WVPB had a conversation with Us & Them host Trey Kay earlier this week on the significance today of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. This week, WVPB is hosting a special screening event at Marshall University with excerpts from Ken Burns’ The American Revolution, and Kay will lead a panel discussion. We once again hear from Kay, this time speaking with one of the panelists — Marshall University political science professor George Davis — about why revisiting the nation’s founding story still matters.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin may be redefining the nation’s political landscape by reconfiguring the middle.
While some say he’s tough to predict, others insist Manchin’s consistency has come to serve as an important political reference point. As the spotlight shines on the toxic battle between left and right, a man with decades in public office recently helped deliver a rare compromise bill through Congress.
For the past two years, Joe Manchin has seemed to be at the center of the political debate between us and them. This episode offers perspective and analysis on Manchin’s political legacy and the future as we weigh consequences of the midterm elections and how they may play out on Manchin’s next campaign.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the CRC Foundation and the Daywood Foundation.
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U.S. Senate Photographic Studio
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Joe Manchin is one of the most polarizing figures in current American politics. He embodies the great national divide between ‘us and them.’ And yet, Manchin has never been the focus of our Us & Them show…until now.
West Virginia University
David Fryson is pastor of the New First Baptist Church of Kanawha City and is also a Charleston attorney, a diversity professional and frequent contributor to the Charleston Gazette-Mail. As Fryson points out, the African American vote had a lot to do with Manchin’s victory in 2018.
The West Virginia Encyclopedia
Joe Manchin’s electoral record in West Virginia has been remarkable. Through his long career in politics, he has only lost once, in a 1996 gubernatorial primary. The person he lost to was Charlotte Pritt. Although she’s no longer on the front lines, Pritt has maintained her connections and follows politics closely. She has some provocative opinions about how Manchin fits into the national political landscape.
Denise Giardina is a West Virginian through and through. Born in coal country, raised in a coal family, her entire life is rooted in West Virginia. She is also a committed environmentalist. Her unsuccessful run for governor in 2000 was focused on one thing. To raise public awareness of the dangers of mountaintop removal by the coal companies. After the campaign, her continued activism brought her in contact with then Gov. Joe Manchin. She spoke with him during an event at her church.
Anne Cavalier and Joe Manchin
Active Southern West Virginia
Us & Them listeners may recognize Mayor Anne Cavalier. She’s someone we check in with from time to time. Like many West Virginia towns, her town of Smithers is transitioning away from a coal based economy and building toward a tourism-based infrastructure. To assist this transition, Sen. Manchin secured federal funds for the Smithers Integrated Trail system.
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WVPB had a conversation with Us & Them host Trey Kay earlier this week on the significance today of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. This week, WVPB is hosting a special screening event at Marshall University with excerpts from Ken Burns’ The American Revolution, and Kay will lead a panel discussion. We once again hear from Kay, this time speaking with one of the panelists — Marshall University political science professor George Davis — about why revisiting the nation’s founding story still matters.
WVPB will be screening excerpts of Ken Burns’ recent PBS documentary series "The American Revolution" this week at Marshall. Us & Them host Trey Kay will moderate the event, and he spoke recently with WVPB News Director Eric Douglas about why revisiting the nation’s founding story matters today. Also, a bill to temporarily delay moving a child to homeschooling during an active case of abuse or neglect hit a snag in the Senate on Monday.
One of America’s pioneering filmmakers had nothing to do with Hollywood but nevertheless left his mark on the emerging industry. Oscar Micheaux was a homesteader, who then turned his attention to making movies in the early 1900s. He was a Black man who made movies for Black audiences at a time when they weren’t allowed into mainstream, white-only theaters. And for several pivotal years in the 1920s, he operated out of Roanoke, Virginia.
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.
