Alert (09/10/2026): Our Parkersburg TV transmitter is undergoing maintenance for a few days and will not be operational. We apologize for any inconvenience.
All our programming is available via our TV livestreams on our website and WVPB Passport. Thank you for your patience!
To Educate, Inform, and Inspire by Telling West Virginia's Story
Mountain Readers Week will be held Oct. 5-9, 2026! Sign up to read in your community!
Learn more about Be My Neighbor Day! And check out our recap from last year.
On Demand
On Demand
Stream original productions from WVPB
Watch locally produced documentaries & more.
On Demand
On Demand
West Virginia Morning
Inside Appalachia
West Virginia Week
Mountain Stage
Us & Them
The Legislature Today
The Legislature This Week
Send us your comments and questions.
Stream our board meetings.
Check out the latest WVPB news.
Sign up for our newsletter and get weekly updates.
Meet the WVPB staff.
WV Educational Broadcasting Commission, the WVPB Foundation, and the Friends of WVPB.
Come work with us!
Read our annual report and learn how we educate, inform and inspire with your support.
Sponsor impactful and engaging media and entertainment.
Use your IRA to make a gift to WVPB.
Become a member with your gift of $1,000 or more.
Make WVPB part of your legacy.
Manage your membership account.
Learn how you can Protect and Sustain West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
We explore the story of the first Mothman sightings, as written by a small-town journalist in 1966.
Also, every year, hundreds of people celebrate Bridge Day by parachuting from the 876-foot-tall New River Gorge bridge. But not just anyone can do it.
And, the Columbus Washboard Company used to make washboards for laundry. Now, people use them to make music.
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
In This Episode:
Fans of Appalachian monsters and cryptids will know Mothman. In West Virginia lore, it’s a human-sized creature with wings and red eyes that glow. It was first spotted in the 1960s. A small-town newspaper writer covered the Mothman sightings. That is, until tragedy struck the town.
WVPB News Director Eric Douglas brings us this story.
Every October, hundreds of BASE jumpers descend on the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. They come to leap from the 876 foot tall bridge, pull their parachutes and aim for the banks of the river below.
In 2024, high school students Dylan Neil and Noah Fox got curious about how to become a Bridge Day BASE Jumper. So, they spoke with an expert: BASE jumper Marcus Ellison.
There’s a chill in the air, and it’s a good time for telling spooky stories. Appalachia has a bunch of them. Some have been collected in a new book. It’s titled, Paranormal Kentucky, An Uncommon Wealth of Close Encounters with Aliens, Ghosts and Cryptids.
It was written by Marie Mitchell and Mason Smith, a pair of retired Eastern Kentucky University professors turned paranormal investigators.
Producer Bill Lynch spoke with them.
The Columbus Washboard Company in Logan, Ohio was founded in 1895. Back then, washboards were a necessary tool for doing the laundry each week. Today, of course, most people have a washer and dryer, or access to a laundromat. But the Columbus Washboard Company has found a way to stay open.
In 2022, Folkways Reporter Capri Cafaro visited the factory and brought us this story.
For 71 years, Deborah Nagy has lived on the Appalachian plateau in southwestern Virginia. She remembers hot summers spent running barefoot, and cooling off in creeks and water holes. But as she’s gotten older, she says the heat feels … well, different.
That’s actually more than a feeling. It’s a scientific reality. Seniors are acutely vulnerable to health impacts from heat — and, as pollution traps more heat, summers are becoming more intense.
Radio IQ’s Katie Burke has more.
Of Pittsburgh’s three rivers, the Monongahela, also called the Mon, is the toughest to pronounce. And it’s often underrated.
The Allegheny Front’s Kara Holsapple spoke with a river advocate to better understand the Mon.
------
Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Mary Hott, Dave Odell and Dave Bing, Ron Mullennex, Blue Dot Sessions and Dinosaur Burps.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Abby Neff 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 Nicole Musgrave.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
Sign-up for the Inside Appalachia Newsletter!
You can find us on Instagram, Threads and Facebook.
Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Add WVPB as a preferred source on Google to see more from our team
Appalachians have always made use of the region’s wide variety of plants. A new book, called Appalachian Plants: In the Garden, In the Yard, and In the Wild, explores some of the history and lore of regional staples. It’s written by Linda Hager Pack and illustrated by Pat Banks. Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams spoke with them.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsOn this West Virginia Week, the state signs a memorandum of understanding about nuclear energy, the Public Service Commission disputes need for a transmission line, and 9/11 is remembered.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsThis week, in author Willie Carver, Jr.’s new book, he reconsiders a negative childhood experience with a neighborhood girl who might have just been looking for a friend. Also, a southwestern Virginia community rang the alarm after more and more of its children were diagnosed with cancer. A local journalist is trying to unravel the cause. And, the city of Asheville has a new crusading reporter. He’s a puppet.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsLydia Hamessley is a professor of music at Hamilton College in New York and the author of "Unlikely Angel, The Songs of Dolly Parton." She spent nearly a decade researching Dolly's music catalog. Inside Appalachia Associate Producer Abby Neff talked with Hamessley.
Continue Reading Take Me to More News
