Remembering James Earl Jones, Plus New Overdose Data, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, renowned actor James Earl Jones died earlier this month at age 93. He was part of the cast of the 1987 John Sayles film “Matewan,” which was shot in Thurmond, West Virginia.

Curtis Tate spoke to David Wohl, who once asked Jones to speak to his students at an acting class at West Virginia State University.

Plus, early data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a dramatic fall of 12 percent in overdose death rates across the United States in the last year. West Virginia’s drug overdose rate fell almost 11 percent during that time.

To gain insight into this encouraging development, Appalachia Health News Reporter Emily Rice spoke with West Virginia’s own Dr. Rahul Gupta, who directs the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Maria Young produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning