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Schoolyard games come and go, but for kids in one community, marbles still rule.
Also, this year marks the anniversary of some country music milestones, including the 40th anniversary of Floyd, Virginia’s Friday Night Jamboree.
And we remember West Virginia’s first person in space, Jon McBride.
In This Episode
Marble Madness Lives On In Boone County
Some playground games never go out of style – hide and seek, tag, and Duck, Duck Goose. Kids today still play those classics. Every spring, the students of one Boone County elementary school still get excited for a game that’s over a hundred years old. Folkways reporter Zack Harold had the story.
The Vaccine Divide In WV
West Virginia lawmakers have been arguing over whether to loosen long-standing vaccination requirements. But how do parents and doctors feel about that? Emily Rice visited a pediatrician’s office to learn more.
Country Music Milestones And The Floyd Country Store
This year is the anniversary of many country music milestones, among them the Friday Night Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store in Virginia. Mason Adams took us there for a visit in 2022.
The Blue Ribbon Queen Of Russell County, Virginia
A staple of county and state fairs are the annual craft competitions, where everyone from 4H kids to the local dentist brings their finest quilts, pumpkins or peanut butter fudge to be judged for cash, prizes and bragging rights.
Few have been as successful as Virginia’s Linda Skeens, who has won hundreds of blue ribbons.
In 2023, producer Bill Lynch spoke with her about competing at the fair and her favorites.
Remembering Jon McBride
NASA astronaut Jon McBride died August 7. He was 80. McBride was the first astronaut from West Virginia, and the only West Virginian to pilot a shuttle mission. Jennifer Levasseu is curator of space history at the National Air and Space Museum. She spoke with WVPB’s Curtis Tate about McBride’s legacy.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Paul Loomis, Frank George, John Blissard, Dinosaur Burps and Blue Dot Sessions.
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 editors Nicole Musgrave and Chris Julin. You can find us on Instagram and Twitter @InAppalachia.
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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Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Low income people in Mercer County can apply for a new program to give them a guaranteed monthly income. And, when Appalachian country singer Rob McNurlin announced plans to retire, a filmmaker decided to tell his story.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsThe federal subsidies that allow airlines to serve small, rural airports could be suspended in the government shutdown. And, groups on both sides of the aisle are successfully mobilizing young people to vote.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsThis episode of Us & Them first aired in 2023, and we’re sharing it again in the wake of the Sept. 10, 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA. President Donald Trump has credited Kirk’s organization with turning out young conservative voters in the 2024 election. Host Trey Kay talks with journalist Kyle Spencer about her book Raising Them Right and the decades-long conservative strategy to organize young voters, and with Abby Kiesa of Tufts University’s CIRCLE about what drives youth turnout. The conversation examines how campus organizing and money shape youth politics and where the system still falls short.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsMore than one million Americans have died from COVID-19. Some groups of folks died at much higher rates than others. And those deaths tended to follow lines of race, class, age and disability. A new book digs deeper; it’s titled "Disposable: America’s Contempt for the Underclass." It’s written by Sarah Jones, a reporter at New York Magazine who grew up in Appalachia.
Continue Reading Take Me to More News
