Vital Voices

We talk with Ellen Stroud, the new Executive Director of The Carter Family Fold and Memorial Music Center in Hiltons, Virginia.

In a special fundraising edition of "Vital Voices," we talk with three NPR colleagues about their latest books. Our guests are Scott Detrow and Daniel Burke, co-authors of American Pope: Leo the XIV's Road from the South Side of Chicago to Vatican City, and Allison Aubrey, author of Your Turn: How to Create a Midlife You Love.

We explore the role of apple butter in keeping an Appalachian community together.

We take a look at the work of the organization Feeding Southwest Virginia and how it is attacking hunger in the region.

The city of Columbia, Tennessee, is proclaiming itself the Fruit Tea Capital of the World, and city leaders are busy preparing for the first festival to honor the designation. We talk with Kelli Johnson of Columbia Main Street.

From our archives, the late B.B. King revisits his hometown in the Mississippi Delta and remembers his musical beginnings.

We look back to the 18th century and trace the history of fiddle music in Scotland, with award-winning fiddler Dr. Jane MacMorran.

Dr. Douglas Hale from Vanderbilt University Medical Center explains how renal transplants are done and emphasizes the importance of organ donation.

We visit the family farm of Mike Fields in Hawkins County, Tennessee. In the summer of 2026, Mike grew a pumpkin that weighed in at 1,494 pounds. The pumpkin was a popular attraction at the Appalachian Fair, which is marking its 100th anniversary in 2026.

Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon was a member of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville for over 50 years. She was best known through her stage persona, Minnie Pearl. We talk with Belmont University's Don Cusic, co-author of the new biography Howdy! The Minnie Pearl Story, published in 2026 by the University of Tennessee Press.