Inside Appalachia
Sundays 7 a.m. & 6 p.m.
Inside Appalachia tells the stories of our people, and how they live today. The show is an audio tour of our rich history, food, music and culture.
Have a question or want to share your story? Send us an email at InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
- Sign-up for the Inside Appalachia Newsletter
- Watch Inside Appalachia videos
- View stories from the Folkways Reporting Project
- Inside Appalachia Podcast - Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or SoundCloud.
Affiliate Stations
To find your local station go here:
- Allegheny Mountain Radio in Frost, West Virginia, WVMR - Saturday 7 a.m.
- WETS, Johnson City, Tennessee - Sunday 6 p.m.
- Morehead State Public Radio in Morehead, Kentucky, Saturday 6 a.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.
- Appalshop Mountain Community Radio , WMMT in Whitesburg, Kentucky - Sunday 11 a.m. & Tuesday 6 p.m.
- WEKU Richmond, Kentucky - Saturday 6 a.m. and Sunday 7 p.m.
- WHFI, Lindside, West Virginia - Tuesday 7 p.m.
- WSHC Shepherdstown, West Virginia - Sunday 9 a.m.
- WUOT-2, Knoxville, Tennessee - Tuesday 7 p.m.
- WVCU Athens, West Virginia - Wednesday 5 p.m.
- West Virginia Public Broadcasting - Sunday at 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.
- WMOV Ravenswood, West Virginia - Saturday at 8 a.m.
- WUTC and WUTC-HD1, Chattanooga, TN - Saturday at 1 p.m.
- Radio IQ Roanoke, Virginia - Sunday at 6 p.m.
- Blue Ridge Public Radio, Asheville, North Carolina - Sunday at 2 p.m.
Podcast Episodes
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This week on Inside Appalachia, we look back at some of the stories we told in 2022. We took you to the floods in eastern Kentucky, where you met people who witnessed terrible destruction. We also invited you along as we talked to Appalachians who know a little something about resilience, like Dolly Parton. Because you invited us into your homes, we invited you into ours with a special trip to Mason’s hometown — Floyd, Virginia. -
This week, we talk with folklorist Emily Hilliard about her new book exploring contemporary folklife and Appalachian culture. We’ll also hear about the Asian-Appalachian experience from a student filmmaker who was born in China and grew up in western Maryland, and we’ll travel back to 2016 and listen to an interview with JD Vance. Back then, he was a newly published author, promoting his book, “Hillbilly Elegy.” Now, he’s Ohio’s newly elected U.S. senator.
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This week on Inside Appalachia, we talk with contributors to a new collection of writing by LGBTQ Appalachians — about how they see themselves reflected here in the region. We also hear about the history of baseball in the coal camps of southwestern Virginia and we return to flood damaged eastern Kentucky and meet gospel musician Dean McBee.
Stories
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Since his first sighting in November of 1966, West Virginia’s Mothman has become a pop culture figure recognized around the world and appearing in films, books and video games. Now the state’s best-known cryptid is back in a new movie, the locally produced “Return of the Mothman.” -
Neema Avashia grew up in a neighborhood in Kanawha County, West Virginia, as the daughter of immigrants to the U.S.Her new book, "Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place," describes that experience.
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Last year, Inside Appalachia brought you the story of rock climbers taking on racist, sexist and other offensive route names in West Virginia’s New River Gorge. Inside Appalachia reporter Zack Harold recently checked in with DJ Grant, a climber who helped kickstart the effort to change the names, to see if climbers were successful in their efforts.
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If you’ve listened to Inside Appalachia, there’s a good chance you’ve heard LaPrelle’s music before, as one half of Anna & Elizabeth. That would be LaPrelle, who grew up in Rural Retreat, Virginia, and Anna Roberts Gevalt, who is now based in Brooklyn. Inside Appalachia co-host Mason Adams spoke with LaPrelle to learn more, beginning with LaPrelle’s roots as a ballad singer who took up the tradition of regional legends like Texas Gladden.
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Appalachian Ohio writer Alison Stine’s first novel, “Road Out of Winter,” won the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award in April. Inside Appalachia co-host Mason Adams recently spoke to Stine about the novel and what it tells us about the world of today.
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A new road makes it easier to get from the Washington, D.C. metro area to the rugged backwoods of Tucker County, West Virginia, where nearly 130,000 of acres of state and federal land are accessible to the public. Instead of a four or five hours up winding mountain roads, the new easy, breezy four-lane now shrinks the drive to less than three hours. The growing number of visitors has boosted business — but it’s also strained the resources of a county with one stoplight and just 7,000 year-round residents.
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Dolly Sods is federally protected public land — full of rocky ridges, soggy bogs and beautiful views. It’s also the site of an annual nature walk called the West Virginia Wildflower Pilgrimage. This year was the 59th time that wildflower and birding experts descended on the area for the event. Inside Appalachia co-host Mason Adams made the pilgrimage from his home in Floyd County, Virginia to Dolly Sods for the annual event and brings us this story.
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A McDowell County food pantry is teaming up with a non-profit called Dig Deep in order to bring residents clean drinking water.
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Crystal Wilkinson is Kentucky’s new poet laureate, the first Black woman to have this title in the state. She recently spoke with Inside Appalachia’s co-host Caitlin Tan. Wilkinson began by reading a poem that is an ode to tobacco and her grandfather. The poem is featured in her soon-to-be-released collection of poems, ‘Perfect Black.’
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Last year, West Virginia’s New River Gorge became the state’s first national park and the 63rd in the nation.It’s just a one word change -- but those who fought for the new designation say it could make all the difference for the local tourism economy.
