Dealing with changes to how your health insurance works is something that—and maybe this is putting it generously—can be confusing, even in normal times. And when it comes to Medicaid in particular, over the past year, there have been changes in both how you stay signed up for the program, and, here in Kentucky, in what kinds of services Medicaid will cover.

So, in this edition of Mountain Talk, we bring you a conversation with two Kentucky Medicaid experts to break down the latest changes, and what people here in East Kentucky need to know. We sit down with Cara Stewart and Priscilla Easterling, both of the organization Kentucky Voices for Health, and, in plain English, they walk us through what’s going on with things like Medicaid re-enrollment (in short, you need to re-apply to keep Medicaid going forward; so check your mailbox!), and Medicaid coverage of dental, vision, & hearing services (in Kentucky, these services are now covered by Medicaid, even though the state legislature has been pushing back on this).

As a final note here, if you need to check your Medicaid status, you can do so at http://kynect.ky.gov. And if you’d like help with the health insurance process, whether it’s through Medicaid or otherwise, official state insurance helpers called “kynectors” are available to lend a hand, free of charge. You can find more on connecting with a kynector at the kynect website as well.

On July 28, 2023, The Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative, in partnership with EKY Mutual Aid, put on a Queer Literary Hoedown at the Carnegie Center in Lexington, KY.

WMMT's Téa Wimer captured the poetry readings from the evening, featuring Kentucky authors like Savannah Sipple, Jay McCoy, Tina Andry, Renée Rigdon, LeTonia Jones, Samar X Johnson, Ondine Quinn, and Willie E.T. Carver, with a highlight reading from Silas House as well as a viewing of the music video for Tyler Childers' "In Your Love", which had been released the day before the Hoedown.

In this episode of WMMT's Mountain Talk, we begin with the first edition of a brand-new series from WMMT producer Madison Buchanan, where Madison sits down with folks from all walks of local life to talk about issues that, even though they affect so many people in our region, often go un-talked-about— things like homelessness, incarceration, and substance use. In this first interview in her series, Madison speaks with local filmmaker Sean Hall to compare their experiences of growing up in the midst of these issues here in East Kentucky.

Then, in honor of the particular season we find ourselves in right now—somewhere between the tail end of summer and the very beginning of fall—we hear two readings that are rooted in this time of year, from two great Kentucky writers: Barbara Kingsolver and Fenton Johnson. These readings were recorded by Eli Kleinsmith at the 2013 Hindman Writers' Workshop in Hindman, Ky., and they were first aired on WMMT back in 2013 as well.

On this edition of Mountain Talk, first we'll hear snippets from Whitesburg's Growing Home celebration, which took place on July 27-29 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of last year's devastating flood. We will begin with Appalshop's Archive. Collections manager Leo Shannon & Keilan Aplin-Siegel performed a rendition of Blue Eyed Boston Boy, a performance inspired by The Home Folks' performance of the song recorded in 1979 at the Carter Family Fold. This performance was on one of many mud-covered and floods-damaged audio tapes that the Archive has managed to salvage with the help of AV Geeks in Raleigh, NC.

Next, Appalshop's Archive Director, Caroline Rubens, takes us on a tour of flood-salvaged materials that were initially offered in an exhibit during Growing Home. Last but not least, we spend a few minutes at Levitt AMP Whitesburg to hear a performance from Letcher County's own banjo master John Haywood, performing Great Big Taters in the Sandy Land.

For the second half of the show, we shift gears to remember a beloved community member from Harlan County: Bennie Massey, who passed away this summer at age 73.

Bennie was a life-long resident of Lynch, Kentucky, and just according to his obituary, he was involved in so many community groups and activities, we didn't have time to list them all on the radio.

But among his many passions, Bennie was a longtime coal miner and an outspoken member of the United Mine Workers of America, who, throughout his life, was constantly fighting for better working conditions, wages, and rights for miners, as well as for better environmental conditions for the region. He was also: a deacon and a member of the choir at the Greater Mt. Sinai Baptist Church; part of the theatrical department of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (where he was known for his performance in "Higher Ground"); a member of the Tri-City Messengers, an a capella gospel group; a member of the Greater Mt. Sinai Spirituals; President of the Eastern Kentucky Social Club, Lynch Chapter; and a long-term Lynch City Councilman. But most of all, Bennie was beloved by his family, and by the community of Lynch, where he was a constant, joyful presence, and a well-known ambassador for the community.

To remember Bennie, we bring you clips from a piece we first aired here on WMMT back in 2017. It was put together by Randy Wilson for his fantastic show Kids' Radio, which was a mainstay here on WMMT for so many years, and features an interview that Randy did with Bennie, as well as clips of Bennie singing.

While it was once thought to be a thing of the past, Black lung disease has been back on the rise in recent years, especially among miners here in the central Appalachian coalfields.

On Monday, July 24, the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, a non-profit law firm based in Whitesburg, hosted a Black Lung Town Hall in Whitesburg, where they invited miners and their families to hear from doctors and experts about the current state of the black lung epidemic here in Appalachia. And on this edition of Mountain Talk, we bring you the audio from this important discussion. The event was hosted by Wes Addington, of the Appalachian Citizens Law Center, and featured speakers included Dr. Brandon Crum, a local radiologist and a longtime expert in black lung disease; and two representatives from the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH): Chris Parker, the Field and Outreach Coordinator for NIOSH's Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program, and Dr. Noemi Hall, a Research Epidemiologist in the Respiratory Health Division of the NIOSH Institute of Occupational Safety & Health in Morgantown, WV.

July 27 & 28, of course, marked the one-year anniversary of last year’s devastating flooding. It also marked the premiere of our organization, Appalshop’s, latest film— a full-length documentary about the flood, called "All is Not Lost." And today on Mountain Talk, we begin by bringing you the audio from that film, in full. This audio version is brought to us by WMMT producer Madison Buchanan, who was also one of the filmmakers behind the documentary.

Then, as we’ve been reflecting back on last year’s flood, we bring you a recollection of another local flood, the Tug Valley flood of 1977, which, among other places, devastated the community of Williamson, West Virginia. Our very own Jim Webb, a longtime former staffer and DJ here at WMMT, was living in Williamson during the flood. And in 2015, he was interviewed by Jeff Keith, of the University of Kentucky’s Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, where Jim spoke about that flood, and its aftermath. And we close the show with a clip from that conversation.

July 27 & 28 mark the one-year anniversary of last year's catastrophic flooding in East Kentucky. One year on, in this special Mountain Talk report, we head to Knott County, to meet three different households who all lost their homes in the flood— to hear about what this past year has been like, where they’ve ended up, and what their hopes are for the future.

As we'll hear, while some families have had happy endings when it comes to getting new houses built, others, both here in Knott County and all over the region, are still in limbo (including many still in temporary housing), and are still hoping for help.

This story was reported and produced by Parker Hobson, with contributing reporting by Katie Myers, through a collaboration with Grist magazine. It aired on the July 27, 2023 edition of WMMT's Mountain Talk. Check out Katie's companion story about housing in East Kentucky, one year after the flood, here: https://grist.org/equity/east-kentucky-flood-anniversary-housing-crisis-solution-strip-mine/

(Music in this story includes: "Traveling Riverside Blues" by Don Bikoff, "Cross" and "Cloud of Unkowing" by James Blackshaw, and "Across the Tappen Zee" by Glenn Jones & Laura Baird, all of these from the Free Music Archive.)

Two firsthand accounts from young people who’ve weathered major hardships—  childhood cancer, and a historic flood. They share what they’ve gone through, and how it feels to navigate the aftermath. 

First--  When Lexie Brinson was 3 years old, she was diagnosed with cancer. Now, at age 17, she’s been out of treatment for 12 years. She and her mom have joined with other families as part of the West Virginia Kids Cancer Crusaders, to advocate for children and families affected by pediatric cancer. Lexie produced this story during this summer’s WMMT training workshop. She spoke with Brandi Brinson and Ali Wymer about the experience of pediatric cancer.

Second-- Producer Madison Buchanan brings us the story of Nik Lee, a new graduate of Morehead State University whose whose family home in Letcher County was devastated by last year’s historic the flood.

This episode was hosted and edited by Benny Becker.

Ever since last summer’s catastrophic flood changed life forever for so many in our region, we’ve regularly been looking back here on Mountain Talk to the flood, and its aftermath, as told through the lived experiences of different members of our community. And in this edition of Mountain Talk, we begin with two more stories from the flood, this time from Knott County: first, we meet Alice Caudill (at right in this photo), a diabetes educator with the Kentucky River District Health Department in Hindman, and then we meet Pat Hays, of Leeburn, who’s been a regular participant in Alice’s diabetes education classes over the years. Together, Alice and Pat share about their experiences both during the flood itself, and in the days and weeks after, when both Alice and Pat helped feed hundreds of people every day, for free, in downtown Hindman.

In this piece, we also hear from Pat about what it was like to experience the flood as someone with type 2 diabetes—specifically how the disruptions, and the real stress, that the flood caused made managing diabetes more difficult. We first spoke with these two last October, and their story comes in part through our ongoing series Prevent Diabetes EKY. (And for more stories of managing and preventing type 2 in the mountains, check out our project website: https://www.preventdiabeteseky.org)

Then: this summer marks the 50th anniversary of when, in June of 1973, miners at the Brookside coal mine in Harlan County voted to join the United Mine Workers of America. This was a momentous decision, because the very next month, those miners would go on strike against Duke Power, after the company refused to sign what the miners said was a fair contract that, in part, would give them safer working conditions. The strike was long, grueling, and bloody—with one union miner, Lawrence Jones, even getting shot and killed on the picket line, in 1974—and was immortalized in the national imagination in the landmark documentary film “Harlan County, U.S.A.” Today, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the strike’s beginning, from the Appalshop Archive, we hear from three members of the Brookside Womens’ Club, who were heavily involved with the strike: Minnie Lunsford, Betty Eldridge, and Gussie Mills. These clips come from a program called The Brookside Women, which first aired on Mountain Community Television in Norton, Virginia, in 1974.

And finally, with Appalshop’s 37th (!) annual Seedtime on the Cumberland festival coming up this weekend, on June 16-17, we close our show with clips from a special performance from Seedtime history: the great folksinger, and tradition-bearer, Jean Ritchie’s set at the 1991 Seedtime Festival.

Thanks to failing infrastructure, Rand, West Virginia gets flooded almost every time it rains. This has been happening for decades. Residents are working toward a solution, and they shared their story with WMMT.

This story was reported by Tiara Brown, and edited by Benny Becker.