Mountain Talk Monday Every Tuesday!

Continuing our month-long series celebrating Black histories, current realities, and futures in the Appalachian region and beyond - we bring you the story of Derek Akal - a 22-year-old African-American athlete struggling to stay in Lynch, KY where he was raised. WMMT’s Benny Becker followed Akal for a four part series which originally aired on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Inside Appalachia. This episode also features a 2016 interview with sociologist Karida Brown - Akal's cousin and the Director of the Eastern Kentucky African American Migration Project.

In the first of our month-long series of Mountain Talks celebrating Black histories and futures in the region and beyond we explore the Appalachian African-American Cultural Center. Founder and Director Ron Carson led WMMT's Benny Becker on a tour of the Center in 2016. And, we hear a piece from the archive, produced for WMMT in 1992 by Maxine Kenny - which focuses on the life and music of Ron Carson's grandfather: Spike Carson.

It’s been over 25 years since the Appalachian Land Ownership report was published, and there’s now a growing effort to conduct another study to explore current land ownership realities in Central Appalachia. This episode explores the history of the original study, released in 1981, and the current work to launch a new land study.

On this week’s program we bring you voices of women in eastern KY. First, we’ll hear speeches and poetry from Pikeville, KY on the one year anniversary of the historic 2017 Women’s March. The speakers eloquently and powerfully lay out the situation for women in Eastern KY and the world today. Then, we’ll travel back in time with a story from our archive’s here at WMMT. Produced by Maxine Kenny in 1991, the piece brings us voices of women in fast food restaurants. And last, we’ll hear two brief interviews conducted by Kelli Haywood in 2016. All of these stories paint a picture of the strength, resiliency, and leadership of mountain women.

In this episode of WMMT’s Mountain Talk we explore the idea of social haunting, or how the troubles of the past might be playing a role in community problems of today. We hear from Dr. Geoff Bright who is leading a participatory research project based around the theory of social haunting in formerly industrialized areas in the north of England, and Max Munday shares his documentary, Songlines and Social Haunting, which further details the project’s arts-based process used in "Ghost Labs" in former coal mining communities. We are joined by Dr. Wayne Coombs, recently retired as director of the West Virginia Prevention Resource Center, who speaks about the role that social haunting or historical trauma may be playing in the growing substance abuse crisis in central Appalachia. Take a listen and tell us what you think about this concept of "social haunting." You can send your comments to wmmt@appalshop.org with "Social Haunting" in the subject line and we will share them as part of an international conversation w

On this special MLK Day edition of Mountain Talk we bring you an interview with Terran Young, Willie Dodson, William Isom II, and Marley Green about their work to register and document Black cemeteries, and counter the erasure of Black histories in Appalachia.

This week's program features the life and legacy of KY born Civil Rights activist, journalist and educator Anne Braden. This audio program was produced by Mimi Pickering in 2014 based on the 2012 documentary she and Anne Lewis made called "Anne Braden: Southern Patriot." Braden is pictured on the left with Rosa Parks on the right.

We're starting 2018 off right here at WMMT with this re-broadcast of an hour long program of stories and songs of the late great Jean Ritchie! Jean Ritchie was a folk musician, ballad singer and songwriter - well known for her dulcimer playing. Ritchie was born and raised just up the road from WMMT in Viper, KY. She is dearly missed, but we're grateful her legacy lives on through recordings and words such as those in this week's edition of Mountain Talk.

This episode of Mountain Talk features senior citizens in Letcher County, KY reading their letters to Santa, followed by a re-broadcast of our 2015 Christmas program chock-full of holiday stories and songs. Merry Christmas from possum radio!

This special episode of Mtn. Talk is dedicated to the memory of Sonny Houston: a Hemphill, KY born and raised musician who passed away during the summer of 2017. In this episode we hear stories about Sonny's life from his family and friends, and we hear Sonny's voice through songs he wrote, and live recordings of some of his bands.

This week's program features three stories about fundamental needs in our community: educational programs that prepare students for real jobs, pensions that allow our public workers to retire, and access to fast, affordable rural internet.

This week on Mtn. Talk we bring you an interview with Dr. Genesia Kilgore-Bowling. Dr. Kilgore-Bowling is Director of the Social Work program at the University of Pikeville, and she spoke with us about her research into anti-fat bias in Social Work education and society.

This week on Mtn. Talk we hear from youth media makers with the All Access EKY project, who are documenting stories about reproductive health access in Eastern Kentucky. Listen here: for an interview with All Access Project Director Willa Johnson, an interview with the youth fellows, and a few of the audio pieces they've produced so far!

This week's show is all about food! We begin with a recorded conversation between chef Travis Milton, who grew up in southwest Virginia - and food writer Sheri Castle, who was raised in western North Carolina. Travis stopped by the studio earlier this week, and Sheri joined us by phone. They share stories about who taught them to cook, their own definitions of Appalachian cuisine, some innovative new takes on the food of our region, and a few of their own Thanksgiving favorites. Our program today wraps up with some Appalshop staff members’ favorite Thanksgiving Recipes. You might want to grab a snack, cause this program is sure to make you hungry! We hope you enjoy!

This week on Mtn. Talk we bring you voices of concerned residents of southeastern Kentucky speaking out against Kentucky Power’s proposed double-digit rate increase. In June of this year Kentucky Power filed a request to the Public Service Commission for a 16.8% increase, which would mean an increase of about 80 cents a day, or 24 dollars a month for the average customer. KY Power’s stated reason for the increase is to make up for the the loss of nearly 2,000 residential customers and 450 industrial customers in Southeastern Kentucky, since 2014. The Public Service Commission held three meetings in order to gather public comments which will be used in their decision making process. WMMT attended the November 6th meeting in Hazard, Kentucky. About 40 people signed up to speak to the PSC, and out of those only one spoke up in support of Kentucky Power’s rate increase. Today’s edition of Mountain Talk brings you some of the concerns of the southeastern Kentuckians present at the November 6th meeting.

This week on Mountain Talk we learn about the work of two Appalachian Transition Fellows working on agricultural projects in the Central Appalachian region. First, Hope Hart, an AppFellow working at Appalshop, visits AppFellow Courtney Boyd in Huntington, WV. Hope guides us as we learn more about Courtney’s work with Unlimited Future, Inc., The Wild Ramp, and Refresh Appalachia - organizations supporting economic development and local agriculture. Next Sam Hamlin, an AppFellow with the Community Farm Alliance, brings us a story about alpaca farmers in Kentucky. Enjoy!

This week we explore the new Netflix documentary "Heroin(e)" which follows three women - a fire chief, a judge, and a street missionary as they battle Huntington, West Virginia’s drug epidemic. We interviewed the film’s director, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, and one of the stars: Huntington’s Fire Chief Jan Rader on October 27th here in the studio. Listen to learn more about the state of the drug epidemic in Huntington and the making of this film.

This week on Mountain Talk we hear former head of the New York office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bob Stutman, speaking about the Opioid Epidemic in Rural America. Audio for this evening's program was recorded by WMMT's Benny Becker who attended Stutman's presentation to teachers at Letcher County Central High School on October 16, 2017. In his talk, Stutman discusses his experiences working for the DEA, and his perspective on the Opioid crisis.

This week on Mountain Talk we hear from tobacco farm workers on strike in Garrard County, Kentucky. The seven workers - from the states of Nayarit and Hidalgo Mexico - are here as a part of the H2A guest-worker visa program, and called a strike due to violations of their contract. Mountain people are no strangers to patterns of in and out-migration for work, or to histories of strikes demanding better pay and safer working conditions. WMMT's Rachel Garringer and Elizabeth Sanders host this episode and we hear stories from these striking workers.

Today on Mountain Talk, we’ll learn all about Kenaf: a fiber producing plant native to Asia which grows well in Kentucky – and can be used to make a variety of products including rope, twine, paper, cardboard, and more! This episode of Mountain Talk comes from Sam Hamlin - an Appalachian Transition Fellow with the Community Farm Alliance - who produces the Woven Roots Fiber Podcast.