Inside Appalachia

To begin 2019, Inside Appalachia is taking a look back at some favorite stories. Not our favorite stories, but those of the show’s friend Adam Harris. Harris is the Executive Producer for West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Mountain Stage with Larry Groce. Pepperoni rolls have been called the unofficial food of West Virginia. They were invented here in the Mountain state. Legend has it they were originally made for coal miners to take underground in their dinner buckets - because the cured

To wrap up 2018, we're re-airing stories about faith and religion and their influence in Appalachia. We’ve teamed up with StoryCorps and Georgetown University’s American Pilgrimage Project for this episode. Each segment includes a StoryCorps-style interview where the participants are talking about life, faith and what it all means to them. We'll hear from a woman finds out how important her faith was to her after her father was injured in a mining accident. Adelina Lancianese is a West Virginia

This week we’ve put together a special holiday episode about seasonal traditions. Holidays in these mountains have always been meaningful. In Appalachia, it’s usually a time to go home, or to carry on traditions of home in a new way.

On Nov. 20, 1968, an underground explosion ripped through a West Virginia coal mine and killed 78 miners. Fifty years later, the local community still comes together the Sunday before the anniversary of the Farmington Mine Disaster to remember the men lost that day. Following the tragedy in Farmington in 1968, the widows of the families demanded safer working conditions and action from Congress. The disaster was one of the instrumental forces that led Congress to pass the 1969 Federal Mine

This week on Inside Appalachia, we take another look at the world of independent pro-wrestling. While pro-wrestling is popular across the country and all around the world, the sport has a rich and storied history here in Appalachia. In this episode we’ll take a glimpse at the action, intensity, and drama (real-life and otherwise) that happens between the ropes. We’ll visit Madison, W.Va., where All Star Wrestling (ASW) draws hundreds of people to most matches and meet Gary Damron who organizes

Since the War on Poverty in the 1960s, federal funds to help revitalize coal country have poured in from Washington, D.C. And in recent years, a new federal push has brought millions of dollars worth of funding to projects that are intended to create jobs and retrain people in coal country for work in other fields. There are also a number of state initiatives to help generate job growth. But have these projects worketd? In this episode of Inside Appalachia, we’ll take a look back at an episode

This week we’ll revisit an episode that originally aired earlier this spring about two young people who are learning farming as part of a workforce development program called Refresh Appalachia. We'll also get an update on where Colt Brogan and Crystal Snyder are today. The federal government has tried for years to encourage economic growth in this region, from President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty that launched more than 50 years ago to federally-funded retraining programs for displaced

This week on Inside Appalachia, we’ll take a look back at a story we aired earlier this year. The story details the life of Kentucky politician and pastor Danny Johnson and the investigation that exposed a long line of questionable actions that preceded his rise to power. “ The Pope’s Long Con ” from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting has earned several national honors, including a Peabody Award . The five-part investigation revealed some shocking facts about Johnson’s personal life

This week on Inside Appalachia, we’ll revisit the life of Kentucky politician and pastor Danny Johnson , and the investigation that exposed a long line of questionable actions that preceded his rise to power. “ The Pope’s Long Con ” from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting has earned several national honors, including a Peabody Award .

On today’s show, we’ll hear from people who write novels, short stories and newspaper articles, each one telling Appalachia’s story in his or her own way.