The Talking Appalachian Podcast

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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. 

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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

What did you think of this episode?

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

What did you think of this episode?

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)

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

What did you think of this episode?

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

What did you think of this episode?

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

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Renowned author of 19 books and former NASA engineer Homer Hickam sits down with me and a few students at UVA's College at Wise to talk about his journey from the coalfields of West Virginia to becoming a celebrated author and esteemed engineer. In this episode, Hickam shares his experiences writing Rocket Boys and other books, the inspiration to write both fiction and nonfiction, and his most memorable projects at NASA.  He also discusses his encounters with industry icons, the challenges and rewards of different genres, and offers practical advice to aspiring writers and engineers. Hickam recalls stories about the making of the ''October Sky'' movie and thoughts on the evolving publishing industry.

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

What did you think of this episode?

*From the Season 1 Archive*

"Molassey," as that smoky, syrupy mixture is known in central Appalachia, is a dying tradition. Appalachians call the process of making molasses a 'stir-off,' and everybody in the community would come by to help or sit around the boiling pan and talk.

The word 'molasses' becomes 'lasses' or 'molassey' in the local dialect, a vernacular blend resulting from English, German, and Scotch-Irish migrants who flooded the Appalachian mountains in the 18th and 19th centuries.  

Molasses-making was an annual event every October in my family for years, so I'm sharing the process of a molasses 'run' from the podcast archive to talk about why we count it among our favorite memories.

Dialect source: Dictionary of American Regional English

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

What did you think of this episode?

Jeff Biggers is the author of The United States of Appalachia, In Sardina, Trials of a Scourge, and many more. You've heard me discuss his work on the podcast, particularly in New England, where we visited the grave of Washington Irving, who first proposed that the country's name be changed from "America" to "Appalachia." Biggers' book, published 20 years ago, is a "re-storification" of Appalachia, as he puts it. He seeks to reveal the innovators in music, literature, resistance, and politics who are almost never associated with the region but were born and sometimes shaped here.

In this bonus episode, Jeff met with members of a class I teach at UVA-Wise, where he recounted meeting the great Don West as a 19-year-old hitchhiker. His education about Appalachia began with this meeting, when West started asking a series of questions with "Did you know....?"

Biggers didn't know any of what West told him about Appalachia, but that meeting made him question why he didn't know.

Did you know that Nina Simone, from Appalachian North Carolina, sang "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair" in New York City? It was a mountain ballad she learned growing up.

Did you know the first woman to win the Nobel prize for literature was born in West Virginia?

Did you know the first abolitionist newspaper was founded in east Tennessee, where Rosa Parks trained in nonviolent protest four months before she refused to give up her seat on that bus?

Biggers discusses how his journey took him from Appalachia and across the world, most notably to Italy where he saw familiar themes in the way people from particular areas were perceived. The loss of his family's farm brought him back to Appalachia for a reckoning with what happens when land that is generations-old is erased.

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

What did you think of this episode?

What does it mean to “tell the bees”? In this episode, we explore a centuries-old European custom carried into Appalachia by Scots-Irish, English, Welsh, and German settlers. Families once whispered news of births, marriages, and deaths to their hives, sometimes draping them in black cloth or feeding them bits of funeral cake.

Through oral histories and folklore, we trace how "telling the bees" became part of Appalachian death lore and what it reveals about a worldview where nature and humanity were kin. Finally, I'll share a poem by Jane Hicks inspired by this tradition.

Sources: John Greenleaf Whittier, “Telling the Bees” (1858); Leonard Roberts, South from Hell-fer-Sartin (1955); Richard Chase, The Jack Tales (1943); Loyal Jones, Appalachian Values (1995) 

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