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"Kil't" lettuce is an Appalachian delicacy. In this encore episode from Season 1, we discuss how to make this delicious summer salad and why people use -t at the end of the word instead of -ed. We'll also hear clips from storyteller Ray Hicks, who illustrates this Appalachian English pronunciation. So, get your onion, bacon grease, leafy greens, and intrusive -t ready because summer's on the way!

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*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: [email protected] or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

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In this episode, we're looking for voice in some WWII-era letters and recipe books from my great-grandparents' era (I found a recipe called "Masculine Potato Salad"!) You'll also hear a voiceplace story from a western NC listener, who has decided to return to his voiceplace to teach his young daughter about her linguistic heritage. Then, we'll talk about the phrases "up and" and "up in," as in "She up and slapped me for no good reason!" or "We've had up in 50 people at a time come to the house on holidays."

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*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: [email protected] or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

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Beth Macy is the bestselling author of Dopesick, Factory Man, and Paper Girl. Dopesick, her investigation of the opioid crisis, was short-listed for the Carnegie Medal, won the L.A. Times Book Prize for Science and Technology, and was described as a “masterwork of narrative nonfiction” by The New York Times. Dopesick was made into a Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning Hulu series on which Macy served as an executive producer and cowriter. Her most recent book, Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America, is a combination memoir and reported analysis of the rural-urban divide told through the lenses of backward mobility, political polarization, and the decimation of local news. 

Silas House is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the novels Clay’s Quilt, 2001; A Parchment of Leaves, 2003; The Coal Tattoo, 2005; Eli the Good, 2009; Same Sun Here (co-authored with Neela Vaswani) 2012, Southernmost, 2018, and Lark Ascending, 2022, as well as a book of creative nonfiction Something’s Rising, co-authored with Jason Howard, 2009; and four plays. His first book of poetry, All These Ghosts, was the recipient of the 2026 Southern Book Prize. He recently published his first murder-mystery (under the pseudonym S.D. House), Dead Man Blues. He was also Poet Laureate of Kentucky.

I sat down with these two amazing writers at the 50th John Fox, Jr. Literary Festival at Mountain Empire Community College to talk about writing, their process, and a what it means to chronicle the complex stories of this region.

Special thanks to MECC's Dr. Amy Greear, Brandon Maggard for audio, and MECC for allowing me to create this episode from our conversation.

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*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: [email protected] or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

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Dr. Jennifer Cramer, Director of the Appalachian Studies Center at the University of Kentucky, joins me for a conversation about how she became a linguist (shifting from math to French and linguistics), her graduate training at Purdue and the University of Illinois-Urbana, and how Kentucky’s “in-betweenness” shaped her interest in Southern and Appalachian identities. She explains the Linguistic Atlas Project, a nearly century-long archive of U.S. dialect interviews now housed at the University of Kentucky and edited by Allison Burkette, and how it supports ongoing transcription, digitization, and new data collection. Kramer outlines perceptual dialectology methods (mental map tasks, labeling, and ratings) to study how non-linguists perceive dialect regions and attach attitudes and stereotypes that can affect discrimination. She argues that “dying dialect” claims are complicated, notes public reactions to reporting on Southern English change, and emphasizes accent pride, urging listeners not to judge people based on how they talk. 

Support the show

*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: [email protected] or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

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We're revisiting Season One and an episode with the legendary Crystal Wilkinson, author of Praise Song for the Kitchen Ghosts (which was published after this episode aired) and other works. Crystal discusses her journey from trying to erase her Appalachian accent to embracing it as an essential part of her identity and craft. She calls her native dialect her "mother tongue" and describes the revolutionary act of allowing her "tongue to rest in its normal state."

Crystal reads several powerful poems featuring her grandparents' voices:

• "Black Rapunzel" about her mother's struggle with schizophrenia
• "The Water Witch" series: poems in her grandfather's voice about wisdom, land, and literacy
• "Old Tobacco": a love letter to Kentucky's tobacco heritage

Crystal Wilkinson, a recent recipient of a Writing Freedom fellowship ,  is the award-winning author of  Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, a national-bestselling culinary memoir, Perfect Black, a collection of poems,  and three works of fiction—The Birds of Opulence , Water Street and Blackberries, Blackberries. She is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, an O. Henry Prize, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a USA Artists Fellowship, and an Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. She has received recognition from the Yaddo Foundation, Hedgebrook, The Vermont Studio Center for the Arts,  The Hermitage Foundation and others. Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in  The Atlantic, The Kenyon Review, STORY, Agni Literary Journal, Emergence, Oxford American and Southern Cultures.  She was Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 2021 to 2023. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Kentucky where she is a Bush-Holbrook Endowed Professor and Director of the Divsion of Creative Writing. Her memoir Heartsick is forthcoming from Crown. 

Support the show

*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: [email protected] or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

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This episode grows out of a moment earlier this year, when my great-grandmother’s words appeared in The Atlantic in a January 6 article by Annie Joy Williams on Appalachian speech and memory. But long before her voice was quoted on a national stage, it was part of our family’s oral history, spoken in her accent and in her words.

In this episode, I share more of her story. She talks about growing up on the mountain, birch sapping in the spring, and the rituals of courtin’ in a world before cars, phones, or much privacy. These are everyday memories, told plainly, the way people often tell the truth when they’re not performing for an audience.

She also reflects on harder chapters: her husband’s (my Papaw's) near-fatal bout with black lung and his time on supply ships during World War II. Her memories remind us how industrial labor and global conflict reached deep into mountain homes.

This episode is about what oral history gives us that written records often can’t: a sense of place and voice. It’s a reminder that Appalachian Englishes aren't meant to be “cleaned up” or corrected, but included in a living record of experience.

This is the longer story behind the quote in The Atlantic. And it’s one worth hearing.

*Though every effort has been made to clean up distortion, you may hear audio interference due to some disintegration of cassette tapes that are about 25 years old.*

Support the show

*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: [email protected] or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

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What did Appalachian English sound like before anyone could hit “record”?

In this episode revisit from Season 1, I’m doing a little linguistic time travel using letters instead of audio. I take a close look at two personal letters written nearly a century apart:
• one from 1862, during the Civil War, and
• one from 1954, written by a woman in Lee County, Virginia

On the surface, they’re just everyday letters. But read closely, they’re packed with clues about how people actually spoke.

We're using a method called content analysis, which is a fancy name for paying very close attention to spelling, grammar, and word choice. Before audio recording, and before widespread formal schooling, many people wrote the way they talked. That means these letters preserve dialect features we’d otherwise never hear.

So, what sticks around? What changes? And what can a pair of ordinary letters tell us about Appalachian speech across nearly 100 years?

In this episode, we’ll talk about:

• How linguists study speech from the past without recordings
• Why “nonstandard” spelling is actually a goldmine
• Appalachian dialect features that show up again and again
• What language continuity tells us about place, community, and identity

Voice work: Brock Davidson (Civil War Soldier) and Addison Hutchison (Lee County woman)

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*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: [email protected] or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

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In this edited episode revisit,  we talk about Old Christmas (or "Little Christmas) that many Appalachians still celebrate on January 6th. We'll also talk about favorite New Year's foods for luck (like Hoppin' John) and how to avoid bad luck (don't do laundry or sweep.) Then we'll talking about the word "untelling," as in "It's untelling what 2026 will bring, but I hope it's all good things!"

Happy Old Christmas and Happy New Year!

Support the show

*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: [email protected] or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

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In this episode, I'm joined by an Appalachian artist and fourth-year UVA-Wise student Bailey Lantman who shares her journey of discovering the academic study of her regional dialect and heritage. We talk about the importance of preserving Appalachian voices, the influence of family and regional history on her identity, and the experience of embracing her dialect in various settings (including New York Fashion Week.) Bailey reads her published poem 'Bless Your Heart and Other Acts of Rebellion,' which reflects the inherent literary quality of Appalachian speech. The episode concludes with listener stories about their *voiceplaces and the impact of dialect on their lives.

00:00 Introduction and Poetry

01:49 Bailey's Appalachian Heritage

03:59 Academic Journey and Inspirations

07:06 Appalachian Identity in New York

08:24 Voice Place and Code Switching

17:13 Bailey's Poem: Bless Your Heart

27:12 Listener Responses

Share your own voiceplace via audio or email at [email protected]

*"Voiceplace" is a word created by Kentucky author George Ella Lyon

Support the show

*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: [email protected] or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

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*This episode first aired in 2023*

Bestselling author and Western North Carolinian Ron Rash joins the Talking Appalachian podcast to discuss his latest novel, The Caretaker. Amy explores Rash's extensive body of work, including his contributions to Talking Appalachian (the book), the significance of dialect and voice in his writing, and his fascination with cemeteries and family stories. The conversation delves into the emotional core of Rash's novels, the influence of his Appalachian upbringing, and the profound moments of human connection that shape his storytelling.

00:45 Ron Rash's Contributions and Background

01:28 Discussion on Ron Rash's Works and Achievements

03:12 Ron Rash's New Novel: The Caretaker

05:12 Exploring Themes and Characters in The Caretaker

12:17 The Role of Voice and Dialect in Writing

16:23 The Significance of Work in Fiction

20:58 Excitement for the New Book

21:35 Cemetery Stories and Family Memories

24:17 Gravestones and Their Meanings

26:25 The Corpse Bird and Superstitions

28:40 Writing About Family and Appalachia

29:59 Appalachian Culture and Personal Reflections

32:25 Memories of Tweety Railroad and Family

34:43 Poetry and Personal Loss

38:07 Final Thoughts

Support the show

*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: [email protected] or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain