Eastern Standard

Aging. We'll all get there, someday.(Shutterstock / Shutterstock)

This week on Eastern Standard:

Kentucky has hundreds of nursing homes caring for some of the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable residents. Questions have persisted about staffing, inspections, neglect and whether government oversight is adequate to protect the people living in them. Lexington Herald-Leader Government Accountability Reporter John Cheves has been examining those issues for years. His latest reporting focuses on nursing homes with repeated serious deficiencies — including facilities singled out by the federal government for additional scrutiny.

More than two-thirds of American adults, 40 or older, say they worry about their brain health and about developing Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. That’s according to a 20-26 survey from the Alzheimer’s Association. For the latest in their series on “Healthy Aging,” Bill Goodman and Dr. Jeff Foxx talk about the latest developments in Alzheimer's research with Dr. Gregory Jicah with the University of Kentucky Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

So the kids have been in school for a little over a month now. How’s it going? How about math? It can be a struggle for students and parents. And as hear in the latest from education contributor Brigitte Blom and her guest, there’s a movement among educators to make the math taught in our schools easier for all to digest with a clear eye on how number crunching is a vital lifelong skill.

Exercising the right to vote.(Shutterstock / Shutterstock)

This week on Eastern Standard:

Episode 32 of our series, Democracy Optimist, takes the temperature of a challenged American democracy with only weeks to go before a highly consequential midterm election.

Host Joshua Douglas, a research professor of election law and voting rights at the University of Kentucky welcomes Professor Steven Levitsky, Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and a Professor of Government at Harvard University, and League of Women Voters CEO, Celina Stewart.

The Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom is commemorating the 50th anniversary of "Harlan County USA" with an hourlong radio documentary Oct. 12.(Jared Kunish / AMSN)

This week on Eastern Standard:

As of September 15 under a new Trump administration rule, international students and exchange visitors generally are no longer admitted to the country for what has long been called the “duration of status” — essentially, the length of time required to complete their academic programs. Instead, most will be admitted for a fixed period of no more than four years and will have to seek federal approval to remain longer. Raising concerns about the implications is our guest, former University of Kentucky Provost, Kumble Subbaswamy.

“I’m Not From Here” is a new series from Eastern Standard contributor David T. Miller. He’s been talking with people whose origins are elsewhere in the US and the world about their experiences coming to our region. Today’s guest is: Nima Kulkarni, a Louisville-based immigration attorney and the first foreign-born Indian-American member of the Kentucky General Assembly. She was six years old when her family came to America from India, settling in Louisville.

Voter-registration data gathered and analyzed by USA-Facts finds that in three out of four counties where party-registration data is available, the share of voters registered outside the Democratic and Republican parties has increased. Joining us is Amber Thomas, Senior Data Visualization Engineer at USAFacts.

There’s a documentary about a documentary in the works. Derek Operle, news director at member station WKMS in Murray, has been talking with people involved in the making of the Oscar-winning film “Harlan County USA”, the legendary film that will be screened as part of the Twelve Lions Film Festival at the Kentucky Theater in Lexington.

*There has been an update since we produced the original version of this episode. U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor in Boston has ruled in favor of a coalition of unions and higher education advocacy groups saying the Department of Homeland Security adopted the policy based on "exceptionally weak" rationales. Judge Saylor, appointed to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, wrote that the rule upended a system through which the U.S. for nearly five decades had issued visas to foreign students for their "duration of status.” So, for now, the administration’s rule is on hold.

Insun Park performs a modern take on the ancient Korean tradition of the Gangnyeong mask dance.(Vogue Korea)

This week on Eastern Standard:

A full hour focused on art: its well-being, its protection, its performance and its ability to bridge cultures.

Artists have always responded to change. But today, change is also reshaping the systems that allow art to be made, supported, exhibited and discovered.Those concerns are at the center of “Altered States,” a statewide symposium-series organized by the Great Meadows Foundation. The Central Kentucky symposium takes place September 19 at the University of Kentucky College of Design. We’re joined by symposium chair, Jeffrey Johnson.

The event will be followed by “Readiness Reimagined: the Arts Disaster and Crisis Preparedness Conference” September 24th and 25th at the University of Kentucky's Gatton Student Center in Lexington. Our guests are Dr. Leah Hamilton and Dr. Rachel Shane are with the University of Kentucky's Department of Arts Administration.

Disasters of all sorts are at the heart of a new record album from Lexington singer-songwriter and Transylvania University professor Scott Whiddon. We discuss influences, process and how the work informs his methods in the classroom.

Kevin Nance sits down with publisher, author, poet, filmmaker and actor Katerina Stoykova for a conversation about her latest film, “Other Houses,” set to screen during the upcoming Twelve Lions Film Festival at the Kentucky Theater in Lexington.

Shawn Choi is the US representative for the South Korean band Insun Park & General, the latest presentation by Lexington’s Greenroom Exchange.

Cover of the Emilee Hackney memoir, "All That's Unseen."(PenguinRandomHouse.com)

This week on Eastern Standard:

You're in your 30s or 40s and are too busy with life itself to give much thought to what it will be like to experience life as a senior. And then, the next thing you know, you're there, your mind struggling to recognize the face staring back at you in the mirror. It happens to us all and in service to the inevitable, we begin a new series about “Healthy Aging” co-hosted by Bill Goodman and primary care physician Dr. Jeff Foxx. Their guest is Dana Smith, who writes about aging issues for the New York Times.

Although a young adult, Emilee Hackney has “had a life.” Going from a hard-scrabble, Pentecostal upbringing in the mountains of western Virginia to an education in one of the nation’s premier institutions of higher learning: Harvard. And there is so much more to her story. It unfolds in her NY Times best-seller debut memoir: "All That’s Unseen." Emilee joins us to share her story.

Louisville attorney Brian Haara is the author of "Bourbon Justice: How Whiskey Law Shaped America." It’s a book about bourbon, certainly—but it is also a book about contracts, trademarks, regulation, consumer protection, taxation, fraud, and the ways a young nation tried to define fairness in the marketplace.

Renee Shaw leading a panel discussion at KET.(Screenshot KET)

This Week on Eastern Standard:

Renee Shaw just retired after 29 years with KET. Listen as this accomplished professional shares how she maintained a reputation for even-handedness in often charged political and policy discussions.

Appalachian journalist Jim Branscome takes us into The Hollowing of the Appalachian Press, from Pittsburgh to Birmingham, an analysis co-authored by Bill Bishop of what remains when small, rural communities lose these local lifelines of information.

And we’re joined by Jim Embry, community organizer, cultural activist and co-founder of the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden, and Lexington-born jazz trumpeter Michael Cruse. A Cruse homecoming concert in the Art Garden on Saturday, August 29 will feature a group photo in the style of the iconic 1958 “A Great Day in Harlem.”

Whitesburg artist Lacy Hale works on a mural commemorating those who perished in the flood of 2022.(Provided by Artist. )

We look into the value of the Head Start program and how a White House plan to deregulate the program would affect Kentucky children and families. Our guest is Sharon Price, Executive Director of Community Action Council in Lexington. The Council administers Head Start and other anti-poverty programs in Fayette, Bourbon, Harrison and Nicholas counties. Price herself is also a former Head Start parent, early childhood teacher and director of the Council’s child development programs.

There’s a plan to demonstrate the “unity” in “community.” You’ll hear from organizers Jeff Rubin and Stu Johnson about “Hands Across / Stand Together: Linking Arms, Lifting Hope” — people lining Versailles Road, Main Street, Midland Avenue and Winchester Road in Lexington on August 28th, the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Morehead is getting ready to host its first Appalachian Literary Festival, and we get details from festival president Andrew Preston.

Reggie Van Stockum describes his new series of original radio plays.

And we get a report from Whitesburg on a mosaic mural created in memory of the loss and devastation of the flood of 2022.

Can required civic education help heal a divided nation?(shutterstock)

This week on Eastern Standard:

Episode 31 of our series, “Democracy Optimist,” hosted by University of Kentucky election law and voting rights research professor Joshua A. Douglas.

Part One

Politics can play a major role in climate change. President Trump, for example, issued an Executive Order withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, a major international treaty designed to coordinate global climate mitigation, arguing that it hurt the U.S. economy. Will that action motivate voters to show up in November? More broadly, how well does democracy work if people who care deeply about an existential issue don’t turn out to vote?

Our guest has spent the past decade working on this issue.

Nathaniel Stinnett is the founder and CEO of the Environmental Voter Project, which uses sophisticated data analytics and behavioral science to identify environmentalists who are registered to vote but do not regularly cast ballots—and then works to turn them into consistent voters.

Part Two

Literacy and democracy go hand in hand. Literacy affects almost every aspect of a person’s life. After all, civic participation depends on voters being literate enough to understand the law, their rights, and the news that shapes public debate.

But literacy development depends on many factors, including where you live, your household circumstances, and, perhaps most importantly, whether you have access to books. Many Americans are fortunate enough to own a personal collection or have a local library within traveling distance. Still, this is a luxury some don’t have in certain regions of the United States—and especially in developing areas of the world. Our guest is Rachel Ray, Executive Director of the Lexington-based International Book Project.

In addition to coal, furniture manufacturing was once an economic mainstay in much of Appalachia.(Shutterstock / Shutterstock)

This week on Eastern Standard:

For much of the twentieth century, communities across Appalachia were sustained not only by coal mining, but also by furniture plants, textile mills, apparel shops, steel, glass, machinery, and other forms of manufacturing. But along came a wave of deindustrialization linked in large part to one consequential policy decision: granting China Permanent Normal Trade Relations and bringing China into the World Trade Organization. Appalachian journalist James Branscome joins us to discuss the consequences.

History teaches us so much about the present and can help is anticipate the future. Joining contributing interviewer Gerald Smith, himself a UK Professor of History, are Scott Alvey, executive director of the Kentucky Historical Society, and Stephanie Lang, editor of the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.

“Returns and Exchanges” is the new novel from Mt. Sterling native Kayla Rae Whitaker. The story is about retail, marriage, ambition, class, sexuality, family inheritance, and what it costs to build a life inside systems that may never fully belong to you.

You’ll meet Josh Hamilton, the Lexington Chamber Chorale’s new Artistic Director and Conductor. We explore the challenges of coordinating human voices to work in collaboration.

The Comair Flight 5191 sculpture at The Arboretum State Botanical Garden of Kentucky in Lexington, designed by sculptor Douwe Blumberg, honors those killed in the crash with 49 birds taking flight. Each bird contains mementos from loved ones sealed inside.(Sheila Kenny)

This week on Eastern Standard:

Filmmaker Lanny Brannock discusses his documentary about the August 2006 crash of Comair Flight 5191 at Bluegrass Airport. Brannock is accompanied by Matthew Snoddy, whose father, Tim Snoddy, was among the 49 people who died in the crash.

An estimated 38 percent of Americans are estranged from at least one close relative. Sheri MacGregor, author of Beyond Done with the Crying, discusses the plight of parents of estranged adult children.

Mélisse Brunet has signed on to continue as Music Director and Conductor of the Lexington Philharmonic. In this conversation with Brunet, we focus on her drive to bridge musical genres and to include non-classical local artists in LexPhil performances.