This Conversation

Dan Gray, Immigration Lawyer with the Garza Law Firm discusses his interactions with immigrants in the area who have been arrested, detained, and are facing deportation issues. Families are affected, but, as Gray explains, the community is affected as well.

Gray's legal action takes place in the larger national context of increased arrests and more aggressive tactics of the Trump Administration.

Contact for Dan Gray via

https://garzalaw.com/

Kindergarten teacher Jessica Watts volunteers her time and resourses on behalf of immigrants whose families are caught up in deportation and detention issues. She describes the effect of enhanced enforcement on families and communities, and talks about why this issue is meaningful to her.

The Democratic Primary election will be held on August 4th.

In this episode of This Conversation, you'll meet the three Democratic Primary candidates: Douglas Crockett, Adam Murphy, and Joy Powers. The winner wll face Incumbent Republican Candidate Morgan Griffith in the mid-term election on November 3.

Congressman Griffith's office received an invitation to record an episode and have equal time. There was no response.

This week we talk to another social media star. It's Josh Mancuso. He's an actor. filmmaker, and comedian -- best known for his social media routines on how college teams name their mascots.

Learn more at

https://www.joshmancuso.com/

This week's conversation focuses on the stunning internet success of Marion, Va native Amy Kiser Schemper with her fitness and lifestyle videos. You find her as Body Fit by Amy. She has 955,000 YouTube subscribers who tune in for her two -thousand- plus videos and is hoping to hit the one million mark soon.

Hear how she and her husband built the social media business that supports their family of four in Los Angeles.

Learn more at ​https://www.youtube.com/user/BodyFitByAmy

The Appalachian Highlands Community Dental Center is offering dental care for those who can't afford it in Abingdon, Virginia. The facility is funded, in part, from fundraising work with the associated fundraising organization Appalachian Highlands Community Dental Charities.

Rachel Helton leads the fundraising work and describes the organization in this program and she introduces her summer intern Teddy Pillion.

The Dental Center has 21 treatment facilities and has served thousands of people, but still faces a waiting list of more than three thousand people. Resident dentists can help those who need cleanings, crowns, bridges, dentures, fillings and more.

For those who need dental care and think they can't afford it, call 276-525-4487.

For those who would like to contribute to the work, call Rachel Helton at 276-275-1063.

For more information, https://appalachiandentalcharities.org/

Ann Ledgerwood is the guest in this episode of This Conversation and we learn about her passion in volunteering to help those who are dealing with addiction. Ann's work as a volunteer helped launch the program that established the treatment facility for women in Abingdon, Va. in 2023.

The 70 bed facility is part of a larger system that serves men and women in several area locations. The program is paid for by Medicaid and supplemented by donations and volunteer work.

For people who want to know more and may know someone who needs this kind of help, more information is available through Fairview Housing, the nonprofit group that oversees the programs. Here is a link that includes a short video featuring women in the Abingdon facility.

https://fairviewhousing.org/programs/mended-women-recovery/

To reach Mended Women Lifestyle recovery, call 276.451.3996

More information about similar programs for men, including a facility in Bristol, Virginia, is available at fairviewhousing.org.

In a previous series on This Conversation, we talked with two people who could have benefitted from a program like these lifestyle recovery centers. Here are two of those interviews.

I’m Jessica. I’m an addict:

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/ac5f351c-0d5d-4da3-8931-6e72aad6711e/

I’m Bo and I’m an addict:

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/e4bd1213-e9d0-4525-b217-2220eb9090f2/

In this episode we talk with actor Amy Baldwin, now performing in two shows at Barter Theatre for the summer repertory.

Amy introduces us to Marlafaye, her character in the comedy romp Savannah Sipping Society and previews her upcoming role in the theatre's summer musical Guys and Dolls, both running through the first week in August. Then, she is scheduled to perform in Come from Away in September, the story of airline passengers who became stranded in Newfoundland after the 9/11 attacks.

Amy is a graduate of Emory & Henry University but did not appear on stage or take classes in the theatre department there. The story of her first acting role at the age of 27 and what she gave up to do it ranks as both unusual and improbable.

In this interview, you'll learn how Equity Union status affects Barter Theatre and its staff.

It's a profile of an actor. Amy Baldwin.

This week's show is an update from inside Cuba. After 60 years of a US Embargo on trade and now a new US blockade on Cuba, what is life like for people on the island? Sylvia Rozwadowska of Colibri Travel and Tours just returned from Cuba and is planning another trip in June in order to help the Cuban people. Hear the latest about the effect of power outages and the attitudes of people in face of a failing government and international actions.

In partnership with Colibri Travel & Tours, this Humanitarian Trip to Cuba (June 13-19) supports Con Razón, connecting you with local communities to make a real impact.

https://conrazoncuba.org/

https://colibritraveltours.com/

This Convo for this week is a conversation with LeRae Collins, the 2026 Emory & Henry University Commencement Speaker. She's President and CEO of Holston Foundation in Knoxville, the first woman to hold the position in the organization's 40-year history.

You'll hear her overall message she shared with graduates that "all roads lead to Emory & Henry." She also reviews some of the important concepts she emphasized in the address and reminds us all of John Wesley's important guidance for us to "do all the good we can.... as long as ever we can."