East Kentucky Poet Marianne Worthington's new book The Girl Singer draws from the history of women in early country music. She reads selections and discusses her process in front of an audience in downtown Whitesburg.

A panel discussion about mass incarceration, with a focus on the system’s impacts across Kentucky, and ways that communities can try to make things better. Featuring filmmaker Sylvia Ryerson, organizer Savvy Shabazz, journalist Jared Bennett, and moderator Shameka Parrish-Wright. This followed an advance screening of Ryerson's new "Calls From Home" documentary film.

The Calls From Home radio show takes place on WMMT Monday nights, taking calls starting at 7pm for broadcast starting at 9.

You can hear more of our stories at wmmt.org, or by looking up mountain talk on any podcast app.

The panel was introduced by Téa Wimer, recorded by Parker Hobson, and edited by Benny Becker.

In this edition of WMMT's Mountain Talk, in honor of national Diabetes Alert Day (which was Tues., Mar. 28), we begin with two stories about dealing with blood sugar in the mountains.

First, we travel back to the days and weeks after last year's catastrophic flood, for a feature story on the particular effect the flood had on local folks with diabetes. Because many diabetics need to store their insulin in the fridge, many had their supply affected by the flood— either from direct damage to their home, or from the fact that power was out in much of the region for days on end. In this story, we meet Tedd Link (pictured), a resident of Hindman, Ky., who went nearly three days without insulin (or food) in the wake of the flood— and we also meet Mendy Boggs & Mary Collins, two health workers with Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation in Whitesburg, who helped organize a massive, ad-hoc, insulin donation and distribution program in the days and weeks after the waters went down.

And speaking of blood sugar, it's possible to have diabetes, or prediabetes, without even knowing it. And for living proof, in the next story in this hour, we meet Becky Stacy, a Perry County resident who was one of those people who received a surprise type 2 diagnosis. But— in this piece, we hear how she was able to make big changes in her health, energy level, and blood sugar, all by making some small changes to her daily routine. And we bring you this story in honor of Diabetes Alert Day, a national call to action for everyone to get their blood sugar checked, and to think about what they eat & how much they're exercising, two factors which play a huge role in type 2.

Both of these blood-sugar-related stories come from our ongoing series Prevent Diabetes EKY. For more stories of managing blood sugar in the mountains, check out our project website: http://www.preventdiabeteseky.org.

And finally, since April is National Poetry Month, we close this show with a rebroadcast of a special program from the WMMT archives: a series of interviews with, and readings from, local poets Pauletta Hansel, Rebecca Gayle Howell, and Rose McLarney, produced by former WMMT producer Rae Garringer back in 2020.

For more episodes of Mountain Talk, check out our Soundcloud page (@mountaintalkmonday), or visit the WMMT website: https://www.wmmt.org.

(Music in this hour includes: "Greenville Waltz" by The Dutch Cove String Band, from the album Sycamore Tea [June Appal Records]; and "Traveling Riverside Blues" by Don Bikoff, "Chillicothe" & "Wind Through a Broken Glass" by Mark Fosson, & "Across the Tappen Zee" by Glenn Jones & Laura Baird, all of these from the Free Music Archive.)

We at WMMT are in the middle of our Spring Fund Drive, our first fundraising drive since last summer's catastrophic flood destroyed our broadcast studio in Whitesburg.

And in this episode of WMMT's Mountain Talk, here as we ask for your support to keep this station on the air, we thought we'd share with you just some of the reporting and storytelling that your donations make possible.

In this hour, we feature a wide variety of stories and reports from recent months and years, including:

- several reports from reporter Katie Myers, who was on the ground in the region for last summer's devastating flood, and its aftermath;

- a piece about food access after the flood from our Prevent Diabetes EKY storytelling project;

- a story about water quality in Martin County, KY.;

- a story about broadband access in the mountains, from our Making Connections radio series;

- and an audio postcard from last summer's Pikeville Pride celebration, which was just one of the joy-filled gatherings held in our region during Pride month last year.

If you appreciate these stories—and the fact that WMMT is a station that's committed to providing a platform for a wide range of local voices, and a wide range of local issues—you can be a part of keeping this station on the air, to make sure that we’re still here for years to come, and able to report about whatever comes next for our region. You can donate at https://www.wmmt.org/donate.

(Music in this hour includes: "Hard Times" by Doug Naselroad; "St. Anne's Reel" by John McCutcheon, from The Wind That Shakes the Barley [June Appal Records]; and "Traveling Riverside Blues" by Don Bikoff, "Chillicothe" by Mark Fosson, and "Cloud of Unkowning" & "Cross" by James Blackshaw, all from the Free Music Archive.)

This week: first-person accounts of seeking justice for the people locked in central Appalachia's jails.

Quantez Burks is one of more than a dozen people who died in West Virginia’s Southern Regional Jail in 2022. WMMT’s Benny Becker brings us to marches and rallies organized by his family.

Then, we’ll hear about east Kentucky jails, as WMMT’s Katie Meyers shares updates on overcrowding and re-entry in Floyd County and beyond.

Mitch Troutman, author and descendant of a long line of Pennsylvania coal miners, discusses his book "The Bootleg Coal Rebellion: the Pennsylvania Miners Who Seized an Industry, 1925-1942". Recorded in collaboration with Roadside Theatre and the Read Spotted Newt bookstore in Hazard, Ky.

Kim Kelly on American Labor History by WMMT/Appalshop

Though incarcerated people are members of our communities - on the electric grid with us, breathing the air with us and drinking water from the same watershed - they are hidden from our lives.

The WMMT listening area contains many jails and prisons, including US Penitentiary Big Sandy in Inez, Ky.; Wallens Ridge State Prison in Wise County, Va.; Red Onion State Prison in Wise County, Va.; Keen Mountain Correctional Center in Oakwood, Va.; US Penitentiary Lee in Lee County, Va.; Wise Correctional Unit in Coeburn, Va.; and, many regional jails and detention centers. And recently, a new federal prison has been proposed for Letcher County, Kentucky.

Prisons have been posited by proponents as an economic development engine for communities, providing jobs for rural people and rehabilitation for inmates in one swoop. However, others say that the presence of a prison in a community can have traumatic ripple effects that spread within families and down generations, and often leaves prisoners without the tools they need to succeed outside the prison walls.

In this episode, Jacob Shouse, a man incarcerated at Wallens Ridge State Prison, shares his story of seeking support for mental healthcare and rehabilitation within the prison system. We'll also hear from former psychiatrist and vocal Letcher County prison opponent Artie Ann Bates, on the psychological toll of incarceration on families and communities, including prison workers.

On this Mountain Talk, WMMT intern Rowan Roudebush dives into the stories of two Appalachian railroad workers, some of their struggles on the job, their participation in union organizing, and their opinions on the near-mass railroad strike that occurred in December. In this piece you'll hear from Penny Nunes and William Woodring, both rank-and-file railroad workers. Music is "Railroad Man" by Bill Withers.

The catastrophic flood of summer 2022 destroyed not only homes, but livelihoods. In particular, farmers were hard hit. Many lost their summer crops, their high tunnels, and their tools; fields were left covered in silty, toxic flood mud. But thanks to a massive mobilization of resources nd support in the agriculture community, many farmers are on track to begin growing produce again next year. In this episode of Mountain Talk, hear from Mike Eldridge and Timothy Breeding of Rocket Farms in Letcher County, as well as Chris McKenzie of Grow Appalachia and Valerie Horn of CANE Kitchen and the Letcher County Farmers' Market. Music featured in this episode is "Cabin in Gloryland," performed by Phyllis Boyens.

WMMT reporter Rowan Roudebush contributed to this episode.

WMMT would also like to acknowledge other organizations currently assisting farmers in this time, including:

Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky

Community Farm Alliance

Community Agriculture Nutrition Enterprises (CANE)

Cowan Creek Community Center

North Fork Local Foods

Hindman Settlement School

Kentucky Horticulture Council

University of Kentucky

Cooperative Extension and The Food Connection

Kentucky State University Cooperative Extension

Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development

Organic Association of Kentucky

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency, and National Institute for Food and Agriculture

Kentucky Dept. of Agriculture and the Kentucky Agriculture Development Fund

Funders of Grow Appalachia and many of the organizations above.