Inside Appalachia

10/17/2025

This week, 🌄, we explore the story of the first Mothman sightings, as written by a small-town journalist in 1966.

Also, every year, hundreds of people celebrate Bridge Day by parachuting from the 876-foot-tall New River Gorge bridge. But not just anyone can do it.

And, the Columbus Washboard Company used to make washboards for laundry. Now, people use them to make music.

Click/tap the link below 👇 to listen to this episode. 🎧

https://wvpublic.org/podcasts/inside-appalachia/

10/10/2025

This week, 🌄, It’s been a year since Hurricane Helene barreled into central Appalachia. The storm caused floods and landslides. The disaster changed the shape of rivers. It also took lives and upended entire communities, but from the beginning, the recovery brought people together.

Also, country music’s Rob McNurlin grew up with traditional music in Eastern Kentucky. His friend Marty Stuart says he’s a folk hero.

And, we check up on Virginia rapper and producer Byron Mack.

Click/tap the link below 👇 to listen to this episode. 🎧

https://wvpublic.org/podcasts/inside-appalachia/

10/08/2025

Last fall, Folkways Reporter Madeline Miller brought us this story about two artists who’ve taken holler humor to the digital realm.

This story originally aired in the Dec. 15, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia. Andi Marie Tillman is a character chameleon. Scrolling through her TikTok

10/07/2025

In 2023, Emily Chen-Newton reported about why climbing festivals are making a home in Appalachia. We revisit this story this week 🌄.

It's mid-October in Kentucky's Red River Gorge and the trees are just beginning to take on their autumn colors, as rock climbers from around the world flock to the region. The crunching of dried leaves and clanking of metal safety gear creates a type of rock climber’s soundtrack. But, on this part...

10/07/2025

In West Virginia, Appalachian Power customers have been paying hundreds of millions of dollars in hidden costs. That money is going to buy power from two coal plants that aren’t even located in the state. WVPB’s Curtis Tate has more.

Public anger is growing over rising electricity prices nationwide. In West Virginia, Appalachian Power customers have been paying hundreds of millions of dollars in hidden costs.

10/06/2025

This week, 🌄, Host Mason Adams sits down with Sarah Jones, a reporter for New York Magazine, about her new book "Disposable: America's Contempt for the Underclass."

More than one million Americans have died from COVID-19. Some groups of folks died at much higher rates than others. And those deaths tended to follow lines of race, class, age and disability. A new book digs deeper; it’s titled "Disposable: America’s Contempt for the Underclass." It’s written...

10/03/2025

This week, 🌄, COVID-19 exposed the contempt society has for marginalized people. The author of a new book says these folks are anything but passive.

Also, rock climbers 🧗 with disabilities have found a home in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge, which offers some pumpy crags.

And, the online world of Appalachian memes and what they tell us about the folks who live here.

Click/tap the link below 👇 to listen to this episode now. 🎧

https://wvpublic.org/podcasts/inside-appalachia/

10/01/2025

🌄 Host Mason Adams spoke Tennessee photographer Stacy Kranitz about her work documenting the lives of a young family last year called “The Year After a Denied Abortion.”

Tennessee photographer Stacy Kranitz is attracting attention for her visceral photos of life in Appalachia and the South. Sometimes her photos are hard to look at, but they’re always compelling. That’s the case with a project published earlier this year. ProPublica’s story, “The Year After a...

09/26/2025

This week, 🌄, for nearly a century, the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival has staged a formal dance. Organizers rely on a manual that’s been passed down for generations.

Also, abortion is illegal in most cases in Tennessee. So, what happens after a birth? A photographer followed one mother for a year.

And, new prisons are touted as a way to bring jobs to former coal communities. Not everybody agrees the trade-off is worth it.

Click/tap the link below to listen to this episode now. 🎧

https://wvpublic.org/podcasts/inside-appalachia/

09/25/2025

In Floyd County, Virginia, there’s just one stoplight, and it’s in the town of Floyd, which is home to about 400 year-round residents. 🌄 Host Mason Adams brought us this story.

People from all walks of life travel from Roanoke, Blacksburg and places far beyond to reach Floyd, Virginia — a one-stoplight town in a sprawling county of about 15,000 people on the Blue Ridge Plateau. It’s home to the Friday Night Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store.

09/25/2025

This week, 🌄, Zack Harold meets up with Sonny and Lou Argento from West Virginia. They’re the creators of Angelo’s Old World Italian Sausage.

In a dining room in a tidy, little house in Charleston, West Virginia, Louis and Sonny Argento introduce us to the Argento family sausage — a recipe that has brought pride and acclaim to their Italian clan for nearly a century.

09/24/2025

Brian Aliff makes handcrafted, prize-winning decorative turkey calls. These works of art are functional, and they’ve become collector’s items. 🌄 Folkways Reporter Connie Kitts has this story.

This story is part of a recent episode of Inside Appalachia. Click here to hear the full episode.In many art competitions your work has to look good. But