Cigarette Mom Podcast with Sarah Beth Terry

Sarah Beth Terry brings Monday’s Porch Paper from West by God Virginia, covering the fight over mail-in ballot rules, warnings about artificial intelligence, another disruption to the world’s oil supply, West Virginia flood recovery and the importance of bringing healthcare into rural communities.

Back on the farm, the chickens have filed a complaint, Sarah has accidentally become a watercolor artist, and the paintings she began to help Mittens have grown into a way to send Bibles to other people. An unexpected call from Gretchen Wilson interrupts the broadcast before Sarah returns with a remarkable wilderness rescue, Reba McEntire’s tribute to Dolly Parton, some much-needed 1999 nostalgia and a Kentucky farmer raising hundreds of ostriches.

Sometimes there’s no announcement, lightning bolt or five-year plan. Sometimes God simply puts a paintbrush in your hand and says, “Use what you’ve got, and I’ll teach you the rest.”

Sarah Beth Terry delivers the Sunday-night Porch Paper, covering the 25th anniversary of 9/11, political violence, President Trump’s proposed $5,000 dividend, record diesel prices, conflict overseas, Northeast flooding and a historic college-football upset.

Closer to home, there’s country music news, a loose Kentucky cow, a parking-lot circus, barbecue, Goodwill treasures, watercolor paintings and another encounter with the bathroom scale. Then Sarah says goodbye to Mittens and reflects on the strange way grief and laughter continue living beneath the same roof.

Because you don’t finish grieving and then receive permission to laugh again. Sometimes that’s simply what living looks like.

Taylor Swift has found her cowboy boots, Terry Crews can draw, and Louisville has gathered to celebrate a fruit most Americans couldn’t identify in a police lineup.

In this Saturday-morning Porch Paper, Sarah Beth Terry covers the escalating conflict in the Middle East, $6 diesel, federal job applications, West Virginia broadband, the Kentucky–Alabama football game, and layoffs at the Lexington Herald-Leader.

At the country-music desk, Ella Langley leads the CMA nominations, Emily Ann Roberts earns her first, and Taylor Swift announces her return after ten years away. Plus, Lady Gaga becomes an actual mother, Ben Shelton reaches his first US Open final, Charleston releases monarch butterflies, and Appalachia celebrates the mighty pawpaw.

After a heavy week, Sarah Beth turns to Lamentations 3 and the promise that God’s mercies are new every morning. Yesterday hurt—but today still arrived.

After spending date night at a comedy club, Sarah Beth Terry reaches a deeply unsettling conclusion: she might actually be funny enough to do stand-up.

Before adding another occupation to her already crowded résumé, Sarah Beth marks the 25th anniversary of September 11 and remembers the victims, first responders, and brief moment when Americans saw one another as neighbors before political opponents.

The Friday “Get the Week Away From Me” edition also covers $6 diesel, freshwater jellyfish in Kentucky, a bear loose inside a high-school field house, CMA nominations, Ella Langley, Riley Green’s Dollar General partnership, an overwhelmed Ohio State squirrel, a wandering marmot, and a man solving 211 Rubik’s cubes on a pogo stick.

Sarah Beth also shares an honest update on grief after losing Mittens, explains why laughter doesn’t disrespect what we’ve lost, confronts an inhospitable comedy-club owner, and tells enough family stories to prove she already has a complete stand-up set.

Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, Sarah Beth Terry remembers the nearly 3,000 lives lost, the first responders still dying from related illnesses, the passengers and crew of Flight 93, and the families who continue carrying that morning with them.

She also remembers September 12—the flags on every porch, the crowded churches and blood banks, and the brief moment when frightened Americans reached for one another instead of retreating into political camps.

Sarah Beth honors Welles Crowther, the 24-year-old “Man in the Red Bandana” who repeatedly returned to the South Tower to lead others to safety, and reflects on political violence one year after Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

The Porch Paper also covers the conflict involving Iran, oil prices, West Virginia broadband, Kentucky manufacturing, Emily Ann Roberts’ first CMA nomination, Garth Brooks’ latest alias, and a massive Guinness heist. But today’s central message is simple: never forget what happened—and never forget who we discovered we could be.

A jellyfish has apparently turned up in a Kentucky lake, oil has crossed $100 a barrel, and Sarah Beth Terry would like restaurants to remain open during their posted business hours.

This Porch Paper covers the economy, the approaching midterm elections, West Virginia’s healthcare problems, Kentucky’s measles outbreak, artificial-intelligence school threats, and the rescue of a cat from a semi-trailer. Sarah Beth also celebrates George Strait’s support of songwriters, reacts to Adam Sandler turning 60, and reminds us that stopping to rest is not the same as quitting.

Then the conversation turns toward changing seasons, one-sided relationships, and learning to release people with love. After the news, Sarah Beth talks about treating the Bible as a workbook instead of a relic, the mission behind Cigarette Mom, her Bible giveaway project, upcoming shows, weight loss, ill-fitting bras, and everyday life on the porch.

Is Sarah Beth Terry a dingus? A concerned citizen has raised the question, and the Porch Paper is investigating.

Before reaching a verdict, Sarah Beth covers escalating conflicts overseas, rising oil prices, Canadian tariffs, the approaching midterm elections, West Virginia and Kentucky news, a rescued cow, and a blind senior dog whose adventure ends with firefighters and a T-bone steak.

She also celebrates Patsy Cline and songwriter Harlan Howard, establishes the rules of antique-mall etiquette, encounters a veterinarian with an unusually dark sense of humor, and explains why manners matter more than knowing which fork to use.

After the news, the conversation continues with the Bible rescue mission, Sarah Beth’s Feral Christian journey, finding your calling, and the reminder that God has always used imperfect people.

Sarah Beth Terry celebrates Labor Day from the porch with a salute to the people who keep showing up—even when nobody is watching or applauding.

Between a history lesson about America’s first Labor Day parade, Sarah Beth revisits the Mary Kay Letourneau case and the way the media disguised child sexual abuse as a forbidden romance. Then it’s on to the financial ambush known as Michaels, her accidental new career painting Bible-inspired watercolors, the latest on King Mittens, and an anthropological examination of 1000-lb Sisters.

It’s history, faith, working-class wisdom, porch wildlife, cat trauma nursing, and approximately 47 shades of green.

This week has lasted four fiscal quarters, and it’s only Wednesday.

Sarah Beth returns to the porch with world headlines, West Virginia fall fever, country music news, 86 rescued dogs, ungovernable tennis-court birds and a journey through the history of September 2.

Porch School explores 20 fascinating facts about guitars and pianos, including Willie Nelson’s Trigger, B.B. King’s Lucille, the mathematics hiding between guitar frets and the immense tension inside a concert grand.

Sarah Beth also shares updates from her weight-loss journey, the great closet purge, a frightening accident involving a still-missing Mittens and a new battle plan for the growing world of Cigarette Mom, Feral Christian, music, writing and porch life.

Finally, a thought for anyone enduring a quiet season: an instrument doesn’t stop being an instrument because no one is playing it. The music hasn’t left you. Sometimes the first note back is the bravest one you’ll ever play.

It’s September on the porch, and Sarah Beth has gathered the news so you don’t have to. This edition of the Porch Paper travels from serious headlines and West Virginia road safety to home-invading bears, a nine-pound flightless parrot, an adorable porcupette with an emotional-support log, the fight over AI-generated music, the Dolly Desk and a remarkable trip through September 1 history.

Then it’s time to become porch botanists with 20 strange and surprising flower facts—including deceptive orchids, color-changing hydrangeas, ancient magnolias and enormous blooms that smell like rotting meat.

Beneath all the jokes is a reminder for difficult seasons: blooming doesn’t look the same for everyone. Sometimes you spend a season underground—but being in the dirt doesn’t mean you’re buried. It may mean you’ve been planted.