Appalachia, moving to DC and going to college, moving back home near her

family and community, and her work in news, journalism, and how she

frames it: storytelling. They dig into the nature of ‘expertise’,

culture, folk traditions and how they are exploited, making a living in

the modern political economy and the difficulties of doing that while

still preserving traditional lifeways, the blessing and curse of the

coal industry, the current story she’s working on looking into

wildcrafting and how it connects to the Cherokee side of her ancestry,

deaths of despair, the importance of choosing to build a home and

connect to place despite the currents working against it, the importance

of learning from elders, her views on the Foxfire series, book

recommendations for understanding Appalachia, and much more.

*Note, there is a bonus section at the end where the formal conversation

wrapped up but they accidentally didn’t stop recording the more

informal discussion, which they both decided to leave in

Bio: Farahn is a writer living and working at home in Appalachia. After

spending nearly a decade in politics and media in Washington, D.C., she

returned to Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky to be close to her

family, understand their history and traditions more intimately, and

re-establish her connection to the land and herself. She is still

learning. Read her words at http://LongRoadHome.substack.com, County Highway, RealClearBooks & Culture, The Washington Examiner, and WrongSpeak.