Living Unleashed

Meet John Stallings, Renee Taylor, Alesha Tocco, Boyd Vanhorn, and Gavin Watkins as they discuss the levies that will be on the ballot this year.

Meet Chad Proudfoot and Logan Hosaflook, candidates running for Soil Conservation District Supervisor.

Alex Reneman introduces Unleash Tygart's 2024 primary election series.

John Deskins is the Director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University. He is partly responsible for creating the West Virginia Economic Outlook for 2022-2026. 

In this episode, John provides the context of West Virginia’s economic situation with the national economy, critical issues affecting West Virginia’s economy, and a surface-level look at possible solutions and direction for the state. 

Chapters: 

00:00 John Deskins

01:58 State of the Economy

07:32 Economic Recovery and Growth

09:40 Major Challenges

12:08 Potential Policies

15:55 Workforce Participation Problems

17:30 Workforce Participation Solutions

19:19 Vicious vs Virtuous Cycle

25:34 Taylor County

28:21 What Does the Future Look Like?

30:46 Last Words

For guest recommendations or any other inquiries, contact:

[email protected]

Connect with John: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndeskins

https://experts.wvu.edu/experts/john-deskins

Explore Research and Outreach at John Chamber’s College of Business and Economics:

https://business.wvu.edu/research-outreach

Watch here:

https://youtu.be/uiy7sQRtbqY

Follow Us: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-reneman

https://www.facebook.com/unleashtygart/

David Robert Farmerie is a documentary photographer who's worked with primarily indigenous and vanishing cultures and has traveled the world for various photographic projects. He is a writer and all-around creator.

Chapters:

01:55 Intro

05:06 Getting into Photography

10:05 Advice for Aspiring Creators

15:35 Photographing Indigenous Cultures

21:16 Why David Came to Grafton

26:11 What are the Assets of Grafton?

38:13 What are the Challenges You See Grafton Facing?

44:55 Grafton's Memorial Day Celebration

For guest recommendations or any other inquiries, contact:

[email protected]

Check out David:

https://www.davidfarmerie.com/

https://davidfarmerie.substack.com/

Watch here:

https://youtu.be/JTWp1CFBWOY

Follow Us:

https://www.facebook.com/unleashtygart

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-reneman/

Mandy Curry is the co-founder of Healthy Kids Inc., Start a Garden, Project Healthy Kids, and more. As a serial social entrepreneur, she is serving West Virginia communities in more ways than one and her journey is an inspiration to those who wish to help their community in any way.

Mandy walks us through what Healthy Kids Inc is, the nutritional needs within our communities, what is in store for the future, and insights she has gained from her work in West Virginia.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:30 Healthy Kids Inc

02:13 The Why

05:32 Future of Healthy Kids Inc

11:40 Impact

16:08 Challenges and Innovation

20:55 Insights and Lessons

24:25 What's Next?

29:07 Services

29:52 How to Get in Touch

30:43 Advantages of West Virginia

33:23 Last Words

For guest recommendations or any other inquiries, contact:

[email protected]

Mandy's Links:

https://healthykidsinc.com/

https://www.facebook.com/mandycurry.uplifter

Watch Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8IGU5C_PXU

Follow Us:

https://www.facebook.com/unleashtygart

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-reneman/

Mike Masterman is the founder of Extreme Endeavors and author of the book "Extreme Endeavors: An Entrepreneur's Journey from Antarctica to Ethiopia".

Mike guides us through the origins of his adventurous nature that's taken him to multiple continents, how he ended up managing a base in Antarctica, and the founding and mission of his company, Extreme Endeavors.

Listen up aspiring entrepreneurs and those who need a little push to go past their comfort zone. Mike has a lot of great takeaways that can help you pursue more extreme endeavors!

Chapters:

00:00 Background

02:35 Adventurous Spirit

04:54 Antarctica Story

10:34 Travels Across the World

13:10 Extreme Endeavors

25:14 Mike's Book

26:55 Entrepreneurial Lessons

29:55 Why West Virginia?

31:46 Future for Extreme Endeavors

33:55 ???

For guest recommendations or any other inquiries, contact:

[email protected]

Check out Mike's book here:

https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Endeavors-Entrepreneurs-Antarctica-Ethiopia-ebook/dp/B0CQJ48CT9

Watch Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8IGU5C_PXU

Follow Us:

https://www.facebook.com/unleashtygart

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-reneman/

Dr. John Stallings is the Superintendent of Taylor County and has remained within the education space for many years at the elementary, middle school, high school, and collegiate levels.

This is an update episode with the new superintendent. We review his first 6 months, the plans for Anna Jarvis, and what is in his sights for this coming year.

Expect a lot of information relevant to Taylor County residents and look forward to learning more about the new superintendent!

For guest recommendations or any other inquiries, contact:

[email protected]

Watch here:

https://youtu.be/jHCKZ7yqSA8

Follow Us:

https://www.facebook.com/unleashtygart

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-reneman/

Alex: Hey, Taylor County. I'm Alex Renneman here with the Living Unleashed podcast for, uh, from Unleashed Tygart, and I'm here with Luke Shay. Luke, thanks for coming on the program.

Lucas: Hey, thanks for having me, Alex.

Alex: Absolutely. Now, we could talk about a lot of things, um, but, well, the reason we brought you on today, and I, and I do want to note, you are remote, so, uh, you're not in Grafton.

You're, you're down in Texas. We'll talk about that in a minute, but you're at an Air Force base, so there may be planes going by, and that's all well and cool, and I want to get into your history. of what took you away from Grafton and I think that pretty much is where we can start. So why don't you tell us, you're a Grafton native, um, you're now in Texas.

Give us a little bit of your backstory. What, what pulled you out of Grafton?

Lucas: Yeah. Okay. So I'll start off for those that don't know me. My name is Luke Shea. I grew up in Grafton on the West side, right next to the National Cemetery. Graduated in Grafton High School in the class of 1999, and I'm currently serving as a Chief Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force as a safety professional stationed in Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

My wife Jennifer, um, Hartwell now Jennifer Shea. Uh, she grew up a good portion of her childhood in Grafton as well. And we have two boys that were born in Germany. Uh, but we still have a lot of our family is still back in Grafton. Um, Alex, as far as what led to my departure, uh, from Grafton, uh, I joined the Air Force in 2004.

Again, I graduated in 99. I joined the Air Force in 2004. Uh, I had some college at that point, but I hadn't graduated. And, uh, I felt like I was kind of floating and I wanted something more. My brother was a Korean linguist in the air force and he was doing really well. And I thought, Hey, let's, let's give this a shot.

This might be good for me. Um, I never intended to do a day over four years in the air force. I thought four years and I'm out. I'm going to learn. Uh, job. I'm going to gain some, some experience, uh, get the GI bill and then punch. Uh, but every decision point, every step along the way, uh, it's just made sense for, for us to stay in.

And it's been, it's been a blessing for my family, uh, to be in the air force for the 19 years and some change now. Yeah, that's great. You know,

Alex: the, the military service, if you haven't experienced it, it is challenging of course, but it can be very rewarding. Um, I was right at. Right at my nine years, do I re up or not?

If I re up, I'm staying in for the long haul and, uh, but, but I was always told go in the Air Force, right? Now I went in the Army and, uh, the Air Force, you know, the accommodations, the food, all of that's much, much better, right?

Lucas: So they say. Yeah, so they say.

Alex: Awesome. Hey, so. What the reason you're on here and I appreciate that intro and I'm sure we'll get into more of that.

And I know lots of folks here in graph to know, you know, your name, see you on, on active on Facebook, and we're going to get into that, but the reason we're here today, it kind of, uh, a couple of reasons. One, uh, I want to, I want to really talk about the, the ornament, the, that, uh, unleashed tiger to selling that.

It's really your brain child, uh, to reboot that, but, but even just, just taking back a little bit again, you're, you're, you're here, you're from Grafton, you've, you've moved away. You've got a great career in the air force. You've, you're growing a...

Living Unleashed is back!

We're opening up with Brendan Gallagher, Co-owner of Black and Teal Concepts and creator of the Born and Bred concert series. Alex and Brendan have an in depth discussion on music and how it plays into our local communities, how we can foster the growth of local music culture, and how we as individuals can support our local artists and hopefully bring them success in their careers.

(Insights into the upcoming Born and Bred concert series on September 9th at the Robinson Grand are also included!)

Brendan's involvements:

Born and Bred Magazine

Black and Teal Concepts

Born and Bred Concert Series

Last Year's Model (Brendan's band)