Inside Appalachia

Series produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting

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Inside Appalachia is our weekly radio and podcast, hosted by Mason Adams. The show highlights West Virginia’s cultural heritage and brings those stories to a broader audience.

Inside Appalachia is currently heard on 33 stations in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
The show highlights West Virginia’s cultural heritage and brings those stories to a broader audience. We strive to tell real stories about what it’s like to live here, and feature Appalachians who are finding unique solutions.
The program gives voice to and provides a platform for the underserved, overlooked, and often dismissed residents of Appalachia.
We’ve recently expanded the show to tell more stories about our region’s diverse arts and culture, through our grant-funded Folkways Project.


189 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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This week, we head to the meadows and woods of West Virginia to catch the buzz on beekeeping. And, it’s been six years since Kentucky artist Lacy H...

  • Added: Jun 06, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, we’re joined by Lilly Knoepp, regional reporter at Blue Ridge Public Radio in Western North Carolina, to talk about the changes to local...

  • Added: Jun 14, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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It’s our summer reading episode. So we’ve got some recommendations. Like Silas House of Kentucky, whose latest novel draws on real-life changes in ...

  • Added: Jun 20, 2023
  • Length: 53:31
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This week, we meet a man who shows his love for fishing by building exquisite, handmade fly rods, and sharing what he knows with others. And, Appal...

  • Added: Jun 27, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, we visit a cemetery in Bluefield, Virginia, and learn how racial segregation followed some people to the grave. We’ll also hear from Nee...

  • Added: Jul 05, 2023
  • Length: 53:31
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This week, we learn about a farm in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania that can grow on one acre what other farms grow on 100 acres. We’ll also talk with the ...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, a Ukrainian musician reflects on what music means during wartime. And there’s a growing number of a certain kind of blood-sucking arachn...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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Flooding is a recurring problem across Appalachia. So this week, we’re taking stock, and looking back on the 2016 floods that devastated West Virgi...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, we visit with West Virginia trappers to learn about the fur trade in the 21st Century. We also meet a county fair champion who keeps rac...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:31
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This week… if you’re hungry for a pepperoni roll in West Virginia, you can find one at just about any gas station. So, how did they get so popular?...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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Appalachians love to compete. Whether it’s rec league softball, a turkey calling contest or workplace chili cookoffs… Mountain folks are in it to w...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, Salem, Virginia’s Flat Five Studio got its first big break when the Dave Matthews Band was searching for a quiet place to record its fi...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, a Virginia Tech researcher challenges deeply held ideas about the purity of natural springs. And, prices are going up everywhere — but i...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, the Reverend George Mills Dickerson of Tazewell, Virginia, was born in the years after slavery ended. He’s remembered today through his ...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, we revisit one of our favorite shows: we asked people, what is Appalachia? We ask people from Mississippi, to Georgia, to Pittsburgh-- d...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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Appalachians are often called mountaineers — but are they also ‘pioneers?’ A new documentary reckons with what it means… to be a pioneer. And, an A...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, a Pittsburgh artist channels the Steel City’s mythology and struggles... into tarot cards. Western North Carolina author Ron Rash shares...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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Black lung disease is back. In fact, it never went away. As miners try to get at ever thinner coal seams, they’re digging into rock, and all that d...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:31
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Rae Garringer felt isolated growing up, but they learned that they weren't alone. There were other LGBTQ people living in small towns and rural com...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, can the internet rebuild Appalachia? We ask tech writer Cory Doctorow. Also fish frys have been a staple in Charleston, West Virginia’...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2024
  • Length: 53:30