Inside Appalachia

It used to be that women typically gave birth in home-like environments. Today most women head to the hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that across the U.S., one in every three mothers has a cesarean delivery. Recently, Inside Appalachia won first place in Public Radio News Directors Inc.’s (PRNDI), Long Documentary category for an episode titled “Hippies, Home Birth and the History of Birthing Babies in Appalachia.”

This week time travel back to your own childhood summer memories with the Appalachian storytellers.

Ever hear the word 'Affrilachian'? In the 1990s, a poet in Kentucky named Frank X Walker came up with the term. It refers to African Americans living in Appalachia.

This week on Inside Appalachia, we are revisiting some of the people whose lives were changed forever after the flooding of 2016. This episode was part of a TV special called A Year of Recovery . We hear about the hurt of losing loved ones and how flood victims are coping after the disaster. We hear why when a community goes through devastation together, they can come out stronger.

It’s been nearly a year since West Virginia was hit with historical flooding. In this episode, we’re listening back to the voices of those who were impacted by last summer’s floods. On Thursday June 23, 2016, massive flooding swept across most of West Virginia. Within a tragic 24-36 hour period, at least 23 West Virginians perished. Thousands of homes were flooded, many of them destroyed. There were stories of terror and heroism that came out of this flood. Last year, we produced a video for television and the web, called “ Inside Appalachia: West Virginia’s 1,000 Year Flood ”. The show recently won some awards from the Associated Press and has been nominated for a regional Emmy. It’s also been nearly a year since the flooding took 23 lives and left hundreds, if not thousands, homeless. See more photos, read stories, and tour an interactive map of the communities that were hardest hit by the 2016 flood here . Inside Appalachia comes to TV Tuesday, June 20 at 6:30 pm for a special half

Summer is often a time for road trips, so we put together a few stories that made us think of summer break. And our Struggle to Stay series continues as we catch up with Mark Combs on his journey to find a home outside of West Virginia.

Beans and cornbread are something that seem almost as big a part of growing up in Appalachia as the mountains themselves. But did you know that these beans and seeds have a history that dates back to Native American culture? Farmer and author Bill Best has spent his life farming and learning all about the different ways that beans have been used to sustain life and fill several purposes throughout Appalachia over thousands of years. His new book is called Kentucky Heirloom Seeds: Growing, Eating, Saving . “To an archeologist, a bean is a bean is a bean… and I was the first one to point out that the beans were being grown for different reasons," said Best. He tells us more about how beans have really been a lot more influential in our past than we tend to think. And we hear why they may be in danger of extinction. Although, as far as biodiversity goes, Best says that he isn’t worried for Appalachia one bit. Vidalia Onions They say that complicated things are like onions because there

This week on Inside Appalachia, we talk with Marcus Murrow, a West Virginia native who’s telling the story of southern West Virginia, and the surprising way cultural divides are sometimes bridged in and around Appalachia. He's working on a film called Staring up from the Mine Shaft .

Our next Struggle to Stay story comes from someone who might be familiar to you -- Mark Combs. He’s a veteran who helped us produce a documentary last fall called Still Taking Casualties . The documentary features veterans speaking about how their experiences in war taught them what it means to support their fellow soldiers. And our host Jessica Lilly speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Eric Newhouse , author of Faces of Combat.

In this episode of Inside Appalachia, we talk about faith and music. We learn about Sister Rosetta Tharpe, one of the first great recording stars of gospel music, find our the story behind a song that became an American icon, and we’ll learn more about a project Glory that depicts images of Pentecostal style tent revival in Kentucky and West Virginia.