WVPB asked photojournalist and West Virginia native Roger May to go back home and take a hard look at how residents are still struggling to find normalcy nine months after flooding hit southern West Virginia. May specializes in turning his camera on the places that shaped him — revealing the humanity behind statistics. He worked primarily in Mingo, Logan, McDowell and Wyoming counties.
It’s another Thanksgiving with COVID-19, but this time, vaccinations allow many Americans to gather together and share a hug and a meal.
Us & Them host Trey Kay invites his ‘virtual dinner party’ guests back for an anniversary. It’s a tradition we began last year – bringing together a wide ranging group to talk occasionally about the hot topics of the day. We talk politics and the 2020 election as well as the issues of election reform that continue to reverberate. COVID vaccinations and masks present some honest conversation.
This year we’ll see what kind of common ground there is at the table. It seems the more the dinner party guests talk with each other, the more they learn something that can help them see things more clearly and connect on different levels.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
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Kathy Kay
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Host Trey Kay enjoying a “non-Thanksgiving” Thanksgiving meal at a virtual table with the Us & Them “Dinner Party” crew.
West Virginia is aging faster than the rest of the nation. More than 1 in 5 residents are over 65, and as young people leave the state, the gap between those who need care and those who can provide it keeps growing. At the same time, elder care has shifted from nursing homes to home-based support — but there aren’t enough workers to keep up. Us & Them explores the looming caregiving crisis and what it means for families, workers and the future of care.
President Donald Trump points to what he calls “soaring” crime to justify deploying federal agents and National Guard troops to some American cities. Us & Them checks with an expert who reviews our nation’s crime data and sees inconsistent reporting and declines in major crime categories. This comes at a time when a poll shows the public is more worried about scams and school shootings than street crime.
America’s housing squeeze stretches from Philadelphia to southern West Virginia: inventories are up, but prices haven’t come back down. Us & Them digs into why costs still outpace budgets — and how even manufactured homes, once a starter option, are slipping out of reach.
This 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.