This week, having a very specific talent can lead to a dream job. It’s how cartoonist John Rose got his foot in the door to draw the comic strip Snuffy Smith. Also, there are dos and don’ts for treating poison ivy. And, a young, old-time musician wants to save her family’s lost ballads.
It’s been a year in America with lots of big political news and some very disturbing events. Supreme Court decisions are reshaping the nation’s policies as violence and shootings continue to take lives.
Us & Them host Trey Kay has been traveling around asking people “How’s America doing?” and “Why do you think that?”
Trey spent Election Day in a swing district in Pennsylvania talking with voters about the state of America. Some worry financial strains have made things worse while others say they see good things to come. There’s concern that politics has become just another sporting event, where all that matters is the winner.
But politics can also help shape the policies that lead to the American dream, so how do we come together and collectively do the right thing for the future?
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.
Trey Kay
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Us & Them host Trey Kay outside of a polling place in Luzerne, County, PA on Election Day on Nov. 8, 2022.
David Greenberg
/
Courtesy
David Greenberg is a professor of History and of Journalism & Media Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ and a frequent commentator in the national news media on contemporary politics and public affairs. He specializes in American political and cultural history. His most recent book, Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency (W.W. Norton, 2016) examines the rise of the White House spin machine, from the Progressive Era to the present day, and the debates that Americans have waged over its implications for democracy.
Courtesy
Lisa R. Pruitt is a law professor at University California Davis. There, she works in the Center for Policy and Inequality Research with a specialty in rural issues. She has a lot to say about America’s urban-rural divide.
Courtesy
Henry Cisneros served in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Before that, the San Antonio native was a city council member and mayor of that Texas city. These days, Cisneros serves on the board of the Bipartisan Policy Center — a think tank dedicated to looking for “the best ideas from both parties.”
Add WVPB as a preferred source on Google to see more from our team
This week, having a very specific talent can lead to a dream job. It’s how cartoonist John Rose got his foot in the door to draw the comic strip Snuffy Smith. Also, there are dos and don’ts for treating poison ivy. And, a young, old-time musician wants to save her family’s lost ballads.
For nearly 100 years, Snuffy Smith has been a staple of newspaper comic pages, though these days, it’s easier to find him online. Snuffy Smith was brought to life by Artist Fred Lasswell in the 1930s, but now the strip is written and drawn by John Rose, who lives in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. We hear from Rose about drawing the famous hillbilly.
Virginia writer Emilee Hackney has a complicated relationship with her home. She loves the place where she’s from, in Tazewell County — her friends, family, the swimming holes and mountains and wild places — but she also felt stifled. Her new memoir "All That’s Unseen: An Appalachian Memoir" explores this tension and her experience when she did leave. Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams spoke with Hackney about the book.
The West Virginia Manufacturers Association has just launched its inaugural Coolest Thing Made In West Virginia tournament. We caught up with WVMA President Bill Bissett to find out what organizers hope will come from the competition – and what makes a really cool product.