What do Donald Trump, goat yoga and West Virginia's budget have in common? Find out on this week's Front Porch podcast.

Since Donald Trump’s election, membership in the ACLU of West Virginia has gone up 30 percent, according to executive director Joseph Cohen. On The Front Porch podcast, Cohen discussed how his organization is preparing for President Trump in three areas:

Woody Thrasher says West Virginians don’t give themselves nearly enough credit. “West Virginians do have a self-esteem problem,” the incoming W.Va. Secretary of Commerce told “The Front Porch.” “I oftentimes see where we don’t shoot as high as we should. I think it’s understandable, but regrettable, and it’s very much at the center of what Governor-elect Justice wants to change,” he said. The simple solution is to create good jobs in West Virginia, he said - but that’s easier said than done.

Front Porch hosts Scott Finn, Laurie Lin, and Rick Wilson tell us which stories they'll be following in 2017:

Drug wholesalers sent 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills into West Virginia over six years, according to an investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Meanwhile, 1,728 West Virginians died from overdoses of these two powerful painkillers. Who let it happen? Investigative reporter Eric Eyre, of the Charleston Gazette-Mail, answered our questions about his series on The Front Porch.

This week on the Front Porch, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito gives her take on what the new Trump administration means for West Virginia. We discuss recent resurgence of black lung among coal miners, what comes after the promised repeal of the Affordable Care Act, what can be done to build rural broadband networks, and more. "The Front Porch” is a place where we tackle the tough issues facing West Virginia and Appalachia with some of the region's most interesting thinkers. WVPB Executive

How could a billionaire born into wealth become the champion of the white working class? That question stumped a lot of liberal commentators, but Joan Williams wasn’t surprised . Williams studies the white working class and is founding director of the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings College of the Law. On the Front Porch podcast, she makes a case for reaching across the class-culture gap to understand one another. Here are nine things she said many liberals (and some non-liberal elites)

Last week in Charleston, a white man shot and killed a black teen, 15-year-old James Means. The accused told police , “The way I look at it, that's another piece of trash off the street." Unlike other cities where similar things happened, Charleston did not erupt into violent protests. Part of the reason may be the Charleston Police Department itself. During a decade of leadership under Chief Brent Webster, the department has made transparency, improving communication with the community and

This week Scott, Laurie, and Rick are joined by guest Sharif Youssef. Youssef is the child of an Egyptian immigrant who grew up in the town of West Liberty, West Virginia, who now works as a producer on the popular podcast "99% Invisible" in the San Francisco Bay area. Youssef's recent Facebook post on the election of Donald Trump has gained popularity and been shared across the internet. In it, he describes the discrimination he faced both as a person of Middle Eastern descent growing up in

Why did so much of middle America vote Trump? J.B. Akers says it’s too simple to write it off to racism and misogyny. Akers is a West Virginia lawyer whose blog post on the Trump election went viral. It’s called, “Trump Won and I Don't Understand Why You Don't Understand.” Akers said he was motivated to write the essay after reading the reaction of his more cosmopolitan friends on social media. People here are not stupid, he argues. Nor do they condone everything Trump said during the campaign.