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.


188 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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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, 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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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, 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 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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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’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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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… Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina has put out some of the hottest indie rock records of the year. We talk with one of its...

  • Added: May 30, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, we look at a new film that discusses how coal mining shapes Appalachian culture. And, the results of a new survey show alarming mental h...

  • Added: May 23, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, a North Carolina potter is reviving an art form brought to America by enslaved Africans. And, the town of Hindman, Kentucky, endured cat...

  • Added: May 17, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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This week on Inside Appalachia, we’re talking about traditional ballads -- how they tell stories and connect us to the past. These old tunes can me...

  • Added: May 09, 2023
  • Length: 53:31
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This week, a southern Ohio college writing class recently learned about the idea of Appalachian identity. Also, Kentucky has a new poet laureate. ...

  • Added: May 03, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, we speak with the author of a new book about grief rituals, and how they’re practiced here in the mountains. And, a new study recently f...

  • Added: Apr 26, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, we listen back to three award-winning folkways stories from last year. First, we visit a luthier’s shop, where old musical instruments g...

  • Added: Apr 18, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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After last year’s flooding in Eastern Kentucky, some people had trouble getting insurance reimbursement. But it wasn’t just flood waters that destr...

  • Added: Apr 11, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, we’ll visit Jerry Machen of Kingsport, Tennessee. When he first started making art from old carpets, his wife Linda wasn’t impressed. W...

  • Added: Apr 06, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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This week, we step on the Appalachian Trail with one of America’s most accomplished hikers, Jennifer Pharr Davis, who went from being an absolute n...

  • Added: Mar 29, 2023
  • Length: 53:30
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Family recipes are a way to connect generations, but what happens when you’ve got grandma’s recipe, and it doesn’t have exact measurements? We als...

  • Added: Mar 22, 2023
  • Length: 53:32
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This week, we look back at a shocking crime near the Appalachian Trail and speak to the author of a book that re-examines the case. We also sample...

  • Added: Mar 14, 2023
  • Length: 53:30