Mandy on the Mountain

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...

In this episode, Mandy on the Mountain dives into all the things school never taught us — from quicksand fears and TV-cart trauma to Capri Sun battles, feral childhood survival, and the one skill that actually prepared us for adulthood. (Hint: it was red, it bounced, and it stung.) This is a hilarious, relatable Gen-X walk down memory lane blended with Appalachian truth, real-life lessons, and a r...

In this episode I share the story of the professor who changed the direction of my life — Dr. Patrick Kariuki. From saying “minnors” in biology class to feeling too poor, too country, and too anxious to belong in college, I talk about how his belief in me helped shape my confidence, my calling, and the way I teach today. I share the lessons he taught about excellence, dignity, psychology, faith, a...

In this episode, I open a story I have carried quietly for years. It is the story of The Velveteen Rabbit, my brother, and the long road toward becoming real. I talk about how a man who could not read gave me the one book that explained my whole life. How he raised me with love and grit. How he kept me safe in a world that did not always feel safe. And how I have been searching for that feeling ev...

Mandy on the Mountain — Funny Childhood Story In this episode, Mandy takes y’all back to Hampton Creek where childhood was wild, water came from a bucket in a shed, and the neighborhood geese acted like they owned the whole holler. At just four years old, Mandy convinced her cousin Josh that the geese “weren’t gonna hurt him.” Well… they hurt him. And later, one of those geese came back for Mandy,...

This episode is pure Appalachian gold, the survival skills our people lived by and nobody teaches anymore. Mandy takes you deep into the mountain knowledge that raised her, reading weather signs, counting August fogs, waiting for the first frost, canning food like security, peppermint and white lightning remedies, hog killin time in Morganton, canning sausage with Danny Man, hand milled cornmeal u...

In Episode 2, I’m not starting at the beginning — I’m taking you straight into the messy middle. This is the night everything cracked open. The night I found myself on my knees on the floor, carrying a weight no one could see. Addiction, betrayal, grief, silence, and the moment I realized no one was coming to save me. I talk about the mountain women I come from, the prayers my mama left behind, an...

this very first episode of Mandy on the Mountain, I’m simply introducing myself and the heart behind this podcast. I share why I finally decided to start telling my story out loud and what you can expect from the journey ahead , Appalachian roots, mountain-made resilience, dandelion strength, faith, humor, healing, and a whole lot of truth-tellin’. This is just an introduction, but it’s the beginn...