Mountain News & World Report

-Former WMMT reporter and DJ Sylvia Ryerson (aka Sly Rye) speak on WNYC’s nationally syndicated program The Takeaway. She along with story contributor Michelle Hudson and host John Hockenberry discuss her project Restorative Radio which connects those incarcerated in prisons across Central Appalachia with their loved ones at home. -The National Academy of Sciences is launching a comprehensive study of how mountaintop removal coal mining affects the health of those who live nearby. WMMT’s Benny Becker reports for the Ohio Valley ReSource, on how past efforts at research ran into roadblocks and delays. -WMMT’s Kelli Haywood spoke with two community college professors in southeastern Kentucky about ways the Kentucky Community and Technical College System is working to prepare their students to adapt to a changing economy in eastern Kentucky through the STEAM model of education.

In this episode of Mountain News & World Report, learn how the Farmacy program started in Letcher County, Kentucky is becoming a model for health and economic transition nationwide. Hear youth from Appalachia talking about their perceptions of their eastern Kentucky home and whether or not they can stay. And reporting on the Trans-Pacific Partnership by Becca Schimmel of the Ohio Valley ReSource.

-Joe’s Drive-In Chicken (aka Joe Pack’s) is celebrating 50 years as a Letcher County, Kentucky business this year. How does a family business survive 50 years in a boom and bust economy? This story was created with Malcolm J. Wilson of Humans of Central Appalachia. -A community health forum was recently held in Whitesburg, Kentucky including representatives from the University of Kentucky, Kentucky Homeplace, Mountain Comprehensive Health Care, and the federal agency – National Institutes of Environmental Health and Sciences. The forum’s goal was to collect the information about what the community views as its top health concerns. WMMT reporter Benny Becker highlights the forum.

-WMMT reporter Kelli Haywood explores the impact that the region’s opioid addiction problems are having on our ability to transition the economy now and the ramifications for the future. -Aaron Payne, from the Ohio Valley ReSource, gives the latest update on CARA (Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act). -In celebration of what would have been the 92nd birthday of Kentucky Civil Rights activist, Anne Braden, filmmaker and reporter Mimi Pickering shares stories of Braden’s early work and experiences from the film she made along with Anne Lewis – Anne Braden: Southern Patriot.

-To celebrate the 108th birthday of Appalachian writer Harriette Simpson Arnow, hear an excerpt from the 1987 Appalshop Film by Herb E. Smith - Harriette Arnow 1908-1986. -WMMT's Rich Kirby interviews Appalshop filmmaker Herb E. Smith, maker of the 2000 film - The Ralph Stanley Story, on the life and passing of bluegrass great Dr. Ralph Stanley. -From the Humans of Central Appalachia project and Malcolm J. Wilson, we feature the story of Morgan Canty, a 21 year old young man of color from Bristol, TN who encourages us all to act out what we know best - getting to know our neighbors. (And, he has the voice of an angel!)

-Kara Lofton, health reporter for West Virginia Public Radio, speaks with UMWA members and others about the recent rally in Lexington, Kentucky and what the stalemate in Congress surrounding shoring up retirement benefits for miners and their families will mean for their future. -Hear audio recordings of the late balladeer and organizer Sarah Ogan Gunning and those close with her and her family from Mimi Pickering’s 1988 Appalshop Films release – Dreadful Memories. -The Cowan Creek Mountain Music School just ended its 15th year with a record attendance. WMMT reporter Kelli Haywood covers how the music school, Cowan Community Center, and others are exploring a new way of organizing the community for the greater good of all – the Letcher County Culture Hub.

This episode of Mountain News & World Report considers the efforts of central Appalachians to create resources to address critical public health needs. From our very beginnings, we have had to develop our own way of caring for our communities. As illustrated in the audio for the third segment of this show, through trial and error, and a little ingenuity, we have found remedies that work to bring better health to the people. When John Long and Elizabeth Barret released Nature’s Way in 1973 through Appalshop Films, many mountain folks were still going their entire lives without ever seeing a doctor. Babies were born at home. Fevers were sweated out. Pain was treated with a poultice of herbs. Effort was put behind the troubleshooting of the communities’ healthcare needs and the successes were adopted and passed down through generations as tried and true. The need to give an effort to the crises of our people is evident in the story of our second segment – Beldon Scott Mullins. He is a twenty year veter

In this episode of Mountain News & World Report, we highlight two regional happenings-- the Seedtime on the Cumberland Festival here on the grounds of Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky starting Friday June 3rd and going through Saturday, June 4th, and the SOAR Innovation Summit which will be held at the Pikeville Exposition Center on Monday, June 6th. In the Seedtime rundown you will hear a clip from the Tom Hansell film, After Coal which compares the Appalachian coalfields experience to that of the coalfields of South Wales who have already had to transition their economy away from mining. Also, in that segment, Appalshop Archive shares with us a clip of a 1981 Headwaters film of Lee Sexton and his former fiddle player, the late, great Marion Sumner. Then, to end the show, WMMT reporter Benny Becker discusses the future of the SOAR – Shaping Our Appalachian Region with Jared Arnett-- SOAR's executive director, and with Willa Johnson who works with youth through the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative

Having access to life saving healthcare in the eastern Kentucky mountains as in all of rural Appalachia has always been a struggle. Obstacles to receiving proper healthcare are numerous including lack of doctors and especially specialty doctors, transportation issues, no insurance or low income, and no childcare. Because of these barriers, eastern Kentucky is among some of the poorest in the nation for health outcomes. In this episode of Mountain News & World Report, we examine how eastern Kentuckians have made a life within the limitations of this reality, and how sometimes we take our health into our own hands. Not only this, but we see how healthcare has been a support to the economy in eastern Kentucky and how our old and new ways of receiving it cannot be ignored for our future.

An act of marking one’s pleasure at an important event or occasion by engaging in enjoyable, typically social, activity… that is the formal definition of a celebration. As we know, sometimes the need for having a celebration precedes the cause. In this episode of Mountain News & World Report, we are looking at – Reasons to Celebrate. Our show begins in Harlan County, where Benny Becker met George Ella Lyon, a native East Kentuckian, who is currently serving as the state’s poet laureate. Her works spans many genres including poetry, novel, picture books, and children’s literature. For our next segment, we visit the small towns nestled along the banks of the Clinch River in Virginia. WMMT Contributor Rich Kirby takes us there to note the celebration of the Clinch River Valley Initiative. A coalition of public and private groups sought to have a patchwork of land spread across 130 miles of the Clinch River declared as a state park in spite of its unconventional layout to help the area realize its potent

Being a region in transition, it is inevitable that we will not always agree on what is the best way to move forward. At times, we have seen that we aren’t at odds with outsiders, elusive government officials, or big corporations, but we are at odds with ourselves. As residents invested in the future of the region, we each have a right to have our voice heard and our opinions considered when addressing the future economy and current need to make ends meet. How much is too much? How far is too far? When do we end up shooting ourselves in the foot? For the first story in this exploration, WMMT’s Benny Becker interviews the key players in the recent addition of the Russell Fork River to the American Rivers 10 Most Endangered listing by the group Appalachian Voices. It seems some citizens in Elkorn City, a town we recently featured on Mountain News & World Report, believe that the move could be detrimental to their efforts to maintain the current tourism boom they are seeing around the river and their hope

It seems everything in our mountain home is in a state of transition. Change can be hard, but also good. It is a time to take the bull by the horns and stop beating the dead horse — to use some commonplace phrasing. This week on Mountain News & World Report, we are looking at a few of our Traditions in Transition. What traditions are worth putting time, money, and effort toward preserving? What time honored traditions might serve us as we transition into a new economy and which ones should we release in order to make room for new thoughts and ideas? WMMT’s Kelli Haywood begins this episode asking just those questions as she explores the efforts of the Letcher County Culture Hub in introducing squaredancing to a new generation and attempting to reinvigorate the tradition in that generation’s parents and grandparents. What she found might surprise you. Be sure to let us know what you think as well by commenting. In our second story, Benny Becker attends the 4th Annual Appalachian Seed Swap and speaks w

This is a mind bending edition of Mountain News & World Report, as we attempt to imagine the (im)possible – a real, just, economic transition for the mountains. In exploring what it means to have faith in our abilities to create something out of little to nothing, we discovered that this faith is the legacy of our mountain ancestors. Mountain people have been “making do” since time immemorial, not only to simply survive, but to thrive and find joy in the least obvious of places. For this episode, we begin in 1950s Knoxville, TN at the Fellowship House Summer-Day Camp, one of the first successful attempts at racially integrating activities for children. This effort was dreamed of by community members and brought to fruition by those same people. WMMT contributor Beth Bingman attended the camp as a child, and brings us this story. In our second segment, we take a leap into the future with KVEC’s FIREShare podcast producers Willa Johnson and Tanya Turner as they bring us a report on The Holler. Universit

This edition of Mountain News & World Report brings us the complicated legacy that coal is leaving in the mountains of southeastern, Kentucky. While on one hand we are proud to be miners and the children of miners, and we are grateful for the good paying jobs the industry has brought to the region, on the other hand, we are left wondering what now. In this time when the coal industry is in decline, we are reminded that the changes brought about by over a century mining coal aren’t easily adjusted. The first segment of this episode shares the story of Phillip Johnson and his family whose land has been strip-mined without their consent in recent years not unlike what was seen in the days of the Broadform Deed. While use of the broadform deed ended in 1988 through popular vote, the Johnsons found that there continues to be means by which a company can mine for minerals underneath the ground of a landowner who has not agreed to mining. Not only can they, but they can do so perfectly legally in Kentucky. WMM

In this episode of Mountain News & World Report, we go a little deeper with two very important news stories that point to the fact that our way of life in the Kentucky mountains is changing drastically and it all boils down to money, or the lack thereof. We begin this broadcast with a story from WMMT reporter Benny Becker. He looks at how the current state of the economy is affecting the senior citizens of Letcher County, Kentucky. Shrinking income from coal severance taxes have led to budget shortages, and just recently, that led to a big reduction in services for seniors when all of the senior citizens centers across the county closed doors and the Meals on Wheels program discontinued. For us here at WMMT, that raised a question– Are we letting the economy change how we take care of our elders? And finally, Kelli Haywood reports on the February 12th visit of Governor Matt Bevin to Hazard where he addressed the concerns of economy that we are facing in coalfields Kentucky. Bevin addressed a substantial

•Can Hindman, Kentucky overcome a sense of despair to work together to create new economic opportunity and revive their town? (In Part II of the Hindman series, Kelli Haywood speaks to representatives of the Hindman Settlement School, Appalachian Artisan Center, and community artist Sean Starowitz.) •High speed internet is already bringing new jobs— and the FCC Chairman— to Eastern Kentucky (New WMMT Reporter Benny Becker Brings the Story) •The RECLAIM Act Explained! – (As introduced in the House by Congressman Hal Rogers on Feb. 3)

•Hindman awakens new opportunity to revitalize the economy through a rich cultural heritage in arts and music •Humans of Central Appalachia (Doug Naselroad – Master Lutheiry in Residence at the Bolen Woodworking Studio in Hindman,KY) •“White Highways” written and read by James Still from Appalshop Archive