100 Days in Appalachia

‘In the Boat Together’: Post-Helene, Faith Communities Have Been Central to NC’s Long-Term Recovery

In the year since the storm devastated parts of western North Carolina, religious congregations have provided food, housing and supplies — as well as a shared sense of community.
100 Days in Appalachia

Five Years After It Became a National Park, There’s a Growing Divide In West Virginia’s New River Gorge

Many long-time West Virginians see the divide between their reality of the area — a community that still faces long-standing infrastructure and quality-of-life issues — and the version accessible to ...
100 Days in Appalachia

In One Community, Faith-based Services Fill the Gaps When Government Can’t – or Won’t

On a Friday afternoon, the washers and dryers run nonstop at Bream Memorial Presbyterian Church, in Charleston, West Virginia. Three bright-white tiled shower rooms line one wall. MREs – Meals ...
100 Days in Appalachia

No One Knows Appalachia’s Story Quite Like We Do – So We’re Going to Tell It.

Four years ago, our country was in the midst of one of the most divisive elections in history — one that deepened the divide between rural and urban America. Misrepresentations and overgeneralizations ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Hillbilly Horror: Reckoning With a Genre 15 Years After ‘Wrong Turn’

“You’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you’ve tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia. What is your father, dear? Is he a coal ...
100 Days in Appalachia

‘This Isn’t a Dying Coal Town,’ It’s a West Virginia Community Rethinking Health Care and Succeeding

This is the first story in Critical Condition, a three part series. Read more here. In his history of Williamson, West Virginia, Okey P. Keadle – a member of Williamson High School’s inaugural, 1918, ...
100 Days in Appalachia

W.Va. Opioid Settlement Funds are Supposed to Reverse Years of Crisis. In Several Counties, They’re Being Used to Pay Regional Jail Bills.

In rural Wyoming County, West Virginia, Ann Reed is the sheriff’s department’s only social worker. Funded through a temporary grant from a local mental health center, Reed provides resources and care ...
100 Days in Appalachia

‘An Ecosystem of Dysfunction:’ West Virginia Still Has a Child Welfare Worker Shortage, and It’s Taking a Toll on Foster Kids and Families

This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like this delivered to your email inbox once a week; sign up for the free newsletter at ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Tyler Childers’ Appalachia: How the Country Singer Challenges our Relationships with Addiction and Religion

The first time I heard Tyler Childers’ voice I was riding in the passenger seat of a 15-year-old car late at night through the back roads of West Virginia. It was 2019, and I was 17 years old. And ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Documenting the Appalachian Intifada: A Review of ‘So Much to be Angry About’

Liberation movements around the world and throughout history have always created our own media: to tell our own stories, to teach our own people and to strengthen our movements and organizations. In ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Explore How Appalachia Voted in 2020

Although the media called the 2020 President race weeks ago, states across the country are finalizing their recounts and certifying their tallies this week, but the outcome is unlikely to change. Vice ...