This week, we’re revisiting our episode “What Is Appalachia?” from December 2021. Appalachia connects mountainous parts of the South, the Midwest, the Rust Belt and even the Northeast. That leaves so much room for geographic and cultural variation, as well as many different views on what Appalachia really is.
‘Muddling Through’ 2020: A Year of Challenge and Adaptation
Kevin Koran, Ed Gabriels & Trey Kay after a cold open-water swim.Richard Appleman
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2020 has required a lot from us all. It’s been a year of challenge and adaptation.
Us & Them host Trey Kay recalls the line in a holiday classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” that says, “we’ll have to muddle through somehow.” None of us had any idea how much muddling 2020 would demand. We’ve faced the pandemic and its consequences and a contentious national election that highlight the divisions in our nation. The year presented a series of choices with a clear outcome: sink or swim.
Moving ahead, Trey looks at the adaptations he’s made and which he might adopt long term.
Oh, and spoiler alert: he’s learning to like swimming outside in ice water!
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. 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 following Saturday at 3 p.m.
Ed Gabriels
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Trey Kay before swimming in the Hudson River on Christmas Eve 2020. The water temperature was 33.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ed Gabriels
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Trey Kay breaking a sheet of ice before swimming in North Lake in Elizaville, NY.
Trey Kay & David Temple on Christmas Eve 2019 performing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"
This week, we’re revisiting our episode “What Is Appalachia?” from December 2021. Appalachia connects mountainous parts of the South, the Midwest, the Rust Belt and even the Northeast. That leaves so much room for geographic and cultural variation, as well as many different views on what Appalachia really is.
If you feel under the weather, how do you know when it’s time to see a doctor? Also, a growing movement to make Appalachia the “truffle capital of the world,” is being led by a small-town farmer in southern Kentucky.
On this West Virginia Week, health care in the state may see transformation, Gov. Patrick Morrisey wants to bring out of state foster kids home, and we explore the origins of a popular American hymn.
This week, too often, people with mental health challenges or substance use disorder wind up in jail. But crisis response teams offer another way. Also, changes to the Endangered Species Act could benefit big business. They could also kill animals like the eastern hellbender. And, in troubled times, a West Virginia writer says to find peace in nature.