In Kentucky, the start of another new year means the beginning of another session of the state General Assembly, when lawmakers from all over Kentucky gather in Frankfort to write laws, pass laws, and, this year, come up with a state budget for the next two years.

The 2024 General Assembly kicked off on Jan. 2nd, and in this edition of Mountain Talk, we preview what might come up in Frankfort this year, and how it might affect us here in East Kentucky. For instance, could lawmakers decide to use money from the billions of $ sitting in Kentucky's so-called 'Rainy Day Fund' to help build houses for local flood victims, or to give teachers raises? And are there bills that might get proposed that could affect things like funding for mountain schools, or our state's already-large prison population?

In this hour, we sit down with Jason Bailey, of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, and with Sylvia Goodman, Capitol Reporter with Kentucky Public Radio, for two conversations about the state budget, bills that might get considered this year, and what the landscape in Frankfort looks like in general right now. In particular, we hear about some of the many ways that some advocates believe Kentucky's 'Rainy Day Fund' could be tapped into this year to provide direct support to people and communities across the state—including many in East Kentucky—who might need it.

On December 12th 2023, Governor Andy Beshear started his second term in office by being publicly sworn in on the Capitol steps. Kentucky's 62nd inauguration was full of festivities such as the inaugural parade, performances from talented artists, and several speeches highlighting the hope that after overcoming many hardships; Kentucky can move forward, together. Madison Buchanan was there to capture the day and share it with you on WMMT.

So with Thanksgiving behind us, we are officially in the holiday season. And while of course there’s much to love about this time of year, there are parts of the holidays that *can* be stressful. And if you’re someone with your health on your mind—whether it’s your blood sugar because you’re managing type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, or it’s your sodium intake for the sake of your blood pressure—eating around the holidays can be especially tricky to navigate. So for anyone who might be keeping their blood sugar, or their overall health, in mind this year, as a part of our ongoing series Prevent Diabetes EKY, we begin this edition of Mountain Talk with some tips and tricks from an expert about navigating those holiday meals. Tami Ross is a Registered Dietitian from the University of Kentucky’s Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center, and she spoke to WMMT by phone back in 2021.

Then: this winter marks the 60th anniversary of when President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a federal 'War on Poverty' during his State of the Union Address in January of 1964. The 'War' that ensued was made up of many different programs and initiatives, which had a large and varied impact on life in the mountains; for better or worse, one of those impacts was school consolidation. In the 1960’s, a wave of consolidation swept across the region, after new federal funding that was up for grabs accelerated the trend away from smaller schools spread all across mountain counties, and towards new, larger schools concentrated in bigger towns. In a story from the WMMT archives, which first aired in 1993, Maxine Kenny reports about this unique time in the history of mountain education.

And then, to close the show: Dec. 8th would have marked the 101st birthday of a gigantic figure in both Appalachian and American folk music: Jean Ritchie. Born in 1922, Jean was a native of Perry County, and she became renowned all over the country as a skilled musician, a one-of-a-kind singer, an accomplished songwriter, and a well-known ambassador for Appalachian folk music to both the rest of America and the world. And for the second half of this episode of Mountain Talk, we bring you a radio documentary about Jean, from the WMMT series Southern Songbirds: Women Pioneers of Country & Old-time Music, which was produced by Rachel Goodman, with WMMT, back in 2001.

For everything amazing about Appalachia—beautiful scenery, close-knit communities, and a strong cultural heritage, to name just a few of our many attributes—it's also of course someplace where lots of people are facing hard times. And often, when the region gets talked about, it can feel like some of the real issues that people face every day can get overlooked. Especially when it comes to things like opioid dependency, recurring arrests, or not knowing where you’re going to sleep at night.

WMMT producer Madison Buchanan is from the region, and grew up around these issues, and in a new regular series here on WMMT, she sits down with local people to talk about their experiences with things like houselessness, incarceration, and substance use, as well as her own. And we begin this edition of Mountain Talk with the latest installment of this series, which features Madison in conversation with Rick Branham, of Pike County. Rick is currently a schoolteacher at North Point Academy in Pikeville. But before that, he worked as the Homeless Education Coordinator in Pike County for over 20 years. And in this conversation, we hear about Rick’s experiences over the years in working with families, including children, who are struggling to make ends meet.

Then, in the last part of the show, in honor of November being National Native American Heritage Month, we close with a selection of songs and stories from the Cherokee people, who had called these mountains home *long* before the first white colonists ever set foot in the area. Walker Calhoun was a Cherokee musician and tradition-bearer from North Carolina, who performed here in the area several times, including here at Appalshop for the 1996 Seedtime on the Cumberland Festival. And to close out this edition of Mountain Talk, from the Appalshop Archive, we have a series of clips from that performance.

If you live around here, you’ve *probably* heard of type 2 diabetes. East Kentucky, sadly, has higher rates of type 2 than the state and national averages.

But even though it’s common here, health educators will tell you there are still some common misconceptions about it. For example, did you know that it’s possible to have prediabetes—or even type 2 diabetes—without even knowing it, because you might not show any symptoms for awhile? Or that even if diabetes runs in your family, it’s still possible to prevent type 2 in your *own* body?

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, and in this edition of Mountain Talk, as part of our ongoing series Prevent Diabetes EKY, we sit down with Jessica Anderson, a diabetes educator with the Pike County Health Department. We talk about these misconceptions, about diabetes in general, and about the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a small-group lifestyle change program that Jessica leads at the Pike County Health Department. The DPP uses a curriculum developed by the CDC, and has an ultimate goal of helping folks learn how to better manage their blood sugar— and hopefully prevent type 2 before it can ever start.

To put it simply, as Jessica says in this episode: "Diabetes is preventable. So, why not prevent it?"

As a final note, the DPP is also offered at clinics and health departments across the region. For more locations, and for more stories like this of preventing and managing type 2 in the mountains, check out our project website: https://www.preventdiabeteseky.org

(Music in this episode was by Don Bikoff, from the Free Music archive; and by The Home Folks, from the album Last Chance, released on Appalshop’s very own June Appal Records.)

After having once been thought to be a thing of the past, black lung disease has been back on the rise in recent years, especially among central Appalachian miners. And for years, local advocates for miners’ health have pointed to silica dust as part of why— basically, because most of the so-called ‘easy-to-reach’ coal in our region is gone, you have to cut through more and more rock to get to what’s left. And cutting through that rock kicks up silica dust, which is incredibly toxic, and which, like coal dust, can also cause black lung.

But even though we've known how harmful silica is for awhile now, the federal rules around silica dust exposure in coal mines have not actually been updated in decades. But that might be about to change: earlier this summer, the Biden Administration’s Mine Health and Safety Administration (MSHA), finally proposed a new set of rules around silica exposure in coal mines.

In this episode of Mountain Talk, we welcome two special guests to the WMMT studio to talk about the proposed rules, how they might work if they are adopted as-is, and, perhaps most importantly, how *well* they might work. Host Parker Hobson speaks with Courtney Rhoades Mullins, Black Lung Organizer at the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center in Whitesburg, Ky., and William J. McCool, a retired coal miner from Letcher County, who has some 40 years' experience in the mines.

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.