This week, in the 1920s, Oscar Micheaux was an entrepreneur filmmaker in western Virginia. He became a world-renowned director and producer. Also, Kentucky’s poet laureate lives down the road from what has been called the country’s most lethal cryptid. Attempts to spot it have led to deaths. And, we talk soul food with Xavier Oglesby, who’s passing on generations of kitchen wisdom to his niece.
A Decade After Millions Of Opioid Pills Hit Kermit, W.Va., Can The Town Rebound?
Debbie Preece of Kermit, W.Va., lost two brothers to the opioid epidemic.
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At the peak of the opioid crisis, drug companies sent 12 million hydrocodone pills to Kermit, W.Va., a town of about 350 people. Cars would line up at the one pharmacy with people waiting to pick up pain pills. The so-called pain clinics of a decade ago are gone. In their place, a continued need for addiction treatment and recovery resources. Lawsuits against big pharmaceutical companies continue to bring in settlements, but so far Kermit hasn’t seen any money from the litigation. We head to Mingo County to see how the community is healing and what the future might look like.
Credit Trey Kay / WVPB
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Kermit residents Michael Duty, Sister Therese Carew and Etta Lea Blankenship-Kiser share their stories about the long road to recovery for individuals and the small West Virginia town they love.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum 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 on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the fourth Saturday at 3 p.m.
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This week, in the 1920s, Oscar Micheaux was an entrepreneur filmmaker in western Virginia. He became a world-renowned director and producer. Also, Kentucky’s poet laureate lives down the road from what has been called the country’s most lethal cryptid. Attempts to spot it have led to deaths. And, we talk soul food with Xavier Oglesby, who’s passing on generations of kitchen wisdom to his niece.
We listen to an excerpt from the latest Inside Appalachia and learn about the influence and contributions of Oscar Micheaux, an African American filmmaker who lived in Virginia in the 1920s and shattered stereotypes.
America’s drug crisis is evolving — and so is the fight over how to define recovery. As medication-assisted treatment gains ground, some question whether it’s sobriety at all. In this encore episode, Trey Kay steps inside a West Virginia recovery mission where faith, medicine and survival intersect.
Millions of people are addicted to opioid pain medication. Some use medication-based treatment for their addiction. But that has created a divide in the world of recovery. We listen to an excerpt from the latest Us & Them, exploring the difference between an early medication called methadone and suboxone, which is often used now.
