07/21/2026
“I was losing all kinds of weight, and didn’t know why,” says Josh Stanley of Letcher County (pictured), in this episode of WMMT’s Mountain Talk. It turned out he had type 2 diabetes—with an A1C, or blood glucose level, above 14, which is dangerously high—and hadn’t known it. “And I’ve only got one functioning kidney, too," Josh says. "I didn’t know it affected your kidneys. I didn’t know anything about any of that.”
Here in the mountains, sadly, Josh is not alone in having gotten a surprise diagnosis of diabetes, or in not necessarily knowing a ton about how it actually works inside your body. East Kentucky has higher rates of type 2 than the state and national averages, and many of those diagnosed, like Josh, don’t actually know they’re diabetic until they get the news. And diabetes is a disease that can lead to serious health consequences if it’s left unmanaged.
To help raise awareness about type 2 in our region, for the past several years, WMMT has been producing a regular storytelling series focused on living with diabetes here in the mountains. Called Prevent Diabetes EKY, this series has featured a wide range of local people sharing their stories of managing type 2. And today on Mountain Talk, we hear a patchwork of nine local voices from across our series—all of whom have diabetes—sharing about their experiences with the disease, including what’s worked for them, what’s been tricky, and what it’s all felt like.
Listen to this Mountain Talk on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9JVPgX43Zkk and/or SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/p3FjH3UqZPj3FUEDQF
