Alert (09/29/2026): Our Parkersburg TV transmitter is still undergoing maintenance and remains temporarily inoperative. We apologize for the 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! Celebrate and foster a love of reading in children across West Virginia.
Nominate an exceptional West Virginia K-12 teacher today!
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.
This week, we listen back to three award-winning Folkways stories from last year. First, we visit a luthier’s shop, where old musical instruments get new life.
We also take a ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad and meet the expert crew who keeps its antique trains running.
And we learn what draws people from hours away to Floyd, Virginia’s weekly Friday Night Jamboree.
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
In This Episode:
Since 2019, our Folkways project has produced more than 130 stories about mountain arts and culture. In this episode, we revisit three stories, which won awards at the Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters Competition.
We begin with a story about luthier Bob Smakula. He’s made a career out of fixing old musical instruments, so modern musicians can keep playing them.
Folkways Reporter Zack Harold takes us to a place most people don’t get to visit: inside Smakula’s workshop.
Generational learning is very important. In a visit to Cass Scenic Railroad, we hear from senior employee Rex Cassell, who passed away before this segment aired.
Cassell was a crucial part of why visiting the Cass Railroad in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, feels like you’re stepping back in time.
Folkways Reporter Lauren Griffin brought us this story.
We also visited the hometown of host Mason Adams — Floyd, Virginia.
It’s this sprawling county, of about 15,000 people on the Blue Ridge Plateau, catty-corner to Roanoke and Blacksburg. There’s one stoplight in the county, and it’s in the town of Floyd — a tiny little place home to about 500 year-round residents.
Mason showed us around and took us to the Friday Night Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store.
West Virginia recently became the 17th state in the nation and the first Appalachian state to pass the Student Journalist Press Freedom Protection Act, which helps protect student journalists from censorship.
WVPB News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Makaylah Wheeler, the student news director at Marshall University campus radio station WMUL, and Faculty Advisor Chuck Bailey about how the law will affect their work.
------
Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Marisa Anderson, Tyler Childers, The Wayfarers and The Appalachian Road Show.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode.
You can send us an email at InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
You can find us on Instagram and Twitter @InAppalachia and on Facebook here.
And you can sign up for our Inside Appalachia Newsletter here!
Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Add WVPB as a preferred source on Google to see more from our team
Barbara Kingsolver is one of Appalachia’s foremost writers. She’s written a string of bestsellers, like "The Poisonwood Bible" and "Demon Copperhead," which won her the Pulitzer Prize. Inside Appalachia’s Mason Adams met Kingsolver at her home outside Abingdon, Virginia, to talk art, writing and her latest book, "Partita." We listen to an excerpt from that interview.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsWest Virginia has seen the largest population decline in the nation - nearly 1.5% - and many of those leaving are young people. In an episode that aired last month, Us & Them host Trey Kay heard from some young people who think they may stay in the state to launch their futures. This month, Kay talks with those who say living their dreams may well require moving away from the Mountain State. We listen to an excerpt from the latest Us & Them.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsThey love West Virginia, but love alone may not be enough to keep them here. In the second of two Us & Them episodes, Trey Kay talks with young West Virginians who say they may need to leave in search of careers, community and a place where they can imagine their futures. Their decisions reveal what the Mountain State risks losing when young people cannot see a place for themselves at home.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsLast week, we aired the first part of an interview with a WVSU professor about what is AI. In the second part of that interview, we explore the best way to use AI to get what you want – while avoiding fabricated or false answers that seem real.
Continue Reading Take Me to More News
