This week, we’re revisiting our episode “What Is Appalachia?” from December 2021. Appalachia connects mountainous parts of the South, the Midwest, the Rust belt and even the Northeast. The Appalachian Regional Commission defined the boundaries for Appalachia in 1965 with the creation of the Appalachian Regional Commision, a part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. It was legislation that sought to expand social welfare, and some localities were eager for the money, while others resisted the designation. The boundaries and definition of Appalachia can now only be changed by an act of Congress.
The coronavirus has changed everything. People around the globe have spent nearly a year sheltering at home, adhering to restrictions and requirements to avoid the contagious COVID-19.
Imagine what that experience is like for someone who’s homeless. If your only option for a warm bed is a group shelter, will you take it – or will you stay on the street? Across the country, shelters meet public health requirements to make congregate housing as safe as possible.
On this Us & Them episode, we look at the challenge people face when deciding how to shelter from the virus.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
This week, we’re revisiting our episode “What Is Appalachia?” from December 2021. Appalachia connects mountainous parts of the South, the Midwest, the Rust belt and even the Northeast. The Appalachian Regional Commission defined the boundaries for Appalachia in 1965 with the creation of the Appalachian Regional Commision, a part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. It was legislation that sought to expand social welfare, and some localities were eager for the money, while others resisted the designation. The boundaries and definition of Appalachia can now only be changed by an act of Congress.
On this West Virginia Morning, Erika Howsare is the author of The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with Our Wild Neighbors, a book that takes some of the mystery out of the white tail deer that have lived on the edge of humanity for a very long time.
On this West Virginia Morning, it was a shock when author, musician and West Virginia University professor Travis Stimeling died abruptly in November. They were 43. Folkways Reporter Zack Harold collected remembrances from colleagues, former students and friends. He shared them recently on Inside Appalachia.
On this week’s premiere broadcast of Mountain Stage, we hear the second part of our 40th anniversary celebration. This episode was recorded on Dec. 10, 2023 at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, West Virginia with host Kathy Mattea, James McMurtry, Suzzy Roche & Lucy Wainright Roche, John Doyle & Mick McAuley, Tommy Prine, Cheryl Wheeler & Kenny White, and a special appearance from West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman.