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This week, members of a Ukrainian Catholic church in Wheeling, West Virginia, make pierogies every week. They’re popular with the community, but what makes them so good?
Also, 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 first album. We hear the story of a big moment for a small studio.
And, a longtime Bigfoot hunter believes his first encounter with the mythical monster happened when he was a kid.
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
In This Episode:
Just about every culture has some version of the dumpling. China has the wonton. They make ravioli in Italy.
Different forms of dumplings have made their way into Appalachia and that includes pierogies from eastern Europe, which arrived more than a century ago.
Folkways Reporter Will Warren went to Wheeling, West Virginia for a story about neighborhood pierogi makers.
Tom Ohmsen’s been around music and recording his whole life. He got his first tape recorder when he was just a kid. In college, he recorded bluegrass bands, which led to the start of Flat Five Studio in Salem, Virginia.
In the early 1990s, the studio helped launch the Dave Matthews Band, but now Ohmsen’s looking toward retirement.
Mason Adams visited Flat Five to get its history and hear about its future.
In June, the population of Sutton, West Virginia, swells from 840 people to nearly 20,000 for its annual Bigfoot Festival — a celebration of the mythical giant with extra large feet.
WVPB’s Briana Heaney spoke to those who search for the creature — and some who just love the idea of it.
John Michael Cummings is an author in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, who published his first novel in 2008. Cummings’ new collection of short stories, The Spirit in My Shoes, incorporates elements of flash fiction.
Cummings recently spoke with Inside Appalachia Producer Bill Lynch.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., Jeff Ellis, Blue Dot Sessions, John Wyatt and Sierra Ferrell.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. We had help this week from Folkways Editor Jennifer Goren.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
You can find us on Instagram, Threads and Twitter @InAppalachia. Or here on Facebook.
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Social Security began 91 years ago when President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law. Since then, it has provided a social safety net to Americans, allowing many of them to retire with dignity, according to John Hishta, senior vice president of campaigns with AARP. But many experts say that without some action, social security benefits will have to be reduced by 20% in 2032. News Director Eric Douglas sat down with Hishta to understand the situation.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsThe 2026 West Virginia Quilt Festival will bring quilters from across the state and beyond to the Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley Sept. 17 to Sept. 19.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsIt’s thunderstorm season, but not all of them are the same. For the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, Bill Burton and meteorologist Tawana Andrew break down what we know – and what we don't – about the climate and weather in the region. This week, they examine different types of thunderstorms.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsFor the third installment in our series on data centers, we look at how data centers proposals are provoking outrage from local opponents. For the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, Kentucky Public Radio’s Joe Sonka reports that such fights are increasingly common — and bipartisan.
Continue Reading Take Me to More News
