This week, Inside Appalachia, a West Virginia man is reviving a Black coal camp through farming. Also, the legacy of Affrilachian poet Norman Jordan includes a summer camp for teens to study their heritage. And, the Reverend George Mills Dickerson of Tazewell, Virginia, was born in the years after slavery ended. He’s remembered during Juneteenth through his poetry.
America has faced a pandemic, a polarizing election and racial equity battles in the past year. But there’s been another crisis continuing to fester — the opioid epidemic. Deaths are up with more than 1,200 West Virginians dying from overdoses last year. The fight for sobriety now deals with its own tragic divide — When is someone sober?
The road to recovery comes in many forms. For some abstinence works. But others, especially those addicted to opiates, find they need help to get off of such powerful drugs. For their recovery they turn to medication-assisted treatment. That approach has split the treatment world and created a stigma around sobriety.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in tonight, June 24, at 8 p.m., or listen to the encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
Trey Kay
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The Clarksburg Mission is a Christian-centered treatment facility located in Clarksburg, W.Va. that supports people in either abstinence-based or medication assisted substance use disorder recovery.
Trey Kay
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The neon cross outside the Clarksburg Mission delivers a simple, straightforward message as to the spiritual underpinnings of their recovery program.
Trey Kay
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Lou Ortenzio is executive director of the Clarksburg Mission, Clarksburg, W.Va.
Trey Kay
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Melissa Carter is recovery coach here at the Clarksburg Mission in Clarksburg, W.Va.
Trey Kay
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Angela Knight is a program manager at the Clarksburg Mission, Clarksburg, W. Va.
Jennifer Shephard/Jennifer Shephard
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West Virginia University
Dr. James Berry, Director of WVU Medicine’s Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship
Gabriella Dahalia-Jarrett
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Gabriella Dahalia-Jarrett with her “murphing” dog Sid.
This week, Inside Appalachia, a West Virginia man is reviving a Black coal camp through farming. Also, the legacy of Affrilachian poet Norman Jordan includes a summer camp for teens to study their heritage. And, the Reverend George Mills Dickerson of Tazewell, Virginia, was born in the years after slavery ended. He’s remembered during Juneteenth through his poetry.
Marion County native and playwright Cody LeRoy Wilson is returning to his home state to stage a production in the Contemporary American Theater Festival.
On this West Virginia Morning, we hear about a new play from a West Virginia playwright, plus listen to the musical stylings of Paul Thorn for our Song Of The Week.
State borders are now all important in determining access to abortion. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, West Virginia’s only abortion clinic has moved across the border to Maryland to continue providing abortions. This Us & Them episode was recently honored by the Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters as Best Podcast of 2024.