America stopped institutionalizing people with mental illness decades ago. But now, many are caught up in a system not meant for them. On this episode of Us & Them, we’ll hear what it’s like to live with mental illness behind bars in the Mountain State.

On this West Virginia Morning, a film called Impossible Town, based in Minden, West Virginia, features Dr. Ayne Amjad’s efforts to relocate the town’s residents after decades of exposure to chemical contamination during her tenure as the state’s health officer. Appalachia Health News Reporter Emily Rice spoke with the co-directors of the film ahead of free screenings of the film across the Mountain State.

On this West Virginia Morning, thousands of acres of land across West Virginia and surrounding states are covered in coal mines where not much grows. But some new research is looking at a plant that thrives in that environment.

On this West Virginia Morning, the Ol’ Mountain Trader, a free classified ad publication that serviced southern West Virginia, has closed after a 50-year run. Briana Heaney has the story.

This week on Inside Appalachia, Appalachians are often called mountaineers — but are they also "pioneers?" A new documentary reckons with what it means… to be a pioneer. In Michigan, an Appalachian mountain man competes in a championship tournament, for skipping stones — and we wade into a mountain wetland to search for one of the region’s most elusive creatures.

On this West Virginia Week, employees at a federal prison had an informational picket to protest unsafe working conditions, WVU announced more cuts, groups from Kanawha County are suing the EPA about cancer causing chemicals, and much more.

The 1,875-foot Wellsburg Bridge now connects Wellsburg, West Virginia in the Northern Panhandle to Brilliant, Ohio.

On this West Virginia Morning, an opening partly in French isn’t what you might expect in a film set in West Virginia, but the new documentary O Pioneer is unusual. Inside Appalachia Producer Bill Lynch spoke with Jonathan Lacoque and Clara Lehman, the makers behind their film, to learn what O Pioneer means.

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear from Sherri Young, the interim secretary of the West Virginia Department of Human Resources, and incoming secretary for the Department of Health, about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

On this West Virginia Morning, a draft rule to protect coal miners from exposure to silica dust garnered more than 5,200 comments from advocates and the American public. Emily Rice has the story.