love we give, the hurt we carry, and the parts of ourselves we were taught to hide. If you were raised to “be tough” and “keep it to yourself,” this one will feel like coming ho...

We all have someone we compare ourselves to, the polished people, the curated people, the people who seem to fit into every room with ease. But most of what we see is image, not truth. In this episode, Mandy talks about Cassie with the good hair, the woman who filled the wrong spaces, the pressure of social media, and the quiet harm of measuring ourselves against someone else’s storyline. This is...

Mama always said to start early, stay kind, and be grateful for waking up. In this Appalachian Thanksgiving edition of Momma Said Monday, Mandy talks about family prep, mountain-woman wisdom, Dollar Store runs, and remembering to be thankful for the little things — especially today.

Thanksgiving does not start on Thursday in Appalachia. It starts in the dirt, the gardens, the jars, the frozen turkeys, the Dollar General plates, and the Sunday hum of preparation. Mandy shares when an Appalachian Thanksgiving really begins, with memories, tradition, and mountain-woman grit woven into every step.

In this evening episode, Mandy shares the quiet beauty of fishing after the rain in the Appalachian Mountains. Growing up along the Doe River, she learned the rhythm of the water, the way trout move after a storm, and how the world softens when the evening settles in. From speckled trout to brown trout, brook trout, and the occasional hornyhead, this episode is filled with real East Tennessee rive...

this Sunday episode, Mandy returns to the river that shaped her life long before she ever knew how deeply it was teaching her. The Doe River was her first classroom, her sanctuary, and the quiet place where she learned to imagine, explore, breathe, and survive. She shares the letter she wrote to the family who bought her mother’s house, the place where she grew up catching minnors, trout, hornyhea...

In this midday episode, Mandy shares what rainy days truly feel like in Appalachia. From cinder block seating by the Doe River to childhood mud pies decorated with dandelions and clover, this is a reflection on the way mountain rain shapes memory, mood, and meaning. Blind Melon’s lyric, “I like watching the puddles gather rain,” becomes the doorway into a deeper Appalachian story. Mandy talks abou...

In this morning episode, Mandy shares a soft and honest look at Appalachian mountain rain. From sideways rain to steady straight down rain, to puddle popping rain and the cold in between rain that shows up before winter, this is a peaceful reflection on the weather that shapes the mountains and the people who live here. Appalachian listeners know that rain is more than weather. It is memory, comfo...

In this episode Mandy talks about grounding the Appalachian way. Not the wellness trend. Not the science experiment. The real thing. The way mountain folks have always settled their spirit. Barefoot in the yard. Cold dirt on your feet. Wind moving through the poplars. A porch rail under your hand when your heart feels too heavy. Mandy takes you back to her childhood days in a holler within the mou...

Mandy dives into the real Southern and Appalachian sayings she grew up with — from ‘I’m fixin to’ and ‘cut the light’ to church lady classics and mountain weather wisdom. A nostalgic, funny, porch-swing episode full of the phrases only folks from the holler truly understand.

A mountain woman’s thank ya hits different. In this episode, Mandy shares the Appalachian way of sayin thank ya — the casseroles on porches, the peace-sign waves on back roads, the soft nods, and the quiet words mountain women only say when they truly mean it. A heartfelt thank ya to everyone who listens, follows, and pulls up a seat on her Appalachian porch.

In this episode Mandy opens the door to the radio inside her head, the one that has played since childhood and carried her through every valley, victory, and storm on the mountain. Where she comes from music is not background noise. It is survival. It is memory. It is the way home. From Gordon Lightfoot and Johnny Cash drifting through her mothers kitchen to Zach Bryan, AC DC, Petra, Blue October,...

In this episode Mandy talks about catching moments the way Matthew catches green lights, the kind that strike like lightning in a clear sky and rise back up in her like dandelions out of season. These are the quiet reminders that she is still here, still growing, and still rising.

There is no order to this podcast. No chapters. No neat little boxes. Just my thoughts, my heart, and the things that drift into my spirit when the world finally quits rattling. I have been this way since I was that girl in math class scribbling in the margins, writing the date on notebook paper because I did not care what A plus B equaled. I cared about what my heart was trying to say. Nine night...

Growing up in Roan Mountain meant you learned early how to make something out of nothing. We didn’t have much money, but we had pride, grit, and a whole lot of heart. In this episode, Mandy breaks down the truth about being mountain poor, mountain proud, and how Hurricane Helene reminded all of us to pull up our big britches and go back to our roots. When Helene tore through these hills, she didn’...

If you grew up in East Tennessee or anywhere in the Appalachian Mountains, you already know we don’t just speak English, we speak Appalachian. In this episode, Mandy dives deep into the sayings, phrases, and little turns of speech that only make sense if you were raised in these hills. From “bless your heart” (the kind way and the other way), to “if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise...

This episode is for anyone who has ever sat in a church pew and still felt like they didn’t quite belong. Mandy talks about growing up around stained glass and sealed parking lots, wondering why the cracks in the pavement were being fixed when so many people walking across them were breaking inside. She shares stories of her mama’s faith, her surrender in the trenches, and her dream of a place cal...

This episode is for the ones who learned to survive before they ever learned to breathe. The ones who grew up in homes where everything was loud or unpredictable. The ones who never had names for the things they felt. Sensory overload. ADHD. Anxiety. It was all there, but nobody talked about it. So you learned to cope in the only ways you knew how. Mandy shares how she did the same. As a little gi...