In this week's show, we take a look at the health, environmental and financial costs of coal that fall to people living nearby. With the help of our partner podcast Crosswinds, we meet three impacted communities along a railroad connecting coal mines in West Virginia to ports on the East Coast. And we'll hear how that rail infrastructure was built on the forced labor of incarcerated African Americans.

Featuring:

Adrian Wood, multimedia producer with the Repair Lab at the University of Virginia and producer of Crosswinds

Making Contact Staff:

• Episode Host: Lucy Kang
• Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Marketing Manager: Lissa Deonarain

Music credits:

• "A Documentary" by AKTASOK (Valentin Iakovlev) via Pixabay

Credits for Crosswinds Episode 3: "Cost"

• Written, produced mixed and mastered by Adrian Wood
• Editing by Oluwakemi Aladesuyi of Rough Cut Collective
• Scoring by Torrin Purkett and Adrian Wood
• Produced through the Repair Lab at the University of Virginia

Learn More:

• Making Contact homepage: www.focmedia.org
• Listen to the entire Crosswinds series:
  • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ey0DQiOzuvJehEyCjGJYv
  • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-repair-lab/id1633699454
• Coal Dust Kills: www.coaldustkills.com
• The Repair Lab: repairlab.virginia.edu